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  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Front-Loads to $117M+ Opening

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Front-Loads to $117M+ Opening

    Disney’s latest live-action adaptation pulled a reverse Fast X, as while it did quite well domestically, its international box office is a very different story. Still, The Little Mermaid has opened to $163.8M globally through Sunday and now stands at $117M+ over its four-day opening weekend. There’s a chance it’ll still hit $119M but that’s still slightly off from the initial expectation of it to go beyond the $121M+ range after that strong Friday opening.

    The film has an A CinemaScore rating and word-of-mouth should’ve been in its favor, but there are always external factors that you might not expect to have their influence on performances. We saw it with families not showing up until the summer box office kicked off and the film still passed Aladdin’s $91.3M three-day weekend.

    Disney put a big gamble into this film being a massive success with a variety of promotional tie-ins, which makes it probably their biggest for a non-tentpole IP from their subsidiaries. The issue is that its overseas performance is a bit questionable for the film’s chance of pushing to compete with Aladdin‘s long-term box office. That film went on to pass a billion but it’s uncertain with this remake.

    The Little Mermaid overall had an international box office of $68.3M by Sunday, which put it at $163.8M excluding the Memorial Day Monday. The problem is the film is facing some harsh right-wing review bombings in multiple countries. IMDb’s of the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Brazil alongside AlloCiné in France have warned that their systems are seeing irregular activities.

    China has also shown a rather harsh reaction to the film. Maoyan has no audience score which is very unusual. The film is likely to just pull in $4M which is not a good sign after Fast X and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally re-awakened some trust with Western releases in that market. So, we will have to see just how much the domestic market can hold carry the film if it was front-loaded on Friday.

    Source: Deadline, CNN, Deadline

  • REPORT Marvel Studios ‘X-Men ’97’ Series May Be Eyeing an Early 2024 Release

    REPORT Marvel Studios ‘X-Men ’97’ Series May Be Eyeing an Early 2024 Release

    Marvel Studios took quite a step back during 2023 with their Disney+ ventures. While we still have three live-action series set to release, it’s been a while since She-Hulk, Attorney at Law found its way into the service back in August. We’re still some weeks away until Secret Invasion will release, but it seems their latest animated venture might take just a tad bit longer than initially expected. Originally set for a Fall 2023 release during last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, it seems we might have to wait until January of next year.

    It seems that the US Copyright Office may be the leaker this time around. First discovered by @ScarletWitchUpd on Twitter, the series is seemingly scheduled to release on January 3rd, 2024. There’s a chance that it might just be a placeholder release date set by the copyright office for the pilot episode, as it supposedly is a pre-registration. Still, it wouldn’t be too surprising given that Echo is now set to release in November as a binge release.

    Marvel Studios’ animated ventures have been showcased as something separate from the rest of their projects with the exception of What If…?. We’re still waiting for the second season of that series to release, but they generally have gone quiet on the various entries. We’ll have to wait just a bit longer but perhaps a trailer will arrive sometime in the fourth quarter that confirms the release date.

    Source: The Direct, Twitter

  • Latest Rumored ‘Fantastic Four’ Cast is Loaded with Talent

    Latest Rumored ‘Fantastic Four’ Cast is Loaded with Talent

    Marvel Studios Fantastic Four relaunch has struggled to get off the ground since it was announced by Kevin Feige at SDCC ’19. Original director Jon Watts left the project to take on his Star Wars streaming project, Skeleton Crew, and even though he was fairly quickly replaced by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman, the film’s 2024 release date was scrapped in favor of a tentative 2025 slot. However, it remains one of the most buzzworthy projects in development at Marvel and as the casting process starts to draw to a close, a new rumor suggests the First Family has been found.

    Twitter scoopster MyTimeToShineHello recently indicated that Marvel Studios has put together an incredibly talented cast for Fantastic Four, composed of some of the most consistently rumored talent. Should the rumor turn out to be true–and to be fair in coverage, one well-known sensationalist YouTuber has said no deals have been reached–it is quite a cast.

    https://twitter.com/MyTimeToShineH/status/1662535854273830912?s=20

    The rumored casting would see Adam Driver as Reed Richards, Margot Robbie as Sue Storm, Paul Mescal as Johnny Storm and Tony and Grammy Award winner Daveed Diggs as the Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. If that is the cast Marvel Studio has assembled as the Fantastic Four, it would certainly stack up as one of their most talented ensembles to date. With a potential SDCC ’23 deadline looming, we’ll continue to monitor the rumor mill.

  • ‘BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War’ Returns with Part 2

    ‘BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War’ Returns with Part 2

    Viz Media announced today that BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War is officially set to return with Part 2. The first episode of Part 2 will debut on Saturday, July 8th at 7:30 AM PDT on Hulu in the United States, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ in select international territories. Viz Media also confirmed that the series will feature English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, and Italian subtitles.

    Along with the confirmation of Part 2‘s release date, Viz Media also unveiled a brand-new poster for the series, as seen below.

    BLEACH is an award-winning manga that has sold over 130 million print copies since it debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump — of those sales, 2.7 million were within the United States. The series ran from 2001 to 2016 and features 74-volumes. The anime, which spanned 366 episodes and ran from 2004 until 2012, is still regarded as one of the best animes of all time.

    “Through his visual genius, Tite Kubo has had an indelible impact on the fandom world and the course of manga and anime history. He is also a supremely gifted and accomplished storyteller, and it is a great honor for VIZ Media to acquire this final arc in his legendary catalogue BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, for fans everywhere.”

    Brad Woods, Chief Marketing Officer VIZ Media 

    While Part 1 featured an opening theme song – “Scar” – by Tatsuya Kitani, Part 2 will feature an opening theme song, titled “Stars”, by w.o.d..

    The synopsis for the series is as follows:

    Was it all just a coincidence, or was it inevitable?

    Ichigo Kurosaki gained the powers of a Soul Reaper through a chance encounter. As a Substitute Soul Reaper, Ichigo became caught in the turmoil of the Soul Society, a place where deceased
    souls gather. But with help from his friends, Ichigo overcame every challenge to become even stronger.

    When new Soul Reapers and a new enemy appear in his hometown of Karakura, Ichigo jumps back into the battlefield with his Zanpakuto to help those in need. Meanwhile, the Soul Society is observing a sudden surge in the number of Hollows being destroyed in the World of the Living. They also receive separate reports of residents in the Rukon District having gone missing. Finally, the Seireitei, home of the Soul Reapers, comes under attack by a group calling themselves the Wandenreich.                                                                  

    Led by Yhwach, the father of all Quincies, the Wandenreich declare war against the Soul Reapers with the following message: “Five days from now, the Soul Society will be annihilated by the Wandenreich.”

    The history and truth kept hidden by the Soul Reapers for a thousand long years is finally brought to light.

    All things must come to an end—as Ichigo Kurosaki’s final battle begins! 

    Fans in the United States can catch up on Part 1 now as the series is currently streaming on Hulu.

  • ‘Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead’ Coming to Hulu and Netflix

    ‘Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead’ Coming to Hulu and Netflix

    Viz Media announced today that Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is officially coming to the United States. The anime series, which is based on manga by creators Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata, will soon be available to stream on Netflix and Hulu. Per Viz Media, the series will simulcast on Hulu premiering 2:00AM PDT, July 9th, 2023, with sunrise details for Netflix and other streaming platforms to be announced.

    The production hails from Shogakukan and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Japan, with VIZ Media representing the anime in the North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand territories. It stars Shuichiro Umeda as Akira Tendo and Tomori Kusunoki as Shizuka.

    The official synopsis for the series is as follows:

    With three years under his belt at the company from hell, Akira Tendo is mentally and physically spent. All at the ripe old age of twenty-four. Even his crush from Accounting, Saori, wants nothing to do with him. Then, just when life is beginning to look like one big disappointment, it happens. The zombie apocalypse descends on Japan! Surrounded by hordes of hungry zombies, Akira comes to a realization that will forever change his life…

           “Wait, does this mean I never have to go to work again?”

    Confess to… party like it’s… travel Japan coast to…

    Now, with his nightmare job no longer, Akira’s got his mojo back. Let the bucket listing begin!!

    The series will feature an opening theme by KANA-BOON, as well as an ending theme by Shiyui. The anime is directed by Kazuki Kawagoe and features music by Makoto Miyazaki. Those interested in reading the manga can do so thanks to Shogakukan: Monthly Sunday Gene-X, which currently publishes the ongoing series.

  • Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Heading to Strong $121M+ 4-Day Opening

    Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Heading to Strong $121M+ 4-Day Opening

    It looks like The Little Mermaid is going to continue the box office performance of Disney’s live-action adaptations of their beloved animated classics. While the internet continues to groan about the existence of taking an iconic animated fair and trying to put a realistic lens over it (as much as possible, poor Flounder), it does seem like audiences are continuing to eat it up as much as they can. The film pulled in a mighty $30M on Saturday after a $38M on Friday (including previews), which is on par with the Aladdin adaptation and is on its path to a strong Memorial Day weekend.

    As of now, it seems that the film will pull in around $97M+ in three days and wrap up the four-day weekend at $121M+. It seems the film boasted an 80M-worth global promo partnership that makes it one of the biggest for a non-Lucasfilm or Marvel Cinematic Universe cooperation. After being quite absent throughout the early parts of the year, it seems families are finally going back to theaters. That A CinemaScore is definitely also doing its job for strong word-of-mouth.

    Fast X is losing quite a bit of speed, as it is dropping around 67% in its second 3-day weekend which would rival any of the previous Marvel entries from the previous years. That on a soft $67.5M hurts far more than any of the frontloaded Marvel movies and perhaps continues to showcase that the current superhero fatigue is likely more than meets the eye given Transformers‘ latest entry isn’t coming in as hot as one would hope for such a mega tentpole franchise.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still hanging in there with a strong 26.6M over the four-day weekend. That’s just a 36% drop and further highlights that it’s all about keeping fans coming back to theaters. While some will call this an exception to the rule, the film still opened softer and positive word-of-mouth will keep the genre kicking. If The Flash manages to pull in a strong audience, it’ll also carry over into November’s release of The Marvels and so forth.

    Overall though, counterprogramming for this week isn’t doing what it should do as Machine and About My Father are falling a bit short. They both highlight the issue that grew out of the pandemic’s streaming focus that hit big films as well with mixed word-of-mouth scores: there’s a strong distinction between “what I’ll watch in theaters” and “I’ll wait to check it out on streaming eventually” mentalities than ever before. Big thank you to Disney+’s 45-day release window and Warner Bros.’ day-and-date strategy for that.

    Source: Variety, Deadline

  • ‘The Witcher’ Seemingly Already Renewed for Season 5

    ‘The Witcher’ Seemingly Already Renewed for Season 5

    Many believed that The Witcher would not live long with the upcoming third season being the final one of Henry Cavill in the role of Gerald of Rivia. His departure was heavy considering Cavill was extremely passionate about playing the character and loved the source material. While he’s not set to spearhead his own project with a Warhammer 40K adaptation for Amazon, there have been various discussions behind the scenes on why he left the project.

    Supposedly, he didn’t quite see eye to eye with the franchise’s direction, which was deviating more and more from the original novel series. While it’s not uncommon that changes are made in adaptations, it started heading into more original content than an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, as he even went on to sneak book moments in himself into the series.

    With him leaving, Liam Hemsworth is set to take over as Gerald and will take over starting Season 4. Surprisingly, it seems that we’re going to see a lot more of his Witcher with casting director Sophie Holland confirming they will be jumping straight into a fifth season once they finish the fourth one with him in the role.

    We’re just about to start filming on season four with Liam Hemsworth and there will be a short gap then we go straight into season five.

    Sophie Holland

    It’s surprising that the usual reserved Netflix isn’t going to wait and see what their audience size looks like once a new actor takes over. Perhaps, they fully believe in this project and the fifth season could be mapped out as a finale. They could run for quite some time and Netflix seems quite desperate to find a franchise that can carry momentum for a long time, but they keep floundering any chance by swiftly canceling projects that don’t perform to their high standards. We’ll have to see what they have in store beyond Cavill’s run with the character.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cinemascore Reveals Audience’s Impression of the Live-Action Reimagining

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cinemascore Reveals Audience’s Impression of the Live-Action Reimagining

    Disney’s live-action reimagining of the 1989 animated classic, The Little Mermaid, looks set to have one of the top five Memorial Day box office takes of all time with experts predicting as much as $125M. Critics have given the film mostly positive reviews and given it a thumbs up as a worthy companion to the beloved original. Now, following its opening night, audiences have given their opinion.

    After taking in the film on its first Friday, audiences have spoken loud and clear about where they stand on the remaining with it grading out with an A according to Cinemascore.

    Critics and audiences seem to agree that the film, carried by the strong performance Halle Bailey as Ariel, stands tall among Disney’s efforts to reimagine its catalog of animated classics. That’s good news for the studio whose Disney Plus release of Peter Pan & Wendy certainly didn’t catch the same positivity.

    The Little Mermaid is now in theaters.

  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast Shares What Makes Their Romance Stand Out From the Original

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast Shares What Makes Their Romance Stand Out From the Original

    The Little Mermaid is set to continue Disney’s trend of bringing their beloved animated classics to a new generation in live-action. It’s not an easy task and while there have been many discussions on if it truly played out for the studio, there’s a lot of hope with the talents behind this project that it’ll stand out from what came before.

    During the official press conference for the Disney remake, Jonah Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric, got a chance to share what he believes makes this version of the iconic romance between his character and Ariel stand out from the original. He highlights that it’s “friendship” and how they tackle what connects these characters rather than the love at first sight trope.

    Friendship, I think. Disney romances are always, you know, they’re filled with that instinctive attraction to one another. We all wanna see that. But I think what was fun about this, and I think a lot of it came from our off-screen selves as well, was looking at Ariel and Eric as two people who were kindred spirits. Who felt a little bit restless, who felt like they were behind the four walls of their respective castles, and were very much looking outwards and not in.

    Jonah Hauer-King

    It’s definitely a great move to add a bit more depth to their romance by having them share a common theme. Ariel’s journey is all about going beyond the world she knows, and having Eric reflect that on the surface adds a little something extra to give more insight into what connects them.

    And I think what was nice about that was that it meant that their relationship feels really earnt. They both felt like they were teaching each other things. They were excited and fascinated by each other’s worlds although they didn’t actually know it until the end.

    Jonah Hauer-King

    Of course, it’s one thing saying that this was their approach and something pushed further by their bond behind the scenes, the challenge will definitely be in how they showcase it for viewers. The Little Mermaid’s remake will be longer than the original and they might make use of that additional time to add a bit more depth to the story and just give them more time to share their experiences.

  • Chloe Bennet Addresses ‘Secret Invasion’ Rumors

    Chloe Bennet Addresses ‘Secret Invasion’ Rumors

    Who do you trust? Unless it’s Patti LuPone, it’s probably not any actor or actress rumored to be part of a Marvel Studios project. Over the years, the lying and dissembling has grown farcical as the talent attached to projects roll out the same tired denials. Of course, every now and then, someone rumored to be boarding a project actually isn’t; however, given the growing number of denials, it’s often hard for fans to discern who they can trust…especially when it’s someone they’d like to see in their favorite franchise. Now it looks like fans are facing another decision as Secret Invasion’s debut approaches.

    In an interview with Screen Rant, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress Chloe Bennet, who has been rumored to appear in Marvel Studios next big streaming series denied that she’ll be appearing in any Marvel Studios projects. In fact, Bennet said that while she would love to reprise her role as Quake, she’s never been contacted by the studio for a role in any of their projects.

    “Of course. Of course, I would be open to it,” said Bennet of the opportunity to return to the role she filled on the ABC series. “Listen, there’s a lot of stuff around that. I so deeply love S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fans because it’s this tenacity that got the show on air to begin with.”

    Despite her willingness to suit back up, however, it seems the studio just hasn’t found the right project for her return. “I have not once been approached or asked or involved in anything after I wrapped S.H.I.E.L.D.,” claimed Bennet. “And I am not involved in anything that is coming out. I’ve not been asked, but I would be more than excited to put on the suit again. And, of course, of course, Daisy is a big part of who I am. So I would love to, but I have not been communicated [with] about it.“

    For fans who have been around the denial block a time or two, most of what Bennet had to say sounds awfully familiar. Over the past few years, Charlie Cox, Andrew Garfield, Jonathan Majors and Tatiana Maslany joined the prestigious list of actors forced to lie to fans despite their involvement in projects being fairly well-known. Has Bennet joined them? Or are all the rumors, hints and teases of her role in Secret Invasion all false? Who do you trust?

    Source: Screen Rant