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Tag: Movie News

  • ‘The Marvels’ Drops by 78% as ‘The Hunger Games’ Prequel Underperforms

    ‘The Marvels’ Drops by 78% as ‘The Hunger Games’ Prequel Underperforms

    It’s not looking great for the fall line-up so far. All eyes will be on The Marvels’ historic drop, which pulled in 10.2M over its second weekend. That makes a 78% drop and the highest for any Hollywood superhero film to date. That is saying a lot considering just how bad this year has been. There was hope that it might hold a bit stronger given its core audience shifted with this project, but the two new releases might’ve hurt it more than expected.

    Even with decent word-of-mouth, The Marvels had a core audience with more female and younger audiences, who showed up for two other releases this weekend. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was released to a tepid B+ CinemaScore and had the lowest opening for the franchise. It’s even far lower than the initial predictions at $44M after being expected with around $55M to even going beyond $60M earlier this week.

    That film skewed heavily toward females, an audience with a bigger affinity for the latest MCU release. Even Trolls Band Together with an A CinemaScore pulled in around $30.6M which is lower than the first release and isn’t breaking initial predictions. It stands at a strong $76.3M in international markets, which gives it a good boost as well.

    The Marvel‘s global is doing alright with it pulling in $19.5M and standing at $96.3M. It’s currently at $161.3M and the question will be where it lands moving forward. As of now, it might not break $100M domestically and depending on its third weekend could fall short of hitting $200M worldwide. If it does see a bit of a boost, it might make it a bit lower than The Flash earlier this year.

    It should be pointed out that The Marvels‘ drop is only slightly higher than that of Five Nights at Freddy’s not too long ago, which dropped 76% in its second weekend. That film even had an A- CinemaScore and perhaps we’ll see something similar happen to The Hunger Games next weekend. That Cost of Living Crisis is showing its fangs before the holiday season and we’ll see if any other releases in the coming month or so will manage to make up for it.

    Source: THR

  • ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Opens to Franchise Low as ‘The Marvels’ Hits Record Low for Genre

    ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Opens to Franchise Low as ‘The Marvels’ Hits Record Low for Genre

    Seems that the fall cinematic line-up is having a hard time picking up with even pandemic standards. We’ve seen a number of projects flounder at the box office that would’ve been surefire wins but are barely even managing to open to 50M or falling below initial projections. The only exception was the fan-frontloaded Five Nights at Freddy’s that swiftly plummeted in its second weekend.

    The same effect is hitting The Marvels which had the franchise’s lowest opening and now seemingly the lowest second weekend as well. Promotion by the cast only slowly started throughout the week, which was hopeful to give the film some room to improve a bit but it’s not seemingly working.

    Predictions saw that the new releases wouldn’t have too much of an audience overlap, but it also just seems like audiences aren’t really coming back for a second weekend this fall. If The Hunger Games prequel faces a similar drop in its second weekend with a B+ score, we might be looking at a really rough fall release schedule ahead.

    Expectations were that The Marvels from The Numbers’ prediction would land at $20,4M in its second weekend with a soft drop of 56% and their algorithms are pretty on point, as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is heading towards their predicted $45M after many even claimed it could go as high as $60M. That would place it slightly lower than even The Marvels with the only caveat being it has a $100M price tag.

    So, it’ll be interesting to see if that second weekend drop is going to stand out or not. Even many try to put a selective positive spin on what amounts to the worst opening in The Hunger Games franchise with this opening being about a third of the original Hunger Games that opened to 152M back in 2012. The production budget is a fair point to this not being a bad opener but still oddly how different the framing is compared to last weekend.

    The Marvels opened to 2.8M on Friday, and unless it suddenly gets a pick up it’ll likely fall under $10M which could post it towards the worst second weekend after this year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Even Eternals had a stronger hold on a B CinemaScore during the pandemic, but perhaps we’re seeing more and more the Cost of Living Crisis affect audiences’ decisions on middling word-of-mouth and an eventual streaming release.

    The only thing will be if this film ends up making $100M domestically, as of now the film could’ve either gone the same direction as Elemental and surprised with a stronger hold or ended up dropping like The Flash. Now, it’s even lower than that as it dropped around 72% in its second weekend. That means the film is likely not going to hit 100M domestically. So we could be looking at a lower than $200M box office run if the international box office sees a similar development.

    It’s even lower than BoxOffice Pro, which had it at around 16M though for The Marvels. Promotion started this week and only gave the film a bit of energy going into the weekend, but it’s definitely hard to make up for lost time that swiftly. There’s of course the hope it would make a dent and perhaps hold it going into its second weekend but we’ll have to see how the coming weeks go for the franchise.

    One thing to note as THR points out, Hunger Games and the new Trolls film both skewed heavily female and there’s a good chance that that is what took a big chunk out of the latest MCU release. It had a much stronger reception with female audiences and that would’ve been the ones to keep it going but with not one but two films released hitting that demographic, it may have been a poor placing on Disney’s part as well with decent word-of-mouth not being enough to carry it through the current prices and competition.

    Source: Variety, The Numbers, The Numbers (Hunger Games), Box Office Pro, THR

  • ‘Invincible’ Creator Robert Kirkman Goes Honey Badger on Steven Yeun’s Rumored MCU Role

    ‘Invincible’ Creator Robert Kirkman Goes Honey Badger on Steven Yeun’s Rumored MCU Role

    While the entirety of the internet clamors over reports and rumors about who will ultimately be cast in Marvel Studios Fantastic Four, the studio’s worst kept casting secret actually belongs to another of its 2025 films. Last February, The Walking Dead and Beef star Steven Yeun joined the cast of Thunderbolts in a “mystery role” which was no mystery at all. By early March, reports revealed that Yeun had joined the MCU as the Sentry and while Yeun refused to talk to much about his role, he did share his excitement about landing a role in a Marvel Studios project.

    I feel good. I feel excited. I feel like a new challenge. I feel blessed to be able to play in a place that reaches so many people. I got to touch that on Walking Dead. It feels exciting to get another chance to connect with people in another way.

    Steven Yeun on joining the MCU-Total Film

    As expected, nobody at Marvel Studios has addressed the nature of Yeun’s role either, keeping it a “big surprise” for an official reveal at some sort of con or event. But while neither Yeun nor the powers that be at Marvel Studios want to address it, writer Robert Kirkman who created Marvel Zombies at Marvel Comics back in 2006 and both The Walking Dead and Invincible–two projects which have been adapted to TV and starred Yeun–has no problems discussing it. During a conversation with artist David Finch, Kirkman shared a fun anecdote about Yeun, attending a costume fitting for the Sentry.

    “My good friend Steven Yeun in playing the Sentry in a movie,” said Kirkman. “Yeah, he called me…he went in for a costume fitting…I hope I’m not…I don’t think this is a spoiler or anything that’ll get anybody in trouble. I don’t know. Maybe. We’ll see. I don’t care. I don’t work for Marvel what are they gonna do to me?” Kirkman continued, “But he called me and he said, ‘I just came back from a costume fitting for the Sentry! I guess I only do superheroes that are yellow and blue.’ He said he was at the costume fitting and was like ‘Aw, crap! I forgot Invincible is yellow and blue.’“

    Kirkman’s realization that he had potentially revealed something was quickly followed by the realization that he didn’t care at all. After more than a decade of Marvel sniper culture, it’s refreshing to see Kirkman address the studio’s chicanery in regard to these “super secret” castings.

    After quite a few changes to the creative team and delays due to the WGA and SAG strikes, Thunderbolts is expected to go into production in 2024 and land in theaters on July 25, 2025.

    Source: YouTube

  • RUMOR: The Rest of Marvel Studios First Family Has Been Cast in ‘Fantastic Four’

    RUMOR: The Rest of Marvel Studios First Family Has Been Cast in ‘Fantastic Four’

    The resolution of the SAG strike has allowed the big wheel in Hollywood to start spinning again and over the last several days, it has spun at breakneck speed. Over the course of just a few hours on November 15th, Pedro Pascal went from a rumored front-runner for the role of Reed Richards in Marvel Studios Fantastic Four to having trade reports indicate that he’s close to signing on for the role. Now, a new rumor from a familiar source indicates that the studio has also cast Pascal’s co-stars in the 2025 film.

    According to Jeff Sneider, who was among the first to report Pascal’s involvement with the film, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon-Moss Bachrach have been cast in the film as Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, respectively.

    Our own sources indicated in August that Kirby had agreed to star in the film prior to the strike and that Quinn was a top choice for the studio which had concept art created of the actor as The Human Torch. Bachrach, who recently worked with Disney on Lucasfilm’s Andor and also starred as Micro in Netflix’s The Punisher, has been rumored as the front-runner for Ben Grimm/The Thing for several months.

    While no deals have been announced yet, Sneider believes it’s just a matter of time before the three actors officially become part of the MCU. Fantastic Four, which is being helmed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman, is scheduled to go into production in Spring 2024 and release in theaters on May 2nd, 2025.

    Source: The Insneider

  • UPDATE: Pedro Pascal In Talks for ‘Fantastic Four’

    UPDATE: Pedro Pascal In Talks for ‘Fantastic Four’

    UPDATE: After /Film revealed that Pedro Pascal has signed on for Fantastic Four, Deadline has reportedly shared that while he is definitely in talks: “a deal is far from done.” Supposedly it is heading in the right direction and while he’s busy the next year, scheduling will work out for him to take on the role. So, unless some big surprise drops, it seems very likely he’ll have the role.

    Source: Deadline

    Earlier today, there were rumors that a new frontrunner has emerged for the role of Reed Richards in the upcoming Fantastic Four film. Many have supposedly declined the role since the first wave of castings started but The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal surprisingly came out as the next potential person to take on the role.

    Well, a new report by /Film has seemingly stated that not only was he offered the role but according to their sources he’s already signed on. The rumor started with Daniel RPK sharing that he was the next in line shortly followed by Jeff Sneider supporting the rumor. Though that’s not including the crazy rumors that have piled on before and during the pandemic.

    For now, it’s still not a full confirmation but further hints that Marvel’s First Family might be slowly coming together on the big screen. A variety of actors have supposedly been up for the role ranging from Adam Driver to Matt Smith, as well as MCU veternals like John Krasinski (who even played a Variant of the character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and Spider-Man’s Jake Gyllenhaal.

    The big question though is how he’ll juggle his roles in other projects like The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, and many more. He hasn’t been actively showing up in the Star Wars series and mainly focuses on voicing the character of Din Djarin, but scheduling conflicts with The Last of Us’ second season is definitely going to impact when Marvel Studios can start work on the Fantastic Four. Though given current developments it was going to need a bit more time anyway.

    Source: /Film

  • Vanessa Kirby Plays Coy on ‘Fantastic Four’ Rumors

    Vanessa Kirby Plays Coy on ‘Fantastic Four’ Rumors

    It looks like it’s a Fantastic Four kind of day. Not too long ago, we got a rumor that Pedro Pascal might be the next in line of many actors to take on the daunting role of Mr. Fantastic a.k.a. Reed Richards. Even before the strike, we had a long list of names attached to this project and it’s unclear who may or may have not still been signed on.

    Among the many rumored was Mission Impossible actress Vanessa Kirby, who supposedly was up for the role of Susan Storm, better known as the Invisible Woman. In an interview to promote Napoleon, Kirby was asked if she had anything to say about the rumors and she pretty much masterfully dodged the question without denying anything.

    I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them. I would be very honored to join.

    Vanessa Kirby

    Not like denying it would’ve changed anything, as we know a plethora of actors that denied their involvement with the cinematic franchise in the past. Still, Kirby is certainly a frontrunner for potentially joining the MCU and most certainly would be a fitting choice for the role. We might have to wait a bit until we get the official confirmation of who is playing the Fantastic Four members, as they may be waiting to confirm once everyone has been cast.

    Source: Variety via GamesRadar

  • ‘Superman: Legacy’ adds María Gabriela De Faría as DC Villain

    ‘Superman: Legacy’ adds María Gabriela De Faría as DC Villain

    The moment the SAG strikes end, all the casting news seems to drop as fast as it can. The next major addition to James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy has arrived as Angela Spica, better known as The Engineer. Venezuelan actress María Gabriela De Faría will be taking on the role after having worked on various Fox comedies.

    What makes this character addition interesting is that she’s a DC character introduced in The Authority Vol. 1 #1 back in 1999. The new DC Universe that is being set up by James Gunn is poised to introduce the superhero group to the world later down the line. So, the addition makes sense if they are potentially planting the first seeds early on in this storyline.

    It’s still unclear what we should expect from the DC film, as while we expected a back-to-basics storyline for Superman, Gunn’s vision is more focused on building the future. DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran is attached to produce and the film is set to hit its 2024 July release date so production is expected to start sooner than later.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Loki’ Producer Reveals Michael Waldron is Writing Both ‘Avengers’ Sequels

    ‘Loki’ Producer Reveals Michael Waldron is Writing Both ‘Avengers’ Sequels

    There was a time when everyone was claiming that Loki creator and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron was no longer involved with Avengers: Secret Wars. After his work on the hit Disney+ series, it seemed like the writer could do no wrong but things quickly changed after online chatter started surrounding the Doctor Strange sequel.

    Yet, it seems that Michael Waldron actually took on a new role. As rumors started spreading that fellow Rick and Morty scribe Jeff Loveness was no longer attached, it would make sense that they take a similar approach they did with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame given the films set up each other directly.

    The information comes from Loki producer Kevin Wright, who was part of an interview with the ComicBook.com Phase One podcast, where he revealed that not only where they allowed to tell the story they wanted, but Waldron is potentially involved with the other projects.

    As far as where it’s all going, I can’t say and not because I am being coy, we’re not a part of those projects. What I would say is, I mean, I know Michael Waldron is working on them and he loves obviously this world as he helped create it.

    Kevin Wright

    Waldron‘s involvement makes sense with both films as the Loki series sets up the Secret Wars storyline and he’s set up quite a few elements that would tie the story together. We still don’t know just how involved the entire Kang the Conqueror storyline is going to be moving forward but there’s a possibility that they’ll use the opportunity to recast.

    Source: YouTube

  • Marvel Studios was Aware of ‘The Marvels’ Troubles, Reworking Future Slate

    Marvel Studios was Aware of ‘The Marvels’ Troubles, Reworking Future Slate

    2023 was certainly a rough year for Marvel Studios and potentially the one to reshape their future. Phase 4 seemed to be the most experimental for the studio, especially facing troubles during COVID and the recent strikes completely scrapping any plans that were finally coming together. The Marvels‘ box office is definitely going to be something many cling to for a variety of reasons, but it does look like Marvel Studios wasn’t just blinded by the troubles heading their way.

    In a new report by The Hollywood Reporter, they claim that according to their sources, “Marvel studios and Disney were well aware The Marvels was in trouble” even before it was released in theaters. As such, they are going to take their time to rework their theatrical tentpole releases and also evaluate generally how they will move forward.

    Marvel Spotlight is their first move to create a more distinct separation of the projects that are relevant for the bigger picture, but it does seem like this might be how they’ll brand most of their Disney+ series moving forward. THR also highlights that Deadpool 3 is a deliberate choice as the only release next year and perhaps is one of the reasons they are considering reworking Captain America: Brave New World. Marvel Studios’ future may seem uncertain but it’s definitely a good sign that they are learning from their lessons.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • Destin Daniel Cretton Working on ‘Shang-Chi’ Sequel

    Destin Daniel Cretton Working on ‘Shang-Chi’ Sequel

    It’s a big news day for Marvel Studios. After the long SAG and WGA strikes, the news is slowly pouring back in on what’s happening in the industry. After The Marvels fizzled out at the box office in its opening weekend, we know that Marvel Studios is trying to restructure and we might already be seeing the first consequences of that action.

    Director Destin Daniel Cretton has left the upcoming Avengers film behind, The Kang Dynasty, and has set his eyes on sticking to the franchise he knows well. While he’s mainly going to kick off his work on the paused Wonder Man Disney+ series, he’s already started work on the sequel to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

    That movie opened during the pandemic and managed to grow to $432M globally after a strong Labor Day opening weekend. The move seems fitting to allow Cretton to focus on Shang-Chi, especially now as they are trying to build up existing franchises and brands to regain the momentum it had during Phase 3 and in Phase 4. It’ll be interesting to see what else will happen.

    Source: Deadline