Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: PHoton

  • ‘The Marvels’ Presales Currently Behind ‘The Flash’ and ‘Black Adam’

    ‘The Marvels’ Presales Currently Behind ‘The Flash’ and ‘Black Adam’

    At the current rate, The Marvels‘ may be facing the lowest opening since The Eternals,w which opened to $71.2M during the pandemic. Of course, it’s not definite but the presales are currently tracing behind Black Adam and The Flash according to a new piece by Deadline. It’s the first MCU film truly affected by the strike, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was still able to promote with its cast before SAG went on strike as well. There’s also the hot debate regarding Marvel and superhero fatigue with the latter showing its fangs with other releases like Blue Beetle, Shazam: Fury of Gods, and The Flash.

    Marvel normally pulls in viewership and has strong openings with bigger drops going into its second weekend. So, it’s unclear if it’ll pick up the pace going into its final week, especially with hopes that the SAG strike is wrapped this weekend and the cast can start promoting the film. Whether that’ll make a major change is a different point of discussion and remains surprising that Marvel Studios has yet to postpone the release.

    Some are pointing to the “homework” aspect which is a hot debate online. It’s hard to believe that those expectations are set by non-online viewers given that we’re introduced to a variety of characters in films for the first time and not everyone watches every single MCU project faithfully.

    Of course, there’s also the potential that current film visits are closer to a “wait and see” approach rather than going all-in with presales. While Five Nights at Freddy’s managed to pull in strong numbers, they were above the initial expectations due to strong word-of-mouth. The same could also go for the MCU’s latest entry. So, all eyes are going to be on those reviews which are also only going to drop shortly before the release. For now, we can only wait until the film releases with the first Thursday preview numbers and its Friday box office hinting at where the film will end.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘The Marvels’ Box Office Tracking Towards Potential $75M+ Opening

    ‘The Marvels’ Box Office Tracking Towards Potential $75M+ Opening

    The headlines surrounding The Marvels are surprisingly harsher than you’d expect from a tentpole summer release like The Flash. DC’s general struggle this summer has led to some mixed feelings on what the future has in store for the superhero genre yet other releases seem to hint that the genre isn’t fully out. At the same time, there are enough examples throughout the entire summer that blockbuster fatigue is a bigger issue looming over cinemas going into a strike-affected 2024.

    The current projection for The Marvels have been a bit all over the place. Box Office Pro has a more subdued $50M with a high point of $70M. Its pre-sales trackings are quite a bit behind other Marvel tentpoles, especially 2023 releases. It also simply be a showcase that the frontloading era these films have enjoyed fizzled out early on, as even Elemental proves there are still some legs for Disney releases.

    Projections by The Hollywood Reporter are a bit more positive with a potential high of $80M for the Marvel Studios release, which may be quite a bit behind the initial Captain Marvel with its $153.4M. Three female leads are a big selling point of the project, especially after the success of Barbie a few months back It also grew from its initial $70M prediction but word-of-mouth is going to be the deciding factor here. However, the fact that its leads can’t actually promote the film is likely a huge factor.

    What also seems to be easily forgotten is that Captain Marvel enjoyed the build-up towards Avengers: Endgame and her potentially major role in that franchise “ender” as some claim it was. So, we might be seeing what the film originally might have opened to plus the name-change could also be a factor that people aren’t seeing it necessarily as a sequel even if trailers try to highlight that aspect (to be fair, barely any MCU entry acts like a true sequel but rather just an additional chapter for a specific character).

    Is it the end of Marvel Studios? Who knows at this point, but they are still holding on better than DC is with a questionable reboot. What everyone believed was the “biggest flop” of the year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania turned out to be a high bar barely any major release would reach. Even after the summer blockbuster, the film remains the eight highest-grosser of the year domestically.

    The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie were the exceptions rather than the rule this summer which saw major franchises like The Flash, Dungeons & Dragons, Shazam, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Blue Beetle, and even Mission Impossible fizzle out with huge post-COVID budgets. Exhibitors should be more scared that going to the movies is becoming a rarer occurrence and relying on two or three tentpoles per year is not going to keep the box office afloat long-term; even if some are hailing the end of superhero movies and its fatigue discussions.

    Source: Box Office Pro, The Hollywood Reporter, The Numbers

  • Marvel Comics Writer Confirms Monica Rambeau’s Superhero Name in the MCU

    Marvel Comics Writer Confirms Monica Rambeau’s Superhero Name in the MCU

    There’s been a lot of discussion on what exactly the name will be for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s take on Monica Rambeau. We were first introduced to her during WandaVision played by Teyonah Parris. Surprisingly, she even received her iconic powers during her mission to save the town of Westview from the hands of a grieving Wanda Maximoff. Yet, this only left us with questions on what it might mean for her future in the MCU, as she’ll have a major role in the upcoming The Marvels film.

    In the comics, Monica Rambeau has gone by many different names as a hero. For some time she was Captain Marvel, but she was also better known as Spectrum for quite a long time. That name stuck for many years, but comic writer Eve L. Ewing got the chance to revisit the character in the comics in the comic Monica Rambeau: Photon. It surprised many that she seemingly went with another name and it seems there’s more to this than we at first expected.

    As part of the Black Comic Lords Live!, Ewing revealed that she did not choose the name Photon. She reacted to a question in regards to her being called Spectrum in the MCU to which she highlighted that she “did not choose for her to be called Photon in this comic.” Indirectly, this confirms that the character will likely adopt that name in the film adaptation, which would also match their usual attempts to at least keep a synergy between the latest comics and cinematic releases.

    Ewing does highlight that these divisions don’t usually coordinate but highlighting that she had no choice in the name pretty much gives away that this was something that was decided, especially as the decision on naming her Photon was very likely due to her upcoming appearance in The Marvels. We’re still a couple of months away, but perhaps we’ll officially hear her name spoken in the eventual trailer release for this film.

    Source: Black Comic Lords Live via Twitter