Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Avengers: Endgame began its run beating The Force Awakens’ opening and single day record. More are sure to come, as the weekend toll for the MCU’s 22nd move is expected to reach at least $349M for the weekend.
Will Lucasfilm and The Rise of Skywalker beat their step-franchise siblings come December? It’s far too early to tell, but we’ll be watching.
Media analysts Doug Creutz and Stephen Glagola (via) thinks that Solo‘s lackluster performance at the box office comes down to the film’s marketing not being able to sell audiences on lead Alden Ehrenreich. They compare the Solo teaser trailer with Rogue One’s:
The first 35 seconds of the trailer almost exclusively focuses on Felicity Jones as the protagonist Jyn Erso, selling her as a new franchise hero. The second half is dominated by the Imperial alert klaxon and Forest Whitaker’s voice over, and practically screams ‘EPIC’ at the viewer, before closing on another hero shot of Jones.
Solo’s, on the other hand:
The teaser, by our count, only had about 10 seconds of screen time where Ehrenreich’s face was clearly in the picture – not, in our opinion, nearly enough. In general, we felt like the Solo marketing campaign didn’t get fully up to speed until about a month before the movie came out, and that is simply too short of a window for a big franchise picture.
Ehrenreich did figure much more prominently as the campaign went on, but maybe it was a case of too little, too late? They dismiss the effect of Star Wars fatigue, mixed reaction to The Last Jedi, and production worries as fairly minor concerns.
It’s looking like Solo may be the first new Star Wars to lowball box office expectations. It’s taken in about $103 million domestically over the holiday weekend. The worldwide take is expected to be $148 million.
Woody Harrelson’s Tobia Beckett is getting a Marvel one-shot. Solicited for August, Beckett will be written by Gary Duggan (Chewbacca) with art by Will Sliney, Edgar Salazar and Marc Laming. The solicitation promises to reveal more about Enfys Nest and why they are “so dead set on taking him down once and for all.”
→ Solo is tracking for a $130-150M opening weekend – below the previous tracking, but still not a number to scoff at.
→ In addition to the cover story, Variety also has an interview with Donald Glover.
→ Emilia Clarke was on Jimmy Fallon, where she shows that her Shyriiwook is NOT up to spec (there’s also a new clip!), talks about ditching a screening for the royal wedding (on TV), and played charades.
Solo ticket presales are doing well. Fandango (via Deadline) reports that the film sold more tickets in its first 24 hours than Black Panther. It’s second only to Avengers: Infinity War. Not bad for a movie “no one asked for.”
Continue reading “Solo ticket presales doing well; New stills”
There was no official pre-announcement and little fanfare, but U.S. Solo tickets are now on sale – or should be shortly, depending on your theater/chain. (Still waiting, local chain.)
The movie is tracking for a big debut – not The Force Awakens big, mind, but the predictions have it at a quite respectable $160 million opening weekend. That means it could easily beat Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($139.8M) to set a new Memorial Day record – or even outpace Rogue One’s $155.1M.
The movie is set for a world premiere May 10 in Los Angeles and an out-of-contention screening at the Cannes Film Festival before it officially debuts on May 25.
In the meantime, here’s a new commercial:
In what may be the first of many new records, Avengers: Infinity War has edged out The Force Awakens as the biggest box office opening of all time. Early estimates have Infinity War with a $258.2M opening weekend (The Force Awakens took $248M in 2015).
Continue reading “Avengers take down the Force at the box office”
The Last Jedi has now made more than $1.3 billion, making it the all-time 9th-biggest global grosser. It’s unlikely to go any higher as we start heading into blockbuster season, with Fifty Shades Freed and Black Panther on the horizon. Scott Mendelson at Forbes writes why it’s still (duh) a big win for Disney.
→ Rian Johnson did another podcast! This time it’s the /Filmcast, and here are the highlights.
→ Domhnall Gleeson was at Sundance for National Lampoon biopic A Futile and Stupid Gesture, and we’ve gotten several interviews from him that touch on the sequel trilogy. In an IMDB interview, he revealed the origins of Hux’s blaster scene.With The Huffington Post, he talks about Hux and the aim of the character, while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast he touches on The Last Jedi‘s “broken phone call,” surviving the film, and his relationship with Kylo Ren. Also recently unearthed in a Japanese guide to The Force Awakens is a behind the scenes photo of Gleeson (with J.J. Abrams) filming the snow rescue scene that was cut.
→ Lupita Nyong’o is profiled in The Hollywood Reporter, and she talks a bit about the security measures of getting The Force Awakens script. On Episode IX: “I don’t know yet,” she says. “I’ll know soon.”
→ Rotten Tomatoes says that The Last Jedi was 2017’s best-reviewed SF/F movie.
In the fifth weekend, The Last Jedi has passed Beauty and the Beast at the global box office to become 2017’s highest earning movie and the 10th highest of all time. More figures via Scott Mendelson at Forbes:
The sci-fi sequel earned another $11.25m (-51%) in its fifth weekend to set the stage for a 32-day total of around $595m by tomorrow. If it can get to $600m domestic before Friday, it’ll still be the second-fastest grossing movie between Jurassic World and The Force Awakens.
He speculates that the movie will end up making about $1.3B worldwide.
China continues to be lukewarm on Star Wars as The Last Jedi opens in second place behind a local comedy. China is the film’s last major market, and the franchise has never done particularly well there.