quote:

Originally posted by barobehere:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
Now that Disney has purchased 20th Century Fox, Disney will pretty much have ALL of the big hits of 2019:

Capt. Marvel, Dumbo, Avengers, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, Star Wars IX, the 2 upcoming X-Men movies, Terminator 6, etc.

I wonder if New Mutants will get released or get regulated to DVD or shelved.

Last I heard, it was being shunted to Disney's streaming channel but that was over a week ago, so the plans could easily have changed...again

Apparently, Disney's "Dumbo" has failed to meet expectations.

So far it has grossed 46 M domestically, but the studio was hoping for better than that...

I think it was a mistake for Disney to give Dumbo to Tim Burton. He tried to make it believable and in doing so apparently made it even more of a miserable tear jerker than it already was. Doesn't help that circuses, and circus elephants in particular, are not seen as magical images anymore.

With the cost at around 140M plus advertising, it needs to go big internationally because domestic take is not there to hit the black.

Several of these recent attempts by Disney and others to turn classic cartoons into live action movies have not translated into huge successes.

Last year they had that "Christopher Robin"/ Winnie the Pooh film with Ewan McGregor which cost over 70 M to make, and in the U.S. it grossed less than 100 M, according to sources.

And haven't they tried to do that at least twice recently with "Jungle Book" ?'

UPDATE: My mistake. The 2016 "Jungle Book" live action film WAS a big hit. The 2018 film "Mowgli" (not Disney) was not a hit.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tommy C,

'Avengers: Endgame' tickets presale crashes AMC Theatres site, creates long Fandango waits

Looking to score tickets to the hotly anticipated "Avengers: Endgame"? Get in line.

Just as presale ticket sales for the next Marvel Studios film went online Tuesday morning, sales just as quickly seemed to have gone offline. The rush of activity took down the AMC Theatres site and app, left fans with over hour-long waits at ticketing site Fandango, and also caused issues with the Regal Cinemas and Atom Tickets apps.

Fandango was still showing wait times of over an hour to purchase tickets as of 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday, while the AMC website and app continued to have issues. Atom Tickets were loading, but the site was still alerting to errors when trying to purchase tickets.

Needless to say, Marvel fans were not pleased, with "Endgame" related hashtags taking up four of the top spots in Twitter's trending topics in the U.S., including one devoted specifically to Fandango, as fans voiced their displeasure.

In a tweet, AMC acknowledged the issues, promising that it was working on a fix and telling fans to "keep trying."

We want everyone to be able to grab their Avengers: Endgame tickets, but it looks like we've gotten Thanos' snap. We're working on getting things back up and running, and in the meantime, please keep trying our website and our partner sites!

— AMC Guest Services (@AMCHelps) April 2, 2019

As of 12:35 p.m. ET AMC's website and app were down completely while Fandango "paused" its line for AMC orders.

By 3:12 p.m. ET both the AMC and Fandango websites appeared to be back online, though AMC's website and app still were showing some issues. Ordering from Fandango for an AMC theater, however, did work.

The culmination of the 22-film Marvel Cinematic Universe "Infinity Saga," the new Avengers film is the sequel to last year's blockbuster "Avengers: Infinity War." That film grossed over $2 billion at the worldwide box office, with one Hollywood trade already speculating that "Endgame" could do over to $800 million on its opening weekend worldwide.

Source: USA Today

"Shazam !" opens this weekend. We'll see how it does. They're predicting maybe 50 M over the next few days.

For those of you unfamiliar with the character, he's been around since 1940, as Capt. Marvel. But when Fawcett stopped publishing his comic in 1953, the rights to the name lapsed, and in the late 1960s, Marvel Comics created their own hero with the same name (hence the recent Marvel movie)

Since 1973, DC Comics has had the rights to the original character, but they're not allowed to call the comic books "Capt. Marvel" (as they were called from 1940-1953), and so they use "Shazam", which is actually the name of the wizard who gave him his powers.

Shazam! is getting mainly positive reviews. This seems to be the opposite of the dark, brooding comic book hero stories. It's definitely a comedy, but it is amazing. It's early in the year and we are getting one right after the other of Marvel or DC or even Dark Horse with Hellboy coming.

And they're all making money. Even the disappointments are making money, just maybe not enough for the cost. It seems that market saturation is impossible, I mean Star Wars is going to look fresh and different by comparison. Who'd have thunk it.

Shazam is definitely a funny/comedy film, went to see it yesterday. It was a fun, light film and from the trailer at the end a second film might be coming.

"Pet Sematary" has not been a big hit. So far it has grossed about 30 M in the U.S., but it cost 21 M to make. It has only made another 20 M worldwide

And now they are saying that the new "Hellboy" film coming this weekend, may not be a hit, either. Very low expectations.

Hellboy has bombed this weekend with only a 12M take. I don't think its necessarily the fault of the movie itself, so much as it is that the producers didn't know what to do with it.

This started as a sequel to the Hellboy 2 Golden Army. Then for some reason they turned into either a remake or a reboot of the original Hellboy. The studio is so confused they couldn't even decided which "re-" to call it. It seems like they split the difference.

It is a Hellboy origin story, which makes it a remake. But they also changed the plot from the first origin story and brought in new characters, so that makes it a reboot.

They didn't promote it enough to get anyone interested, even though there are Hellboy fans. If the studio doesn't know what it made, it's not surprising nobody else does either.

I saw "Missing Link" with my daughter this weekend. It is a great little family film but it debuted at #9. It will disappear and be forgotten like the sasquatch star.

I saw Shazam! last weekend and it was a blast.

I saw the trailers for Hellboy and it did not have any of the beauty the film making of the first two (Guillermo del Toro). Nor did I think Harbor brought the charm or Perlman, so I skipped it. I had two friends that went and saw it. The reviews, "at least I got a free popcorn, that was good." and "a complete mess and a complete waste of time.".

One wonders why they even bothered with the new "Hellboy." If it costs at least 50 M to make, you don't want 12 M back, resulting in millions of dollars lost. Unlike with Marvel, you can't take a big gamble on obscure comic characters

I noticed that even Disney's "Dumbo" is not doing well worldwide. It has grossed about 266 M here and abroad, but it appears to have cost 200 M plus to make.

I saw "The Highwaymen" on Netflix this weekend. Easily the best movie I've seen in a while. It is every bit as good as theatrical releases. There's a scene with Kevin Costner and William Sadler that is chilling -- Sadler drops completely into the role, and I didn't recognize him at first (despite having watched the previous night one of the Jesse Stone movies where he plays a mobster.) Highly recommended.

If the Oscars want to stay relevant, they are going to have to figure out a way to accommodate movies like this.

quote:

Originally posted by mykdude:

quote:

Originally posted by WOMBLE:
I think Avengers Endgame will be the biggest film of 2019.

I think you are probably correct. Star Wars will be big but as a franchise it is losing some steam.

Avengers will top both Domestic and International box offices. Especially after the monster response for Capt Marvel vice the meh world of Solo.

Captain Marvel has comfortably passed $1 billion worldwide, and is the biggest film of 2019 so far. Amazing to consider people are now guessing just how many days it will take 'Avengers Endgame' to overtake it.

Hellboy was never a major box office winner to begin with. Both del Toro films did ok but ticket sales barely covered production and advertising costs.

I also saw the Highwaymen, very good movie.

I saw Shazam and enjoyed it but just like Aquaman it gives nothing about what direction the DCU wants to go in. They were just two decent and fun stand alone story-lines.

If "Captain Marvel" can make 9 M more domestically, as it surely will, it will end up being the 6th highest grossing Marvel film, behind only Black Panther and the 4 Avengers movies.

It has already surpassed the Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy films, and in a few days it will pass Iron Man 3 and Captain America 3.

"Avengers: Endgame" is expected to shatter box office records, with some estimates predicting that the movie could pull in $1 billion dollars in less than a week.

quote:

Originally posted by Kennywood:
"Avengers: Endgame" is expected to shatter box office records, with some estimates predicting that the movie could pull in $1 billion dollars in less than a week.

Yup! I have already relegated myself to not seeing it until at least the second weekend. Fortunately I live in an area where hype doesn't impact the movie theater very often.

Still don't know if I have seen everything I need so I can see this film

Starting tomorrow, some (not all) AMC Theatres will be open 24-hours-a-day, in order to meet the demand for "Avengers: Endgame".

Weather permitting, my wife and I will be seeing the movie at a local drive-in. It's being double-featured with "Captain Marvel".