Spider-Man: No Way Home is now Sony’s biggest movie ever, thanks to this weekend’s box office
Audiences take the blue pill on Matrix Resurrections, sticking with Spider-Man's many realities instead
Aux News Spider-Man
Spider-Man: No Way Home landed with an enormous impact last week, earning one of the biggest box office openings of all time and making so much money that box office experts were all forced to conclude that people like movies about Spider-Man—and it did this while stupid people who deny the existence of COVID or the viability of vaccines have continued to ensure that the pandemic won’t end until all of us are dead. This week, though, No Way Home fell nearly 70 percent… and still made more money than pretty much any other movie in the past year.
No Way Home made $81.5 million at the domestic box office this weekend, bringing its U.S. total to $467 million and making it Sony Pictures’ highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. (beating previous record-holder Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle). It is also now the first film released during the pandemic to make more than $1 billion, and it did it about as quickly as Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (neither of which were released in a world where closing yourself up in a room with strangers might result in you catching a potentially deadly virus).
The catch with No Way Home vacuuming up all of the box office money is that nearly everything else is getting obliterated. Sing 2 did fine, coming in second at $23 million ($41 million if you count the lead-up to the holiday weekend), but Matrix Resurrections only made $12 million ($22 million with the extra days) and Kingsman prequel The King’s Man barely beat Christian football biopic American Underdog with only $6.3 million (presumably from people who saw Spider-Man last week).
Everything after that… woof. West Side Story keeps doing worse and worse, Licorice Pizza finally got a slightly wider rollout and improved 2,000 percent (but that only translates to $2.3 million), and Denzel Washington’s A Journal For Jordan flopped hard at $2.2 million (on nearly 2,000 more screens than Licorice Pizza).
One other notable thing about this box office weekend is that the release of the new Matrix movie marks the last major film on Warner Bros.’ theatrical/HBO Max release strategy, which was dreamed up as a way to keep releasing new movies even as theaters hadn’t fully reopened. Warner Bros. is probably going to keep a tight lid on just how well the plan worked out, but it has said that it won’t keep releasing every theatrical movie on HBO Max going forward.
The full list of this past weekend’s top 10 films, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, is below. Click that link for more detailed information about how much money these movies made.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Sing 2
- The Matrix Resurrections
- The King’s Man
- American Underdog
- West Side Story
- Licroice Pizza
- A Journal For Jordan
- Encanto
- ‘83
138 Comments
It’s an omicron christmas for everyone!
I just got out of quarantine, and while I am now negative for Covid, I’m sure everyone in the theater will appreciate my lingering cough. Not putting Spider-man on streaming and expecting us all to miraculously avoid spoilers was a truly cruel move on Disney’s part.
It’s a mediocre Spider-Man movie. It’s not worth all that.
Incorrect statement said as fact. The internet way. But, seriously, even I didn’t like it, I can very understand why others would love it and see it as far beyond mediocre.
This needed to be summoned from the greys.
Here’s dirt in your eye!
Quality being subjective, no movie is worth the literal hotbox of (unvaccinated) asshole talkers/coughers/constant bathroom users. I thought I would be safe at an early morning Dune imax screening but my goodness, there must’ve been people on a mission to open mouth cough and throat clear throughout the movie.
Mediocre? I’m curious why mediocre? I thought it was marvelous.
Sony.
I was halfway hoping to develop a cough (of the non-COVID or otherwise serious/contagious variety) to give all the no-maskers – and it was the overwhelming majority – in the theater tonight a little something to think about.
It wasn’t Disney’s call to make. Sony has distribution rights and no streaming service. Even if it did, Omicron has come on so fast There’s been no time to pivot from the commitment studios had already made to exhibitors months ago.
Disney shouldn’t be able to make you do anything.
I know a guy who can help you watch it safely. For a price…
Is that Pence?
So, SPOILERS FOR ‘NO WAY HOME’ ahead! (And also ‘Endgame’, but I think we’re past that point now.)I feel like Marvel’s movie division has decided to address some of its famously … less admired story decisions from the comics by reframing them in the films. So in ‘Endgame’, you had Steve reclaiming Loki’s sceptre from Rumlow by dropping a “Hail Hydra”, which I always took to be the MCU saying, “This is the full extent to which we’re acknowledging that shitty ‘Captain America has been Hydra all along’ arc everyone hated.” In ‘No Way Home’, it’s an even more in-depth rewriting of the famous Mephisto “Give me your marriage” thing. Peter still makes a choice that means the person he loves will forget all about him (along with everyone else he knows in the movie version), but instead of being a deal with a demon to save his ancient aunt who’s inexplicably unable to be healed by any other technology, magic or superpower, here it’s a plan he works out with a trusted ally that will save the very structure of the universe. The story even has May die to drive home the similarity of the plots, but emphasise how one’s a lot less stupid than the other.
They did “Civil War” significantly better than the comics event as well.
There’s also just that fact that Peter’s decision in NWH feels like it aligns more with the ethos of “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” than OMD did. Unlike OMD, it’s Peter taking responsibility for his actions rather than getting a Get Out of Consequences Free Card by way of a Faustian Pact. There’s also just the fact that the Peter in the MCU is only 18 rather than 616-Peter who’s in his early 30’s at most. It makes more sense for the former to do something this reckless than the latter.
I went a week ago and we’re all fine, sorry.
Thank god I live somewhere with 90%+ over twelves vaccinated, and a vaccine requirement to go to the cinema.It’s nice being able to see a film and know everyone there is vaccinated, and also to be immune from people trying to guilt me for going out.
“You, boy! What day is today?”“Today, sir? Why today is Omicronmas Day!”
I’m vaccinated, masked, boosted and out of fucks.
I said it right before Spider-man came out that it will spread this variant faster than anything. And boy does that look right, good thing most people are vaxxed. But Disney wants that money (Sony as well) so bring on the sickness!
Faster than anything? Yeah, it’s a lot of money so it sounds like a lot of people but it’s a tiny drop in the pan of the actual population. Nothing is closed (not that I want them to be) and the comparably minute amount of people going to a movie versus the hundreds of millions of people interacting in stores and at work isn’t even a blip. Malls and shopping centers were absolutely packed to the hilt based on retail reports. Anecdotally, I can tell you when I went to see Spider-Man the lines of cars to get into the Providence Place Mall parking garages were so long we had to park on the street a half mile away and walk so we didn’t miss the movie. Maybe a couple hundred people were there to see the Imax or SD version of the movie. The thousands of others were just Christmas shopping.
I’ve been to packed theaters in Manhattan before a pandemic and people who have the cold or flu are in there sneezing and coughing because they need to see the movie that day! Or that weekend. When I was trying to buy tickets at an empty theater in NYC I couldn’t find one and then I got sick anway. The theater will always be a place that spreads it fast (any sickness) but movie goers are so defensive about it they can’t admit that because they NEED to go the theater. In NYC this is spreading fast but we are mostly vaxxed but lets not act like its only the mall or only family gatherings that are spreading it, this movie is hot and it’s probably spreading it faster than any other gathering. Alot of people don’t go to malls, alot of those people who don’t go to malls go to the theater.
Spreading faster than any other gathering? Faster than packed restaurants of people completely without masks, yammering away at each other night after night? Faster than sporting events filled with tens of thousands of people literally screaming for two hours straight? OK…
Literally everyone I know right now with Omicron is double vaxxed so that means nothing. I, on the other hand, have my booster *twirls moustache*
I had never heard of ‘83 before. Is that the first time weekend it’s been in the top 10? It would have been nice if this newswire had given any details about it.
It’s about a cricket match between India and the West Indies. I’m honestly surprised they had a US release at all, so a lack of marketing is unsurprising.
There is a rather large Indian population in the U.S.
Dot or feather?
I would love to watch Tiio Horn and Priyanka Chopra beat the shit out of you.To be fair, I would love to watch them beat the shit out of *anyone*.
you been reading my diary?
A little behind the scenes chat: initially I wrote Jameela Jamil but then I remembered that she’s Pakistani-British, not Indian-British. Which is unfortunate because *my* preference would be Tiio and Jameela whupping ass. But then the snark doesn’t work.
neat
whooooa who let you in
How is this comment out of the greys? Ummmm that’s not a cool thing to say.
My brother’s wifes family is from Pakistan. That’s really not cool man.
This comment is the most ignorant thing I’ve read on the internet in months. You really need to re-evaluate why you said this and why you thought it was funny because nothing about your comment is in any way appealing. Wow.
I realize very few people saw it in theaters, but I just don’t care anymore. The new Matrix absolutely worked for me and I’ve watched it several times just over the past few days. Still don’t have an urge to see Spider-Mans.
Well, I grabbed that other pill, the one that tells your team where your pod is and let me tell you, I did not regret it.I had a marvelous time at Matrix Resurrections. I thought it was a worthy entry in the series. I was very much into its story and ideas. Some of the dialogue could’ve used a little polish, sure, but the thrills and suspense more than made up for that.It had something that might have made Revolutions a much better movie: it was proudly flamboyant. And I thought it was wonderful. Inspired. Exciting. Heartfelt. Its messaging simple and effective.Maybe it’s just because I expected nothing more than some smart, suspenseful, colorful entertainment, but I got exactly what I wanted out of it.
Good on you for not going into Resurrections with a crabby attitude. I thought the same, too. It’s so much less cold and clinical and much more imaginative and wondrous than the other sequels, and also retroactively makes them better.
I don’t how you got everything from this movie you wanted in your last statement. At least enjoyed it. I’ve already forgotten most of it. Super forgettable movie.
Maybe it’s just because I expected nothing more than some smart, suspenseful, colorful entertainment, but I got exactly what I wanted out of it.How about action set pieces that actually looked different from every other action film? Because that’s what the original Matrix had, and what this one didn’t.
“Some of the dialogue could have used a little polish”.Look, I think the beautiful language of Poland should be better represented in film as well, but you know American audiences, they just won’t do subtitles.
Thankfully, that’s “polish” (verb), not “Polish” (noun).
“A little Polish”?Dzień dobry, Jak się masz? Czy mówisz po angielsku?
I really wanted to like it, but I ended up watching it on two separate nights on HBO MAX as I thought the first half was pretty boring..then the second half was only a little better.
I thought it was better than the other sequels but still the fight scenes were mostly boring and I still don’t give a single damn about Neo and Trinity’s romance.
I would argue that it’s not really about romance but about love, which is a very important distinction (which, to be fair, everybody’s getting confused all the time).It’s about that deep connection they share and how it is the thing that has always saved both of them. That same love is also representative of all the meaningful emotional connections between us humans and how those have the power to be the saving grace of humanity. I believe that romance is only a small fraction of that.However, it does indeed put that very dynamic at the very core of its storytelling, so if that’s not something you can get yourself interested in, the movie isn’t really going to work for you, of course.
Whatever you want to call it it’s not well written, not very well acted and is not interesting to me at all. ‘Love saves everyone!’ endings are especially lazy, doubly so when actual interesting questions are posed in the movie but basically brushed aside after superficial/pseudo-intellectual discussion. That’s a huge part of the problem with the second and third ones and it didn’t get any better here.
Well, I beg to differ. I think the message is very meaningful, timeless and important. And it was executed mostly well, in my opinion.The film definitely focused more on emotional themes than philosophical ones (although there was some of that too) and was using the lore mostly in service of the former. If you were more interested in the latter, I can see how you would be disappointed.For me, however, it resonated deeply and that wasn’t a coincidence. There was a deft hand behind that experience. I’m certain of it.
Yeah basically the plot had nothing for me, the best thing about it was some pretty damn good shots. Lana obviously put a LOT of her feelings about her transition onscreen, which is fine, it just didn’t interest me at all.
I didn’t think about the transition to be honest. I just had certain realizations about existence reinforced. How easily we all get stuck, again and again, in these strange patterns. And how there’s always something in us that yearns for something more.How love (that is: connection) does not even give us that something we yearn for, but instead takes away the pain from that yearning and can even make it a pleasure to yearn. And how the point of it is to give more than it is to receive (although, let’s be real, that too).So yeah. The stuff we all go through in so many profound and different ways.
Cool. I’m gonna need you to attach those grandiose philosophical notions to some on-screen context.
I don’t give a damn what you “need” me to do. Frankly, I don’t care for your hostile attitude.
That moron has a weird chip on his shoulder about what he derisively calls “philosophical” stuff in movies. Pretty sure he considers theme separate from narrative, which is like considering math separate from engineering. But he gets hilariously thin skinned if you call him out.
A. Not a moron. Thanks.B. Theme IS separate from narrative. There are plenty of stories without a theme.C. Even in narratives WITH themes, there is no inherently higher value to those themes. And you cannot ignore the narrative quality in favor of the thematic resonance. One is essential, the other is not.
You would be well-served as a person who clearly enjoys fiction to just google what a “theme” is. It will enrich your life.
I do enjoy fiction! I enjoy it so much I got a degree in it! And have been paid to analyze it. And have won awards for writing it. I even sometimes teach it, when enrollment isn’t fucked by things like COVID.I know what a “theme” is. I also know what thematic resonance is. And semiotics. And the slang term “symbol safari”. And I know when someone is doing the latter because of a belief that the former is somehow more valuable or interesting than a textual analysis.But hey, more power to them IF they can support their safari. In the case of the person who got me on this always-fun-rant (/s), there was no support. Just a lot of insistence with no substance.But whatever. You do you, Aranofsky.
And I don’t care for people who talk about film only in terms of lofty subtextual nonsense.And for crying out loud, you know that “need” is not literal in my snark, right? For someone who clearly slobbers over subtext you seem to have missed mine.
You are very rude and for that reason I refuse to engage in any discourse with you.I simply do not subscribe to your beliefs about how to engage with media. So there’s no sensible discussion to be had here. Please stop insulting me and being generally condescending.
I can be rude, true. And condescending. Those are unfortunate character flaws. Usually I’m better about forcing my rudeness into comic snark but condescension is a problem I’ve rarely addressed.I’m also pretty smart about entertainment media and arts criticism. Well educated in both. A working professional in both.I was admittedly too glib when I “demanded” that you attach context to the themes you claim the film advances. But I’m not wrong to suggest that you haven’t substantively supported your claim with in-movie examples. Whereas in my critiques of the film I mostly have cited *specific* moments or elements.You’re obviously free to ignore me and not engage for reasons of my antagonism. It’s for sure underneath some of what I post around here. And certain people bring it out more than others. And certain pet subjects do the same. (Thematic resonance is a boondoggle I frequently have to untangle in my dealings with film students, who have never met a metaphor they couldn’t crowbar into everything they consume.)That said, I’m not particularly interested in this discourse. I simply wanted to acknowledge a fair call out and make clear that I’m not *just* antagonizing you to be a dick. I have a rationale.
Well, this is not film school. And I’m not a student. I’m not pretending to be analyzing the movie, I have only seen it once and I am reacting to it as an audience member, not as a scholar. I don’t know why you would have a rationale like that in a comment section where everyone is free to respond the way the way they see fit.I have never claimed to have aspirations that would satisfy you and your very smart standards for entertainment media and arts criticism. If you want to positively (and rudely) demand academic style discourse, I suggest you go to a place where uneducated scum like me doesn’t rain on your parade.And for what it’s worth, I don’t believe you. I think you delight in being a dick. Your so-called rationale is really just a rationalization for not having to be considerate, respectful, polite or anything like that.
I’m not going to waste both of our times by quoting your own posts of film analysis. You made claims of thematic resonance. You did that. You called the movie smart. You did that. You have tried to make a case and engage in argument about the movie’s merits based on your interpretation thereof. You. Did. That. If you aren’t prepared to support those claims, don’t make them. Sorry I’m holding you to any kind of critical standard.
Is that what you’re doing? Lovely. Someone should make you king of the internet.
That’s not a title anyone wants. Except maybe that Amouranth lady who Kotaku trolls their readership with every few months.
Bummer.
What a load of dogs bollocks.So you’re telling me that Neo and Trinity’s love is SO much more meaningful and profound than ANYONE ELSE IN EXISTENCE’s that the new Matrix is built around it and functions solely because of it?Those two actors have better chemistry now than they did back then but it’s still a huge goofy insult to say that THOSE TWO characters are the basis of a whole human harvesting operation. It is the height of fan wankery. It is straight up fan fiction that had the luck of being cowritten by one of the trilogy’s creators.I enjoyed the movie generally but your response is just waaay too hyperbolic.
That is not at all what I said. I said it is representative
of human connection in general. Another word I could have used is
symbolic. Their connection is not more, not less, but exactly as
important as all other human connections. They are the stand-ins for
humanity in this story.See, human connection is kind of like Broccoli. The micro level resembles the macro level.
You’re on a symbol safari so deep you’ve lost your pith helmet. The actual plot of the actual movie actually claims that Neo and Trinity’s love is the actual basis of the actual human harvesting operation. The new Matrix *literally* runs on the output of humans who are influenced by Neo and Trinity. You’re so lost in the symbolism you desperately sought out (because heaven forbid the movie have text and not just subtext) that you’re ignoring the weaknesses of the actual film. One of which is that while those two actors have more chemistry now than they did when they were younger, those *characters* barely interact and I don’t (and have never) see how that’s some important, all-encompassing “love”. They’re two conventionally attractive people who got sucked into a science fiction plot. Their pairing was always a matter of plot convenience. And it’s not like The Matrix is the sole guilty party of that. LOTS of films suffer from this. But for whatever reason The Matrix trilogy and *especially* Resurrections leans in hard on that pairing. I have had friction with Murry Chang but they’re totally right to blah Neo and Trinity.
Neither did Neo and Trinity.
They’re too cool to ‘care’ about stuff.
I watched it on HBO and I definetely didn’t think as highly of it as you did. Smart isn’t a word I’d use to describe it, and certainly not suspenseful. Suspense would’ve required me caring what might happen to any of these characters. Which, maybe I could have, if it wasn’t obvious exactly where it was going to end up. I’d refrain from calling it smart because it didn’t make a damn lick of sense, even within the near nonsense “rules” of the universe by the end of the original trilogy.
I have no problem calling it smart. First of all, for me it’s more of a
general distinction, just to separate it from the likes of, say,
Transformers or Iron Man. You know, this one’s generally more on the smart
side of things. It’s not as cerebral a sci-fi movie as 2001 or Stalker or, hell, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but there’s a certain level of intelligence involved. Like I said, this one’s more focused on emotion, and it inhabits that realm with emotional intelligence and wisdom, in my opinion.
You’re right, the movie about how a war profiteer learns that the heroic facade he allows himself because he supports the military is faulty and that the personal responsibility he has ignored for decades has come home to roost is not as “smart” as the movie about the importance of love and connection between freedom fighting hackers.I hate to defend products of the Great Mouse Satan but Iron Man does not deserve the shade you threw at it. And The Matrix does not deserve the hyperbole.
Iron Man is a much smarter film than Resurrections. As for inhabiting the “realm of emotional intelligence and wisdom?” It’s funny you bring up Eternal Sunshine, which blows Resurrections out of the water in that regard. That’s actually how you do that. It uses sci-fi trappings to explore the memories of a relationship, how one’s personal perspective can isolate them from seeing someone else’s perspective, and how relationships are a hard, messy thing but can maybe work if you can acknowledge that. And it did that with about 1/1,000,000th of the tiresome exposition of the Matrix movie. Soooooo much exposition. Resurrections says, Neo and Trinity really, really, really love each other for… reasons. None of which are clear aside from in the second movie Trinity told Neo she loved him so now they’re in love. Their relationship had no depth in the original trilogy, this movie added no depth, so I could find nothing to be emotionally invested.
Part of what I found frustrating is that Lana has said that Resurrections was a way for her to deal with grief over her parents dying. That bringing Neo and Trinity back served as a bit of catharsis. But Trinity is so sidelined for so much of the film! And yeah, you are 100% right about those characters! Their love has never been based on anything but plot convenience and conventional attraction. Which I would *hope* isn’t reflective of her parents! The movie feels like it *wants* to be about Neo and Trinity but then it keeps throwing all this Matrix shit into the story. And a lot of that stuff is interesting! I was super into the notions of the cooperative machines and how programs manifest physically outside of The Matrix. I love the new Morpheus and the idea that he’s an amalgam of OG Morpheus and Smith. It says something interesting, I think, about Neo’s subconscious relationship with Morpheus as dual mentor/antagonist.But shit, look at that! I have more to say about Morpheus and Neo than I do about TRINITY and Neo! Which is such a *shame* because, as I said a few times to others, Keanu and Carrie-Ann do now have chemistry! It’s familiarity as opposed to passion but it’s still really sweet and effective! But that dynamic makes up like 20 minutes of screen time. If that.At the end of the day I still enjoyed it but the conversation around it has been… not great.
It is weird how little screen time Trinity actually has, and how it’s all through Neo’s perspective. A much more interesting story might have been in exploring both of their perspectives struggling with being back in the Matrix. Instead Trinity just snaps out of it because Neo is in trouble. I’d also agree that there were some interesting ideas regarding how humans now live with machines. That could’ve been an interesting movie on it’s own. Unfortunately, the movie still suffered from the Wachowski’s (even though it’s Lana by herself this time) propensity to throw some cool ideas around but not stitch them together in a coherent way. That and a overreliance on characters expositing said ideas out loud rather than creating a narrative that expresses the same ideas. There’s way too much Tell and not enough Show.
Tangentially related, someone around here has been offering parallels between the Wachowskis and other Big Idea genre filmmakers and this propensity for fucking ENDLESS exposition to explain NEEDLESSLY convoluted world-building mechanics is a big problem for Christopher goddam Nolan, too. (He, too, is the subject of devotion from pseudointellectuals who stroke themselves to audio textbooks on Film Theory and Semiotics)(And for the cheap seats pearl clutchers: I’m clearly being aggressively hyperbolic. Take a fucking pill.)
I’ve been thinking about it and a… complicated… disappointment I felt about Trinity’s lack of development or focus is wrapped up in supporting transgender storytellers. A common, stupid position that transphobes take is that transgender women are just men taking over women’s spaces and usurping women’s stories. It is not hard to see how that kind of wrong-headed view could be supported by this movie BECAUSE of how little story agency Trinity is given and how much of her characterization is viewed through Neo’s perspective. I had similar mixed feelings about Gone Girl. In many ways it parodies the kind of paranoid delusions misogynists have about women, buuuuut it also kinda sorta accidentally reinforces those delusions.I dunno. I’m not at all convinced I’m right about Resurrections unintentionally supporting transphobia, but I think I’ve made a reasonable case. I’m willing to be talked out of it.
Is Keanu still the A-list actor with the least acting ability ever?
I mean, he’s more of a movie star than a capital A actor, but his screen presence is not to be underestimated. He’s once again convincing as the everyman on a hero’s journey, totally likable.
I don’t have problem with story and characters and themes, I thought them film is very decent and a worthy entry in Matrix saga. And the biggest surprise for me was that some Machines (or Synthients) actually joined the Humans, which continued the strange and unexplored nature in Trilogy of how some of Machines and Programs are actually on friendly terms with the Humans. I would like to see that explored more if sequel get to be made.Even so, I felt that it was held back by apparent lack of stakes aside from pulling Trinity from the Matrix (and reverting status quo that their peace eventually failed in spirit because of Analyst’s machinations). And the action beats lack that surreal overtone that the Trilogy have perfected in favor of physicality that recent action movies have utilized. I can get why they did that, but they didn’t feels as polished nor tight. I think if they would be doing The Matrix 5, they might need a different storyboard artists to get back to the roots of these awesome actions in the Trilogy.All in all, I say this film is as good as the other sequels, maybe a bit better? I liked that the film went hard on meta tropes, which can says a lot about the movies themselves and how we consume them.
I was supposed to go see Matrix: Resurrections on Boxing Day, but everybody stepped away from it thanks to COVID Decepticon — despite all of us having had booster shots before the holiday!
I turn on the news: “we’re all going to die horribly”I go to Twitter: “we’re all going to die horribly”I go to entertainment websites: “we’re all going to die horribly”I mention that maybe I want to leave before it happens: “NO, LIFE IS WORTH IT DONT DO IT”I don’t get it.
No one here said not to do it.
You don’t get how “if it bleeds, it leads” and “doom and gloom sells”?
I don’t get what is the point in living since everyone knows things will get worse and worse until they collapse. Especially if you have no non toxic loved ones like me.
aww, we love ya, buddy 🙂
I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling this way. But my point is that things are not as bad as the media or internet websites, commenters/trolls often make it look. Promoting doom cycles and exagerrating problems gets attention and therefore gets clicks and money. This is still one of the best times to be alive. And in that sense, I think you need to take a timeout away from the media and internet and seriously talk to someone offline about this. Or maybe distract yourself with a hobby?
hobbys for the win
Have you heard of Cosmic Ghost Rider? It’s a bit of a comics nosedive. I recommend.
Because while a lot of things may get worse globally, that doesn’t mean there’s not joy for us individually. Sorry to hear of your toxic loved ones, but there’s lots of good people out there to befriend. There are lots of wonderful films and art and experiences out there. I know things seem bleak at the moment, but they won’t always. Maybe use the new year as an excuse to find a new course or hobby or group where you can meet new people and shake things up. I know its easy for me to say, but it really can get better. Hope you realise that soon. Good luck.
Unfoetunately, i took my family’s “concern” about my mental state to move to a country where i don’t speak the language (in fairness i didn’t speak the language in my previous country of residence either) to be closer to my brother (who turns out to just want to control me like the rest of my family) and now i cannot attend lessons because of the pandemic and this cannot learn and i cannotnlearn by myself because ei have no one to talk to.
What the others are saying is true; it sounds ridiculous and even offensive to say “focus on the positive!” but it can actually make a difference when done right. My life is pretty awful right now, with intractable problem after intractable problem weighing me down. Cutting way down on news consumption and certain kinds of social media has helped me cope. So have hobbies, good fiction books, prayer (maybe meditation or mindfulness or moments of silence for you). So has making a concentrated effort to enjoy tiny things like the warm cat currently on my lap, or the pretty Christmas lights on the houses across the street, or the flaky croissant I ate for breakfast. I feel better afterwards, not in a “everything’s gonna work out!” way (some of it won’t) but in a “I can get through this” way.
Because everyone always says it will collapse but it rarely does. The last dark ages in the West were 1000 years ago, starting with the collapse of Rome around 500 and ending around 600 years later roughly when the Viking Age ended. Humans muddled through and came out of it to build the great castles and cathedrals starting right then. So even when there is a bit of a setback, the rebuilding is interesting to watch. The last really bad plague year in England was 1666 and the Great Fire ended that by baking all the rats. They then had a fine time rebuilding London. After WW II the world entered a new technological age and they rebuilt London again. History just keep churning.
Spider Man?
yo…. speak to a councillor or some kind of professional. These posts aren’t appropriate. I felt gloomy and thats why I did. I didn’t go telling people on an Entertainment website about it. We’re talking about box office man. Like I think you should get help and I don’t want to discourage you but this is not the right place to seek that help.
I’m not trying to invalidate you or make you feel unwelcome but if you feel that way there’s better places to express that right now. And they’re totally open and available.
Are you casually talking about suicidal thoughts on here? Yikes.
Saw Resurrections and Encanto. Resurrections mostly made me want to see Reeves and Moss in a straight up romance – those two might actually have more chemistry now than in the original trilogy. Encanto is delightful. The songs are catchy, the animation is colorful and beautiful, and it commits Disney heresy by suggesting that even loving families can have damaging dynamics.
Saw Resurrections
But there is, uh, that one Disney trope that I don’t want to mention specifically because spoilers (though it’s revealed extremely early on) that shores things up in terms of Mouse House bona fides.
Their acting is less wooden than it used to be but it’s still not super great.
Everybody now: S U P E R H E R O F A T I G U E
Had there been no pandemic, NWH would have broken so many records, despite being just better than mediocre.
Honestly why does that even remotely matter or merit a response?
Sure it matters to studios distribution divisions, to cinema owners, and to people who get pissed off whenever Avatar rises to the top of box office earners.
Generally speaking I wish everyone *without* a personal financial interest in a film’s box office returns (or a TV show’s ratings) would stfu about such matters. It only supports the corporatism of the industry and fuels incredibly stupid pissing contests. Profitability is not nor has ever been a signifier of artistic merit, despite whatever thirsty-ass Oscar bullshit Kevin Feige is drooling out of his make mine Marvelhole.
Moviemaking is an industry and big business. If there were no fans of Spider-Man, there wouldn’t be comic books or movies, both of which are financed by corporations and investors who only want to make more money. No one makes movies and TV shows pro bono.Many of my favorite movies are not box office giants but I’m glad a studio financed a producer and a director’s dream and vision.
GASP! You mean the entertainment industry is… an industry?!?!?!?!Sarcasm aside, what value is there for you in discussing box office? You mention your favorites not being giants but being glad that they got funding. Okay, sooo…. ? What’s the connection? Why do you want to talk about Spider-Man box office? Why is it worth discussing what effect COVID may have had on it?AV Club covers the industry so it kinda makes sense for them to care. (But… then again…. Does it?)
It’s made a billion worldwide already and has broken a shit ton of records. Fuck a pandemic. It did nothing to the movies success.
So people will go see a bad movie even if it’ll make them sick.
It’s pretty amazing that not so long ago in the grand scheme of things, a film adaptation of Spider-Man was considered risky. I remember going to a film summer camp (I was a big nerd), and one of the instructors was talking about how much Sony spent on the script just to make sure they got it right. He mentioned they brought in a script doctor (I forget who it was) and paid 7 figures, on top of what Koepp made. It was truly amazing how much it made opening weekend, how much it was in the zeitgeist. I’m not sure people appreciate just how much the paradigm has shifted in the years following.
Hollywood will take the wrong lesson from this. The next bond movie will feature every actor who played the role (they’ll CGI the dead ones) and it will be the best worst movie ever made.
The middle of the movie will grind to a halt while they introduce interconnected spinoffs for M, Q, Moneypenny, Jaws, Tiger Tanaka, Kananga, and Oddjob.
BOND ORIGINS 2: Dawn of Oddjob
Don’t jinx it, my Dad totally made this joke at Christmas.
Next stop the Star Wars / MCU crossover that will inevitably doom us all! (Marvel puts out Star Wars comics…. it’s terrifying how close we are to this).
All they have to do is one crossover comic and then nobody can be like “it wasn’t in the comics!” *shudders*
If Peter Quill boards the Millenium Falcon, I’m done.
“The success of the latest Spider-Man opens up so much potential! We could bring in the characters from the 2015 Fantastic Four movie to meet the new versions!”*watches 2015 Fantastic Four movie*“On second thought, we’re probably good here.”
It might be kind of hilarious to have a crossover with the ‘05 FF cast, just to have everyone mistaking Johnny Storm for Steve Rogers. The ‘15 cast (despite Michael B. Jordan’s presence) wouldn’t work that well, as that film sucked all potential joy out of the concept, an entertainment Negative Zone if you will.
I have said before that I would love it if they brought the ‘05 Johnny Storm to the MCU, have him still played by Chris Evans, and have no one say a word about it.
They need this scene at some point in the MCU.
I watched Resurrections on HBO and saw Spider-Man in the theater. Glad I didn’t pay to see Resurrections, it was better than the other sequels but basically had all the same failures. Doogie Houser was good though but holy crap even after 4 movies I still don’t give a good god damn about Neo and Trinity’s romance.Spider-Man on the other hand was fuckin awesome all the way around.
One other notable thing about this box office weekend is that the release of the new Matrix movie marks the last major film on Warner Bros.’ theatrical/HBO Max release strategy, which was dreamed up as a way to keep releasing new movies even as theaters hadn’t fully reopened. Warner Bros. is probably going to keep a tight lid on just how well the plan worked out, but it has said that it won’t keep releasing every theatrical movie on HBO Max going forward.Of the movies they released, I think I would have gone to theaters to see three of them (Suicide Squad, Dune, Matrix 4). Rest would have just waited until they hit streaming anyways. And of all of the movies I saw on HBO Max this year, only Dune was good. So WB can do whatever they want next year but it likely won’t change how often I go to the theaters to see their movies.
Of all their big releases, going back into last year (with stuff like Godzilla and WW84) Suicide Squad was the only one I actually liked. I’m finding Villeneuve’s extremely formal style to be borderline sterile these days, so Dune did nothing for me.
To each their own – I didn’t find SS that great personally. Much better than Ayer’s version but not close to what I was hoping for when I heard Gunn was in charge of it.
What’s odd is that might have been my lowkey favourite movie of the year but it did absolutely nothing for me upon second viewing.
It’s mostly shock value of first viewing.
I saw No Way Home and it was fantastic. The chemistry between all the Spider Men was great. Bringing back the villains was genius.
I did notice the double double entendre of putting Tobey’s back issues in the movie AND trying to throw a bone to the gay contingent with an out of place behind the back crack back scene. Really Marvel?
Disney is obviously going to have to be cool with taking the financial hit with overt homosexuality in largely family films and settle with subtle homosexuality if they want make money.
I’d have to wonder if WB losing a boatload on box office keeping their same day release on HBO Max was worth it for such a large slate of films. Did they really get enough subscriptions to make that worthwhile? Fairly early on in the pandemic they were coming to agreements with talent, financiers and distributors (after Legendary and others threatened to sue) by just dropping boatloads of cash on them to make them whole and rewriting contracts. Those contracts pretty much tied their hands so they couldn’t just say, hey, Marvel and the FF movies are making money so we’re going to switch to theatre only. Disney, for instance, could switch that stuff up much more easily because they self finance and distribute. The Batman trailer out today says theatres only, so it seems like they’re moving off that model to see if they can get a big slice of that superhero box office pie.
It was always to drive up HBOMax subs, and you’d figure they didn’t do enough because they’re cutting the same day releases next year. Also out of all the 2021 releases, in the end the largest opening was Dune at 40 million. It completely hacks off the legs of their box office which is why they’re shitcanning it for next year. Also the amount of cash they had to pay out to creatives (bonuses probably based upon them all being big hits) was probably not worth the headache to continue.
It’s hard to say outside of my own personal experience BUT I wouldn’t have gone to theaters for anything released on Max. *Maybe* Dune but I was hyped for that and Green Knight at around the same time and Green Knight disappointed the shit out of me. It legit scared me off of seeing anything theatrical for a while. COVID already had me skittish but even vaxxed I didn’t want to risk another disappointment like that.I then saw Ghostbusters Afterlife. Which I really enjoyed but ultimately kinda didn’t feel I *needed* to have seen. I kinda wish THAT had been on Max.You know what else? Fuck Mortal Kombat. Like…. fuck that garbage fire of nonsense sub-Neil-Breen dogshit. I watched that on Max and it went some distance to making me wonder if ANYTHING WB was putting out was worth a damn, regardless of format.Ugh. Just… UGH!
Wonder Woman 1984 is a goddamn masterpiece you shut your mouth!
That picture is exactly what it looks like 3-5 blocks around any con or fan expo.
Happy New Year everyone.The new Matrix was “not great”, like at all. Props to those that enjoyed it. The rest of us were bored, annoyed and rolling our eyes by the end.