That was my guess too. It’s too late to add a major villain character to Brave New World, so it’s unlikely they added Esposito to significantly contribute to that movie.  And the major thing that’s changed since Brave New World was last filming before is Marvel now has a much better idea what Fantastic Four is going…

I’m just going to note that Moana putting a huge, awkwardly-shaped shell on top the stacked rocks of her ancestors totally ruins that tradition for anyone else.

It’s those kind of dumb marketing errors that leave a movie only making $219,000,000, and not a more respectable $219,000,010.

Particularly if the lineup was standing in profile.

Obviously it’s tough to tell, and it doesn’t have to be one factor. I think it’s a safe assumption in a female-skewing romantic comedy that the presence of a guy who looks like Powell is a significant draw.

Anyone But You made $219 million, despite mediocre reviews and almost nothing that distinguished it from other romantic comedies. The thing it had is Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

I don’t see how your line between “success” and “profit” could possibly work.  Profit is the way a business considers something a “success.”  

I wish you were right. But I think the reason that Hollywood’s become so reliant on IP is because good yarns don’t sell tickets anymore, and didn’t even before the pandemic. A good story will be just as good when you watch it on your couch in a few months.

I tend to be skeptical of the “focus on telling good stories” argument. Telling Hollywood it’ll make more money if it makes better movies is a little like telling a baseball team it’ll win more games if it hits more homeruns — both true and not really a meaningful suggestion. If Hollywood could flip a switch and make…

The typical rule of thumb is that a movie’s global revenue has to double the production budget. That would mean that movie has to make about $29 million more.  It hasn’t rolled out yet in Japan, France and Australia, and it gets two more weekends in the U.S. with the kid market all to itself.  I don’t think anyone’s…

Even Waters’ bigger, more “mainstream” (for Waters) movies like Cry-Baby and Hairspray made significantly less than $10 million. That makes a $5 million budget hard to justify. I could see a streamer going for it a few years ago, in the era when they were desperate for content from famous directors. 

If you can only see two Francis Ford Coppola movies, see Jack twice.

We as an audience are lucky that acting seems to be a career people can often do well into their later life. Dench has been acting for nearly a quarter-century past normal retirement age, and was over 60 when she first appeared as M.

This is amazing. I would have thought the question of, “When did you learn John Waters was gay,” was sort of like asking when one learned that Herzog is German. The discovery happens at the exact moment you become aware of the person’s existence.

This movie sounds amazingly strange.

So, which of the Godfather movies does the author not think is “often considered among the greatest of all time?” Since my bet is Apocalypse Now is one of the two he was thinking of.

“Oh what a day, what a lovely Monday!”

Garfield had a $60 million budget. So its domestic haul this weekend puts it in good shape for being a success, especially since it was released early internationally and has made $91 million total.

Last year, it was Barbenheimer. The year before, it was Top Gun: Maverick. And I’m sure this summer will see a big breakout hit or two. But for movie theaters, it matters less whether the public can be convinced to see movies they’re really, really excited about (they can) and more whether people see moviegoing as…

Nikki Minaj is really in Dutch now.