Black Panther had the advantage of being introduced in (and being one of the highlights of) the third Captain America movie. He wasn’t nearly as untested as some people claimed.

I think it was mandated by Black Widow’s release, and trying to maximize theater time during the months when they expected the virus would be most under control, based on last year’s numbers and vaccine expectations. They just didn’t know a segment of the US population would work very hard to keep Covid alive and…

I think it goes beyond “bad marketing strategy” on Chapek’s part to professional incompetence. In his position, you don’t say anything but positive things about a tentpole movie pre-release, and you certainly don’t make news with something that sounds like hedging about the film’s prospects on the eve of its premiere.…

If I recall, he does not HAVE a heart condition, just the DNA to show that he will likely develop one.

That house has always been made of glass...

That’s what Feige’s saying. I don’t think there’s any racial animus to Chapek’s comment (and I don’t interpret Liu’s comment as attributing any to him). Pretty hard, however, not to see Chapek’s comment as minimizing the movie a bit and trying to cover his ass for the decision his company made, back when it looked…

Great call on Gattaca being the same kind of movie as Moon, movies that stand on the strength of a very focused sci-fi premise and powerful performances. I think part of the reason that it’s under appreciated is because at its core, the movie is a lot closer to a spy drama or really a heist film than it is to a…

I’m hoping this movie and the Eternals will aim our sights at the next fireworks factory, the way the stingers on Iron Man and Avengers had us looking forward to Avengers and Infinity War/Endgame, respectively. The big difference between Shang Chi and GotG is that in GotG, we knew it was likely the movie and…

It may be innocuously stated, but you’re deluding yourself if you think that it’s not a public no-confidence vote in the movie two weeks prior to release, which is what Liu was reacting to.

I would’ve loved to see him get a second “week” too, but given how he campaigned for the position, it’s a damn shame he couldn’t hit the ground running.

They said it before GotG when Thor and Captain America were announced, and they said it again after GotG when Ant Man was released. And those films did fine. And if this movie fails what with the pandemic and the studio sending signals of weakness with this “interesting experiment” talk, I’m sure the main lesson…

Liu only “started into” defending his movie, on which Chapek was trying to lower expectations in the earnings call with his discussion of “logistics of the release” that included shortening the pay window to half of Black Widow’s, an “experiment” that seems likely to hurt the film’s domestic earnings. He’s perfectly…

It’s Hollywood, so I’m sure they’re insured for that kind of thing, and with their bizarre accounting practices it somehow turns into a profit :)

This is the extremely under-discussed dynamic at play here. Everybody, including the AV Club, has acted as if every guest host was a real and equal candidate for the job, when that can’t actually have been the case. Most of these folks were famous fans of the show who scratched off a bucket list item by pretending to…

I’m so strongly trained to ignore all references to How I Met Your Mother that my eyes glided over this entry on the front page, and I honestly thought Caroline had taken the week off. It’s not like I hate the show or anything, but it’s definitely a cultural marker that I decided to skip back when it was popular, and…

You know, I don’t think that’s quite right. At least for me, over the last 18 months I’ve been like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk—I’m never not angry. I don’t need Sam Barsanti, or Twitter, or Sam Barsanti writing about Twitter to make me mad.

In First Avenger, Steve Rogers is a good inch or three shorter than her, and more slightly built, so it damn well better give her some lats and shoulders...

Sam writes “there is something to be said” and then fails to actually say much of anything (other than he’s only just now coming around to understanding the premise of What If?).

Keep trying to sell that. The things that convince me this isn’t just a bossy old lady situation are: 1) Ambrosia, who apparently knows this lady, the lady’s family, and her own neighborhood, and who actually had the interaction, thought it was racial. She’d know better than you or me. 2) As someone who’s experienced…

If you forbade recycled pitches, Hollywood would become the quietest town in America.