Archive Page 2168

June 2023

Digital comic platform GlobalComix raises $6.5 million in funding – Comicsbeat

While Amazon may have absorbed Comixology, based on our conversations with industry folks, there’s a real need for a dedicated platform/app built for the special needs of comics and graphic novels."

A summer of box office bombs means it's up to Tom Cruise to save the day with Mission Impossible – NY Post

Article says Disney is looking at a long list of bombs and the new Indiana Jones picture is about to be added to the list and the "Disney execs staring at these numbers probably look like the guy in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when his face melts off..."

The only bright spot so far this summer has been Sony’s animated “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” with $560 million worldwide.

Article goes on to say that Tom Cruise is realizing he is "the only reliably bankable movie star left. You see, what 60-year-old Cruise has managed in this phase of his career, quite brilliantly, is to become synonymous with Entertainment. Not prestige, not awards, not sexiness nor hilarity..."

Tom Cruise has been in bombs (remember The Mummy remake?) and he's got his share of controversy. But if the writer of the NY Post's article (Johnny Oleksenski) really just means Cruise gets the product made and out the door without alienating potential audience before it even hits theatres, he's right. So many films now have some kind of personality scandal or political baggage dogging it before its title is in lights on the marquee. That's just not a sustainable business model with a mass audience. It probably works fine for the theatre district of New York City, but it isn't going to fly with the diversity that's across America (and the world, for that matter).

Hollywood plays an important role in pop culture and because of its dominance its been able to have an almost protected position as an industry, but apparently what it needs is a strong competitor. The real danger for Hollywood is that something like the foreign competition of Manga rolling in (and over) the native industry could happen to them, too.

The Flash is speeding to a "disastrous $300 million world wide total" as ticket sales continue plunge – Forbes

I asked some comic book friends this past weekend if they'd see The Flash yet, they said no. I asked why, they said "Ezra Miller."

Instead of making profits, The Flash is probably going to cost Warners $200 million – Superherohype but Bounding into Comics says it'll be $150 million

James Gunn: superhero movies are lazy!

Story at Entertainment Weekly

Gunn's remarks led to many copycat articles around the internet, but his basic comments are:

People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories," he revealed. "And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special?"

Comic book page leads to protests in Indonesia

Story at Malay Mail [Google Map]

Dozens of Indonesians gathered outside the Malaysian embassy here today to protest the sale and print of a comic book where in one of its pages it denigrates an Indonesian maid working in Malaysia.

Ten awful superhero movies that are worse than The Flash but made more money!

Story at Screenrant

They talk about the 2011 Green Lantern, 1997 Batman and Robin, Spider-Man III, etc.

All the Stan Lee cameos – NY Times

Some Box Office June 26, 2023

• $826,062,035 Worldwide - Guardians of the Galaxy III
• $696,456,488 Worldwide - Fast X
• $560,251,000 Worldwide - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
• $499,341,764 Worldwide - Little Mermaid
• $341,248,000 Worldwide - Transformers Rise of the Beasts
• $210,944,000 Worldwide - The Flash
• $121,114,915 Worldwide - Elemental
• $16,694,000 Worldwide - Asteroid City

Recently finished in theatres:

• $2,320,250,281 Worldwide - Avatar: The Way of Water
• $1,307,168,400 Worldwide - The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• $463,616,575 Worldwide - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
• $427,259,159 Worldwide - John Wick: Chapter 4
• $207,954,502 Worldwide - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
• $133,438,006 Worldwide - Shazam! Fury of the Gods
• $25,326,625 Worldwide - Renfield

Spiderverse II leads for weekend box office, The Flash continues to tank – Hollywood Reporter

The news for DC and Warner Bros.’ big-budget superhero pic The Flash — which opened last weekend opposite Elemental to a sobering $55.1 million — grew worse as it fell off 72 percent to $15.3 million for a domestic cume of $87.6 million. Unlike Elemental, The Flash received poor exit scores. (The studio had hoped for a decline of 55 percent.) Insiders concede the film is a huge miss and is being totally rejected by audiences...

How is Hollywood generally understanding why The Flash has repelled mass audiences? They put it upon Ezra Miller "who is facing legal issues" as the Hollywood Reporter politely puts it.

The Flash is flawed and shows that its been cut, recut and patched together. It contains good things and the audience that is interested in this sort of film walks out pleased with it, this estimate based upon my having seen it twice now with theater capacity at about 80% on opening day, and 50-60% the second weekend.

More about The tanking of The Flash and What's it mean?

Asteroid City beats Transformers at the box office – Collider

Review: Asteroid City

Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, and, well, a lot of Hollywood firepower is on the screen for this bemused take on an American "Junior Stargazer Convention." The story is patched through a 1950s black and white TV Studio broadcasting a full Wes Anderson colored widescreen story. By the way, did you ever see the old, classic era horror film Dr. Cyclops? Albert Dekker in thick glasses torments a group of people he reduces to doll size via radium and they want to, understandably, escape. Asteroid City is along these lines, though the people are in 21st style existential American torment i.e., tragically bemused.

More Review of Asteroid City

Warner Bros needs cash and is looking for a buyer for music rights for Batman 1989, Purple Rain, others – Forbes

Golden Age Charles Quinlan Cat-Man Comics at Auction

Story at Bleeding Cool

The auction page at Heritage Auctions

"From The Flash to Secret Invasion, the Superhero Genre Is Having an Existential Crisis" – Escapist Magazine

The article by Darren Moony is a sober assessment of the dilemma of flopping superhero movies of late .... What if superhero movies go away?

More Superhero Movies on the Ropes

Frank Frazetta's Dark Kingdom sold for $6 million at auction – Heritage Auctions

Original page Febraury 14, 2023