Monday Movie Roundup...8/19/2013

Kick-Ass 2 was the top money-maker this weekend, making almost $20 million worldwide. That puts it at only about $8 million shy of breaking even, which it should meet by next Monday.

The Wolverine stayed in the top 10, bringing in another $4.4 million in the States...which means that domestically the film has met its $120 million production costs. Adding in the Foreign totals, The Wolverine broke $335 million. Not too shabby...

As for The Lone Ranger, its Domestic total is only $87.7 million to date. Fortunately, when you add in the Foreign market the film (finally) made more than it cost, with $217 million in the bank.

R.I.P.D., on the other hand, has yet to meet its $130 million budget, with only $59.1 million worldwide to date.

2 Guns has been out for three weeks now, and without any Foreign releases has made over $59 million, respectably closing in on its $61 million price tag.

Pacific Rim's Foreign totals far outperform its Domestic numbers roughly 3 to 1, with $384 million all told.

and finally, Red 2 made back its money with $102.4 million worldwide after five weeks.

Not a bad month so far for comic films...

...now I'm gonna try to get back to sleep.

Monday Movie Roundup...7/15/2013

I think one of the biggest stories from the weekend is that Pacific Rim did well, just not as well as Grown Ups 2...

...but only in this country, where GU2 made an estimated $42.5 million in the U.S. vs. PR's estimated $38.3.

Internationally, however, things turned out quite differently:

Grown Ups 2 only made roughly $1.7 million in the foreign market.
Pacific Rim made about $53 million.

So from a worldwide perspective PR made around $91.3 million, compared to GR2's $44.2.

I'm not sure what that means, but I'll tell you two things -
* Mrs. Adorkification wants to see Pacific Rim...in the theater.
* There's going to be a lot more PR cosplayers than GU2 cosplayers in the near future.

Man of Steel is still in the top 10 (at #10...but that's beside the point).

Iron Man 3 (which came out the first weekend in May) is still in the top 25.

As for The Lone Ranger...

...it remains in the top 5 after two weekends, but has yet to break even on its $215 million budget. Even internationally, which is at just over $119.1 million as of today. I have no idea what Hollywood (or Hollywood reporters for that matter) define as a flop or bomb, but if TLR doesn't make its money back soon it  could very well be one...if it isn't already.

And finally, it looks like FOX isn't going to give up the X-Franchise anytime soon, as they're in talks of making as X-Force spin-off of X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Now, I don't know if they're going with this...

...or this...

...or this...

...or this...

...or even this...

...but all I want is continuity. Which is basically all I ever wanted in my comics...and comic movies...

The best thing about the Super Bowl...Part Two

I've talked before about the upcoming Lone Ranger film. It looks pretty good. Westerns are due for a cinematic comeback, and I'm all for Lone Ranger, Jonah Hex (done right) and Two-Gun Kid -type franchises.

Here's the new trailer from the Super Bowl. Watch it and answer me the following question:

Two gripes about two upcoming films...

It's late for me to blog, and I'm sorry - it's the first time I've had the computer all day.

So let's get into it...

The first deals with the latest image from Man of Steel:

People think that the Army is coming for him...and they're probably right. But I'd like to think that they're there to back him up...during Kal-El's final confrontation with Zod.

The other has to do with The Lone Ranger:

I don't have a problem with Johnny Depp getting top billing, or that he's playing Tonto instead of...you know...The Lone Ranger.

My problem is - why doesn't anyone have a problem with this?

Remember Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon?

It was a hugely popular show that had fans all over the world. It ran three full seasons of awesome.

It was so popular that there was a feature-length live-action film made...

...that tanked at the box office.

Sure, the acting was bad and the story was watered down and rushed. But other bad films like that have been made and got not just one sequel, but two...

So why Last Airbender?

Because very early on in the casting stages there was controversy over using - wait for it - Caucasian actors to play ethnic roles.

There was talk of boycotting the film for crying out loud.

Roles were re-cast, and changes were made to the script, but the damage was done. Instead of an awesome first film of a planned trilogy, fans (including me) got crap.

Never mind the fact that thanks to James Cameron they couldn't even use the f**kin' title to the thing...

So here we have Johnny Depp - a great actor with a tremendous career - in a role that really should be played by a Native American...and no one is making a stink about it.

I hope both films do well enough to warrant sequels...and universes come to think of it - wouldn't a reboot of Green Hornet be an awesome follow up?