In the COVID and post-COVID era I don't think we will ever see any movie reach those kind of box office numbers ever again. The streaming release of new movies is not going to go away even when everyone is comfortable returning to theatres, which will limit numbers, and a number of theatres have closed as chains reduced the number of theatres they run, which means there are far fewer screens to show new releases on than the pre-COVID era, which will also limit box office revenue. And some people will just not go back to theatres as the experience was borderline not worth the expense and dealing with the distractions of people on phones, talking, etc. and now that they have an alternative won't be willing to pay the high ticket prices for those experiences. Improvements in home theatre reduce the advantages the theatre experience had anyways, and now that streaming release has been normalized, a portion of the audience has been lost forever no matter if COVID is in the equation of not. There will eventually be a butterfly effect on the budgets for new productions as the industry corrects to the new market reality as well, but I am pretty sure the days of billion dollar box office blockbusters is in the rear view no matter what the quality of the actual movie itself is.


-M

OK, seems like a few people just can't play nice, so I'm locking the thread.

they finally released a trailer that isn't just people standing around. (something they should have done a month + back)

so I'm starting to hear *some* excitement over this film.

guess we'll see how it does.

I've seen mixed reviews. The Nerdist loved it. The only one here calling it the worst Marvel movie ever is the New Your Post, but they, as press organization somehow manage to be right less often than a broken clock, so I take everything they print with a grain of salt. I don't even trust them to report sports scores accurately because they've gotten those wrong before too. But as with every movie, I will see it and make up my own mind, because lots of reviewers have made up their mind before the see the picture and aren't expressing their opinions about the actual movie, but what they thought of the project from the pre-press and previews and have already voiced because they are incapable of admitting their opinions could be worng or change so once they commit themselves to a position, they stick with it no matter what and more often than not they commit to positions they think will get them the most clicks or ratings rather than anything having to do with the actual quality of the project involved. In the case of The Eternals, the popular position pre-release was it would be terrible, so all the reviewers who committed to that position during the run up to the movie will stick with it no matter how good or bad the actual movie is. That's the nature of pop culture criticism these days.

-M

it's getting pretty mixed reviews (here's a nice summary of some of em)

ew.com/movies/eternals-review-roundup-marvel-chloe-zhao/


but it IS getting praised for some of the groundbreaking it's doing. (gay couple, deaf actor, Asian Female director). . so I do hope it does well. . since if/when it doesn't? the executives will blame these things it's getting praise for.

variety.com/2021/film/news/marvel-eternals-gay-superhero-phastos-brian-tyree-henry-haaz-sleiman-1235097257/

I saw the film. Before heading in I had let myself get a bit concerned regarding the Rotten Tomatoes score. Apparently this film is pretty divisive, and I feared that even with Chloe Zhao at the helm it was going to potentially be pretty bad. After my first viewing though I can say I don't understand at all the score that it's received this far from the critics community on that site, and I should have never let the chatter get to my head. I really liked this film. I kept waiting for the hammer to come down, and for it to all fall apart, but that never happened. Afterwards I checked Reddit to get a bigger consensus of what the feeling is for it, and most people also don't understand the low critic score in addition to being fairly entertained. I can understand a few of the knocks on it in regards to pacing, but that was about it (and really only in the beginning to me). I was really impressed with the visuals, character depth of a large cast, acting, and invested in the narrative at 2 1/2 hours without ever having to think of the time remaining. There definitely is an emphasis on story more than usual at the sacrifice of a little bit of action sequences in addition to more conversation/exposition, but it didn't bother me since I cared about what was happening on the screen regardless. As much as I liked Shang Chi, I'd probably put this one above it, and it runs circles around Black Widow definitely. There are two post credit scenes and the second one got me super excited as it was actually something I wanted to see. If I wasn't so busy I'd go see this one again for sure. The cool thing about this one that it was a Marvel movie, but at the same time it wasn't. Eternals feels a bit off compared to other MCU movies not in that it's the most unique story ever, but more so how it's approached. Anyway, go see it.