ThaOGDreamWeaver

To get butts on seats for a flick of this scale, you need: Wide-opening distribution: you have to convince distro networks that this flick is worth booking on a large number of screens Good audience word of mouth (positive reviews help, especially with a movie that's a relatively tough sell in Peoria like Dune, but audiences like what they like) Wide-scale promotion - TV, internet, press tours, partner events and promotions, to get this into the forefront of ticket-buyers' minds. In the right way, of course, so you need... The right promotion strategy - building up the talking points you want around the movie - managing audience expectations to give them enough to wanna see it, but not give the movie away. (eg: Jurassic Park and Avatar both teased everything apart from the biggest reveals in their campaigns. Those WOW moments then came through reviews and word-of-mouth. This year, the D&D flick went big on socials, word of mouth, well-targeted previews and playing up the fun aspect - even if I think they gave too much away.). In Flash's case... #1: Check. Industry types looked at the film, looked at the market, and even if cape flicks have been underperforming a bit lately, decided to take a big punt on it. But that'd have been decided months ago. Possibly years, given the delays. #2: ...ish. Reviews are "it's good, but", and... well, just read our colleagues' opinions above, and we're naturally more cape-friendly than the average population. Definitely a mixed bag. People wanna see Badass Grandad Keaton, and without spoilering, he ain't around quite enough to see it through to the end. #3: This was a problem. Sure, it's been all over TV and internet: per Deadline, Warners spent $31.7m on spots. But no interviews. No press tour. No late-night bits (Keaton is very good value for these... but was conveniently away filming Beetlejuice 2 at Pinewood. EDIT: I forgot - even if he'd been available, most late-night crews are shut down for the WGA writer's strike.) They practically had to roll Ezra into the premiere strapped to a trolley like Lecter. And no corporate partner wants to slap this guy on a lunchbox, have him buying their cars or Happy Meals, and that kind of secondary promo is a surprisingly strong way of doing things these days. #4: Nope. Strategy has been solidly focussed on saying "it's a quality movie" and stressing Ezra's performance, all of which makes you more conscious That Stuff is hanging awkwardly over it. They've also given away WAY too much: you can watch almost the entire movie online already from promo clips, and other than the first Keaton reveal, there's barely a WOW moment left to tease. So if I had to sum up the industry buzz, it's good, but not quite as good as it thinks it is... and not enough to forget its issues. That's not an easy thing to sell.

On a side note: the way these were presented - along with the whole harvester rescue sequence - made Leto a more convincing pilot and frontline leader than the Lynch version, and Paul a brighter, braver and more promising (if accident-prone) young buck. There's an XBox Flight Simulator tour with designer Patrice Vermette where you can get a closer look at the rig (though you may want to mute the other two talking heads, who are... deeply irritating.)

Just a thing: for once, Reddit has Won The Internet. In response to threats that subreddits would be closed down if they stopped posting monetisable content, several subs have obliged... ...as long as it's pictures of John Oliver being sexy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65949412 John has put his successful OnlyFans career on hold to grace them with this - and more, if you click through to the thread: ...and dear Goddess, the replies are worth the price of admission too.

...that is... a take for the ages. Knowing what I know now, there's just too many odd bits and jokes I'd just go yarghnonono at. (Same as any time I ever see Louis CK in a room with a woman, and/or a pot plant. #StopAspidistraAbuseNOW.) Music's easier to process out of context. I mean, the late great Tina Turner is known for Proud Mary, and because how much she OWNED THAT later on, just quietly erases the idea that Ike's name was first on the sleeve... and on the royalty cheques. BTW, it's possible people took your advice. Flash's four-day opening weekend wound up at $64m... $3m behind Black Adam. Not great.

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.* *Answer not valid in New Jersey, where what's blowing in the wind smells funny. --Y. Warner, The Wheel Of Morality

Douglas Adams on politics... "No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford. "It is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards?" "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?" See also:

The Barbusters - Light Of Day

Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff

Cherry Poppin' Daddies - Zoot Suit Riot

The Cooltrane Quartet - Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Industry news: while Flash is still stuck on a $70m opening weekend prediction - not great, not terrible, especially when there's been zero press tour or late-night appearances for any of the cast, and big-name corporate partners stayed well away from secondary promo (y'know: Happy Meals, Walmart merch, those cringey tie-in car ads - yeah, all trite stuff, but surprisingly effective at putting a flick into public awareness and butts on stalls)... ...it seems Gunn and Safran like Muschietti's work. So they've greenlit Batman: Brave And The Bold, based on Grant Morrison's run. This will be the official DCU Bat-starter, and Matt Reeves' work will be off in the Elseworlds.

Cavill's been getting the rough end of the stick lately. Leaves Witcher to do Supes again, but Black Adam doesn't do the business, and WB-D implode and reboot the universe without him... and Netflix recast with a spare Hemsworth for next season. Then the SOE film with Guy Ritchie ran into some issues, his disturbingly luxuriant facial hair surprisingly not one of them. And to add insult to injury, the buggers at 'Flix cut Season 3 in half. He maybe gets to play at being a Space Marine if Amazon and GW can pull off the WH40k series. Nevertheless. If you need a bit of smouldering, grunting, scowling and gratuitous muscle shots in your life, Geralt is back for a five-episode run, split into two volumes across the summer. Whether or not this is a handover arc where Geralt gets knocked off or retires to make little monsters with Yennifer, we won't know, but expect a mid-series cliffhanger or two.

Babylon 5, aka The Only Cool Thing Amigas Ever Did, is one of the very few richly woven sci-fi series where every character has their time and their meaning. And gets development, classy lines, ups and downs, moments of weakness and badassery, even jokes. (Well, except Kosh, but Vorlon humour's a little odd and has been known to kill the unwary). B5: The Road Home is a tie-in animated movie that lets John Sheridan (and writer Mike Straczynski) revisit every era of B5's existence, as well as quite a few alternate ones. A large chunk of the cast have returned - with the late lamented Mira Furlan, Andreas Katsulas, Tim Choate and Richard Biggs replaced by new voice actors.

Well, it'll be clipped all over YouTube in a couple of months as "reaction" or "Best Bit" videos, so I think I can wait for when it shows up on a streaming service. (Not sure who'll get that in the UK, though.) Industry-ish side notes for folks following the Little Mermaid thread... Flash has an RT Verified Audience score of 95%, and All Audience of 80%... with MetaCritic not yet user-rated. Flash's opening weekend is expected to top out at $85m. That's... average for a wide-release movie, only two thirds of Little Mermaid's numbers, and way behind the likes of GOTG3. Some estimates put it as low as $70m, which is only a little more than Black Adam. Yet somehow not the massive failure the Disney flick was imputed to be by a number of sites, YouTubers and beard-oil salesmen. Ya gotta wonder why...

I don't know how much of the improv that Williams (or Woods) did still exists, but with that much material you can pick and choose your takes. They pretty much are a walking writer's room. Similar deal/problem with Billy Crystal. His Princess Bride role as Miracle Max was supposed to be five minutes on-screen, give or take. But teamed with the wonderful Carol Kane (who's coming to Strange New Worlds for Season 2), that one scene took three days' worth of 13th-century standup gags to film. Cary Elwes had to be swapped out for a prop dummy because he couldn't control himself - which gives a whole new meaning to corpsing - and Patinkin had to take a day out from filming because he bruised a rib laughing. A lot of that B-roll still exists.

"What... are... THOSE?"

Lillias White, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan and Vaneese Thomas - Zero To Hero

Herc is one where the writing team were clearly on point. And the animators did the same thing from Aladdin where they watched his performance and then pretty much Rotoscoped him in, plus world events to match. Woods may have changed a little in the last 25-odd years. People do. This thread ain't about that. But there and then, he's charmingly channelling Billy Crystal's Evil Twin. And it works. It's also worth the watch for Danny DeVito as Herc's PT, Broadway and Cartoon Network regular Susan Egan as Hades' foil Meg, and full-on hot gospel showtunes. (No idea why on that last one, but it literally had people dancing in the aisles at the time. Whatever works.) If you'd prefer just to skip to Hades' bits...

It's an early alpha, but quite a lot of polish on it for that. I like that you can tell Obvious Dodgy Plot Arc Lady to go e'chu-ta herself right from the get-go (because AIAB). Though the WANTED full screen flash is a) annoying compared to the discreet Alert Status in the top bar, and b) an obvious GTA lift. Speaking of which, I would play the hell out of GTA: Mos Eisley.

The Grimms certainly lived up to their name - including one about a child so naughty that she made herself ill and died... ...but then wouldn't stay in her grave without the occasional smack. Come to think of it, that's one complaint I do have about both versions of Little Mermaid. Real heroes need proper villains, and Uncle Walt knew kids love having seven shades of sriracha scared out of them. Ursula's stylish, evil and manipulative but not genuinely frightening, where quite a few others have been. Maleficient, Hades, Mei's pandazilla mom... even Syndrome has his moments (and he's quite prepared to casually murder ranks of supers, whole families and risk civilian casualties.)

It certainly looks the business. Dialogue needs a little polish. Suspect the small McGuffin the monkey/cat thing is playing with is a lot more deadly than just a toy. Also - lovely tiny Easter Egg: they visual-checked both Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the gameplay intro, as it pulls down from the stars, then into a diamond that looks suspiciously like the Paramount logo.

John Williams & Boston Pops Orchestra - March From 1941 (...and farewell to Treat Williams) Treat Williams & Cast - I Got Life

Per Screen Rant and a few other sources, Sabine is a distant descendant of Tarre Vizsla, Mando Jedi, and inventor of everyone's favourite McGuffin, the Darksabre. There are also events that make some folk think she might have some very light Force sensitivity scattered throughout Rebels, such as her strong connection to Ezra and character shifts after Kanan's exit. YMMV. But that's no reason Filoni might not have read these theories, and gone hmmm... plus, plot-wise, you've noticed Sabine seems to be at a loose end. A battle-trained, slightly overzealous, force-sensitive kid hanging around when someone might be in need of a sidekick (whether they want one or not?) Wonder how that one's gonna go...

There's also the Ghost of Cap'n Neckbeard over in Port Oakes, and his fearsome Pedants Of The Caribbean. Men quake across the Seven Seas, at their battlecry of "...actually..." Thanks, I'd tried to scab over that particular bit in my memory. Not Lin's best work, I'm afraid, and should have ended up on the cutting room floor... ...dear goddess, I hope the kidlet doesn't start playing that one over and over in the car. I mean, I love a showtune, me, but some days I just wish they'd let it go, let it go... Yes, it's a bit on the nose, whether she trades her voice/soul/identity/self-esteem (delete as applicable) for a disturbingly average guy... or for acceptance into another world. I'll be teaching the kidlet not to do that, literally or metaphorically. That kinda thing rarely results in Happily Ever After. But do keep your True Friends around to bail you out when needed. True enough - or at least on its own. 1) When there's a movie I've never heard of that I decide to go see because of great word-of-mouth: and one way of getting that to my notice is an absurdly high RT score. Like Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which was Mel McCarthy's crack at an Oscar-bait flick - but absolutely worth the watch. 2) When there's a flick that I'm not sure if it's gonna be good, like the D&D movie. That wasn't just a critical hit (pun intended, if not good), real humans liked it too. I have a very limited amount of time for leisure these days that doesn't involve herding kidlets, so the Audience score punted me from "wait for streaming" to "popcorn time". ...which leads me on to... That's an odd one, and another reason not to believe some of the more negative reviewers. It ain't struggling, no way, nohow. US domestic open exceeded predictions by nearly 20% at $117.5m. Pretty darn good post-COVID, and the fifth largest Memorial Weekend open of all time. If it's been weak anywhere, it's the overseas $68m take - but had more competition around that time. (For comparison, the "movie that saved the movies" post-plague - Top Gun 2 - clocked $160m in the same time period. And on a side note, check out the top list: it's remarkable how many Memorial Weekend hits also suck quite badly.) So regardless of what narrative people wanted to spin, the money don't lie. Butts are on seats. Neither the 'vid nor the politics stopped the movie. The question is whether this movie has legs (EDIT: pun not intended, but better than the last one). The production budget was $250m - not eyewatering by modern standards, but the usual rule of thumb is they'd need 3x that to breakeven. $750m seems like a stretch. They might cheat like WB did and assign a massive fee for the D+ streaming rights, but investors notice stuff like that these days...

RT changed to a new system in May 2019, following some organised review bombing. Captain Marvel being a main target of The Neckbeard Menace, but there'd been a few others up to that point. So there are now two Audience Scores... All Audience Score - as reviewed by any registered user Verified Audience Score - you have to be able to prove you at least bought a ticket (if not saw the damn movie) before you talk about it. The default one you see on RT is the Verified score. If you click on the popcorn bucket it'll bring up a popup, where you can switch to the All Audience score. The difference is kinda striking. For Little Mermaid... All Audience: 57% / 3.1 out of 5🌟 Verified Audience: 94% / 4.7 out of 5🌟 Metacritic (for comparison): 21% / 2.2 out of 10 Mild Aquatic Spoilerage And Sidetracking Commentary: Is this system perfect? Probably not. From the point of view of someone who used to run messageboards, and now works in an industry that takes negative comments very seriously: PROS: You'd be amazed how fast people moderate their opinions when they realise the Internet is the least anonymous place you can be, especially when faced with an angry site Admin/BOFH (cue demonic laughter). But it takes that nudge to connect your online personality to your real one. It does limit the conversation to people who've seen the movie, rather than reposting prefab opinions based on YouTube vids, talking heads on cable news, the peer consensus from dank Subreddits (which tends towards negativity for Fake Internet Cool Points) or scripts they got from a political/religious/special interest group/death cult mailing lists. Yes, people do that last one, and my work has been on the receiving end of it lately. It ain't fun. It helps RT manage the volume of spam comments and flame wars. It stops RT becoming a "problem" for Whollyodd execs, which... well, doesn't end well in some cases. CONS: It's US-only, and limited to large ticket providers like Fandango. There's a certain bias in that - unless you absolutely loathe the movie - you don't wanna admit you paid money for a dud. It does limit protest on certain subjects, especially when you don't wanna put money into the hands of the folks you're protesting about. All that considered, I'd give that... a solid B / 3.5 out of 5. It's an improvement on what they had before. Needs some work. What do you lot think?