The next two weeks will decide the fate of the Justice League movie. It'll open in Japan and Pakistan later this week and debuts in Lebanon on the 30th. The film should be over/under $325 million worldwide as of yesterday, with a solid $10.55m Tuesday in North America for a new $111.9m five-day cume. At least it has already passed Green Lantern and Catwoman.
It’ll be the next two weeks, specifically the Thanksgiving holiday in North America and the general worldwide legs overseas that will determine whether the film will be a disappointment or an outright money loser. The good news is that it has earned double the domestic take overseas, meaning that it may well earn triple its domestic gross worldwide. And yes, that’s good news, because we could have easily seen a situation where the film opened small and had an overseas split closer to Wonder Woman (50/50) than Batman v Superman (33/67).
I’ll go into this next week once we get more info, but Justice League may be yet another example of why/how domestic box office is still so damn important even to global-targeted would-be blockbusters. So what kind of grand total are we looking at here? Well, let’s play around with the calculator for a moment…
Come what may, if the film plays like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 in terms of legs and domestic/overseas splits, then we’re looking at a $195 million domestic (that’s bad) and a $585m worldwide cume (also very bad, or less than Transformers: The Last Knight or even It). Conversely, if it plays like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I (a 2.35x multiplier), then we’re looking at a $220m domestic total, which is still lower than Logan or Fate of the Furious. Of course, Fate of the Furious made $1 billion overseas, but that’s not happening here.
Removing Wonder Woman from the equation, a 2.22x multiplier — average for the DCEU — gets the film to $210 million, while a multiplier closer to Suicide Squad (2.44x) gets it to $230m and a run closer to the Hunger Games sequels and the first Twilight gets it to around $255m. The hope-against-hope scenario is where Justice League earns decent word of mouth and plays like a well-liked general audiences family fantasy, like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (3.1x) or even Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2.9x) or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2.85x).
Legs like that, which will take JL anywhere from $267 million to $292m domestic. That still won’t qualify as a success, but it will argue that general audiences liked what they saw and that positioning Justice League as a season premiere (as opposed to a season finale) may pay off down the line. Apples and oranges perhaps, but Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins was not the biggest hit in the world back in 2005, earning $205m (from a $72m Wed-Sun debut) and $371m worldwide. But folks liked it, the critics liked it, and the payoff was the game-changing $1 billion+ gross of The Dark Knight.
But put that comparison aside for a moment. The other big factor is how well it plays overseas over the next two-to-three weeks. If we’re looking at a 2/1 split, then a Deathly Hallows part I run gets it to $665 million worldwide while a run like the Hunger Games sequels, the first Twilight and the earlier Harry Potter movies means a $750m-$775m global cume. The alleged word is that $700m is the break-even point, so while the movie won’t be incredibly popular, it might sneak into the black by the edge of its teeth, especially if we do get some kind of “alternate cut” on post-theatrical release.
Obviously, there are rosier scenarios, like Justice League indeed playing like Fantastic Beasts in more ways than one. That film earned a mediocre $234 million domestic but powered it overseas for an $814m global cume. And as awful as that $94m debut was, I will argue that a leggier Justice League that gets to $800m+ worldwide is a pretty okay result. If we look at Justice League not as a culmination movie but as a soft reboot/introductory title, the question becomes whether audiences like what they had to see, specifically in terms of the characters.
If they like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman (that franchise is already gold regardless), Jason Momoa’s Aquaman (I believe in James Wan) and/or Ezra Miller’s Flash, that’s a good sign for the long haul considering the next batch of likely DC movies. And yeah, while we may not need and may not get a Man of Steel 2, there is a case to be made for tossing Henry Cavill’s “good-hearted schmuck” Superman into a later DC Films offering as an added value element, just as Marvel has done with their third shot at making Bruce Banner cool. Ditto with Ray Fisher’s Cyborg (Fisher is fine in an understated turn and more Joe Morton is always a net-plus).
In a skewed way, Justice League has found itself in a position similar to Power Rangers and Ghostbusters. Power Rangers was far better than it had any right to be, operating as a kind of sleek, low-fi, character-driven origin story that felt like a cross between Chronicle and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. But it earned just $140 million global on a $100m budget. Ditto Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters, which offered Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon as crowd-pleasing new Ghostbusters but earned $128m domestic but just $228m worldwide on a $144m budget. Thus, both would-be franchise starters got stalled on the first try.
In both cases, the first films nailed the main characters just right but didn’t quite create a compelling story around them. And in both cases the films A) lost money, B) earned mixed or mixed-negative reviews and C) didn’t display the kind of legs that would argue for a continuation or any potential for “break out sequel” status the next go-around. But just because Justice League is probably dead doesn’t mean that DC Comics movies are toast. Wonder Woman is now WB’s most important franchise, while I would be shocked if James Wan’s Aquaman isn't at least a crowd-pleasing, meat-and-potatoes entertainment. You don’t need a cinematic universe to have DC Comics movies.
I’ve said over the last few years that Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. is more than just Batman and Harry Potter. There is zero reason why WB can’t thrive on a stand-alone Wonder Woman series and periodic DC Comics adaptations like Flashpoint, Aquaman or Matt Reeves’ Batman movie, which will be slated alongside the LEGO films, the JK Rowling stuff, the Conjuring Universe stuff and the New Line Cinema studio programmers among other bigger and smaller movies. Heck, if Tomb Raider, Rampage, Ready Player One or The Meg hit it big next year, WB may finally be confident enough to end the DC Films cinematic universe in favor of merely making movies that are based on DC comic books.
If you want to sample almost every of the main genres of gaming, hoo boy are you in for a treat. Now that we're being drowned in Black Friday gaming deals, Currys is currently offering a bundle that not only provides you with the ramped up Xbox One S but also throws in a RPG with enough story for the most discerning of authors, the most shooty of FPSs, a sandbox game brimming with potential, a racing game, and a FPS RPG with killer online multiplayer. The only catch is you'll have to order online and then go pick it up in store. But for a deal this great, we're sure you can make an exception.
If Minecraft isn’t your cup of tea (Creepers aren’t for everyone, we guess), you can also buy the an identical bundle that just replaces Minecraft with Forza Horizon 3 and the Hot Wheels pack for £210 from Currys. Then you can race to your heart’s content and relive that magical childhood nostalgia that comes from making tiny plastic cars zoom along metres of bright orange plastic. If neither of these are quite what you're looking for, head over to our best Black Friday Xbox One deals to see what else is on offer.
UPDATE, midday Friday: Disney/Pixar’s Cocois looking at an opening day of $12.5 million (including last night’s $2.3M) as of this point per industry estimates, which is $2.6M less than what Moana chalked up a year ago. Right now, because it’s so early, both Coco and Warner Bros’ Justice Leagueare in a battle for No. 1 overall at the domestic box office with an estimated $47M three-day and $68M five-day each. As we move along this week, it should settle down and separate the two.
Coco will beat Justice League today with the latter Zack Snyder movie making an estimated $10.5M, down 1% versus yesterday. If its projections hold, the DC superhero team-up will touch just under $180M. While we’ve been complaining about the film’s lackluster performance in regards to the DC franchise, exhibitors could care less about that: They’re rolling in concession cash, and the marketplace in the past three weeks has been a boom versus last summer’s doldrums.
Lionsgate’s Wonderis looking at $6M today, up 7% from Tuesday, with a current three-day outlook of $26.5M and five-day of $37.5M, heading toward $74.6M. The Stephen Chbosky-directed film will easily be Lionsgate’s best of 2017, topping John Wick: Chapter Two‘s $92M. On a three-day basis, Wonder is expected to ease 4% right now. Wow.
Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok is looking at a $4M Wednesday, a three-day of $17.8M and five-day of $25M — still money out of Justice League‘s pocket. Running cume by Sunday looks to be $278.2M.
Other holders are as follows:
Murder on the Orient Express (Fox) $2.6M Wed, 3-day $13.5M and 5-day $19M, running cume by Sunday of $74.6M.
Daddy’s Home 2(Par) $2.5M Wed, 3-day $13.5M and 5-day of $18M, running come by Sunday of $72M.
Twentieth Century Fox
Expanding titles:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (FSL), 590 runs. $800,000 Wed, 3-day of $4.5M, 5-day of $6.2M. Total by Sunday of $7.96M.
Roman J. Israel, Esq (Sony), 1,648 runs. Looks like $800K today (including $175K from Tuesday night) for 3-day of $4.1M and 5-day of $5.7M. Total by Sunday of $5.8M.
Lady Bird (A24), 741 runs. $600K Wed, 3-day $3.4M and 5-day of $4.6M, Total by Sunday of $9.9M.
PREVIOUSLY, 8:26 AM: Disney/Pixar’s Cocobegan its Thanksgiving march on the box office last night with $2.3 million, with an eye on making $60M or more over the next five days.
Coco opens at a sensitive time for Disney. Just yesterday, Pixar boss John Lasseter said he was taking a six-month sabbatical amid allegations of inappropriate behavior. Still, that Hollywood insider scandal isn’t expected to rock Coco‘s prospects in the rest of the U.S. and Canada.
Coco‘s preview is just $300,ooo shy of Moana‘s $2.6M Tuesday preview a year ago. That pic racked up $15.5M on its first day. Coco is also far ahead of The Good Dinosaur, considered a bomb for Pixar with $1.3M previews ($9.76M Wednesday). Coco is also ahead of Disney’s uber hit Frozen, which made $1.2M on its first Tuesday ($15.1M Wednesday) during Thanksgiving week.
Coco in its Dia de los muertos story doesn’t have the Disney princess factor Moana possessed, which pushed down on Coco‘s projections prior to opening. But the film has a 95% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which could push its tickets sales higher; it’s just one point below Moana‘s RT rating. Moana grossed $56.6M in its first three days and $82M over five, making it the second-best Thanksgiving stretch debut after Frozen‘s $93.6M. Coco carries a reported production cost in the Pixar range which is typically between $175M-$200M before P&A, however, those in the animation world believe it’s much higher north of $225M.
The night before Thanksgiving is a notable one at the B.O. and Black Friday is even bigger. Today there are 74% kids off from K-12 and another 59% of colleges. That number moves up to 100% over the next two days.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros/DC’s Justice Leagueled all films in regular release with a big Tuesday of $10.6M, up 41% over Monday, for a running cume of $111.9M. The Zack Snyder-directed movie is expected to take in a gross similar to Coco‘s with $60M over the next five days. While critics have strangled Justice League with a 41% Rotten Tomatoes score, audiences are enjoying it with final PostTrak showing a 4-out-of-5-star response with males at 62% enjoying the movie with an 80% overall positive, and females at 38% giving it an 85% grade. Warners is hoping that more of those older female Wonder Woman fans come out, just like they did for her June solo outing: Females over 25 are giving Justice League its best grades at 90%, but they’re still in the minority among the pic’s headcount repping only 18% of the audience. Leading the charge are males under 35 (32%, 78% positive), males over 25 (30%, 81% positive), and women under 25 (20% at 81% positive). Justice League overall has a 65% definite recommend.
Lionsgate
Lionsgate’sWonderchalked up an estimated $5.6M yesterday, up 43% over Monday, for a five-day total of $37.1M. Many expect the Julia Roberts-Owen Wilson movie to be north of $64M by Sunday in its running domestic total.
Sony’s Roman J. Israel, Esq.expands from four to 1,648 today. Bleecker Street has the period piece The Man Who Invented Christmasin 500 houses, while Focus Features will open its Gary Oldman-as-Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour in four New York and Los Angeles theaters.Ditto on that count for Sony Pictures Classics’ Spirit Award-nom leading pic Call Me By Your Name.
Batman has some cool vehicles in Justice League and while the Batmobile and the Flying Fox get some much-deserved screen time in the film, the Dark Knight could have had an awesome motorcycle, too.
Justice League production designer Patrick Tatopoulos shared a few sketches on his personal Instagram earlier today of a concept he had for a Batbike. You can check out the post below.
The idea of Batman having an elaborate and unique-looking bike isn't new. In 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, Batman had an epic if not unusual motorcycle that the rider practically had to lay on in order to and operated on two, very wide tires. It also had some pretty cool tricks, but it lacked an overall “Batman” look to it.
Tatopoulos's design remedies that by giving the motorcycle a distinctive and angular feel with lots of references to the shape of bat wings. The top sketch even has a seat that looks strikingly like the bat symbol or a batarang, and while the sketches don't show wheels, the whole vehicle appears to have smaller profile which would give it dexterity for whatever chase Batman is on. It looks like there's plenty of places for neat tools and weapons to be tucked away. It also looks like it would fit in nicely on the Flying Fox which itself is a unique vehicle. Tatopoulos recently shared concept art for the plane with the LA Times, revealing that some simple changes to the aircraft's design had given it a look closer to that of Batman's Batmobile, specifically by moving the placement of the cockpit.
“That little movement made it special,” Tatopoulos said. “It started to make it more like the Batmobile.”
However, it doesn’t appear that this Batbike is going to be parked next the Batmobile or part of the DC Extended Universe Bat fleet anytime soon. Tatopoulos's caption on the photo made it sound like this sleek take on Batman's bike will remain something from the designer's dreams.
“Another quick doodle on the side of my dreams,” Tatopoulos wrote.
Fans can check out the designer's other Batman vehicle designs, including the unique Flying Fox, in Justice League in theaters now.
Superman's mythology is a living document, an ever-changing tapestry in which Justice League is just the most recent thread. It does, however, give a generation of comic book fans a perspective on “their” Superman which has not really been explored before on the big screen.
Grant Morrison, generally accepted as one of the great Superman writers of the last 20 years, was asked at the time about changes to Superman's mythology in Man of Steel and to Iron Man's significant changes in the franchise's third film. His response was worth considering:
“In Australia, Aboriginal artists, every generation goes in and repaints the cave paintings. And they all tell the same stories over generations. And that's what we do. The human species tells the same stories over and over again. Stories of heroes and villains. And I think we have to update them for each new generation,” said Morrison. “Any fans who cling on to maybe a version of something they read when they were children are really just hanging on to a past. The world's moved on. There's new children. They want their version of it. So I think it's very important to freshen these things up and to update them and to move them forward and to look at them in the context of all the things we're interested in now.”
For a generation born in the '80s, our “version” of Superman, the one that most of us connect with and the character we think of when someone says “Superman,” had been gone since around 1999 or so, his history and attitude quietly changed until he was nearly-unrecognizable in some respects, in order to appeal to a different demographic. The version that replaced him vanished in 2011 when they rebooted the whole publishing line. Our version, in turn, sprang to life in 1986 after the previous one was deemed too quaint for his own good — and while the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman informed the 2000-2011 more significantly than the 1986-1999 version, those influences did not completely disappear when a recognizably '90s-inspired Superman returned to the comics in 2015's Superman: Lois and Clark.
The process is cyclical, and it has been for years. Before we had giant, continuity-altering, time-travel stories to “force” the change, we had the simple act of a writer consciously changing the depiction of a character to better reflect the times. Superman, when introduced, wasn't “The Man of Steel,” “The Man of Tomorrow” or “The Last Son of Krypton” but the “Champion of the Oppressed.” He fought fat-cat bankers who gamed the system and screwed the little guy but years later he was busting commies just like any other American pop-culture hero. In the '70s, his book became increasingly science fiction-oriented, which continued until the '80s when they officially hit the “reset” button the first time.
There is, as longtime Superman: The Man of Steel artist Jon Bogdanove recently recounted to us, a disagreement even among the professionals who make Superman comics about just how he should be handled. Is he an alien who feels out of place? Is he a god merely masquerading as a man? Is he a farm boy ill-at-ease with the expectations placed on his shoulders? Is he the all-American kid? A little of everything?
For creators like Bogdanove, and current Action Comics writer Dan Jurgens, Superman is Clark first. This is one of the things that the film universe largely seems to understand (even if it not always executed perfectly): the appeal of exploring who Superman is and why he does what he does.
In the past, films have seen him as a generally good guy and was raised right, with not much needed beyond that. Still, exploring Clark before he was Superman has some value, for a reason made explicit in both the Superman comics of the post-Crisis era and the Justice League movie:
In Justice League, when pressed by Alfred as to why it was so important to resurrect Superman, Batman gives a variety of answers that fail to pass muster with his father figure. One of them, finally, connects. The answer?
“He's more human than I am,” Batman says. “He lived in this world, fell in love, had a job, despite all that power.”
“The world needs Superman,” Bruce adds. “The team needs Clark.”
That fundamental part of most modern interpretations of Superman had never really made it to the big screen before Snyder: the idea that Batman is the real guy, and Bruce Wayne is the mask he wears in the daytime. Superman, meanwhile, is a costume that Clark Kent puts on.
Batman is driven by guilt and rage and his truest, most recognizable self is the one who dresses up in body armor and pummels people who remind him of the guy who killed his parents. He wears the costume to strike fear into the heart of criminals who are, by nature, “a superstitious and cowardly lot.”
Superman, on the other hand, just does what he does because it's the right thing to do, and he can.
Superman wears a costume to protect Clark Kent's loved ones, and to give himself a chance at a normal life in the off-hours. Clark is who he is, and Clark is a hero in his own right. He's an award-winning investigative journalist and when he's occasionally found himself without powers, that hasn't stopped him putting himself in harm's way for a story. Dressing as Superman, and NOT wearing a mask, is a calculated move. If he were wearing a mask, there would always be a question of who's under it, and so he would always be worried about protecting his identity. Not wearing one, and going out in public, gives people the impression that this is his life. The hope is that they assume when he's not Superman, he's off on another planet or in his Arctic Fortress or something. They don't think he's even got another life because, why would he?
(Seen in that light, incidentally, the idea that changing your hairstyle, posture and wearing glasses might ACTUALLY be a legitimate disguise for Clark, since nobody's looking for Superman to be anywhere else. I mean, we have no reason to assume that Donald Trump has a second life, either, so if you saw someone who looked a lot like him, would you accuse him of being President? Would people try to lobby him? Assassinate him? Probably not.)
And that's been the thing about the film adaptations up until now: “You will believe a man can fly” was the most important thing. Superman was always the most important thing. Clark was secondary–at best–and frankly it left the character a bit shallow and aloof. In the more modern setting of Snyder's films, it's about his struggles — because without Clark Kent, Superman is basically just a costume.
Lego Live NYC is bringing a massive, immersive three-day event to Manhattan in 2018, giving families and anyone Lego-obsessed a chance to really get their brick on.
The event will be held from Feb. 16 to 18 at the Basketball City facility on Pier 36 in lower Manhattan. It will be an “immersive experience” with Lego-themed zones, including Star Wars, Ninjago and Minecraft, to name a few, says Mark Guest, spokesman for Bricklive, a promotional network of Lego-focused events. In each of the areas inside the 65,000-square-foot facility, visitors will “experience hands-on building and get involved in the total creative experience, including live demonstrations,” he adds.
They will be presented by “Master Builders,” who come from all walks of life, including “wood carvers, furniture makers, engineers, you name it,” says Amanda Madore, senior manager for Brand Relations of the Lego Group.
Although anyone could potentially achieve Master Builder status, to do so one must first be able to accomplish tasks such as building a trophy out of Lego pieces in 10 minutes and a sphere in only one, among other tasks. “Lego Master Builder status can be achieved by anyone who can demonstrate the determination and skill to explore the Lego system and what can be achieved with this limitless building system,” says Madore.
Other highlights will include a community building area, appearances by yet-to-be-announced costumed characters, an area where guests can create robots in a “Coding Corner” and an assortment of special souvenirs and Lego sets available for purchase.
Tickets for the event, which will be held at 299 South St., Manhattan, are available for $30-$75 at legolive.frontgatetickets.com. Email questions to info@parallellive.com.
