The good news is that Thunderbolts* (or… uh… are we using the new title now?) kicked off the summer movie season with $74 million in North America and $160 million worldwide, grosses that would be excellent for 90% of all big-deal Hollywood franchises. The bad news is that such a bow is still essentially tied with Eternals and lower than the debuts for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Captain America: Brave New World. And while the reviews and buzz are generally skewing positive, how much will that matter in a pop culture ecosystem where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer an automatic A+ cinematic vacation destination?
Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, is here to dissect the circumstances. She again makes the case for being either my new best friend or my new arch enemy…
Among the topics of discourse…
Will Fantastic Four: The First Steps suffer from Marvel’s cultural downturn? Or, instead, might it benefit from being positioned as, like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine, an outside-the-mythology MCU epic?
The numerous mistakes made in producing and marketing the 2020s-era MCU movies and Disney+ television shows, and whether Marvel can recapture its mid-2010s mojo.
It’s no longer a big deal when a prestige actor or promising newcomer signs up for a new Marvel movie or MCU show.
Haven’t seen Sinners yet? That’s okay! Theatrical moviegoing in a film’s fourth weekend or second month should be encouraged!
And so much more!
Notably, this episode experienced some technical issues during recording, so I’ll revert to using Zoom for the next one. Despite the absolute best efforts of my resident editor, Christopher Cook (who, along with his efforts for The B.O. Boys, has been generously doing the mixing and engineering magic since late January), I still sound a little garbled in the opening “run down the box office” section, and the end is a little disjointed. Mea culpa (and I should have been officially crediting him for a while now), but the meat where the four of us are excessively naval-gazy about the state of the MCU sounds right as rain.
In terms of the written word…
Scott Mendelson discussed how Warner Bros. (both under Jason Kilar at AT&T and David Zaslav at Discovery) has been essentially saving theaters (or trying to) at least since the release of Tenet in August 2020, with little of the credit afforded to its rivals.
Jeremy Fuster offered a deep dive into Hollywood’s confused and flustered reaction to Trump’s off-the-cuff and seemingly off-hand promise to impose 100% tariffs on films shot outside the U.S. I believe in the “Watch what he does, not what he says” rule. Still, considering how much chaos and financial harm he can make with a random Truth Social post, this nonsense sadly matters.
Lisa Laman dives into the ongoing legal melodrama that has kept the Friday the 13th series trapped in (at least in terms of films) horror movie purgatory for fifteen years.
Ryan Scott offered a quick note on the box office irrelevancy of Joel Souza’s Rust. The low-budget western that became infamous after its cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, was killed when star Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged a prop gun that he thought only contained blank rounds. It was always the kind of film that would generate 99% of its revenue in post-theatrical releases, but its grim place in Hollywood history still merited a mention.
Chrissi Michael offered a thoughtful essay on the unique challenges of being a woman in her late twenties during this unprecedentedly difficult time.
As always, if you like what you hear, like, share, comment, and smash that subscribe button with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you'd like to offer us a suggestion, request an in-show discussion, or propose ideas for bonus episodes, please reach out to us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com.
Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News
Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap
Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Cultress, Comic Book, Autostraddle
Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria
Chrissi Michael - c(ine)m(a) studies
