The Key Challenge DC Studios Faces In Selling a *New* 'Superman'

'Wild Robot' starts strong for a 2020s non-sequel toon, 'Megalopolis' is a must-see "miss," while Lorne Michaels might want to rewatch 'Saturday Night'

In tonight’s mega, wild and super live newsletter…

• DreamWorks and Universal’s The Wild Robot earns $1.9 million in Thursday previews, suggesting a possible $35 million domestic opening weekend (free)

• Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a fascinating “mess,” existing primarily as an epic, must-see, PLF-worthy ode to its own existence. (free)

• Saturday Night is good, but Lorne Michaels might have missed its message. (paid)

• Christopher Reeve’s iconic portrayal presents a challenge for the Superman franchise not faced by the various Batman, Spider-Man or James Bond films. (paid)

Box Office: The Wild Robot gets off to a strong start. 

For a “new to most of us” animated feature, based on Peter Brown’s popular but not globally beloved novel, a $1.95 million Thursday preview gross for The Wild Robot is pretty damn good. It has primarily excellent reviews, with many calling it the best DreamWorks Animation film ever (cough-Kung Fu Panda 2-cough) and most calling it among the better DWA toons in recent years. Buzz is yet to be determined, but it’s an old-school fair play tearjerker, and I’d be shocked if audiences liked this film less than the critics. And whether it “matters” for an animated film, I’d argue Lupita Nyong’o is an A+ added value element to a well-received genre film and might be a true “face on the poster” draw if she worked more often.  

Universal has been selling the hell out of it as a return to form for DWA, and in terms of non-sequels, it’s been exactly five years since none of you schmucks showed up to Abominable. That was one of a slew of post-Coco “not a sequel or an adaptation of a mega-bucks IP” animated films to struggle since 2018, a problem that Disney didn’t confront until late 2021. I’ll blame Disney+ for Encanto’s failure more than overall trends, and Universal’s Illumination output was all sequels or IP like The Grinch from 2018 until Migration in late 2023. Meanwhile, expectations (along with production budgets) had declined for most DWA fare to the point where a $23 million launch for The Bad Guys was “good enough.” 

Add rave reviews, brand value (even if DWA’s “name” isn’t as strong as in the 2000s), presumably strong word-of-mouth, the Nyong’o factor and a kid-sized audience not entirely satiated by Transformers One. A Thursday-to-weekend split on par with The Boss Baby: Family Business ($17.3 million from a $1.3 million Thursday) would give the Chris Saunders-directed feature a decent $25 million debut. Weekend legs like The Bad Guys ($24 million from a $1.15 million preview gross in early 2022) would give the $78 million The Wild Robot a strong $39 million opening. Splitting the difference is around $33 million, so let’s round up to $35 million for luck. Even if it ends up closer to $25 million than $35 million, DWA’s 28 non-sequels have *averaged* a 3.91x multiplier.  

Review: Megalopolis is... some kind of movie. 

Megalopolis earned $770,000 in its Thursday previews, and it’ll almost certainly be the latest Lionsgate release to earn under $5 million on its debut weekend. However, in this case, it’s less “Egad, Lionsgate!” and more “Uh... Coppola hasn’t succeeded commercially since The Rainmaker in November of 1997.” Anyway... 

Is Megalopolis a good movie in the traditional sense? Absolutely not. It is narratively haphazard, tonally skewed and lacks both stakes and urgency. However, it is also precisely what Francis Ford Coppola has “promised” for decades: an “everything on the table” sci-fi epic with a towering sense of grandeur and unapologetic excess. The production values are sky-high, and the sheer scale and polish of the imagery are ever-more impressive in a time when even seemingly big movies feel hamstrung by declining budgets and an overall decline in locations, characters and for-the-hell-of-it razzle-dazzle. What’s most bemusing is that it’s a $120 million, 138-minute testament to Coppola himself. Civilizations rise and fall, but true artists and visionaries never “die.” 

The “plot” concerns a cold war between a realist mayor of the crumbling metropolis New Rome (Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito) and a visionary architect (Cesar Catalina, played by – as required by law for all long-gestating, commercially doomed passion projects from legendary filmmakers – Adam Driver) who has invented a revolutionary building material and can periodically stop time. That last detail isn’t super relevant. Alas, most of the meaty “clash of ideas” stuff is jammed into the first third, including a spectacular first reel. This leaves the middle act for a generic romance between “not John Galt” and his enemy’s idealistic daughter (Nathalie Emmanuel, in a thankless “prize to be won” role) and related intrafamily melodrama. 

There are a few other key characters, including Jon Voight as a Donald Trump stand-in (presumably if the New York tycoon had stayed out of national politics), Shia LeBeouf as a jealous schemer and Aubrey Plaza as a salacious TV reporter named Wow Platinum. Amid a picture where the actors seem to be giving performances in different movies, Plaza’s is the most enjoyable. Megalopolis unfolds in glorified Shakespearean dialect, including actual Shakespeare quotes and glorified soliloquies, making a search for anything grounded or naturalistic a fool’s errand. The story unfolds almost randomly, as significant events of grand importance are hinted at or forgotten with no consequence, while specific sequences (like a first-act wedding) go on forever.  

Nonetheless, the notion that civilization crumbles when the societal structures no longer serve its residents is as timely in 2024 as in 1977. While the film’s idolization of its young visionary feels like a past-tense lionization of its now elderly director, the point of Megalopolis might merely be the movie itself. As Hamlet said, “The play’s the thing,” and the critical appeal of Megalopolis is its mere existence in all its unrestrained and arbitrary glory. Whether it’s Imax, Dolby or AMC Prime, do splurge for a “premium large format” auditorium. The idea of Megalopolis being about its own existence will play better among the few who show up following two decades of overly corporatized studio filmmaking.  

I’d be lying if I pretended that Megalopolis didn’t peak in the first 25 minutes and that it almost goes on autopilot in its final reels. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating self-glorification and a cinematic thing unto itself. It has been released nationwide as a borderline act of charity by Lionsgate as a reminder that they offer more than just (often quite good) grindhouse flicks. It merits at least a single theatrical experience both due to its uniqueness and its copious moments of audio/visual splendor. Is it good? No, although cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. deserves an Oscar nomination. Is it a must-see film? If you know what you’re in for and want a singular theatrical experience, absolutely.