Industry News
by saidiontheside

saidi’s take – 3/21/2023

Hello everyone,

  • After 2 weekends where franchise records were broken, box office was above predictions, and things were looking up for movie theater attendance, this past weekend was BELOW expectations.  “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” made about $30 million domestically (predicted to make about $35 million).  Some people are saying it’s due to the reboot of the DC movie franchise announced a few weeks ago which is supposed to start NEXT YEAR so this years movies may not match up with the “Phase 1” of the new DC universe starting in 2024.  Other people are saying it might be because some of the villans in the new movie AREN’T from the comic books.
  • “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” also missed worldwide estimates which said it would make as much as $85 million worldwide but it only made about $66 million.  In better news, “Creed 3” is now almost at $100 million internationally with a worldwide total approaching $225 million.
  • It was just announced that the first feature from director Eva Longoria will be released on Disney+ AND Hulu at the same time.  This could be something that more streaming sites do.  Sharing the movie also means sharing the cost of the movie.  However, it could be a while before competing companies agree to release the same movie.  “Disney+” is owned by Disney (of course) and “Hulu” is currently partly owned by Disney.
  • Recently, Disney CEO Bob Iger talked about Marvel movies saying “there are 7,000 characters, there are a lot more stories to tell. What we have to look at at Marvel is not necessarily the volume of Marvel stories we’re telling but how many times we go back to the well on certain characters. Sequels typically work well for us. Do you need a third and a fourth, for instance, or is it time to turn to other characters? “.  He may have been speaking a little too late since the last AND the next Marvel movies are the 3rd in a series and next years “Captain America: New World Order” is the 4th movie in the Captain America Franchise (although it’s a new Captain America this time).

Little bit of humor…

I would not recommend taking your daughter to any of those movies until she’s at least a teenager no matter what her mood is.