Gatsby77

They do that already. The entire premise of the site is a binary see it (aka "Fresh" rating of 60% positive or better) or don't ("Rotten" score of <60% positive). I don't see this move as controversial. What was controversial? Netflix purportedly removing its five star user rating systems primarily because viewers tanked Amy Schumer's last stand-up special there.

Yeah - best fit among Disney-owned channels seems like ABC or Hulu if they plan to air it before say...June 2019.

Even the early screenings tonight smack of desperation -- get the eager fans out to spread positive word-of-mouth a full 48 hours before the critics' reviews begin weighing it down. Note: Not that I didn't try to see it tonight -- I'm on the wait list but doubt I'll get in. Also - basic theater economics are running against it. Fewer people are going to the movies this year as streaming options reach their apex. Proof? With just 7 weeks left in the year, the number of tickets sold in 2017 is running 30% (roughly 300,000) behind the total sold in 2016 and 2015. That's a lot of ground to be made up by Justice League, Star Wars, and every piece of Oscar bait that will be released between now & Jan.1.

Looks suspiciously like a haul from the Quinn's auction two weeks back. Pretty sure I was the guy sitting to your right, who kept getting blown out on the early Conans and Star Wars runs. Great meeting you & chatting!

Nah -- I give it maybe a 10% chance that this hits $1 bn. No comic book movie this year has come close -- not Guardians 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, or Wonder Woman. Thor:Ragnarok won't either, and that's rivaling Wonder Woman with 93% positive among the critics. Warner Bros. best be happy with their $300 million spend netting $875 million or so.

I thought the first film was decent, but it's hard to get excited for a "reboot" when there have already been four sequels. I don't see anyone clamoring for this any more than folks were clamoring for Mark Walhberg to do Max Payne.

My point. The embargo metrics don't lie. Even Interstellar -- which had one of the most interesting surprises of modern times, lifted its embargo more than 3.5 days in advance, and even then critics were under a very specific NDA regarding the surprise. I don't think Warner Bros. execs are dumb - this is damage control.

I understand the WSJ reporter's speculation but it's a greater risk for Disney to hold back on the shows (at least three new seasons) it's already licensed to Netflix for an additional year, during which they could lose momentum. Also, it's Netflix - not Disney, that's produced all of the Marvel shows so far. The TV deal with Disney is separate from the film one. Further, Disney has stated repeatedly that it will only pull its movies from Netflix beginning with ones released in 2019. So films including Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, The Last Jedi, and Han Solo will all still be available on Netflix.

Also, noting that "if you liked BvS and Suicide Squad you'll like this" is the very definition of "damning with faint praise"

Nah. The latest articles peg Disney's streaming launch for the "second half of 2019." Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil are all set to launch new seasons next year. Besides, Disney needs the time between now & then to finish buying Fox.

I think it will fall between 40-55% on RT. So "rotten," but only just. Why? Putting aside my biases (that BvS and Suicide Squad sucked and the early Snyder-driven trailers for this made it look like garbage) it's: Because of this mashable piece, which makes the short embargo argument, charting it against other recent would-be blockbusters: Lifting the embargo 1 day, 16 hours before the first public screenings is not a vote of confidence from the studio. That's a far cry from the 13+ days given Wonder Woman and Logan, and ranks it just above Valerian and The Mummy. Likewise, that the embargo lifts just before 3:00 am. If Warner Bros. were confident, they'd give it at least a few more days for early positive reviews to help sway public opinion. As it stands, this looks like the opposite -- relying on a huge opening weekend before public opinion settles in and it drops 70%+ the next weekend.

The Twilight Zone is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, made all the more impressive when you learn that Serling himself wrote the majority of them. But this could go either way. The 1985 series was also a classic -- with some iconic episodes including "Shatterday," "Examination Day," "To See the Invisible Man,"Cold Hard Numbers," and "Button, Button." But then the 2002 series (with Forrest Whitaker) was bunk.

I get it. You're objective about it where I'm subjective. But you also addressed only part of my example. I'll stick with subjectivity because no one is going to convince me that a 9.2 copy of X-Force # 1 or a 9.0 copy of Walking Dead # 27 is "high grade." (At least for the next decade or so. After 2030? We'll see.)

The thread I remember here from years back settled on a consensus of 8.5 (VF+) as the lower-bound of "high-grade." That said, I'm with the subjectivity. I *still* have a hard time paying for 7.0 Bronze books, no matter how expensive they are (Hulk 181, ASM 129, etc.). Overall - 8.5 is high-grade Copper and Modern - 9.6+ is high grade For certain expensive books (TMNT 1, Albedo 2, etc.) 9.0+ is high grade. Silver Age: 9.0+ Golden Age: 6.0+ Example: Detective 1-50 in 6.0 is high-grade, whereas The Walking Dead 1-100 in 9.4 is not.

Partially right. Depends on the fame (and public associations) surrounding the character, as well as the original source. For instance, Universal made "Snow White & the Huntsman" and its sequel because it was based on the Grimm's fairy tale, not the Disney movie.

Disney actually needs a deal like this in the near future, as their original IP (including Mickey Mouse) begins to revert to the public domain starting on Jan. 1, 2019.

This. I know we're all comic book geeks, but the comic book properties were a footnote here. Disney was playing for the tons of other Fox IP. Also - misleading title. Universal still holds partial claim to any solo Hulk title.

Yeah. But it's more subtle than that. And _much_ bigger than playing for some comics characters. This is more about Fox realizing they don't have the content to compete in streaming. Fox eviscerated their IP when they sold Lucasfilm (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) to Disney. Aliens: Covenant, Independence Day: Resurgence, and War for the Planet of the Apes all woefully underperformed. Fox would rather sell now than make the R&D investments in a dedicated streaming service and high quality original small-screen content. Now -- if you were *really* a conspiracy theorist you might think Disney intentionally tanked The Inhumans TV show to dissuade Fox from pursuing another Generation X or X-Men show of its own. But I don't think that's the case -- this is about far more IP than just Marvel.

Yes - the proposed deal would give Disney all of those, as well as Modern Family, The X-Files, and Family Guy.

Here's a Forbes article on it. By someone other than my boy. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alishagrauso/2017/11/06/21st-century-fox-has-been-in-talks-to-sell-majority-of-company-to-disney/#7279a77d1b2d Basic thrust -- With the Star Wars franchise gone, Fox doesn't think they have enough original content to launch their own streaming service a la Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, HBO Go or (most recently) CBS All Access. Related: Disney's expected to launch their own streaming service next year, so enjoy films like Rouge One & Dr. Strange on Netflix while you can. Intriguing, but not as left field for me as Amazon buying Whole Foods or CVS making a credible play to buy Aetna.

Sure. But comparing anything to Avengers or Force Awakens numbers isn't fair -- that's like comparing every movie of the last 20 years to Titanic. To be clear, I absolutely think Star Wars will break $1.1 billion worldwide but doubt Justice League will do so -- based more that it looks like than on the anticipation for it. Also -- consider that Box Office analysts blamed last weekend's poor box office, at least in part, on people staying home to binge Season 2 of Stranger Things. Given we now live in that environment, I think it's no mistake that Netflix rescheduled Punisher to debut directly against Justice League -- hoping it will mute its first weekend.

I disagree. Yes - stuff's streaming for $5 within five months now, but folks will still want to go to the theater for big event films. They'll do it for Thor, they'll do it for Star Wars, and they'll even do it for Transformers 6 next year (or whenever), as well as Fast & the Furious 9 or whatever.

Collecting from 1989-1993 was an absolute blast -- great time to be a kid comic collector. I'd throw in Batman as well. Dang. Batman 400-500 was about as solid a run as one could do in a 7 year period. So many classic stories: Year One 10 Nights of the Beast Death in the Family Many Deaths of Batman Lonely Place of Dying Joker's Return Dark Knight, Dark City Knightfall Okay - maybe skip 460-485 or so, but 400-457 and 488-500 were amazing.

Greg - since this thread's been resurrected, I can answer that no - foreign reprints tend to be all books from a given run, not just greatest hits. I can speak about two specifics -- first, I've got Mexican reprints of the first 28 issues of the Gold Key Magnus issues, although they were printed roughly 5-6 years later. For more modern books, my dad went to Italy every summer in the early 90s. I've got books like Wolverine # 41, but also Wolverine # 35 in Italian, as well as Kevin Smith's Daredevil # 1 and # 3; X-Men # 219; Black Panther (1990s) # 1, Punisher War Journal # 30; some random Web of Spider-Man issues, etc. I also lived in Tokyo in 1998. As popular as Manga is there, it was _very_ rare to see any American comics. In a year of searching, the two I came across were Spawn # 1 and Spawn # 3. For the Italian editions, they generally did two issues at a time, with only one issue on the cover. So in some cases the key's not shown. I don't have any specific examples but can imagine instances where say...New Mutants 86 is on the cover but the issue contains New Mutants 87 as well, etc. For this reason, the numbers don't correlate either -- Spider-Man in Italian is "L'uomo Ragno" but the series reprinted from among all the Spider-Man titles at once, so it could be an issue Spectacular and an issue of Amazing; next issue an issue of Web and Amazing, etc. It's actually just dumb luck that ASM 300 happens to be on the cover of the Italian version & not 299.

Fun fact: PWJ # 1 was the highest print run modern book until Legends of the Dark Knight # 1 came out. Doesn't matter. I started collecting when it was a $12, then $20 wall book. I love PWJ # 1-19. I'll also pick up Silver Surfer 34-51 or so when I see them. And yes -- Youngblood # 1. Just 'cuz.