Gatsby77

Maybe...but I'd argue that Momoa actually looked the Barry Smith part in that movie, albeit w/ longer & greasier hair. He's huge _now_ but he actually had a far more wiry frame for his 6'4" height back in 2011. And he's on record as saying he never really lifted until he started prepping for Conan in 2010. Also, Conan may have bombed, but it also arguably made his career, as that role (and the beefing up) got him cast on Game of Thrones. Before Conan, he was a B-level TV player in Baywatch and Stargate: Atlantis. But after Conan, he's suddenly in GOT and starring opposite Stallone.

I think the nail in Conan's coffin was actually not the 2011 reboot, but actually 2014's Hercules. It's an analagous period action flick starring The Rock, arguably one of the last contemporary A-list muscle men. I'm hard-pressed to think of a known movie star who would make a better Conan than The Rock. But Hercules probably *just* hit break-even to barely pass into profitability. It grossed less than $245 million worldwide ($73 domestic; $172 foreign) on a $100 million budget. Even Vin Diesel's XXX: Return of Xander Cage was more profitable, despite grossing less than $45 million in the U.S. And that's the bigger issue: American tastes have moved on from the muscle-bound action heroes of the '80s. Yeah - Stallone was able to sell two _great_ homages to '80s action stars with his first two Expendables flicks. But today's action heroes are Downey, Jr., DiCaprio, Wahlberg, Denzel, and yes - still Tom Cruise -- but simply not Conan types.

Yeah. Like...they should totally cast that guy playing Aquaman.

Any word yet on the villain this season? I mean, I have no problem with it being Bobby Saint, but I was kind of holding out for Jigsaw, and/or at least a Kingpin cameo. * caveat - my Punisher knowlege is limited to the late '80s-early '90s (think Punisher Limited through issue 40, along with War Journal 1-25 and War Zone 1-10). So I'm not up to speed on the Garth Ennis era - present.

Both of these have already happened: Lost city is K'un-Lun (shown as missing in the last few minutes of Iron Fist Season 1) House fire burns Castle refers to what already happened at the end of Daredevil Season 2.

And just like that...the dream of a live-action Akira died...

I _love_ the orginal. (and...I lived in Japan for awhile & speak Japanese). Not excited for this - and not just for the ScarJo (mis-)casting. Also, it was a bad sign that in DC it opened in _far_ fewer theaters than even Beauty & the Beast had in its 3rd weekend. Waiting for it to hit my $2 theater in a month. Also - for being comic book-based, doesn't seem to be creating much of a buzz on these here boards.

Nope. Parts of Episodes 8, 11-12 are decent, but it still sucks donkey toes as a whole. Huge waste. And Finn Jones needs acting lessons.

Also - damn you for your timing - as the current # 3 registry set holder, I wish it weren't tax season... If there's anyone out there who doubts how hard a run this is to put together in 9.0, let alone 9.4 -- trust me. It's harder than Magnus, despite having fewer issues by far. Don't hesitate - you won't see books like this again for at least another few years.

Doctor Solar # 5

What's the difference between "covers production costs" and "produces?" Does "produces" not literally mean "pay for?" Or are you distinguishing between "pay for the movie" vs. "pay for distribution and marketing?"

This looks leagues better than The Amazing Spider-Man. Note: I think Andrew Garfield got a raw deal and was brought down by atrocious writing and plotting (see also, Brandon Routh in Superman Returns), but at least he's gone on to better things.

Finally finished Iron Fist last night. While it got immeasurably better with episodes 11-12, episode 13 was a let-down, reflecting my feeling of "mediocre let-down" for the season as a whole. Bakuto and Davos were superb - don't understand why we didn't see more of them earlier on. And, esp. in ep. 13, Finn Jones' acting was so laughably bad - especially relative to everyone else around him - that it was almost self-parody. I shouldn't be reminded of The Room when watching a Marvel Netflix show - just sayin'.

I'd attribute that to the growth of the international box office itself. Looking at the chart, you'll see that prior to 7-8 years ago box office for action movies could be counted on for ~50% of the overall total. The market is far far larger now, and international receipts are now expected to account for 65-70% of the worldwide total for action movies. Deadpool's an anomaly on the chart largely because it wasn't released in China. And two recent anomalies in the other direction were Terminator: Genisys and Warcraft. Genysis was the first U.S. film to surpass $400 million worldwide clearing less than $100 million domestically (international = nearly 80% of its take) And for Warcraft the disparity was even wider, as it failed to clear even $50 million in the U.S. while surpassing $400 million worldwide (international = nearly 90% of its take). A good benchmark for the natural growth in international box office can be seen in the Transformers films. Tranformers (2007) had international account for 55% of its global receipts. Transformers 4 (Age of Extinction) (2014) had international account for 78% of its global receipts.

Point taken, but it wouldn't change the relative ranking among the movies since it omits product placement calculations for all of them. If a scale is off by 10 lbs., it's still useful in determining the relative weights of 30 people, because it's consistently off by 10 lbs. for everybody. Same exact reason that Bosco's calculations are useful.

If the intial Aquaman poster said "Unite the 7" and now we're seeing "Unite the League" doesn't that strongly imply that we need a 7th member so we'll see Green Lantern?

9 episodes down, and it's becoming a struggle. Thought episodes 7-8 were the best so far, but not this one. I'm hoping the series rebounds and ends on a high note.

Good point. I'd forgotten about Black Panther as an FF property. I'm still pissed that supposedly Marvel can't use Kang because Rama Tut first appeared in FF.

Interesting piece on total projected profit for Warner Brothers from BvS: $105 million. Seemingly decent, until you notice the recent superhero movie comparison chart, which by the same metrics calculation puts Antman's profit at $103.9 million. https://www.comicbookmovie.com/batman_vs_superman/batman-v-superman-final-profits-tallied-how-much-did-it-really-earn-a149858

Again, can someone with a better grasp on the comics help me understand why they re-cast Domino? As in, doesn't Vanessa become Domino, which means we should see Morena Baccarin in the role? (I stopped reading X-Force around issue 10, so I totally missed the whole Copycat-Domino retcon. But to my 12 year-old self Vanessa = Domino = first appeared in NM 98.) I just checked Wikipedia and Vanessa is apparently Copycat, so I guess they are different people. But my point is -- don't they look the same, so they should both be played by Baccarin? What am I missing?

Yeah - Stallone, Cruise and Mel Gibson are all 5'7".

Agreed. I'm on episode 6 now (the one directed by RZA) and it's getting a bit better. But I can't shake the feeling that Finn Jones is woefully miscast. And that - as superheroes go - Iron Fist is going to be (by far) the weak link in the Defenders. Anyone here believe he could take Elektra in a fight, let alone Daredevil?

And he's lucky to have lined this up so quickly after Dr. Strange, after the critical and financial drubbing Passengers took. Dude's got talent, but Passengers could have been a career killer.

Two things: 1) I absolutely go with TV and movie critics over the anonymous online audience scores, particularly for aggregators like IMDB and Rotten Tomoatoes. Because I work in PR and know exactly how easy those are to manipulate. And understand the incentive that companies have to do so, via legions of ghost accounts. Also, you need to account for how (in particular) IMDB scores tend to fall over time, as it takes time to account for critical mass to accrue there. Give Iron Fist another six months, and I guarantee you it will rank far below Luke Cage in the IMDB audience score. (Which also makes Daredevil Season 1's ranking all the more impressive.) 2) The AV Club is my favorite source for TV reviews because not only do they basically draft 3-page essays for every major episode of TV, but those reviews are just a jumping off point for the discussion beneath. Yesterday's Episode 3 review, for instance, already has more than 650 comments in less than 24 hours. And the reviewer also notes things I missed or had forgotten, like that Colleen's star pupil Darryl was previously seen in an episode of Luke Cage. Or that in episode 4,