NewEnglandGothic

A third reboot is gonna be a tough sell even if Marvel does get it back. My

Maybe they signed a sweet cable deal. In '97, Batman & Robin got $120 million back for an exclusive cable deal (I forget which company) before it even opened, that must have eased some of the $160 million budget. I don't remember, but I think it grossed like $109 million that summer (Men In Black & The Lost World were kings during that summer).

I wonder what Frozen's production budget was?

Thanks for warning me.

The superhero movies actually have dominated box office sales this year worldwide. They will keep making them because really what other genre has dominated like superhero movies have? We have come a long way since people lined up to see Kramer vs. Kramer over Star Trek! (thumbs u I really like your enthusiam on here (I do), but you really need to read more Peter Bart stuff on Hollywood trends. once the utters run dry... Chris S. is right. This isn't a $60 million 1989 Batman grossing $250 million (not adjusted for inflation) or a $140 million Spider-Man grossing $400 million domestic. These films are gonna depend on international grosses in order to be green-lit with their big-budgets. Thus, they will get more and more high concept, until your suspension of belief will have to be supported by a giant crane and all it will take is one action movie hit with an ordinary hero (modest budget) against overwhelming odds to remind the mainstream expensive cape movies are kind of silly (that or a real-life event that changes the world into a more serious climate- see what cancelled the original Batman TV series).

For the "investment" view, I agree. Whether someone prefers one or the other, that's the personal feelings of the owner. That's my opinion. It's their money.

Sweet... Can't wait for the day to own that bugger!!! For a short time near the Fall of '04, raw #2's were more $$$ than #1's, due to the increasing demand and lower print run.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't the Transformers toys hold more nostalgia down the road? I mean, when I was a wee lad, I have the fondest memories of getting a Shockwave knock-off toy for Christmas. At the time, all I was getting was Gobots. The Transformers were the more popular ones. I remember seeing it in one of those discount stores outside of Manchester and telling my grandmother it's all I wanted (knowing it was within her price range). It fell apart pretty quickly once I got it, but I still wouldn't mind hunting one of those counterfeit toys down to remember how happy I was when I was a kid.

And that's what they mean by 'so much potential wasted' with the overall movie. These folks were fantatic with their character representations, had some solid scenew throughout. And then somewhere the darn -script went squirrely. Now with 'The Wolverine' I can watch that repeatedly and not be disappointed. Especially with the Japanese prison scene, where when pictures of this scene was being shot I wondered what they were messing up now. It was a great scene to show how old Logan is, and his link to the past with Yashida. Even the soundtrack is a fun listen from this movie. For me, I really enjoyed it up until the stoopid plot mechanics started taking over, (just in case). The 2nd unit director's presence was there all too much also as director Gavin Hood couldn't set up the action scenes with any kind of jeopardy to save his life. Basically, Wolverine is invincible at the middle of the movie and pretty much sucks any kind of suspense you might have for the character out of it. All, that's left is well choreographed action scenes, that Walker: Texas Ranger and Trivette could sleepwalk through (dodging bullets on motorcyles, slow-mo walking from explosions, etc). The real drama was Logan's emotional and physical battle with his brother. That should have been at this movie's climax, not saving a bunch of random X-brats and fighting Deadpool -2.0. No matter how good some of the supporting characters played their roles, this movie was severly over-stuffed with characters for a solo character franchise vehicle. I would rate it: Two stars, when I'm in a good mood. There are worse funnybook movies.

Pretty much my list. I've always regarded The Last Stand, the Superman III of the X-franchise. It has moments, but it was like it was stolten from a talented director and directed by a producer hack like Richard Lester. Ratner never got the underling themes from the material to begin with and was just making a popcorn movie. Too bad, it rode the momentum of the Singer films to reward this kind of studio greed. If I remember right, Singer did leave to make Superman though, instead of this movie first. A missed opportunity for the fans. XO: Wolverine is an interesting egg. You can sit through most of it without thinking much about it, but when it's over, you wind up hating yourself in the morning. It made me drag my feet to see the much superior The Wolverine. Especially, since the sequel was directed by Hugh's Kate & Leopold's director James Mangold. It gave me a feeling of an actor too comfortable to have a "controlled" studio director again.

Wouldn't it be funny, if this actually was the "Justice League" movie they are making. There's way too many heroes in it for a solo-hero franchise movie. They'll just change the working title during SDCC and say "Gotcha!".

Tim Burton cast the perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman back '89 and everyone thought he wasn't physically (and emotionally) ready to play the role either. I actually watched Gung Ho! a couple days earlier on VHS when it was announced and 'd right there (...and I was only a kid). Actors can surprise you.

Yeah, but this harkens back to the yellow sun enhancing Diana's Kryptonian-based strength (rumored). In theory, she has a molecular strength through solar energy. She really doesn't have to have any prominent muscles. What she has would store enough power to knock out Batman with a flick of her wrist (Supergirl with no muscle mass, flicked her fingers, tapping Harley Quinn on the nose sending her flying in Supergirl #0). Then there is the theory I've read online, that if Superman is so strong to begin with, how can he work out to get his "guns" to begin with. Surely, he could lift anything on the planet. Hoisting up a bank vault door would be the equivalent of me lifting up a cell phone. Makes you wonder if he has to go off world to some Interplanetary Fitness to lift stuff up and put them down. Wonder Woman is pretty much Earth-bound and lacking that option to looked pumped up. Remember folks, this is sy-fy, anything is possible. Did anybody complain when ScarJo's Black Widow took on like five guys at once in The Avengers while tied to a chair?

i have them all on Blu Ray, Superman too, i never get round to the commentary tracks Boy oh boy, you don't know what you are missing. There's a lot of drama that went on with the original Superman movies alone. Ilyia Salkind and producer Pierre Spengler handle the commentary duties for original number 2's disc and original director Richard Donner does the honors for #2's Director's cut. In the end you really get the understanding Donner does not like producer Spengler. When they let him go after comments he made, the cast/filmmakers kinda took sides and cost them big roles in Superman III (maybe a good thing). Warner Bros. was only the distributor of these movies and Donner had a great history of films with them since. He was planning to work on a Superman III (possibly shoot two movies at once again), with Brainiac, Supergirl and Mytzleplix-something. It makes you wonder where that series would have went if Donner stayed on board as he was willing to (sans Spengler). The cast really loved him and his craft. Screenwriter Mark Rosenthal's discussion about the lost opportunity of Superman IV is actually better than the actual movie. A lot of accusations of alleged misuse of budget, while a desperate Christopher Reeve was trying to hold everything together with any superhuman Hollywood powers he had to get the series back on track. The Batman Burton commentaries show a Batman fan with a lot of passion to get the character back on track. I never knew he was such a fan. Plus, all the risks he was taking with everything that really paid off, to be able to try anything with the Returns movie and watch it backfire. Like Donner, he wanted to continue the series, but was shut out. Schumacher's Batman & Robin commentary is a sobering reminder that some of these movies being just sheer greed. It's actually the kind of confessional to make you hate Hollywood touching your favorite characters.

Ironically, SONY is watching the Godzilla they should have made in '98 getting ready to stomp their little wannabe summer tent-pole spider. Whether he has the 'legs" to make it to $220 million or not, isn't really the issue now. It's how they are gonna lock in a visionary filmmaker (think James Cameron) to get this franchise going steady again because it's gonna take a lot to make this character fresh again to the mainstream.

The only thing that can fix this mess for SONY now is a Daniel Craig Bond movie, riding the momentum of Skyfall. That one will have to cost and gross like Thunderball, for them not to whine about the state of their company like they did at the end of 2012.

Like so many other franchise "killing" installments (Licence to Kill, Batman & Robin, etc), that should be the end of Andrew Garfield as Spidey. I imagine Webb will share a lot of the blame as well. I still plan on watching this on Blu, but regardless the numbers tell the truth of what's to come for the web-slinger and those potential spin-offs. Hopefully, they get their together for the next reboot (can't see Sony letting this property go).

correct. given the $425MM+ production and marketing costs, will not break even on BO receipts even if it does $550MM Int'l. Where is that $425 MM production and marketing cost coming from? UPDATED BOX OFFICE: ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2′ Casts $92M Web; ‘The Other Woman’ Holding Strong; ‘Rio2′ Passes $100M The production budget is said to be around $255M, with about $185M-$190M spent on marketing. That means all in it needs to make well over $752.2M worldwide (which is what the first installment grossed). About 65% of that came internationally. Does that mean in addition to the $255 MM + $185-190 MM? yes OMG! Financially, this may be Sony's lesson learned for not focusing more on a stronger story. Who cares if this movie makes it's money back? :shrug: It's a licensed property that will make a billion dollars in merchandising until the next one. Think t-shirts, Halloween costumes (multiple villian choices), video games, dvd/blu ray sales, back to school stuff (binders, portofolios, pens, etc), soundtracks, cable rights sale (which could be upwards $120 million), birthday party favors, it's a really endless amount of Amazing Spidey 2 junk we will see in the next two-three years.

Can I just point out he's never really had a worthy opponent throughout a movie other than Sabertooth (who was somewhat underused on occasion). Stryker in X2 was effective as a sinister dude, but utterly no match for him physically. He always just wound up sending out lackies after him (Lady Deathstrike, Deapool 2.0). He needs a villain that mirrors his own anti-hero persona (mental & brawn), throughout the next movie.

Matttt Daaaaamon.

...and what I liked about Zod's followers, not one did the old cliched "changed my mind/ what are we doing?". They followed him right to the bitter end. I was expecting one turncoat when both Clark & Lois went up in space.

If you can get Batman on the cheap someday on DVD or Blu, watch it with the commentary track on. Some interesting insights on the production from Burton (stuff that worked, stuff that didn't). It really enhances it better, imho.

The Batman franchise has sucked since they got rid of Schumacher.

Most underrated Hans Zimmer soundtrack? The Peacemaker It's not from a comic movie, but boy traces of it shows up in Man of Steel for sure (even Batman Begins). I always crank it up when I'm cruising through the Queen City on a busy traffic day.

I was just as shocked. But while researching the budget, I happened across an interview with Halle Berry where she notes this as one of her biggest mistakes. I bet with a budget like that at the same, that's not what she was thinking. I think she should've stayed with Fox's X-Men series. Catwoman was the worst film she's ever done IMO. Wow, I guess you never watched BAPS? Lucky.