It’s game time! After being pushed back a year due to the pandemic, the Summer Olympics have finally arrived and athletes from around the globe have gathered in Tokyo for a shot at the gold. The opening ceremony kicked off on Friday with tennis star Naomi Osaka, lighting the Olympic torch at Tokyo’s National Stadium. John Legend, Leslie Odom Jr., Uma Thurman, and Dwayne Johnson made appearances during the four-hour televised ceremony....
Yet if at the same time, $143 million had been projected as the opening weekend for the latest Marvel release, the reaction would have been “let’s hope so.” That’s the needed context for looking at the weekend results. It’s not irrelevant that the fourth “Thor” opened to $44 million less than “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” two months ago. Or a little under the consensus $150 million projection (in a summer when most films have exceeded pre-opening guesses)....
“What If…?” presents a bit of a paradox, and not just because of the series’ timeline-warping synopsis. This is perhaps the most Marvel Cinematic Universe title yet, given that viewers who already have a keen understanding of the franchise’s key plot arcs and an attachment to its myriad of characters will undoubtedly get the biggest kick out of each episode. The show is also a self-perpetuating product that has obvious potential to endlessly exploit the MCU IP in order to create sequels (Season 2 is already in development) and spinoffs that should entice Disney+ subscribers to keep coming back for more, more, more....
Last week, tragedy struck “What We Do in the Shadows,” but hope springs — or crawls — eternal. After the ghastly death of Colin Robinson in Season 3’s penultimate episode, the finale reveals that the bespectacled energy vampire lives on, in the haunting new form of a toddler — though whether or not “Baby Colin” is the same creature he once was remains to be seen. “A big part of the season we’re shooting now, Season 4, is about, ‘Is he going to inevitably grow up to be an energy vampire?...
I’m starting with “The Shining” (1980), the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Stephen King, because of its pioneering balance of horror and satire, and its lethal-dainty script by Diane Johnson. So the Torrance family goes off to the Overlook Hotel in the bracing but desolate heights of Colorado. Life seems perfect there — everything the idiot mastermind Jack Torrance ever wanted. He will be caretaker for the off-season winter — time to write the novel he’s always promised himself, time to defeat the blank pages....
The Wells Fargo gang previously forecast Netflix’s SVOD-only subscribers at 256 million subs globally by the end of 2025. In a June 3 report, the analysts raised their estimate by 16 million subs to 272 million global subscribers thanks to the coming addition of an AVOD (ad-supported video on-demand) tier. Of that sum, 101 million users — slightly more than one-third — will be on the AVOD tier, per their prediction....
During an interview Wednesday at Variety’s Power of Women summit, Sarnoff, WarnerMedia’s head of studios and networks, was asked whether she thinks the December 25 release date will stick. “I hope so,” she said. “It really is about how the U.S. continues to open and whether there are any other surges. We’ve got a little bit of time to figure that out.” “Wonder Woman,” like countless other movies, has seen its planned release date shifted several times amid the pandemic....
