News, Analysis and Reviews of the Disney Entertainment Business
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Showing posts with label Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Show all posts
Oscar nominations are a win-win for any movie studio. That is, it’s a win from the perspective of artistic recognition (if one considers the Oscars to provide this), and it’s a win commercially, as films with Academy Award nominations often experience some additional life at the box office, via Blu-Rays or digital purchases, and/or streaming eyes.
Disney got a lot of win-wins by racking up 23 Oscar nominations, as announced on Tuesday (February 8) morning.
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
The big winner for Disney in terms of nominations was Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Among its seven nominations were nods for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Ariana DeBose, and Best Directing for Spielberg. I certainly hope that these nods give West Side Story some added attention with audiences. This marvelous film deserved much more at the box office.
Nightmare Alley earned four nominations, including one for Best Picture.
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
In addition, Jessica Chastain earned a Best Lead Actress nomination for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
On the animation front, Encanto, Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon all received nominations for Best Animated Feature Film. So, it wound up that Disney produced three of the five films nominated in this category.
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company
As for Marvel superheroes, Sony’s (and Marvel’s) Spider-Man: No Way Home received a nomination for Best Visual Effects. As a Sony release, this is not counted among Disney’s 23 nominations. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also received a Best Visual Effects nomination, as did Free Guy. If one counts Spider-Man, Disney/Marvel claimed three of the five nominations for visual effects.
The Academy Awards will be televised on Disney’s ABC network on the night of March 27.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
Get more out of 2022 with The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution! It combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more. Also, “The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution” comes with a handy spiral binding for easy use.
Superheroes saved the 2021 box office – specifically, Marvel heroes did so.
The pandemic obviously has devastated the movie theater business, and while the 2021 domestic (U.S. and Canada) box office take was double what was earned in 2020, the numbers remained well off the pre-pandemic 2019 level.
In fact, the $4.58 billion earned in domestic movie ticket sales in 2021 registered the same level as was garnered in 1992, according to the Hollywood Reporter. However, that fails to factor inflation into the equation, meaning that the 2021 earnings were even less than the 1992 take in real terms.
Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, the 2021 domestic box office was off by 60 percent.
As for a studio breakdown, CNBC noted that Disney led the way with 26 percent of the 2021 box office, followed by Sony’s 23 percent.
But let’s be clear, it was the Marvel Cinematic Universe that truly ruled. Five of the top six movies in terms of domestic gross were MCU movies, with three from Disney and two from Sony.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) topped all domestic earners with $573 million, followed by $225 million for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney), $213 million for Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony), $184 million for Black Widow (Disney), and $165 million for Eternals (Disney).
That tallies up to 30 percent of the 2021 domestic box office for MCU films.
By the way, the Sony MCU movies outgrossed the Disney MCU films - $786 for Sony’s and $574 for Disney’s.
As for the other top films, F9: The Fast Saga was number five at the domestic box office (Universal at $173 million) and number seven was the James Bond film No Time to Die (United Artists at $161 million).
So, we’ve learned (or relearned) a couple of things about movies during a pandemic. First, big blockbusters (in particular, superhero blockbusters) will draw some audiences into theaters – mainly, younger moviegoers.
Second, non-blockbuster, more adult-oriented movies, if you will, are having a very tough time, including The Last Duel (Disney’s 20th Century Studios) and West Side Story (Disney’s 20th Century Studios), which were both excellent. Part of this, no doubt, is less willingness among older moviegoers to sit in theaters while pandemic issues still rage on. To be less generous, such films also require more of an attention span than what might be needed for at least some superhero movies.
What does any of this mean post-pandemic? Speculation can, and has, run in all kinds of directions, but the safest take is that the pandemic has accelerated a shift among consumers to viewing more content at home. However, the degree of this shift and what it will mean for movies being released in theaters remains anyone’s guess at this point in time. The general direction of greater in-home viewing is great for consumers (who are ultimately driving the trend), and for content creators who are seeing and will continue to see increasing opportunities to create via streaming services.
But as anyone in the buggy whip industry would have told you with the arrival of the internal combustion engine, when these kinds of upheavals of innovation dramatically alter the economic landscape, matters of survival emerge for businesses who were entrenched in doing things the old ways. This all points to theater owners facing considerable challenges in creating an environment that will get people off their couches and into theaters.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
Get more out of 2022 with The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution! It combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more. Also, “The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution” comes with a handy spiral binding for easy use.
My expectations ran high for both Eternals and Dune when heading into the movie theater. Those expectations actually were exceeded with Dune. Unfortunately, Eternals turned out to be a gross disappointment, and as a result, the movie added fuel to a troubling trend emerging with recent Marvel projects.
Of course, both films have faced box office challenges with the ongoing struggle to emerge from the pandemic, as well as Dune being offered immediately via online streaming on HBO Max and Eternals expected to move rather quickly to Disney+ (perhaps just before Christmas). Dune opened domestically on October 22, and as of November 11 on BoxOfficeMojo.com, it had still taken in $332.6 million globally. After opening on November 5, Eternals registered $170.9 million worldwide. It is worth noting that the Eternals’ opening weekend domestic take came in behind the other pandemic-era MCU releases, that is, Black Widow at $80 million (along with an announced $60 million on Disney+), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings at $75 million, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage at an inexplicable $90 million.
As for critics and audiences, on RottenTomatoes.com, Eternals has earned a woeful 47 percent critics score, with audiences coming in at 80 percent. Meanwhile, Dune has scored well with both critics (83 percent) and audiences (90 percent).
In general, I think that the critics got both right.
Dune ranks as sci-fi/fantasy done right. It’s a visually rich, immersive story, with interesting characters. The film offers hints of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Lawrence of Arabia. The cast is spot on, and the director, Denis Villeneuve, gets fine performances out of each actor, including some who have not showed such abilities before, like Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista.
Throughout the film, my mind never wandered to thinking about when this would be over, but rather wanting the movie to go on, and pondering where the characters were headed and the implications of their actions. And given the ending, I found myself thinking that Legendary and Warner Brothers better greenlight a sequel with Villeneuve at the helm, and thankfully, they have.
In contrast, Eternals was a bloated, uninteresting story, with characters that largely were flat, along with most of the performances.
And unlike Dune, Eternals was plagued by story points that made little sense, including glaringly contradictory moments for assorted characters (such as Richard Madden’s Ikaris, not to mention that his ending was way too on the nose).
Amazingly, there are some out there arguing that Eternals isn’t getting the love it deserves because fans are unwilling to deal with big issues being brought up in a superhero movie. My immediate reaction to such assertions is to laugh – and to be perfectly clear, to laugh mockingly. Big issues? The writers and director, Chloe Zhao, seemed to be striving to present some deep moral quandaries over which the characters and audience were meant to wrestle. Alas, though, these so-called big issues amounted to shallow or meaningless situations seemingly dreamed up by a group of college students believing that they had great insights on matters that in reality they possessed little or no knowledge of in the end. The so-called moral quandaries served up in the Eternals spoke more to the obtuseness of the filmmakers, at best, or to their amorality.
It also needs to be pointed out that the more the MCU goes in on CGI effects, the worse the results seem to get. Though not as bad as the end scenes in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or what was offered in Captain Marvel, several of the scenes in Eternals came across more like crude animation, as opposed to interesting and/or immersive CGI.
Interestingly, the character and performance that turned out to be the most interesting in Eternalswas Angelina Jolie as Thena. Here was a troubled character whose challenges and reactions made sense, and there was some life to Jolie’s performance. Don Lee also was pretty good as Gilgamesh, and Kumail Nanjiani had amusing moments as Kingo, though most didn’t fit with where the story was at the time.
Regarding how the Eternals fits into the MCU, part of my high expectations going in could be attributed to an assumption or hope that this film would break the recent trend in MCU entries being poor-to-middling. WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had moments on Disney+, but came up miserably short in the end, while Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings were middling MCU movies (with Black Widow coming in ahead of Shang-Chi). The LokiDisney+ series has been the lone major MCU standout really since Avengers: Endgame.
Eternals was supposed to get the MCU back to interesting, exciting and compelling storytelling and characters, devoid of plot holes and character inconsistencies. But that disappointingly was not the case.
My thoughts at the end of Eternals were pretty much the exact opposite of what I experienced with Dune. I was thankful that Eternals was over, and rather than wondering what would come next for the characters, I was left wondering where the heck the MCU was heading – and not in a good way.
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
Great Christmas Gift! The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution is here! It combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more. Also, “The Disney Planner 2022: The TO DO List Solution” comes with a handy spiral binding for easy use.
Disney has announced updates to its movie release schedule, including the next Marvel Studios’ release Black Widow.
Black Widow will be released in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access (that is, at an extra cost of $29.99 beyond the Disney+ monthly subscription fee) on Friday, July 9. It was formerly scheduled for May 7.
Cruella will use the same combination of theater release and Disney+ Premier Access on May 28. The release date for this film, though, has not changed.
Meanwhile, Disney and Pixar’s Luca will stream (at no extra cost) exclusively on Disney+ starting on Friday, June 18. Previously, it was set for a theatrical release on that date.
Other new release dates are Free Guy on August 13, 2021 (previously May 21); Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on September 3, 2021 (previously July 9); The King’s Man on December 22, 2021 (previously August 20); Deep Water on January 14, 2022 (previously August 13); and Death on the Nile on February 11, 2022 (previously September 17).
Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said, “Today’s announcement reflects our focus on providing consumer choice and serving the evolving preferences of audiences. By leveraging a flexible distribution strategy in a dynamic marketplace that is beginning to recover from the global pandemic, we will continue to employ the best options to deliver The Walt Disney Company’s unparalleled storytelling to fans and families around the world.”
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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?
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The Walt Disney Company announced a new movie release schedule, with Black Widow among the films getting rescheduled.
Black Widow is being shifted from November 6, 2020, to May 7, 2021. As for other moves among the current Marvel Studios slate, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings goes from May 7, 2021, to July 9, 2021; and Eternals moves from February 12, 2021, to November 5, 2021. Remaining in place, as far as we know, are Thor: Love and Thunder on February 11, 2022; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on March 25, 2022; and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Also, Black Panther 2 was scheduled for May 6, 2022, and officially remains there even with the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman.
As for other Disney films, the following moves have been made to release dates for 20th Century Studios releases: The Empty Man is now scheduled for October 23, 2020 (actually moved back from December 4, 2020); Death on the Nile was moved from October 9, 2020, to December 18, 2020; The King’s Man is now scheduled for February 12, 2021 (also moved back from February 26, 2021); Deep Water moved from November 13, 2020, to August 13, 2021; The Last Duel went from January 8, 2021, to October 15, 2021.
And Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story (also 20th Century Studios) was pushed back a year – from December 18, 2020, to December 10, 2021.
Pixar’s Soul remained at November 20, 2020.
While these moves are not surprising given the ongoing pandemic challenges, it’s nonetheless brutal news for movie theaters.
