Hard disagree. The Last Jedi is a masterpiece. The Force Awakens is pretty great. The Rise of Skywalker is the result of an overreaction to the insane backlash of a very vocal group of fans following the release of The Last Jedi.
It is such a perfect send off to Luke Skywalker. He halts an entire army with the mere image of his ideal Jedi form and wins the day completely nonviolently.
An absolutely brilliant Luke moment.
The elusion of progress.
In 2016 Andre De Grasse ran the 100m exactly as Jesse Owen’s did in 1936. Same spikes, track, set-up. A top 3, 2016 sprinter could not beat the physiology of 1936 (10.3 100m). De Grasse ran a 9.89 in 2020. https://t.co/3ncoE8Qwet
Captain America: Brave New World didn't make its money back. Thunderbolts didn't either. Joker 2 lost Warner Bros $144 million. Kraven cost Sony another $71 million. Superman was supposed to clear $700 million worldwide to be called a hit. It finished at $619 million.
So for their next DC movie, Warner Bros spent $40 million. That movie is Clayface. James Gunn dropped the trailer yesterday. It opens October 23. Same studio as Superman, same shared movie universe, same decade, about one-sixth the budget.
Superman cost $225 million to make and another $125 million to market. It took in $619 million worldwide. After theaters took their cut, Warner Bros walked away with roughly $125 million in profit. A 35% return on a $350 million bet, on the best-performing superhero movie of the year. Marvel used to clear over a billion dollars on films that cost less than Superman did.
Clayface cost $40 million. It's a horror movie about a struggling actor whose face gets cut up in a knife attack. He tries an experimental treatment to fix it. His whole body starts turning into clay. Two-month shoot in England. Halloween release. Built like a Blumhouse movie.
Which matters because Blumhouse has been running the most profitable studio in Hollywood for over a decade. Last year's Speak No Evil cost $15 million and made $43 million. Get Out cost $4.5 million and made $255 million. The original Paranormal Activity cost $15,000 (not a typo) and made $194 million. Across around 200 films, Blumhouse has grossed over $5.7 billion.
James Gunn and Peter Safran are running DC on a 10-year plan. Two $225 million superhero films a year would bleed them dry. Two $40 million horror films that each clear $100 million is actually a business.
The Clayface poster shows half a face dripping into clay. The budget behind it tells the bigger story: the kind of movie that ruled the 2010s can barely cover its own bills now, and a Batman villain horror flick made on Blumhouse money might out-earn the next $225 million superhero movie.
This is so strange to me. LeBron is 41 years old. Why are you still playing? Like just go away. It tells me there's more to this story. He knows once he retires that little club he is a part of is going to want something in return