Monthly Archives: July 2009
Scotty G’s Box Office Predictions – Weekend of July 31st
First – People like Apatow directed films. Just look at his previous two efforts:
2005 – The 40-Year-Old Virgin – Opening Weekend – $21.4 million//Final Gross – $109.4 million
2007 – Knocked Up – Opening Weekend – $30.6 million//Final Gross – $148.7 million
Second – Adam Sandler also has a strong following at the box office. Like him or not, his films make money. Just look at his previous two efforts, which many people don’t consider to be his best efforts:
2008 – You Don’t Mess With The Zohan – Opening Weekend – $38.5 million//Final Gross – $100 million
2008 – Bedtime Stories – Opening Weekend – $27.4 million//Final Gross – $110.1 million
The question is do people want to see a comedy-drama, with more emphasis on the drama, starring Adam Sandler? For the opening weekend, I will say they do. The film is good, but not great, and critics like, but do not love the film. It has a long running time of 2h20m for this type of film, but I think the star power is strong enough to have a decent opening. Opening in 3,008 theatres, I’m predicting Funny People to open with $38 million.
G-Force had a strong opening weekend, but will there be no repeat business. Kids will still want to see it, but I can’t see it doing well in its second weekend. I’m predicting a 55% drop for a gross of $14.2 million.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had a disturbing second week drop, which was the second highest in franchise history. Unfortunately, I think another big drop is going to happen this weekend. Even though it is still battling with G-Force as the kids film to see, the buzz has seemed to vanish from the film. Dropping 60%, I predict the film will gross $11.7 million.
The Ugly Truth had a great opening weekend, even though it finished in third place, but the question this weekend will be, do audiences want to see Funny People or The Ugly Truth? They are both going after the same demographic, so we’ll see what wins. I think The Ugly Truth will have a decent hold, and I’m predicting it to be the #4 film at the box office this weekend, with a 60% drop for a gross of $11 million.
In 5th spot, I’m predicting another new film to launch with disappointing results. Aliens in the Attic is being released by Fox, and I really have not seen much marketing for the film. I don’t think most people have even heard of it, to be honest, yet it is getting the widest release of any new release this weekend in 3,106 theatres. I’m predicting Fox will be very disappointed on Sunday, when they see that the film has only gross $8 million.
So to recap, here are my predictions:
1) Funny People – $38 million
2) G-Force – $14.2 million
3) Harry Potter/The Half-Blood Prince – $11.7 million
4) The Ugly Truth – $11 million
5) Aliens in the Attic – $8 million
Check back on Sunday to see how I did!
Trailer Time: Planet Hulk
Another Marvel trailer that appeared at Comic-Con this past weekend was for the animated adaptation Planet Hulk, originally written by Greg Pak. The mammoth story find our hero by the Marvel Universe Illuminati to an uninhabited planet where Hulk can get the alone time he’s always wanted. Things go awry and instead he winds up on a the wartorn planet of Sakaar.
Planet Hulk hits DVD and Blu-Ray in February 2010.
http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf
The Writer or The Character?: Andy Burns Mulls Charlie Huston’s Deathlok and Jonathan Maberry’s Black Panther
A few interesting things came out of Comic-Con this past weekend, including the revelation as to one of the big projects author Charlie Huston has coming up for Marvel.
You may recall in our interview with Huston (check it out here), Charlie mentioned that he has a few large projects on the go but that he wasn’t able to disclose any of the details at the time I spoke with him.
Well it turns out that Huston will be working on a 7 issue mini-series staring the cyborg Deathlok, illustrated by Lan Medina. Unlike Huston’s novels and some of his previous Marvel work, most notably Moon Knight, which are supernatural or crime based tales, Deathlok falls right into the realm of science fiction.
I have to admit, the announcement leaves me slightly disappointed, much the same way I felt when another of my favourite authors, Jonathan Maberry, announced that he would be taking over the reigns of the Black Panther series. I’ve never read any comic relating to Deathlok, and while I’ve given Black Panther a shot over the years, nothing about T’challa has ever really appealed to me (though perhaps things will be different with the new, female Black Panther). While both authors claim genuine affection for their respective characters, I’m not sure if my genuine affection for both writers is enough to make me lay down my dollars on characters that I either don’t know or don’t care about.
Personally, in the case of Maberry, I would have loved to see him continue his take on The Punisher. His recently released Punisher MAX: Naked Kill was one of the most brutal takes on the character I’ve read in a while, a realistic depiction of who Frank Castle is. It would have been cool to see where Maberry could go with the character (and maybe we’ll see something in the future). As for Huston and Deathlok, a sci-fi comic about a cyborg just doesn’t do it for me at all.
Does all this mean I won’t check out an issue of each to test the waters? That’s hard to say, and in some ways illustrates the differences in how I approach reading an author’s work. Over the past few years I’ve had no hesitancy in picking up new novels from either Charlie Huston or Jonathan Maberry. It never matters what the stories are about; I have faith in the authors and their abilities that I will likely enjoy whatever they’re creating in their books. But in the case of their respective new comics, dealing in characters I don’t care about, I just don’t feel enticed.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is that I can’t wait for Charlie Huston’s My Dead Body, the final Joe Pitt Casebook (due out this fall), and Jonathan Maberry’s second Joe Ledger novel, The Dragon Factory (out in 2010). Of course, if I need anything to read by either author in the meantime, I’ll know where to look.
Maybe.
Jimmy Fallon Visits Comic-Con
Jimmy Fallon, Stan Lee, and Comic-Con. Nuff said. Thanks to Pdawg for sending this over.
Tales from the Long Box Vol. 2 # 7: JP Revisits Green Lantern # 200
Every weekend this summer, we’ll be bringing you a new installment of a 12-part series of reviews of meaningful comics found in the collections of our writers. “Long Box” refers to the lengthy, white cardboard boxes most comics find themselves stored within – bagged, alphabetized and numerically ordered.
These reviews, then, are the tales of those collections: illuminating characters, artists, writers – even eras – in addition to the personalities of the very owners of those fine collections.
Green Lantern # 200
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artists: Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson
DC Comics
Evolution, in the comic book sense, is a strange thing. For periodicals that are generally published on a monthly basis, the evolution of a character, their world, their storylines can happen quicker than you can read an issue. Origins are revisited, rearranged and rewritten with a frequency greater than the number of Gods worshipped on Paradise Island. Love interests are as fickle as the Dark Knight’s detective skills are exacting. Arch villains come and go at a pace that would leave the Scarlet Speedster gasping for air and popularity is as fickle as the Man of Steel’s freeze breath is cold or heat vision is hot.
That’s just the way it is for comic book characters. Always has been . Always will be.
In 1940, legendary comic writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell created the Green Lantern. But this isn’t the Green Lantern you know today. No, Finger and Nodell’s creation was named Alan Scott, an engineer given the fantastical, magical power of a green lantern that emanated from a small ring, and employing a costume of green tights, red top and black cape. Interestingly, Nodell came up with the idea after watching a New York subway engineer stop trains for track maintenance by using a red lantern and then employing a green one to notify drivers that the track work was complete.
Initially a popular character, after World War II comic sales, in general, slipped and the Alan Scott Green Lantern series was cancelled.
In an attempt to breathe life into their stable of heroes, DC Comics engineered a revival of some of their characters, harkening the arrival of the silver age of comic book heroes in the process. Green Lantern was brought out of hibernation and, in true comic book spirit, he was renamed, redesigned and given a new potency for the post-war generation. Hal Jordan, as the Green Lantern, was born in 1959 in the pages of Showcase #22. A test pilot, Jordan seized upon the inherent fear of a cold-war era, wearing the green and black costume that fans around the world now recognize, once again becoming a popular character in the DC stable – a popularity that would ebb and flow for over twenty-five years. Still, Green Lantern was never able to crack into DC’s holy trinity of comic book characters: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Indeed, you could say that the trinity was formed by a collective world zeitgeist and not by the hand of the publishing company or the stories told by writers and artists.
Green Lantern #200 was published in early 1986 and was the concluding chapter of a historic run by writer Steve Englehart and artist Joe Staton. In their tale, they had reconfirmed the world of Hal Jordan and his role within the Green Lantern Corps, the interstellar police force that patrolled the known sectors of the universe. They had also brought secondary characters like Guy Gardner and John Stewart to the forefront, imbibing them with a personality, a history, and a comic book fan club of their own. In fact, Gardner would go on to star in Justice League through the late 1980’s and early 1990’s while Stewart would feature prominently in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon series (voiced by comedian Phil LaMarr) from 2001-2006, introducing him to a whole new audience.
The 200th issue of Green Lantern wraps up all the loose ends Englehart had been writing when he took over the series with issue #188. He was originally told by Dick Giordano, the editor of the series, that sales were stable – that nothing the publisher ever did could change the volume of sales for the comic. Within six months of taking over the reigns, Englehart and Staton were told that worldwide sales for the book had, in fact, doubled.
So what did these creators do to garner such a reaction from comicdom?
Englehart and Staton expanded the universe, showcasing more alien races, more alien worlds, more villains and a greater sense of mythology behind the Green Lanterns and the Green Lantern Corps. Green Lantern, the series, became a science fiction space opera – and fans loved it. In the 200th issue, the Guardians of the Universe ascend to another plane of existence and leave the various Lanterns to administer themselves – a wholesale change from the status quo that the world had become accustomed to. The title of the series would change in the very next issue, becoming Green Lantern Corps to reflect the wide diversity of the characters and the universe. It, too, was initially a huge hit with fans and would see Englehart and Staton continue the story of the Guardians ascension in the 8-issue mini series Millenium. (I actually wrote a Tales from the Longbox piece on that series which you can find here.)
Interestingly, the buzz around Green Lantern Corps would only last a few years as the series was cancelled with issue #224 in favour of placing Hal Jordan in a starring role in the new anthology series, Action Comics Weekly.
The world of comics is as circular as the ring the Green Lantern’s wear.
There’s been a resurgence for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern comic of late under the stewardship of writer extraordinaire Geoff Johns. Over the last five years, the monthly series has been one of DC’s top sellers, loved by readers and critics everywhere. Each story arc has been collected into a hardcover edition, a business decision made only for the best of comic books, while an “Absolute” version (an oversized hardcover with supplemental material and a slipcase – reserved for the cream of the crop of comic book tales) of Johns first Green Lantern tale, Rebirth, has been scheduled for 2010. Blackest Night, a storyline emanating from the pages of Green Lantern promises to affect the entire DC Universe and is now on sale while First Flight, the characters first animated movie, details the origin of Hal Jordon. The film goes on sale Tuesday, July 28.
Arguably, the biggest news for the franchise is that Ryan Reynolds has just been cast as the lead in a big-screen, big-budget, Green Lantern film, set for release in 2011.
The big “trinity” at DC Comics has always been Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. These days, there seems to be room at the top. Green Lantern has been able to cement his role among the pantheon of comic book royalty.
There seems to be a distinctly green glow around the DC offices of late as well as in the smiles and eyes of fans everywhere.
