2018 top movies of summer... early discussion

[JasonEvans]

(snip)Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Solo: A Star Wars Movie
Jurassic World 2
Incredibles 2
(snip)

Trying to figure out why folks think that picking a top 5 out of that group is going to be easy...

None of the other movies you list -- MI6, The Predator, Ant Man 2, and so on -- are going to come close to those 5. They are each going to make $300+ million and none of the rest seem likely to pass $250 mil.

-Jason "But, I would have said the odds of Justice League earning $100 mil less than Jumanji were pretty close to zero, so I could easily be wrong" Evans

[PackMan97]

Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Solo: A Star Wars Movie
(That's just May)

Jurassic World 2
Incredibles 2
Oceans 8 (I won't be voting for it, but it will make $)
(That's June)

MI6
Ant-Man/Wasp
Alita: Battle Angel (lots of people I know are geeking out over this)
(That's July)

The Predator (If it's good, it will cash in)
The Meg (sounds stupid, but it has Jason Statham)
(That's August)

Hell, 4 of my top 5 are very likely to be super hero movies. Trying to figure out why folks think that picking a top 5 out of that group is going to be easy, and it doesn't include the random "come outta nowhere" movie, which I could make one or two guesses for.

Oh...I forgot one more.
Barbie!!! Like, hell yeah! Total top 5 lock there.

Avengers - Mortal Lock - Could even surpass expectations if Black Panther is as awesome as I think it will be
Deadpool 2 - The first one was $300 million+, no reason for this one not to excel
Jurassic World 2 - Mortal Lock - only question is who finished first, Avengers or Jurassic?
Incredibles 2 - First movie was $261 million and that was 13 years ago. Will probably break $300 million
Solo - See previous discussion about even crappy Star Wars movies have made $$$$$$.

Oceans 8 - Declining box office in each of the sequels. This has about as much of a chance as Clemson playing in Chapel Hill.
M:I 6 - They've been stuck in the ~$200 million range...any reason for a breakthrough here?
Ant-Man & Wasp - Only did $180 million domestically. Not sure this will be the breakout hit of the summer. Lowest grossing MCU since the original Captain America...even if it was a huge hit for an unknown property. Do you think it will have a Guardians sized breakout?
Alita: Battle Angel - Saying folks are "geeking out", means its a niche audience. No chance.
Predator - Wake me when one of these break $100 million
The Meg - Umm..No.

[PackMan97]

None of the other movies you list -- MI6, The Predator, Ant Man 2, and so on -- are going to come close to those 5. They are each going to make $300+ million and none of the rest seem likely to pass $250 mil.

The only one I'd give a shot at it is Ant Man 2 if excitement from Black Panther and Infininty War can drive folks to that movie...but that said, the first Ant Man was a much smaller scale (no pun intended) movie for the MCU. We'll have to see how the first two MCU movies do this year.

It really seems like Marvel has got things lined up so they are sequels/not sequels. You liked Bucky in Winter Soldier? Hey...look he's in Civil War and probably Black Panther and Infinity War. What's this Black Panther that gets a solo movie? Let's introduce him ahead of time in Civil War so you can warm up to him, and if that's not enough of a reason to see the movie, let's drop an Infinity War trailer that heavily features Wakanda and the Black Panther...so if you want to know more...go see all the movies.

[left_hook_lacey]

This would be comparable to the Avengers and movies of the individual superheroes.

I think that proves my point sort of. Marvel pumps those movies out as fast as they can because they know good, bad, or ugly, people are still gonna go see them. I expect the comic book genre to start to lose some of it's staying power soon too because of over saturation. Some of the titles in recent years haven't been as good as say, the first Spiderman that started the whole craze.

I guess I just thought of Star Wars as more sacred than that, since in the past, so much time, effort, and thought went into them.

It's sort of like if George R.R. Martin, who has been writing GOT's since the early 90's, had sold the rights to Stephanie Myer to finish up the series, which she did in a year. And then, the TV rights taken from HBO and given to SYFY.

[JasonEvans]

Marvel pumps those movies out as fast as they can because they know good, bad, or ugly, people are still gonna go see them.

Can you name a Marvel movie that was bad or ugly? Thor: The Dark World was about as close as Marvel comes to a bad film, and that was still better than a heck of a lot of stuff that makes it to theaters these days. You are right that Disney has ramped up the speed of Star Wars films in a big way, but that was to be expected when they paid $4 billion for the rights to the Star Wars movies. Speed does not have to mean lower quality... if anything Marvel is proof of that.

-Jason "Disney needs to pay $200 mil to put Kevin Fegie in charge of Star Wars movies... it would soooooo be worth it" Evans

[PackMan97]

It's sort of like if George R.R. Martin, who has been writing GOT's since the early 90's, had sold the rights to Stephanie Myer to finish up the series, which she did in a year. And then, the TV rights taken from HBO and given to SYFY.

Please, make this happen. Martin started A Song of Fire and Ice in 1991. It's now 27 freaking years later! I used to worry about Martin dying before he finished it, but now I worry that I will die before he finishes it!

[left_hook_lacey]

Please, make this happen. Martin started A Song of Fire and Ice in 1991. It's now 27 freaking years later! I used to worry about Martin dying before he finished it, but now I worry that I will die before he finishes it!

Ha ha ha. Well, luckily, HBO just took their own liberties with the story and will be finishing theirs up soon. So, you'll get two different endings...someday.

[left_hook_lacey]

Can you name a Marvel movie that was bad or ugly? Thor: The Dark World was about as close as Marvel comes to a bad film, and that was still better than a heck of a lot of stuff that makes it to theaters these days. You are right that Disney has ramped up the speed of Star Wars films in a big way, but that was to be expected when they paid $4 billion for the rights to the Star Wars movies. Speed does not have to mean lower quality... if anything Marvel is proof of that.

-Jason "Disney needs to pay $200 mil to put Kevin Fegie in charge of Star Wars movies... it would soooooo be worth it" Evans

I get what you're saying, I do. I guess that's why I originally compared pumping them out for money to Transformers rather than Marvel.

As far as Marvel goes, I personally didn't like any of the Hulk movies, especially the second one. He's a supporting hero at best. Hard to build a franchise around something that barely speaks and just smashes things. But they tried.

I never saw The Dark World for just that reason. I went to my go-to nerd friends who all said it was the worst Marvel movie ever made. Seeing as how I'm not a terribly huge fan of the comic book movies anyway, I saved my money on that one. I do enjoy the Iron man movies, mostly because of Robert Downy Jr.

I loved Dead Pool. They could make those instead of Avengers 36: Let's roll em out again or Captain America: Here we go again.

[PackMan97]

I get what you're saying, I do. I guess that's why I originally compared pumping them out for money to Transformers rather than Marvel.

As far as Marvel goes, I personally didn't like any of the Hulk movies, especially the second one. He's a supporting hero at best. Hard to build a franchise around something that barely speaks and just smashes things. But they tried.

I never saw The Dark World for just that reason. I went to my go-to nerd friends who all said it was the worst Marvel movie ever made. Seeing as how I'm not a terribly huge fan of the comic book movies anyway, I saved my money on that one. I do enjoy the Iron man movies, mostly because of Robert Downy Jr.

I loved Dead Pool. They could make those instead of Avengers 36: Let's roll em out again or Captain America: Here we go again.

There won't be any more Hulk movies, and it wasnt' really a Marvel movie. Universal owns the rights to stand alone Hulks, but Marvel has the rights to use him in any "team up" movies (like Avengers, Thor, etc). Keep in mind that Thor was the second MCU movie right after Iron Man and was released just when the MCU was getting off the ground.

[cato]

I get what you're saying, I do. I guess that's why I originally compared pumping them out for money to Transformers rather than Marvel.

As far as Marvel goes, I personally didn't like any of the Hulk movies, especially the second one. He's a supporting hero at best. Hard to build a franchise around something that barely speaks and just smashes things. But they tried.

I never saw The Dark World for just that reason. I went to my go-to nerd friends who all said it was the worst Marvel movie ever made. Seeing as how I'm not a terribly huge fan of the comic book movies anyway, I saved my money on that one. I do enjoy the Iron man movies, mostly because of Robert Downy Jr.

I loved Dead Pool. They could make those instead of Avengers 36: Let's roll em out again or Captain America: Here we go again.

Which Disney movies have you seen in the past, say, five years that were meaningless money grabs like the Transformers sequels?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

There won't be any more Hulk movies, and it wasnt' really a Marvel movie. Universal owns the rights to stand alone Hulks, but Marvel has the rights to use him in any "team up" movies (like Avengers, Thor, etc). Keep in mind that Thor was the second MCU movie right after Iron Man and was released just when the MCU was getting off the ground.

Thor is my least favorite Avenger, and I don't care for the first two solo movies (haven't seen the third, but it looks more fun). I prefer the more (obviously not entirely) "reality based" heroes who are based on science or a gimmick. Iron Man, Batman, etc strike me as more entertaining to watch than Superman, with his overwhelming strength or Thor, who is a god on Earth.

That's my personal preference, and obviously millions of people disagree with me when buying movie tickets.

Guardians of the Galaxy is an outlier for me, likely because it seems to embrace the ludicrous nature of its characters.

[bjornolf]

Is Thor a god in these movies, or just a super tough alien with advanced technology?

[left_hook_lacey]

Is Thor a god in these movies, or just a super tough alien with advanced technology?

My wife sure seems to think he's a God.

[elvis14]

My wife sure seems to think he's a God.

LOL, she's not alone in that regard!

[cato]

My wife sure seems to think he's a God.

My wife is not into comic book movies. At all. I haven’t even been able to get Wonder Woman into the rotation.

And yet, somehow, we have seen the first two Thor movies several times. Funny how that works.

[JasonEvans]

The first trailer for Ant Man & The Wasp has dropped... Looks pretty good (can the MCU do anything wrong?).

[wilson]

The comic book movie phenomenon, generally speaking, has just left me cold. I loved the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, but other than that, I'm very "meh." Iron Man has put me to sleep more than once (including in the theater one time), I couldn't get into Avengers or X-Men, and then when people told me that Guardians of the Galaxy was kooky and offbeat and lots of fun, I spent the last hour of the film checking my watch.
So here's my question: Which of the superhero films from the explosion of the last ~decade should I really not miss? Are there any that might have a better chance of grabbing me, or am I just not that into them? I love going to the movies, but I've thus far been unable to muster any enthusiasm for the DC and Marvel vehicles.

[JasonEvans]

The comic book movie phenomenon, generally speaking, has just left me cold. I loved the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, but other than that, I'm very "meh." Iron Man has put me to sleep more than once (including in the theater one time), I couldn't get into Avengers or X-Men, and then when people told me that Guardians of the Galaxy was kooky and offbeat and lots of fun, I spent the last hour of the film checking my watch.
So here's my question: Which of the superhero films from the explosion of the last ~decade should I really not miss? Are there any that might have a better chance of grabbing me, or am I just not that into them? I love going to the movies, but I've thus far been unable to muster any enthusiasm for the DC and Marvel vehicles.

X-men, Avengers, Guardians, Iron Man... you've just named most of the best films in the genre and it does not seem like any of them were even passable for you. I think these films are just not for you.

I'm not a huge Wonder Woman fan, but in terms of tone it probably comes closest to the Dark Knight films. You clearly do not enjoy Marvel's most humorous direction with superhero flicks... Cap: Winter Soldier may also be worth a look.

-Jason "knowing what you like and don't like is a good thing" Evans

[luburch]

The comic book movie phenomenon, generally speaking, has just left me cold. I loved the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, but other than that, I'm very "meh." Iron Man has put me to sleep more than once (including in the theater one time), I couldn't get into Avengers or X-Men, and then when people told me that Guardians of the Galaxy was kooky and offbeat and lots of fun, I spent the last hour of the film checking my watch.
So here's my question: Which of the superhero films from the explosion of the last ~decade should I really not miss? Are there any that might have a better chance of grabbing me, or am I just not that into them? I love going to the movies, but I've thus far been unable to muster any enthusiasm for the DC and Marvel vehicles.

I think Logan has been the best Superhero movie to date. Maybe Deadpool, but that's not everyone's cup of tea.

[brevity]

The comic book movie phenomenon, generally speaking, has just left me cold. I loved the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, but other than that, I'm very "meh." Iron Man has put me to sleep more than once (including in the theater one time), I couldn't get into Avengers or X-Men, and then when people told me that Guardians of the Galaxy was kooky and offbeat and lots of fun, I spent the last hour of the film checking my watch.
So here's my question: Which of the superhero films from the explosion of the last ~decade should I really not miss? Are there any that might have a better chance of grabbing me, or am I just not that into them? I love going to the movies, but I've thus far been unable to muster any enthusiasm for the DC and Marvel vehicles.

I don’t know your tastes, but I will guess that The Dark Knight trilogy appealed to you because it broke free of the genre. They were more like vigilante crime movies that happened to have a few DC Comics characters.

If that’s true, then maybe Ant-Man is worth your time. It’s a heist comedy that happens to have a scientifically enhanced motorcycle suit. It feels only tangentially connected to the other Marvel movies.