Wakanda Fever

Black Panther opened over the weekend and did "okay" at the box office...

Black Panther is king with $387 million at the global box office! Marvel Studios‘ Black Panther is king at the global box office with an estimated $387 million through Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday! 

The film opened to an estimated $192 million domestically for the three-day portion of the weekend from 4,020 theaters, an average of $47,767 per location, and is expected to gross $218.2 million through Monday. The $192 million figure is the highest debut ever for a February film (beating Deadpool‘s $132.4 million from 2016) and the fifth-highest opening weekend of all time. Black Panther received an A+ CinemaScore from audiences. 

Internationally, Black Panther has brought in $169 million since beginning its overseas rollout on Wednesday, February 13, bringing its worldwide total to $361 million through Sunday. Including Monday’s domestic estimate, that total climbs to $387 million.

I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. I think this is the first of many records this film is going to break.

Marvel Movies: Phase Three

Not to be outdone by DC announcing their recent slate of upcoming movies, Marvel Studios went ahead and announced their next phase of movies today at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.



Of note is that the 3rd Avengers movie will be split into two parts (Hello, wads-o-cash!), there will be a Captain Marvel movie (the female version, which I was unaware was even a thing), and a Black Panther movie (never heard of him, but Marvel fans seemed to be psyched).

So, there's that.

Still, kind of awesome.

Here's more info…

At a live event at Disney’s El Capitan Theater in Hollywood today, Marvel Studios officially announced the titles of several of their previously untitled movies. After Warner Bros. surprised fans a couple weeks ago by announcing several DC Comics movies at a shareholders meeting, many had speculated correctly that today’s fan event would be Marvel’s turn to tout their upcoming releases. Marvel Studios officially announced the following movie titles and release dates. 

2015: May 1: The Avengers: Age of Ultron 
         July 17: Ant-Man 

2016: May 6: Captain America 3
          November 4: Doctor Strange 

2017: May 5: Guardians of the Galaxy 2
          July 28: Thor: Ragnarok 
          November 3: Black Panther 

2018: May 4: The Avengers: Infinity War, Part One
          July 6: Captain Marvel 
          November 2: Inhumans 

2019: May 3: The Avengers: Infinity War, Part Two



Ms. Marvel doesn't have an "M" on her suit.

How am I supposed to know who she is?

Get that lady an M, stat!

The Ant-Man cometh

The final poster was released for Ant-Man recently and, along with that, news that Ant-Man will be appearing along with MANY other Marvel heroes in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie...

Disney announced the cast for what could be the most comic book character-loaded Marvel movie yet. Captain America: Civil War will have (as it stands now) up to 16 comic book characters in its cast. It’s almost the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe — well, besides Thor and Hulk. 



But now onto the massive cast. Here’s who’s returning, plus the new players, along with their rumored roles: 

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes/War Machine, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man,  Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Daniel Brühl who recently revealed he’ll be playing Baron Helmut Zemo (but Marvel does not confirm this in the press release), Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, William Hurt as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, Martin Freeman who is rumored to be playing Everett K. Ross

Lordy...that really is just about everyone and it's also likely that Spider-Man is going to show up in this one too.

::mind blown::

I'm in.

Underoos!

The final Captain America: Civil War trailer was released today and a certain arachnid Avenger shows up on the scene...



This one is definitely more action-packed than the last trailer and, besides Spider-Man, features a bit more Black Panther and  Ant-Man.

It's looking really good.

May 6th...your money is on the dresser.

Your time

A new trailer for Black Panther was released today....



Now THAT'S an action-packed trailer!

I don't know much about this character, but I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie when it comes out on February 16th!

Stan Lee

Very sad news today...

Stan Lee, the public face of Marvel Comics and co-creator of iconic superheroes such as Spider-Man, Thor, and Black Panther, has passed away at age 95. 

Born Stanley Lieber in 1922, Lee began his career in comics as a gofer/Guy Friday, thanks to his uncle Robbie Solomon. His roots at Marvel go back to 1939, when the company was still called Timely Comics. He worked his way up from small fill-in writing assignments to becoming an increasingly important figure, eventually becoming editor-in-chief in 1941. After Timely became Atlas and the WWII-era superhero fad cooled, Lee worked on romance, monster, and cowboy comics. 

Lee’s crowning triumph came when the publisher was at the brink of failure in the late 1950s. He was given carte blanche to try out new superhero concepts and, in collaboration with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other artists, delivered the building blocks of what would later become the Marvel Universe in 1961. The Marvel approach was to humanize its superheroes, giving them flaws and foibles that felt fresh in comparison to the prevailing execution from rival DC Comics. Marvel’s success was synonymous with the Stan Lee name, and the words “Stan Lee Presents” preceded story title and company pronouncements for decades. 

When Marvel hit hard times and declared bankruptcy in 1998, the company voided Lee’s contract. The move was seen as a disrespectful dismissal to one of the company’s founding fathers and Marvel’s corporate leadership eventually signed Lee back on as a symbolic figurehead, cutting him a hefty seven-figure salary and participation on any profits made from TV and movie adaptations. 



He continued as a jovial presence at conventions for decades—including a Los Angeles-based gathering once branded as Stan Lee’s Comikaze—and began making cameos in the blockbuster movies based on the characters he helped birth.

He had an amazing life and ended up making a long-lasting career out of creating iconic comic characters that have become such an integral part of the entertainment industry and Pop Culture to this day.

He will be missed, but remembered for a VERY long time.

And beyond

Avengers: Infinity War has crossed a pretty major financial milestone in a very short amount of time...

Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War has officially crossed the $2 billion worldwide box office mark, joining only three other titles to make that claim: Avatar ($2.78 billion), Titanic ($2.18 billion) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.06B). 

Infinity War worldwide is Marvel’s highest release ever topping 2012’s Avengers ($1.5 billion), and followed by Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.4 billion) and Black Panther ($1.345 billion). Infinity War completes the feat in its 48th day of release. 

Stateside, it’s still going strong, taking 5th place in weekend 7 with $7.2M for a running total of $656.1M, the fifth highest grossing title of all time through June 11. Pic holds the record for biggest domestic debut ever with $257.7M in its opening weekend. 

Internationally, Infinity War is the third highest grossing release ever with $1.346B. Its domestic and international debuts over the April 27 weekend combined for a record-shattering global opening of $640.5M even without China. The film opened to a massive $199.3M in China two weeks after the global debut and has gone on to become the third biggest release ever in the country with $369.7M to date.

I wonder if Marvel would just divert the interest payments for these films into my bank account?

They'd barely notice the difference.

But, I definitely would.

Cat's in the cradle

The first poster for the upcoming Marvel film, Black Panther, was released today.

Very Game of Thrones-y.

Here's the first trailer...



Looks pretty badass so far!

The movie slinks into theaters on February 16th.

Catnips

Black Panther joins Captain America and Iron Man on the upcoming new cover of Entertainment Weekly to promote Captain America: Civil War.

I don't know anything about that character, other than the fact that I know he's scheduled to have his own movie in a few years.



So...it should be interesting to find out what powers he has (giant claws and wielding an ancient scratching post?) and how he fits into the whole Marvel Universe.