MarvelBlog News for February 18th, 2024

Corporate politics played a big part in the reason why, but we now know once and for all who the new Fantastic Four are.

I’m squarely of the opinion that if you remember the last Fantastic Four film, much of this discussion has been rubbish.

Still, let’s all be happy that this nonsense has ended as we discuss MarvelBlog News for February 18^th, 2024.

Madame Web Dies on the Vine

An unlikely battle unfolded this week in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

What started as a week of (theoretical) optimism for Madame Web quickly devolved into a race to the bottom.

Reviews for Madame Web proved so unkind that it found itself in a fight no film would welcome.

Madame Web tried to avoid the horrific fate of claiming a lower Rotten Tomatoes score than Morbius.

Some critics even joked that they wished it’d been Morbin’ time rather than…whatever Madame Web was trying to do.

As a reminder, Morbius fittingly debuted in theaters on April 1^st, 2022, and claimed a Tomatometer grade of 15 percent.

The Audience Score of 71 percent reflects a bit of internet irony, as the rating somehow increased thanks largely to a popular meme.

Still, 71 percent is godawful, and 15 percent is just…yikes.

So, how did Madame Web compare? Its Tomatometer score throws under Morbius at 13 percent!

Yes, that means that five out of every six critics hated the film.

As for the Audience Score, titles with female protagonists are often misrepresented on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently, Madame Web’s Audience Score of 54 percent is still a special kind of terrible, though.

We’ve known this was a bad film for a while now, and it’s not like Sony has any better ideas.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said El Muerto was back in play?

Sony can make lots of money from Spider-Man and some money from Venom.

After that, Sony’s Marvel Cinematic Universe wannabe performs like Uwe Boll is calling the shots.

About Madame Web’s Box Office

I’m gonna be as blunt as I ever am.

What we’ll remember as the highlight of Madame Web was star Dakota Johnson’s press tour.

The woman was born without a filter and provided honest answers to every ridiculous question about the film.

Along the way, the one thing Johnson never managed was to sell anyone on watching the title.

Not coincidentally, Madame Web has bombed with $23.4 million since its (weird) Valentine’s Day opening.

Oddly, nobody wanted to spend Valentine’s Day watching an atrocious movie. Go figure.

How bad is this total? Let’s remember that critics absolutely buried Disney when The Marvels opened at $46.1 million.

With this box office performance after six days of release, Madame Web isn’t certain to earn $46 million domestically.

The film could possibly manage that, but it’ll ultimately finish with a terrible box office result.

The only good news for Sony is that the film’s production budget is reportedly under $100 million.

So, the global box office breakeven point is likely around $300 million, although Sony will claim $250 million.

Is that attainable? Probably not. Still, it joins Morbius in not earning anywhere near enough money.

Morbius cost Sony $83 million but only grossed $167.5 million despite multiple releases.

Madame Web and Morbius also tied with the unforgivably low Cinemascore of C+, which means they’re both painfully bad.

At this point, the best thing that can happen for Marvel fans is for Disney to cut Sony a check to go away.

Finally Fantastic

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss Bachrach have been officially announced as the cast of ‘FANTASTIC FOUR’.

In theaters July 25, 2025. pic.twitter.com/NvuX0NHCKA

— Fantastic Four Updates (@F4Update) February 14, 2024

I’m as relieved about this next story as I’ve ever been about anything.

Disney finally confirmed the cast of Fantastic Four after last weekend’s “accidental” leak.

As I’d stated a couple of times recently, the reported cast was all but certain to be accurate this time.

I have no idea what happened behind the scenes – and am really looking forward to finding out – but this casting process proved chaotic.

Like, this is one of the strangest casting stories I’ve ever tracked, and I’ve been doing this for a quarter-century now.

Obviously, indecision has ruled the day at Marvel, as nobody can decide on the right director and script for this project.

Given how badly the Fox version bombed in 2015 – it earned the same as Morbius while costing 50 percent more – everyone felt the pressure.

Still, we finally know the core group who will lead Marvel’s First Family for the next decade, presuming all goes well.

Obviously, Pedro Pascal will portray Reed Richards.

Vanessa Kirby will join him as Sue Storm-Richards, a possibility I first discussed last April.

At one point, Margot Robbie (understandably) passed Kirby as the lead candidate, but I suspect she proved too pricey and busy.

So, we’re back to the beginning with her, underscoring how circuitous this casting route has proven.

Meanwhile, my beloved Ebon Moss-Bachrach of The Bear will portray The Thing, and my wife’s beloved Joseph Quinn will play Johnny Storm.

So, we’re getting some #JusticeforEddieMunson here.

Why Disney Waited Until Now…

The funny part of this announcement involves the timing.

Disney is currently warding off an activist investor bid for a Board of Directors seat.

The company knew that this individual would make their pitch on Valentine’s Day.

Disney buried that news by revealing the Fantastic Four cast on that day, which strikes me as more Doctor Doom than a superhero.

Still, the strategy has clearly worked. Fantastic Four, Deadpool, and Wolverine headlines have dominated the internet.

Meanwhile, we’ve barely heard a blip about Disney’s activist investor opponent.

In an odd bit of Marvel trivia, that person’s chief ally in his battle for a Board seat is none other than…Isaac Perlmutter.

Yes, the former owner of Marvel wants back in at Disney, but the company just called in the Fantastic Four to try to stop him.

Read into that what you will in terms of allegory.

As an aside, Marvel also confirmed an expected release date swap.

Thunderbolts will debut in theaters on May 2^nd, 2025, while Fantastic Four falls back to July 25^th, 2025.

Marvel Miscellany

In case you missed it, Deadpool 3 finally has a name…and a new batch of fans.

During the Super Bowl, the most-watched television event since the Moon Landing, Disney debuted a teaser for Deadpool and Wolverine.

The results were *ahem* positive, as the commercial claimed the most first-day views in the history of Hollywood.

Admittedly, that’s a relatively new statistic, but the previous record-holder was…Spider-Man: No Way Home.

I suspect that Marvel and Disney would be pretty happy with a $1.9 billion box office run, which Spidey achieved.

Since Deadpool and Deadpool 2 earned about $780 million each, that total feels…ambitious. But who knows?

More importantly, the MCU appears to have a blockbuster hit on its hands, which it sorely needs.

 

 

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