No End in Sight for Endgame
In its second weekend in cinemas, Avengers: Endgame continued to dominate the box office, grossing $147,3 million. According to an article by Box Office Mojo, Marvel and Disney’s latest superhero spectacle earned over $619 million domestically in only twelve days. Endgame also already grossed over $2 billion globally, making this the second-largest global release of all time, just after James Cameron’s 2009 science fiction blockbuster Avatar. Apparently, 22 movies and eleven years of hype keep delivering dividends for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In comparison, the remaining four movies in the top five spots at the weekend box office are far more modest. In the second place is the newly released psychological thriller The Intruder with $10,8 million. Michael Ealy (Underworld: Awakening) and Meagan Good (Shazam!) portray a happily married couple confronted by the former owner of their house, portrayed by Dennis Quaid (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). In the third place with $9,7 million is another newcomer – Long Shot. In this romantic comedy, Seth Rogen (The Disaster Artist) stars as a political journalist falling in love with an ambitious politician played by Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road). Yet another newcomer is in the fourth place: CGI-animated musical comedy Uglydolls grossed $8,6 million in its first weekend in cinemas. Finally, in the fifth place of the weekend box office is Captain Marvel, with $4,3 million.
Disney’s Epic Movie Lineup
Thanks to its recent $71 billion merger with Fox, Disney now controls a lion’s share of the domestic movie market. As seen on Deadline, this week executives at the Mouse House announced Disney movie projects planned for the next eight years. Although fairly impressive, this schedule isn’t all that surprising. In short: it’s all about franchises.
Starting with 2022, every second year we will see a new Star Wars film released on weekends just before Christmas. In the past, Disney executives stated they’ll produce at least two Star Wars movie series besides the Skywalker saga: one headed by the director of The Last Jedi Rian Johnson and the other one developed by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Furthermore, there are also James Cameron’s Avatar sequels – once again postponed, but not by much. The first Avatar sequel comes out in December 2021. From then until 2027, new Avatar movies will arrive in cinemas every second year around the holidays. In addition, there’s a number of currently unnamed Marvel movie projects. Fox/Marvel’s New Mutants comes out in April 2020. There’s no mention of Channing Tatum’s passion project Gambit. Moreover, a fifth Indiana Jones film is in the works – Yikes! – as well as a third Kingsman movie. Finally, the list mentions a whole bunch of untitled Disney live-action projects – most probably live-action versions of Disney’s classic animated films.
The CW Picks Up Batwoman, Nancy Drew and Katy Keene
This week, Variety reported that The CW picked up three of its new pilots to series: Batwoman, Katy Keene and Nancy Drew. Lost Boys — a TV show based on a Joel Schumacher’s 1987 horror comedy — remains in development. AS for all the other The CW’s superhero shows, the network already renewed them in January.
As portrayed by the actress Ruby Rose (John Wick: Chapter 2), Batwoman first appeared on Arrow during the 2018 Elseworlds crossover event. Now she’s getting a series of her own where she’ll defend Gotham City against various super villains. Caroline Dries (Smallville, The Vampire Diaries) will be the show’s chief writer. Additionally, Dries will serve as the show’s executive producer along Arrowverse mastermind Greg Berlanti, Game of Thrones veteran David Nutter and former CCO of DC Entertainment Geoff Johns.
Katy Keene will be the second Riverdale spin-off — after Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The show will focus on the misadventures of an aspiring fashion designer Katy (Lucy Hale) who meets Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray) as they both move to the big city to follow their dreams. CCO of Archie Comics Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will helm this show just like he already does with Riverdale and Sabrina. Finally, there’s Nancy Drew, a TV series based on the classic series of kids’ mystery novels, featuring Kennedy McMann in the lead role.
