If there is any indication that blockbuster season has brought a lull to the industry it's the fact that the biggest story in movies is still an announcement from July. Before that though here's how the weekly box office shook out.
- Deadpool & Wolverine (Weekend Gross £12.6 million)
- Despicable Me 4 (Weekend Gross £3.1 million)
- Twisters (Weekend Gross £1.5 million)
- Inside Out 2 (Weekend Gross £1.1 million)
- Longlegs (Weekend Gross £723,000)
Yep, as expected Deadpool and Wolverine cleaned house on it's opening weekend giving Marvel Studios it's biggest opening in two years. A badly needed boost to the company that's been struggling post-Endgame, post-pandemic, post-losing multiple stars for a variety of reason. In the family market Despicable Me 4 continues to dominate on the basic of strong IP reconition and broad appeal. Love 'em or hate 'em the Minions are as ubiquitous as it comes and will likely keep Dreamworks drowning in merch money for the next few years.
The only real surprise of this weeks Box Office contenders is Longlegs continuing it's respectable run for a mid-budget horror. While other contenders this year such as MaXXXine and Abigail couldn't get out of cinemas fast enough. Turns out leaving a good film running long enough for busy people to actually catch a screen yields better profits than a lightning-fast run followed by a dump onto streaming.
Downey, Herald of Marvel's Doomsday
Shockingly the biggest news of this week is probably something that feels old at this stage in the news cycle (that stage been a mere six days later). San Diego Comic Con 2024 turned out to be a bumper event for Marvel, amid the early box office projections for Deadpool & Wolverine, an all-star panel for Captain America: Brave New World and the news that the Russo Brothers would be returning to direct the next two Avengers films. The centrepiece though was their coverage of the upcoming Fantastic Four film due in July 2025. Attendees were the first to learn the official release date as well as the intruigung title of Fantastic Four: First Steps. They also got to see some early footage which proved that the film would be partially set in an alternate history version of the 1960s.
However the Fantastic Four are almost inseperable from their recurring Marvel villain Victor Von Doom and the studio pulled out all the stops to reveal him in all his glory. A masked figure in green marched onto the stage, flanked by minions before pulling it off to reveal that the iconic character would be played by none other than Robert Downey Jr, last seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe dying heroicly after a decade long stint playing Iron Man.
It was a move the elicited excitement and confusion among fans. Comic book afficiandos began wildly speculating on how the franchise would connect the deceased tech-billionaire superhero to the ruler of Latvaria. More cynical commentators remarked on what a desperate move it was from a studio that had been floundering for the last few years. While elsewhere on the internet a certain flavour of fan was up in arms that Marvel had so casually dicarded the Kang Dynasty, which I guess they were now suddenly invested in.
The truth was that this was indeed something of a desperate move on the part of Marvel. While Deadpool & Wolverine would likely put them back in the black, the comic book movie studio, more than any other, thrives on a consistent prescence in the zeitgeist. Marvel relies heavily on a dedicated community of bloggers and journalists to analyse and speculate on its moves. A nerd industrial complex pouring over decades of comics to predict, explain and react to their every move. The announcement of Downey's return is the spark that community needs to get its fires not just lit but roaring hot.
And Marvel needs those fires hot again because after the slam dunk that was Avenger's Endgame, the studio has been struggling to decide on its next move. Promising new heroes like Shang Chi and Ms Marvel don't seem to have been given the space to make a name for themselves. Yelena Belova (AKA new Black Widow) has been shackled to the upcoming Thunderbolts film. The studio's attempt at serialised streaming has had diminishing returns while the films themselves seem to have been getting progressively worse. What's worse two actors who were intended to be the lynchpin of the franchise for the next decade are no longer available. Chadwick Boseman, now immortalised as the hero Black Panther, tragically died in 2020. While the actor portraying the new Thanos-level villain Kang was publicly convicted of assault in 2023.
Marvel needed to pull out something big, something that would set the stage for the future of the MCU so they went back to an actor that had helped elevate the franchise into the behemoth it is now. Bringing Downey back is the perfect storm of safe, relaible options that would also set the media ablaze and let them dominate industry headlines again. For me personally it is disappointing to not see one of the biggest entities in filmmaking try to bring in some new blood. Relying on increasingly aging established actors is the reason the Indiana Jones franchise has become such a bloated, hollow parody of itself. It's the reason IP is so much of a bigger factor in the industry than star power.
Plus, it's hard to not see this as having a jarring effect when it comes time to actually watch Doom onscreen. The immersion broken by constantly wondering when/if they're going to explain why he looks and sounds so much like Tony Stark.
In short last week's major announcement accomplished what it needed to for Marvel Studios. For people who wanted a well-crafted comic book story, well, they were left still wanting.
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