Predicting the Movie Hits and Bombs of 2018

Watch "The Dreamers" - you'll get an eyeful of Green there!!!

 

The reviews are rolling in for Black Panther: 100% positive so far.

 

Yep, sounds like another blockbuster, these guys at Marvel are on fire! People need to stop doubting them, I learned my lesson after Antman, Dr. Strange, and Guardians of the Galaxy all were easily profitable even though I figured them for bombs when I first heard of them coming out. These guys just know what they’re doing and DC really needs some of their mojo because they are looking embarrassingly minor league in comparison. And I say that as a lifelong DC comics fan.

 

Salon's article on Black Panther from yesterday claims "Black Panther is the first blockbuster-format release featuring a black hero front and center"

Hmm, is Will Smith white? lol

I'm so looking forward to the new Mission Impossible and expect it will be a hit, Chris McQuarrie returning as director who hates Shaky-cam (the loudness wars of Movies) and Cruise doing even more insane stunts.

Here's a quick behind the scenes at the helicopter stunt...say what you want about the man's lifestyle (I'm not a fan) but this guy is truly entertaining and has giant bollocks.

 

They mean superhero.

 

I like Bruce Willis but......the Death Wish movies are all Charles Bronson. No one can top him in those movies.

 

Even then it doesn't make sense - Smith starred in "Hancock", a superhero movie.

And a big-budget, blockbuster-type superhero movie at that - it's not like "Hancock" was some cheapo effort that gets an asterisk compared to "Black Panther".

I'm pretty sure "Blade" counts as a black superhero, too...

 

As mentioned, Hancock was a superhero!

Hancock (film) - Wikipedia

"Hancock is a 2008 American superhero action comedy-drama film"

Production Budget: $150 million
Domestic: $227,946,274

Did they state they meant "super"hero or are you speaking on their behalf?

 

Of course they meant superhero -- they're writing about a superhero movie.

I thought you were talking about Will Smith's career in general. People are posting things to Salon like "What about Independence Day?"

Like Salon, I didn't recall the existence of Hancock. But.... would you really equate that with the Marvel and DC characters? Hancock isn't a familiar character from comic books, he's a 'made up', struggling superhero in a comedy. It's not really a typical superhero movie... Even if they're technically wrong, I think it's fair to say a black actor hasn't really been the lead in a superhero movie in the mold of Superman, Spider-Man, etc.

(Blade, to me, is more of a vampire slayer than a superhero. Those movies, while they're based on comics, have more in common with something like Underworld than they do with Captain America).

 

Salon's long-winded response:
The intention was to say that Chadwick Boseman was the first to star in a major adaptation of an iconic comics character in the current superhero-movie format.

 

HIT - "that's a lazy prediction"

 

Yawning .. Tomb Raider looks more enjoyable and I won't fall asleep.. on it..

 

Yeah, that's their way of saying "we screwed up but we don't want to admit it" - far too much rationalizing away their error.

If Black Panther was genuinely "iconic", then there wouldn't have been so much discussion about how obscure the character is...

 

I remember the character very well when Marvel introduced him in the 1960s and early 1970s (first in Fantastic Four). I think Luke Cage made a much bigger splash, but Black Panther was definitely in there. A comic book superhero has to actually start from a comic book, at least to me:

 

He's not an obscure character by any means, in fact he's central to the Marvel universe. Firstly he joined the Avengers quite early on, then he married Storm from the X-Men which was a big deal and he was also a member of The Illuminati. That's apart from his appearances in the FF and his own comics.

I would never call him an obscure character by any means.

 

"Central to the Marvel universe"? BP was never a character who could sell comics - he's stuck around but has never been one of the better-known characters.

BP is in the same category as Ant-Man: a lesser-known superhero. Crud, Ant-Man was a founding member of the Avengers but he's still clearly a lesser light!

 

Ant-Man was a lesser star, but Hank Pym (Ant-Man unmasked) evolved into Giant Man, Goliath and Yellow Jacket and had a long and integral role with the Avengers.

 

In terms of the general public, though, characters like BP, Ant-Man and the like had low recognition before their movies.

That's the topic that fits here: how well the "average Joe" knows the characters, not how well comic book fans know them...

 

Does an "average Joe" even know who The Avengers are (prior to the movies, of course)? I would not have thought so, but I never took a poll.

 

I think so - that's a comic series that was a success and a staple for years, one that featured many of Marvel's biggest stars.

"Avengers" wouldn't have the name recognition of the top tier characters like Spidey or Hulk, but I think it was very well-known pre-movies - maybe a little less than X-Men but still well-known...

 

You may be right, and I agree with your overall point about Ant-Man being relatively obscure and yielding an unexpected hit movie.

 

To me, "GotG" was the big surprise, as I think that's a team that non-fans had never heard of prior to the movies!

 

GotG was a title I was completely unfamiliar with at the time of the movie release, and I was a Marvel comic reader from about 1972-1977 and then just lost interest -like a lot of guys my age at the time.

 

Yeah, I don't think I'd heard of GotG either. I was a big comics guy through 1984 or so and sporadically after that - based on what I saw online, the "modern" GotG were after my time!

There was a 70s GotG but they were too early for me...

 

Although Black Panther was maybe a bit better known - as a moderate comic reader as a kid I knew who BP was but don't recall knowing about AM before the movie was announced. Never heard of GotG before the movie, either!