Sci-Fi Storm

Remember those tracking numbers that showed Disney had not done it’s job properly in advertising John Carter, resulting in a $200+ million loss for the studio? Well, the numbers are out for Disney’s first Marvel film for which it is doing the distribution, The Avengers – and it looks like it has nothing to worry about this time.

Deadline is reporting that tracking numbers are “incredibly strong” ahead of the May 4th U.S. release – with great numbers from both men and women, both young and old, and is looking at a possible $100+ million domestic opening weekend. Plus, it will open a week earlier in several international markets, which should increase the buzz.

Speaking of early international openings – Universal’s Battleship opened in 5 locations yesterday and received previews in 11 more, more than a month ahead of its May 18th U.S. debut – and it is reported that it is doing very well in those markets so far, estimating a take of $7.4 million for yesterday alone and taking the #1 spot in many cases.

Battleship, from Peter Berg, was another risky, expensive movie – numbers place it between $200-250 million – and after the failure of John Carter, some believe this had the potential to follow it as a massive bust. From the trailers, I get the impression of it being Battle: Los Angeles on water – buy I don’t know if it suffers from similar marketing to John Carter – action scenes without context or story. I can say, however, that I’m looking forward to The Avengers much more.

Even though many of Marvel’s characters live over at nearby Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure, Disney will be showing off some of them at Walt Disney World. To celebrate the upcoming movie The Avengers, WDW will be “wrapping” (covering with a durable but removable skin) one of their Monorail trainsets with an advertisement for the movie, similar to how they created the “Tron-o-rail” for the release of Tron: Legacy.

Monorail decorated for The Avengers - click to embiggen

It appears there are still some restrictions, though…word is this particular monorail will be restricted to the Magic Kingdom routes, and will not travel to Epcot – possibly because the beam track to Epcot actually runs within the park itself, which may violate the contract or agreement in place that restricts what can be done within the parks.

Here is the latest trailer for the Avengers (which in the UK is called Marvel Avengers Assemble!):

Check it out…the official trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 3D!

How do you handle the origin of a World War II era propaganda comic character, make him believable to contemporary audiences, and also set him up for him to appear in the present-day superhero team film coming up? You do what they did in Captain America: The First Avenger, which is out on [sfs=1162]Blu-ray[/sfs], [sfs=1161]Blu-ray 3D[/sfs], and [sfs=1163]DVD[/sfs] next Tuesday, October 25th.
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Thor just came out on [sfs=1165]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1166]DVD[/sfs] last week, and now his Avengers partner Captain America gets his time next month with the release of CAPTAIN AMERICA: The First Avenger in three formats: [sfs=1161]3-Disc Blu-ray 3D/2D, DVD and Digital Copy combo[/sfs], [sfs=1162]2-Disc Blu-ray 2D, DVD and Digital Copy combo[/sfs], and [sfs=1163]DVD[/sfs]. Read on to hear all about it.
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The Hollywood Reporter’s cover story this week is about the upcoming Marvel super-hero movie Thor, directed by director/actor Kenneth Branagh, and how the director has staked his career on the $150 million production. Thanks to THR, here is the whole article:
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Jon Favreau, who brought Iron Man to the screen twice to large box offices and bringing comic-based movies back to the forefront, has told Marvel Studios he will not return for Iron Man 3. I’m sure we’ll get an official reason from one or both sides soon (and will likely step around the issue), but the street-word is that it was either the studio wanting to throw in a bunch of other Marvel heroes into the movie in the hopes of seeding more spinoffs (I thought that was what The Avengers was for?), and/or Favreau’s price tag this time around. And with Marvel now owned by Disney (they paid $4 billion for Marvel, and another $115 million to Paramount to fully own the rights to Iron Man 3 and The Avengers), Disney dislikes the idea of too many gross-based contracts skimming off their money.

Let me throw out another idea – rather than throwing in more heroes to seed more movies, Disney may want to take advantage of their ownership to seed their theme parks, which thus far have not benefited from the acquisition and thanks to Universal Orlando’s open-ended contact for a number of the major characters (Spider-Man, The Hulk, etc.), Disney would need to raise visibility of some to be able to capitalize.

Favreau will still work with Disney in the near-term, however – he’s working on the tentatively-titled Magic Kingdom project, which deals with a family trapped in the Disney park at night – where the the characters come to life.

Update: Jon Favreau confirmed the news on Twitter.

Marvel/Paramount released a new trailer for Thor yesterday. Wow!

Thor will be released on May 6th, 2011.

Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) and David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) are creating a new TV series for The Hulk for Marvel TV and ABC Studios. It is del Toro’s first TV project (he previously had a first look deal with 20th TV, which apparently didn’t pan out), for which he will share story and created by credits with Eick, who will write the screenplay. Both will exec produce, with del Toro also directing if his schedule permits. Launch of the series is slated to occur after The Avengers (which features the Hulk) is released in theaters in July 2012, although it does not seem as if there will be a direct tie in, especially since they are aiming for a younger Bruce Banner. This Hulk will also not be 100% CGI, but a combination of CGI, prosthetics, and puppetry.