Screen Geek (Frank Palmer) claims Black Bolt (played by Anson Mount) will appear in Doctor Strange 2. If true, the number of cameos for the film continues to climb and a character like this would clearly be killed or pushed to the side almost immediately (there's simply no time to spend on him). I think the point of this is to try and add value to IP by attaching it to the MCU umbrella--I don't foresee many sales of Inhumans by doing this, but if there's even one that's one more than there would have been otherwise. I believe many of these cameo characters will be killed--in Black Bolt's case no one will care, but if they go hardcore there might be some pushback (killing Patrick Stewart's Professor X would be fine--he already died in Logan and the man is a thousand years old--but there are some popular actors and portrayals in the mix--if you bring in John Krasinski's Mister Fantastic only to kill him, fans will be pissed).
Inside the Magic's Thomas Hitchen (who?) thinks hints of a second season of Ms. Marvel could mean an end of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. As stretches go, this is as far as you can reach. While Larson may not have a long tenure in the MCU (that remains to be seen), as evidence amounts to nothing.
Given the era, I remain surprised by Sydney Sweeney's casting in Madame Web, although it's worth remembering Sony's Marvel properties don't use the MCU's casting director (and Tom Rothman likes names). Sutton speculates she could be Silver Sable and while I'm uncertain of that, I agree with him that she's unlikely to be Black Cat.
I haven't talked box office for awhile as there hasn't been anything relevant to discuss. DC's The Batman is out however, so let's look at the earnings and add context.
- The Batman (Mar.4) - 598 million (300 domestic, 298 worldwide)
On the domestic front, other than Spider-Man 3, the film has been a hit in relative terms (as in, post-Covid, it's well ahead of #2 Shang-Chi, but has no hope of matching Spider-Man 3). Worldwide the performance is mediocre--excluding Chinese films, it has no hope of catching the aforementioned, No Time to Die, or Fast Nine, but might reach Godzilla vs Kong (367). This is also a Batman film--adjusted for inflation it has caught Batman Begins (2005), but that's a low bar given both the performance of the Nolan sequels and because it's a different superhero era. A Batman film should make a close to billion (that's certainly how the WB exec's see it), so no matter how you slice it, this is a disappointing performance. Without having seen the film myself, it's difficult to say why, although its length and an apparent poor ending are factors. On my end, the cast was underwhelming and nothing about the trailers or hype made me feel the need to rush out and see it (the only element I liked is Batman as a detective, but reviews I've seen have suggested its supporting characters who do the work). I felt the same indifference about Val Kilmer's Batman Forever (which I never saw in theaters, and granting that I like Kilmer while I don't care for Pattinson).
I'm not sure what to do with this rumour as it seems ancillary to Ms. Marvel, but since Sana Amanat is a crucial figure for that IP and is a VP at Marvel Comics, it's worth mentioning. Since at least December it's been suggested Amanat will be fired or removed for alleged harassment of male employees, with those reporting the news suggesting this will be done very quietly to avoid embarrassment (and, presumably, to prevent the news from impacting the marketing of the show). I don't think this will impact the quality of the show or the future of the IP, although if it does get out it might have a small effect on how the show is received.
Let's put in the grain of salts warning for the Nielsen Ratings, as these are American ratings and retain the limitations Nielsen had with cable--restricted to a small volume of participant households; despite that, it's at least an indicator for American preference; to make them standout more, I've italicized the genre shows (these are minutes watched, incidentally, with the number relating to a comparison against all viewing):
Ozark 2,904
Archive 81 1,035
Cobra Kai 670 (#6)
Cheer 597
Boba Fett 580 (#10)
Witcher 464
Too Hot to Handle 332
After Life 283
Stay Close 271
Emily in Paris 248
Ozark 4,095
Boba Fett 744 (#4)
The Woman Across etc 650
Archive 81 462
All of Us are Dead 448
Cobra Kai 395
In From the Cold 349
Witcher 315
Too Hot to Handle 309
Cheer 287
Ozark 2,372
Reacher 1,843
Sweet Magnolias 1,320
Raising Dion 1,133
The Woman Across etc 1,121
All of Us Are Dead 850
Boba Fett 776 (#8)
In From the Cold 658
Murderville 351
Pam & Tommy 312
Reacher 1,589
Sweet Magnolias 1,556
Ozark 1,222
Inventing Anna 1,219
Boba Fett 885 (#6)
Raising Dion 757
Love is Blind 478
All of Us Are Dead 454
Disenchantment 397
The Woman Across etc 366
Inventing Anna 3,283
Love is Blind 1,439
Ozark 1,083
Reacher 983
Sweet Magnolias 898
The Marvelous Ms. Maisel 499
Raising Dion 489
Space Force 438
All of Us are Dead 340
Boba Fett 339
The Ozark second week numbers are bizarre (I don't mean because it's popular, but in reference to anything else I've ever seen), but that aside, Boba Fett lingered like a bad smell (get your Vespa's running). I think one of the reasons why non-Netflix shows linger at a low level longer is that some people wait until the run is over to binge it Netflix-style.
We can also make a relatively fair comparison between how two genre IP faired when compared against one another (the second set of numbers is their percentage drop week-to-week, with the red indicating which dropped more when compared):
- Witcher: 2734-1827-1105-624-464-315 (7,019)
- Cobra Kai: 2423-2153-1038-670-395 (6,679)
- Witcher: 33%-40%-43%-25%-32%
- Cobra Kai: 12%-48%-35%-41%
Witcher started higher (12%) and remained on the chart a week longer, but Cobra Kai had back-to-back strong opening weeks before joining the fantasy show's steep decline (while they bingo back and forth between drops the totals are almost equal, just a 9% difference). Without question there's a bigger audience for Witcher, which helped keep it viewed a bit longer, as Cobra Kai is just safe, family entertainment. It's worth reiterating that all the hardcore Witcher IP fans on Youtube have given up on the show outside of future content and I think that's broadly true--views now rest entirely on casuals (poor CDPR, who is going to offer skins to match the show, isn't going to get much bang for its buck doing so in-game).
We can see that Amazon's The Legend of Vox Machina did not penetrate the market initially (at least by Nielsen's measure) and we can safely say that it won't hit Invincible or Arcane levels. It's worth noting that ancillary data points, such as people continuing to post YT reactions, remain after the show ended, which suggests an underlying cult success beyond the Critical Role audience. I'm guessing, assuming the numbers remain the same, that it didn't do as well as hoped, but hasn't failed (having 'adult' content likely didn't help, although I appreciate that they did). My own opinion remains the same: the show did well with humour, but the plot and character development is unremarkable and occasionally histrionic.
One of the unknowns that I'm curious about is whether Amazon can invest casuals into their LOTR project. It seems like most of the hardcore fans have already rejected it, and there are rumblings in the industry which are not normal (Forbes referenced criticisms, when normally they'd ignore or attack them). When season one of the successful Witcher came out the show made minor changes in response to criticisms--largely aesthetic, but also a switch to a linear narrative. These surface level changes did nothing to improve the core problem of poor writing and I think we'll see this come home to roost with the prequel and season three. As for LOTR, I just don't know. Everything about it reminds me of Amazon's The Wheel of Time which, while it didn't bomb, was not a hit and will see a smaller audience tune in for its second season (heading down the road of the failed Shannara series of eons past). I would expect LOTR to open much bigger, but will casuals reject it the same way? Time will tell.
This article was written by Peter Levi
