MCU News & Notes

Let's take a look at Doctor Strange 2's box office (via Box Office Mojo):

• Opening Fri-Sun: 185 domestic (265 international)
• Second Fri-Sun: 88 domestic (47.5%)
• Current Total: 723 (310 domestic, 413 international)

How did the opener compare to Spider-Man 3? That film opened 260 domestically and 341 internationally, so close to 30%/25% lower. Spidey had legs, but Doctor Strange 2 hasn't had that kind of impact (even if some people were satisfied with the keys dangled in front of them). Will it hit a billion? I don't think so, but it will pass another underperformer in The Batman (768). Will Marvel make any serious changes to fix their issues? There's no sign of that yet (my expectation is just more and more memberberries, as they haven't yet hit their own Netflix Armageddon). It's getting harder and harder for me to get anecdotal feedback on MCU productions, as fewer people I know go to see them (the Doctor Strange 2 count is currently at one).

One other statistical note: I've noticed for awhile that Phase Four has generally performed better in the US than elsewhere, and you can see that trend here as well, although the difference is more subtle than in the case of Shang-Chi. This is worth keeping in mind when I discuss Nielsen numbers below, since those are exclusively American.

Midnight's Edge has an interesting breakdown of what they believe the lengthy re-shoots for the film were intended to do. According to their sources, they were to fix America Chavez and to provide an arc for Doctor Strange (who apparently had none in the rough cut). The former idea matches rumours during the re-shoots themselves (cf, although those rumours also claimed they were adding more cameos, which was not true), and certainly the latter would explain why even in the released film Strange is a passenger in his own movie. Despite the changes, the reception of Chavez has been what you'd expect given the low caliber of Phase Four writing.

Sutton has claimed for quite some time (cf) that John Krasinski will be Reed Richards and doubled down on that point recently (his fate in Doctor Strange 2 notwithstanding). He claims Krasinski pulled out of an extension for his Amazon show to take the job, although Sutton is unsure if he will direct the film or not (given that Jon Watts has walked). It's hard to be excited by the idea given how poorly the character was treated in Doctor Strange 2.

Moon Knight's second episode went up in the Nielsen's ratings (to 608 minutes watched, which put it 3rd vs other original shows and 8th overall in a very depressed streaming market). This is higher than the bulk of Hawkeye's episodes, but nowhere near it's two highest viewed. The third episode was a touch higher (638, 3rd and 7th), and about the same for its fourth (630, 4th and 7th), but nowhere near peak Hawkeye (which was nowhere near either Loki or WandaVision). In a lot of ways tracking Nielsen is trivial (given the limitations and the fact that other metrics clearly demonstrate the show's struggles), but I think it's good to have the numbers to compare.

I've seen the She-Hulk trailer, which I thought was awful, but is consistent with Phase Four, so if you've enjoyed it thus far, the show will likely work for you.

One of the creators I used to watch periodically was Angry Joe (his Doctor Strange 2 review is linked above). He made his career as a video game reviewer, but years ago added movie and show reviews to broaden his audience. Looking at Social Blade, up through July of 2020, this strategy worked very well, but since then, outside occasional spikes from major game reviews, his subscriptions have flatlined and views have been on a rollercoaster well below his peak. I suspect the issue for Joe is that he tends to like everything and plenty of other people already fill that niche--his show/film analysis isn't deep so there's nothing to sink your hooks into. This material is simply content, so there isn't a ton of pressure for him to improve on it, but he'd be far better off if there meaningful debates between he and his buddies.

Thanks to a friend of mine I was able to answer my speculation about Kamran disappearing off of Youtube: turns out he's simply been too busy to make the rounds (as a working screenwriter, that's an option he has that few other personalities have).

This article was written by Peter Levi

MCU News & Notes

The Nielsen ratings for Moon Knight have begun arriving and the first episode faired miserably. Keeping in mind the limitations of these numbers (American-only, limited sources), here's how it performed in context (the number is minutes watched):

Bridgerton 3,202 (#1 overall)

The Last Kingdom 714 (#3 overall)

Is it Cake? 607 (#7 overall)

Inventing Anna 452

Moon Knight 418

It didn't even crack the top-ten, earning itself the worst opener for an MCU show to date (it's half the viewership of Hawkeye's debut, cf). This is, at least in part, a result of the poor quality of Marvel shows to date. Just like with Hawkeye and Loki, the show is less about the protagonist than it is their female co-star (in this case Layla). This bait and switch approach has not gone over well and perhaps Echo is an attempt to at least be honest about their focus (Daredevil is in the show to create an audience, but it's not pretending to be a Daredevil show).

Buried in a recent Sutton story (link below) is that Moon Knight is only getting one season, which I can't recall hearing before (but fits the inability of Disney+ to generate enough interest for more than that). I really wonder what you do with Disney+ characters your audience knows nothing about--they can cameo in movies, sure, but making a full transition is going to be very hard (essentially they will have to be re-introduced in film).

Here's our Google Trends data (which is up-to-date, unlike the ratings), where Moon Knight peaked slightly higher than Hawkeye, but unlike that show steadily declined as it went on, whereas cameos in Hawkeye (memberberries!) boosted the latter a little during the run. It's expected that Ms. Marvel will tank even lower, but it's not clear what lessons (if any) Feige has taken from this other than more memberberries.

Jon Watts has walked away from directing Fantastic Four. His stated reason (wanting a break from superhero films) seems like PR and I believe he's pushing for more money after No Way Home rather than some sort of creative disagreement with Marvel (if he could put up with Feige/Pascal for three Spider-Man films, there's nothing he can't put up with).

Speaking of the Fantastic Four, it's funny how the John Krasinski situation has unfolded. None of the rumours about him picked-up on how he was used in Doctor Strange (we also had a Sutton faceplant for that film, as his Tom Cruise as Iron Man rumour, an old Daniel rumour, crashed and burned). As I'd suggested back in February, appearances like Krasinski's is something Marvel let slip to try to advertise the film, but given his usage (god knows what they were thinking) it's just going to irritate fans Last Jedi-style (it also explains why Emily Blunt kept turning down the offer).

Possible spoiler here, so skip this paragraph if you want to be unspoiled for Doctor Strange 2: going back to scoopers, in 2020 a 4chan post claimed Charlize Theron passed on the role of Clea, which is something Daniel subsequently repeated. Whether that 4chan post was accurate at the time or not, in the end it proved to be incorrect. Theron is a great actress, but as we've seen in Phase Four, that won't shine through crappy material. I also think Theron is far too old to play the role, but that's another matter entirely.

These photos (there are more, I just picked one) of Taika, his wife, and Tessa Thompson making out came out last May. I hadn't bothered addressing it because on the surface it's purely salacious, but there are two things that have to be said:

1. There's no other evidence this is why Tessa was cast in her role for Ragnarok (she fits the casting pattern of Phase Four and she's not the first actor in the MCU who can't act)
2. This is obviously problematic--directors should not make out with their actors (how consensual can it ever be when Taika controls her screen time and role in the film?); Hollywood is never consistent so there was no serious backlash to this occurring, but that doesn't change the fact that there's no scenario where a boss making out with their employee is ethical

Something that doesn't get discussed enough is Marvel's habit of not properly paying creators for their work--this isn't unique to Marvel, but it does them no credit (WotC does the same thing--Jeff Grubb wasn't consulted for the new Planescape setting, nor were Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman for Dragonlance). Feige likes to pay lip service to creators, but nothing more apparently, and this may be one reason why he ignores classic stories in favour of current ones.

LotLB, from two unnamed sources (therefore presumably not including their old source 'The Black Knight', who I believe was an employee at Marvel Entertainment or else had direct access to one), claim a Silver Surfer Disney+ show is on-tap. This is a bizarre choice, given that Silver Surfer should be effects-heavy (and thus, better suited to a film). It's also a sharp contrast to Sutton's 2020 scoops that it would be a film, with Surfer beginning as a villain. Sutton still believes the character (and Galactus) are headed towards an Annihilation storyline.

The sequel to The Batman was given the go ahead, which presumably means Matt Reaves agreed to make repairs. About the only thing I feel sure of is the run time will be shorter. It will also apparently be constrained to its own pocket universe while the rest of the DCEU is supposed to be much more interconnected, which gives me hope we'll get a good Batman from someone else.

I saw The Northman and, while an interesting and distinctive film, it's a disappointment. I feel like too much material was stuffed into the film whose pacing is slow and whose storyline gets frequently diverted by extraneous elements. The film can't quite decide what it is--a historical epic or staying true to a saga--some of those elements coming across as unintentionally hilarious.

Something may have changed the relationship between Pasha and Midnight's Edge (cf), who hasn't appeared on their shows in weeks. I realize this is largely trivia, and Pasha seems to maintain a good relationship with Doomcock (who I don't keep tabs on--Star Wars is dead and that's largely what he covers), but it does mean a voice I used to hear I'm not hearing and he's one of the few who doesn't just parrot the same talking points. Is it drama? Is it coincidence? It's not clear.

This article was written by Peter Levi