A Peculiar Top Two July 16

The dust settled and one of the more interesting weekends a few days ago had a new number one film. How they will fare the next weekend is what I'll be curious about. From Box Office Mojo, Space Jam: A New Legacy scored its way to the top with over 31 million dollars, besting Black Widow by over five million. The next closest film was a huge drop with an Escape Room sequel making 8.8 million.

The Space Jam sequel is an interesting one. If I had to guess where it was going to be, it was top five due to nostalgia and a new generation seeing Looney Tunes. You also have the fans of LeBron James, who acted like a shithead with a "Hi haters" tweet after seeing the film reach number one. Like the original it is getting panned and some of James' fans online are acting like Michael Jordan fans are review bombing. It makes no sense at all. A lot of people and critics view the original as a forgettable film. This will be no different. Expect the new generation of kids to like it tremendously like most 90s kids back then.

That said, Space Jam Legacy has a huge uphill battle. The budget is either around 150 million or 185 million. Warner Brothers could be taking a huge bath if this doesn't have huge legs. It needs a good solid month in the States to get close to the budget. I don't think it will happen. The international release dates, I don't know, but that could be the saving grace. Pending the budget and advertising/marketing, this needs to make 400 to 500 million to even be considered a profitable one. Add in the small controversies, it's hard to give it a benefit of the doubt combined with the panned reception. James' haters tweet could bite him given his toxic behavior.

Black Widow could have been seen as a favorite to repeat. There was a headline I saw with movie theaters blaming Disney Plus for why the movie dropped to 25 million dollars. That could be streamed for 30 dollars, similar to what was done with Mulan last year. According to Deadline, the numbers reached 2 million households, which means it made 60 million. That number could be skewed a little bit, but take it as it is. The confidence in going to movie theaters is still a question. If you have a family of four or five, it's better to do your own popcorn and drinks and buy the film off of Plus for 30. At least in theory. Sure, it's not like the movie theater experience, but with a pandemic still going, why should some take that risk?

And this isn't just families that may not see the film in theaters. Right now, it's made just over 210 million worldwide (270 mil, give or take, from Plus) This also had a 200 million dollar budget and my guess of 50 million or more for advertising and marketing. It's going to look a lot more disappointing compared to the Ant-Man sequel though this will make more than that. There's also the Birds of Prey film from DC that I look at a little bit. That film did not have the budget like Widow, but made past it worldwide. You also have people who might be burned out on Marvel and Disney churning out these films. Scarlett Johansson isn't exactly a top billed actress that can lead a box office. They have to hope that the film doesn't drop steeply in its third weekend.

This upcoming weekend will bring in a new G.I. Joe film, Snake Eyes. Also plenty of smaller released films coming out. I can't imagine Space Jam having a strong second weekend and Black Widow could go either way. Maybe studios should learn you don't need 150 to 200 million budgets for most films to do well. 

Tone Deaf Warner Brothers

There's nothing Warner Brothers can do with their comic book films to guarantee success. Aquaman 2 comes out around Christmas 2022 and they are in a tight spot with Amber Heard. People do want her off the project because of her toxic relationship with Johnny Depp. At the time of this blog, she may be fired, but that's a stretch. Supposedly, it may take another year until another court hearing. It makes me wish the studio would take it more seriously about what could happen to her. The idea of Heard being a domestic abuse "survivor" is a joke. Both her and Depp are to blame for their issues.

But the thing with Heard is small potatoes in regards to Hollywood compared to what the studio has in mind with Superman. Another attempt at rebooting the superhero. They have a producer in JJ Abrams and their writer is Ta-Nehisi Coates, a very controversial writer who has experience writing for Marvel. Specifically, he has done stuff for Black Panther and Captain America comics. They are looking for a black lead, potentially Michael B. Jordan according to sites like wegotthiscovered.com and maybe John Boyega. There are multiple issues I would have with this reboot.

I don't think a black Superman is a bad idea. I question whether they will make any critical or commercial success if this comes into fruition. We're talking going after what Black Panther did. Could be the case of chasing after something that is the hot thing. But the biggest issue is Coates. The guy is one of those people who wants to interject politics and race into stuff because of his life experiences. That's the case with most writers and actors. With him, however, there are question marks to him like his berating of September 11th first responders who died that I've seen some people bring up from a book he wrote in 2014. I'm not sure I'd let someone like him take over a property that hasn't been on the greatest ground in movies since the early 80s. 

I wonder if Coates wanted to do a Marvel movie. For as much shit as I give Kevin Feige for hurting Hollywood, I don't think he would have allowed him to do a film in their universe. If I had to guess, there would be a lot of racial tones in a story. You can get away with stuff in comics, but not all the time in films. Maybe WB allows more freedom for Coates, but I could see this as a recipe for disaster. There might be stuff to think about when watching a comic book film, but these are also popcorn flicks. It will depend on how much politics is shoved down people's throats, something that should be a huge cause for concern. I'm not saying this stuff didn't exist in the past, but it wasn't used as a crutch in tons of films over the decades and decades of material.

My prediction is as if it were to be fully produced. It will underperform. Critics and fans will not like it. There will be probably a ton of pandering and political garbage no one cares for. Forced diversity instead of trying to make it feel organic. Warner Brothers will have to rethink their strategies because of still trying to chase after the gold set by Marvel and Disney. I'll conclude with this. Warner Brothers is trying desperately to look better. Getting a guy like Coates will make them look worse. People want to shut their brains off when watching comic book films and see how they are adapted to the big screen. If it was another black writer, I don't think it would get the notoriety it has gotten these last few days. There's a way to discuss morals and politics without it feeling blatant. If Coates complains about the film being considered bad if this does get produced, he will have no one to blame but himself. 

WB Stream All the Way

I'm kind of struggling with how this will work. Warner Brothers has made 2021 interesting when it comes up next month. Whatever films they have planned for theaters, they are putting them on their HBO Max app the same day they come out. I understand where they are coming from. We may not see any normalcy until this summer. And that's pending how things go. It drew ire from several companies and a few Hollywood names.

If it's a way to draw people to the app, I'm struggling to see how much of an increase it would get. Some of these movies are not low budget. We're talking 100 million and up for Dune, Godzilla. I would think they would go the Universal route and charge 20 dollars for their new releases. Not prohibitive, but not cheap. But would people bite? There will be ones that want more than just old products or rewatching the last few years of films.

Some of the films could benefit greatly from the app. Something like The Suicide Squad and The Matrix 4 could drive a lot to HBO Max. I'm very curious about Tom and Jerry and Space Jam: A New Legacy. You can only do so much with Tom chasing Jerry. With just looking up Space Jam's budget, I have a feeling it's going to fail and not recoup the 183 million dollar production. Are critics going to like it? Because the original was panned, but made a decent profit back in the fall of 1996. The failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action despite a better reception made Warner Brothers drop a number of projects back in the mid 2000s. Are 90s kids going to like it from an adult perspective? I'm predicting an underperformance, theater wise and app wise. Maybe it gets a better reception in July, but that's hard to gauge.

Stuff like Dune and Godzilla, I'm iffy on wanting to give a prediction. They could surprise people.  Is there enough drive for Godzilla vs. Kong given how their films have done in recent memory? Will Dune impress anybody? It depends on the reception and even if you disregard reception, if enough people will watch it. Other films include Mortal Kombat, The Little Things, and Judas and the Black Messiah as just a couple of examples of also making it to the app and theaters.

Here in the States, it's still a struggle with this pandemic. Short term, Warner Brothers is hoping for 2022 to be a return to where people go back to the movie theaters. Maybe a little earlier, but still. As I said, I would think they would do like what Universal did. The numbers will dictate how the company thrives or struggles domestically. Internationally will be a different story.

Depp Animaniacs Joke

This will kind of tie into the last blog with talking Johnny Depp. Before getting to the point, I'll get to Animaniacs first. It was announced a couple years ago to return and dropped on the 20th earlier this month. For the most part, its well received. A lot of split opinions on the political aspects, something that the original in 1993 did throughout its five season run. But the controversy isn't about tired old Trump jokes.

Keep in mind that the writing was from 2018. That being said, it's not a good excuse, either. Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures had loads of visual gags that you'll barely notice unless you go back and notice. One of the former's early new episodes included a small visual of Depp. Posters of him as an adult and a baby. A tagline for one being Johnny 2: Telling Lies. Confirmed by one of the voice actors, it was supposed to be a play on a nursery rhyme that was big when the writers were coming up with episode ideas.

I don't think Warner Brothers was being intentional in lieu of the outgoing battle between Depp and Amber Heard. But this is one of those things the writers themselves and the studio should have kept an eye on a little more. Meme jokes don't even last long either, so the datedness is already there. About as bad as South Park's pop culture incident episodes being dated long after they aired. I know the show understands they were being written for 2020 with 2018 stuff, but it's not an excuse. Yes, they attacked other figures, regardless of love or hate, but this is too far. On the other side, the Depp fans are only making themselves look way worse.

If this were to have come out last year, I don't think there would be anywhere the level of bashing from the untolerable Depp fans. This is adding fuel to a big wildfire that is still impossible to contain. It's not a boycott type of situation, but bad timing on bringing in the reboot. It leaves me with a little worry that Tiny Toons Looniversity may not show up on HBO Max due to reception on specific parts of Animaniacs. As I said, this I don't think was intentional, but this should have been left on the cutting room floor.

In Depp Analysis, Heard Nothing

I find this to be fascinating and a disaster at the same time. I'd wager most Hollywood marriages end in divorce. No shocker regarding Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. But this stuff is still going on. Proceedings came about in 2017 and it's escalated. The Sun, a paper out of the UK, put out an article in 2018 calling Depp a "wife beater". There has been leaked audio of Heard saying she beat him up and that no would believe him. Alleged stories of severed fingers. Both are pieces of garbage in my opinion. I truly believe they both hurt each other physically.

For this month, a libel case against The Sun resulted in a Depp loss and being forced to step down from Fantastic Beasts 3, Warner Brothers adaptation of JK Rowling's work. But Heard hasn't had any punishments and continues to have work with Aquaman 2 when that films next year and a couple other projects. That's why a petition on change.org that has been around for a couple years has blown up over the last month and reached over a million and half signatures. Pretty big altogether.

I do think a decent majority of signings are from Depp fans. But I also think a number of it has to do with regards to domestic violence and the double standards regarding women who abuse. The petition creator, which is a woman by the way in Jeanne Larson, talked about in the description of it the hypocrisy. Heard hides behind movements like MeToo and pretends to be a victim. She isn't. I think Depp hurt her, but I also think she isn't completely innocent either. For her to say the petition is a paid campaign is horseshit and that people have no basis in reality is ridiculous. This isn't a slap on the wrist thing. Not to mention there was a time when she abused another partner long before meeting Depp.

I can't claim that I've seen this in real life, but stuff like this hurts and upsets people who have gone through it. And it's cunts like Heard who make it harder for actual victims to bring up domestic violence without fear of being a liar. No one wins. Hollywood bats a blind eye. And women can skew things to make the media sympathize with them. Not all, mind you, but it's still dangerous.

Unless things escalate, there's nothing Warner Brothers can do with a firing of Heard because of contracts. But they are also being tone deaf on it by not taking the petition and the cases seriously. They compared the situation with Captain Marvel, which isn't even a good comparison. Brie Larson is a sexist bitch, but there are actors that have issues with the media. Very different from domestic violence. Hugely different. The studio also has ideas on making a Mera film, which is the Aquaman character Heard plays. If people didn't want to see Birds of Prey, why would anyone want a stand alone film of this? This isn't like Marvel.

Aquaman 2 has the potential to underperform when it comes out Christmas 2022. This long fight between Depp and Heard isn't over yet. Far from it. Pending what happens for December, that petition could make Warner Brothers think a little more seriously. Either way, both should not be in the Hollywood spotlight for the next couple of years.

Tiny Toons Looniversity Thoughts

The thought in my mind was that Tiny Toon Adventures was more deserving of a reboot than Animaniacs. I like Looney Tunes and I like the 90s approach the Steven Spielberg produced show had. You get your ups and downs, but it paved the way for Warner Brothers. Maybe as a way to avoid stealing Animaniacs' spotlight when it returns November 20th, the Tiny Toon gang is coming back with Tiny Toons Looniversity. Plans are two new seasons and on HBO Max.

There are definitely some big hurdles and its things I can only speculate that early. Can the Toonsters adapt to a 2020s style of humor? Or will it try to follow the classic formula that Looney Tunes had? Another part is that the main cast are teenagers. When Tiny Toon Adventures first aired, they were roughly 14 to 15 years old. They might up the ages a couple years. I'm not sure if there is continuity or trying a different age to liven up the comedy. Both them and Animaniacs feel like they are aiming for PG territory. And they weren't afraid of showing stuff for adults that kids wouldn't understand.

But the biggest hurdle will be voicing the characters. Buster Bunny's original voice left before the final season wrapped up in 1992. I'm not sure if he would return. Same for any of those actors that were around 30 years ago. From other types of media I've seen, its tough to see the same energy at an older age. The passing of Joe Alaskey in 2016 leaves a huge void in someone to voice Plucky Duck. Billy West took over as Hamton Pig when Don Messick passed in 1997. I don't even know if West is still acting, but he's near 70 years old. Whether they go with a new youthful group, I have no idea. Danny Cooksey was a teen when the show debuted, but whether he can unleash his inner Montana Max, that's up to the producers.

One notable omission is going to be Elmyra Duff, whose mentor is Elmer Fudd. The character is not like the hunter when it comes to animals. She loves them and wants them as pets rather than shoot them. Some want answers. I know PETA was around when the show was new, but I can't see them going overboard. Then again, they went after Super Mario, so you never know. Supposedly, executives loved her and writers grew tired of her. I would wager most fans don't care for her. When used right, she's not a horrible character to have. There are episodes where you can't help but feel bad. An episode I can think of is Prom-ise Her Anything. Max throws insults on Prom night and she's brokenhearted. There is redemption, but those moments were very rare. I think removing her will benefit from a comedy standpoint where writers won't feel forced to shoehorn her in.

There is plenty of material that is ripe for humor for Tiny Toons Looniversity. You got plenty of high school material. Easily do parodies from stuff that was made 15 to 20 years ago. Horror movies have seen surges in popularity since 1996. While not new, there is much more to mock. Those are just some small examples. If they're going to do slapstick quite a bit, they better find ways to be more creative or make running gags common yet feel fresh.

All that aside, it has the better potential to do well. Animaniacs feels like shaky ground unless the humor really wins the audiences over due to not many characters returning. But either way, both shows have to get a new audience hooked to them and hopefully bring the 90s fans along for a new ride. The 90s generation for Warner Brothers rides again.

30 Years of Invading TV: Tiny Toon Adventures

Cartoons needed a good jolt from the 70s. The 80s were hit and miss depending on the company in question. Warner Brothers being one of those examples. To get the ball rolling in September 1990, you get Steven Spielberg involved and others who worked on cartoons. That's why a show like Tiny Toon Adventures deserves its chance in the spotlight. A syndicated program (later a Fox Kids program in 1992) that exceeded expectations. A period that you could say brought the best of WB.

What is so special? It follows the slapstick nature of Looney Tunes. The difference being the Looney Tune crew being mentors to these teenagers, who are the focal point. More than a dozen characters that follow the footsteps of the legends. Learning how to make a cartoon, getting in sticky situations, the whole production. Nothing low budget. Of course, some favoritism here and there, but what show wasn't like that back in the 80s and 90s? 

Your mileage will vary on the episodes. Some of it follows like a Looney Tune bit. It has its fair share of original content. A lot of parodies that flew over kids heads. They did an episode that was a straight up parody of Citizen Kane, black and white. These writers loved film and television. It's a Wonderful Life for the final episode. One bit that made fun of Carrie, an R rated film based on Stephen King's novel. Those are just small examples.

Overall, Tiny Toon Adventures was a nice franchise that made WB stand toe to toe with Disney for a period of time. Maybe there's legal issues or something (I'm guessing), but a modern version I think could work based on the content that was made. Thirty years of laughs and creating a new generation from the Silver Age when anyone could make a show and most could hook an audience immediately.