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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Okay so I just finished watching Thor 1 with a bunch of tropers and I have to say, as someone who's routinely trashed Thor for years on this forum, the film has aged surprisingly well and is better than I gave it credit for.
I don't think it's as good as Iron Man 1, and it does it have its flaws: the earth scenes are indeed not as interesting as the Asgard stuff, Thor's character arc is a bit rushed, and Jane doesn't do THAT much all things considered. But Hemsworth's acting really does a lot to sell things, and even though it's a similar arc to Tony's in IM 1, it's still relatively decent all things considered. Even the earth scenes weren't anywhere near as long, tedious and boring as I remembered. Actually I think there's much more Asgard in this film than I remembered, which is nice, since those scenes are the best in the film.
Overall a pretty ok movie and I probably won't rag on it so much anymore when the putrid mediocrity of TIH exists.
Black Panther is now the highest grossing solo superhero movie[1]
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Wonder Woman did very good numbers by solo movie standards, and especially in the face of the bullshit stigma that female superhero movies don't sell. But in the grand scheme of things 823 million is not that huge.
If it weren't part of a franchise with such a horrendous reputation, I suspect Wonder Woman would've done better.
Trying to correct numbers for inflation is really just sort of pointless before 1970 or so. The media landscape was completely different back in the 30s and 40s, given that movie theaters were different, movies weren’t available after their theatrical run on TV or video yet, etc.
edited 25th Mar '18 11:28:47 AM by wisewillow
You can't adjust worldwide numbers for inflation because inflation happens at different rates in every country. And even if you could, it wouldn't be meaningful because of the massive growth in non-US markets (especially China) over the past couple decades.
I also agree that even domestically, trying to compare the 1940s to the present isn't useful, but inflation-adjustment of domestic numbers is great for getting a sense of how the grosses of more-recent movies compare to each other. For example, if you don't adjust for inflation, Black Panter now has the highest domestic gross of any superhero movie, and the 5th-highest domestic gross of all time. But if you do adjust for inflation then it's 4th-highest superhero movie domestically, behind The Avengers ($706 million), The Dark Knight ($681 million) and Spider-Man ($638 million) - though it should pass Spider-Man by next weekend.
edited 25th Mar '18 12:08:55 PM by Galadriel
Using those standards: Black Panther is currently the 26th-highest-grossing movie domestically released since 1970. The Avengers is the 19th-highest.
It does help add a little perspective.
(Of the top 10 movies since 1970, 3 are by Spielberg, 3 are by George Lucas, and 2 are by James Cameron, which is a pretty striking indication of who the most successful directors of the last several decades were.)
There are a number of different factors to take into account. Ticket prices are different, they don't always match inflation perfectly. The sheer population of the world has increased, along with the number of theaters. The average multiplex today offers 2-3 different versions of the same movie (IMAX, Dolby, 3D, etc), anything beyond the standard showing tends to be an extra 3 dollars per ticket. Re-releases in the past had a tendency to dramatically increase their prior box office total, because before home video really took off in the 80's a re-release was the best way to see the movie in its entirety. And on top of all that, movies themselves cost more to make. Going by pure inflation, the original Star Wars cost about 11 million, 45 million in 2018 dollars, which would be the budget of a big name romantic comedy today. Think about that when considering that, before inflation, Star Wars made 475 million domestically.
Wonder Woman's success was primarily in longevity, it debuted at a moderate opening weekend (between Ant Man and Iron Man) but proceeded to do four times its opening weekend. The average is about half that.
edited 25th Mar '18 4:20:53 PM by KJMackley
The troper group I'm watching stuff with just finished Avengers.
I didn't care for the film the first time, and overall I'd still say it's inferior to most of the solo outings that preceeded it, but I found some more stuff to appreciate in it this time such as Tony's save and the third act as a whole.
Honestly, Phase 1 in general is pretty alright. Like I said earlier, TIH is the only real stinker. IM 2 and Avengers have some noticeable flaws but they're not horrible or anything.
All those movies (excluding Iron Man 3 because that never happened) have something ranging from competent to pretty great screenwriting. TIH doesn't bother to establish any of its characters except maybe Blonsky, leaving everyone as a cardboard cutout you don't care about. The plot of TIH is nonsensical (Ross makes so many military blunders it's a minor wonder he hasn't been stripped off his rank by now) and there's basically no dramatic stakes here.
edited 26th Mar '18 5:25:05 AM by Gaon
"All you Fascists bound to lose."I misspoke, I meant Thor The Dark World, not Thor Ragnarok. The former is so forgettable I replaced it in my mind with its far more entertaining sequel.
I won't talk about that movie with RDJ playing a narcissistic billionaire for the third time if you won't.
No dramatic stakes? Blonsky pulverized an entire town while high on life and wouldn't have stopped if Hulk didn't choke him out. Norton!Banner's decision to jump out of a plane and either transform and save the day, or rid the world of one of its two raging green monsters was tragic and heartfelt.
As inconsequential as TIH might be note at least I remember who the villain was and there were enough exciting moments to justify it's existence. Thor The Dark World and Iron Man 2 can't say the same.
edited 26th Mar '18 6:17:19 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!Pulverizing a town only matters if it affects the characters we care about. Beyond that, it's just empty spectacle.
One billion offscreen lives that you've never heard of and have no reason to care about do not carry even half the narrative weight of a single named, developed, and interesting character. That's why having your villain threaten to blow up the world is overrated. Audiences don't care about the world. They care about the hero and his friends.
You want to know how little anyone cares about Blonsky smashing Harlem? Even Luke Cage never mentions it. It does not come up. Two white guys turned into giant green rage monsters and used Harlem and its people as a smashing grounds for a fight that had nothing to do with the community, and years later, it doesn't even warrant a Continuity Nod.
The Avengers briefly notes that the Hulk broke Harlem and then it never comes up again.
edited 26th Mar '18 7:44:58 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Funny, I actually did that exact line in my book.
I had the Anti-Hero explain there's no point threatening the universe as threatening the planet, the city, the town, or even a local friend of the hero all had the same emotional stakes.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I wonder who else dies,other then Vison
have a listen and have a link to my discord server