Disney+ for those who can't get enough franchise!

by Nathaniel R

Disney, the corporation that will one day have a complete monopoly of the entertainment business, made lots of Disney+ announcements this week. Gizmodo has the details on how much their streaming service will be like Netflix. If you haven't been playing along they've announced at least eight scripted episodic streaming series thus far though we don't really know how far these are from being realities but for the first one...

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Review: Captain Marvel

An abridged version of this review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

by Nathaniel R

Captain Marvel‘s “Vers” (Brie Larson) can’t remember a thing about her past life. She has only known this: training with her mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and fighting with her fellow Kree warriors in Starforce. 

Their mission is to wipe out the evil shape-shifting alien race known as The Skrulls. Though Vers can’t recall her origins, Marvel Studios has their origin template memorized by now, 21 films into their world-conquering juggernaut franchise. It’ll involve:

• comic sidekicks (☑️☑️☑️)
• training sequences (☑️)
• losing an early battle (☑️)
• questioning old beliefs (☑️☑️)
• forming new alliances (☑️☑️)
• and the hero/heroes finally coming into their own, more powerful than they were before (☑️)

Cue end credits. But we'll get to those in a minute...

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Carol Danvers and Gloria Bell had good weekends

As expected Captain Marvel crushed the box office on weekend #1 as Marvel Studio's total domination of the planet continues. Was it its unique position as connective tissue between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame? Was it the novelty (which shouldn't be a novelty) of a female led superhero film? In other box office news Gloria Bell stirred it up on the dance floor with the weekend's second best per-screen average because Julianne Moore is her own super power.

Weekend Box Office Estimates March 8th-10th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count /  ★= Recommended
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
Captain Marvel	Gloria Bell
1 🔺 Captain Marvel $153 NEW REVIEW	1🔺 Apollo 11 $1.3 on 405 screens (cum. $3.7)
2 How to Train Your Dragon 3  $14.6 (cum. $119.6)	2🔺 Badla $614k on 94 screens NEW
3 A Madea Family Funeral $12 (cum. $45.8)	3🔺 The Kid  $505k on 268 screens NEW
4 The Lego Movie Pt 2  $3.8 (cum. $97.1)	4 Arctic  $182k on 208 screens (cum. $1.9)
5 Alita: Battle Angel  $3.2 (cum. $78.3)	5🔺 Furie $164k on 27 screens (cum. $395k)
6 Green Book  $2.4 (cum. $80.1)   ON ITS BEST PICTURE WIN	6🔺 Gloria Bell $154k on 5 screens NEW REVIEW ★

What did you see this weekend? I've been sick all week (ugh) so aside from a Captain Marvel critics screening a week ago I've only been watching old movies and catching up on some TV that I've always meant to watch (Five years late to the party but Broadchurch is soooo good).

Links: Mike & Maleficent & Marvel & The Mother

• Spirit Airlines are decorating their planes to "soar" with Dumbo. That seems like a costly promotion, there!
• Slant ranks all the Marvel films. I found this interesting because it's a) insane and b) the people they've assigned to write up the movies dont necessarily agree with their ranking in the list so it's weirdly schizophrenic
• /Film confusing and bizarre history of Captain Marvel in the comic books
• THR Idris Elba in talks to replace Will Smith in the Suicide Squad sequel

After the jump Maleficent 2's teaser poster, Gregg Araki's new series, Rock Hudson, Magic Mike casting, and more...

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The Joyous Triumph of "Black Panther"

by Chris Feil

Of all of the great wins of Oscar night, some of the most uplifting belonged to the team from Black Panther. The film ran a gauntlet in the past year - early release, genre bias, institutionalized racism - to defy the odds and rack up three richly deserving wins in Costume Design, Production Design, and Original Score. It was the most popular film of the year and yet these wins still shouldn't be taken for granted, theirs a collective trio representing the world we experienced when we experienced Wakanda.

Adding to the sense of massive victory here are several crucial pieces of contextual trivia...

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