When Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios agreed on a deal to essentially share Spider-Man, the first thing they decided on was that he would be formally introduced in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. After all, if you’re going to have a deal with Marvel, you might as well take advantage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and their many characters. Also...
Superhero films are really into the whole “choose a side” thing this year. Batman and Superman, the X-Men and Apocalypse (okay, that’s easy — Oscar Isaac and Michael Fassbender’s side, obviously), and the most brutal super-battle of them all: Iron Man and Captain America. Civil War is coming, and while the trailers have given us plenty to consider in the fight between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, Marvel’s latest batch of images gives us more to contemplate.
Earlier this week, Coca-Cola and Marvel teased a team-up during the Super Bowl by sending out mini-cans of Coke branded with different members of the Avengers. Both sides promised not to reveal the contents of the commercial until it aired during the Super Bowl. Now that it’s aired we know that the biggest and littlest Avengers — Hulk and Ant-Man — are doing battle over the last can of Coke.
After September opened with a whimper, we were prepared for a dull couple of weeks. It looks like we shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. The one-two punch of The Perfect Guy and The Visit have suddenly made the least interesting month of the year interesting, opening big and opening close enough to one another to make for an interesting race. In the slower movie months, weekends like these are rare treats.
Earlier this month we brought you confirmation on the two sides in Captain America: Civil War. On Team Captain America we had Hawkeye, Falcon, Bucky/Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and Scarlet Witch, while on Team Iron Man there was Vision, Black Widow, War Machine and Spider-Man. Today, we have some brand new Captain America: Civil War promo art that confirms those warring factions of Marvel superheroes with some interesting new twists!
Straight Outta Compton dominated the box office for the second weekend in a row, ensuring that every other movie in the top 10 that doesn’t feature Tom Cruise trembled in its mighty wake. Anyone with their finger on the cultural pulse foresaw the N.W.A. biopic doing well, but it’s performing above and beyond all expectations.
At the time of this writing, early estimates for the weekend box office have Ant-Man edging out Pixels for the top spot in this week’s top 10. That could change. With less than $1 million separating the films, Pixels may very well slide into first place tomorrow, winning one very close competition. But even if it does claim ultimate victory, it doesn’t change the fact that Pixels’ opening weekend is a massive disappointment and another nail in the coffin of Adam Sandler’s career.
Marvel’s Ant-Man opens in theaters today and to this point we’ve seen no shortage of trailers, clips and TV spots showing off all kinds of footage. But, on the last stop on his promotional tour for the movie, Paul Rudd stopped by to visit Conan O’Brien and brought something extra special.
It would be easy to label the opening weekend for Ant-Man a failure. After all, it’s significantly lower than the openings for recent Marvel Studios movies and it’s a good $130 million less than the three-day opening Avengers: Age of Ultron had a few months ago. But let’s not be so hasty. Its opening numbers may not have blown anyone away, but Ant-Man’s box office arrival is textbook Marvel.
When Marvel announced a release date for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 before the first one was even released, everyone thought Marvel was overestimating their strange space opera. And then it made a bajillion dollars and everyone on the internet felt like a fool. Now, the title for that sequel has been revealed and while it doesn’t bring any grand revelation with it, it’ll probably get you to crack a tiny smile.