Cinema Issues: The Recovery Of The Box Office?

So we were originally going to write a post about the slaughter that has been the summer box office with some films doing really well and everything else flopping. However, we decided to retool that into a conversation on the fact that we are in July 2026 and have already had 3 billion dollar films, with more likely to come meaning that from a box office perspective we have had a much better year than we have had in post-pandemic history. However, within that there is a caveat.

As of right now Michael, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Toy Story 4 are all sitting at 1 billion, with the Odyssey, and likely Spider-Man Brand New Day set to join it. Whilst on paper this is great news for the box office it is also painting a picture of instability, as whilst there are more high profile hits there are also a lot more high profile misses.

As the summer season has shown films like Minions 3 have struggled to connect and films like Supergirl and Moana have outright flopped, this is showing that cinema is becoming an all or nothing bloodsport. There are far fewer films that do middling, and the remaining strength of the box office is being channeled into a few specific types of film, directors, or franchises this makes the box office lob sided and reduces chances taken on projects.

This seems to be the new reality people either come out in force and a film makes lots of money or no one goes and it dies on the vine. People may say it has always been this way but that is not true there were often middling cases and a middle ground between hits and flops but increasingly that has withered away.

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Spider-Man Brand New Day: Spider-Man Is Depressed

Summary Jean Grey shows up for no reason and decides to act like a villain. Spider-Man pines over his girlfriend.

Let’s get one thing right off the bat as our article from a few days ago said putting Jean Grey into the MCU sans X-Men is dumb as hell. Jean does not behave like herself here, and her backstory around her missing sister etc would have fit very well into a gritty X-Men film but without the light hearted world of a Spider-Man film it really sticks out. If you removed her entirely from the plot and just had it be Spidey working with and then going up against the leader of Damage Control it would have been much better.

The arc they give Peter is probably the best of the MCU, he is broken as Peter but on top of the world as Spider-Man he has lost everyone and needs to learn to trust and let people in again. This is a serious and grown up Spider-Man, we wouldn’t be surprised if kids like this one a bit less as it’s far less about dances and curfews and far more about loneliness, sadness and trauma. Seeing Spider-Man at a low ebb is kind of what the character is all about though.

You’d argue that the supporting cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here, John Bernthal is wonderful as the Punisher and you really see how much he cares about Peter. Yelana is funny and steals the scenes she isn’t in. However, the star of the side cast is arguably Zendaya. Now a number of the contributors to this magazine do not have a high opinion of Zendaya however, here she is the emotional core of the film. The fact that she can’t remember anything about Peter and that they don’t get back together in the end is incredibly mature and grown up.

There is a real sense of transition with this film not the least due to the changes happening to Peter with his Spider DNA but because it shifts from being a children’s film to something much more serious and grown up.

3.5/5

Pros.

Peter and MJ

Frank

The action and the go pro scenes

The humour

Cons.

The stuff with Jean Grey

The end credits tease isn’t good

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Together: Holly Willoughby’s Big Comeback

Summary: we won’t be covering every episode of this or setting a precedent for reviewing YouTube Shows, however as Holly Willoughby is a big entertainment figure in Europe and as we have talked about Love Meghan which is an analogue to this show we thought we’d write something up.

For those of you who don’t know Holly Willoughby was a model, then a risky comedian, then a presenter on UK TV she was damaged in her co-presenters fall from grace, if like the writer of this piece you are American Wikipedia has all you need to know. This was supposed to be her big comeback.

It is one of the most poorly thought out shows ever made, it presents as a woman looking down 50 who does not understand how the internet works. Rather than being her talking into a camera or maybe a couple of cameras in terms of set up, she has a whole production crew, again this ain’t a Netflix show this is a YouTube show.

She hosts Stanley Tucci as her first guest, why he agreed to do it is anyone’s guess, he keeps the show running and does things like read out the ingredients in different British foods, incredibly interesting stuff folks (not). The show feels like it’s on for far too long and it feels desperate throughout, it feels very much like Willoughby would rather be anywhere else.

She does an ad read not from Raid Shadow Legends which would actually have been funny but rather from a weight loss jab company, because of course she wants to push that toxic narrative from day one. It’s worse than an ad read it’s in the title of the episode.

There is this attempt to make it an edgy YouTube show as she is swearing and drinking wine and all this just the wine glass never really goes down and it all just adds to the desperation.

Honestly if this is the way of Willoughby’s career how long before the Only Fans? One would guess not long.

Overall, one of the most cringe career pivots of recent memory.

1/5

Pros.

Unintentionally funny

Cons.

It’s stiff

It is desperate

There is no chemistry between the guest and host

It’s trying too hard

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Cinema Issues: The Jean Grey Issue Spider-Man Brand New Day

At the time of writing we do not know if Jean Grey is in Spider-Man 4 and if it is Sadie Sink’s mysterious role however a lot of online speculation says that’s the case.

If it is then it is a terrible terrible decision for multiple reasons, let’s get into it.

1- It introduces her first as a villain: Jean Grey of the X-Men outside of her Phoenix possessions is a good guy, however, a lot of the rumours linking Grey to this film say that she is the villain pulling the strings behind the scenes. Why would she be doing this? It would be incredibly against the character and make very little sense.

2- It cheapens the idea of introducing the MCU’s own X-Men at a later date: we know the X-Men are coming however, the drips and drabs strategy we have been getting isn’t working. The idea was to have an X-Men film pretty immediately after Secret Wars when the universe will be reset why would it make sense to have just Jean Grey introduced early here rather than alongside her fellow X-Men there, it wouldn’t.

3- Spider-Man is still not able to hold his own film: under the MCU there seems to be an idea that you can’t just have a Spider-Man film, like Sony did for years. You need Iron Man, you need the multiverse, you need an X-Man. Repeatedly it seems like Peter cannot just have his own adventure and this film is already crowded with the likes of the Hulk and the Punisher showing up for some reason, now they have to put Jean Grey in as well, it’s just stupid. People want grounded, focused stories not cameo fests.

We long hoped that she is Firestar a different mutant character but one that would be a much more organic fit for the film, however, it would not explain the seeming mind control elements of the plot.

If it is Jean Grey it is a poorly thought through desperate move.

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Rings of Power Season 3: What We Know From The Trailer

First up the show is finally giving us Celeborn despite originally casting him aside in favour of a romance between Galadriel and Sauron. Looks like the bad boys can be changed, S&M, arc is over.

There is a heavy focus on the forging of the one ring which as we know happens quite late in the timeline, which means season 4 will likely be the War of the Last Alliance. It is unclear how far into the prologue of the Lord of the Rings they can go. No doubt the forging of the ring will happen over the course of multiple episodes or maybe even cut back to.

The timeline is continuing to be muddied as the Balrog is playing a larger role with Durin’s storyline, it will be interesting to see where this goes as we know that he is refusing Sauron’s envoys. It is questionable why the Balrog needs a voice actor as the role isn’t really a communicative one.

There is a shot of the Nazgnagôl, so we are getting the precursor to the Ring Wraiths, this could be good if we get the Witch King and he is maybe the villain of this season with Sauron as the big bad. Within the books and the films the Witch King is somewhat of a Bobba Fett character he is a cool presence but not that developed, the expanded works add in some details but to see the Rise of the Witch King over the season could be cool.

We don’t see that much of Galadriel in the trailer and I think that’s good, I think what needs to happen is for the established characters from the second age to take more of a prominent role and the characters the show has been developing need to take a step back. Galadriel and Sauron both have roles to play in the War of the Last Alliance obviously so where that is relevant the characters can’t take a step back.

Two things that are red flags is the amount of Gandalf we are seeing, he is another one of these characters that needs to step back. As well as this a lot of this stuff with the Blue Wizards in the east seems like it has no relevance to what is going on with the main plot with Sauron so it should be cut back. The second is the kissing/sexual scene that is shown with Galadriel, this isn’t a YA show, this is a show about increasing, the War of the Last Alliance, why can’t we stick to the point: bloat is why and the idea of luring in women even though they definitely aren’t watching.

The early ring wraiths, Witch King stuff and possibly some of the War of the Last Alliance stuff could be good, but the East stuff, Gandalf and Galadriel and her wandering eye are major red flags.

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Cinema Issues: The Death of Pixar

We have written before at length in these Cinema Issues posts about how Pixar has chosen ideology over entertainment time and again, and how they have literally had to come out and say they’ll stop. Moreover, we have also said how they have been a one hit wonder emotionally manipulative, sequel machine for a long time.

Today’s article is to talk about the Disney layoffs which are happening across the company but mainly at Pixar. Some people are not understanding how Pixar can be in trouble when Toy Story 5 has just come out and done so well, let us explain.

Pixar has a bad profit to loss ratio in their recent filmmaking. In their ten films since 2020 only three of them have made money with the rest losing the studio money, some of this is the fault of Pixar and the films themselves some of it is the fault of world events or Disney’s wider decisions. However a 3/10 ratio for profitability is not good.

Let’s examine.

First you have the COVID films that lost money due to COVID and the films being sent out to streaming rather than them being bad but still created a deficit at the studio and start to dent the idea of them as hitmakers.

Onward with a budget of 200 million dollars needing to make 500 million to break even yet making 141 (due to the pandemic) lost the studio 359 million dollars.

Soul cost 150 million meaning it needed 375 million to break even but it made 122 million, costing the studio 253 million even with re-releases.

Luca coat 120 meaning it needed 300 million to break even, it made 50 million needing it cost the studio around 250 million

Turning Red cost 175 million meaning it needed 437 million to break even, it made 21 million costing the studio around 417 million dollars

These films were largely written off as most of the films that flopped during COVID where. There was an idea that once cinemas fully reopened things would change. However, Pixar then started to pivot to social activism and sending a message, which would turn out to be a very costly mistake.

Lightyear cost 200 meaning it needed 500 million to break even, it made 226 meaning it cost the studio 274 million dollars

Elemental cost 200 meaning it needs 500 million to break even, despite a strong rally it made 496.4 million dollars meaning it cost the studio 3.6 million.

Inside Out 2 was a smash hit that started to reverse the damage, it cost 200 million to make and made 1.699 billion so it made around 1.199 billion dollars in profit for the studio. This amount of profit more than covers all the past debts of all the films listed above, and leaves the studio around 300 million dollars in the black, however, if this success had then been replicated going forward Disney would likely not have laid off so many people.

Elio cost around 200 to make meaning it needed 500 to break even, It made 154 million meaning it lost the studio around 346 million which in turn eats through the last of Inside Out 2s profit for the studio.

At this point in the entire 2020s the studio had made one profitable film and was back in a precarious financial position again. This led the studio head to stay that the studio was going to stay away from political messaging and try and get back to films for everyone.

The holdovers of the woke era then came with Hoppers costing 150 to make meaning it needed 375 million to break even, it made 389 meaning it made a small profit of 14 million dollars, which in the world of movie making isn’t enough.

Then you had Toy Story 5 which cost around 250 million to make meaning it needed 625 to break even, currently it has made around 960 million and seems posed to go over a billion which will make probably around 400+ million in profit for the studio.

At the time of writing Pixar as a studio is in the black after Toy Story 5 and the small scale success of Hoopers. However Disney doesn’t want a studio that is batting 3/10, Disney doesn’t want a studio that constantly veers between profitably and loss making, Disney doesn’t want a studio that isn’t a sure thing. As such you can see corrective behaviour being taken at Pixar, the original output beyond Gato is being slashed it’s mainly sequels coming in the future, and if they were smart the budgets would come down significantly. The lay offs represent the need to make the studio profitable on a more consistent basis again, the idea of cutting the overhead down so they can lower the budget on these films and have a more consistent hit rate, especially in a landscape with a shrinking theatrical audience.

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Cinema Issues: The Importance Of The Second Weekend For The Odyssey

As Sunday rolled into Monday many people were looking at the numbers of the Odyssey first weekend around 264 and going take that chuds.

However, the first weekend is not proof of anything and everything will be decided in the second and third weekend. Here’s how.

Firstly the film using Hollywood standard 2.5x the production budget needed to break even needs to make around 625 million dollars. Which is about 360-361 million dollars from where they are now.

Now normally Nolan films have a long stretch in cinemas without competition, not this time but we will get there.

Secondly, if you look at the breakdown of the reported 264 a lot of it came from premium formats, this is your IMAX and things like that. Now these tickets were sold way in advance and bring in much more money per ticket sale than a regular ticket. However, most of the people who cared deeply about the format will have seen it by now, meaning they went the first weekend potentially suggesting we could be seeing a front loaded movie. There will be some people who couldn’t get premium seats last weekend who may go in the week or even next weekend and there will be others who go again. The number of premium tickets however will be down in the second weekend both for the natural reason of less people going but also because the few who missed out on opening weekend and those who want to see it again will be a small group. This means the second weekend drop off will be reflective of a front loaded movie. A usual film that holds well will lose about 50% of its business but this has the added factor of being so dependent on premium formats as such it could see into the 60% or higher.

Going into the second weekend the film sits at 364 million dollars, as a lot of the stragglers after the first weekend went to see the film during the week, meaning they’ll likely be high drop off on the second weekend.

This would mean that the film would end its second weekend around 500 million when you account for the weekday ticket sales as well. This leaves the film with around a 125 deficit to break even. This would then become a central issue as it faces a lock out in the third weekend.

Basically if the Odyssey wants to break even it needs an incredibly strong second weekend.

In the film’s third weekend Spider-Man Brand New Day comes out. This means the premium IMAX screens will stop making any money for the Odyssey and will be handed to Sony for that film. This means that the male demographic is split as well. Both Spider-Man and The Odyssey lean towards men, older men say 25-40 will have an interest in both so there will be direct competition. Whilst the older crowd 60+ may still show up for the prestige epic and the cinephiles might go back for rewatches the core of the audience will be hollowed out.

As such the box office will likely see a significant downturn on the third weekend.

You are then left with two options, that the film sticks around and over a few long period of time maybe into September is able to crawl to that 625 million break even point, or it does not break even at all and the chuds win.

If you were Universal you would be watching that second weekend like a hawk the closer to 500 million you can get the easier it will be to survive post Spider-Man. If the film managed to barely drop at all in the second weekend it could comfortably break even at 625 over the later summer period.

As such for those celebrating it is too soon to call.

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Interstellar: Back In The 2010s Chris Nolan Was A Serious Filmmaker

Summary, a man goes on a mission to find a new home for his kids across the stars.

Unlike something like Project Hail Mary this film actually scienced it was hard science fiction from the off rather than wasting time with goofy elements.

The performances carried the film and there was a lot of weight to it, particularly the scenes wherein the main character sees his daughter again for the first time in decades.

The film does have some of the usual Nolan bloat as he likes to indulge in, the film would have been better sans the Matt Damon plotline, and sans the Cassie Affleck side quest but hey Nolan has to Nolan.

The film is visually great and the new worlds they explore look well realised and hold up even now 12 years later.

Overall, a sign of what Nolan can do when he’s not race swapping characters to bait the culture war.

3.5/5

Pros.

The world design

The human aspects

The science

The gravity of the situation

Cons.

Bloat

Needless subplots

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Ride Or Die Season 1 Overview: Amazon Keeps On Burning Money

Summary: two older ladies have their unlikely friendship rocked when one of them reveals they are an assassin.

Where to begin with why this doesn’t work, do we even need to say why the physicality of Waddingham makes the idea she is beating the snot out of dudes incredibly unlikely.

The usual places are saying this is wonderful for featuring older women representation, we’d say who is asking to see more action properties starring 50+ year old women? The counter argument of course is this is a comedy-action series. However, you wouldn’t know that from watching it the comedy doesn’t just not land it is outright painful.

The chemistry between Spencer and Waddingham also feels like two people forced to spend time together rather than two old friends, that doesn’t get better as the show progresses it remains immovable.

Overall, you seriously question why the studio head at Amazon Prime has a job left.

0.5/5

Pros.

It is once or twice unintentionally hilarious

Cons.

The comedy is DOA

Waddingham and Spencer have no chemistry

No one asked for this

It is dull and predictable

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Evil Dead Burn: Is That It?

Summary: the deadities go after a family after they discover an ancient weapon that can kill them.

So this film was watchable and had some good gore but that’s really it, it didn’t do much of anything new either in terms of horror more broadly or in terms of the franchise.

Another thing that was odd was that the humour which is a staple of the Evil Dead franchise was mostly missing as the film played it straight, this was a bad choice.

The film once again showed the evil side of the nuclear family and turned the film into a depressing PSA on domestic abuse.

Crucially it was an Evil Dead film that wasn’t fun.

Overall, watchable if the low point for the franchise.

2/5

Pros.

The gore

It is watchable

Cons.

The lack of humour

The return of Ellie is fairly meh

It is something you have seen before

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