Tag: Park Seo-joon

Oscar Predictions: The Marvels

Marking the 33rd entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels is out Friday amid mixed buzz and lower than normal box office projections. The review embargo that lifted today may explain why.

Nia DaCosta’s sci-fi adventure with Brie Larson reprising her Captain Marvel role currently sports a 58% Rotten Tomatoes score. That ranks 31st out of the 33 pics ahead of only Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Eternals.

To be fair, some critics are calling it a fun if rather slight and forgettable superhero tale. Yet the most negative reviews are calling it one of the worst MCU flicks.

Visual Effects is the most prominent race where these movies get Academy attention. 13 of the previous 32 have. None have won. Unfortunately for The Marvels, even that aspect is being criticized. Lucky for the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will probably nab a spot in the eventual quintet like its two predecessors did. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

The Marvels Box Office Prediction

Blogger’s Update (11/08): I am lowering my The Marvels prediction from $62.3 million to $46.3 million and that gives it the lowest MCU premiere ever.

After a series of delays dating back to summer 2022, the MCU’s 33rd adventure arrives November 10th with The Marvels. Nia DaCosta, best known for her 2021 Candyman remake, directs. Captain Marvel Brie Larson leads a cast that includes Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Beginning with Spider-Man: No Way Home, we’ve seen a run of six MCU pics that opened to $100 million or over. It certainly helped that each one of them was a sequel in a well-established sub franchise including Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, and Black Panther.

The nine digit premiere streak should end here and the debut may look more like a trilogy of titles from 2021. Black Widow started with $80 million in the summer of that year and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings did $75 million over the Friday to Sunday portion of its Labor Day weekend bow. Finally, Eternals managed $71 million in November.

Two years later, I’m not confident The Marvels even matches those grosses. Other than Captain Marvel and Jackson’s Nick Fury, the other characters are relatively unknown compared to various Avengers counterparts. There’s always the risk of superhero overload and we’ve seen our share of letdowns in the genre in 2023 (The Flash, Blue Beetle, Shazam! Fury of the Gods). Yes, those were all DCU, but the subpar earnings could apply here.

I’m projecting The Marvels will have the lowest MCU beginning since Ant-Man ($57 million) back in 2015. That would be a rather significant letdown for Marvel in their third feature from Phase Five and the third smallest opening overall of the 33 picture series.

The Marvels opening weekend prediction: $46.3 million

For my Journey to Bethlehem prediction, click here:

Journey to Bethlehem Box Office Prediction

For my The Holdovers prediction, click here:

The Holdovers Box Office Prediction

Oscar Predictions: Concrete Utopia

Um Tae-hwa’s disaster pic Concrete Utopia has been doing brisk business in its home country of South Korea as it also played the Toronto Film Festival this week. Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon, and Park Bo-young are among the cast.

The Rotten Tomatoes score is 100% while many reviews aren’t overly effusive in their praise. South Korea has had an interesting recent history in the International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards. In 2019, the nation nabbed its first ever nomination with Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Not only did it win that race, but it became the first foreign entry to be crowned Best Picture.

Last year, Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave was widely expected to grab one of the five spots in IFF and be the only feasible competitor to All Quiet on the Western Front. While it made the shortlist, it was shockingly omitted from the quintet.

Utopia could make the cut and certainly the shortlist. Yet if voters decided to leave off Decision to Leave, this faces longer odds. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…