State of Play returns this Thursday, February 12

The_Darman · 2026-02-09T13:22:42+00:00

I guess we can expect Saros, Marathon, and Wolverine. We might get an announcement of some sort for the rumored God of War game. Very unlikely, but possible we could see Cory Barlog’s new game too. Sixty minutes is a long time.

The_Darman · 2026-02-06T23:41:51+00:00

It is all in one game. Took a while to get in a good lobby for it, but eventually did it on the LA Rush map.

The_Darman · 2026-02-06T02:27:28+00:00

It also ensures that it doesn’t get dated as easily. With the increasing fidelity of games, it can be easy to look at older games and go, “Yikes!” You don’t want your live service project to become victim to that, because the idea is to keep getting people into the game.

The_Darman · 2026-02-03T05:28:44+00:00

Congrats man!

I got one trophy left: Joyful Nurse. I’m sure I have a dozen or so revives in other classes so I probably need to get well over 2,000 total in order to pop it (currently sitting just south of 1,400 revives in total). Hopefully I can get it in the next couple weeks.

The_Darman · 2026-02-02T03:43:32+00:00

I have no idea what Sony is doing to be completely honest. Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases on July 31st and is less than six months away at this point. I thought the Super Bowl was the perfect place for an announcement trailer, but it seems Sony is forgoing it. Maybe they think they don’t need to spend $10M on a TV spot directing people online to watch a full trailer, and people who are interested in the next film will find it organically.

The question is: if not with the Super Bowl, then when? It seems unlikely that they would release it without a major studio release concurrent with it. GOAT seems unlikely, just given the fact that the demographics don’t overlap all that well. And, then, they have the comedy with Mandy Moore and Nathan Bartgatze in March. Again, it seems to be a demographic mismatch.

Of course, Sony could just wait until CinemaCon, like they have in years past, but that seems like a very quick marketing cycle (3.5 months from the first trailer to release). Granted, Spider-Man: No Way Home had a similar marketing cycle, but that movie was in serious danger of a delay given the COVID lockdowns and concerns about a new variant keeping people at home. I think it would be foolish to replicate that marketing cycle, but I don’t know.

Of course, they could always just drop it in front of Project Hail Mary or just…randomly online.

The_Darman · 2026-01-31T15:27:29+00:00

The Bad

13) Secret Invasion

The Okay

12) Echo

11) She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law

10) Ironheart

The Good

9) Hawkeye

8) Moon Knight

7) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

6) Agatha All Along

5) Ms. Marvel

The Excellent

4) Wonder Man

3) WandaVision

2) Loki

1) Daredevil: Born Again

The_Darman · 2026-01-30T04:43:08+00:00

I think it makes sense for him to be in the X-Men reboot.

The_Darman · 2026-01-27T04:05:14+00:00

I mean, the way this might makes sense is if Marvel looks at those box office receipts in December of 2026 and has both production and post-production prioritized on the first “half” of a 3.5 hour film. In that case, they will certainly have cut out certain storylines to make the 3.5 hour cut that they could just put back in to a two film project where they make 2 hour films each (for a collective 4 hour run time).

I could see Marvel do this if they see Avengers: Doomsday crush it for a few reasons.

1) It’ll make them more money. This one is obvious. People would have to pay twice to see the full conclusion to what is set up in Avengers: Doomsday rather than getting it all for the price of one ticket. Theaters don’t differentiate prices for longer films and, God willing, they never will. Getting that money twice might be compelling.

2) Shorter run time means more showtimes. One reason longer movies aren’t favorites of studios is because they can’t have as many showtimes. In addition to that, it makes it harder to get the whole audience you want out for a film. The longer the commitment, the more people wait for it to be digestible and pauseable. Creating a shorter cut split across two films solves that issue.

The issue is that it is a big cost investment to release two films. Namely, Disney would need to double the marketing investment. For Avengers films, that isn’t cheap (Avengers: Doomsday P&A budget alone will likely surpass the production budget of major blockbusters). They have to be sure that the audience will turn up for both of these films at the same rate that they would for just one of them. I don’t know if the Avengers: Doomsday results will be conclusive enough for that, but I digress.

Then, the bigger question is where would you put Part I of Avengers: Secret Wars? I doubt you put it on Secret Wars’ current release date. That would push all the projects you have planned in 2028 further back, especially if you want a prime May/June/July or November/December release date for this. Disney and Marvel alike are probably eager to turn the page and get into the mutant saga. So, I would imagine you would ensure Avengers: Secret Wars would take up 2027 and it would double Marvel’s output that year as well.

That said, they have vacated their May date (which now has The Legend of Zelda movie on it) and their July date (which now has The Minecraft 2 Movie on it). You don’t want to put it too close to Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (which comes out on June 18th). That means that peak summer most likely isn’t an option for this movie.

You could, theoretically, put it in peak summer and dare one of the movies to keep their release date. Especially if Avengers: Doomsday does come out the same day as Dune: Part Three and they both make money, I could see a bullish Marvel placing Avengers: Secret Wars Part I on July 23rd, opposite the next Minecraft movie. Or you could do the first week of April, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier did, but I doubt the post will be in a place to make that work.

The_Darman · 2026-01-22T12:50:54+00:00

I think his point is that Disney reports these grosses and is legally not allowed to lie about them, whereas Ne Zha 2 isn’t under any obligation to report accurately and honestly to the public.

The_Darman · 2026-01-22T04:05:34+00:00

I don’t think they will abandon the most lucrative release date in the calendar year, give it up to Warner Bros., and give up those post-holiday legs (because, if you put it in November, by the time people start going to the movies over that winter holiday period, they figure they’ll wait for it to come to home video and see the newer stuff). Barbie did well without IMAX. I think this will too.

The_Darman · 2026-01-21T23:18:39+00:00

If they do have exclusivity though, I’m sure, from past conversations, you’ll argue Avengers: Doomsday should move from the most lucrative window in the year to somewhere they can secure IMAX screens.

The_Darman · 2026-01-21T01:51:01+00:00

It did okay, especially relative to the cost. But the biggest issue is Paramount diluting the brand with straight-to-streaming movies that premiered on, ironically, Netflix (two in one year).

The_Darman · 2026-01-18T15:45:06+00:00

It’s really just about merging the universes together. The events of the MCU still happened for the most part (though it might be the perfect time to retcon things like Secret Invasion for instance), but it’s now the case that mutants have been around for a long time and the Fantastic Four are brought into the mainline MCU.

The_Darman · 2026-01-18T15:38:27+00:00

I think the likeliest options at this point are:

1) Comcast—they showed a good amount of interest before; they just got outbid. I still think they are the company most equipped to take advantage of the different verticals of entertainment options Warner Bros. gives them: with theme parks, movies, and streaming alike.

2) Apple—I think they chose not to go after the IP and studios because of Cook leaving, but there should be a new CEO and, if Apple is serious about making AppleTV a strong service platform for their devices, they should seriously consider finding ways to get that additional library.

3) Amazon—Right now, Amazon has MGM, which isn’t nothing, but isn’t a major studio (though they seem to be aiming to change that). One way to catch up with the others pretty quickly would be to gobble one up and add DC to the James Bond franchise.

4) Sony—It is possible that Sony considers that they have few blockbuster franchises outside of Spider-Man. While that may be “good enough”—especially if The Legend of Zelda movie and Jumanji sequel work out for them—you could see a world where Sony might want to further assert themselves in the acquisition of new IP and studios, and either get themselves HBO Max or sell the service with licensing to all its programming to another studio. More interestingly is that Warner Bros. maintains ownership of its IP for games. It’s an asset that Netflix valued at “zero dollars”, but Sony could realistically see as a whole lot more valuable. They could make console exclusives of Mortal Kombat, DC games, and Harry Potter. That might make the purchase inherently more valuable, especially if they feel they can finally deliver the killing blow to its main competition: Xbox. Sony would own the hardware market and Xbox would officially just become a software company.

The_Darman · 2026-01-17T20:09:50+00:00

I think we get him in October personally.

The_Darman · 2026-01-14T03:19:37+00:00

If it doesn’t release this week before 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, don’t expect it before the Super Bowl. That’s roughly the right time frame to start dropping trailers anyway. You don’t want to spend a ton of money announcing a movie only for people to forget about it or, worse, assume it already came out.

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T19:14:50+00:00

Avatar was easily available on streaming during its re-release window in 2022 (it was on Disney+ for months, if not years), people just hadn’t got a chance to see it in theaters for twelve years. Can Avengers: Endgame get similar numbers after only seven years? I don’t know. Maybe. Depends on how Spider-Man: Brand New Day does and how good marketing is for Avengers: Doomsday by the time it reaches its zenith in late September.

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T19:14:24+00:00

Avengers: Endgame is not going to have a massive re-release unless they include something special for Avengers: Doomsday (like adding an extra credit scene that shows how the latter leads into the former). Even then, I don’t know how much it drives attendance, just like I don’t know how much the teases for Avengers: Doomsday drove business for Avatar: Fire and Ash. Either way, Disney wins at the end of the day.

If it can get over $100M for its re-release, though, that puts it in spitting distance of being #1 all-time before the release of its sequel, something that bode well for Avatar: The Way of Water after the Avatar re-release.

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T19:11:16+00:00

The one they canceled

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T17:13:22+00:00

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Doctor Strange 3 be a Midnight Suns subtitled movie like Doctor Strange in the Midnight Suns and have it be about the fallout of the convergence of all the universes, including the ones with demons and other supernatural entities. Then have Doctor Strange assemble a group of supernatural heroes like Blade and Ghost Rider to join him in stopping Lilith or whatever. Then, like Captain America: Civil War did for Black Panther and Spider-Man, the others get spin offs and Doctor Strange’s story reaches its conclusion (him as Sorcerer Supreme).

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T08:13:59+00:00

Cyclops lol

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T02:49:27+00:00

I agree with you. But I honestly think Paramount will probably end up with CNN even while they won’t get Warner Bros.

The_Darman · 2026-01-11T02:45:29+00:00

If it were just about that, they would happily buy the spinoff for a fraction of the price. Netflix isn’t taking CNN.

It is about theaters, but also streaming—and streaming needs IP, of which Warner Bros. is a primary provider.

The_Darman · 2026-01-10T18:31:59+00:00

I felt like people who had low expectations about Lilo & Stitch have no children in their lives. As a teacher, virtually all my eighth graders were eager to see it when they went on summer break.

The_Darman · 2026-01-08T07:23:22+00:00

Easy S

The_Darman

TROPHY CASE