Summer Movie Preview: Part 1-May: The Kick-Off

Summer movie season starts in may. Here are the major releases and how much I think they'll make.

April 29

Wait, April? May starts in May you idiot! Well it starts a week earlier this year with:

FAST FIVE (Aka Fast and Furious 5, aka 5 Fast 5 Furious, aka Fast and Furious: This one has Dwayne Johnson)

Est Opening Weekend: Around $60 million
Est total gross: $130 million

Fast and Furious has something of a sordid history, but the last installment made a suprisingly strong $71 million it's opening weekend in April 2009 (outgrossing Tokyo Drift, the previous installment, in just three days), en route to a front-loaded $155 million. I don't expect this movie to match that one's hieghts though. Fast and Furious came out three years after nobody saw Tokyo Drift. It was really more like a six-year absence for the series, and an eight year absence between titles featuring Vin Diesel. Crazy stupid action movies just weren't made often. Now they are, and so I expect a softer, but still huge, opening for the fifth chapter, leading to a relatively small total. Dwayne Johnson is boss.

May 6

THOR (Aka Tor, aka Kenneth Branagh sells out, aka Worst Movie Ever)

Est. Opening Weekend-Around $50 million
Est. Total Gross-$120 million

Thor is not the next Iron Man. It will lose business to the second weekend of Fast Five, but it should hold well against the nothingness that launches May 13. Overall, expect a pretty average gross, falling short of its $150 million. The fanboys have been brainwashed into liking it, but basically no one else will attend.

May 13

NOTHING WORTH NOTING COMES OUT! JUST MORE GARBAGE!

May 20

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (aka Jack is Back, aka This one cost half what the last one did, aka Let's hope this doesn't suck)

Est opening weekend-$70+ million
Est Total Gross-$200 million

This is something of a wildcard. It could pull $90 million out of thin air or it could struggle to hit $50. Whatever the case, it won't match the $114 million opening of At World's End, for the simple reason that At World's End sucked. Bad. Also the dramatic stakes simply aren't there, and there's been virtually no real money shots (Because a relatively modest $140 million was spent here, versus $300 million for the last installment). Even so, it should be a success, Captain Jack is an icon at this point and it's been long enough for people to forgive At World's End (Plus there are a few idiots who actually liked that movie, so...) Expect it to keep up well over memorial day, and keep going throughout June...unless it really sucks.

May 26 (yeah, thursday, because Indiana Jones did it and had a truckload of money over a five day Memorial day weekend back in 2008)

The Hangover Part II

Est Opening: Around $60 million (80 over the five day)
Est Final Gross: Around $200 million

The Hangover Part II is the hangover part I, but this time it's in Bangcok. This has turned off the more intelligent potential viewers, but I don't think they're what made the first one a hit anyway. Expect around $80 million over the five day memorial weekend, falling fast and ending around $200 million...although I wouldn't be surprised if it did a lot less than that.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Est Opening: Around $70 million (nearly 100 over the five day)
Est Final Gross: Around $250 million

I fully expect Kung Fu Panda 2 to surpass the first one in terms of gross. Opening on memorial day, and playing through june without family competition, it should do exceedingly well for dreamworks. The first Kung Fu Panda was Dreamworks best received film since Shrek 2. Jack Black isn't the star he was three years ago (coming off of his latest bomb "Gulliver's Travels") but I wonder if he was that much of a draw three years ago either.

So overall the summer will get off to a good start, even if I've overestimated a few pictures. June however, is a bit more sketchy.

Shonen Anime and Feminism. Oh yeah, I went there.

Oh shonen anime, what are we going to do with you? I really don't watch much of it anymore, because frankly, it's garbage. Even so, I can still gripe about negative messages seen within it, specifically the portrayal of female characters in the genre. Most female characters in shonen anime exist solely for the purpose of fanservice, and/or to provide the main character with a love interest. Perhaps the most heinous offender in this area is Naruto. Sakura, the only character that doesn't exist completely for the purpose of fanservice, is only interested in one thing: Sasuke. Of course her entire goal in life is to find a big strong man to take care of her. -_- Not only that, she's also by far the weakest member of the team and is basically useless in a fight, until Shippuden when she becomes slightly less useless. Here's Typical scene from Naruto. Kakashi: Naruto, Sasuke, get that bad dood. While I take on the other bad dood. Sakura: What do I Do? Kakashi: Sit here and yell from the sidelines with nameless captive/hostage dood. Sakura: Lame Sasuke: Shut up and make me a sammich! Sakura: Oh Sasuke, whatever you say u r so hawt! Sasuke: Das right, now get me that sammich! You get the idea. Most other popular shonen anime follow this trend, most notably Bleach. (I love Deathnote, but wow is Misa useless). There are exceptions. Code Geass is relatively progressive, with at least one strong female character. By shonen standards, Soul Eater is practically a feminist manifesto, and this is where I really start to whine. At first it seems very progressive for shonen. Maka is really our main character, despite Soul Eater being the titular character. She's strong, independent and is not the victim of fanservice. Of course Blair is also in the first episode, and she is blatantly there to pander, but hey Shonen is Shonen. Two of the main villians, Arachnae and Medusa are strong female characters. The professors are also great female role models (Marie has a few "moe points" but overall still a relatively strong character). At first I thought I might take issue with Tsubaki and The Twins, they sort of bring the "women as objects" argument to a whole new level. (especially since their souls are naked when in weapon form. 0_O). However, Soul is also an object in a sense (as is Maka's dad) and they appear naked as well, so it works out. I was content with the politics of gender in Soul Eater, it felt empowering and right...until episode 33. In this episode it is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that Maka is the weakest of the three meisters. Of course a GIRL couldn't be an effective meister, pshhh! I suppose this could be nitpicking, but since she's the only major female meister (and arguably the main character) it seems like a poor move. I'm hoping Soul Eater redeems itself, but even if it doesn't it's still much better than any other Shonen Anime I've seen in this respect. ...maybe I'm reading too much into it.

New Production Studios: How we doing?

Last weekend, a new movie distributer "Film District" opened its first film "Insidious" to $13.3 million dollars. Considering the movie cost $1.5 million, that's a big win. Actually, over the last year or so there have been a couple of new studios. Let's have a look. Relativity Media: Current Score 1 out of 4 Relativity Media released its first picture "The Warriors Way" back in December. Didn't see it? Well neither did anyone else. Despite lacking a major star (No Geoffrey Rush doesn't count) the movie cost $42 million to make and earned less than $6 million back domestically and less than $10 million worldwide. Fail. Their second release fared a little better. Season of the Witch earned $24 million domestically and over $81 million worldwide (and counting) on a $40 million budget. Not great, but a little profitable. Third release "Take me home Tonight" was another bomb, earning less than $7 million on a budget that has yet to be revealed (but likely ain't too pretty). They finally launched their first hit a few weeks ago, Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless has earned $55 million so far domestically on a $27 million budget, and it's still going strong. At its present pace it could cross $80 million by the end of its run, making it a big win for Relativity, and just maybe save the studio from an early death. CBS Films: 1 out of 5 (so far) I'll make this quick. CBS films has made five movies, four of which have yet to be profitable. The Back Up Plan is there only mild success, although Beastly will probably turn a profit once it goes overseas. I might update this with more in-depth info later.