Showbiz Sandbox 519: A Year Without A Blockbuster Comic Book Movie

December 1, 2020

Though 2020 saw DC Films launch a Harley Quinn vehicle and Marvel finally released an X-Men spin-off “The New Mutants,” neither film set the world on fire. As “Wonder Woman 1984” heads to a hybrid streaming and theatrical release, it’s the final gasp of almost an entire year without any big comic book movies.

We ask veteran entertainment journalist Geoff Boucher whether we needed a break from all the cinematic heroics. As someone who has hosted countless CinemaCon panels, Boucher explains whether, after an endless stream of blockbuster Marvel and DC films, a year without a major comic book movie is such a bad thing.

Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including this year’s Grammy Award nominations, Conan O’Brien is ending his late night talk show and why Quentin Tarantino’s next release may be headed straight to libraries.

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Showbiz Sandbox 498: Comic Book Industry Fights For Survival, Meanwhile China and US Simply Fight

June 16, 2020

While the coronavirus has shut down movies, concerts and live theater, it has absolutely decimated the comic book industry. Pop culture journalist Geoff Boucher joins us to look at the future for comic book stores and comic book movies. Spoiler alert – one of these is in dire straits.

Currently, Boucher is co-authoring a book on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios. And this week he’s launching another his own podcast hosted by the legendary comic book magazine Heavy Metal.

Meanwhile, Chris Fenton, a longtime exec in Asia and the author of “Feeding The Dragon,” wrote a piece for Real Clear Politics saying Hollywood and China are headed for a divorce…but he explains why they should make certain it a conscious uncoupling.

Of course we also cover some of the week’s top entertainment headlines including how media companies are jumping on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon, SAG-AFTRA reaches a new deal with producers avoiding a strike and the Oscars update their rules for the Best Picture category.

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Showbiz Sandbox 472: The Growing Dominance of Netflix Movies During Awards Season

December 16, 2019

As Hollywood’s major guilds begin announcing their nominations for best films of the year a trend seems to be emerging; Netflix is becoming a player in prestige cinema. Similar to how cable networks disrupted the domination of broadcast companies at the Emmys, the streaming giant has a growing number of entries vying for top awards.

In China the government has had to pivot from censoring basketball to worrying about how to deal with soccer now that one of the sports star players has spoken out over the protests taking place in Hong Kong. Can the government continue to pull sports off the airwaves without creating a huge programming problem?

Meanwhile, there has been some industry murmurings about the lack of big titles from Marvel or Lucasfilm on next year’s release schedule, leading some to believe box office will be down significantly. We take a quick look at some of the upcoming 2020 releases and explain why there is no need to panic.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the controversy that might break the reality show “Survivor,” why Billboard is adding video streaming to its album charts and the National Film Registry announces its latest selections.

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Showbiz Sandbox 287: The Unofficial Line On This Year’s Comic-Con

July 13, 2015

Pop-culture fans from around the world made their annual pilgrimage to San Diego over the weekend for this year’s Comic-Con.  More than 130,000 attendees turned up to a show where the largest auditorium has a capacity of 6,000. Alex Billington, editor of FirstShowing, explains how some fans had to wait in line for days (literally) to get into popular panel discussions such as the one for “Star Wars: Episode VII”.

Billington waited out the neverending lines so he could fill us in on all the events, panels, trailers and collectibles designed to build hype for upcoming films and television shows like “Hateful Eight”, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Deadpool”. In fact, so many movie studios and television networks showed up at Comic-Con, and with so much content, one has to wonder if their marketing messages weren’t ultimately lost in all the noise.

Meanwhile, the Minions spinoff from the “Despicable Me” franchise opened to record box office in North America giving Universal Pictures yet another big hit this year. Surely the studio will want the animated film to stick around cinemas for as long as possible, whereas Paramount Pictures has teamed up with two theater chains in an experiment to shorten the release window on certain films.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including a request from publishing groups for an antitrust investigation targeting Amazon, “South Park” continues to redefine television thanks to a new deal with Hulu and the Rolling Stones continue their reign as the concert industry’s top earner.

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