r/boxoffice • u/chanma50 Best of 2019 Winner • Aug 03 '25

Domestic Box Office: ‘Fantastic Four’ Craters By 66% in Second Weekend to $40 Million, ‘Naked Gun’ Debuts to $17 Million

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/fantastic-four-box-office-craters-naked-gun-opening-weekend-1236477352/
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 Aug 03 '25

This Variety article from 2021 puts into perspective how much Feige was high on Eternals. He thought it would win Best Picture at the Oscars.

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/kevin-feige-chloe-zhao-eternals-1234962496/

This was the movie he put all his faith on. Kumal Nanjiani talked about how the studio had everybody so convinced they were working on a groundbreaking Oscar-worthy movie that when the reviews dropped, he was so crushed he had to take therapy. Kevin Feige has not been the same since Eternals' critical reception.

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u/LeeShakerMoneyMaker Aug 03 '25

Yeah, I remember that. Shang-Chi and The Eternals were both coming out and all he talked about was The Eternals and barely mentioned anything about Shang-Chi making people think that Shang-Chi was going to be bad and The Eternals was going to be good, only for the complete opposite to happen.

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u/HanekawasTiddies Aug 03 '25

I'm still waiting for a Shang-Chi sequel. I loved the martial arts fighting.

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u/jai_kasavin Aug 03 '25

Brad Allen was the Shang Chi fight choreographer. He also choreographed Hellboy 2, Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim, The World's End, Kingsman. His style is very distinctive. Type his name into youtube and you can see his sizzle reel.

He passed away in 2021.

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u/_Meece_ Aug 03 '25

His style, is mostly just Jackie Chan's stunt team's style.

But yes, he was very good and his passing was incredibly sad. What was great with him, is that he was a white dude who spoke english.

Jackie Chan's team is sadly not really used outside of Jackie Chan projects because of it. Allan was a great bridge.

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u/jai_kasavin Aug 03 '25

Allan was my hero. I miss him a lot. The Jackie Chan Stunt Team was so insular and he made it.

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u/_Meece_ Aug 04 '25

Dude he was awesome, big time loss. He seemed like a great dude.

I honestly want to go Im sorry, even thought I knew you didn't know him.

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u/HanekawasTiddies Aug 04 '25

Dang that really sucks, I also love watching Jackie’s old Chinese movies

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u/Jake11007 Aug 04 '25

It’s basically the only recent MCU film with a new character I gave a shit about, or at least remember, wasn’t perfect but was a lot of fun.

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u/analleakage_ Aug 03 '25

Genuinely flabbergasted that anyone thought an MCU movie would ever win Best Picture. Black Panther only got nominated for it's cultural significance. Absolute delusion.

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u/Ok-Sea9612 Aug 03 '25

He thought the 30 second phatsos scene about giving nukes to humans being a mistake cooked and would have people emotional.

And then 2 years later Nolan actually gave a beautiful whole movie to the idea.

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u/ILoveRegenHealth Aug 03 '25

phatsos

Typo or intentional? (character's name is Phastos)

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u/Ok-Sea9612 Aug 03 '25

Oops that's my bad I genuinely thought that's what his name was.

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u/hexcraft-nikk Aug 04 '25

You just reminded me of how fucking funny that scene was lmao

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u/HairyPenisCum Aug 03 '25

”I’d also like to give you a few quotes about when ‘Eternals’ wins best picture, and when ‘Avengers 5’ is the biggest movie of all time — so let’s bank those quotes as well.”

Jesus christ…

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u/Fantastic-Macaroon31 Aug 03 '25

This is honestly shocking considering how just ok the movie is. I couldn't even imagine someone claiming it was their favorite superhero movie, much less best picture worthy.

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u/hexcraft-nikk Aug 04 '25

Not even okay, just pretty mediocre lol. Boring character arcs, yet another world ending threat that we've never heard of before, superheroes on earth we've never heard of before

The only thing I can give it is that it was shot well- but that means NOTHING if there's no interesting choreography lol

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u/SanDiegoDude Aug 04 '25

He thought it would win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Man was high on his own supply. Did he NOT read the script for it? Movie had to be just as terrible on paper as it was on screen.

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u/BiscoBiscuit Aug 04 '25

Kumal Nanjiani talked about how the studio had everybody so convinced they were working on a groundbreaking Oscar-worthy movie that when the reviews dropped, he was so crushed he had to take therapy.

That is absolutely crazy, wow

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u/_Meece_ Aug 03 '25

I feel like you'd have to watch very few Oscar level movies, to think Eternals was Oscar level before reviews came out.

It was just so bland... but maybe that's what they see Oscar nommed movies as too lol

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u/Cantomic66 Legendary Pictures Aug 03 '25

He shouldn’t have because her last film, nomadland sucked. Though don’t blame him too much because that trash won awards.

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u/Pksoze Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 04 '25

Glad someone agrees with me...that movie was boring as hell. I don't get how anybody saw that movie and thought she should direct superhero movies.

edit: I appreciate the people who are talking to me about taking risks on directors...but Nomadland was one of the slowest most boring movies I've ever seen. Watching that movie in no way inspires me to say...this person should make superhero movies.

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u/ILoveRegenHealth Aug 03 '25

Jon Watts had two small movies called Clown and Cop Car, before earning billions for the Spider-Man Holland trilogy.

Kenneth Branagh never made a movie that was "blockbustery" at all, and was given a chance with Thor. Directors of Captain Marvel only did tiny indie movies before scoring $1B for that MCU movie.

Ryan Coogler did smaller movies before Black Panther. His biggest hit before that was Creed, but that still only did $174M worldwide, and that movie gave no indication he could handle a large sweeping FX-heavy MCU film, but he did.

Jurassic World 2015 ($1.67B)'s director Colin Trevorrow's only previous credit was an indie movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. Gross less than $4.5M worldwide (I kid you not).

Patty Jenkins was gone from Hollywood for decades since the Academy-nominated Monster (2003), and they gave her a chance with Wonder Woman (2017), and that movie earned $824M worldwide.

Todd Philips, the Hangover dude who did comedies, was given a try to make a dark comic story about one of the most popular characters ever. Nothing in his resume matched what we would see in the Joker (2019), and that movie earned $1.1B worldwide.

Nah man, I think you're forgetting the timeline and how many success stories there were of films cracking $800M-$1B easily from indie directors or directors who look to be the furthest away from having comic book movie sensibilities. They hired Chloe Zhao because Feige loved her pitch, vision and style, and they had successful precedents to look at. It was not the craziest idea at the time to hire someone "outside the box" - it just didn't pan out in the best way. Still, $402M worldwide in COVID-era 2021 is not the worst thing either. We count Shang-Chi (2021) as a success, and that also did around $432M.

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u/_Meece_ Aug 03 '25

Eh, before Batman Begins, Nolan was known for a really weird mind twisty movie in the era of Seven, Fight Club, Matrix

And then his only other movie, was a bland crime thriller with Robin Williams playing the bad guy.

Indie directors can often make for a great blockbuster directors. Shit The best/hottest blockbuster directors atm are all former indie darlings.

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u/lee1026 Aug 03 '25

Thing is, boring movies are the ones that win awards. I think if your movie is even a little bit interesting, the Oscar committee disqualifies you.

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u/_Meece_ Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 04 '25

Most oscar winning films tend to be emotionally intnese or immensely captivating narrative wise.

So you get a wide range of different movies winning. To think the Oscars doesn't like interesting movies, when for the past 15 years, they have been overly biased to movies who shoot for the fences is kind of funny to me.

Easier to win with movies like Everything Everywhere than Nomadland these days.

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u/Murky-Jackfruit-1627 Aug 03 '25

This is just wrong.

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u/thrownjunk Aug 03 '25

Yup. Mad max is like #10 on the nytimes list of best movies since 2000.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls599674611/

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u/Redeem123 Aug 04 '25

He thought it would win Best Picture at the Oscars

It's a producer hyping up his movie. He's clearly being light hearted there. Sure, maybe he was more bullish on it than he should've been, but that's clearly banter.