Lancelot Link Monday: Superhero Showdown

Lancelot Link Monday! BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: No Matter Who Wins, We Lose! Because the film made so much money in its opening weekend, we're getting another round of those articles about "Critic Proof" movies - I swear they just change the film title and republish the old ones. Hey, a movie like BATMAN V SUPERMAN was *always* going to have a huge opening weekend. Even with bad reviews. Bad reviews actually *fuel* the opening weekend - "Can it be as bad as they say it is? Let's go see it and find out!" But the real issue is: The critics have seen the film, the people who bought tickets on opening weekend didn't... but now have. So will they want to see the movie again and maybe even again? Will they provide good word of mouth when their friends ask? My FB friends are mixed on this film - some think it's not that bad, others think it *is* that bad. I have yet to read a glowing excellent you've gotta see this review from any of my FB friends (many of whom are the target audience for this). I suspect next weekend will be pretty good, too - but here's the thing: STAR WARS TFA was #13 over the weekend... and that's been out since *last year*. Will BVS have that kind of staying power? While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...




Here are a baker's dozen links plus this week's car chase...


1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Batman V Superm................ $170,100,000
2 Zootopia........................ $23,138,000
3 MBFGW2.......................... $18,120,000
4 Miracles......................... $9,500,000
5 Allegiant........................ $9,500,000
6 10 Cloverfield................... $6,000,000
7 Deadpool......................... $5,000,000
8 London Bridges................... $2,926,000
9 Doris............................ $1,700,925
10 Eye Sky.......................... $1,001,204


Though the *current* reported budget for BATMAN V SUPERMAN is $250 million, before the bad reviews kicked in the budget was over $410 million as of October of last year! That's before post production overages and reshoots and P&A advertising and everything else! Yikes! It's common for studios to under report budgets when things get out of hand and there's concern that a film may not perform as well as they thought. So BVS will have to do STAR WARS business to break even. Hopefully it will do great business and Warner Bros will be able to fund another MAD MAX movie.

2) Return On Investment? Small Movies With Big Profits.

3) Writing DOUBLE INDEMNITY With Wilder & Chandler.

4) Women & Minority Writers - This Get Worse According To WGA.

5) And The Actual WGA Report.

6) J.K. Rowling's Rejection Letters.

7) As The Guy Who Gave Albert Whitlock The Welcome Mat That He Used In Front Of His Trailer, I Love Old School Effects Like This...

8) From 3 Minute Proof Of Concept Short To Feature Film - LIGHTS OUT.

9) I Think The Premise Is Wrong - Hitchcock Didn't *Block* Scenes, He Used Specific Shots (Often Altering The Set For The Shot), But Interesting Look At VERTIGO.

10) Dialogue Is Like Toilet Paper...

11) The Cannes Game Begins!

12) What Script Readers And Development People Look For In Your Screenplay. This is GOLD!

13) BATMAN Vs. SUPERMAN - The Previous Fights Before This Week's Rematch!

BONUS: DEADPOOL Effects. And the Car Chase Of The Week:



RIP: Garry Shandling.

Bill



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