Having Said That, I'm Not So Sure It Does
Er - in fact, Your Humble Scribe is not entirely sure what it looks like, if it looks like anything at all. It's a conceit dreamed up by the Bulletin Of Atomic Scientists, who wanted to scare the living bejasus out of everyone about how dangerous nuclear and thermonuclear weapons are. Art!
What we have here is a schematic representation of a clock that you could not use for timing hard-boiled eggs. Mind you, if it hits midnight a runny yoke is going to be the least of your problems.
ANYWAY what we're going to be - hang on, hang on, don't Linkin Park have a song called 'Minutes To Midnight'? that I was listening to on the I-Pod this afternoon? Art!
ANYWAY AGAIN what we're going to get around to eventually is the forthcoming Marvel release 'Avengers: Doomsday' which is slated for a December 2026 release.
Before we get there, mayhap, Conrad is going to be doing a little budgetary analysis of what films Marvel released in 2025, what their budgets were or claimed to be, and what they made at the box office. Art!
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| Ryan fulminates again! |
Thanks to Ryan of 'RK Outpost' on Twitter for bundling all the information into one location. Be advised, Ryan swears pretty freely when he's angry, and - shock surprise twist in the tale - he was pretttty angry on this vlog. He mentioned three films in addition to 'Deadpool and Wolverine' that Marvel released this year, and blithely stated that they made a loss.
Can Conrad resist the temptation to go digging for more detailed data?
No.
BEAR IN MIND! I am going to be using the '50%' rule for box office receipts, meaning that the studios only get back half of what cinemas get; don't make the mistake some critics or pundits make and fondly imagine that ALL the box office monies go to the studio.
First, we'll take a look at the film above, where accurate publicly-available information has just been released by HM Government. If you film in the UK then you're eligible for a tax rebate of up to 25%, with the kicker that you HAVE to release the complete budget breakdown and do it in public. Art!
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| Dateline 2024 |
According to Marvel, the budget for D&W was $200 million, plus another $150 million for marketing, promotion and advertising - hereafter MPA. Thus a $350 million total outlay. With a global Box Office Take - hereafter BOT - of $1.3 billion, of which the studio gets $650 million, they made $300 million in profit, drum roll, trumpet blast, all the suits go home happy.
HOWEVER - ah that word again - 'Geeks and Gamers' got hold of the actual budget figures from 'The London Standard' and boy do they tell a different story. The real budget was £418 million, or $550 million. They got a tax rebate of $80 million, but the MPA still stands at $150 million. Thus their total BOT was $650 million versus total outlay of $620 million, meaning only $30 million profit, or 10% of their original claim. Dunno about you but if I were an investor seeing only a $30 million profit after a $700 million outlay, I would be unhappy. Art!
Then we have, as an aside, 'Dr Strangle and the Multiverse of Badness' or some such, really I didn't pay all that much attention, except to note that it supposedly cost $200 million a la Marvel, and $400 million a la 'The London Standard'. Guff like this is why Conrad used to joke about Disney being a money-laundering organisation. Many a true word spoken in jest.
ANYWAY ANYWAY back to those three films, which are: 'Captain America: Brave New World', 'Thunderbolts' and 'Fantastic 4: First Steps'. They were all released in 2025, so we're not going to get the UK government-mandated breakdown until much later in 2026. For the moment - Art!
"CAPTAIN AMERICA:B.N.W." The current budget quoted by Marvel is $180 million, which is hotly disputed by industry insiders due to the extensive reshoots involved, which they assert have kicked the total upstairs to $300 million or even $380 million. Conrad is guessing the budget to be $50 million, which is kind of lowball for a tentpole production like this, yet it works for me. Art!
So, we have bounds of between $230 million and $430 million, versus a BOT of $208 million. At least worst, it lost $22 million and at hand-rubbingly awful, it lost $150 million. Ooops. Art!
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| I know of and care nothing about this film |
''THUNDERBOLTS'' For this excrescence, we have Marvel's sworn testimony on the Holy Bible, Koran and Torah that the budget was $180 million, with a definite MPA of $100 million - I did warn you 'only' $50 million was being stingy - for $280 million total. Art!
Thus a BOT of $191 million and a $90 million loss. Art!
"FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS" How many times have they tried to restart this franchise? Well, they threw $200 million at this attempt, with the MPA being a very definite $170 million, total $370 million. Art!
Thus a BOT of $260 million and a loss of $110 million.
Potentially, at the worst, Marvel lost £350 million on this trio of films.
Now, back to the title. 'Avengers: Doomsday' is looking at an enormous budget, not least because Robert Downey* is rumoured to be getting $100 million to tempt him back, and there is going to be a huge cast. Originally slated for May 2026, it's been put back to December 2026, which implies either reshoots or very, very extensive (and expensive!) post-production work. The real, true, accurate budget details won't be released until late 2027 if they go for a December launch next year. Speculation puts the production and MPA costs at close to $1 billion, meaning it would have to make $2 billion merely to break even. Art!
I count 26 characters. Note the old release date.
'Critical Drinker' pointed out the paradox inherent in a blockbuster like this: the budget is so enormous they have/want/need <delete where necessary> to appeal to the maximum possible audience, so it ends up as a bland mish-mash that offends nobody BUT which appeals to none.
We shall see!
Oops. Nearly to Count on the Intro alone. That's what numbers do for you. Okay, we need pictures not text. Art!
I'm Culling My Cheat-Sheet
That's the outstanding pictures and text that I've saved as a Word document in order to have content at a later date. Here's a picture that's going - Art!
Yes, that is a swastika. It's a crossword with a difference, from 'Signal' I believe, the Nazi propaganda publication. date of publication 1943, location Tunisia. Far too difficult - it's written in Frakturand Teuton and is of distinctly dubious morality.
Talking Of Standards -
In the Intro. Do keep up!
Art?
As proof that property prices in The Modern Babylon are insane, this house has been derelict for years - take a look at the 'garden' and what state it's in - and is now on the market as a 'refurbishment program', meaning it's not fit for Hom. Sap. Art!
I don't subscribe to the 'Evening Standard' and wonder if we'll get a follow-up story on whether this pit sells for what they're asking or an even more insane sum. Watch this space after December 10th, when it goes up for sale.
Finally -
Never one to avoid shoeing a repellent bunghole when they're down, Art!
Elong Tusk pimps a right-wing European political party that blames a falling electrical charge on the Jews, Muslims, liberals or all three combined?
Thank you and goodnight!
Short addendum - hopefully no obvious formatting probs after accidentally copying the whole of the above and adding onto the end of the blog. An old man moment.
* I refuse to use 'Junior'
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