Absolutely.

I’ve seen the Broadway show and when they announced they were splitting the film into two I thought it was a huge mistake. It just seemed so unnecessary. After watching the first film I admit I was completely wrong.

The first film covered the first half perfectly. Excellent story and excellent music. I walked out thinking… Oh shit… What the hell is the second film going to look like?

When you watch the Broadway show you kinda forgive the weaker second half. You judge the whole thing together and it comes out ahead. But if you have to focus on just the second half. If you have to stretch it out to match the runtime of the first… The cracks are going to be obvious and the weaknesses highlighted.

It’s the weaker film, but it’s a fun conclusion.

“Reunion episodes” have been a thing for years. Wikipedia even has a whole list of them.

Originally most of them were just getting the cast back together to talk about the show. The TV show Friends did a version of this a few years ago.

We also got the film or TV movie that revisited the cast and story, usually a few years after the show ended. The TV show Psych did a handful of these.

And of course more recently, as you noted, we’ve started to get the new seasons version. King of the Hill would be a good recent example of this format.

It’s fun to revisit the worlds these shows created. Some suck. Some are great. Some are just sorta in the middle.

To add, give me some way of tracking these collectables.

If I’ve collected all of the trinkets in a given area, mark that area in some way. If there are 100 trinkets, number them and give me a list. Give me a map, hints, thing that beeps, something.

I don’t need any of the above to be unlocked from the start. You can add it in the post game or after I’ve collected some percentage of them or make it a side quest.

It’s annoying going online and someone has posted “I found 99 of 100 things, where else to look?” and basically no one can help them. It’s annoying being that person, to be so close and yet so far.

I mean, they’d get more money for a theatrical/streaming release.

The argument and implied reason for scrapping the film is that they wouldn’t. Look at “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” on a budget of ~$125 million the box office return was ~$135 million. Add in the theater split, any level of marketing, etc and the film lost money. For a streaming release you need to ensure you’ll retain, ideally gain new subscribers.

The number crunchers ran the numbers and said it wasn’t worth it. Although the funny thing is, with all the news about it, they could probably release it now and it would do fine.

That said I don’t agree with what happened, it just seems ridiculous.

So technically, in this specific instance, Trump Mobile isn’t run by Donald Trump. It’s instead a separate company run by Don Jr and Eric Trump. That company is then licensing the “Trump” name from The Trump Organization.

Now The Trump Organization is owned by Donald Trump, although officially run by Don Jr, Eric, etc.

But you’re absolutely right that all of this is bullshit. It’s also why Trump is so pissed at New York AG Letitia James for investigating and uncovering all sorts of shady business practices.

You’re absolutely right that Congress should be doing something about it.

You’re absolutely right. There is IMAX, “IMAX,” and IMAX?

I do have a theater near me that is proper IMAX IMAX, but it’s a rare once a year maybe treat.

I was fully against splitting Wicked into two films. That being says part one was basically a perfect adaptation. I’m planning to see part two next weekend (purely for scheduling reasons) and I fully expect it will be excellent.

Just so it’s not forgotten to time I want to recommend AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake). It’s basically what if Metroid 2 was made in the Super Metroid engine.

I’d recommend any of the 2D Metroids, but if you’re going to play Metroid 2, that’s the version to play.

Odyssey is part of the galaxy. It even goes to the moon.

(I also think the only reason it’s called Galaxy is so we can pick up Rosalina.)

I mean there is plenty to crap on in the film, the romance being one of them, but overall I enjoyed more of the movie than I disliked it.

I think if they had dropped the anime eyes gimmick the film would have been better received. I know I saw them and just disregarded the whole film, it just looked so ridiculous. It wasn’t until after a friend said it was an excellent film and bet me to watch it that I did (and they were right).

I understand your first sentence, and I agree that for some of them that might be the case, but I still think more are made for entertainment and winning or being nominated can provide a positive signal.

To be clear I’m not saying that winning an Oscar is an automatic “best movie ever” signal. It’s a signal to take another look.

And honestly looking only at last year’s nominees and winners it is a pretty weak signal overall. But if I go back a year, I look over the winners and nominees there…

I never would have seen “Anatomy of a Fall” if it hadn’t been nominated and/or won for best original screenplay, but after it did and I read about it, I decided to watch it and really enjoyed it.

Similarly Emma Stone winning best actress for Poor Things got me interested in it. It’s not a film I thought looked interesting, but I like Emma Stone. So I decided to give it a chance. Now I don’t think I liked it as much as other people, but I think the film was worth watching, worth my time.

Awards let me know that other people have enjoyed something. If I think something looks boring, but then it suddenly wins a bunch of awards, maybe I misjudged it. Maybe I saw the wrong trailer or read the wrong synopsis. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood at that time.

I’d pay to see that crossover episode.

The “Richards Family” versus the “Toretto Family”.

Sure but what sort of signals are you looking for?

Would, “Film won an Oscar” not be a positive signal?

Why would it be a negative?

They’re definitely not giving up on theatres. The last two made billions of dollars each.

However the last film was available on PVOD after 102 days and Disney+ streaming after 173 days. Recent films, looking at Marvel and DC, usually get PVOD after ~70 days and streaming after ~100 days. I expect this film will swing a little higher in terms of days since they’ll probably have a few more special showings (more IMAX etc) after the holiday season.

Now I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney has a plan for an intermission if that is the feedback they get. And honestly if films keep getting longer it may become a standard thing. And if it becomes a standard then I think theaters would be exited, since they can get you to buy more candy, popcorn and soda.

They’re visually impressive fun and simple stories.

Plus they get a huge marketing budget.

Plus Cameron has a history of solid films, Terminator, Terminator 2, Titanic, and now two going on three Avatar films.

Also if you travel to Disney World Animal Kingdom there is a whole section dedicated to Avatar. In fact there is a ride in that park where the wait time is as long as these films. Is that ride worth it? Honestly, yeah, kinda.

Like you said, they’re not bad. Popularity is a different thing. Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, etc these are the popular things. Avatar? I could give you a rough idea of the plot of the last film, but I don’t really remember it. But it wasn’t bad. I’m not dying to see the upcoming film. But if it’s released and I’ve got a free evening, sure, I’ll give it a go. I know it’ll be entertaining.

That’s exactly what I’m thinking and hoping. I’ll have to wait for the reviews and longer gameplay, but if it’s Dragon Quest Builders + Pokemon then it should be a fun game.

The little info (i) box on Billboards website actually cites their data, “The week’s most popular downloaded songs, ranked by sales data as compiled by Luminate.” Which I assume refers to luminatedata.com

Sadly their data (the numbers specifically) aren’t publicly available.

I think it’s worth clarifying that it’s #1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales. That’s a specific category.

According to https://tasteofcountry.com/breaking-rust-explained-ai-country-song in order to reach number one would only take ~3,000 purchases.

That’s a shockingly low number, so if anyone can confirm that or has better numbers, I’d love to know.

But last time I brought a digital song, they cost $1. So for a couple thousand dollars any song could be number one in this category.

If I were an AI company swimming in money, that’s a drop in the bucket for some free publicity.

It is VERY good. It may be the best film I’ve seen this year. At minimum there are beautiful scenes and cinematography that will stick with you long after the film ends.

No, but the article mentions plans for Sonic 4 being in IMAX.