On this episode of Collider Movie Talk, John Campea, Jon Schnepp, and Mark Ellis discuss the following:


  • Thor: Ragnorak will include Hulk
  • Box office report
  • Vin Diesel and Inhumans
  • J.J. Abrams has final cut on Star Wars Episode VII
  • Expendables 4
  • Longer X-Men Apocalypse film
  • Bryan Cranston wants to play a Marvel villain
  • Next Brad Bird project
  • What’s up with Mailbag?
  • ...and a few things more!
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Image via 20th Century Fox

It’s Monday which means it’s time for our weekly Box Office report brought to you by our friends at AMC Theatres. Coming in at #1 for the second week in a row is the Matt Damon film The Martian. The film took in an additional $37 million to bring its 2 week total up to $108.7 million domestically, roughly the same as its production costs, and $227 million worldwide. The Martian only dropped 32% from its opening weekend. Coming in second spot for the second week in a row is the animated film Hotel Transylvania 2 making $20.3 million. In the #3 position is the Peter Pan film Pan making just $15.5 million on its opening weekend, well below its reported $150 million dollar production budget. In fouth place is the Robert DeNiro, Anne Hathaway comedy The Intern making an additional $8.8 million, crossing the $100 million world wide mark. And rounding out our top 5 is Sicario making $7.5 million.

As many of you know actor Vin Diesel has been teasing his involvement in Inhumans for months, including bursting out Black Bolt Black Bolt Black Bolt in an interview with Esquire, and also posted this picture on his facebook page back in December. Well, Diesel is at it again when in a recent interview with iO9 he said the following: “I can totally be something [else] with Marvel. I think playing [Groot] only makes Marvel that much more excited and me having my experience with Marvel, seeing how great they were, makes me more excited. We’ve heard a lot of talk about Marvel wanting to have me play a character that doesn’t have my voice. So my voice is used for Groot and my presence is used for the other character.”

BUY OR SELL

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Image via Lucasfilm

In a recent discussion with Vanity Fair, Star Wars Episode VII director J.J. Abrams revealed that his contract with for the film does technically give him final cut on the film, he acknowledges that,


When you do a Disney project, there’s a clause in there that you kind of go, ‘Well, if I were a lawyer I could probably drive a truck through it….'

He also went on to say the following:

I cannot say enough about how Bob Iger and Alan Horn have understood this thing that is now part of the Disney company,” Abrams added. “And they’re not trying to Disney-fy it, they’re not doing anything other than, I think, an incredibly smart thing, which is letting Kathleen Kennedy — who is a remarkable person and producer — run and lead Lucasfilm to a place where I think it wants to go.

Although the most recent Expendables film, Expendables 3, only managed to generate a measly $39 million dollars at the domestic box office, it did manage to pull in over $167 million overseas. As a result, Variety is now reporting that Expendables 4 is indeed on the way and is tentatively planned to shoot in 2016 for a 2017 release date.

Director Bryan Singer’s upcoming X-Men film X-Men Apocalypse may still be over 7 months away, but that hasn’t stopped him from already having a first cut of the film complete. When talking about the cut and how long the new film may end up being, Singer said the following:

“The cut’s a little long right now, but I think it’s going to be a longer X-Men movie. The X-Men movies I usually I keep under two hours, but this one I may actually let be a longer movie because it’s sort of a wrap-up of six movies. It’s kind of a wrap up of X-Men 1, 2, 3, First Class, Days of Future Past, and there’s even an homage at the end, a scene. It’s going to get spoiled because they decided to use it in the trailer which comes out in like six months, but it’s a really cool trailer. But it’s kind of a wrap up of six movies. So, it might run a little bit long.”

MAIL BAG


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Image via Marvel

Dustin J Hawkes writes: I just read an article about Bryan Cranston wanting to play a super villain role in a Marvel film. With the lackluster villains that the MCU has had to this point (Loki, Red Skull and Ultron excluded), do you think this is a good move for Cranston? It seems Marvel puts far less significance on villains unless they will be playing a larger role throughout the cinematic timeline (Loki, Thanos).

Jonathan Peck writes: Hey Collider crew big fan of your show I have never miss a episode, my question is that surrounds Brad Bird. This guy has put on A+ films like Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and even his first live action film Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol until Tomorrowland comes out which I was excited about at the time, it got mixed reviews. I know his next film would The Incredibles 2 which I am excited about. My point is Should Brad Bird direct a live action film again after The Incredibles 2?

Ryan McFarland writes: Hey guys, big fan of the show. Watch it daily to get my nerd/movie fix. My question is: what happened to the weekend mailbags?  I know that Jon puts in extra time on the weekend to do them, but it's been 2 weeks since Dennis' pre-recorded mailbags and I feel like it hasn't even been mentioned. Just hoping to know what's up. Again, thanks for all your hard work!