Upcoming Marvel Movies Through Phase 5 and 6

Marvel Studios is set to roll its curtain down on Phase 4, and has revealed future plans for its cinematic universe at the recently concluded San Diego Comic-Con 2022. The studio announced an exciting line-up of live-action and animated projects in its next phases from 2023-2025.

Phases 5 and 6 feature new titles with familiar faces, starting with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and leading up to not just one but two back-to-back Avengers movies with much to explore in between in the Multiverse.

If you’ve missed those announcements and want more information, here is everything you need to know about Marvel’s latest slate of projects set to release on the big screen:

 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Release date: February 17, 2023

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be the beginning of Phase 5. That film is expected to reveal more mysteries of the pivotal Quantum Realm universe; it will be the first official introduction of Jonathan Majors as Kang (the big bad of this Multiverse Saga) and will debut a new young hero when Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) suits up as well.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Release date: May 5, 2023

James Gunn will be ending his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy with this film – and he and the cast and crew are letting fans know in no uncertain terms that it is going to be an ending. The movie will be introducing some key cosmic figures – Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) – and it’s here that we begin to see a possible pattern forming in Phase 5: powerful villains rising in ways our heroes may not be ready for.

 

The Marvels

Release date: July 28, 2023

The Captain Marvel movie franchise will meet the Ms. Marvel TV series (with help from WandaVision’s Monica Rambeau) to form a new trifecta of cosmic-powered superheroines in the MCU. Plot details are unknown, but Ms. Marvel left us with a place-switching connection between Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), so that’s something. Based on other projects like Secret Invasion, The Marvels could have some serious Kree/Skrull drama to resolve – and again, we could be looking at a major shakeup in the cosmic order, as a result.

  

Blade

Release date: November 3, 2023

The Marvel Knights supernatural side of things has been teased through Moon Knight and Eternals’ post-credits scene, but Blade is the film that will really open the door to it all. Blade could be a pivotal dark horse story whose significance we can’t yet fully understand.

 

Captain America: New World Order

Release date: May 3, 2024

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has taken up the shield and mantle, but it sounds like the timing could be rather unfortunate. In the comics, the New World Order organization was founded by Red Skull in a clandestine plot to take over the world. There have been many similar stories in Marvel lore since then (Leviathan) that could be streamlined into the premise of Captain America 4. Either way, it sounds like Sam will find out there are some truly seedy (world threatening) things happening in the world of politics and espionage.

 

Thunderbolts

Release date: May 3, 2024

The end of MCU Phase 5 will be Thunderbolts – a series that started as a team of villains posing as heroes. Given everything we’ve seen in Phase 5 leading up to it, Thunderbolts makes us wonder if Phase 5 will end with a new world order of villains holding the reigns, and heroes left on the run.

 

While those Marvel Phase 5 plans took their rightful place in the spotlight at Comic-Con 2022, Marvel also announced the first three projects in its Phase 6 slate

 

Fantastic Four

Release date: November 8, 2024

MCU reboot of the Fantastic Four will be released in November of 2024, marking the first movie in Phase 6 and kickstarting the road to Secret Wars. This movie will be necessary to get to the final film of The Multiverse Saga as Marvels’ first family play a major role in that storyline.

 

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Release date: May 2, 2025

The summer of 2025 will kick off with Avengers 5, subtitled The Kang Dynasty and set to be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. What’s unclear about the film is…who will be part of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this movie? One guess is that Captain Marvel and Hulk have continued the team, as seen at the end of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

 

Avengers: Secret Wars

Release date: November 7, 2025

The Multiverse Saga will officially conclude with this title, as the Avengers: Secret Wars will seemingly draw from the Jonathan Hickman-penned reboot of the title from 2015, one that combined multiple different Earths/timelines/universes into one planet, the all-new Battle World.

 

Sources: Techradar, Comicbook.com and Boxoffice Pro

What’s Buzzin Behind The Screen – Industry News – October 2021

In this edition of ‘What’s Buzzin Behind the Screen’, we bring you the latest industry news – everything you need to know about what’s happening behind the scenes in Hollywood. From the latest trailer releases, to box office collections and movie announcements, here’s the October 2021 update:

 

  1. Venom: Let There Be Carnage passes Black Widow at U.S. box office, after only a month in theaters, to become the second biggest 2021 movie. The Tom Hardy starrer has currently earned $184.1M in the US (according to Forbes), surpassing Black Widow ($183.7M), and now stands second to Shang-Chi ($221.5M).

 

  1. October’s stellar performance in box office led by No Time To Die, Dune, Venom 2 and Halloween Kills has prompted leading analytics firm Gower Street to up its forecast for 2021 worldwide box office revenue from $20.2 billion to $21.6 billion. That would be 80 percent ahead of 2020.

 

  1. Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch posted the top opening theater average of the pandemic era. The Searchlight Pictures movie grossed $1.3 million from 52 cinemas in 14 U.S. markets. This represents a victory for Art House cinemas, which have generally suffered during the pandemic due to the reluctance of older audiences visiting theaters.

 

  1. In further industry news, the official The Matrix Resurrections Twitter account has joined in on the online jokes about Facebook’s virtual reality-based rebranding as Meta. This film poster, originally featuring the tagline “The Choice Is Yours,” has been parodied to include “Now, based on real events,” alongside the hashtag #Meta, referencing the recent announcement by Facebook.

 

  1. Despite the dual threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and Warner Bros’ day-and-date release plan, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune achieved the best domestic opening weekend of his career with $41 million. The Filmmaker also received the greenlight for Dune: Part Two from Warner Bros., with a guarantee of an exclusive 45-day theatrical window.

 

  1. Good news for all Korean Cinema fans as The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) is underwriting discounted cinema tickets worth KW6,000 ($5.14) from November 1 to entice South Korean audiences back to cinemas after months of pandemic precautions.

 

  1. Genre-bending horror franchise Scream will be going through a reboot with new directors and main character such as Sidney Prescott herself (Neve Campbell) along with Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) returning to the franchise. Paramount has announced that the movie will release in January 2022.

 

  1. Pixar released teaser trailer of Lightyear, the origin story of one of the most loved characters – Buzz. The original feature film is set to hit theatres in June 2022. The teaser rocketed to 83M views in the first 24 hours, ahead of Eternals, and is the second best for a Pixar movie.

 

  1. Jake Gyllenhaal, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actor will star in Guy Ritchie’s action thriller The Interpreter. The timely story centers on a US sergeant who returns to a war zone to rescue the interpreter who saved his life. Ritchie will co-write the script, together with Ivan Atkinson and Marni Davies who he collaborated in many of his previous projects.

 

  1. After her brief appearance in No Time To Die, Ana De Armas is now circling a role that should offer her more screen time and the chance to be a bigger baddie. She is dubbed to be starring in the upcoming John Wick spin-offBallerina. The new movie will focus on the Ballerina character glimpsed briefly in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Director Len Wiseman – best known for Underworld, will direct the film.

 

Stay tuned for the latest industry news in our November 2021 edition.

 

 

Source: Screen Rant, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Rotten Tomatoes and Cinema Blend

Shang-Chi: The Story Behind Disney’s Successful Experiment

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Marvel’s first epic to star an Asian hero and Disney’s first theatrical-only release since 2019, had a lot of factors against it, but it didn’t just overcome them, it practically somersaulted over.

 

According to tracking website Box Office Mojo, Shang-Chi earned $8.8 million from Thursday night (September 2) previews which began at 7pm across North America, the second highest preview result of the pandemic era behind Black Widow‘s $13.2 million, but rang up an estimated US$75.5 million at U.S. theaters between Friday September 3, and Sunday September 5 (labor weekend). As of September 19, the blockbuster has garnered US$160.9 million and US$112 million at the domestic and international box office (respectively), which equates to over US$272.9 million at worldwide box office (1.8 times the production budget of US$150 million), and is the second biggest opening of 2021.

 

Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO, described the film as an “interesting experiment”, for the movie was the first franchise by studio to exclusively release in theatre, without the simultaneous release on Disney+, since the outbreak of the pandemic. But Simu Liu, the lead actor in Shang Chi, wrote on twitter – “We are not an experiment… We are the surprise.”

 

Media and industry pundits too labeled Shang-Chi as a ‘gamble’ for the studio’s choice of committing to a theatre only release, citing various reasons: the pandemic affected box office ticket sales, the fact that Labor Day weekend is typically slow for theaters, and the protagonist is a newcomer (with tweethearts of social media even referring to Liu as ‘Shang-Who’). However, based on movie reviews and box office figures: Shang-Chi broke the high-risk perception by major studios of releasing exclusively in theatres and not having a simultaneous streaming release, proved that the pandemic won’t stop people showing up for Marvel, and that even on a traditionally slow weekend, audiences were willing to return to the big screen for highly anticipated blockbusters.

 

After Black Widow, Jungle Cruise and Cruella concurrently released on Disney+, the studio announced last week that the rest of its 2021 slate — including Marvel’s Eternals and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story — will each screen exclusively in theaters. The news is promising for cinema exhibitors, for Disney films are routinely among the highest-grossing of the year.

 

Next up for Marvel are Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home, releasing October 21, November 4 and December 16, 2021.

 

 

Contact us for cinema advertising alongside these upcoming blockbusters.

 

 

Sources: npr, The Numbers, Variety, Vulture, L.A Times and Cinemablend

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Latest Cinema Ads – July 2021

Check out the cinema ads booked through Motivate Val Morgan in July 2021

 

With school summer holidays in effect, Eid al-Adha just around the corner and an exciting line-up of highly anticipated blockbusters set to release over the coming months, cinema is the ideal destination for all this summer and the right time for advertisers to display their brand on the BIG screen.

Here’s a list of cinema ads screening over July 2021:

 

Hampton by Hilton

 

Ad Duration: 35 sec.
Campaign Duration: 24th June 2021 to 18th August 2021
Country: UAE
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: The Galleria Al Maryah Island, Nation Towers Galleria, Mercato Mall, Mall of the Emirates and Nakheel Mall, and Reel Cinemas: The Dubai Mall

 

BMW X3

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: Follow the movie – Black Widow
Country: UAE
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: Mall of the Emirates, Nakheel Mall, YAS Mall and Riyadh Park Mall

 

Atlantis

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: Follow the movie– Black Widow
Country: UAE
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: Mall of the Emirates and Reel Cinemas: The Dubai Mall, Dubai Marina Mall and The Pointe

 

OSN

 

Country: UAE & Saudi Arabia
Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration UAE: Follow the movie – Black Widow
Campaign Duration Saudi Arabia: 8th July 2021 to 28th July 2021
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: Mall of the Emirates, Riyadh Front Mall and Red Sea Mall, and Reel Cinemas: The Dubai Mall

*Please Note: The final frame of the ad in Saudi Arabia was in Arabic

 

MBC Group

 

Country: UAE & Saudi Arabia
Ad Duration: 55 sec.
Campaign Duration UAE: 11th July 2021 to 17th July 2021
Cinema Locations: Multiple VOX, Cine Royal, Reel and Oscar cinema locations.

 

Herfy

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: 22nd July 2021 to 4th August 2021
Country: Saudi Arabia
Cinema Locations: Multiple VOX, AMC and Muvi cinema locations.

 

McDonalds

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: 1st July 2021 to 1st December 2021
Country: Kuwait
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: The Avenues

 

Boubyan Bank

 

Ad Duration: 60 sec.
Campaign Duration: 24th June 2021 to 4th August 2021
Country: Kuwait
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: The Avenues

 

Kuwait Finance House

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: 1st July 2021 to 21st July 2021
Country: Kuwait
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: The Avenues

 

Kuwait Fund

 

Ad Duration: 30 sec.
Campaign Duration: 8th July onwards
Country: Kuwait
Cinema Locations: VOX Cinemas: The Avenues

 

Bank Dhofar

 

Ad Duration: 51 sec.
Campaign Duration: 10th June 2021 to 24th November 2021
Country: Oman
Cinema Locations: Multiple VOX cinema locations

 

National Water Company (NWC) 

 

Ad Duration: 20 sec.
Campaign Duration: 1st July 2021 to 21st July 2021
Country: Saudi Arabia
Cinema Locations: Multiple AMC, VOX, and Muvi cinema locations

 

Redtag

 

Ad Duration: 15 sec.
Campaign Duration: 1st July 2021 to 14th July 2021
Country: Saudi Arabia
Cinema Locations: Multiple AMC, VOX and Muvi Cinemas locations

 

Here’s a list of highly anticipated blockbusters releasing over Q3 and Q4 2021:

 

The Suicide Squad

 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 

 

Free Guy

 

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

 

No Time to Die

 

Eternals 

 

Top Gun: Maverick 

 

Whether it’s a launch of a new product, an integrated campaign or a storytelling ad worthy of the BIG screen, cinema offers advertisers an environment that brings campaigns to life.

 

Don’t miss out on advertising your brand alongside the blockbusters ahead. Contact us for more information on booking cinema ads on the screens across our cinema circuit in the Middle East.

 

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Female-Centric Movies Releasing in 2021

The recent release of the fashion spectacle – Cruella, on the BIG screen will be followed by a few other female-centric movie over Q3 and Q4 of 2021.

 

As history has witnessed, numerous female-centric films have performed well at box office and have been acknowledged and appreciated by audiences and critics alike:

 

Captain Marvel
Worldwide BO – Over $1.12M
UAE Admissions – Over 425k

Padmaavat (Hindi)
Worldwide BO – $741,630,951
UAE Admissions – Over 357K

Ocean’s 8
Worldwide BO – $741,630,951
UAE Admissions – Over 236k

Wonder Woman 1984
UAE BO – $3,171,866

 

This year’s Academy Awards also witnessed females bag awards across a range of categories  – the Oscar for Best Director was won by Chloé Zhao for her movie NomadlandFrances McDormand won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Nomadland. and Yuh-Jung Youn took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for MinariHere are the female-centric movies that are a must-watch on the big screen over the rest of 2021:

 

A Quiet Place II

Real life couple and reel life iconic pairing of director-actress duo John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are back with the sequel to their 2018 thriller. In The Quiet Place II, the Abbott family face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path. Catch the eerie blockbuster in cinemas on 10 June 2021.

 

Black Widow

In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller, Black WidowNatasha Romanoff confronts the darker parts of her life when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. This blockbuster resales on 9 July 2021.

 

Respect

Directed by Liesl Tommy, Respect is the biography of iconic singer, Aretha FranklinAretha sings in her father’s church choir as a child and grows up to become an international musical superstar and legend. Catch the highly anticipated musical delight in cinemas on 19 August 2021.

 

Other blockbusters starring a female(s) in a lead role include:

 

The Suicide Squad

The sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad, is set to release across cinemas on 5 August 2021. The movie revolves around super-villains Harley QuinnBloodsportPeacemaker, and a collection of cons at Belle Reve prison who join the super-secret Force X. Heavily armed, they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese where they must fight to live.

 

Eternals

The Marvel debut of award-winning Director Chloé Zhao witnesses the Eternals be a part of various historic changes throughout the centuries during their time at Earth, however they have never interfered….until now. The visual spectacle releases in cinemas on 4 November 2021.

 

Is your brand looking to target female audiences? Be part of the BIG Ticket female-centric event on the BIG Screen in 2021 and reach your ideal audience.

 

Contact us to make cinema an integral part of your media plan.

 

 

Sources: IMDB, Aviation Analysis, Whip Media and Zoella

 

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Women Take Charge of Hollywood in 2020

Women – directors and actors, are set to take charge of Hollywood in 2020!

According to World Economic Forum, the number of women behind the camera on Hollywood movies jumped to record levels in 2019, with 12 directing top-grossing films including Frozen II, Captain Marvel and Hustlers.

Additionally, a study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California found that women made up 10.6% of directors of the top movies last year, more than double the percentage in 2018 and the highest percentage of female directors in the past decade.

2020 is already off to a good start with five of the year’s most anticipated blockbusters – Bird of Prey, Mulan, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 and Eternals – all directed by women.

 

Birds Of Prey

Director: Cathy Yan

Release Date: February 6, 2020

Birds of Prey, will be DC’s first venture in 2020 and the first movie from the studio to come after Todd Phillips’ acclaimed Joker movie. The movie stars Margot Robbie – reprising her famous role of Harley Quinn, and will feature a few other leading ladies such as Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Rosie Perez (to name a few).

 

Mulan

Director: Niki Caro

Release Date: March 26, 2020

Disney’s next live action remake will not be a musical and is missing the indestructible Mushu in its first trailer. However, audiences need not fret, as this version of Mulan from Niki Caro is paving its own path and staying clear of mimicking the 1998 animated classic.

 

Black Widow

Director: Cate Shortland

Release Date: April 30, 2020

One of Marvel’s big releases this year will be by a female director – Cate Shortland, and follows a leading superhero – Natasha Romanoff  (also known as Black Widow) played by Scarlett Johansson. Black Widow’s solo movie has been a long time coming as a result of Scarlett Johansson’s character being a popular in the Avengers series. The story of Natasha Romanova should give audiences a real chance to see her in action and outside the realm of an ensemble movie.

 

Wonder Woman 1984

Director: Patty Jenkins

Release Date: June 4, 2020

As a sequel starring a popular DC comics character, it’s no real surprise that Wonder Woman 1984 – directed by yet another leading female director Patty Jenkins, is topping the list of most anticipated  movies in 2020. Gal Gadot will also be back to reprise her role of Diana Prince, with Kristen Wiig taking on the role of Barbara Minerva (better known as Cheetah) – the archenemy of Wonder Woman.

 

Eternals

Director: Chloé Zhao

Release Date: October 29, 2020

Eternals 2020

 

In April 2018, Marvel Studios announced that they will be developing a film based on the Comic book series Eternals. Directed by Chinese film director Chloé Zhao – known for The Rider, the film will star leading female actresses such as Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Gemma Chan, alongside Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington and Richard Madden. The Eternals are immortal aliens who should possibly offer much to the cosmic side of Marvel’s Phase Four.

According to a list of the most anticipated movies of 2020 by Fandango, around half will be led by women. It’s also worth pointing out that from this list, the top four movies are female-directed.

 

Visit the Movie Planner section of our website to watch trailers of other upcoming movies in 2020.

 

 

 

Sources: Variety, World Economic Forum and Fandango.