From joining the quest of destroying that ‘One Ring’ – Lord of the Rings, drifting into the realm of ‘Narnia’- home to mythical beasts and talking animals – The Chronicles of Narnia, to learning the art of witchcraft and wizardry at ‘Hogwarts’ – Harry Potter and coexisting with the local tribe on the lush alien world of Pandora – Avatar, we can all agree that fantasy is fundamentally ridiculous. But, once in a while, the real world gets a tad boring, and good old fantasy is our best and cheapest bet!
Fantasy has the power to transport audiences from the bounds of reality into the world of escapism and incredulity – and what better medium than cinema to escape reality (larger than life image and surround sound with booming bass).
Over the years, the genre has gone from strength to strength, and today, we’re in the middle of an unprecedented fantasy boom.
2017 witnessed a myriad of fantasy movies, with three of them making it to the list of Top 10 Highest Grossing Hollywood Movies (worldwide) – Star Wars: The Last Jedi (over US$1.32B and the 9th highest grossing movie of all time), Beauty and the Beast (Over US$1.26B and the 11th highest grossing movie of all time) and Wonder Woman (over US$817M). Another notable fantasy movie of 2017 is The Shape of Water which won 4 Oscars, 2 Golden Globes and 2 BAFTA Awards.
UAE fantasy movie admissions stats:
2018
Avengers: Infinity War – Ranks 1st in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2018, ran for 23 weeks and did approximately 733K admissions
2017
Beauty and the Beast – Ranks 3rd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2017, ran for 14 weeks and did approximately 499K admissions
Wonder Woman – Ranks 10th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2017, ran for 13 weeks and did approximately 330K admissions
Justice League – Ran for 8 weeks and did approximately 322K admissions
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Ran for 9 weeks and did approximately 178K admissions
2016
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Ranks 2nd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2016, ran for 13 weeks and did approximately 541K admissions
Suicide Squad – Ranks 5th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2016, ran for 10 weeks and did approximately 339K admissions
Doctor Strange – Ran for 10 weeks and did approximately 245K admissions
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Ran for 11 weeks and did approximately 234K admissions
Warcraft: The Beginning – Ran for 9 weeks and did approximately 182K admissions
2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron – Ranks 3rd in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2015, ran for 12 weeks and did approximately 530K admissions
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Ranks 8th in UAE Top 10 Movies of 2015, ran for 15 weeks and did approximately 398K admissions
Cinderella – Ran for 12 weeks and did approximately 303K admissions
Upcoming fantasy movie releases in November – December 2018:
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Release Date: 15th November 2018
Starring: Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Eddie Redmayne
Mortal Engines
Release Date: 13th December 2018
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Stephen Lang and Robert Sheehan
Aquaman
Release Date: 20th December 2018
Starring: Jason Mamoa, Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman
*Fantasy movies mentioned above are as per genre listings on IMDb.
Contact a member of our sales team for more information on advertising opportunities alongside upcoming fantasy movie releases.
Sources: IMDb, Writing Cooperative, The Telegraph and YouTube
Director Zack Snyder and cinematographer Fabian Wagner shared a pair of cool new photos from behind the scenes of Justice League. The ensemble actioner from DC and Warner Bros. is less than two months away from its wide release, and with the new trailer that released over the weekend, anticipation has reached fever pitch.
Snyder went right back behind the cameras to continue DC’s curiously unnamed cinematic universe after 2016’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, while Wagner is making a major leap to work on his first big-budget feature film.
That doesn’t mean Wagner totally lacks experience as a cinematographer for big productions. He is coming off his acclaimed work on Game of Thrones, earning an Emmy nomination for his cinematography on the pivotal season 5 episode “Hardhome”. He proved his ability to create sprawling visuals with that episode, which locations like Iceland provided in abundance for he and Snyder to make Justice League. Wagner gave fans a taste of how epic some of the shots in the new film will be in his latest photo from the set.
Check out the behind-the-scenes glimpse at Justice League below, via Wagner’s official Instagram account.
It reveals a shot of what is presumably Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne surrounded by mountains, staring off into a large body of water. The location in question is the Westfjords, a large peninsula in Iceland that was confirmed as a filming location over a year ago. In addition to Affleck, several Aquaman cast members were involved in the Iceland-shot scenes. As Wagner mentioned, filming wrapped in the location almost a year ago.
Snyder also shared a photo of himself on the set via the social network Vero (h/t Batman-News). You’ll notice that Snyder is using a camera that’s painted pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which he first used on the set of Batman V Superman. You can also see that a chilly Snyder was prepared to get wet if he had to, in order to get the best possible shots.
Wagner described Justice League as the “biggest and most fun job” of his career, and it would be hard to argue otherwise. Regardless of how fun the film was compared to Game of Thrones, Justice League was almost certainly the most expensive production yet for him. The official budget is unknown, but it likely falls between Aquaman’s $160 million and Batman V Superman’s $250 million. It’s known that Wagner employed a similar visual style to Batman V Superman, which original cinematographer Larry Fong (unsurprisingly) described as “incredible”. This newest photo from the Iceland set shows that those scenes will surely boast some amazing views.
Don’t miss out on aligning your brand alongside this MEGA blockbuster – guaranteed to usher in large audiences.
Contact a member of our sales team for more information on cinema advertising opportunities.
Sources: SCREENRANT and YouTube
