The Avengers is expected to set the opening weekend record with somewhere between $185M-$200M, even bigger than the projected $175M from yesterday.
The previous record-holder was set last year by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 at $169M.
(Source: Deadline, ERC Box Office)
I so freaking called this. Although I was predicting a $100M opening day, and I was off by $20M.
Why does it matter? It matters because this kind of box office means movies I want to see keep getting made. It means that the Black Widow film I desperately need in my life, may get made. It means we can abandon the concept of, “Geek,” movies vs. “Mainstream,” movies. It means that more people will read comics. It means that we are in phase two of having people get interested in things I care about. The more, “Geeky,” things that people are exposed to, the more they want.
This means that things like science, and NASA, and a sense of discovery will start drawing people in again.
You think it’s just a movie? It’s not just a movie. It’s a movie that crosses all the lines of what, “Geek,” means.
Not geek culture, “Our,” culture. A global culture where we might just start having enthusiasm again. Where we might start thinking about what being heroes can mean in the real world.
This is, believe it or not, something that gives me hope for humanity.
Yeah, my brain works in weird extrapolations, deal with it. I’m usually right.
In fact, I think the last time I was wrong was 2004. That was an election, though. You can never count on people to be sensible in elections.
Avengers captures the imagination, and I really haven’t seen anything this big since 1977. That sounds hyperbolic, but it’s not. When a film, a big flashy film that should just be another big flashy film, can make us believe in things collectively: (and it can) we can do anything.
This matters because if we believe in heroes and see more heroes, we might just start to think and act more heroically where it counts.
