Film, Box Office, and Stuff

So it was announced yesterday that Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released day-and-date with the United States on 25th May 2018.  It makes sense to release it on the same date.  As we know, Star Wars as a brand is not in China what it is in the States, so leaving it until later will make no difference (it didn't for The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi ), so the studio is obviously trying to give Chinese moviegoers a different hook to see it, and, due to time zones, that's to see it before any other country in the world.  I don't think this will make any difference, but I can only assume that's why they're doing it. But I wonder if they will actually market the film like a blockbuster this time.  This is a brand that Disney really wants Chinese people to flock to, but with the last two Star Wars movies there was a significant dearth of marketing power.  Back at the end of 2015, you could see Star Wars pretty much everywhere for the upcoming early January 2...

I was again walking around my local shopping mall, Raffles City, and this time they are promoting Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle , two weeks ahead of its 12th January release date.  Columbia Tristar Marketing clearly sees a big hit to start marketing this so early (and why not? It's doing gangbusters in the US).  It would not surprise me if it out-grosses Spider-Man: Homecoming 's $116m to become Sony's second biggest hit in the market in the last 12 months (I seriously doubt it tops Resident Evil: The Final Chapter 's $160m). Anyway, so this marketing stand is pretty cool.  It has prop plants and other fixtures that I assume are part of the film.  The idea is to go into the booth, and your face can appear on the screen atop the body of one of the characters.  I went it to test it and got Dwayne Johnson.  I took my son in and he got Karen Gillan.  To be honest, this experience was lame.  Kind of clever, but the result was cheap.  I assum...