A week before Christmas, Disney’s new chief Josh D’Amaro could already be basking in the glow of a banner movie year as he unwraps the biggest gift of all: “Avengers: Doomsday,” the eagerly anticipated reboot of the Marvel universe, seven years and a pandemic after the franchise’s last blockbuster, “Avengers: Endgame,” shattered box-office records.
Warner Bros., however, has dropped a potential worm—or sandworm—into those plans, with the same-day Dec. 18 release of “Dune: Part Three,” which has the advantage of locking in North America’s roughly 400 IMAX screens for three weeks, ensuring the flow of those premium-ticket dollars. While what’s been nicknamed “Dunesday” remains eight months away, studio insiders and box-office watchers are waiting to see if somebody blinks, or whether the two can happily coexist in a way that expands the tent for beleaguered theater owners.
What seems clear, industry sources tell Status, is that…
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Zendaya in Season 3 of “Euphoria.” (Photo by Patrick Wymore/HBO)
“Euphoria’s” Nihilism Enters a New Phase: First, a confession, if only for fans who might come to the show with higher expectations: I’ve never bought into the “Euphoria” hype, and fairly or not, series creator Sam Levinson’s god-awful follow-up series, “The Idol,” merely reinforced the impression he excels in creating beautifully shot dreck that fosters the illusion of edginess, indulging in a kind of lazy nihilism masquerading as coming-of-age insight.
That disclaimer aside, what inarguably distinguished his HBO show involved casting plenty of next-generation stars, several of whom, by now, no longer need the gig. Watching the show’s return more than four years after its second season—with the characters seemingly graduating from high school to mortgage payments—thus provoked modest curiosity, but a greater sense of obligation, wondering how Levinson would handle the time lapse.
Based on the three previewed episodes…
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