13 Must-Watch Malayalam Movies On OTT
Thudarum (2025)
Where to watch: JioHotstarAfter its recent massive success in the theatres, this Mohanlal and Shobana starrer has proven yet again the potential of Malayalam cinema. The story: a taxi driver's life takes a dramatic turn when his beloved Ambassador car is seized under mysterious circumstances, which leads to a quest for justice that will make you sit at the edge of your seat the entire time. If thrillers are your jam, don't skip this one.
Kishkindha Kaandam (2024)
Where to watch: JioHotstarIdk what to tell you, but Malayalam cinema does thrillers really well. With mighty critical acclaim for its production, Kishkindha Kaandam is a gripping story around a monkey-inhabited village, where disturbances prompt a newly-wed couple to investigate its root cause. Watch if you're into well-crafted mystery thrillers.
Sookshmadarshini (2024)
Where to watch: JioHotstarStarring the effervescent Nazriya Nazim, Sookshmadarshini is the story of a curious homemaker who suspects that her new neighbour is more private than normal. Her gut feeling gets the best of her—which spirals into a suspenseful game of cat and mouse.
Rekhachithram (2024)
Where to watch: SonyLIVAfter a suspension due to a gambling scandal, Inspector Vivek Gopinath returns to duty, seeking redemption by unraveling a 40-year-old murder case involving a faceless victim. His investigation leads him into the Malayalam film industry's past, uncovering secrets that intertwine cinema and crime.
Bramagyugam (2024)
Where to watch: SonyLIVMade entirely in black-and-white, this Mammooty starrer is a nod to Kerala's folklore. The story revolves around a runaway folk singer in 17th-century Malabar, who stumbles upon a haunted mansion. From there on, a game of deception and dark magic takes place. Watch for its beautiful cinematography, production design, and, of course, one of the best stars Malayalam cinema has to offer. Did the poster scare you? Yeah, you should definitely watch this one.
Romancham (2023)
Where to watch: JioHotstarSet in 2007 Bengaluru, 7 carefree bachelors experiment with a Ouija board, and end up inviting a spirit into their lives—leading to a series of hilarious and spooky events that test their friendship and sanity. Watching Soubin Shahir doing what he does best has never been a bad idea.
Bhoothakaalam (2022)
Where to watch: Amazon Prime VideoWith power-packed performances by Revathy and Shane Nigam, Bhoothakalaam is a fantastic horror film. The story: a grieving mother and her troubled son begin to experience terrifying events in their old house—blurring the line between mental illness and something far more sinister.
Joji (2021)
Where to watch: Amazon Prime VideoIf you're interested in renditions of Shakespeare's works, Joji is the film to watch. Inspired by Macbeth, Joji reolves around a man belonging to a wealthy family who sees a shot at power, and plots a twisted plan to get there. The story unfolds into a dark, witty tale of ambition and guilt. And need I say, Fahadh Faasil?
Nayattu (2021)
Where to watch: NetflixStarring three of the finest actors in Malayalam cinema, Nayattu is a story of 3 police officers who become fugitives after an accident entangles them in a political mess, forcing them to confront the system they are part of.
Trance (2020)
Where to watch: Prime VideoA psychological thriller featuring the GOAT Fahadh Faasil, Trance revolves around a struggling motivational speaker who gets taken under the wing of corporate masterminds and turned into a flamboyant pastor. The film explores mental health, religious exploitation, and the commercialization of spirituality. Watch it specifically for the brilliance that is Fahadh Faasil's performance.
Moothon (2019)
Where to watch: Zee5This film is heartbreak in a package. The story: A young boy from Lakshadweep embarks on a journey to Mumbai in search of his missing elder brother, and ends up in confronting the harsh realities of the city's underworld. Starring the ever-so-flawless Nivin Pauly in arguably his best avatar, this film is beautiful, tragic, and well-made. Not to mention: it premiered at prestigious film festivals around the world, and brought back SEVERAL accolades.
Jalikattu (2019)
Where to watch: NetflixMalayalam cinema cannot get better than this. The story: when a buffalo escapes from a slaughterhouse in a remote Kerala village, the hunt by the townspeople spirals into chaos, revealing the primal instincts lurking beneath their otherwise civilized upbringing.
Special Mention: Manjummel Boys (2024)
Where to watch: JioHotstarOne of the most successful films of 2024, missing this film is not an option. The story revolves around a group of friends who embark on a vacation to Kodaikanal, where an impromptu visit to the infamous Guna Caves turns into a nightmare when one of them falls into a pit.
All you thriller and horror fans—you're absolutely welcome. There's no going back now!
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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
WBD lays off 10% of Motion Picture Group staff ahead of corporate split
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Forbes
12 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Fantastic Four' Won Grownups But Lost Kids And Families To ‘Superman'
Director Matt Shakman's Marvel superhero franchise launch Fantastic Four: First Steps is heading into its second weekend having won grownups but lost the kids and family audience to writer-director James Gunn's Superman, as a different paradigm takes hold of blockbuster business at the box office, and superpowers won't change it. Fantastic Four By The Numbers After a low-end debut weekend outcome of just $216 million worldwide, Fantastic Four looks to enter the weekend right around $155 million domestic, and I anticipate a second weekend of about $43.5 million stateside. With international, the global total is eyeing $357 million by end of business Sunday. That's potentially a sizable sophomore drop, especially compared to Superman's own solid second weekend hold. The difference seems due to what I feel is a simple equation: Superman is mostly an all-ages family film that also has strong appeal for adults, Fantastic Four is a mostly adult film that also appeals to all-ages. Put another way, the terrific Superman is made for the kids first, and the also-terrific Fantastic Four is made for the parents first, and only one of those approaches rides the current zeitgeist driving cinematic business. Some pundits expect Fantastic Four to hold better than I do, and to be sure it's entirely possible. Fantastic Four might enjoy such good word of mouth that folks who skipped it opening weekend show up this weekend, and the allure of IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and 0ther premium formats might ensure better weekly holds as people waiting for those prime seat locations keep turning out. And this is the MCU, among the most powerful and successful brands in movie history, so you'd think their summer tentpole release sees steady turnout for several weeks. But the falloff in family viewers and lower interest among teenage audiences points toward a less optimistic best-case scenario, in my own assessment. A worst-case probably sees it falls of a cliff with something closer to $150 million through the weekdays and $40 million domestic, and south of $350 million worldwide. Without decent holds, I don't see a path to a final gross north of $550 million. This is lots of early speculation and depends entirely on what in fact the weekday numbers tell us about word-of-mouth driving business, and what the final second weekend ticket sales look like. There's room for high-end and low-end outcomes here, obviously, and Superman surprised with a solid second weekend hold that changed the narrative and expectations. But signs pointed in the Man of Steel's favor, whereas those same signs don't bode as well for Fantastic Four: First Steps. It's a shift in perspective, but that's always been true of the distinctions between DC and Marvel, from the comics to the films, and now a new factor enters the frame and we'll see how each responds. So far, though, James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-CEOs of DC Studios seem to have recognized the trend or at least sensed a need to lean into that direction (at least for their first foundational feature release), and it payed off. Superman is now flying high and looks to top $600 million, a much happier milestone for everyone involved. Let's see if Keven Feige and Marvel Studios adopts a similar approach, or choose to stake out a position as the adults-first superhero cinematic world while looking to replicate Deadpool & Wolverine's and the Spider-Man franchise's enormous success in an often brutal and unforgiving new theatrical landscape. Of course, I always say not to bet on Disney or Marvel, so Feige surely has plans and insights better than mine here, and I have no illusions I've figured something out that he hasn't. In a general sense, however, I think all of the complexity of this evolving cinematic situation can be summed up with hamburgers. Fantastic Four vs Happy Meals? McDonalds won the burger wars because they have Happy Meals, costumes, and playgrounds. They won the kids first, because they knew the kids would make sure (including with tantrums if necessary) that if the family went out to eat, they went to McDonalds. The result speaks for itself, with McDonalds behind only Starbucks for market share when it comes to eateries. Win the kids' bellies, and their parents will follow. Because even weak burgers and fries with cold sodas still tastes good to kids, so add in 'free' toys and cookies in a cartoon box, and how can anyone else compete? All you need to do then is have some burgers for their parents, too. Again, quality matters less to a captive audience, right? And it gets easier to make that choice every time, especially if they've even got breakfast for you on the way to school or work, too. Cinema is sort of heading that same route in many ways, as studios have increasingly been swallowed into massive corporate bundles that see everything and everyone as a commodity. If you want our dollars, what's the fastest route to our wallets? Look at what toys children want and what cartoons they watch and what video games they play on their phones, and then put most of your chips on those brands/IP (because that's what they are when the bosses decide to use them that way) knowing if the kids show up, they'll bring their parents, so you merely need to do minimum duty providing parents with anything to maintain their interest. Smarter studio conglomerates realize that throwing in some popular younger performers (TV, film, music, anything) to appear or provide voices and/or songs helps hook some teen audiences and provides a wider chain of interconnected merchandising to sell for associated brands. That's how you have to talk to even explain this, but it's important to understand a grossly simplified but generally predictive summation of how most studios are starting to approach making films and distributing them. It's why most of the top 10 highest grossing films are primarily movies made for kids that add something for the parents, or the rare breakout 'parents got a babysitter' adult release like F1 for example (or Top Gun: Maverick for another). If you make a would-be blockbuster film primarily geared toward adults, you better make darn sure it has a huge hook like Deadpool & Wolverine or Avatar that also works to make the kids either a co-dominant target demographic or such a close runner-up it's a distinction without a difference. Or, make it so appealing to grownups and the teenagers in the household that the younger ones are along for the ride regardless. Because otherwise, you have to roll the dice on being the breakout adult-focused movie that claws its way into the top of the box office charts. This is not, by the way, any commentary (yet, as the crucial qualifier) on the movies themselves that are topping the charts. Of the ones I've seen so far, they're all highly entertaining and I get why not only the children in the audience but also the parents enjoyed them, and how this in turn led the parents to recommend it not merely to other parents but to other adults in general. Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie for example, or Superman as the standout superhero movie that applied the correct template and target demographic approach, which we'll discuss more in a moment. So far, I'm grateful that despite the lack of much interest in overall quality and serious cinematic storytelling and diversity of approaches and stories, the actual artists still determine the final results and are still overwhelmingly committed to their crafts and work. But with studios seeing AI as a chance not merely to be a tool that elevates each crew member's and artists' abilities and work, but to try to replace them and reduce costs, as well as the demand to churn out sequels and spinoffs to maximize merchandising profits as fast as possible in case the kids all grow out of it too fast and the franchise is short-lived, the simple truth is that quality will be sacrificed. I know, gasp, right? But I don't just mean in the general vague sense we all talk about in common discussion but which actually doesn't manifest as the overriding truth or definition of film and TV so far. Quality is in fact great, and improving overall. More options exist with more diverse types of more content for a larger audience, and it's only increasing. What happens next, though, will be determined by a lot of very powerful people, companies, and entities in ways that none of us – including them – can really predict anymore. But we've seen the model at McDonalds, and it also took place amid rapidly improving industrial processes and distribution and expanding cities, driven by technological and social advances. It's not a perfect analogy, but I think once you think about it and look around, it makes a lot of sense and describes what we're seeing. Less like a carefully crafted and precise strategy, than a rough and bumpy outcome after lots of tactical trial and error favoring executives' own wallets than shareholders or studios per se at times, and finally settling into a structure that already existed and merely needed all the various parts to fall into place. We're talking about the top of the box office charts of course, and the race for blockbuster results, so there will still be plenty of lower-tier movies and series produced. But I think the days of superhero cinema dominating the top-10 and having reserved seats in the top-5 are over, except for those occasions when the right template is applied (made for kids, also has something for adults) with a popular enough character/star that great audience grades and equally positive critical reviews generate massive turnout and repeat business from families, in turn spurring big turnout among teenagers and childless adults. Fantastic Four, Superman, And Superheroes' Future Aside from Avengers or other event-status team-ups like Deadpool & Wolverine, I doubt superhero movies will even return to semi-regularly hitting $1 billion or just a stone's throw away. Instead, animated films and live-action remakes/adaptations of beloved animated movies/series/games will probably dominate box office charts now, while superhero cinema only cracks the top-10 with a couple of the best offerings from DC and Marvel, respectively, and most entries that seem to lean toward adult audiences still have heavy appeal to kids as well as the teenage audience. The direct appeal toward the child audiences with clear indicators for parents to attend as well. If it's too kid-focused and overtly lacks any potential adult appeal, there's risk only one parent or a babysitter takes only a few of the kids, instead of both parents and all children in the household – family audiences rule and the kids are in charge, basically. Marvel always had a balance between being kid-friendly superhero fare and appealing to the grownups with smart, witty storytelling and well-defined characters in exciting stories with cool visual effects. Eye candy that isn't so unhealthy after all. But over time, as often happens, the films 'grew up' more with the audience and sometimes felt like they were far more adult-skewing and counted on the kids to keep up because it's still their favorite superheroes. I love most all of those films, but I realize the more they favor adult themed and adult-focused approaches, the less they can count on their reputation as family-friendly and assumptions of 'something for everybody.' It may seem like a mild shift in perception and intent, but it's not, and even when audiences can't put their finger on it or articulate it precisely, they can sense the changes and shifts. They can tell when a story is talking mostly to them, mostly to their kids, or is treating them all like one big family. Each has advantages, and the better the quality of the storytelling and the offerings for kids and adults alike, the better the odds of success. But blockbuster success is going to require the latter two from now on, even if and when exceptions inevitably arise to prove the rule. This isn't 'superhero fatigue," it's simply that unless the superhero movies keep up with the demands of audiences and their families, the genre will have to settle for the lower-end of the top-10 at the box office, and make adjustments to budgets and expectations. Which was always bound to be true, and the post-Avengers: Endgame slump was mostly due to the simple fact it's impossible to maintain that level of anticipation and perpetual self-one-upsmanship the MCU achieved for a brief time. The decline isn't failure, and they'll still be popular and can achieve blockbuster outcomes in the second tier pretty consistently. It will merely be the top tier that I expect will prove elusive from now on. Fantastic Four will probably underperform significantly, like the previous two MCU releases, and Superman will probably wind up at the higher end of the $600 million range. Both are wonderful films with different approaches, and my comparison to McDonalds is about the conceptual appeal to kids and counting on them to bring the parents along, not to suggest films that are currently winning the box office race are cheap or otherwise 'fast food' per se. Yet despite Fantastic Four and Superman, I fear that 'fast food' is too often precisely how studios perceive and approach kids' entertainment, and that they will revert to the worst instincts of profit-driven commodification more and more. So aside from loopholes like Avatar and Deadpool & Wolverine, parents will have a hard time driving the family car anywhere but to the latest Happy Meal Movies.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Forbes
‘Fantastic Four' Underwhelms, ‘Superman' Soars Higher At Box Office
Marvel Studios' summer tentpole The Fantastic Four: First Steps underwhelmed this weekend with just $118 million domestic and $100 million internationally, slightly ahead of what were frankly conservative estimates but realistically behind potential for such a major MCU release. Meanwhile, DC Studios' Superman soars higher at the box office past $500 million, after previously opening higher than Fantastic Four. Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Fantastic Four Misses A Step In a surprise turnabout, it was Superman eating into The Fantastic Four: First Steps' weekend gross, rather than Marvel's summer tentpole acting as a speed bump for DC's cinematic reboot. Superman went from a trajectory toward $550 million to suddenly staring confidently at $600 million or more, if last weekend's upset moral victory is a sign of things to come. It's not a disaster, by any stretch (sorry, pun kind of intended), but a $218 million global bow for Marvel's biggest film of the year is not the champaign-popping result they wanted. Especially not after the previous two MCU releases this year underperformed. Fantastic Four debuting to less than Superman is a bad sign for the MCU in more ways than merely this film's own box office prospects. Marvel 'First Family' is meant to set up the two-part Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars payoff, as well as setting the foundations for a soft reboot of the MCU (with X-Men serving as the other major players in laying the new groundwork). The Fantastic Four: First Steps did come in more than 10% ahead of Superman internationally, and the MCU tends to enjoy good overseas holds. However, overall lower opening weekend global sales combined with the fact Superman is holding far better than expected (particularly with families and younger viewers compared to Fantastic Four's alarming drops among those demographics), means we have to wait to see whether First Steps can match the Man of Steel's stamina. Right now, it appears Superman could wind up flying as high as $630 million, or as low as $590 million, but most likely somewhere north of $600 million at this point. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, on the other hand, might now have the more modest trajectory once anticipated for Superman. There's still a broad range of outcomes, however, because the A- Cinemascore and great 87% 'Certified Fresh" rating from critics via Rotten Tomatoes mean strong positive word-of-mouth just like Superman enjoyed, except Fantastic Four's numbers are actually a bit higher. Which usually spells good news for second and third weekend holds, particularly internationally – again, where the MCU gets most of its money. If Fantastic Four can build upon its lead with foreign audiences and make up lost ground there, it could allow the Marvel film to exceed Superman's international holds (which are still good, make no mistake, but still significantly weaker than domestic) and wind up making more worldwide despite a potentially (probably, to be frank) lower domestic haul than DC Studio's successful superhero revival. Fantastic Four And Family Films My guess is that what we're seeing is part of a much broader trend that's taking place, and it's displacing a lot of previously chart-topping genres and franchises. And it isn't a major surprise, if you follow annual box office charts much. So far this year, the top of the worldwide box office charts is dominated by family movies targeted heavily toward children and parents. China's Ne Zha II purportedly at the very top with $1.9 billion, followed by Lilo & Stitch with a huge $1 billion, A Minecraft Movie at $955 million, Jurassic World: Rebirth with $718 million to date, How to Train Your Dragon at $606 million so far, and then some adult-appealing Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning closing out at about $595 million and F1 currently at $510 million and still going strong. Only then, at the bottom of the top 10, do we finally see Superman's $503 million gross (so far), Captain America: Brave New World at $415 million, and Thunderbolts with just $382 million. Now, these placements will change eventually, as other upcoming films inevitably bump some of these films from the top 10 box office charts. More important for the moment is that Jurassic World will remain in third place for a while, after it hits roughly $850 million. How to Train Your Dragon and Superman will face off over who has the highest $600+ grand total, with a near-tie possible. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will wind up somewhere in high-$500 millions or the $600 millions. F1 will race its way toward $575 million to perhaps even $600 million Likewise, Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash are both going to wind up high on the top-10 list by the end of the year, with Avatar 3 at the very top and Zootopia 2 almost surely among the top-5. So the final year-end chart will probably look something like this: Notice the top seven spots are dominated by child-leaning family movies, and the two that aren't (Avatar 3 and Jurassic World) are still popular with kids and teens as well as parents. F1 at the bottom is the only true adult drama entry on the list, the other nine being multi-demographic films with large or predominant family attendance, as well as big youth turnout overall. Superheroes are now mostly relegated to second-tier box office status and the bottom of the top-10. And even those impressive numbers for Jurassic World tell another story. Jurassic World: Rebirth is still in the weekend top-three and stomping its way toward maybe $850 million despite lousy audience grades and weak reviews. That's a big number, but it's also a huge comedown from the billion-plus box office of the preceding three chapters in the franchise. Meanwhile, the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon looks to finish around $625, which is higher than I personally expected (I figured between $500-600 million), and should become the highest grossing entry in the entire franchise, topping its animated predecessors. And of course, both Lilo & Stitch and Minecraft overperformed and are in the elite tier of the year-end box office. Ne Zha II is a whole special story, having made the bulk of its enormous gross in China, and I always have questions about how (*ahem*) accurate the accounting is. That said, it's still clearly a big hit and will get a North American release later this year, so we'll see how that goes. But regardless, it's another example of rekindled surging power of family entertainment at the top of box office charts. While family movies have always been popular and typically pepper the annual box office top-10, superhero cinema and certain other recurring tentpole franchises usually take several of the top-5 and tend to reside in the higher positions of the charts. But aside from rare billion dollar grossers like last year's Deadpool & Wolverine, superhero movies are settling into a lower tier at the box office, in the 'new normal' that sees viewers pickier about what they spend their dollars on, favoring family entertainment and looking for unique adaptations of familiar franchises. With so many superhero films and streaming series, not to mention plenty of animated superhero films and shows as well, parents and families are far less obliged to hit the multiplex for most of these pictures. Instead, they choose to watch them at home later, and reserve their theater seats for those predominantly kid-friendly family films. Unless a superhero film offers something really extra that makes it must-see, or unless it nails the appeal to families with young kids, those crucial family and youth demographics aren't as interested in keeping up in theaters. Binging on the shared-world ahead of major crossovers is easier and more appealing, it seems, and helps more easily work in viewings of the streaming shows. Fantastic Four And Marvel's Future That Marvel can't sustain the mind-boggling levels of success they enjoyed through their Infinity Saga isn't surprising, nor is it a sign of failure on their part. What Marvel is, and what it represents, has evolved and changed now. Marvel is at the 'what now?' point. Conversely, DC Studios has captured audiences' attention by stepping into that place the MCU once occupied with a fresh, fun new world being introduced, and it invites all ages to the party while everybody experiences it for the first time together. Marvel is now setting up their own soft reboot of sorts, but will audiences buy into it? They did with the DCEU's final dying gasps giving way to the newly introduced DCU in Superman, so maybe despite some underperformance for the MCU ahead of their own reset, they could enjoy some boost from the Avengers sequels coming up (although danger of underperforming always exists) and then introduce a whole new MCU that rekindles the sense of newness and joy. But even if both the DCU and MCU experience a new love affair with audiences, I suspect it will still never reach the heights of the Infinity Saga's recurring billion dollar franchise sequels and $2+ billion Avengers 'event' releases. Successful sustainable superhero cinematic universes will probably financially look more like Marvel's Phase One and Phase Two, or DCEU's first set of movies (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League), where only the Avengers or major sequels/team-ups score $1 billion and the rest fall in the $500-700 million range. That means budgets will have to get under control, and there will be less releases each year, while streaming spinoffs become more attractive less 'tested' characters. If James Gunn and Peter Safran can guide DC Studios toward tweaking their approach in Superman but otherwise delivering on the potential to give audiences what they experienced with the original MCU build-up and payoff, then they'll be rewarded with solid success that might not quite achieve the Infinity Saga's heights, but will still be enormously successful and popular. And I'm going to say something controversial to some, but here it goes: the more Gunn and Safran make sure the rest of the DCU movies maintain the same appeal to families and kids, the more successful it will be. Dogs? Humor? All-ages fun? Yes, all around. I know everybody wants some idealized world where each franchise director is given exclusive visionary control and every film can be its own thing, but I'm talking about a different level of success that builds a whole DC world around an inclusive 'all fans welcome' approach and pointedly wants to create young fans who will remain fans for decades to come. I agree that a grounded Batman can coexist with a fantastical Superman, but that's easier in the comics than in live action cinema, and crucially there is a difference between what comic book fans' cultural expectations are compared to the much larger mainstream global film audience who are fans of these superheroes. Folks showing up to the Marvel movies responded the way they did because it all was within a shared world and it felt like it. Audiences bring those expectations and subconscious assumptions or judgments with them into the cinema, and it matters for their sense of buy-in. This has become more obvious as we've seen the differences between Marvel's and DC's successes and failures over the years. Superman had an aesthetic and sensibility, as well as tonal balance and sense of humor, that works for superhero movies meant for all audience members. It feels very similar to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man II, and most of all the director's Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness. We all remember how successful those films were, and I think leaning into that for the overall DC world works extremely well if the family audience appeal is front and center. It's actually not dissimilar to the aesthetics of Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie, which I long said would be an excellent aesthetic template (minus the graphic violence, sex, and profanity) for adapting the DC universe to film in a shared world. Perhaps leaning into Superman's family-friendly aspects most of the time, and allowing for leaning more toward Watchmen for the slightly 'edgier' or darker films like Brave and the Bold (might it eventually be retitled Batman and Robin?), but even that film could use the grittier tone while tilting back the other way by having Robin/Damian as the main character instead of Batman/Bruce. For Marvel, and for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the evolved aesthetic approach is an interesting introduction to what the potential future of the MCU might look like, with a world growing out of Fantastic Four's history merged with the existence of Mutants and X-Men. It makes sense that when previous superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and others are rebooted with new actors, it will happen in a new world with new aesthetic changes to avoid repetition and to allow entirely new approaches and inspirations. At least, I hope that happens, but it depends a lot on the success of Fantastic Four, and on the success of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Let's find out how Fantastic Four: First Steps does through the weekdays as word-of-mouth spreads, and then how strongly it holds – I'm especially interested in what those international figures tell us over the next seven days, because that's where we'll get the best glimpse of Fantastic Four's box office future, and what it might mean for the rest of the MCU's plans. Superman's own numbers will separately tell us whether it's headed for the lower end or higher end of those $600+ expectations.
