Latest news with #multiplexes
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
There are no new superhero movies for the next six months – is Hollywood up to something?
Fed up with all those superhero movies cluttering up the multiplexes and forcing your delicate black-and-white Lithuanian goat-herding tragedy on to a single screen at 10am on a Tuesday? Angry, like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, that a $300m CGI raccoon gets more screen time than the slow and haunting meditation on existential despair your favourite auteur spent a decade working on? For you, then, the darkest days of comic book movie hegemony may be over. A quick peek at the theatrical release calendar suggests that there is not a single new major-studio superhero flick due to hit multiplexes in the next six months. That's right, a full, blissful half a year – which hasn't happened since May 2011. For years, the anti-comic-book brigade have insisted superhero movies are sucking the oxygen out of cinema and killing originality. Now, the great superhero drought of 2025 makes it look as though their side has finally prevailed. And maybe, after the best part of two decades of interchangeable third-act rubble fights and billionaire orphans growling about destiny, that's as it should be. For those of us who are really rather fond of superheroes on the big screen, however, it feels like a worry. Six long months with no multiverse chaos or retconned origin stories?. What is going on? Is the comic book movie really dead? Did audiences finally get superhero fatigue? Or could it just be that the studios looked at their balance sheets, remembered Madame Web happened, and decided to give us all a six-month palate cleanse before trying again? The truth is that the gaping desert in the release schedule where quite a few superhero movies would usually be is the result of a perfect storm of misfires, budget panic and inter-studio meltdowns. DC fired its last cinematic universe into the sun (and hasn't given James Gunn much time to get its new one into shape), Sony quietly strangled its live-action Spider-Man spinoff plans after Kraven the Hunterflopped. And Marvel, once the unshakeable titan, has begun watching its pennies too. Reports in Hollywood suggest the studio's big plan for Phase 7 is to finally introduce the X-Men into the MCU, but with cheaper, younger unknowns rather than the expensive A-listers that permeated the 20th Century Fox films. This is partly because China no longer loves Hollywood cinema like it did in the halcyon, pre-Covid era, and partly because any studio that makes such eye-wateringly expensive duds as Eternals, Ant-Man: Quantumania and The Marvels is bound to have to consider cost-cutting issues sooner rather than later. Ironically, last month Gunn delivered Superman, the first well-reviewed film about a major DC titan since Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman in 2017. Marvel looks to be getting back on track following early box-office success for Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has also been well-reviewed. But just as one swallow does not a summer make, two vaguely competent superhero movies don't magically erase a decade-long franchise hangover. The superhero slowdown isn't just about artistic self-reflection. It's a combination of bruised egos, battered spreadsheets, and the realisation that studios have relentlessly mined every character in the Marvel and DC back issues, including that one guy who appeared for two panels in a 1973 issue of Spider-Man whose power was talking to lightbulbs. The issue is basic box office maths. There was a time before Covid when you could slap a cape on an actor, throw in a Stan Lee cameo, and reliably hoover up a billion dollars before lunch. Now? Global audiences, particularly in China, have stopped treating every MCU release like a religious festival. And once your international market yawns, suddenly all those $250m CGI slugfests look less like guaranteed jackpots and more like prestige vanity projects in tights. The other elephant in the room is that streaming blew a hole in the business model. During the pandemic, Disney+ and HBO Max became superhero graveyards, funnelling B-tier projects to streaming audiences, and teaching them they could just wait a few weeks and then watch at home. The illusion of urgency – the idea that you had to see every film on opening weekend or risk missing the next puzzle piece – now seems ridiculous. Which brings us to the current vacuum, which may be less the heroic victory for cinema some may have hoped for, and more an emergency reset button. We may get six glorious months free from multiverse migraines and quippy alien invasions. But don't kid yourself: it's just Hollywood taking a breath and trying to figure out how to sell you more superhero movies next year.
The Guardian
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
There are no new superhero movies for the next six months – is Hollywood up to something?
Fed up with all those superhero movies cluttering up the multiplexes and forcing your delicate black-and-white Lithuanian goat-herding tragedy on to a single screen at 10am on a Tuesday? Angry, like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, that a $300m CGI raccoon gets more screen time than the slow and haunting meditation on existential despair your favourite auteur spent a decade working on? For you, then, the darkest days of comic book movie hegemony may be over. A quick peek at the theatrical release calendar suggests that there is not a single new major-studio superhero flick due to hit multiplexes in the next six months. That's right, a full, blissful half a year – which hasn't happened since May 2011. For years, the anti-comic-book brigade have insisted superhero movies are sucking the oxygen out of cinema and killing originality. Now, the great superhero drought of 2025 makes it look as though their side has finally prevailed. And maybe, after the best part of two decades of interchangeable third-act rubble fights and billionaire orphans growling about destiny, that's as it should be. For those of us who are really rather fond of superheroes on the big screen, however, it feels like a worry. Six long months with no multiverse chaos or retconned origin stories?. What is going on? Is the comic book movie really dead? Did audiences finally get superhero fatigue? Or could it just be that the studios looked at their balance sheets, remembered Madame Web happened, and decided to give us all a six-month palate cleanse before trying again? The truth is that the gaping desert in the release schedule where quite a few superhero movies would usually be is the result of a perfect storm of misfires, budget panic and inter-studio meltdowns. DC fired its last cinematic universe into the sun (and hasn't given James Gunn much time to get its new one into shape), Sony quietly strangled its live-action Spider-Man spinoff plans after Kraven the Hunterflopped. And Marvel, once the unshakeable titan, has begun watching its pennies too. Reports in Hollywood suggest the studio's big plan for Phase 7 is to finally introduce the X-Men into the MCU, but with cheaper, younger unknowns rather than the expensive A-listers that permeated the 20th Century Fox films. This is partly because China no longer loves Hollywood cinema like it did in the halcyon, pre-Covid era, and partly because any studio that makes such eye-wateringly expensive duds as Eternals, Ant-Man: Quantumania and The Marvels is bound to have to consider cost-cutting issues sooner rather than later. Ironically, last month Gunn delivered Superman, the first well-reviewed film about a major DC titan since Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman in 2017. Marvel looks to be getting back on track following early box-office success for Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has also been well-reviewed. But just as one swallow does not a summer make, two vaguely competent superhero movies don't magically erase a decade-long franchise hangover. The superhero slowdown isn't just about artistic self-reflection. It's a combination of bruised egos, battered spreadsheets, and the realisation that studios have relentlessly mined every character in the Marvel and DC back issues, including that one guy who appeared for two panels in a 1973 issue of Spider-Man whose power was talking to lightbulbs. The issue is basic box office maths. There was a time before Covid when you could slap a cape on an actor, throw in a Stan Lee cameo, and reliably hoover up a billion dollars before lunch. Now? Global audiences, particularly in China, have stopped treating every MCU release like a religious festival. And once your international market yawns, suddenly all those $250m CGI slugfests look less like guaranteed jackpots and more like prestige vanity projects in tights. The other elephant in the room is that streaming blew a hole in the business model. During the pandemic, Disney+ and HBO Max became superhero graveyards, funnelling B-tier projects to streaming audiences, and teaching them they could just wait a few weeks and then watch at home. The illusion of urgency – the idea that you had to see every film on opening weekend or risk missing the next puzzle piece – now seems ridiculous. Which brings us to the current vacuum, which may be less the heroic victory for cinema some may have hoped for, and more an emergency reset button. We may get six glorious months free from multiverse migraines and quippy alien invasions. But don't kid yourself: it's just Hollywood taking a breath and trying to figure out how to sell you more superhero movies next year.
CBC
14-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Toronto should allow sixplexes to bring 'gentle density' to city, council committee says
Toronto has moved one step closer to allowing fiveplexes and sixplexes in neighbourhoods across the city. At its meeting on Thursday, the city's planning and housing committee approved recommendations from city staff to allow multiplexes with five and six dwelling units in detached residential buildings in low-rise neighbourhoods city-wide. A report to the committee said the move would help to bring "gentle density" to residential neighbourhoods in Toronto. Coun. Gord Perks, who represents Parkdale High Park and is committee chair, said the city is trying to add different housing types to neighbourhoods. He said most of the housing stock in Toronto is either single-family dwellings or apartment and condo units. "We're trying to build more of this sort of intermediate type housing," he said. "I think it's very important that we arrange to have a whole array of different housing types in our neighbourhoods. We need places for young families. We need places for people who are getting their first apartment. We need places for seniors who maybe can't maintain a big place all by themselves and want to stay in the same neighbourhood in a smaller unit. It's very important for the health of our neighbourhoods that we have a variety of housing types." The sixplexes would not be allowed in semi-detached houses or townhouses. A large group of Torontonians turned up to express their views at the committee meeting. Many said they were in favour of the changes, but some said the changes would be too much too fast. Last September, council decided to permit multiplex housing across the city. In February in Ward 23 as part of a pilot project, staff studied the potential of permitting low-rise multiplexes with up to six dwelling units and with heights of up to four storeys. As part of the sixplex item, the committee approved a recommendation on the height permissions of multiplex buildings. The committee will recommend to council that the city amend its zoning rules to increase the maximum height of buildings containing multiplexes from 10 metres to 10.5 metres. Such a move would allow an increase in basement ceiling heights "to improve liveability and access to daylight" for basement units that will be part of the fiveplexes and sixplexes, city staff said. "Expanding multiplex permissions will increase new low-rise housing options for Torontonians. New residents in low-rise neighbourhoods can help stabilize declining populations, optimize the use of existing infrastructure, and support local retail establishments and services," a report by the chief planner Jason Thorne says. Adopting the recommendations would mark a "significant milestone" in meeting Toronto's commitments under the federal Housing Accelerator Fund to allow more low-rise, multi-unit housing development through as-of-right zoning bylaws in its neighbourhoods, according to the report. As-of-right means developers do not need obtain individual zoning approvals in these areas. 'This is about housing equity and liveability' Residents came to the committee meeting with prepared statements. Blair Scorgie, a registered professional planner, urban designer and managing principal of Scourgie Planning, told the committee he supports the recommendations from city staff. "These reforms are a natural and necessary evolution of the city's existing multiplex framework," he said. The recommendations respond "to what residents, planners and housing providers across the city have all recognized — that our low-rise neighbourhoods must evolve if we are to remain equitable, liveable and resilient," he said. "This is about housing equity and liveability. Allowing up to six units in detached buildings will unlock ground-related homes for families, seniors, newcomers and multigenerational households — people who are too often excluded from neighbourhoods built around a single housing type." 'Sixplex in a sea of bungalows sticks out like a sore thumb' Natalie Pihura, a Toronto resident, told the committee that approving sixplexes is not a good idea because residents already have many issues with multiplexes, including parking, privacy, flooding, "neighbourhood fabric deterioration" and school enrolment problems. Residents of Martin Grove Gardens in Etobicoke have gathered 500 signatures on a petition opposed to multiplexes and sixplexes, which Pihura said she will resubmit the petition to council. "A sixplex in a sea of bungalows sticks out like a sore thumb," she said. "Using the as-of-right paintbrush rams the wants of developers who only care about making money over the actual residents who have already invested in their community," she continued. "Right sized housing in the right areas is the right decision." Carolyn Whitzman, a senior housing researcher at the University of Toronto's school of cities, said in an interview after the meeting that the changes being proposed to council are in step with the moves made by city councils across Ontario and Canada. "I think that it's becoming increasingly obvious to city councils across Canada, including Toronto, that there's no way that they are going to be able to meet their housing targets without making fairly radical changes to zoning," Whitzman said. Council will consider the sixplex item at its meeting that begins on June 25.
