BOX OFFICE: Pixar's INCREDIBLES 2 Headed To Est $180m Weekend - An Animated Record!

Brad Bird's INCREDIBLES 2 looks to give FINDING DOREY (sorry DORY) a superhero punch to the box office chops. FINDING DORY has held the animated box office crown since 2016 with a take of $135m in its opening weekend, and now I2 is looking to land with an estimated $180m!

In fact, I2 more than doubled FINDING DORY's record Thursday night previews ($9.2m) with a staggering $18.5m.

With its A+ Cinema Score and a current 94% fresh on RottenTomatoes (audiences have it pegged at 90%), there really is nothing holding the sequel back from many, many more records. If you haven't seen it yet - it's definitely something to add to your things to see.

INCREDIBLES 2 is now playing.

Source: BoxOfficeMojo 

Awesome News: CAPTAIN MARVEL To Be Scored By Female Composer Pinar Toprak - A First!

I'm really excited to hear about this news, and CAPTAIN MARVEL is shaping up to be another must-see (and hear) event from Marvel. Ever since I saw CM's logo come up in AVENGERS INFINITY WAR I've been curious about their next move. This DOESN'T disappoint.

Pinar Toprak (KRYPTON) will be the first female composer to score a major comic book movie after signing on with Marvel's tentpole, CAPTAIN MARVEL, who is also being headlined by Brie Larson.

Says Toprak: "It’s an incredible honor to be a part of the Marvel Universe…. I have so many people to thank for helping me on this journey but first and foremost, my incredible agents Laura Engel and Richard Kraft for believing in me from day one."

CAPTAIN MARVEL is slated for a March 2019 release. I'll have more as it happens!

Source: Variety
Photo Credit: Ray Costa via Variety

UPDATE: Refocusing MarketSaw - The State Of The 3D Industry - Your Feedback Is Appreciated!

Hi everyone! It's been awhile and I'm looking forward to posting daily and often. I'm going to kick things off by asking your opinion on where you'd like to see MarketSaw go in the future.

It's a sad fact that 3D movies have a couple of black eyes from the lack of native 3D productions being shot and that 3D home entertainment is practically dead. Sure, there are plenty of converted 3D movies out there but that doesn't translate to an optimal movie-going experience in the theater. Has 3D conversion improved over the years? Absolutely. Is it equivalent to a natively shot 3D production? No.

And no major manufacturer is producing 3D televisions anymore. Such a shame - just when LG just about nailed it.

So where are? Well VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) are certainly in play but there must be valid business uses for them. Gaming? Sure. But I'm talking mainstream entertainment - how can VR and AR add to our movie-going experience? I've seen some interesting demos and videos on various company's products that are certainly cool, but I'm not seeing how the industry can make money in a substantial and sustained way.

I'd like to include VR and AR with the 3D pedigree of this site because, well, 3D is a key component of VR. They're intricately related.

What kind of VR/AR/3D news, reviews and interviews would you like to see on MarketSaw? You can send me an email (it's in the contact me area at the bottom of every page), comment on this post, or call me on my cell if you have the number.

THANKS! I appreciate your reading loyalty over the years and I'm really looking forward to launching a new focus!

MUST WATCH: Official Trailer for Marvel's INFINITY WAR

Wow. So the big question is who dies in this thing. There are a few hints dropped in this trailer but actually I'm not convinced that anyone dies in the first of these two Infinity Wars movies. I think that will certainly happen in the second though. We'll see.

Loving the interaction between the Guardians and Tony Stark! That's perfect Peter Quill if you ask me. With all these characters butting heads in this thing, who are you most looking forward to seeing interacting?

So check out this trailer! After all these years it all comes down to this. Seriously, Marvel already has an amazing stable of outstanding movies - well written and played out. They have had all this time to nail down exactly what needs to happen and to add the meat to the bones - this is all the marbles. These movies are going to blow us away I'm sure!

Marvel's AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR opens on April 27.

Cool New Trailer And Posters For SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Hey guys, here's some cool new marketing material for SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - first up, some colorful posters to whet your appetite! I think Chewie is frozen in time :-) And nice that Emilia Clarke got to keep her accent - good call.

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Here's the movie's storyline:
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.

SOLO stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Paul Bettany. Directed by Ron Howard.

SOLO is slated for release on May 25. Cannot wait!

MUST WATCH: First Trailer For James Cameron's ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

While it's true James Cameron is sadly not directing ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL due to the AVATAR sequel commitments, he DID write the screenplay along with Laeta Kalogridis and Robert Rodriguez, the latter of which is also directing. Of course the whole thing is based on the graphic novel manga series GUNNM by Yukito Kishiro.

And this project has been percolating in Cameron's head for some time now as he did intend to direct this at one point. Only good things come from that. Hopefully, much of what he had dreamed up for the movie has been adopted by Rodriguez.

They have got an interesting take in the trailer, because you want to create lifelike beings, but at the same time reflect their artificial nature. I think they've succeeded. So far. Got. To. See. More.

The cast includes: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. I think Salazar looks great in this - so far so good with casting, though it's a very small sample size.

If you're interesting in staying on top of movie developments as we wait for release, here are their coordinates:
Official Site: http://AlitaBattleAngel.com
FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/AlitaMovie
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/AlitaMovie
INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/AlitaMovie

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL opens on July 20.

Enjoy the first trailer!

THOR: RAGNAROK Is Hilariously Well Done... Except For The 3D

Well as they say, I have good news and bad news. The good news is THOR: RAGNAROK is absolutely hilarious and I love what they've done to bring in those laughs. No spoilers in this review by the way. 

There were some very imaginative jokes and gags in the movie - and I simply loved Jeff Goldblum in this!! Perfectly cast if you ask me.

HOWEVER (and it's in all caps) the bad news is the 3D conversion is quite poor at times, frankly. Mind you, the digital visual effects are all superb in 3D as they are rendered natively in 3D - but of course they don't rely upon post-conversion. But the converted optics? *Sigh* Put it to you this way, in the scene with Odin on the cliff fields, the grass is so lazily or cheaply converted that there are clumps of flat grass mixed in with the usual dimensional depth of the location. It was HORRIBLE. It was so bad that it took me out of the movie. These are errors that anybody can see and complain about, not more mundane aspects that I can pick out, or an stereographer.

Marvel, Disney and Stereo D / Legend 3D know better (they both contributed to post conversion). I don't know which conversion company looked after that one particular scene, but something is amiss here. Usually Stereo D / Legend 3D do an outstanding job with post conversion, but something happened - whether they ran out of time or budget. The grass issue was glaring, but there were other issues too, like miniaturization (Hulk in the arena from bird's eye view looked... puny). Ugh.

So, I find it hard to believe Marvel would skimp on budget for a movie they know will rack in the cash. I also find it hard to believe that Stereo D or Legend 3D would sacrifice quality either. So the only real thing left is that everyone just ran out of time. I can't explain it any other way. There mustn't have been enough time to complete all the conversion shots, and some things had to be compromised to hit the release.

If someone knows anything more on what happened, please let me know. This sort of thing doesn't belong in modern 3D movie making. Poor conversions belong with CLASH OF THE TITANS and certainly not with a new Marvel or Disney production. Clean this up.

Final verdict? GO SEE IT!! The movie itself was brilliantly done and one of the funniest Marvel movies ever made. If you can stand the glaring 3D errors (nothing headache inducing mind you!), then I still recommend a 3D screening because of the outstanding VFX shots.