Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of May 1st, 2023

The Flash Season 9 Episode 9 (CW/CW App): This episode felt like a perfect final episode send-off to not just The Flash but to the Arrowverse as a whole. The return of Oliver Queen was welcome and, to be honest, overdue, because his and Barry’s relationship is just so great to see on screen. Having Barry grapple with his survivor’s guilt is an interesting thing for him to deal with and having Wally act the way he does towards Barry is another great moment that is both out of character but also entirely in line with how Wally should feel all things considered. That said, this episode will make one want to go back and watch Arrow or old episodes of The Flash and the only downside is that this episode is such a high note over the last few seasons it is unclear if the final four can live up to this episode. Oliver getting his closure with Diggle is also such an interesting use of this crossover since they never got that before this and it allows Diggle to suit back up as Spartan one last time. Also, the moment where they do the old The Flash/Arrow crossover commercial bumper is such a great small homage.

Titans Season 4 Episodes 9 and 10 (HBOMax): It is good that there are some updates with Cyborg and Beast Boy, however, the Beast Boy episode is definitely the one worth talking about. Beast Boy traversing the multiverse is a pretty cool addition, however, it feels out of place considering this is the last season and this will likely amount to very little. The crossover with Stargirl was pretty cool and seeing Shazam, the CW Flash, Grant Morrison himself, and the Beast Boy from Teen Titans Go! was a really interesting sequence to include in the episode.

This Week In Theaters:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Before one sees Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 this week, they should probably go back and watch the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, omitting Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers Endgame, and Thor: Love and Thunder so they can reacquaint themselves with how James Gunn writes the team. While both Avengers movies captured the tone, they are very different which could be jarring for viewers who haven’t seen a purely James Gunn-written iteration of the Guardians in over five years. That said, this will be the swan song for Marvel’s cosmic team of misfits as they face off against the High Evolutionary.

Last Week At The Box Office:

This week The Super Mario Bros. Movie became the first movie of 2023 to cross the $1 Billion mark at the box office.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: $40.0 Million

Evil Dead Rise: $12.2 Million

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.: $6.8 Million

John Wick Chapter 4: $5.0 Million

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: $4.7 Million

Programming Notes:

CinemaCon has officially passed and, while the amount of publicly released information has been fairly minimal, the amount of information from the show floor itself has been fairly enlightening for the rest of this year. The six major studios (Sony, Warner Brothers, Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Lionsgate) all came to play and showcased some of their strongest theatrical releases yet to come. Of note, this year seems to be the year that a number of studios are set to make big swings on the theatrical comedy front with Lionsgate and Sony making them a priority showcase.

Sony kicked things off by announcing that Bad Boys 4 is currently in production with a set video featuring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. They also showcased a sizable amount of footage from the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse considering that it will be released in a little over a month. Footage was also shown from Dumb Money, a movie about the GameStop stock incident from 2021 starring Seth Rogan, Gran Turismo, a movie based on the PlayStation video game of the same name, Insidious: The Red Door, this summer’s latest Insidious sequel, The Machine, an upcoming dark comedy starring Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill, and Anyone But You, a screwball rom-com starring Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell. Of note they also showcased Kraven the Hunter, the latest in their Spider-Man adjacent movies, and confirmed that the film would be rated R.

Warner Brothers brought clips from Barbie, set to be released this July, Meg 2: The Trench coming in August with Jason Statham reprising from the first film, the upcoming DC film Blue Beetle, the upcoming Conjuring spin-off The Nun 2, the prequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory coming in December called Wonka starring Timothee Chalamet, the upcoming DC sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the remake of the classic film The Color Purple also coming in December, and Dune Part II which is set to finish out the story of the first Dune book. Of note they also brought the first full public screening of The Flash, to which the response was positive in favor of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman and Sasha Calle’s debut as Supergirl, however response to Ezra Miller’s performance was mixed.

Disney probably had the most lackluster of the panels, mostly because Disney tends to announce their wares at events like San Diego Comic-Con and D23. Their presentation was mostly clips to movies that are impending within the next few months including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Pixar’s Elemental, Disney Animation’s Wish, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the ride-based movie Haunted Mansion, and the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. On the 20th Century side of things, a trailer was showcased for Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation A Haunting in Venice, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, and Gareth Edwards’ upcoming sci-fi thriller The Creator. The Boogeyman, a theatrical adaptation of the Stephen King short story, was screened to a positive response.

Universal brought footage from Oppenheimer, the latest Christopher Nolan film about the father of the atomic bomb, Illumination’s next movie Migration, Blumhouse’s upcoming legacy sequel to The Exorcist, now titled The Exorcist: Believer, the upcoming Kung-Fu Panda 4, this month’s Fast X, the upcoming remake of The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, and the long-gestating Wicked adaptation starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo set for a November 2024 release.

Paramount brought a ton of family content, arguably the most family content of the event. A new Smurfs movie was announced with Rihanna playing Smurfette, an upcoming animated movie from John Krasinski about a girl who can see other people’s imaginary friends called If was announced, the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie was confirmed for October 10th, 2025, a new SpongeBob SquarePants movie was confirmed for May 23rd, 2025, a new trailer for a Paw Patrol movie was showcased ahead of its September release, an animated Transformers origin movie was announced for 2024 with a massive cast, and footage was shown from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem coming this summer. They also showcased the upcoming Bob Marley: One Love coming in January, Killers of the Flower Moon from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio coming this fall, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I which is now releasing on Wednesday, July 12th instead of Friday the 14th, and the prequel to A Quiet Place called A Quiet Place: Day One.

Lionsgate did not have a formal presentation, however, they did screen their upcoming comedy Joy Ride starring Academy Award Nominee Stephanie Hsu and released a trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. They also confirmed release dates for Sebastian Maniscalco’s film About My Father (May 26th) the upcoming horror comedy The Blackening (June 16th), Joy Ride (July 7th), the delayed White Bird: A Wonder Story (August 18th), The Expendables 4 (September 22nd), Ordinary Angels, the story of a hairdresser who rallies a community to help a father save his daughter starring Hilary Swank (October 13th), the latest Saw movie Saw X (October 27th) and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (November 17th).

Reading between the lines, this could indicate another release date move for The Marvels considering it was not showcased by Disney and it is currently sandwiched between Dune Part II and The Hunger Games. This could mean that the movie gets moved up into the relatively weak September or October or it gets delayed into 2024 (maybe February like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) because Marvel’s next movie after that is Captain America: New World Order in May. As it stands now, the date it currently occupies is a recipe for box office disaster because it eliminates any chance the film has of a successful long-term theatrical run. Theoretically, a move to October 19th would be beneficial (with Kraven the Hunter being rated R there is a dearth of family-friendly content from August 17th with Blue Beetle on), however, it would depend on how far along in post-production the film is. This also could be reading too far into it because D23 is slated for September 8th and all the showcased films from Disney, excluding 20th Century which does not get showcased at D23, are slated for release before that date.