Budget as reported is always the production budget only-- what it costs to make the movie itself. Marketing and distribution are a different aspect.

Marketing can be pretty expensive, although I didn't really see much for Addams Family, so maybe not *that* much.

A movie like Shazam had a $100 M budget and probably spent nearly that much on marketing as well. About $100M is about the floor for marketing a summer action movie. A movie like Endgame might have spent 2-3x that.

And yet, I would venture to say that they had no need to spend that much.
The first movie was pretty good and definitely was enough to get its hooks into people such that they'd be going with or without the marketing.
Heck, they could have even made a polished turd for Endgame, and they'd have still been getting tons of money. (And really, one could argue that is exactly what they did.)

My guess at that is just that, a guess. But I certainly saw marketing everywhere for it. I have no idea how these things work in terms of decisions, but I suspect the intent is to get the buzz everywhere even if they know it'll be a big hit.


Wonder Woman has almsot no marketing until pretty close to release, and did gangbusters, so maybe there's a lesson to be learned there.

I know you mostly wanted to rag on Endgame, and I respect that. I enjoyed it, but yeah, pretty much a mess. Delivered on what I expected, but my expectations for cape movies is always low.

I understood that.

I was just thrown by the inclusion of the racial component. You could have said 'middle age, middle class '. You could have said 'nerd'.

I didn't know if there was anything racial in the movie. Did it come under fire for not being 'diverse' enough?

Did anyone/everyone see Mandalorian?

Not that I am aware of, I was just referring to myself as a MAWM.



I watched it last night with my kids. Enjoyed it very much, and am eagerly awaiting the next episode.

Without any spoilers, it has a very Western feel, like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne will ride in at any moment in the first episode at least.

I really enjoyed it, but I have some critiques as well as some praise that I want to go off about and I don't want to spoil it for anyone else.

I do need to get out to this sometime. Dunno when.

Because my son is wonderful and is sharing his duh + account with me, I will soon be watching The Mandalorian.

I will wait to rant, then.

Is everyone now familiar with MacClunky?

I spent my most recent movie-watching opportunity watching Doctor Sleep, which I liked a lot.

Should I re-watch The Shining or re-read it, first?

I read Doctor Sleep right after it came out.

I just rewatched The Shining a week ago, showing it to my teen son for the first time.

I've read it a couple times, most recently 5-10 years ago.

I read Doctor Sleep when it was new.

I'd recopmmend a rewatch since it follows the movie continuity, and there were some things I would not have remembered that tie in with the new story.

Notably, I think the books both suffer from great set-up and ultimately poor payoff, and in that respect both movies improve on the books.

I think the first half of the Shining book is better than the early parts of that film, but for Doctor Sleep I think the movie is just better overall. I enjoyed the book well enough, but the movie improves on it. Mainly the suspense and overall story.

Hmmm. Previously I had no interest in Dr. Sleep. Ignatz has improved that into a mild interest.

It's not The Shining, but what is?