Comic-Con kicked off Thursday in San Diego, and in a sign that Hollywood might be moving beyond Peak IP, some of this year’s liveliest panels aren’t for superheroes or cute droids, but for visionary creators.
“Widow’s Bay” from Apple TV, the Katie Dippold horror comedy that just received 19 Emmy nominations and proved that 2026 audiences like their TV a little weird, will mark the streamer’s debut in the San Diego Convention Center’s cavernous, high-stakes venue, Hall H, on a prime Saturday afternoon slot.
Other projects getting the high-profile treatment include: Netflix’s neo-noir sci-fi animated film, ‘Ray Gunn’ Brad Bird; Neon’s sci-fi action thriller ‘Hope’ from South Korean director Na Hong-jin; and the thriller “Onslaught” from A24, from Adam Wingard.
Matthew Rhys in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.Robert Clark / AppleThose of us old enough to sit in Hall H almost 20 years ago When Jon Favreau Revealed footage from the first “Iron Man” film recalls the feeling of an earthquake that began as the era of comic book movie dominance took hold in Hollywood and studios rushed to bolster their stockpiles of superhero-focused intellectual property.
Of course, intellectual property remains important, with franchises remaining among the biggest draws to the public. This year’s big hits include the video game adaptation “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and the fifth installment of the 30-year-old animated franchise “Toy Story.” Marvel also has two big hitters on deck: “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which releases next week, and “Avengers: Doomsday,” scheduled for December.
But recognizable properties are no longer the reliable moneymakers they once were, as evidenced by the disappointing performance of recent films such as “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” “Supergirl” and “Masters of the Universe.”
And films driven by the visions of their directors, like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession” ignited the audience.
All this means change at Comic-Con, which since its inception in the 1970s has been both a driving force and indicator of pop culture winds.
Marc Bernardinwho has attended Comic-Con for years as a fan, journalist and writer-producer of shows such as Marvel’s “Star Trek Picard” and “Eyes of Wakanda,” sees a disruption in the force.
“There’s no new ‘Star Trek’ in development, no new ‘Dr Who’ in development. ‘Star Wars’ doesn’t have its foundations,” Bernardin said. “Those venerable franchises that were once the double hits that you would get from Comic-Con are no longer there, so that leaves the door open for new and unexpected things.”
Comic-Con also has more competition than before, as studios have launched their own fans against it, like Disney’s D23 and Netflix’s Tudum, or other similar events have popped up around the world, like the increasingly busy CCXP in Sao Paulo.
But according to a source at the studio which is showing a project at Comic-Con this year, the real transformation is among the fans.
“The fandom is moving from the franchises to the creators,” said the source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. “Who the fans are, why they come, everything is changing and the commitment from the studios will also have to change.”
Welcome back to ON THE LOT. Also in this edition, a big screen smackdown and AI’s blockbuster alternatives.
I have advice (on where to park when the Arclight returns to Hollywood or where to go to dinner after seeing A24’s new Anthony Bourdain movie). You can reach me at rebecca.keegan@nbcuni.com or on Signal at thatrebecca.82.
GO BIG OR GO HOMERegal Irvine Spectrum IMAX Theater on September 17, 2020 in Irvine, California.Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images fileSelecting a movie ticket has become much more complicated in recent years. According to Charlotte Jonessenior principal media and entertainment analyst at Omdia, there are now 79 different movie theater brands to choose from in North America and more than 285 brands worldwide. Can’t access IMAX but would like to see a film in 4DX, ScreenX or RPX instead? The Xs alone are dizzying.
As “The Odyssey” enters its second weekend at the box office, fueled by buzz and dollars by the sale of its IMAX tickets, I made a deep dive this week on the large format premium phenomenon.
Disney is introducing a new label called Infinity Vision, essentially the studio’s version of the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on a movie theater with a big screen, laser projection and high-quality sound.
There has been a lot of skepticism about Disney’s motivation for creating this new certification, which coincides with the studio closing IMAX screens for the December release of “Avengers: Doomsday.” These screens will be taken over by Warner Bros. “Dune: Part III,” which had a deal for them before Disney moved its Marvel sequel to the same date.
In an interview with IMAX Rich Gelfond Of Disney’s new label, he said: “They came up with Infinity Vision as a marketing tool so they could bring together a lot of disparate companies with an
But Disney’s head of distribution, Andrew Crippsdescribed Infinity Vision to me as a way to simplify the lives of moviegoers. “It’s good for consumers if we can give them the choice of better screens and better experiences,” he said.
This week, just as Disney began selling advance tickets for “Avengers: Doomsday” in I headed towards one of the theaters that achieved the Infinity Vision designation.
We’ll have to wait until September, when the studio launches Infinity Vision with a re-release of “Avengers: Endgame,” to see if the label will become a meaningful tool for moviegoers. For my part, I can confirm that the reclining seats in the Infinity Vision cinema were quite comfortable.
AN “ODYSSY” FOR EVERYONEIf you don’t like the Hollywood version of a story, try the AI version.
NBC News Culture and Trends Reporter Angela Yang explored the emergence of the successful AI alternativean idea supported by right-wing critics of Nolan’s version of “The Odyssey”, including Elon Musk. This week, Musk said that Grok Imagine, his AI video generator, “will make a feature-length film of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and faithful to the art of Homer.”
Odysseus in the AI-generated film “Odysseus: The Fall” and Matt Damon in “The Odyssey”.Fountain 0; Universal images What “historically accurate” means in a story that includes a one-eyed monster and a witch who turns people into pigs is anyone’s guess.
But Musk’s friends on Grok aren’t the only AI authors exploiting Homer’s work. Ash Kooshadirector of “Odysseus: The Fall,” a 135-minute feature film expected by film studio AI Fountain AO later this year, told Yang that his AI Odyssey film was not intended to be a response to Nolan’s.
Instead, Koosha said, it is a creative exercise in itself that has been dragged into the culture war, just like Nolan’s film.
“This world is coming where we all have the ability to tell our version, so it’s no longer exclusive to a few people who have hundreds of millions of dollars to tell the story,” Koosha said. “There will be parallels in different sizes and budgets. And I think that’s very enriching for the same people who like to go online and start yelling at each other.”
THE DIALOGUE“There is no cinematic destination in the world that deserves the affection, history and cultural significance of the Cinerama Dome.” —CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Ravi Ahuja in a declaration announcing that the studio’s movie theater chain and the Alamo Drafthouse theater have teamed up to reopen the historic Hollywood landmark.
“If I went through a yellow light, 15 cars would turn red behind me. They were driving on people’s lawns, even on hillsides. We were trying to get our little one to play soccer, and the association asked us to stop because there were 20 cars coming. So it wasn’t just us. It was just an industry that had gotten out of control.” – Actor Jennifer Garner in an interview on the “Shut Up Evan” podcastdescribing the lengths paparazzi would go to take photos of her and her children
“Children deserve laws that protect them. They shouldn’t have to become adults before realizing the law should have protected them all along.” —Media personality and reality TV star Courtney Stodden in an Instagram post calling out the actor Jason Alexander about a lewd 2012 comedy sketch the two did when Stodden was 17. Alexander apologized.
It’s over. See you next week.
