Disney makes a bet that you’ll buy ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ tickets before it releases a trailer

Hey there, Popculturology pals. Welcome to the latest edition of the Friday newsletter.

Are you seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this weekend? I wasn’t quick enough to buy tickets for the massive IMAX screen at the Air and Space Museum in Northern Virginia, so I’m going to wait until I can get decent seats — not in the first two rows, duh — at that theater.

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It’s not hard to understand why the live-action Moana remake flopped

In the wake of the live-action Moana remake’s disastrous $43.1 million opening weekend, the trades jumped into action trying to dissect what went wrong.

• Deadline: “Moana Capsizes With $95M WW Opening, And Dwayne Johnson Pic Poised To Lose $100M-$125M: Here’s Why”
• The Hollywood Reporter: “Why Moana Sank With Its Box Office Opening”
• TheWrap: “Why Disney’s Moana Remake Floundered at the Box Office”

While all three trades managed to land a few correct points, there’s still an overwhelming misunderstanding of what happened with the live-action Moana remake.

“What’s the best fix here in an alternative universe where Moana succeeds? A release date that’s anything but this year; maybe next year,” Deadline wrote in its postmortem.

Here’s the thing, though: The answer is that there was never going to be a good year to release this movie. Not 2025. Not 2026. Not 2027. Once Disney put the animated Moana 2 into theaters, the studio made its decision. You can’t have two competing branches — animated and live-action — of a single franchise.

The live-action Moana remake should’ve never been greenlit in the first place. No matter how much Dwayne Johnson wanted it. I’m not sure if people understand that.

“There are certainly plenty of fans holding their collective breath that a live-action Frozen ends up in development,” The Hollywood Reporter suggested in its piece.

I would put my money on the majority of Frozen fans not actually wanting a live-action movie. Especially not with the animated Frozen III and Frozen IV in the works. Who would choose a soulless CGI Olaf abomination sleepwalking his way through a remake of the original Frozen over new animated movies that are full of life?

At best, people have tolerated these remakes. They were novelties. They were movies to take your kids to when there weren’t other movies in theaters to take your kids to. They are not beloved.

Disney is almost out of animated movies that actually are beloved to remake. It’s time to let this phase die.

‼️ THE BIG STORIES

Tickets but no trailer

The promotion of Avengers: Doomsday has been bizarre. A series of teasers were doled out in front of Avatar: Fire and Ash. Then directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo claimed that those teasers weren’t actually teasers. Disney refused to budge from the Dec. 18 release date also claimed by Dune: Part Three, going as far as creating its own fake premium theater brand to combat the third Dune film having IMAX exclusivity during that release window.

And now tickets for Doomsday are reportedly going on sale next week. Before an official trailer has even been released.

Why can’t Disney just be normal about this movie?

(In the meantime, Warner Bros. released its second trailer for Dune: Part Three last week.)

According to The Hollywood Reporter, tickets for Infinity Vision theaters — that’s the new certification that Disney created — will go on sale on July 20. Marvel Studios doesn’t present at San Diego Comic Con until July 25, which is when we can likely expect to finally see an actual trailer for Doomsday. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Magneto was right ... for Adam Driver? Take this one with a grain of salt, but rumors have Adam Driver in line to play Magneto in director Jake Schreier’s upcoming X-Men movie. Driver is no stranger to Disney, playing Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequels and allegedly once being in the mix to play Mister Fantastic. (Giant Freaking Robot)
• Nova next: We don’t know much about Marvel’s plans past Avengers: Secret Wars, but it sounds like a Nova movie might finally be in the works, with Michael Waldron reportedly writing and possibly directing. Waldron has previously created the Loki series and had a hand in the screenplays for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the next two Avengers movies. (Deadline)