|"Captain America: Civil War" is the latest blockbuster from Marvel opening nationwide next Friday. Despite the calendar, it also kicks off the summer movie season. ScreenCrush.com managing editor and critic Matt Singer joins "CBS This Morning: Saturday" to discuss what films to watch for this summer.
Paul Feig's Ghostbusters is not boding well with audiences based on the film's first official trailer on YouTube.
Released March 3, the trailer, viewed 29.2 million times and counting, is the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history, according to the social platform's "Most Disliked Videos[1]" list that was last updated April 16. (Justin Bieber comes in at No. 1 with 5.99 million dislikes for "Baby.")
Coming in at No. 23, the reboot — starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Chris Hemsworth — more than doubles its number of dislikes than likes (208,606).
Thirty years following the release of the original Ghostbusters, — starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson — the director opted to switch up the all-male cast for a female-leading reboot.
On the day of the trailer's release, Feig said[2] on the Sony lot before journalists and fans: "I was a comedy fan, but I had not seen something like this — combining comedy with science and the supernatural and action. When Ivan asked if I would be interested in doing a new one, it blew my mind. I love the idea that a new generation is going to have their own Ghostbusters. … It was important to capture the heart of what we loved about the original but also bring something new."
YouTube user Crippled Camel penned of his opinions of the trailer, "I signed in under both of my accounts so that I could dislike this twice" — his comment has been liked by more than 1,000 fellow users.
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Feig for comment.
Ghostbusters hits theaters July 22.
This article is a part of #KanvasLive, an interactive, cross-platform content series brought to life on the Kanvas app and AOL.com[1]. See more on coverage here[2].
Brandon Bowen was just another normal teen from Georgia until he found Vine. Now, the comedian has over three million followers on the short video app and nearly two billion loops.
SEE ALSO: Social media stars reveal their favorite emojis[3]
Bowen first blew up on Vine in 2014 with his "Hater Blocker[4]" video. That's the moment where he says he realized being a Vine star was a professional -- and attainable -- goal.
"I realized people wanted to see my face, so I thought maybe I could keep the momentum going and create a career out of it," he told AOL.com at Playlist Live, an annual conference that brings together online video creators and their many fans.
Check out all the social media stars we talked to at Playlist Live!
Now, Bowen is temporarily trading in those 6 seconds videos for a full-length feature film called, "Mono."
But have no fear, Viners! The Georgia teen isn't ditching the app. In fact, Bowen in starring in "Mono" alongside other major social media celebs who got their start on Vine, such as Jake Paul and Christian Delgrosso.
AOL.com had a chance to catch up with Bowen, who talked about his path to social media stardom, how he comes up with ideas for videos and what it's like shooting a feature film.
What brings you to Playlist Live and is this your first year here?
I come here because it's a great way to meet fans. Normally, you meet them on the street, and it may be like two or three people. But here you get to meet them in the hundreds, so that's really fun. Plus, you're able to network with a bunch of people on social media, and work on social media branding.
Fans take Playlist Live seriously. Check out this huge line for an event!
How did you get started in social media?
I started doing Vine because I saw my sister was looking at a Facebook page that had a compilation of Vines, and I thought: "Hey I could do that". So I downloaded the Vine app on my iPod, which was all I had at the time I didn't even have an iPhone. I just played around with it for a couple of months until one of my Vines just kind of blew up and went viral. Then it all started to happen so fast. Now, I'm getting to travel and meet cool people that I used to see on the internet.
Can you talk about the moment you realized this would be what you wanted to do?
There was a defining day where I thought, "This is real, these Vines are going out to real people, they aren't just numbers liking my page". After my "Hater Blocker" video blew up, I got an email from a local news channel wanting to use my Vine on TV, then a national news channel, then "Dr. Oz", and then "Good Morning America", and all of these other shows kept emailing me. The whole week I kept getting emails from people requesting me to go on their shows. It was crazy. I realized people wanted to see my face, so I thought maybe I could keep the momentum going and create a career out of it.
What is your favorite thing about Vine?
My favorite thing about Vine is the creativity. It's a platform where you can make these fun creative posts that can be funny or artistic, they can be whatever you want them to be. There are no holds barred. It's a lot of fun.
How do you come up with ideas for your Vines? What inspires you?
There's not really a formula to it. Sometimes I see something and it triggers an idea, or it's just a thought that pops into my head. You know, I have ADHD so I get these random thoughts all the time that are so stupid, but sometimes they're actually kind of funny. It's just really randomness that pops into my crazy head, and then I try to figure out how to put the idea on camera.
Do you want to talk a little bit about the film "Mono" that you're acting in?
It's going to be great movie. It was a lot of fun to work on and there were a lot of great people involved. I loved the director, he's a super cool guy.
What are you most looking forward to about the movie?
It's my first film that I'm in so I'm looking forward to seeing people's reactions, but I've been on TV, and so I've seen that reaction. It's just going to be cool to see how people react differently to me being in a film versus other stuff.
What was it like to work with some of the other stars like Christian Delgrosso, Eric Ochoa, and Jake Paul? Was it fun?
Yeah! It was fun! I already knew Jake Paul and Christian Delgrosso -- us Viners all know each other. But it was really fun to work with Eric too. He's a super fun guy and really down to Earth. He's so fun to hang out with, and it was great to be able to be on set and do this huge project together.
You can watch "Mono" on July 8 on Netflix and other digital streaming platforms.
Check out this gallery for more photos from the star-studded convention:
More from AOL.com:
Alexis G. Zall's age has no reflection on her great influence
Vine star Meghan McCarthy is not stopping at 1.6 billion loops
The Nive Nulls breathe unique life into viral Internet content[5][6][7]
With cinema halls in the NCR expanding their food menu to include main course, meal-size dishes, most moviegoers now don't feel the need to stop at the food court before or after the show. Cinema owners in the city tell us that they have realized that customers' movie-going experience can be more than just what happens on the big screen.
READ ALSO:
How cinema industry in Delhi is losing the big picture to Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad[1]
Sushi, Japadogs, sigri murgh tikka - they have it all
There was a time when going out for a movie also included stopping for dinner before or after the show. But in the last few years, cinemas halls have modified their menus to the extent that they are now at par with restaurants in terms of quality and variety.
For instance, PVR has a menu with about 100 -120 food items, including sushi and drinks. Talking about the Gold Class menu, the theatre chain's chef, Mayank Tiwari, says, "We have classified the food into sections like 'with finger', 'with fork', and also, for Gold Class, we have items like Japanese hot dogs, idli chaat and desserts. Since the food is served inside the theatre, we ensure that it doesn't have a strong aroma. The whole idea is to provide the facilities of a restaurant in the cinema hall, and to also ensure that the food is convenient to eat while watching a movie. This way, the guests don't need to eat at food courts before or after the movie."
While the Gold Class menu offers gourmet salads, shrimp rolls, salmon, hand-tossed pizzas, sigri murgh tikka, mezze and kebabs, the premiere class menu isn't limited to popcorn and sandwiches either. You can get thin crust pizzas, hot dogs and a variety of pasta dishes. Even the regular menu in multiplex chain offers a huge variety, with live food counters as well as packed items.
Daizy Lal, COO, INOX Leisure Limited, says, "Food and beverages in cinemas have gone to a level where mushroom and pesto sandwiches have replaced the typical paneer, chutney or cheese sandwiches. There are mo re options available in the fresh food category. Even healthy food like edamame, steamed momos and corn, besides, wraps, pizzas, pastas and tortillas, is quite popular."
Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas, says, "Movie halls are rejuvenation centres, like spas. So we wanted to provide more. When we expanded our Gold Class menu to pastas, pizzas and momos, we were not sure whether people would like it, but they did. Then we expanded the same menu to the regular class. For Director's Cut, we have fine dining options with dishes like sushi. We might introduce them in the regular class as well."
Eliminating the food court stop
Talking about the 'restaurants in theatres', Devang Sampat, chief of strategy, Cinepolis, says, "By expanding the menu, cinemas have almost put an end to people skipping food in theatres and going to food courts." Tinku Singh, group president, SRS Cinemas, adds, "PVR started this trend when they brought the hospitality guys into the ci nema industry. Over the years, the trend caught on, and now most cinemas hire people from the hospitality industry. The menus have evolved and offer gourmet food and drinks. The customer is pampered because we know that it's not just the movie, but the entire experience that they are spending money on."
READ ALSO:
Multiplex chains beginning to screen Hindi movies with English subtitles in Delhi[2]
Food prices depend on location
Cinema hall managers and chefs tell us that moviegoers do not mind spending on food if the quality is at par with restaurants. And if you are wondering why the same pizza costs more in a Vasant Kunj or a Gurgaon theatre than in Noida, then the reason is the location, rather than food quality. The rate of the dishes and the menu of a branch is decided according to its location.
Tinku Singh explains, "We believe that if a person is spending `200 on a ticket, he/she can spend Rs400 on food, and if he/she is buying a ticket for Rs1,000 he/she can easily spend Rs800 on food. Whenever multiplex chains decide to introduce a new item, they keep in mind the location as well. A Rs400-500 burger can be sold in a Saket theatre, but not in Ghaziabad's cinema halls. In Gurgaon, you can introduce international dishes and can be assured that they will find takers." In cinemas like PVR, which have a Gold Class section, the price of food items is significantly higher than that in the premiere class. The dishes are also different.
Is the food overpriced?
No, it is not, say cinema owners. Yogesh Raizada, corporate head, Wave Cinemas, says, "The food items in cinemas are not expensive. If you compare the rate of a sandwich at a cinema hall with a popular coffee chain, you'll find we sell it at a lower price."
Other cinema owners also insist that their menus are not overpriced, but are at par with any good restaurant. A cinema manager from BIG Cinemas says, "You will get a thin crust pizza at Rs300 in a cinema hall, while the same pizza from a popular pizza chain will cost you a lot more. So where is the overpricing? "
40% of the overall profit of cinema halls comes from food and beverages
While cinemas are expanding their menus and hiring hospitality staff to give customers a wholesome experience, they also make significant profits from it. Cinemas have to share ticket sale profits with the films' production houses, but they get to keep almost all the profit from selling food and drinks.
An industry insider tells us, "The profit from food and drinks is far higher than from the tickets sold. For every ticket sold, a cinema hall gets only 25% of the profit, while for food and beverages, the profit is around 50%."
Another industry rep says, "Without food and beverages, there would be no theatre business. The food business in cinemas is better than in a restaurant, because in a restaurant, you can't ask your customer to leave after they are done eating. But in cinema halls, they won't stay after the movie."
New Delhi: It all started as a tale of friendship. Then, romance jumped in. Soon after, the film got driven by revenge. And, at the end, we were served a confusing mixture of everything that is required to make Bollywood film a success. But, Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor starrer 'Baaghi' somehow managed to entertain the audience throughout.
Okay! So, the first things first. We failed to understand director Sabbir Khan's obsession with the rain. Be it romance or fight sequences, the movie will offer you a lot of drenched bodies jumping on each other. And at one point, it turns out to be a bit irritating.
Tiger keeps on saying 'abhi toh maine start kiya hai'. Well, we don't want to sound harsh but the beginning of the film will make you feel that both the leads are trying too hard to act cute. Tiger, who turned two film old with this movie, was not much impressive during the initial romance sequences.
Sorry Tiger but your smile was a little too fake.
The person who steals the thunder from everyone else in 'Baaghi' is ace comedian Sunil Grover. The man has got a very limited role but he shines brightest among all by doing justice to his character.
The flawed storlyline presents a lot of cliché including a bunch of songs, flashback and emotional baggage. Ronny (Tiger Shroff) is an indisciplined rebel who visits South India to undergo formal training in Kalaripayattu (martial arts style) in order to fulfil his late father's last wish. And, guess what! He shares his love interest Sia (Shraddha Kapoor) with the most skilful student of the same academy, Raghav (Sudheer Babu). It all gives birth to a mega fight between the protagonist, the antagonist, and all other small time baddies.
Without-a-doubt, the action sequences in 'Baaghi' were far beyond our expectations. Tiger has surpassed the stunts that he showed us in his debut film and emerged a bigger fighter here. First half of 'Baaghi' is only romance with glimpses of action scenes coming in as fillers. Shraddha keeps on making appearances in the second half of the movie just to make us realise her presence.
The mainstream media is simply AGOG over this, amigos! They're marveling! Celebrating! Gasping! Slobbering! Face-palming old V-8 commercial style!
To flesh out this column's title a bit: a KGB-founded and mentored totalitarian regime whose founder boasted, "propaganda is the vital heart of our struggle," who the CIA pegs with "creating the most effective propaganda empire in the Western Hemisphere,"[1] whose KGB- mentored secret police meticulously vet every single visa applicant—especially journalists, academics and filmmakers – this very regime SOMEHOW permit ted a Hollywood production co. on its sovereign soil!
And why?
Well — astoundingly enough -- to make a movie glorifying a former KGB agent! In 1960 the movie's main character, this former KGB agent, also wrote: "Castro's revolution is very pure and beautiful. I'm encouraged by it. The Cuban people now have a decent chance for the first time.'
…Caught your breath back?
After collecting their wits, catching their breath, wiping off their slobber of joy, and brainstorming over any conceivable factors that might have contributed to this immensely puzzling development – to this great generosity by the Castro regime, the media finally hit upon an answer. It's all due to the Castro regime's "mellowing" owing exclusively to President Obama's "engagement!"
"That the movie was made at all during the economic embargo was a feat of diplomacy, financial and otherwise," gushes the New York Times.
Never mind that – as we've often discussed hereabouts — Obama's loopholing of one of the most phenomenally successful foreign policy ventures in recent U.S. history (the Cuba "embargo") has actually yielded the most relentlessly humiliating debacle in recent U.S. diplomatic history.[2]
Never mind actual facts. Instead let's "move forward" and get on with this story. In fact just about everybody — while hailing the movie as a work of shrewd and enlightened diplomacy — also pans the movie as a work of art. From the UK Guardian over to the Rolling Stone and the very New York Times, most film critics slam the movie as a total mess. "Hollywood's Havana Horror" is how the UK Guardian titles its review.
The story (I hear) centers on a friendship between a Miami–based newspaper reporter who visits and "hangs" with his hero Hemingway during "Papa's" last few years living in Cuba. But none of that matters today, amigos. We're here to bury the work of diplomacy — not to praise it.
As it turned out, in the actual mechanics of operating as a KGB spy "Papa" proved a hideous flop. But hey! It's the thought that counts! That Ernest Hemingway eagerly sought to serve the most murderous organization in modern history (Stalin and Beria's Secret police during the waning hours of The Great Terror) — this remarkable volunteerism would certainly seem to merit recognition -- especially from places like Hollywood and the New York Times.
Alas, not only does the movie omit (from what I hear) any mention of Hemingway's services for the KGB as agent Argo, but it also omits what could have provided the movie with some of its most dramatic scenes. I refer to Papa Hemingway as honored guest and charmed spectator during many of Che Guevara's firing squad murder marathons, while gulping his especially- made-for-the-celebratory-occasion Daiquiris.[3][4]
Hemingway knew full well what was going on behind the scenes of Castro and Che's "pure and beautiful" revolution. Accounts of "Papa" Hemingway's eager presence at many of the Katyn-like massacres of untried Cubans comes courtesy of Hemingway's own friend, the late George Plimpton (not exactly an "embittered right-wing Cuban exile") who worked as editor of the Paris Review, (not exactly a "Mc Carthyite scandal sheet.")
In 1958 George Plimpton interviewed Hemingway in Cuba for one of the Paris Review's most famous pieces. They became friends and the following year Hemingway again invited Plimpton down to his Finca Vigia just outside Havana. An editor at The Paris Review during the 1990's, while relating how this high-brow publication passed on serializing the manuscript that became Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries, reveals "Papa's" unwitting role in the rejection.
"I took the paper-clipped excerpt upstairs to the Boss (Plimpton)," writes James Scott Linville, "and said I had something strange and good. As I started to tell him about it, his smile faded. I stopped my pitch and said, "Boss, what's the matter?"
"James, I'm sorry." Linville recalls Plimpton replying. A sad look came over him, and he said, "Years ago, after we'd done the interview, Papa invited me down again to Cuba. It was right after the revolution. "There's something you should see," Hemingway told Plimpton while preparing a shaker of drinks for the outing.
"They got in the car with a few others and drove some way out of town." Continues Linville (who is recalling Plimpton's account.) "They got out, set up chairs and took out the drinks, as if they were going to watch the sunset. Soon, a truck arrived. This, explained George, was what they'd been waiting for. It came, as Hemingway knew (italics mine), the same time each day. It stopped and some men with guns got out of it. In the back were a couple of dozen others who were tied up. Prisoners.
"The men with guns hustled the others out of the back of the truck, and lined them up. Then they shot them. They put the bodies back into the truck."[5]
And so it started. Within a few years 16,000 men and boys (some of them U.S. citizens) would fill mass graves after scenes like the ones that so charmed Papa Hemingway with his thermos of specially-prepared Daiquiris. The figure for the Castroite murder tally is not difficult to find. Simply open "The Black Book of Communism," written by French scholars and published in English by Harvard University Press (neither exactly an outpost of "embittered right-wing Cuban exiles!")
"The facts and figures are irrefutable. No one will any longer be able to claim ignorance or uncertainty about the criminal nature of Communism," wrote the New York Times (no less!) about "The Black Book of Communism."
Some Cuban women also figure into the Castroite murder tally. On Christmas Eve 1961, for instance, a young Cuban woman named Juana Diaz Figueroa spat in the face of the executioners who were binding and gagging her. They'd found her guilty of feeding and hiding "bandits" (Che Guevara's term for Cuban rednecks who took up arms to fight his theft of their land to create Stalinist kolkhozes.) When the blast from that firing squad demolished her face and torso Juana was six months pregnant.[6]
Pure and beautiful indeed.[7]
With more media available than anyone could ever consume, the snap judgment now reigns supreme. If it takes you longer than a Snapchat snap to convince someone to pay attention to your movie/game/political campaign, you've already lost countless crucial potential customers. How many of you have already stopped reading this article? For anyone still here, there's a recent trend[1] of movie trailers opening with brief trailers for themselves — and our increasingly short attention spans are to blame.
The newest online trailers for upcoming summer blockbusters like X-Men: Apocalypse, Jason Bourne, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Ice Age: Collision Course all open with a title and a few seconds of flashy movie images desperate to hold onto viewers' precious eyeballs. The images don't even have to make sense. In fact, the more nonsensical the better, so viewers will actually sit through the otherwise unacceptably long two-minute actual trailer to understand what the heck they just saw. It's like a mystery box for thwarting the Skip Ad button on YouTube.
Trailers within trailers are just the latest, most distilled form of an ongoing marketing trend. When ads alone aren't getting the job done, if you're a digital marketing exec (or Xzibit) the only answer is ads for ads, dawg. The Verge described this with the perfectly dystopian word "metahype," and cites Ant-Man's pixel-sized teasers[2] as an example. But the Ouroboros is even longer. Here's a Vine[3] for a trailer for a Wolverine m ovie. Here's a teaser of a Terminator motion poster[4]. Here's an entire movie whose sole purpose is to advertise other, upcoming movies, and among its other countless problems[5], Justice League commercials are literally baked into the plot of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice[6].
Can you blame the studios, though? Yes, but there's more to it than that. The movie business is more hit-driven than ever. Notice that all of the movies mentioned are also part of big, familiar franchises. And if a movie isn't doing everything it can to dominate as much mindshare as possible, it can kiss that billion-dollar box office ring goodbye. The vast and open competition on the internet makes that fight much bloodier. Studios are even pulling out of San Diego Comic-Con[7] as fan hype there isn't translating to fan hype everywhere else as effectively. So, when you queue up a movie trailer in five years and it's just 10 seconds of Kevin Feige screaming "For the lo ve of God, please watch Spider-Man!" over a snippet of the movie, you'll know how we got there.
"Civil War" may only have Captain America's name in the title, but (almost) all the Avengers are on board -- and it could be the best Avengers movie yet.
Each of Marvel's big heroes, including Captain America and Iron Man, leap from their own solo movies to join forces in "The Avengers" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron". Now they're back and split down the middle.
By pitting the Avengers against each other, "Civil War" provides the greatest test yet for Marvel's band of heroes. If they stand together there's no alien horde or robot battalion they can't meet with a good old-fashioned sock in the jaw, but how do you punch your own doubts and fears?
Iron Man and Captain America go head-to-head in Marvel's "Civil War".
Rachael Stott/CNETTo celebrate "Civil War", we recruited artist Rachael Stott for some exclusive artwork. (Click the image on the right to see Cap and Tony go at it in full-size, full-colour glory.) Best known for her stunning work on "Star Trek" and "Doctor Who", Rachael is a London-based comic book artist who last year won the British Comics Awards best newcomer prize.
"I knew I wanted to show the actor's faces," said Rachael, "as Marvel has always put as much focus on the characters behind the masks as they do on the action, in their comics and in the films. It's also a brilliant part of the rich shared film universe they've built up, so when you're watching 'Civil War' it's not just Cap and Ol' Shellhead throwing punches at each other, but two people with rich, separate histories we've watched develop over several years now. It raises the stakes, and adds so much extra weight and emotion to t his clash of ideals."
And clash they do. The scene that forms the highlight of "Civil War" is maybe the climax of the Marvel movie project so far. In the scene, the characters we know and love unleash their personalities, power and punches in a superpowered scrap that leaps straight off the comics page in a riot of colour and cool moments. It's a big old Marvel party and we're all invited.
It's almost strange to think the first Avengers movie was a gamble. The question over whether these characters could work together hung over the film both on and offscreen. Fortunately writer and director Joss Whedon made sure it did.
Sequel "Age of Ultron[5]", while spectacular, showed that perhaps you could have too much of a good thing. But "Civil War" unites the Avengers once again -- and does it in style.
If you're planning to see the flick and want to make sure you're up to speed with Cap and his chums, here's our handy guide to which Marvel TV and films you need to catch u p on first:
Once you have seen "Civil War", race right back for some spoiler-packed chat about the highs and lows of the film[6]. We also need to talk about the ending and the one thing that nearly made me spit out my popcorn.
"Captain America: Civil War" is in cinemas in the UK and Australia now, and opens in the US on 5 May.
