The Spice: 3/11-3/17
Box Office Update: Captain Marvel Dominates with $760 Million Worldwide
After debuting in 54 foreign markets, Captain Marvel generated $69 million this past week. It recently opened in its final territory, Japan, where the new addition to the Marvel universe raked in a hefty $5.6 million.
Captain Marvel is not only performing well at the box office, but is breaking superhero records overseas. With international ticket sales reaching $494 million, the film has exceeded the lifetime grosses of Ant-Man and the Wasp ($406 million), Wonder Woman ($409 million), Spider-Man 2 ($410 million), Deadpool 2 ($460 million), and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 ($474 million).
Such financial success comes as a surprise, especially because the film was the target of several internet trolling campaigns. But by the looks of these overseas and worldwide numbers, it’s clear that little can be done to slow down Captain Marvel’s momentum.
Saturday Night Live in Hot Plagiarism Water
Last October, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch about a pumpkin patch. If you don’t remember, it consists of the patch’s employees engaging in sexual intercourse with the pumpkins. Known for its raunchiness, the sketch quickly became popular for the fall mood and Halloween fever. Nick Ruggia and Ryan Hoffman, however, did not find the sketch amusing, accusing the show of theft.
Ruggia and Hoffman founded the sketch troupe, Temple Horse, in 2011 and have since collaborated on more 60 sketches together, many of which are available on YouTube. The two comedians claim that SNL plagiarized two of their sketches, “Not Trying to Fuck this Pumpkin” and “Pet Blinders.”
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Hoffman said, “Imagine, one day you come home and it looks like somebody’s robbed your house… What do you want from that situation? We feel like somebody took our stuff, and this isn’t the kind of thing where you can just get it back or call your insurance company to have it replaced, so at this point we’re just speaking out about it.”
James Gunn Re-Hired for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3
To bring people up to speed, James Gunn was fired last July after old tweets of his were unearthed in an effort of Trump supporters to punish the director for his anti-Trump statements on social media.
These tweets touched upon pedophilia and rape, saying, ““I like when little boys touch me in my silly place”, and, “The best thing about being raped is when you’re done being raped and it’s like ‘whew this feels great, not being raped!’” Alan Horn, Walt Disney Studio’s chairman, acted quickly and fired the director.
If the decision to fire Gunn was so swift and decisive, then why the sudden change of heart? Horn reportedly met with Gunn multiple times since his firing to discussion the situation. Convinced by Gunn’s public apology and his general behavior in the aftermath of the firing, Horn decided to give him a second chance.
Speaking of Marvel…
Marvel came under fire after it dropped the new Avengers: Endgame poster. Fans noticed that Danai Gurira was the only cast member featured on the poster without a name credit.
The actress plays Black Panther’s Okoye and is likely to be a standalone character from the Black Panther world in Endgame because T’Challa is one of the superheroes who ended up disappearing at the end of Infinity War (it is unclear whether or not Shuri is snapped or not).
In response to the backlash against the original poster, the studio reissued a revised version with Gurira’s name included and posted on social media, “She should have been up there all this time.”
Lilly Singh Joins the Late Night Boys’ Club
YouTube star Lilly Singh is taking over for Carson Daly in September on NBC. This new gig is huge, considering how there are currently only two female late night hosts (Samantha Bee and Busy Philipps) and no women hosting a show on one of the big four networks.
Although NBC has yet to announce the exact date of the debut, it is confirmed that Singh’s show will be called A Little Late with Lilly Singh and will air at 1:35 a.m. It will be a half-hour program with guests, comedy sketches, and segments.
In a statement, Singh said, “An Indian-Canadian woman with her own late night show? Now that is a dream come true… I’m thrilled to bring it to life on NBC, and I hope my parents consider this to be as exciting as a grandchild.”
Singh is known for her YouTube videos, where she has a following of more than 14 million viewers. She goes by the pseudonym “IISuperwomanII” and has appeared in films like Bad Moms and the HBO movie Fahrenheit 451. She also wrote the New York Times bestselling book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life.