Many viewers will gladly pay to see Julia Roberts and George Clooney together on the big screen, whatever they do on it. And in that certainty lies a good part of the commercial expectations of ‘Journey to paradise’ (premiere in Spain: September 9), the sixth film in which both share the poster. If they finally come true it will be great news for the future of romantic comedy, a genre that in the 90s was synonymous with box office success and that today has been relegated to the territory of ‘streaming’. In any case, the films that will collect the most money this coming quarter – as usual, on the other hand – are those starring vigilantes stuffed in lycra jumpsuits or by computer-generated creatures.
No one doubts, for example, the ability of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ (November 11) to fill theaters, and that is so despite the difficulties that have surrounded its production: on the one hand, the death of actor Chadwick Boseman, who in ‘Black Panther’ (2018) embodied the titular hero; on the other, the bad reputation of what seems to be his successor in the role, Laetitia Wright, who is said to have spent the filming spreading ‘anti-vaccine’ rhetoric.
Regarding the other two superheroes on this list, they do not belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but to the DC Extended Universe -it is difficult to explain-; one of them is the main character ‘Shazam! The fury of the gods’ (December 21), and its commercial superpower was already made clear by the success of ‘Shazam!’ (2019); the other gives title to ‘Black Adam’ (October 21), and his most infallible weapon to attract the public is the actor who brings him to life, Dwayne Johnson.
Regardless, neither of them will manage to defeat ‘Avatar: the sense of water’ (December 16), which is nothing but the sequel to the film that has raised the most in history. It is true that 13 years have passed since the premiere of ‘Avatar’ (2009), and that in that time the only one who has shown real interest in giving it a continuation is its director, James Cameron, but none of that will prevent it from dominating the box office.