Tag Archives: ghost world

Floating World hosts a special screening of 2001’s Ghost World

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Ghost World features early performances by Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson, with a memorable supporting turn by Steve Buscemi, in Terry Zwigoff’s absolutely perfect adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ classic graphic tale.

Hosted by Sam Ashurst of the Arrow Video podcast, Floating World will be on site to recommend a bunch of cool comic books, including Eightball, the anthology comic that originally featured Ghost World, Monica, Clowes’ latest masterpiece, and some special Clowes collectors items. And buy a print of Soph Franz‘s awesome show poster!

So grab your green hair dye, pull on your latex cat mask, and brace yourself for one of the coolest comic book movies ever made!

Thursday Nov. 14, 7:30pm
Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd.
Portland, Oregon 97212

Get your tickets here!

Director: Terry Zwigoff
Run time: 111 mins
Format: DCP

(show poster by Soph Franz)

When it Comes to “R” Comic Adaptations, Deadpool Isn’t Anything New

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There’s been much being made in the press of Deadpool‘s opening weekend success and the fact that it’s a comic book adaptation that’s rated “R”. God forbid facts should get in the way, but the film isn’t anything new when it comes to that, and it’s success can be debated compared to other films.

From what I can tell, the first comic adaptation to be rated R is The Crow which came out in May of 1994 and was followed in September by Timecop. To date, including Deadpool, there’s at least 35 films based on comics and rated “R”. In other words, this is nothing new. It’s not even the first Marvel comic movie to receive an “R” rating. All three Blade films earned that honor as well as the two Punisher films.

We can measure success in many ways, and Deadpool absolutely shattered records. In one weekend the film earned 4.87 times its budget. But, when it comes to earning more than its budget, that prize currently goes to 300 which earned 7.02 times its $65 million budget.

When it comes to the long end tail of things, Ghost World is actually the most successful going on to earn 62.94 times its opening weekend domestically. American Splendor is second best with 37.64 times, and Snowpiercer is third with 26.66 times.

What more records will Deadpool break and how will it stack up to these other films? We’ll have to wait and see. But remember, there was a long line of “R” rated comic adaptations before it.

R Rated Films Data

Facebook Fandom Spotlight: Comic Based Movies

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It’s Monday and that means a brand new Facebook Fandom spotlight where I look at the statistic of Facebook users when it comes to some part of geek fandom. With so much buzz recently about comic book movies and casting, I thought it might be interesting to look at various comic-based movies and how they did individually and as a series when it comes to gender.

The first thing that stands out to me is that both Catwoman and Elektra have women as the majority of their “likes.” Men in Black as a franchise does well, but though it shows women as a majority, they are most likely just under 50% due to Facebook’s returning fuzzy results with large numbers such as this.

But, what also stands out is Superman Returns being split exactly 50/50 when it comes to men and women. Director Bryan Singer has spoken about how he wanted a movie that would appeal to women as well as men, and it looks like he achieved that according to these numbers.

Many movies on this list came out well before Facebook existed, but overall the results are interesting to me.

Constantine which will soon be a television series does shockingly well when it comes to gender, with 45% women, and the recently rumored Fantastic Four casting had me interested in those results, which was some of the worst when it came to women with 16.67% for the franchise.

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Friday Five: Best Comic Book Movies (Excluding Marvel and DC)

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So I previously ranked the best comic book-based movies of Marvel and DC in the past, and I want to take it in another direction and exclude those two publishers to look at other comic book-based movies. I will NOT be including Manga or anime, since I don’t read those and I don’t watch the movies. For the Marvel and DC lists, I didn’t include any of their imprints, such as Icon or Vertigo, so I will be including them here. With that being said, here are the Top 5 Comic Book Movies That Are Not From Marvel or DC…

Honorable Mention: Alien vs. Predator (2004), American Splendor (2003), The Crow (1994), Ghost World (2001), Hellboy (2004), A History of Violence (2005), Road to Perdition (2002), Sin City (2005), The Spirit (2008), Wanted (2008)

5. 30 Days of Night (2007): I don’t usually like vampire films that much, but this one had such a great premise and tone, such great sets and effects and it was just plain scary that it is pretty close to being the best vampire movie of all time.

4. V for Vendetta (2006): About as good a dystopian film as has ever been made, this one improves upon the ideas that many have had before and really hits every note a movie like this should hit.

3. Men In Black (1997): Again, it’s hard to complain about anything in this movie. It has a great concept and plot, it masters the unlikely partner buddy cop thing like few movies ever had, it has great costumes and top-notch, groundbreaking special effects, it’s hilariously funny and has great action. And most importantly it has the amazing personality and chemistry of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

2. Kick-Ass (2010): Some were turned off by the violence in this movie, but I really think that this is one of the better uses of violence in any film I’ve ever seen. The violence is excessive, but it’s done for effect and it helps remind you that the movie isn’t real, despite the realness of the story. It makes sure that you know you’re in a comic book world. The cast is great, the story is superb and the changes from the comic don’t bother me a whole lot.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010): This is maybe one of the truest adaptations from comic to film that I’ve ever seen. There are some changes made, but they rarely are changes that deviate from the intention of the comic. The casting in this is superb and the movie itself looks great at all times, frequently taking shots directly from the comics and making them look both cinematic and comic-like. This is a movie I’m going to watch over and over and over again.