LISTEN: ‘Fantastic Four’ Stumbles in Week 2; KCON Lights Up K-pop Fandom; Jason Momoa Triumphs in ‘Chief of War’

Can the B.O. hit the $4 billion mark this summer?

That’s the question Variety box office boss Rebecca Rubin raises on the latest episode of “Daily Variety” podcast as she analyzes the performance of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps“ in its second weekend. The dropoff from opening weekend was big, in the 66% range. Disney and Marvel leaders were no doubt hoping the film’s audience would branch out beyond the core young male demo for superhero movies into family audiences, Rubin observes.

“Right now the box office is about 10 % ahead of last year and it’s still 23 % behind 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. And the box office has been hovering at those figures for basically all of summer, but analysts heading into summer were pretty optimistic that this was going to be only the second summer in post-COVID times to hit $4 billion,” Rubin says. “The first time it did that was the summer of Barbenheimer and now that we’re at early August summer revenues just hit $3 billion. So it’s a bigger question mark than I think people were expecting of whether or not we will get to $4 billion.”

Monday’s installment also includes host Cynthia Littleton’s trek into the heart of K-pop fandom at the KCON Korean culture festivalheld Aug. 1-3 in downtown Los Angeles. You’ll hear from KCON attendees in their own words as to why they are so rabid for K-pop. For the biggest devotees, it’s more than a musical genre — it’s a lifestyle.

“When I started learning Korean, because of my love for music or K dramas and stuff, I really liked how disciplined Korean people are,” said Jennifer, a 20-something woman from Long Beach, Calif., who attended KCON with a friend. “I really want to take after that a little more in terms of like, waking up, doing your skincare, eating good and just engaging with other people. I think that’s what I really like about the Korean culture.”

Also in today’s episode, Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu explains why she is so high on Jason Momoa’s new Apple TV+ drama series “Chief of War.” The story of the unification of the Hawaiian Islands in the 1700s is brought to life with incredible precision — and an enormous production budget that can be seen on the screen. The series has been Momoa’s passion project for 10 years, Tinubu observes.

“So not only is he directing episodes and writing, he is the star of the series. He plays a Maui warrior named Kiana, and essentially he doesn’t want to be fighting. He’s very good at his craft, but he doesn’t want to be doing this, but he’s sort of lured into these wars,” Tinubu says. “And he’s very stoic, he’s not someone who is jovial, as we see Jason Momoa in real life. It’s a really strong performance. The amount of work that it probably took for him to be at the center of this story and be a creator and directing and writing. He’s wearing many, many hats and he does it beautifully.”

(Pictured: Jason Momoa in “Chief of War”)

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