There is anticipation for Endgame? Could have fooled me.
The default answer is probably Star Wars but to be honest there were a ton of films I had more anticipation for than this one. To be honest, I don’t know what there even is to anticipate, there will be a mess of characters having CGI fights while following breadcrumbs and in the end they will change time to reset the universe.
I remember being really and truly excited about seeing a movie in the theatre, the Fellowship of the Ring for example, the trailers made me giddy leading up to that so I know what real anticipation is. Endgame doesn’t even register.
I would say Phantom Menace or Lord of the Rings. I’m not much of a movie person, but I’d heard about both, and there were features on radio shows that I caught, talking about them.
Never heard of this movie; didn’t know it was coming out.
I’m well aware that there is a “final” Avengers movie coming out some time soon, but I haven’t seen much discussion about it (probably because I haven’t sought any).
In fact, I think I’ve seen much, much more discussion about “Captain Marvel”, mostly from a “women in movies” perspective.
To answer the original question, I remember the 1989 Batman movie having a lot of build-up.
Frankly, I think very few people are “anticipating” this. Marvel movies have become so routine that there’s really nothing to anticipate. It will just be another installment in the series. They’ve saturated the market so much that no one episode is very special, even a nominal finale.
Ok, so put me down as a guy the wrong side of 50 who is hugely invested in the Marvel movies, and has been desperately anticipating Avengers:Endgame, starting since I saw Avengers:Infinity War on opening day, and saw the huge gut punch of an ending.
That’s purely technology based, in that people can order tickets online instead of camping on line. I’ll absolutely be camping on my computer waiting for the tickets to drop.
ROTJ had higher anticipation, IMHO. Of course, I was 15 at the time and hugely invested in Star Wars. I do remember waiting in line the entire day before at the movie theater in the Neshaminy Mall to buy tickets for an opening day showing.
I agree. I’ve been rewatching all of the movies in release order with my kids in anticipation of Endgame. (I think my youngest is still too young but I lost the battle). I saw about 75% of them in theaters, some more than once, but “superhero punching” fatigue had set in strong.
Having seen Infinity War, the rewatch has made me appreciate the level of planning and overall quality of the writing, even though some of the tie-ins are ham-fisted at best it’s amazing that they can drop these characters into any movie and it all feels coherent.
That said, this isn’t the last Marvel movie, it’s just the end of Phase 3. 6 movies for phase 4 have been announced and I’m seeing that it might be as many as 9. So it’s going to be the end of an era, probably the last movie for RDJ, but honestly it’s hard to feel too much anticipation for something that’s just going to keep going as long as it’s making money. Quality will probably drop and it’ll all get quietly scuttled in 2024.
I think that the fact that The Phantom Menace came out before YouTube and so on means that it was more anticipated, not less. Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to capitalize on anticipation. But even without that ease, TPM still managed to achieve an at least comparable level of penetration of the public consciousness to Endgame.
As to the OP - 50 Shades of Grey; the first Twilight movie; Eat, Pray, Love - basically any movie based off a large YA or ChickLit following, might be as much in the running as a SF or superhero movie.
I’d say there are ton of movies which have been way more anticipated than Avengers: End Game. As others have pointed out it doesn’t come close to the anticipations around Star Wars Episode.
What I can’t think of is an example where there is this level anticipation is about what happens in the plot, rather than just the spectacle of the movie itself. The last movie ended on a cliffhanger and people want to know “how those Avengers are going to get out this one?”, not just see another Avengers movie (though IMO they’ve foreshadowed it fairly blatantly IMO, thats another thread )
The world was pretty excited when Gone With the Wind premiered in 1939. Margret Mitchell’s novel had been a big success, the tabloids of that day talked about how hard it was to cast Scarlett and get Clark Gable to play Rhett, there was a battle with the censors, and a crowd of 300,000 showed up at the premiere. And all that hype went on for two years before it finally made it to the screen.
Wha? Eat, Pray, Love wasn’t even #1 it’s weekend. And it barely beat “The Other Guys” which was on it’s second week. 50 Shades and Twilight are around #100 in opening weekend rankings. I don’t really think they compare.
I think the anticipation for Gone With the Wind beats this one by a mile. The only people anticipating the Avengers movie are those who have already seen the previous movies - the rest of the public has already self-selected themselves out of the potential audience. Outside of that self-selected audience, there’s not much in the way of anticipation for Avengers: Endgame. In 1939, however, a far greater percentage of the nation was eagerly awaiting Selznick’s production, having already been primed for this by not just the runaway success of the novel itself, but a masterful PR game by Selznick, et al, which kept the making of Gone with the Wind at the forefront of the movie-going public’s mind for over 2 years.
So, to answer the question in the title: Yes. GWTW was far more hyped and far more anticipated by the general movie-going public than the Avengers film is.
Yeah, but that can’t really be used to differentiate it from The Phantom Menace, given the arc of technology. Honestly, I’m not sure it tells you much more than the demographics of the target market: this movie is heavily anticipated by young men who are online a lot.
I also hadn’t heard of it until I saw the trailer on the Superbowl. Honestly, I’m at least 2 Avengers movies behind now. Maybe 4? Not sure. They all kinda blur together to me. I’ve started Civil War at least twice and gotten bored 15 minutes in.
Right, not comparing it to Phantom Menace, but to say there is no anticipation for it is ridiculous. I also don’t think that “Going to YouTube” is an exclusively young male thing.
In the last years of the 20th century the phone would sometimes ring in my house.
Upon answering I would hear the voice of a friend saying something like “14 months, 23 days, 22 hours”
It was the time we still had to wait for Fellowship of the Rings.
Most anticipated movie. EVER.
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