• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Bg Elvis Guitar

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1968)

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 29, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    The big movies of 2022

    By Matthew Martin
    | January 18, 2022
    Movie Blogs
    This page contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Learn more

    For most of 2021, Hollywood looked like a dying industry. That’s a little hyperbolic, sure, but it’s not a stretch to say box office results were pitiful compared to what was seen before the pandemic. Things were not looking good for tinsel town…until the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swept (swooped?) in to save the day. With a box office haul that is already over a billion, No Way Home‘s success has been like a shot in the arm, giving hope that 2022’s blockbusters can return to something resembling the pre-pandemic days. Time will tell, but there are at least a handful of big films to look forward to.

    Starting with the first half of 2022, there are at least ten movies for genre fans to get excited about…

    JANUARY

    Okay, things start slowly, I admit. There’s nothing to write home about dropping this month unless the latest SCREAM film is to your liking. It’s not mine.

    FEBRUARY

    Uncharted: Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland as Victor Sullivan and Nathan Drake

    UNCHARTED

    Box Office Prediction: $200 Million

    Can Tom Holland carry a non-MCU film to box office success? It’s been hard for other MCU actors to carry over into other films; even Robert Downey Jr has struggled to score a hit movie, post-Iron Man. Uncharted is based on the Indiana Jones-inspired action/adventure games developed for Sony’s PlayStation consoles. It’s the latest attempt for Hollywood to make “video game adaptations” the next big cinematic it-thing. So far results have been mixed but with every attempt, it seems like we get closer and closer to a legitimately good one. Will Uncharted be the one? Based on the previews and marketing it’s hard to say (I’m leaning toward no). Will it at least be a hit? It’s got a budget of about 120 million so it’ll need at least 250 million to make a profit. I think it’ll come close but ultimately struggle to get over the hump.

    DEATH ON THE NILE

    Box Office Prediction: $100 Million

    Death on the Nile: Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot

    The last Agatha Christie adaptation, 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, was a big hit, bringing in over 300 million on a budget of just 50 million. A sequel was all but guaranteed with Kenneth Branagh returning as director and central character, detective Hercule Poirot. The previous movie was based on one of the most famous crime/mystery books ever written but were it not for the pandemic there would be no reason to think this one wouldn’t be a success to a similar degree. So far mid-budget films like this have suffered the most in the pandemic and how this one performs will be a big indicator for Hollywood as to whether they have a green light to return more to business as usual or continue to be cautious. Personally, though I have high hopes for the quality of the movie, I don’t think it will repeat the box office success of the original.

    MARCH

    Batman: Robert Pattinson

    THE BATMAN

    Box Office Prediction: $1.2 Billion

    There’s just something reliably bankable about a new Batman movie. He’s like the James Bond of comic book films and other than maybe Spider-Man there’s not a hero with the kind of recognition, depth of interesting villains to draw from, and supply of hit stories to be inspired by that is found in the Caped Crusader. He’s the only hero on DC’s roster who is almost always guaranteed to produce a hit. Will his newest movie continue that tradition? Absolutely. Will it be the first mega-hit of 2022? Absolutely.

    TURNING RED

    Box Office Prediction: $350 Million 0 (will be airing on Disney+)

    Turning Red: Rosalie Chiang voices Mei Lee

    Pixar’s first theatrical release since Onward in early 2020 (which came out just as the world started shutting down) is releasing with a subdued amount of enthusiasm from the general public, but I expect that to change in the final weeks leading up to release. Pixar itself has sort of taken a back seat to Disney’s in-house animated offerings, but Luca was a delight and Soul is a tremendously underrated movie. The plot is the perfect blend of whimsical and weird, with enough hint at the expected heartstring-tugging that always makes Pixar movies a treat. I don’t know if this will be the film that returns the studio to the collective consciousness of the moviegoing public, but I do expect it to be a great watch.

    APRIL

    Sonic 2: Ben Schwartz voices Sonic

    SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

    Box Office Prediction: $350 Million

    The first Sonic movie was perhaps the surprise of 2020. It was fortunate to release before the pandemic shut everything down but even without that to worry about, the film was almost miraculously watchable. It was legitimately funny in places, well-paced, smartly cast, and…I dunno, it just worked. It wasn’t perfect; I gave it an 8/10 and I stand by that after rewatching it a few times, but it was a good enough foundation to build on. Based on the marketing for the sequel, I’d say the people in charge are building on that foundation the right way. The first one pulled in 300 Million mostly in the pre-pandemic era. I expect similar returns this time which, in the mid-pandemic era, is a great follow-up.

    FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE

    Box Office Prediction: $400 Million

    Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore - Callum Turner, Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne as Theseus Scamander, Albus Dumbledore and Newt

    Of the ten movies on this list, there probably won’t be a film as polarizing as this one. For my part, I really enjoyed the first film in this series and while I recognize the many flaws in the second outing, I still had a good enough time to give it a passing grade. Unfortunately, I was in the minority as most people found the movie too sloppy and dour to enjoy. Enthusiasm for the series has plummeted leaving the box office hopes for part three a bit suspect. The story as conceived by JK Rowling called for five movies, whether we get the fourth and fifth will likely depend on how well this one performs. There are still plenty of Harry Potter fans out there who are eager for another dive into the Wizarding World…

    MAY

    Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: Benedict Cumberbatch

    DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

    Box Office Prediction: $1 Billion

    The long-awaited solo sequel for Dr. Strange is probably the second biggest film of the first half of the year. Personally, I have wanted this movie since Strange stole the show in Infinity War. It’s been a long six years since his first film, but he’s been sprinkled across multiple Marvel projects since then, most recently Spider-Man: No Way Home. That movie’s billion-dollar haul has only increased the already-high anticipation for this one, leading me to believe it will be a big earner at the box office. Whether it crosses the big billion-dollar line will probably depend on the state of the pandemic by May. If things have mellowed out a bit, we might see a big payday coming…

    TOP GUN: MAVERICK

    Box Office Prediction: $250 Million

    Top Gun: Maverick - Tom Cruise

    I regard this movie as little more than an appetizer while I await the next Mission: Impossible film. The original Top Gun was pure 1980’s machoism. It is a wonderful guilty pleasure movie with a killer soundtrack…and that’s about it. Top Gun is hardly high art, but it is a ton of fun if you’re in the mood for it. It’s the kind of movie that has a certain vibe, and it’s a vibe that is very (very) hard to recapture in a sequel. I don’t expect this film to pull it off, but I do think it will do just enough to satisfy the nostalgia-thirsty fans the movie is made for in the first place.

    JUNE

    Lightyear: Chris Evans voices Buzz

    LIGHTYEAR

    Box Office Prediction: $600 Million

    On paper, this does nothing for me. The idea seems contrived and uninspired. Movies aren’t seen on paper, though. The trailer looks like a sci-fi adventure with a retro aesthetic and that is 100% my jam. The fact that the teaser was accompanied by Bowie’s “Starman” is one of those marketing decisions that is too perfect for words. I choose to believe this movie will do more than just provide a backstory for the Buzz Lightyear action figure. I choose to believe this will be a fun, epic, moving sci-fi adventure. If it is it’ll rocket to the upper-echelon of Pixar movies for me. It almost certainly won’t hit the box office heights of the mainline Toy Story films but the name recognition alone will lift it above Pixar’s other movie this year.

    JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION

    Box Office Prediction: $900 Million

    Jurassic World Dominion

    The third film in what was original to be a trilogy, Jurassic World: Dominion is now being billed as the end of the World trilogy and the start of a new series of films. I really don’t care about any of it. The first Jurassic World was barely watchable as a straight movie and was only enjoyable as a meta-commentary on reboots/remakes in general. The follow-up is one of the most excruciating experiences I ever had in the cinema. It was never so bad that I could happily walk out on it, but it was also never consistently good enough to find something positive to hold onto. It was just a disjointed mishmash of ideas both boring and bad. I expect nothing better to come from the newest film. Alas, it will also probably make a stupid amount of money.

    See page 2 for the second half of 2022…

    The Flash: Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle
    Next Page
    1 2

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    You might also like

    • The best movies of 2021!

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 6, 2022
    • Not Strictly By the Book: Some of the most interesting book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | October 22, 2021
    • Every Christopher Nolan movie ranked!

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 14, 2020

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
    • Spirited Away remains Studio Ghibli’s “greatest” film

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 16, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter