The massive cast of Avengers: Infinity War struggle through press commitments
Robert Downey Jr (standing) has his moment in the sun during the star-studded Avengers: Infinity War press conference. Photo: Getty
How many Marvel superheroes, villains, directors and producers can you squeeze on a stage inside a five-star hotel in Beverly Hills?
The answer is 24.
Disney held an Avengers: Infinity War press conference on Monday and filled the stage with 21 actors including Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch and 15 other aesthetically pleasing thespians, two directors and a producer.
And that’s without several of the film’s other stars including Chris Evans, Michael Douglas, Idris Elba, Jeremy Renner, Peter Dinklage and Angela Bassett, to name a few.
This week Avengers: Infinity War opens in Australia, the US and other key global markets and could make more than $330 million ($US250 million) on its debut weekend.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the film’s budget was “close to $US300 million ($396 million)”, meaning it’s likely to make that back – and more – in a single weekend.
That’s what happens when you combine the already successful Avengers with the almost-as-successful Guardians of the Galaxy crew.
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Despite the assured mega box office, Disney on Sunday set up a 48-minute, 12-second long press conference in Beverly Hills for reporters from around the world to give it a promotional push.
Points to Disney for trying to make this press conference amusing by bringing in Grandmaster himself, Jeff Goldblum, as MC.
Goldblum had a prop. A bingo ball machine containing balls with the names of all the Marvel stars on the stage.
It was a very important development in the world of Hollywood movie junket press conferences where a publicist’s worst nightmare is to see their star client on stage in front of 100 journalists and have not one question directed toward them.
The bingo ball set-up guaranteed everyone received a question.
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It seemed oddly fortuitous the first question, however, went to the godfather of The Avengers, ‘Iron Man’ Robert Downey Jr.
Before a nervous reporter could ask his question Downey Jr put him on the spot.
“Me first: What’s better? Iron Man or Black Panther?” Downey Jr asked.
“I have to go with Black Panther,” the fellow bravely replied.
“Me too,” Downey Jr concurred.
And the question that annoyed a superhero the most?
A Chinese journalist asked Scarlett Johansson about the “fashion elements” in Avengers: Infinity War.
“I got the fashion question? I honestly really don’t know how to answer that question,” Johansson said.
“I wear a leather unitard for most of this film and have been for the last 10 years.”
Towards the end, Pratt’s bingo ball popped up and he received an interesting question: How did his Guardians character, a human, react to seeing Earthlings for the first time in 30 years in the film?
Nope. Couldn’t answer. That would reveal some plot.
“It might be best for you to see it so I’m going to talk about bass fishing,” Pratt said, drawing laughs from his co-stars.
“April is a great month for largemouth bass …”
There were similar scenes at the film’s Los Angeles premiere later that day, with all of the stars packed onto the stage, each of them filming and snapping photos for their multimillion-strong social media followings.
The film is already managing to exceed expectations and live up to the massive hype preceding it, with Variety describing it as “a sleekly witty action opera that’s at once overstuffed and bedazzling”, with “tensely spectacular combat sequences”, and an ending that is “dark and spooky and, in its way, chancy and shocking”.
Scroll through our gallery below:
–with AAP
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