Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 August 10

= August 10 =

Aks
Yes I'm asking about Aks film involving Amitabh Bachan old man, so can anyone answer my question: "Did the Killer Raghavan's corpse get Burnt into Ashes?(76.20.88.33 (talk) 00:19, 10 August 2017 (UTC)).
 * You've been blocked several times and you're soon to be blocked again. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:22, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

String Musical Instrument.
I wonder if the instrument that is played by a man in this small ensemble of three players has a name. It looks like an enormous guitar with about 20 strings. I am sure some of them are so far from your fingers they cannot be clamped. The song is Tarantella del Gargano --AboutFace 22 (talk) 00:29, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * See theorbo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.85.51.150 (talk) 01:56, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

What was the most lopsided baseball game between countries?
Including age-restricted competitions. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 12:54, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * According to Blowout (sports), the most lopsided MLB game was a 27-run differential. In amateur competitions, greater differentials are very unlikely as most amateur competitions have a form of the mercy rule which generally kicks in after one side is defeating the other by a certain number of runs (9 or 10 is usually common).  As the largest international baseball competition is Little League Baseball, which has such a mercy rule, you are unlikely to find any international baseball competition which has a greater differential.  -- Jayron 32 16:22, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * In this competition Cuba beat Hong Kong by 28-0 before the mercy rule kicked in at the 4th inning. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:47, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, there you go. If you could find the answer yourself, why'd you ask?  -- Jayron 32 17:06, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't know if that's the answer, that's just the highest I found. There's no Google result for Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:20, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Mexico beat Lithuania 44-0 (mercy rule). It appears the under-15 world cups have even more skill disparity than U-12 or U-18. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:31, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Not international, but here's evidence of a HS game that ended 65-0: . -- Jayron 32 18:09, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

What's so special about the Avengers?
I started reading comics in the 1990s, when it was a very niche production, limited to nerds and freaks. Batman & Robin had basically destroyed the concept of a superhero film for the big public, and it was unlikely that such films would be produced again. And much less for Marvel, whose comics I liked best, but who had never made a decent film up to that point. And even within Marvel, the Avengers (wich I discovered during the run of Kurt Busiek and George perez) were second-stringers, who sold much less than Spider-Man and the X-Men. Heck, Marvel Comics itself had barely avoided bankruptcy.

Some years later, some new superhero films were produced again: the first X-Men trilogy, the Spider-Man trilogy by Sam Raimi, the Dark Knight trilogy, Daredevil, Superman Returns, the first films of the MCU. Most of them had good quality (with some occasional flop), and their box office reception was acceptable. And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when the MCU mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united in a single film. On that day, The Avengers was filmed, broke all the records for the genre and climbed to the top-5 top grossing films of all time. And, as a result, superhero fiction became the great thing of popular culture, Marvel Comics got the Midas touch that can make a blockbuster even from a space opera starred by a tree and a racoon, and the Avengers are the kings of all that.

However, as a fan whose wildest dreams became real and then some, I may lack the appropiate cool head to understand something: what was so special about the Avengers film to kickstart all this? The genre had been going on for some time by then, the films were not such massive successes, but were not obscure either. A superhero team in film was not something new either, the X-Men were first. The Avengers comic was basically unknown for the big public before this (it's not like Wonder Woman, who remained a cultural icon even in all those years between Lynda Carter and BvS). Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk had previous films whose plots got a combined "sequel" here, but again, a film franchise was not something new in the film industry, and their individual box office was not anywhere near the Avengers (before the Avengers film, that is). I don't think there's a "combined box office of the 4 films" thing in play, as the public of all four films must be basically the same people. Then, what caused the Avengers success? Cambalachero (talk) 17:39, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * See marketing. -- Jayron 32 18:05, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * See also:
 * — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:4176:1674:84F8:476B (talk) 20:18, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:4176:1674:84F8:476B (talk) 20:18, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:4176:1674:84F8:476B (talk) 20:18, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:4176:1674:84F8:476B (talk) 20:18, 10 August 2017 (UTC)


 * I would argue - and this is touched on in the links provided above - that you have it a little backwards. The Avengers did not kickstart this; it started with Iron Man, specifically the end scene where Samuel L Jackson made it clear that the movie might tie into much larger things. That was a fundamental change from the other movies you mentioned; Batman and Superman never teamed up; Spiderman never called on the Fantastic Four. Iron Man and the following titles carefully built up interest in the concept of a shared universe, (perhaps coincidentally) in a way not unlike what Marvel themselves did in the 1960s comics. DC had long had team-up books, but it was Marvel that focused on the concept of a shared worldspace - the Marvel Universe. That precedent really hit home with older fans like myself because it opened up the same possibilities regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. By tying in to the larger concept, lesser known properties like Antman, Doctor Strange, and Guardians of the Galaxy could be green-lit and subsequently be embraced by the more casual fans. The Avengers was the culmination of the first series of movies and therefore both highlighted the "shared" aspect of the shared universe and also served as a thematic wrap-up (i.e. the purpose of the first wave of movies was to create the Avengers team and really rake in the dough). Matt Deres (talk) 15:26, 14 August 2017 (UTC)