PREMIERE MAGAZINE #342

 

The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 35 Round 2)

 

Moving on to Round 2. Here's The Roundup....

3. Zorro

Welcome to LRF, Johnny Mercer. His debut Zorro was solid, although maybe a bit dry at times. With its box office performance, I am interested to see a potential sequel.

2. Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

As usual Meirad Tako delivered something very unexpected in every possible way - both good and bad (mostly good).

1. The Punisher: Purgatory

I think Dwight Gallo's Punisher series might just be my favorite LRF Marvel franchise. It feels like its own violent, gritty thing and its all perfectly cast.

3. Profits

While there have been a few solid earners so far, no major blockbusters. It might be another season where the studio profits are made or broken by a couple late season hits/flops.

2. Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

I didn't dislike the film, but I do think it was marketed wrong as a Drama / Biopic. 

1. Diego Luna

I've never understood the appeal of Diego Luna. He seems small and lack the charisma I expected from the new Zorro. He wasn't terrible, but he didn't click for me.

On Location (Season 35 Round 2)

 

Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

- Vienna, Austria

Zorro

- Durango, Mexico

The Punisher: Purgatory

- Staten Island, New York, USA

Box Office Breakdown (Season 35 Round 2)

 

Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

Budget: $19,000,000

Total Box Office: $34,589,058

Total Profit: -$3,125,025

Zorro

Budget: $82,000,000

Total Box Office: $215,997,717

Total Profit: $40,032,008

The Punisher: Purgatory

Budget: $75,000,000

Total Box Office: $231,004,586

Total Profit: $38,089,444

Box Office Facts

Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, made his LRF debut with Thus Dreamed Zarathustra. The last 10 films from directors making their debut have combined to gross $2.15 billion at the box office - an average of $215 million per film. The average profit is $53 million. Granted these numbers are highly inflated due to Supergirl: Power.

Zorro

Speaking of LRF debuts, writer Johnny Mercer made his debut here with Zorro. Four of the last film debut films from writers have now managed to turn a profit.

The Punisher: Purgatory

The three Punisher films have now combined to gross $666 million at the box office with a combined profit of $138 million.

Genre Rankings

Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

Drama: #290

Biography: #56

Zorro

Action: #206

Western: #5

The Punisher: Purgatory

Action: #195

Superhero: #111

Crime: #7

Season 35 Round 2

Total Box Office: $481,591,361

Total Profit: $74,996,427

Season 35 Totals

Total Box Office: $966,266,694

Total Profit: $122,722,958

Season 34 Summary

1. ThunderCats : $372,054,861

2. The Punisher: Purgatory : $231,004,586

3. Zorro : $215,997,717

4. Tara's Wrath : $73,090,751

5. The Writer and the Film Star : $39,529,721

6. Thus Dreamed Zarathustra : $34,589,058

LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (Season 35 Round 2)

 

Welcome back for more LRF Trivia Tidbits! Season 35’s second round leans hard into mythmaking—reframing history through surreal biography, reviving a pulp legend with auteur polish, and pushing a hardened comic-book franchise deeper into its own brutal mythology. As always, the most interesting stories happened just off-camera.

Thus Dreamed Zarathustra

Originally conceived as a more conventional biopic of Friedrich Nietzsche, the project gradually evolved through rewrites into something far more fantastical and philosophical in tone. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck remained committed throughout that transformation, even turning down another upcoming Season 35 release - The Molander Case - to see Thus Dreamed Zarathustra through as it became a stranger, more ambitious reflection of its subject rather than a straight historical portrait.

Zorro

With Zorro, LRF quietly completed an unexpected pulp trifecta, following earlier adaptations of Tarzan and The Lone Ranger in recent seasons. The connection runs deeper than coincidence: all three characters once shared airtime in the early 1980s animated series The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour, making LrF recently an inadvertent echo of Saturday-morning adventure history.

The Punisher: Purgatory

While Mel Gibson’s Frank Castle and much of the supporting cast return for a third outing, Purgatory introduces a major new antagonist in Jonathan Tucker’s take on Jigsaw. Rather than a straightforward adaptation, the character merges elements of classic Punisher villain Jigsaw with Finn Cooley, creating a composite foe that fits seamlessly into the series’ grounded, relentlessly violent tone.

Release: The Punisher: Purgatory

 

The Punisher: Purgatory

Genre: Action/Superhero/Crime

Director: S. Craig Zahler

Writer: Dwight Gallo

Based on Marvel Comics characters

Cast: Mel Gibson, Jonathan Tucker, Carla Gugino, Shea Whigham, Jennifer Carpenter, Dwight Yoakam, Tory Kittles, James Urbaniak, Slaine, Fred Melamed, Mira Sorvino, Francois Chau, Jake Busey

Budget: $75,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $130,119,000

Foreign Box Office: $100,885,586

Total Profit: $38,089,444

Reaction: Box office numbers were slightly down across the board for this third film in the series, and profits were the lowest in the series to date - although that does make sense to the accountants as budgets have increased 50% from the first film. That said, it's still a successful hard-R Marvel entry.

"There’s a lot to admire in The Punisher: Purgatory - Zahler’s hard-edged procedural pacing, Gibson’s granite-center performance, and a killer soundtrack that again does heavy lifting by underlining the film’s bitter melancholy rather than offering empty swagger. But this third entry wobbles where the first two were locked in: giving Frank Castle a love interest (Carla Gugino is terrific though) softens the character in a way that feels thematically inconsistent, and the villains’ scheme feels too chaotic without enough underlying logic. Even so, this third Punisher entry is still very good, just not quite the near-masterpiece levels of the first two films." - Roger Taggart, Chicago Tribune

"​S. Craig Zahler's The Punisher: Purgatory is an unflinching descent into noir-fueled carnage, anchored by a career-defining performance from a grizzled Mel Gibson as the broken, ghost-like Frank Castle. His stoic brutality finds its chaotic match in Jonathan Tucker's terrifyingly magnetic Jigsaw, creating a conflict that paints the city in blood and grime. Zahler trades superhero spectacle for visceral, bone-shattering realism, creating a grim ballet of violence ironically set to a melancholic soul soundtrack. It is a punishing, masterful, and ultimately definitive take on the character, but its relentless brutality means this is a mission strictly for those with the strongest of stomachs." - Ted Milo, Montasefilm.com

"The Punisher: Purgatory is Zahler in full command: ugly, methodical, and brutal - all in the best possible ways. Mel Gibson's Frank Castle moves like a weary force of nature. The set pieces escalate with sick ingenuity (the bridge ambush, the Rikers riot, the subway-yard slaughter), and Jonathan Tucker’s Jigsaw is a gleefully hateful engine of chaos whose very presence makes the movie feel dangerous. Just as importantly, the series’ soundtrack streak continues. It’s vicious, funny in the worst way, and oddly mournful - Zahler and Gallo's pulp craftsmanship elevated into something that lingers." - Dave Manning, Ridgefield Press

Rated R for graphic violence, disturbing imagery, and language.

Comic to Film: The Punisher: Purgatory

 

Welcome back for another Comic to Film! This time around we are going to take a look at the cast of the third film in the Punisher saga from writer Dwight Gallo (The Vintner, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse) and director S. Crag Zahler (Patient Zero, Territory) - The Punisher: Purgatory.