Rise of Skywalker still #1 at box office

For the weekend of January 3-5, 2020, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker continues to rule. It’s now made over $915 million worldwide and should cross the $1 billion mark sometime next week. It’s not the force that Force Awakens was, but it should wind up grossing about as much as The Last Jedi. I also think the decision to not have another Star Wars movie for a good three years is a smart one. People can get their fix from DisneyPlus.

The only new wide release was The Grudge, a reboot that critics hated it, and so the quick $11 million opening it got means it should sink quickly, and so studios have tried and failed again to revive a horror franchise. Meanwhile we have reboots of Saw and Candyman coming this summer.

Of the holdovers, Jumanji: Next Level is doing quite well, thank you, at over $600 million worldwide, and if they want to make another one, the box office receipts are there to justify it.

Frozen II has passed $1.3 billion worldwide.

1917 is doing great in limited release. Just Mercy is doing decently, but it could use more award buzz around Jamie Foxx to bolster its box office potential.

Golden Globes are tonight!

Opens January 10

LIKE A BOSS with Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne and Salma Hayek.

UNDERWATER with Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick and TJ Miller.

(wide) 1917 with George Mackey, Dean-Charles Chapman and Colin Firth.

(wide) JUST MERCY with Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Brie Larsen.

Solo is #1 for 2nd week

For the weekend of June 1-3, Solo: A Star Wars Story was #1, but it took a steep drop in week 2 without any major competition. It's also been rolling out more slowly to international markets so it might not be that profitable after all.

Of the new releases, none of them made much of a splash. Adrift might break even. Upgrade deserves to find a bigger audience. Action Point fell on its face.

Book Club has had legs since it opened. It will probably finish in the top 20 for summer domestic gross.

Black Panther just needs another $870,000 to cross the $700 million mark domestically, but seeing as how it's aleady out on DVD, I don't think it's going to get there.

Avengers: Infinity War will cross the $2 billion mark for its worldwide gross later this week.

Opens June 8
OCEAN'S 8 with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Mindy Kaling.
HOTEL ARTEMIS with Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum and Sofia Boutella.
HEREDITARY with Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne and Ann Dowd.

Last Jedi #1, Jumanji #2 at box office

For the weekend of December 22-24, 2017, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi had a massive dropoff (as movies that open that big tend to do) and still held on to the #1 spot. Sony has to be tickled with the performance of Jumanji: WTTJ. The weekend after Christmas, movies tend to hold on pretty well, so it's realistic for it to be looking to pass $150 million domestic and $400 million worldwide. Dwayne Johnson needed a return to box office glory after Baywatch flopped.

Pitch Perfect 3 did well despite bad reviews. Looks like it's ending the franchise at the right time.

The Greatest Showman may be able to boast about its Golden Globe nominations, but that's a disappointing opening. Nowhere near as disappointing for Downsizing, a high-concept comedy that's been met with lukewarm reception. Father Figures is a flat-out bomb.

Of the expanding titles, Darkest Hour managed the better per-screen average than The Shape of Water. In limited release The Post did outstanding while Hostiles fizzled.

I'm a little bummed The Disaster Artist isn't doing better.

Opens December 25
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD with Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg.

Last Jedi has second-best opening ever

For the weekend of December 15-17, 2017, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi had the second highest opening in history, behind only Episode VII. The sequel had a different pace and plot style than Star Wars fare we've come to expect, and with word-of-mouth being more mixed and a ton of title coming next week, I'd expect a steep decline in week 2 but it'll still probably keep the top spot through the New Year.

Ferdinand was the alternative release, but it grossly underperformed.

Award-bait titles like The Disaster Artist, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards are losing steam. I hope Disaster Artist is able to keep most of screens despite five new wide releases coming next week.

Thor: Ragnarok has now grossed over $840 million worldwide.

Opens December 20
JUMANJI with Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas.
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN with Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Michelle Williams.
Opens December 22
PITCH PERFECT 3 with Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow and Ruby Rose.
DOWNSIZING with Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz and Jason Sudeikis.
FATHER FIGURES with Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, Glenn Close and JK Simmons.

The Last Jedi - Movie Review

Starring Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong'o, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, Benecio Del Toro, Gwendoline Christie, Billie Lourd, Justin Theroux and Anthony Daniels. 
Written & Directed by Rian Johnson.

★★★½

The action picks up right where the previous movie left off. The giant death star planet's been destroyed but most of the First Order, including Snoke, Ren, Hux and Phasma escaped. The Resistance is backpedaling and evacuating since the First Order now knows where their base is. Finn's in sick bay. Rey has just found Luke Skywalker.

So how seamless is the transition from JJ Abrams to Rian Johnson? Pretty seamless, but then Johnson is able to expand and deepen characters in ways Force Awakens wasn't able to. TFA built the world. It's fitting that one of the main words used in the Last Jedi trailers is "Breathe." Let's breathe and get to know them better.

I imagine the biggest question going into this was how was it going to be to have Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker back? Just as TFA was largely Han Solo's movie, TLJ belongs to Luke. Rey has arrived to be his eager apprentice, and Luke is the grumpy old wizard who's had it. Imagine how Star Wars would have gone if Ben Kenobi had told Luke to quit whining and go home.

It's nice to see Luke meet his old friends again. Luke and Chewie. Luke and R2-D2. It's sad we never get a Luke-Han scene. But what made me happiest about this movie is that Luke, and Hamill as Luke, is still just freaking cool.

One exciting new character is Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), a fangirl Resistance fighter who finds herself pulled into an important plot thread with Finn.

I really enjoyed the character depth added to Ben Solo and Admiral Hux. Hux is still a weaselly Empire wannabe, but he feels more complete. Ben/Kylo makes some interesting decisions, and Adam Driver does a great job of presenting the conflict on his face.

I'll have to see how this one digests on a second viewing. Right now I'd say it's better than Force Awakens or Rogue One. It makes a couple plot decisions I'm not sure I like. But I respect the emphasis on human relationships that Johnson has returned to the heart of this galaxy.

Rogue One - Movie Review

Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Jiang Wen, Jimmy Smits, Genevieve O'Reilly and James Earl Jones.
Written by Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy and John Knoll & Gary Whitta.
Directed by Gareth Edwards.

★★★½

This is exactly the type of side adventure I was hoping that Disney would do when they won the rights to the Star Wars franchise. We meet some new characters, we get some old ones (Bail Organa! Mon Mothma! Darth freakin' Vader!), and we have a movie that may fit into the timeline of the franchise, but there's something creatively freeing about knowing this is a stand-alone film.

The film centers around Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a prisoner who's rescued by members of the Rebel Alliance. She is the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), an engineer forced against his will to help build the Death Star. With her help, they believe they can steal the plans and find a weakness in its design.

Her motley crew eventually contains Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who has his own side mission; Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), a recently defected Imperial pilot; K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), a sardonic, reprogrammed Imperial droid who doesn't hide his opinions; blind warrior Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen); and man-at-arms Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen). They all must elude the clutches of Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), the Imperial leader overseeing the Death Star who hopes its success will catapult him to becoming the right-hand man of the Emperor.

One thing I really appreciated were some surprises that they kept hidden from marketing. Over the next few days, those will all come out, but I'm glad I saw it without knowing all of the turns. I also liked the dark urgency of it. This rebellion feels like war, with guerilla tactics, stormtroopers minding their own business suddenly getting blown up, citizens stuck in harm's way. It shows how stakes were raised for other people in the galaxy, beyond the Skywalker family. It's probably the best Star Wars script since The Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Movie Review

STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (PG-13) Starring Harrison Ford, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Greg Grunberg and Max von Sydow.
Written by Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams & Michael Arndt.
Directed by JJ Abrams.

★★★½

Rewatching the first six movies reminded me of something - the cognative dissonance required to enjoy the prequels. I have to ignore the stilted dialogue, stiff performances, over-reliance on CGI to get to the parts I like. None of that is required here. This movie is a pleasure from beginning to end, reimursing us in the original Star Wars galaxy.

One of the joys of the movie was seeing everything I didn't know was going to happen. We've gathered certain scenes and characters in general - i.e. the Millenium Falcon will fly again!  This one dives right into the action from the opening scrawl. (And yes, there were cheers when the Star Wars logo hit the screen.) We may start with some of the new characters, but we know we'll eventually see all of our old friends.

Of the new characters, there is Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger on Jakku, a junkyard planet that makes Tattooine look like a luxury resort. There is Finn (John Boyega), a stormtrooper who grows a conscience. There is Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), a cocky but skilled pilot. And there's BB-8, a roller-droid that kids will love as much as they did R2-D2.

Every scene builds on the next. It hits a lot of familiar beats but it also managed to build a lot of suspense as to what direction it was going to ultimately go. I can't wait to watch it a second time to look for things I missed.

I hope this movie makes enough money that they'll decide to make Episode VIII.

Thor wins Friday box-office

Box office for Friday, November 8, 2013:

1.  Thor: The Dark World - $31.63 million - 1 day
2.  Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa - $3.37 ($70.82) - 15 days
3.  Last Vegas - $3.22 ($25.65) - 8 days
4.  Ender's Game - $2.91 ($36.66) - 8 days
5.  Free Birds - $2.6 ($21.62) - 8 days
6.  Gravity - $2.3 ($225.01) - 36 days
7.  12 Years a Slave - $1.85 ($12.6) - 22 days
8.  Captain Phillips - $1.6 ($86.78) - 29 days
9.  About Time - $1.5 ($3.02) - 8 days
10. Cloudy with Meatballs 2 - $.58 ($107.75) - 43 days

Thor: The Dark World should get $85-$90 million for the weekend. It will outperform the original Thor's opening of $60 million and it's another example of why November-December is just as good a release time as May-June-July.  In fact, the move of Star Wars Episode VII from May 22, 2015, to December 18, 2015, didn't just give the studio time to make sure the movie was made right, but Avatar became the highest-grossing movie of all time by opening in December.

Ender's Game had a disappointing drop. The year-long negative campaign against Orson Scott Card couldn't have helped, but the reviews, while good, aren't screaming "must-see."  It'll need to make its money back overseas.  Last Vegas looks like it'll have decent legs with older moviegoers, who aren't as "must see it opening weekend!" as younger ticket-buyers tend to be.  Free Birds is in freefall as families say to themselves, "Let's just wait for Disney's Frozen."

About Time expanded, but it's not going to be a hit.  Rachel McAdams romances tend to do best when her leading man is famous enough to get his name above the title next to hers (The Notebook, The Vow).

Random Movie Stuff - 7/2/13

- Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have been asked to get in shape for their extended cameos in Star Wars Episode VII.

- Django Unchained alum Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx will reteam in Mean Business on North Ganson Street, about two detectives investigating the murders of some local police officers.

- Helena Bonham Carter is in talks to play the Fairy Godmother in Disney's live-action Cinderella movie, starring Lily James (Downton Abbey), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) and Cate Blanchett (Hanna) as the Wicked Stepmother.  Sir Kenneth Branagh is directing.

- Daniel Huttlestone, who played Gavroche in Les Miserables, is in talks to play Jack in the big-screen Into the Woods movie, starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal.

- Helen Mirren and newcomer Manish Dayal will star in The Hundred-Foot Journey, about a woman who opens an Indian restaurant in southern France, causing competition with neighboring restaurants.

- Timothy Simons (HBO's Veep) has joined the cast of Inherent Vice, the next film from director Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Josh Brolin and Martin Short.

Some leftover movies from 2012:

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (★★★) - Starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Kristen Bell and Mary Lynn Rajskub.  Directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Well-done indie about a reporter who sees an ad for someone wanting a time-traveling companion, serious inquiries only, safety not guaranteed.  She and two co-workers head to the small town where he lives to find him and see if he really believes what he's saying.  Audrey Plaza takes a break from rolling her eyes on Parks & Recreation to play a girl with a soul, and Mark Duplass has the right amount of off-putting quirk to make the relationship feel more organically developed.

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SEEKING A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD (★★★) - Starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Rob Corddry, Martin Sheen, Adam Brody, Melanie Lynskey, Patton Oswalt, William Peterson, Derek Luke and Gillian Jacobs.  Directed by Lorene Scafaria.

This movie had more melancholy attached to it than the trailer suggested, which is a good thing. It was an indie film pretending to be mainstream fare.

Carell plays a sad-sack named Dodge who learns along with everyone else on Earth that a deadly meteor is heading right toward them, and it will wipe out the human race.  By chance he meets his bohemian British neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) and the two of them set out on a quest, he to get her to an acquaintance with a plane so she can fly across the Atlantic to be with her family in the final days.

These two hold to their purpose while the world falls around them in morbidly comical ways. While most people are using their little time left to try orgies and heroin, these two develop an odd, affecting friendship in their quest.  I liked it.

Random Movie News - 3/8/13

- George Lucas has confirmed that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are all on board for Star Wars Episode VII.

- Keri Russell (Dark Skies) has joined the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, starring Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and Kodi Smit-McPhee.  Most of humanity has been wiped out, but the film centers on a resistance group in San Francisco, and Caesar's attempt to maintain order in his new ape society.

- Liam Neeson and Giovanni Ribisi have join the cast of A Million Ways to Die in the West, a western comedy starring Seth MacFarlane as a cowboy training to be a gunfighter.  Charlize Theron and Amanda Seyfried co-star.

- Michael Keaton will star in Birdman, about an actor once famous playing a superhero who is now trying to mount a Broadway play.  Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zack Galifianakis, Amy Ryan and Naomi Watts.  Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) will direct.

- Jessica Chastain tops Warner Bros' wish list to play Jane in their upcoming live-action Tarzan movie.

- Christopher Nolan's next movie will open November 7, 2014. It's called Interstellar, and plot details are currently under wraps.

Random Movie Stuff - 6/6/12

- Marvel may be moving forward with a Black Panther movie. In the comic books, he's prince of the fictitious African nation of Wakanda, not to mention a great warrior and brilliant scientist.

- Warner Bros. is moving forward with plans for a Justice League movie. It'd unclear whether Henry Cavill's Superman or Christian Bale's Batman would be in it, or if they'd start from scratch.

- And hey, they've also hired a writer for a Wonder Woman movie.

- So if we can get some movement on a Flash movie, then you can have Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Flash for your Justice League movie.

- Producer Rick McCallum gave an update about the planned live-action Star Wars TV series. He said it'll be like a Deadwood in Space, where it explores the underbelly of the galaxy. He said they're still trying to figure out how to control the costs of making it. The events on the series will take place somewhere between Episodes III and IV.