Matthew Monagle
Weekend Box Office Report: The ‘Boss Baby’ Takes Care of Business
In a parallel universe where Paramount Pictures doesn’t alienate its fanbase, we might be talking about Ghost in the Shell as the big winner of this weekend and the de facto start of a new wave of Japanese Hollywood adaptations. Instead, DreamWorks Animation and The Boss Baby blew up the box office, no doubt delighting a handful of DreamWorks executives who watched the Ghost in the Shell controversy unfold with glasses of champagne in hand. After all, nobody’s going to boycott a movie about a baby who wears a suit.
Tom Cruise Is Still Screaming Weird in the Second ‘The Mummy’ Trailer
To understand why I’m more excited than most for The Mummy, it’s important to make a list of all the things that I’m a sucker for. Tom Cruise movies? Check. Trailers or commercials that use the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint it Black’ as a musical cue? Check-check. Movies where soldiers fight monsters? Check-check-check. In fact, if you do the math, the only thing on my Hollywood wishlist that the second The Mummy trailer doesn’t deliver is a John Wick-style gunfight, and there’s still time. One of those might still find its way into the final movie.
Nicole Kidman Joined ‘Aquaman’ So She Could Play a ‘Mermaid Warrior’
Are all Australian filmmakers and actors friends? On an episode of the WTF with Marc Maron back in 2013, Maron shared a theory with guest Nick Cave that everyone who comes from Australian and has achieved “a certain level of celebrity” must know each other. Cave almost immediately proved his point correct, confirming his friendship with Russell Crowe before discussing his script idea for a Gladiator sequel. Maron’s theory has stuck with me in the intervening years; doesn’t it seem like everyone in Hollywood from Australia seems to be personal friends with each other? It can’t be that small a country, right?
You’ll Never Travel Abroad Again After Watching the ‘Berlin Syndrome’ Trailer
Every year, it seems like someone makes an argument that horror films are better than they’ve ever been in the past. And while the incredible success of Get Out means that 2017 is off to a great start for horror movies, the truth is, horror movies have been pretty darn great for a while now. The last decade has seen innovative filmmakers — even filmmakers not known for horror movies — use the genre to make inexpensive films with a few buckets of blood and something smart to say. Why waste time trying to figure out which individual year was the best when we could just watch some movies?
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Power Rangers’ Is No Match for Beauties or Beasts
After several weeks of limited movement, a handful of new releases prompted a pretty thorough shakeup of the Box Office Top 10. While Beauty and the Beast continued its unstoppable assault on the domestic box office, we also said hello this weekend to three new movies and goodbye to a handful of old favorites from the first few months of the year. Let’s start with the estimated numbers as of Sunday afternoon.
‘Deadpool 2’ Screenwriters on Potential Release Dates: ‘No One Will Want to Come Out the Same Weekend’
Anyone who ever scrolls through the occasional Business Insider article knows that disruptors — companies that enter a marketplace and change the way people do business — don’t stay disruptors for very long. Take an organization like Uber. For years, Uber was the scrappy little underdog, a technology startup that used technology to upend the established taxi market. In the past few years, however, Uber has gone from the underdog to the dominant player, the company that other technology startups are looking to take down. Success breeds imitation, and imitation breeds improvement.
Nicole Kidman Is Searching for Adventure in This ‘Queen of the Desert’ Trailer
If you read up on the life of explorer Gertrude Bell, it’s abundantly clear that this is a woman whose story should be told. In 2003, The Guardian devoted an entire article to the influence her cartography had on the modern Middle East, with Bell practically drawing the country border of Iraq by her lonesome. And now audiences will be able to explore her legacy with Queen of the Desert (via Deadline), a new film starring Nicole Kidman and both written and directed by the legendary Werner Herzog.
Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone Will Return for More Marvel Movies
As someone who loves Kurt Russell more than I love my own wife (don’t tell her), nothing could have made me more excited for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 than the addition of Russell. Not only is Russell’s love of dim-witted characters a perfect match for the universe that director James Gunn has created, the film will also hopefully — and I cannot believe I’m saying this — introduce the actor to a generation of movie fans who have never seen iconic films like Escape From New York and, more importantly, Big Trouble in Little China.
Universal Moves Forward With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum’s R-Rated Musical
Last February, it was announced that Universal Pictures had won a bidding war for an untitled R-rated musical comedy written by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the screenwriter behind 21 Jump Street. While little was known about the film at the time, Variety reported that Godon-Levitt had also enlisted Channing Tatum — noted dancer and Professional Handsome Man — to co-star with him in the film. Since that announcement, things were pretty quiet about the project until just this past week, where suddenly a flurry of updates were released by Universal Pictures.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Had a LOT of Guests
It might be a tale as old as time, but audiences have proven there’s still a few petals left on that old flower. Despite being projected to open at somewhere between $214–245 million worldwide, Beauty and the Beast knocked the pants off those projections, eclipsing $350 million at the international box office and setting a March record for domestic releases along the way. Let’s take a look at how things shook out this past weekend with some of the expected grosses.