Matthew Monagle
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Pirates’ Plunders While ‘Baywatch’ Blunders
There was a time not so long ago when Memorial Day weekend was a big deal for Hollywood, but this weekend felt more like a bunch of under-performers gathering together and learning very little about life. Call it the anti-Breakfast Club, if you will. This certainly isn’t what Hollywood had in mind for most of the franchises, and while Johnny Depp’s latest pirate movie did OK, OK seems to be the operative word of the summer if you’re not a movie about superheroes or literate villagers. Here’s the weekend gross through Sunday afternoon:
Things Get Awkward (and Sexy!) in the ‘Deadpool’ Gag Reel
Behold, the gag reel. Long a staple of the home video market, the gag reel was perhaps at its most popular in the 1990s, when Jackie Chan released a string of movies that included painful outtakes during the closing credits. When studios realized that they could package an entire DVD release around the special feature menu, the gag reel became a mainstay of any comedy releases over the last 15 years. And because Deadpool was one big improvised joke with enough physical humor to make Mel Brooks blush, it was a natural fit for the film’s Blu-ray release as well.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Alien: Covenant’ and ‘Guardians’ Battle for Sci-Fi Supremacy
It’s a battle of the science fiction blockbusters this weekend, with Alien: Covenant and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 giving us a photo finish at the box office. The two movies couldn’t be more different in style, tone, and aesthetics, but they equally captured audiences’ attention and shined a light on what the future has in store for both franchises. Here’s the box office numbers as of Sunday afternoon:
Far From ‘The Final Chapter,’ ‘Resident Evil’ Is Being Rebooted As a Six-Film Franchise
I’ve often wondered if there will come a time when people will heartily defend the Resident Evil franchise. They’re not perfect movies, of course, and they increasingly have very little to do with the video game franchise they’re based on, but there are moments when Paul W.S. Anderson’s direction and Milla Jovovich’s star-power combined to elevate the whole affair into a kind of pulp extravagance that plenty of films cannot match. Given a bit of distance — or at least a bit of separation from a crowded field of VFX-driven action movies — maybe these films could get a critical boost to match their box office numbers.
‘The Dog Whisperer’ Will Be the Subject of an Upcoming Biopic
Cesar Millan, better known as the Dog Whisperer in most pet circles, has built himself quite a little entertainment empire. Not only have his books and television shows taught countless people how to set boundaries with their pets, he’s also caused a million fights when one person in a couple thinks it’s funny to hiss “tsst!” at their partner during a discussion they find annoying. In other words, he’s been a boon to human-animal relationships and something else entirely to human-human relationships.
Being a Ghost’s a Real ‘Beach’ in This New ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Clip
Life kinda sucks when you’re a Disney pirate. One day you’re going about your business, plundering and looting in as family friendly a manner as you can muster, and the next thing you know you’re a undying ghost with all kinds of weird restrictions. Collect the gold, avoid moonlight, walk on water but not on land… honestly, is there even a rulebook for this sort of thing? The trial-and-error process these poor pirates must go through to figure out the boundaries of their life has to be exhausting.
A New Film Trailer Accidentally Credited a Review to Roger Ebert
So this probably isn’t the way IFC Films wanted this conversation to go. Earlier this week, the studio released the above first trailer for Band Aid, a new comedy starring Adam Pally, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Fred Armisen about a struggling couple who start a band to work through some of their anger at each other. It’s a perfectly fine trailer; Pally and Lister-Jones seem to have a lot of chemistry, Armisen is sufficiently wacky, and the whole thing suggest a light indie for those tired of superheroes come June.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Soars, ‘King Arthur’ Crashes
On Thursday evening, plenty of executives went to bed with dreams of big opening weekend numbers in their head. Could the movie about a magical king unseat the movie about a talking tree? Or would a mother-daughter comedy with just the right release date unseat a pair of battling sisters? Now that we’ve reached the end of the holiday weekend, we finally have the numbers, and it turns out the answer was no and no, respectively. Here’s this past weekend’s grosses as of Sunday afternoon:
Dwayne Johnson Shares a Few BTS Photos From His ‘Mega Monster Movie’ ‘Rampage’
Dwayne Johnson is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does the actor continue to produce some of the best action movies around, but he also keeps fans entertained between releases by sharing incredible behind-the-scenes footage and images from his movies. This was the case with The Fate of the Furious and the upcoming Jumanji sequel, and now Johnson is at it again with Rampage, his 2018 movie based on the popular video game franchise of the same name.
Harrison Ford Explains Why He Returned for ‘Blade Runner 2049’
Despite a reputation that suggests he’d rather walk through glass than slog through another Hollywood junket, Harrison Ford has been surprisingly game when it comes to reprising iconic characters. Not only has Ford starred as Indiana Jones in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he’s also set to return as Rick Deckard in this falls’s Blade Runner 2049. And in each case, it would seem that Ford’s curiosity got the better of him, inspiring him to revisit some of his dynamic action heroes in the twilight of his career.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Guardians’ Gives a Big ‘I Am Groot’ To Its Competition
Turn off your proton packs and fire up your Fleetwood Mac, it’s time for the latest edition of the ScreenCrush Weekend Box Office Report! There were few surprises to be found at the top of the list this weekend, but with a few big films nearing the end of their theatrical run, it’s a good time to take stock and see how things shook out. Here’s the projected grosses as of Sunday afternoon:
Anthony Hopkins Is Pretty Chill in This New ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Clip
With the recent announcement that Transformers: The Last Knight would be hitting theaters two days earlier — moving from Friday, June 23 to Wednesday, June 21 — fans are closer than ever to seeing their favorite Autobots (and humans) throw down against a reluctantly evil Optimus Prime. This is the summer of heel turns by beloved franchise characters; first we saw Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto betray his family in The Fate of the Furious, and now we’re counting down the days until Optimus Prime stabs Bumblebee in the face. Rough summer for heroes, it would seem.