Category Archives: News

Box Office Report: ‘It’ eats new releases ‘American Assassin’ and ‘mother!’ to remain on top in second weekend

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Monster hit It once again took home the top spot at the box office, drawing in an estimated $60 million this past weekend, bringing the domestic total of the Stephen King adaptation to $218.71 million. With many weekends still left to devour, It already stands as the eighth largest domestic grossing film of the year and will jump past The Fate of the Furious, Logan and Despicable Me 3 to the fifth spot by the end of next weekend. By the end of its run, the film could challenge Spider-Man: Homecoming, which brought in $1.875 million this weekend to hit $330.26 million domestically, and even, if it has as strong of legs as it seems rearing up to, the $389.8 million of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

New releases took the second and third spots of the weekend. The Michael Keaton-starring action film American Assassin racked up an estimated $14.8 million domestically. On a $33 million production budget, the film looks like it might just make its money back, needing to reach about $70 million worldwide to turn a profit.

Darren Aronofsky’s art house horror film mother! struggled at the box office, only making an estimated $7.5 million, likely due to an incredibly unmarketable story (and thus, poor trailers), a shifted release date and divisive reception from both critics and fans. With word of the intense reactions to the film spreading, it would be hard to imagine it fairing any better relatively next weekend. On a $30 million production budget, Aronofsky’s latest is shaping up to lose money. It’ll need strong international showing to prove otherwise.

The Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy Home Again took home an estimated $5.33 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $17.13 million. The film will turn a profit on its $12 million production budget, likely ensuring that many more cookie cutter studio rom-coms will continue to be made.

Wind River is turning out to be one of the more successful independent films of the year, catching an estimated $2.55 million in its fourth weekend wide, during which it has stayed between the 7th and 3rd spot — the middle of the pack.

Finally, Dunkirk incredibly maintains a top ten spot for the ninth weekend in a row — the entirety of its release — pulling in an estimated $1.3 million to shoot its domestic total up to $185.14 million. It seems like Christopher Nolan’s war film will pretty much, by the end of its run, match the domestic take of Interstellar, which made $188 million in US and Canada markets. Worldwide, Dunkirk is pushing $510 million, currently sitting at $508.34.

All films will have trouble doing similar relative business next weekend due to the releases of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Battle of the Sexes and Stronger. Hopefully, the order will be more interesting then.

*All weekend numbers are domestic, meaning that they’re from theaters in the US and Canada, and are also estimates, reported by Box Office Mojo, with actuals coming out in the next few days.*

Featured image via Warner Bros.

J.J. Abrams brought back to write and direct ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

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In a move that not many expected, but that seems as in line with Lucasfilm’s most recent decisions as any, J.J. Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has been hired to direct the final installment of the new trilogy from a galaxy far, far away, announced via a press release on StarWars.com.

A week ago, Lucasfilm and previous director Colin Trevorrow parted ways. Trevorrow had been on the project for over two years and had written the screenplay with his writing partner Derek Connolly. But rumors began to surface, especially after the critical failure of Trevorrow’s The Book of Henry, that Trevorrow could be ousted. Last month, Jack Thorne, co-writer of the upcoming Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay film Wonder, was brought on to rewrite.

It seems as though the script will be overhauled, as Abrams has been tasked to write Star Wars: Episode IX with Academy Award-winning writer Chris Terrio. Terrio won the Oscar for the Ben Affleck-directed Argo, and has written scripts for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the upcoming Justice League. Abrams co-wrote The Force Awakens with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt.

In the days after Trevorrow departed the ninth episode, fans and critics offered up potential replacements. The internet seemed to come to a consensus that they wanted Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th and the upcoming Disney film A Wrinkle in Time. Rian Johnson, director of eighth episode Star Wars: The Last Jedi, popped up in serious rumors, so much so that the director ended up explicitly saying that he had no plans to return.

But it was likely that Abrams was already hired, or at least just had to sign on the dotted line, by the time Lucasfilm came out to announce Trevorrow’s exit. This will be Abrams’ first film since The Force Awakens and he will produce through his production company Bad Robot.

In the press release, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy made this official statement:

“With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.”

In an announcement on Twitter hours later, Lucasfilm has officially pushed back the release of the film from May 24, 2019, to December 20, 2019. The seemingly large script revision likely meant that production couldn’t start as early as Kennedy had hoped. Now, Abrams will have 27 months to complete the picture instead of 20 months, and the December release will fall in line with the releases of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. The film will now compete with the second weekend of Wonder Woman 2, which is set to release on December 13, 2019.

Featured image via Gage Skidmore.

Patty Jenkins signs historic deal to direct ‘Wonder Woman 2’

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Patty Jenkins has officially signed on to direct Wonder Woman 2, which was first reported by Variety.

The sequel to the year’s second highest domestic grossing film, sitting at $410 million from US and Canada, which puts it in the 5th spot for highest domestic grossing superhero films of all time (only behind the two Avengers films and the last two Nolan Dark Knight films), is slated to hit theaters on December 13, 2019.

Not only will Jenkins direct, but she will also co-write and produce the second installment — two positions she didn’t hold with the first. The first had an all-male writing team of Allan Heinberg, Zach Snyder and Jason Fuchs. According to The Hollywood Reporter, while Jenkins made $1 million for directing Wonder Woman, she’ll make in the range of $7 to $9 million for duties on the Amazonian’s second solo feature. These numbers would make her the highest paid female director in history. According the same reports, Jenkins will also make significant backend, which comes from box office gross.

Jenkins had only signed on for one film, coming onto the project after Michelle MacLaren exited due to differences in vision with the studio, which is why Jenkins had to enter negotiations for a second in the first place. With the film becoming a box office smash and the first critical hit for the DCEU, when it desperately needed one, Jenkins then held a lot of negotiating power. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Jenkins asked for pay similar to that given to Zack Snyder when he signed on for a second film. Snyder directed Man of Steel, which released to lukewarm reviews, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was critically smashed.

Gal Gadot will appear as Wonder Woman for the third time in the DCEU superhero team-up Justice League, which opens on November 17.

Featured image via Gage Skidmore.

Box Office Report: ‘It’ feeds on box office, floats to largest horror opening record with $117+ million

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Box office tracking once again severely underestimated a film’s potential, with It blowing away initial $50 million predictions to make an estimated $117.15 million this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Other estimates have pushed as far as $125 million.

Not only is this a massive win for the film, but it puts It among the top of the entire year and, in certain categories, of all time. With $117.15 million, It‘s opening weekend will outgross that of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wonder Woman, The Fate of the Furious and Logan (not combined). At the moment, the Stephen King adaptation, directed by Andy Muschietti and starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, only stands behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Beauty and the Beast, and should stay in the top 10 openings of 2017 once the year is over.

That number also marks the largest September opening ever by nearly $70 million (and possibly more so if the actuals turn out to be $125+ million) and the largest opening for a horror film ever. It falls just short of the largest R-rated opening, which belongs to Deadpool at $132.4 million.

On merely a $35 million production budget and with upwards of $60 million taken internationally, It has already made it’s money back, and then some. A sequel is in the works, but New Line Cinema (a label of Warner Bros.) will be very comfortable financing the next chapter, and perhaps offering it a larger production budget.

The weekend’s #2 is a sharp fall off from It, as Home Again, the Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy, grossed an estimated $9 million. That marks almost a $110 million difference between first and second place.

After three weekends at the number 1 spot, The Hitman’s Bodyguard falls to #3, taking an estimated $4.85 million. Despite less than favorable critical ratings, the film, made for $30 million, is massively successful.

Wind River continues a very solid run after expanding wide, with its domestic total exceeding $25 million, assuredly making its money back.

Finally, after releasing in every market, Dunkirk will soon wrap up its theatrical run. It stayed in the top 10 this weekend, landing #8 with an estimated $1.95 million. Its $183 million domestic total nears Interstellar‘s $188 million, and has a chance at passing it. The film should also reach $500 million worldwide, currently standing at $492 million, which already distinguishes it as the largest grossing World War II film of all time (not adjusted for inflation).

*All weekend numbers are domestic, meaning that they’re from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, and are also estimates, reported by Box Office Mojo, with actuals coming out in the next few days.*

Featured image via Warner Bros.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon do battle in first trailer for ‘The Current War’

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Sparks fly in the first trailer for director Alfonso Gómez-Rejón’s The Current War, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse. The trailer promises a battle royale between Edison and Westinghouse, as they compete for dominance in the burgeoning electric power industry. Edison was a proponent for direct current, while Westinghouse pushed for alternating current, and their inevitable clash seems ripe for powerhouse performances from Cumberbatch and Shannon.

Also appearing in the trailer are Tom Holland as Edison’s collaborator Samuel Insull and Katherine Waterston as Marguerite Westinghouse. Additionally, Nicholas Hoult makes an appearance as Nikola Tesla, who was arguably the top mind to emerge from the titular war. Tesla was previously played by the enigmatic David Bowie in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Bowie’s performance was a highlight of that film, so it will be interesting to see Hoult’s take on the scientific genius.

The real star of the trailer though, is definitely Alfonso Gómez-Rejón. The Current War is Gómez-Rejón’s follow up to 2015’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which was a film that demonstrated his keen eye for dynamic visuals. Within a few seconds, the trailer for The Current War promises some stunning cinematography, revealing a shot of Edison standing amid a field of lightbulbs. Later in the trailer, we see a time-lapse scene, an unconventional storytelling choice for a period piece, which feels like a callback to the quirky stop motion interludes in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Benedict Cumberbatch can be be seen later this year in Thor: Ragnarok as Dr. Strange, while Michael Shannon will appear in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. The Current War was produced by the Weinstein Company, and the film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film’s theatrical release date is set for November 24.

Featured image via the Weinstein Company

‘Suicide Squad 2’ finds writer-director in Gavin O’Connor

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Gavin O’Connor has been tapped to write and direct Suicide Squad 2, as reported by Deadline.

While the David Ayer-directed first film was critically thrashed, with a 25% on RottenTomatoes and a score of 40 on Metacritic, it did end up becoming a box-office hit — making $745 million worldwide. It also won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

It was only a matter of time before a sequel would be announced with its director and writer. A rumored list of potential directors had been circulating for quite some while, with Mel Gibson and Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) being the reported favorites to win the job.

However, O’Connor has won out both the pen and the directing chair. O’Connor comes from films such as Warrior, which garnered Nick Nolte an Oscar nomination, and The Accountant, which stars Ben Affleck and has had a sequel start development with both O’Connor and Affleck. And with Affleck appearing in a cameo role in the first Suicide Squad, many are speculating if he might return now that O’Connor is attached.

O’Connor’s scripting partner from Warrior, Anthony Tambakis, will co-write the script.

The gang of villains, specifically the Joker and Harley Quinn, have a lot in store for the future. David Ayer moved on from the sequel, prompting for the search that ended with O’Connor, to work on Gotham City Sirens, a film centering around Harley Quinn and the many other villainous women of DC. In addition, the Joker and Harley Quinn will appear together in a film from the Crazy, Stupid, Love. directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. The character of the Joker will find another actor in a origin film separate from the DC Extended Universe, which will come from The Hangover’s Todd Phillips.

No official release date for Suicide Squad 2 has been announced. The principle cast members, including Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot, will return. Warner Bros. and DC will release Justice League on November 17, 2017, which has undergone extensive reworking under the guidance of Joss Whedon, who now officially has a writing credit and may get a directing credit depending on the Directors Guild’s judgment.

Featured image via Warner Bros.

Saoirse Ronan breaks from small town cage in first trailer for Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut ‘Lady Bird’

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Greta Gerwig has had an incredibly successful acting and writing career, working on scripts with Noah Baumbach for Frances Ha and Mistress America, among others, and delivering wonderful performances in those films as well as, most recently, in 20th Century Women. And now, Gerwig is stepping behind the camera for her directorial debut Lady Bird, which is a semi-autobiographical story following Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) as a high school senior trying to leave Northern California for the East Coast. A24 released the first trailer for Lady Bird today.

The film premiered at Telluride this past Friday, where many critics hailed it as their favorite of the Colorado film festival, which also played host to films like Hostiles, First They Killed My Father, Battle of the Sexes, The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour. Variety has even posited Ronan as, currently, one of the stronger contenders for Best Lead Actress.

Lady Bird also stars Laurie Metcalf as McPherson’s mother — a central role as many are calling this a mother-daughter story, and praising Metcalf for her work — Tracy Letts as her father, Lucas Hedges as a good friend and Timothée Chalamet as a love interest. The film is set to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival later this week as well as at New York Film Festival in October before releasing on November 10.

Saoirse Ronan recently started filming the Beau Willimon written, Josie Rourke directed Mary, Queen of Scots, which is eyeing a 2018 premiere and also stars Margot Robbie and David Tennant. Greta Gerwig will provide voice work for Wes Anderson’s animated project Isle of Dogs, which will hit the big screen on March 23, 2018. A24 has a fairly full slate this fall/winter with The Florida Project, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Disaster Artist all set to release.

Featured image via A24.

Colin Trevorrow departs from ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

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When The Book of Henry released to intense critical derision and faired rather poorly at the box office, many pundits and fans questioned whether Colin Trevorrow, who also directed Jurassic World and Safety Not Guaranteed, was the right choice to helm the final installment of the brand new Star Wars trilogy. Well, today, announced through an official statement on StarWars.com, Colin Trevorrow and Lucasfilm have officially parted ways.

The statement reads:

“Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX. Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon.”

Directors have been a particular problem for Disney, Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, or perhaps vice versa. While Gareth Edwards retained sole directing credits, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story underwent massive reshoots under the guide of director Tony Gilroy. Most recently, earlier this summer, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired from the Han Solo standalone film, starring Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover as Solo and Lando Calrissian respectively. That decision cited “creative differences,” as does this one, and soon after, Lucasfilm hired Ron Howard, who is currently directing the remainder of the shoot as well as the scheduled reshoots. Whether or not Lord and Miller will be credited as directors is currently a mystery.

Episode IX recently brought on Jack Thorne, writer of the upcoming Jacob Tremblay, Julia Robert and Owen Wilson film Wonder, to rework the script, which had started with Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly. Perhaps the shift there points to where the split lies between Trevorrow and Lucasfilm, but the exact reason is yet to be known, and likely never will be.

As the news broke, many critics and journalists jumped to Twitter to suggest names and one popped up repeatedly: Ava DuVernay.

DuVernay’s upcoming film is A Wrinkle in Time, a Disney-produced, $100 million+ budgeted blockbuster, so the connections seem to be there. In addition, in an interview with Nerdist, JJ Abrams touted her as a good fit for the universe while promoting The Force Awakens.

DuVernay was also rumored for Black Panther, of Disney’s other massive sub-studio Marvel. The reported reasons for DuVernay not working on that film were creative differences, so, with Kathleen Kennedy and the other executives/producers at Lucasfilm and Disney seemingly holding strict creative control, the fit might not be so snug.

Star Wars: Episode IX, yet to be titled, is set to release on May 24, 2019, which means that a director must be brought on soon to comfortably stay on schedule. Ron Howard boarded the Han Solo film, which is set to release on May 25, 2018, within days of the announcement of Lord and Miller’s firing, so Lucasfilm might already have another director lined up. The world will get eighth episode Star Wars: The Last Jedi on December 15 of this year.

Featured image via Red Carpet Report and Mingle Media TV.

Christian Bale is a Western cavalryman in first ‘Hostiles’ trailer

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Christian Bale and writer-director Scott Cooper have reteamed, after Out of the Furnace, for the upcoming Western Hostiles, which follows Captain Joseph J. Blocker (Bale) as he reluctantly escorts a Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) and a grieving woman (Rosamund Pike) through hostile territory. The film premiered this weekend at Telluride Film Festival to incredible acclaim, with The Hollywood Reporter and Variety saying that Bale could be a very strong Oscar contender for his performance. Riding that buzz, Hostiles has dropped its first trailer, released through Deadline Hollywood.

Hostiles finds itself in a very unique position this fall, currently without a distributor, which may be why the trailer landed with Deadline instead of being released through a film company online. The film accompanied a tribute to Christian Bale’s career at Telluride, which started the buzz of who might acquire the title — with companies such as Annapurna (new to distribution), Sony Pictures Classics and Netflix rumored as in the mix. But Variety says that Telluride isn’t particularly a festival where titles get picked up and suggests that there won’t be any official news until, at the earliest, Toronto International Film Festival, where the film is set to screen next on September 11.

With a trailer dropping, it seems as though the film is eyeing a 2017 release, considering that, with the Oscar buzz, it would be a strange move to release a trailer now and then wait over a year to release it next fall. A distributor would have to act fast to put together a marketing campaign that can get enough people in the theater to then realize that awards potential. And it also seems, with the subject matter, that 2017 is the prime window for a release, as the film deals with themes of hatred, racism and reconciliation, and can compare to today’s times, as talked about by Scott Cooper in Variety’s film podcast Playback.

Featured image via Lorey Sebastian, Le Grisbi Productions and Waypoint Entertainment.

‘Dunkirk’ receiving Oscar push with Toronto International Film Festival IMAX screening

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Christopher Nolan has a storied history with the Oscars. Many point to the snub of both The Dark Knight and Nolan as the reason why the Academy expanded the number of possible nominees to ten for the year after that film’s release. Most also call the omission of Nolan from Best Director for Inception a major snub of its year.

So, as Dunkirk was approaching, many felt that even if the film was great, it might have trouble being recognized at the Academy Awards. But when Dunkirk dropped, reviews raved not quite like they ever have for Nolan, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it an “impressionist masterpiece” and IndieWire claiming it as “the best film he’s ever made.” It also stands as his most well-received film on Metacritic, amassing a monumental score of 94, 12 points higher than his next best, The Dark Knight, at 82.

Currently, 9 out of the 20 experts on Gold Derby are predicting Dunkirk as the Best Picture winner with every expert expecting it to get nominated. Out of those same experts, 16 of them are predicting Christopher Nolan as the Best Director winner. Their predictions factor in festival premieres they’ve already seen and anticipate the strength of yet-to-be-released Oscar hopefuls, so it’s clear that, with its wide inclusion, Dunkirk has already stamped itself as a serious threat.

But Nolan isn’t one to campaign for awards, his films rarely showing up at festivals, so Dunkirk seemed like it would have to hold and hold strong — as summer releases generally have a harder time getting nominated — once the festival circuit fired up and the fall season began. It looks like, though, in a move that acknowledges the film’s potential, Dunkirk will be joining them.

Nolan’s World War II epic will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), which takes place September 7-17 and is where Nolan’s first film, Following, premiered. It won’t be a typical festival appearance, however, as it was IMAX who approached Warner Bros. to organize an IMAX 70mm screening of the film at the world’s first permanent IMAX theater, Cinesphere, in honor of the company’s 50th anniversary.

But the exposure should be just as ripe. TIFF’s director and CEO, Piers Handling, will introduce the film and its artistic director, Cameron Bailey, will host a Q&A with Christopher Nolan himself.

In a statement, Handling said the following:

“Dunkirk is quite remarkable. It sets a new standard for the visualization of war. Its form and structure is immersive and experiential and its attention to detail exemplary. This is a story for the times – one of resilience against all odds, ordinary people surviving amidst chaos. Christopher Nolan captures this seminal moment in history with an artist’s eye.”

Dunkirk is currently still in theaters, but will start to exit IMAX venues this Thursday. If the film is nominated for Best Picture, which a majority of critics expect, then it may return to screens at the beginning of 2018.

Featured image via Warner Bros.

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