Matthew Monagle
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:
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:
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:
‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Sequel Has a Title, Will Bring Back Emily Blunt
While Doug Liman may be hard at work promoting his upcoming war thriller The Wall, that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. Last October, Liman promised that the movie was still moving forward, with the director even going so far as to suggest that the second film would “revolutionize” how people thought about movie sequels. And now Liman has dropped a few exciting updates, including a new title for the film and the promise of returning stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. The short version? It’s happening, dopey name or not.
New ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Photos Highlight Peter Parker’s High School Experience
One of the peculiar things about the current slate of superhero movies it how thoroughly they nail the big moments and sometimes slip on the small ones. Take Iron Man, for example. The films have routinely nailed Tony Stark’s arrogance and desire to protect the world from all threats foreign and domestic, but some of the underlying reasoning behind that drive — Stark’s history as an alcoholic and addict — have routinely been shoved to the background of the movies. The same could be said of Spider-Man. While the last five films have given us epic moments of slingin’ webs, they’ve often lost the high-school camaraderie that explains so much of Peter Parker’s superhero worldview.
‘The Crow’ Producer Says He’s Been Fighting for an R Rating
One of my favorite things to do with troubled film productions is dig back into the ScreenCrush archives and see how long we’ve been talking about the film. If you check out our archive for The Crow, for example, you can scroll back through the Jason Momoa rumors, back through the official casting announcements of Jack Huston and Luke Evans, and end up somewhere in the middle of a strange James McAvoy situation circa 2013. It’s been a long road for everyone’s favorite undead superhero — sorry, Blade — but at least executive producer F. Javier Gutiérrez has remained faithful, even as cast members and rumored directors have not.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige Discusses Stan Lee’s Crazy ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ Cameo
No Marvel movie is complete without a rousing game of “Spot the Stan Lee.” In a nod to many of the iconic superheroes Lee helped create, each movie — often regardless of studio — has budgeted a small portion of its running time to one of Lee’s prominent background characters. He’s played a security guard, a playboy, a librarian, and a military general, and as long as Lee’s health permitted, fans could expect Lee to pop in without any broader connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At least, that was the case until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Rumor: The Creator of ‘Mr. Robot’ Is Working on an Obi-Wan Kenobi ‘Star Wars’ Prequel
Unlike the previous Obi-Wan Kenobi — sorry, Alec Guinness — Ewan McGregor has long been excited about the prospect of returning for more Star Wars movies, telling Empire Magazine last October that he was the “right age” to make two more movies as the beloved character. While fans were sometimes unimpressed by the prequels, McGregor’s winning performance as the young Jedi was one of the highlights of the film, leading fans to clamor for a standalone Kenobi movie while McGregor was still the right age.
Hans Zimmer Rocks Coachella Again With the ‘Dark Knight’ and ‘Pirates’ Soundtracks
Cinephiles have film festivals, and audiophiles have music festivals, and never the twain shall meet. At least that was the case until Hans Zimmer took the Coachella Music Festival by storm twice in the last month. Just about a week ago, we shared the first video released by Coachella, a live performance of Zimmer’s soundtrack from Interstellar. And now the festival has followed up with a second performance, this time of Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight (via Heroic Hollywood). If you’ve ever wanted to watch one of your favorite film composers shred like a rock star, well, here’s your chance (at least until John Williams decides to shock us all with his Mad Max: Fury Road-esque guitar gimp suit).
Sean Bean Brings Death From Afar in the First Trailer for ‘Drone’
Hollywood tends to operate with a little bit of a delay. A few years ago, it became public knowledge that the American government uses drone strikes to carry out attacks on enemy combatants from halfway around the world. As such, we’re now seeing a handful of movies that use those headlines to make a statement about the dangers of modern warfare. In 2014, IFC Films released Good Kill, a drama starring Ethan Hawke about a family man who begins to question the morality of killing people from halfway around the world. The latest film to tackle this issue is Drone, the new film starring Sean Bean with a similar premise but a decidedly more lurid execution.
Watch the New Cast of ‘MST3K’ Riff on ‘Stranger Things’
Alright, a gold friggin’ star to the person who thought of this one. With the new season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hitting Netflix today, most of the conversation has been dominated by lifelong fans of the show — fans like myself — who are some combination of excited and apprehensive about the return of their favorite television series. But what about the next generation of MST3K fans? How does Netflix introduce them to their service? Why, by riffing on another Netflix property that everyone already knows and loves, of course!
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.