News
The best stories from the CinemaNerdz News Desk and our independently opinionated reporters.
Box Office Weekend: Furious 7 Keeps On Trucking
It is only April, and already Furious 7 is on track to become the movie to beat in terms of sheer gross income. It dropped in revenue by nearly 60%, but an estimated $60.6 million is still more than most films make in their first weekend, let alone their second. It is by far the top earner of the top ten ($252.5 million domestic, $800.5 million worldwide), winning out handily against Home (estimat...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Furious 7 an April Success Story
For anyone who ever said sequels are tired, old, and only a matter of diminishing returns, there is the Fast and the Furious franchise. Only getting more and more critically acclaimed as each new entry comes out, the latest, Furious 7, not only did well with critics, but at an absolutely bang-up estimated weekend of $143.6 million broke numerous April box office records and is already poised to be...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Box Office Goes (for) Home
Critics considered it decidedly average at best, but that did not stop DreamWorks’ latest effort Home from being the big box office winner of the weekend with an estimated $54 million. It, however, has a long way to go to make back its $135 million costs (and that includes foreign box office), while the similarly excoriated Get Hard, with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, got an estimated $34.6 million...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Insurgent Surges, Gunman Lacks Caliber
With Young Adult fiction making good bank at the box office, it should be no surprise that the dystopian Divergent movies are moving along well with a first-place finish for The Divergent Series: Insurgent and an estimated $54 million to start the weekend right, even if critics are lambasting it. It is not getting as much flak as The Gunman; debuting in fourth with an estimated $5 million, the Sea...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Cinderella Has $70 Million Opening Ball
Sometimes, there is simply no winning against Disney and Buena Vista. The new, live action Cinderella proved a big boost to a flagging weekend box office, pulling in an estimated $70.1 million – a strong start against a $92 million budget. Nothing else even came close, with the Ed Harris/Liam Neeson thriller Run All Night opening with a rather weak $11 million estimate in comparison, and an unrepo...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Chappie Tops Unfriendly Box Office
Director Neill Blomkamp took the weekend box office with his latest science fiction epic Chappie, though it is not as impressive a debut as it might seem. With the box office even down from last week, Chappie and its estimated $13.3 million is a weak start for a $49 million budgeted film…and it has not seen much better in overseas earnings. Focus, on the other hand, is seeing some pick up th...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Focus In the Lead, But Not Very Energetic
It is a slow week for new releases. After the smash opening weekend of Fifty Shades of Grey, the box office took a nose dive as Will Smith and his con artist comedy/drama Focus opened in first place with a fairly tepid estimated $19.1 million, a rough start to the $50 million budgeted film. In second, Kingsman: The Secret Service finds it has settled comfortably in second place for the third week ...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Fifty Shades Remains a Worldwide Smash
Critics and audiences do not always agree, and little more is this evidence than with Fifty Shades of Grey. With an estimated domestic weekend of $23.2 million, the film has become a worldwide sensation, costing $40 million to make and grossing $410.6 million in total box office around the world, despite lackluster reviews. Second-place place finisher, Kingsman: The Secret Service, with an estimat...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Fifty Shades of Grey Seeing Green
Controversy can lead to the demise or the rise of many films, good and bad alike. For the highly anticipated (but critically panned) Fifty Shades of Grey, the controversy was enough to make Presidents’ Day Weekend a profitable one, earning an estimated $81.7 million here and nearly $240 million worldwide, making the $40 million production a runaway success. It won out over the much better reviewed...[Read More]
Pete’s Dragon Starts Production in New Zealand
Principal photography on Pete’s Dragon got underway on February 10, 2015 in New Zealand. The film is a re-imagining of the 1977 Disney classic and will blend live action and CGI to tell the story of the special bond between an orphaned boy, Pete, and his best friend, Elliott, who just happens to be a dragon. The film stars Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help) as Grace, a park ranger who discovers the ex...[Read More]
Size Matters In the Boyhood Honest Trailer
As impressive as director Richard Linklater’s award-winning film Boyhood is, there are a few criticisms that have been brought against it. These critiques have gone largely unanswered. That is, until now. Not content to let any film off without a skewering, the folks over at Honest Trailer and Screen Junkies aim their guns on this year’s Best Picture front-runner, a simple tale a mere ...[Read More]
Aca-Awesome New Pitch Perfect 2 Trailer Released
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, and the rest of the Barden Bellas are featured in this hilarious new trailer for the upcoming comedy Pitch Perfect 2. Whereas the film’s first trailer gave us only a taste of what the film has in store for us, this one seems to suggest thing might be a bit more raucous than we first thought. I have to admit, I absolutely loved Pitch Perfect (2012). There arenR...[Read More]