News
The best stories from the CinemaNerdz News Desk and our independently opinionated reporters.
Box Office Weekend: Sniper Washed Out By SpongeBob
Warner Brothers has reasons to shout with both joy and shame this week. The studio’s American Sniper estimated $24.1 million puts it at $282.3 million and, most likely, the film to beat for 2015 box office (at least at this point), but it was finally topped in weekend earnings by The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (estimated $56 million). Adding major injury to this minor insult, Warner came...[Read More]
Commercialism Runs Amok in The LEGO Movie Honest Trailer
Of course everything is awesome when you’re the #1 toy brand in the world! It’s also quite awesome when the ninety-minute commercial based on your product was one of the most beloved movies of 2014. Not content to let any film off without a skewering, the folks over at Honest Trailer and Screen Junkies take on the much-beloved LEGO Movie – with some help from Epic Rap Battles of ...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Third Times a Charm for Sniper
There were three new releases this week, but with American Sniper reigning once more at the top of the box office with an estimated $31.9 million…and at $248.9 million and counting, it is the fifth highest earning R-Rated film of all time…it is understandable that they are not exactly the top draws, especially considering their critical reception. Even Paddington, for instance, entered...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: American Sniper Still Busting Box Office
There seems to be no stopping American Sniper. With an estimated $64.4 million, it not only handily took the weekend box office by storm, it surpassed $200.1 million in revenue. It stood head and shoulders above even second-place finisher The Boy Next Door, which brought in only an estimated $15 million in comparison, but budgeted at only $4 million, it managed to be a wild success on its own meri...[Read More]
Re-Animating the Dead in the Trailer for The Lazarus Effect
While I may have originally overlooked the forthcoming horror film The Lazarus Effect as just another retread of an earlier and, in some cases, superior movie (say Pet Semetary or Flatliners), the pedigree of the people involved with The Lazarus Effect and the film’s first trailer makes me think this film can rise above my fanboy concerns. Before we get to the trailer, you should be warned t...[Read More]
New Trailer for Cyber-Slasher Horror Film Unfriended
This April revenge comes online in the new cyber-slasher film Unfriended. MTV launched the new trailer for the horror film recently (see above). And now, thanks to Universal Studios, the film finally has an official release date set for April 17, 2015. Unfriended, you may recall, was originally called Cybernatural as it made its way through the genre festival circuit. The death-by-Skype tale of a ...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: American Sniper Takes Aim at January Record
While it spent three weeks in limited release, American Sniper benefited greatly from an increase in the number of theaters over the weekend, as well as Oscar buzz and good reviews. Its estimated $90.2 million weekend is a box office record for January, and nothing else even came close. Not to say the competition fared poorly in comparison to their own goals…The Wedding Ringer was not well r...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Audiences Taken for a Third Time
Critics may have been very much unimpressed with the Liam Neeson-helmed Taken 3, but audiences made the latest in the action-thriller franchise a box office hit over the weekend. With an estimated $40.4 million, nothing else came close, even the acclaimed Selma, which entered wide release this week and earned an estimated $11.2 million. Still, both films made strong bids against their production c...[Read More]
The Music of Into the Woods Featurette
Into the Woods is a modern twist on several beloved fairy tales, intertwining the plots of a few choice stories and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. This humorous and heartfelt musical follows the classic tales of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone), and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy), all tied...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Hobbit On Top for a Third Time
The numbers have spoken, and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is still the lowest earning of the Peter Jackson Middle Earth films…still, when the lowest earner remained in first at the box office for the third week in a row, picked up an estimated $21.9 million, and has earned $220.8 million in domestic box office alone, it is not a particularly bad track record. However, 2015 is off to...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Hobbit Stays On Top
While it may have had a comparatively rough ride (and remains the lowest-earning of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies), The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies proved Hobbits can still be surprising, earning an estimated $41.4 million, losing a little less than a quarter of the opening weekend audience and raking in $168.5 million in domestic earnings (and a hefty $573.6 million in worldwide take,...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Final Hobbit Looms Large Above the Competition
After a long road, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies brings the latest Peter Jackson trilogy to an end. Weathering both praise and criticism (especially in comparison to his previous Lord of the Rings films), it may be somewhat understandable that, while it took first place at the box office with an estimated $56.2 million, it falls below the revenue of any of his previous Middle Earth-based f...[Read More]