On Wednesday, July 15 you are invited to a celebration of multi-cultural voices in film as both Black Panther and Creed are screened at “A Night at the Drive-In,” hosted by Amazon Studios, Prime Video, and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. This is a nationwide summer screening program featuring a wide selection of films celebrating multi-cultural voices in cinema. In an effort to evoke the nost...[Read More]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has only been in theaters for ten days, but not only is it still far and away the box office champ with a whopping $152.5 million estimated total for the weekend, but is also the fastest film to $500 million in revenue, best second weekend total on record, best opening of all-time, and is on track to potentially being the highest earning movie of all-time as well (amon...[Read More]
With all the hype surrounding it and (the critical praise lavished upon it), is it any wonder Star Wars: The Force Awakens would do anything but succeed? Well, it did, and then some, with the best opening weekend in history with an estimated $238 million. No debut had a chance against it, even with the other big debuts trying to appeal to different audiences. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip...[Read More]
With the box office slowing this weekend (quite possibly in part due to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens next weekend), not much was able to make a splash…an ironic statement, maybe, as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 held off the Ron Howard epic In the Heart of the Sea for a fourth week stay in first. The account of the true story behind Moby Dick could barely mount an estimated ...[Read More]
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 has certainly dropped in value, an estimated $18.6 million was all it had to show for this weekend, but it was enough to hold off all comers for a third week in a row. At $227.1 million in total gross, it is still likely a box office smash, but still the least-performing entry in the series. Compare that to Krampus, the horror/comedy about a cynical family ter...[Read More]
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 had what would be an excellent weekend for any other film – an estimated weekend take of $51.6 million – but with an unreported budget and nearly $198.3 million in the can domestically, one wonders if Lionsgate had hoped the movie would do better, especially as it has made much less than the previous films in the series. Unfortunately, rough beginnings appear ...[Read More]
On March 24th, 1975, struggling actor Sylvester Stallone spent his last few dollars to see boxing champ Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner. Thought to be an easy win, Ali surprisingly met his match: a career brawler who was having the fight of his life. Fifteen rounds and an Ali knockdown later, Wepner lost. But the scrappy no name fighter inspired Stallone, who emerged from a twenty-hour writing bin...[Read More]
One of the great strengths of the Rocky franchise is its sense of a true continuing narrative, rather than a momentum-devoid series of rehashes orchestrated purely for financial gain. From the original Rocky through Rocky III, and again with 2006’s Rocky Balboa, the series’ characters actually change in interesting, logical, and significant ways from film to film. We’ll neglect the more perfunctor...[Read More]