We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Adam McKay’s Vice, starring Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney.
SYNOPSIS: VICE explores the story of Dick Cheney (CHRISTIAN BALE), a bureaucratic Washington insider, who quietly wielded immense power as vice president to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today. Directed and written by Adam McKay, VICE Stars Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe and Jesse Plemons.
The screening takes place on Thursday, December 13th at 7:00pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, register at the Annapurna ticketing site here. Please remember all screenings are first come first served and having passes does not guarantee entry. You will need to arrive early to ensure receiving a seat. Enjoy the show!
If anybody could take the apocalypse in stride, it’s Emmet from The Lego Movie. As we’ve seen in prior trailers for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, everything is definitely not awesome in Bricksburg. In fact, it’s now called Apocalypseburg thanks to the Duplo invasion which has thrown the town into doom and chaos.
So in the new short film Emmet’s Holiday Party, the Master Builder takes it upon himself to spread some Christmas cheer and decorate a tree so big you can see it from space. Turns out that wasn’t the brightest of ideas, especially when you’re trying to stay under the radar from alien invaders.
It’s a cute way to celebrate the holiday season and better than simply dropping another trailer. We don’t need another of those. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part opens February 8th 2019 with the voices of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Tiffany Haddish, Will Arnett, Stephanie Beatriz, Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Maya Rudolph, and Arturo Castro.
Next year’s blockbusters are already beginning to shape up — Avengers: Endgame is leading the way, of course — but for any fans of creature features, this latest trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters has a little of everything.
The film, a sequel to 2014’s Godzilla, directed by Gareth Edwards, makes some definitive changes — no more Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, for one — but seems to pick up some time after the events of the first film, which introduced humans to Godzilla and the MUTOs. This time around, there are so many more creatures — gigantic moths and three-headed lizards will be familiar to some long-time Godzilla fans — and the ensemble looks huge, featuring everyone from returning actors like Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins and new cast members Kyle Chandler, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Thomas Middleditch, and Millie Bobby Brown.
It’s Brown who opens the trailer, trying to pick up another person on the radio, and the teaser implies a sort of connection between her and Godzilla — what is it? Watanabe notes that Godzilla isn’t our pet, humans are his, but I’m curious to see what sort of bond the movie creates between the monster and Brown’s teen character.
The effects look great, and the cinematography and art design here look spectacular. Check out the latest trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which arrives in theaters on May 31, 2019, below.
We may have a new Oscar frontrunner, or better put, a new Oscar Favourite. Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite earned an incredible 14 nominations for the 24th Critics Choice Awards, decided on by the Broadcast Film Critics Association of which I am a member. That included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Olivia Colman, and continuing the pattern of this awards season, both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress.
Following closely on its heels was Marvel’s Black Panther with 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Michael B. Jordan, and Best Acting Ensemble. Damien Chazelle’s First Man, which has been very quiet thus far, apparently struck a chord with BFCA members who gave it 10 nominations.
The full list of nominees is below. The Critics Choice Awards takes place on January 13th 2019 and will air on The CW.
24TH ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS
FILM NOMINATIONS
BEST PICTURE
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
The Favourite
First Man
Green Book
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice
BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale – Vice
Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
Ryan Gosling – First Man
Ethan Hawke – First Reformed
Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
BEST ACTRESS
Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
Emily Blunt – Mary Poppins Returns
Glenn Close – The Wife
Toni Collette – Hereditary
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Timothée Chalamet – Beautiful Boy
Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Michael B. Jordan – Black Panther
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Vice
Claire Foy – First Man
Nicole Kidman – Boy Erased
Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone – The Favourite
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Elsie Fisher – Eighth Grade
Thomasin McKenzie – Leave No Trace
Ed Oxenbould – Wildlife
Millicent Simmonds – A Quiet Place
Amandla Stenberg – The Hate U Give
Sunny Suljic – Mid90s
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Black Panther
Crazy Rich Asians
The Favourite
Vice
Widows
BEST DIRECTOR
Damien Chazelle – First Man
Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
Peter Farrelly – Green Book
Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
Adam McKay – Vice
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara – The Favourite
Adam McKay – Vice
Paul Schrader – First Reformed
Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly – Green Book
Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, John Krasinski – A Quiet Place
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole – Black Panther
Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Barry Jenkins – If Beale Street Could Talk
Eric Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters – A Star Is Born
Josh Singer – First Man
Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
James Laxton – If Beale Street Could Talk
Matthew Libatique – A Star Is Born
Rachel Morrison – Black Panther
Robbie Ryan – The Favourite
Linus Sandgren – First Man
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hannah Beachler, Jay Hart – Black Panther
Eugenio Caballero, Barbara Enriquez – Roma
Nelson Coates, Andrew Baseman – Crazy Rich Asians
Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton – The Favourite
Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas – First Man
John Myhre, Gordon Sim – Mary Poppins Returns
BEST EDITING
Jay Cassidy – A Star Is Born
Hank Corwin – Vice
Tom Cross – First Man
Alfonso Cuarón, Adam Gough – Roma
Yorgos Mavropsaridis – The Favourite
Joe Walker – Widows
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Alexandra Byrne – Mary Queen of Scots
Ruth Carter – Black Panther
Julian Day – Bohemian Rhapsody
Sandy Powell – The Favourite
Sandy Powell – Mary Poppins Returns
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Mary Queen of Scots
Suspiria
Vice
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Ready Player One
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Grinch
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
BEST ACTION MOVIE
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Deadpool 2
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Ready Player One
Widows
BEST COMEDY
Crazy Rich Asians
Deadpool 2
The Death of Stalin
The Favourite
Game Night
Sorry to Bother You
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Christian Bale – Vice
Jason Bateman – Game Night
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book
John C. Reilly – Stan & Ollie
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool 2
Lakeith Stanfield – Sorry to Bother You
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Emily Blunt – Mary Poppins Returns
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Elsie Fisher – Eighth Grade
Rachel McAdams – Game Night
Charlize Theron – Tully
Constance Wu – Crazy Rich Asians
BEST SCI-FI OR HORROR MOVIE
Annihilation
Halloween
Hereditary
A Quiet Place
Suspiria
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Burning
Capernaum
Cold War
Roma
Shoplifters
BEST SONG
All the Stars – Black Panther
Girl in the Movies – Dumplin’
I’ll Fight – RBG
The Place Where Lost Things Go – Mary Poppins Returns
Shallow – A Star Is Born
Trip a Little Light Fantastic – Mary Poppins Returns
BEST SCORE
Kris Bowers – Green Book
Nicholas Britell – If Beale Street Could Talk
Alexandre Desplat – Isle of Dogs
Ludwig Göransson – Black Panther
Justin Hurwitz – First Man
Marc Shaiman – Mary Poppins Returns
TELEVISION
BEST DRAMA SERIES
The Americans (FX)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Good Fight (CBS All Access)
Homecoming (Amazon)
Killing Eve (BBC America)
My Brilliant Friend (HBO)
Pose (FX)
Succession (HBO)
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Freddie Highmore – The Good Doctor (ABC)
Diego Luna – Narcos: Mexico (Netflix)
Richard Madden – Bodyguard (Netflix)
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul (AMC)
Billy Porter – Pose (FX)
Matthew Rhys – The Americans (FX)
Milo Ventimiglia – This Is Us (NBC)
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jodie Comer – Killing Eve (BBC America)
Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Deuce (HBO)
Elisabeth Moss – The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Sandra Oh – Killing Eve (BBC America)
Elizabeth Olsen – Sorry For Your Loss (Facebook Watch)
Julia Roberts – Homecoming (Amazon)
Keri Russell – The Americans (FX)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Richard Cabral – Mayans M.C. (FX)
Asia Kate Dillon – Billions (Showtime)
Noah Emmerich – The Americans (FX)
Justin Hartley – This Is Us (NBC)
Matthew Macfadyen – Succession (HBO)
Richard Schiff – The Good Doctor (ABC)
Shea Whigham – Homecoming (Amazon)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Dina Shihabi – Jack Ryan (Amazon)
Julia Garner – Ozark (Netflix)
Thandie Newton – Westworld (HBO)
Rhea Seehorn – Better Call Saul (AMC)
Yvonne Strahovski – The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)
Holly Taylor – The Americans (FX)
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Atlanta (FX)
Barry (HBO)
The Good Place (NBC)
The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
The Middle (ABC)
One Day at a Time (Netflix)
Schitt’s Creek (Pop)
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Hank Azaria – Brockmire (IFC)
Ted Danson – The Good Place (NBC)
Michael Douglas – The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
Donald Glover – Atlanta (FX)
Bill Hader – Barry (HBO)
Jim Parsons – The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Andy Samberg – Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Rachel Bloom – Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
Rachel Brosnahan – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
Allison Janney – Mom (CBS)
Justina Machado – One Day at a Time (Netflix)
Debra Messing – Will & Grace (NBC)
Issa Rae – Insecure (HBO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
William Jackson Harper – The Good Place (NBC)
Sean Hayes – Will & Grace (NBC)
Brian Tyree Henry – Atlanta (FX)
Nico Santos – Superstore (NBC)
Tony Shalhoub – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
Henry Winkler – Barry (HBO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alex Borstein – The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)
Betty Gilpin – GLOW (Netflix)
Laurie Metcalf – The Conners (ABC)
Rita Moreno – One Day at a Time (Netflix)
Zoe Perry – Young Sheldon (CBS)
Annie Potts – Young Sheldon (CBS)
Miriam Shor – Younger (TV Land)
BEST LIMITED SERIES
A Very English Scandal (Amazon)
American Vandal (Netflix)
The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Escape at Dannemora (Showtime)
Genius: Picasso (National Geographic)
Sharp Objects (HBO)
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Icebox (HBO)
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (NBC)
King Lear (Amazon)
My Dinner with Hervé (HBO)
Notes from the Field (HBO)
The Tale (HBO)
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Antonio Banderas – Genius: Picasso (National Geographic)
Darren Criss – The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Paul Dano – Escape at Dannemora (Showtime)
Benicio Del Toro – Escape at Dannemora (Showtime)
Hugh Grant – A Very English Scandal (Amazon)
John Legend – Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (NBC)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Amy Adams – Sharp Objects (HBO)
Patricia Arquette – Escape at Dannemora (Showtime)
Connie Britton – Dirty John (Bravo)
Carrie Coon – The Sinner (USA Network)
Laura Dern – The Tale (HBO)
Anna Deavere Smith – Notes From the Field (HBO)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Brandon Victor Dixon – Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (NBC)
Eric Lange – Escape at Dannemora (Showtime)
Alex Rich – Genius: Picasso (National Geographic)
Peter Sarsgaard – The Looming Tower (Hulu)
Finn Wittrock – The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Ben Whishaw – A Very English Scandal (Amazon)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ellen Burstyn – The Tale (HBO)
Patricia Clarkson – Sharp Objects (HBO)
Penelope Cruz – The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
Julia Garner – Dirty John (Bravo)
Judith Light – The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (FX)
It’s a good time to be a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, right? Super Smash Bros. fans are undoubtedly racing a blue streak as Sonic in Nintendo’s hit video game, and now today comes the first poster for Paramount’s live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
A post shared by IGN (@igndotcom) on Dec 10, 2018 at 4:59am PST
I don’t know if this motion poster actually reveals all that much, but a trailer may be on the way soon. The film is directed by Jeff Fowler and exec-produced by Deadpool director Tim Miller. Ben Schwartz voices Sonic, the super-sonic speedster who enters into our world and becomes a target of the government. He should talk to Bumblebee, bet they could swap stories. James Marsden and Tika Sumpter play the Wachowskis, a couple who help Sonic avoid capture and stop the evil Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey. I’m especially curious to see Carrey’s take on the Eggman.
Netflix and the Duffer Brothers are going back to the well by teasing the titles of next season’s Stranger Things episodes in a new trailer. They’ve done this in the past and it instantly set amateur Internet sleuths scrambling to decipher what they all meant, in an effort to, I don’t know, decode the entire season or something? Pretty sure they all failed. Anyway, they’ll be set back on the case with the reveal of these eight titles, to coincide with season three’s eight episodes…
“Suzie, Do You Copy?”
“The Mall Rats”
“The Case of the Missing Life Guard”
“The Sauna Test”
“The Source”
“The Birthday”
“The Bite”
“The Battle of Starcourt”
Okay, so we already know from previous teasers that the newly-built Starcourt Mall will be a major focal point, and that’s also indicated by two episode titles, “The Mall Rats” and “The Battle of Starcourt.” It’s also possible episode “Suzie, Do You Copy?” refers to Susan Hargrove, mother of recent cast member Max (Sadie Sink). But I’ll be honest, I’m sorta in the middle on this show and don’t follow it as well as others do, so maybe there are better explanations than I can come up with.
Stranger Things Season 3 hits Netflix in summer 2019.
It takes all of 30 seconds into Bumblebee for it to be the best live-action Transformers movie. For G1 Transformers fans the opening minutes are the culmination of every hope and dream you’ve had for these movies. Cybertron War! Optimus Prime! Braun! Arcee (!!!!) Soundwave! Shockwave! And they look like the toys we all used to play with (and some still play with *ahem*) as kids, not the mish-mash of scrapyard parts Michael Bay turned them into. It’s an incredible start, and my concern was that once the focus shifts to more earthbound concerns that high bar of excitement couldn’t be sustained.
Bumblebee is, to steal an obvious catchphrase, “More than Meets the Eye”. The first solo movie for Prime’s yellow sidekick and a prequel to the franchise, Bumblebee isn’t just a dumb-headed action flick like the others had been. One of my biggest problems with Bay’s films is that we never felt the influence of exec-producer Steven Spielberg, with the exception of maybe the first story. But Spielberg’s influence is all over Bumblebee, and presented with childhood awe and wonder by famed stop-motion director Travis Knight (of the recent Kubo and the Two Strings), whose love for Transformers is obvious from the start. This Amblin-esque tale is less about a war between Autobots and Deceptions, although that obviously plays a role, and is instead a story of a girl and her first car, her first love, and first steps into an uncertain future.
It’s classic Amblin stuff, adventurous, imaginative, and very nostalgic. Set in the 1980s, the story takes place near San Francisco where soon-to-be-18 Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld, still showing maturity beyond her years) has had to grow up quicker than a girl her age should have to. Her father died suddenly, and her mother has remarried a guy Charlie has no interest in knowing. So Charlie basically takes care of herself, working a terrible job dipping corn dogs at the local carnival, while trying to save money to get a car, or fix the beat up one she and her father used to work on together. Everything changes for her when the yellow Volkswagon Beetle she brought home from the junkyard literally has a life of its own. Without giving away the details, Bumblebee has made his way to Earth but has lost all memory of who he was; good thing the timid little ‘bot has found himself a new best friend.
So both Charlie and Bumblebee are dealing with some of the same issues. Both are sort of adrift and unsure, fending for themselves. They bond quickly over this, and the film does become a Transformers version of The Iron Giant, which really gets to the core of why these toys and original cartoons were so great. Charlie matures while taking care of and protecting her newfound friend, who the rest of the world perceives as a threat. Of course they do, that’s what these movies have always been about, right? Humans being scared about what they don’t understand? In this case, it’s a military unit led by Jack Burns (John Cena, clearly having fun underneath the grim exterior), who survived a first encounter with Bumblebee earlier, but has harbored a grudge ever since.
And of course there are Decepticons in the mix, too. Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux voice the Decepticon seekers Shatter and Dropkick, who have traced Bumblebee to Earth, putting humanity in jeopardy. They’re no joke. Knight and screenwriter Christina Hodson pull another page out of the Spielberg playbook in refusing to shy away from how evil the bad guys are. These Decepticons do unimaginably horrible things to some of your favorite Autobots, so you know they treat humans in a way that may be too much for the littlest kids to see.
You might have to imagine Bumblebee as a soft reboot because, man, it totally spits lubricant all over the time-traveling nonsense in The Last Knight. Everything about Bumblebee’s arrival undoes that awful, franchise-killing film and that’s for the better. Even the tongue-in-cheek touches, like the Internet being created by a pair of villainous Decepticons, are so much wacky fun they work. But the most important thing is that it sets a new tone, one where emotion and story work in concert with giant robot action. Bay’s films were always big, loud spectacles, and ugly ones at that. Bumblebee is a great movie that happens to have some beautifully orchestrated action scenes. Knight’s background in animation influences everything; he keeps the choreography simple. Bay was all about excess. Everything looks as if it actually exists and functions in reality, which is saying something when you’re talking about a robot that transforms into a car. You couldn’t help but see the CGI in Bay’s movies, but Knight gets you to look past all of that, even to forget it outright.
There’s a nice balance between Bumblebee’s mission and Charlie’s personal life, with both intersecting in fun ways. Love, Simon‘s Jorge Lendeborg Jr. is a goofy charmer as Charlie’s friend/sidekick/love interest Memo, finding real chemistry with Steinfeld in the scenes they share. But the greatest chemistry is between Charlie and Bumblebee, and the friendship they build has all of the heart these movies have been missing for so long.
It shouldn’t have taken this long to finally get a Transformers movie right, but now that Bumblebee has done it, let’s hope this isn’t the last time he gets to roll out solo. And it makes you wonder hat could these movies have been if Bay had left a long time ago?
Good lord, if it feels like we’ve been waiting forever to see ANYTHING from Triple Frontier, it’s because we have. Nearly a decade ago this was meant to be Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal’s big followup to The Hurt Locker, but Bigelow departed it and moved on to Zero Dark Thirty. At the time the amazing cast included names such as Will Smith, Tom Hanks, and Johnny Depp with Mark Wahlberg also attached at a later date. Eventually, J.C. Chandor (All is Lost) came aboard, but just as shooting was to begin last year, Paramount dumped the film and most of the cast went with it. At that time it was looking to star Ben and Casey Affleck, Tom Hardy, Mahershala Ali, and Channing Tatum. Uh, yeah. Pretty awesome.
Cut to now and the cast is very different, with the exception of Ben Affleck who remains on board. Chandor is still behind the camera and now shares a co-writing credit with Boal. Affleck’s co-stars now include Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, Charlie Hunnam, Oscar Isaac, and Adria Arjona. Not bad, but hardly where this thing started. Oh, and it’s on Netflix now, too, another saving grace by the streaming company because this film was dead in the water for a long time. On a side note, I can only imagine our friend and fellow writer Roxana Hadadi has squealed maniacally at the current lineup. Hedlund, Pascal, Hunnam, Isaac, it’s a dream team for sure.
Anyway, Triple Frontier takes place in the dangerous border zone between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, as five friends, all military vets, reunite to take down a South American drug lord, unleashing Hell in the process. It looks solid, as well it should, but it better be friggin’ gold considering the wait and likely investment.
Triple Frontier hits Netflix in 2019. At one time this was my most anticipated movie, and now I’m not so sure. Call me cautiously optimistic.
1. Ralph Breaks the Internet– $16.1M/$140.8M
2. Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch– $15.1M/$223.4M
3. Creed II– $10.3M/$96.4M
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald– $6.8M/$145.2M
While the $145M domestic is a bit disappointing, Warner Bros. can’t be too upset over the $568M it’s earned worldwide.
5. Bohemian Rhapsody– $6M/$173.5M
6. Instant Family– $5.6M/$54.1M
7. Green Book– $3.9M/$19.9M
8. Robin Hood– $3.5M/$27.2M
9. The Possession of Hannah Grace– $3.17M/$11.5M
10. Widows– $3.1M/$38.1M
Obviously, there were no new releases domestically this week, but some major films did open either internationally or in limited markets. Aquaman surfaced in China to an incredible $93.6M, with $9.7M of that from IMAX. That’s better than the China debut for both Wonder Woman and Batman v Superman, the two highest-grossing DCEU films at this point.The Jason Momoa-led superhero film opens here in the states on December 21st, but will get an early preview next weekend for Amazon Prime subscribers, and that is expected to haul in a pretty penny.
Peter Jackson’s YA adventure film Mortal Engines opened overseas with $17.9M, a week before it opens stateside. That’s not a great number, especially since it will face a very crowded month of new releases stateside.
The Margot Robbie/Saoirse Ronan royal period piece Mary Queen of Scots opened in four locations and earned $200K, an outstanding start. Finally, Natalie Portman’s pop diva drama Vox Lux (review here) earned $161K in six locations, which is perfectly okay. Hopefully it picks up on expansion.
“Whatever you’ve done I know there is good inside you.”
So says an anguished Elizabeth Banks in the new trailer for Brightburn, and without knowing the full context you might think this was just a mother clinging on to hope that her wayward son isn’t all bad. And that much IS true, but what if that son was an all-powerful alien being she’s raised since birth? Brightburn is, essentially, a much darker take on the Superman origin story, in that the extraterrestrial child who grew up to be a symbol of hope instead becomes an object of fear and doom.
What’s interesting about this is the team behind it: Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is a producer, working with The Hive director David Yarovesky. The script is by Mark and Brian Gunn, and based on this trailer they aren’t even trying to be subtle with the allusions to Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. It’s all right out there on front street, and to me it’s fascinating they’ve decided to be so bold about it, although I’m very curious to see the reaction from fans. Wasn’t Snyder accused of being too dark and grim? Well, this takes that way over the edge.
The film is one we’ve known about all year but details had been successfully kept in secret. Sony had set the release date for November but when the Disney fallout occurred and he was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 they decided to push it back a few months. Whether that helps or hinders the film we’ll just have to wait and see. The cast includes David Denman, Matt Jones, Jackson A. Dunn, and Meredith Hagner.
Here’s the synopsis: What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? With Brightburn, the visionary filmmaker of Guardians of the Galaxy and Slither presents a startling, subversive take on a radical new genre: superhero horror. Brightburn opens May 24th 2019.
