Friday, January 29, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
Box Office
From comingsoon, Despite hundreds of East Coast theaters closing due to winter storm Jonas this weekend, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant (20th Century Fox) performed strong and took first place for the first time its third weekend of wide release. Made for $135 million and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter, the Golden Globe winner added $16 million for a total of $119.2 million after five weeks.
Rising a spot from third to second, Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens added $14.3 million domestically and $23.3 million internationally for a total of $37.6 million globally for the weekend. The J.J. Abrams-directed film has now earned $879.3 million in North America and $1.060 billion internationally for a worldwide total of $1.940 billion. Domestically, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the #1 movie of all-time. Internationally, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earlier this week became the #4 movie of all-time, passing Jurassic World. Globally, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the #3 movie of all-time, trailing just Titanic ($2.186 billion) and Avatar ($2.788 billion).
Dropping two spots to third and 63% in tickets sales, Universal Pictures sequel Ride Along 2 earned $12.96 million its second weekend to take its two-week total to $59.1 million. Starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, the $40 million-budgeted action comedy is trailing the first film, which had made $75.5 million in the same time.
The three newcomers took the next three spots at the box office, with fourth place going to Lionsgate’s R-rated comedy Dirty Grandpa, starring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron. The film earned $11.5 million from 2,912 theaters, an average of $3,958 per theater. Dirty Grandpa received a B CinemaScore from audiences.
STX Entertainment and Lakeshore Entertainment’s The Boy, starring “The Walking Dead’s” Lauren Cohan, opened in fifth place with $11.3 million from 2,617 theaters, an average of $4,216. Receiving a B- CinemaScore, the film cost just $10 million to make.
Rounding out the top five was Sony Pictures’ The 5th Wave, the big screen adaptation starring Chloë Grace Moretz. The film debuted with $10.7 million from 2,908 locations, an average of $3,680 per site. The movie was made for $38 million and also received a B- CinemaScore.
Read more at http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/650187-the-revenant-tops-box-office-star-wars-reaches-1-940-billion#szpIVRT5tqrWjcwO.99
Friday, January 22, 2016
Want: You Can Buy Luke Skywalker’s Blaster from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for a Small Fortune
From slashfilm, Props from popular movies are pretty hard to come by. And when it comes to props from the original Star Wars trilogy, they’re nearly impossible to get ahold of without selling a kidney, a child, or a child’s kidney. Therefore, whenever one ends up for sale, it might be worth it to take out a small loan.
This time it’s Luke Skywalker’s DL-44 blaster from The Empire Strikes Back that will be on the block at Nate D. Sanders auction house, and this is a genuine screen-used prop straight from the set. So how much could this end up costing you? Find out after the jump!
Here a close-up image of the blaster from the auction listing (via Polygon):
If you’re going to attempt to pick up the Luke Skywalker blaster, the opening bid is $200,000. That’s not entirely unreasonable when you consider just how popular The Empire Strikes Back is, even if it’s not a real blaster. Instead, this version of the blaster, which shares some similarities with Han Solo’s blaster, was used in the movie during non-firing scenes. It’s made of gray, silver, and brown colored fiberglass, and it’s one of the rarest items from Star Wars history.
Besides being a screen-used prop, which shows some wear and tear from use on the set, this once belonged to Mark Hamill after it was gifted to him on an episode of the BBC children’s show Jim’ll Fix It. That’s a nice little bit of trivia, but maybe not enough to spend $200,000. It makes me wonder how much Luke Skywalker’s original lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back would fetch at auction. Kylo Ren would spend any amount of credits to get his hands on it.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Star Wars Land Map: See a Projected Layout of Disneyland’s New Galaxy
From slashfilm [excerpt] Disney has still not shown us what Star Wars Landwill look like, aside from a few pieces of concept art released at D23 Expo 2015 (some of which were pieces of concept art from The Force Awakens). We’ve previously learned that the 14-acre Star Wars Land would be built in the top left corner of the park, taking over land previously occupied by backstage areas, Big Thunder Ranch as well as some of Rivers of America. We’ve even seen beautiful official concept art of what the Rivers of America will look like after the construction is completed. But now we finally get a look at the layout of Star Wars Land.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Box Office
(CNN)In the end, it was a couple of buddies who knocked The Force out.
"Ride Along 2," the Universal sequel starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, opened at No. 1 for the weekend with an estimated $34 million box office.
After four weekends of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" at No. 1, the Disney film dropped to No. 3 in its fifth week of release, earning $25 million, according to RenTrak's three-day box office estimates.
"Star Wars" fans may mourn the day the Force bowed to mere mortals.
But there's no need to feel sorry for Disney.
Oscar nominations 2016: 'Revenant' leads with 12
After 31 days, the newest "Star Wars" episode has earned an estimated North American total of more than $851 million and more than $1 billion internationally, for a total of more than $1.8 billion globally.
"The Force Awakens" became the highest-grossing film in North American history earlier in the month when it grossed $764.4 million in the United States, putting it over the $760.5 million mark set by "Avatar" over the life of the film.
With 12 Oscar nominations, 20th Century Fox's "The Revenant" was at No. 2 in its second weekend of release with $29.5 million.
Michael Bay's "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" debuted in fourth place with $16 million.
Paramount's "Daddy's Home," starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, landed in fifth place in its fourth weekend of release, earning $9.3 million.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Thursday, January 14, 2016
'Sesame Street' Parodied Donald Trump As A Garbage Grouch Who Makes Fun Of The Poor
From thehuffingtonpost, In this clip from 2005, when "The Apprentice" was arguably at its height, "Sesame Street" created a parody of garbage mogul, Donald Trump. The show named their new, garbage hoarding grouch, Donald Grump, and had various "Sesame Street" residents, including Oscar the Grouch and Elmo, vie for a job as his garbage-counting apprentice.
Donald Grump's trademark -- along with "Scram! You're fired!" -- is "I have more trash than you, so na, na, na, na, na! Na, na, na, na, na!" His fellow grouch garbage people love getting made fun of in this way, and then repeatedly join in with the refrain "na, naing" at their own garbage scarcity.
The clip is over 10 minutes long and essentially spends the entire time insinuating Donald Trump is a literal garbage person and his followers are garbage people.
Elmo is obviously on a different plane of enlightenment and doesn't even care.
Grump doesn't know what to do. He is powerless over someone who is not garbage and doesn't care about the endlessly greedy pursuit of obtaining more garbage. Scrambling to restore order, he tells Elmo there must be something he still wants.
The camera zooms in on the orange hair and Elmo rips it right off. Grump, dejected, just tells Elmo to keep it -- everyone knows he has plenty more orange wigs.
"We can get our own trash," Oscar the Grouch tells Grump.
"Scram, you're fired," the grouches yell at the orange wigged garbage man.
The Grump turns away.
The way to strip the garbage man of his power, is to simply recycle.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Marvel release schedule
Captain America: Civil War - May 6, 2016
Doctor Strange – November 4, 2016
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017
Untitled Spider-Man Reboot – July 28, 2017
Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017
Black Panther – February 26, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War – Part I – May 4, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018
Captain Marvel – March 8, 2019
Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 – May 3, 2019
Inhumans – July 12, 2019
Holy golden anniversary, ‘Batman’! Classic TV show turns 50
From fox61 [excerpt], The phenomenon began January 12, 1966.
That night, ABC premiered the TV series “Batman,” a very campy take on the comic book character, complete with our caped hero doing a dance called the “Batusi.” It was, almost literally, an overnight success.
Suddenly, the American public was clamoring for anything and everything Batman, launching one of the earliest merchandising blitzes for a TV show, described as “Batmania.” It aired twice a week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and both episodes made the top 10 most-watched shows of the 1965-66 season.
No longer were Batman and Robin just those two heroes who occasionally helped out Superman. On the brink of cancellation just two years earlier, suddenly the DC Comics characters were the hottest thing going. (DC and CNN are both owned by Time Warner.)
The actors who played Batman and Robin, Adam West and Burt Ward, drew big crowds at their personal appearances, and 20th Century Fox rushed out a feature film for that summer.
The “ZAP! BANG! POW!” of the dynamic duo’s fights with each week’s “Special Guest Villain” became embedded in pop culture.
West and Ward portrayed the masked crimefighters earnestly. Their performances made the show an action series for children and a silly comedy for adults.
The show’s fall came as quickly as its rise. In March 1968, ABC canceled the show. NBC was reportedly ready to pick it up, but the sets — which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build — had been destroyed, said Ward, now 70.
Still, the show lived on in reruns and remains a ’60s touchstone.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Weekend Box Office: The Revenant Opens Strong, But Star Wars Still Number One
With $38 million The Revenant launched its wide release higher than most expectations. With the likelihood of upcoming awards season bringing extra attention through the end of the month, the buzz may help push it all the way to $100 million.
Over the week The Force Awakens cruised past Avatar to be the highest ever grossing domestic movie and this weekend it cleared another landmark: first movie to ever break $800 million. At $812 million the movie is finally beginning to show signs of a normal decline, dropping over 50% from last weekend. Unless it holds incredibly strong into next weekend it's not likely to go much further than $900 million.
The lone new release this weekend, horror flick The Forest, bowed in at fourth place with $13 million. Not bad for a movie that was equally panned by critics and audiences. The lack of praise will likely translate to a rapid fall off next week, but the damage is done. Against a $10 million production budget the movie is already a financial success.
David Bowie dies of cancer aged 69
From ew [excerpt], David Bowie, the legendary British rocker who spent the entirety of his career mixing genres and experimenting with theatricality, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 69 years old.
“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer,” read a post on the artist’s Facebook page on Sunday night. “While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”
Bowie celebrated his 69th birthday on Friday by releasingBlackstar, his beautifully dark and twisted 26th studio album, which EW called in its review “an all-senses headphone surrender to the sound of an artist who is older and almost definitely wiser but still fantastically, singularly himself.
Born David Robert Jones, he released his self-titled debut album in 1967 but didn’t make his first big impact on the music world until 1969, when his single “Space Oddity” (from the album of the same name) became a worldwide hit. Bowie took his roots in folk rock and blew them open for “Space Oddity,” dressing up his simple strumming in ambient effects and a compelling sci-fi narrative that echoed the then-current fascination with space travel (it’s no coincidence that “Space Oddity” became a smash hit the same month that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first men to walk on the moon).
Phantasm star Angus Scrimm dies at 89
From ew, Angus Scrimm, the veteran character actor best known for playing the terrifying “Tall Man” in the Phantasm horror franchise, has died at the age of 89. His other credits included the 2008 film I Sell the Dead, the TV show Alias — on which he had a recurring role — and the spooky audio play series Tales From Beyond the Pale.
EW was informed of Scrimm’s death by his friend and longtime collaborator Don Coscarelli, who directed Scrimm in 1979’s Phantasmand its three subsequent sequels, among other projects.
Scrimm was born Lawrence Rory Guy in Kansas City, Kansas, and studied theater at USC in Los Angeles. However, he found it difficult to make a living as an actor and instead spent years working at Capitol Records where he wrote the liner notes for an array of musical acts, including Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.
Scrimm first worked with Coscarelli on the 1976 film Jim, the World’s Greatest but it was his menacing character in the Phantasm series which elevated the actor to the status of a genuine, and much beloved, genre icon. Scrimm recently reprised the role of the Tall Man again in a fifth film, Phantasm: Ravager, which is set for release later this year. Fans will also soon be able to see the actor in a restored version of the franchise’s first film overseen by Star Wars director, and diehard Phantasm aficionado, J.J. Abrams.
“Angus Scrimm passed away peacefully tonight surrounded by his friends and loved one,” Coscarelli wrote, via email. “[His] performance as the Tall Man is a towering achievement in horror film history. He was the last in a long line of classic horror movie stars. He was a terrific actor and an even better friend. He will be missed.”
Friday, January 08, 2016
The Force Awakens Spoiler Discussion
If you haven’t seen The Force Awakens by now then clearly
you’re a poseur and deserve to have it spoiled for you. Nevertheless, I will
leave my thoughts in the comments section and would like to hear all y’all’s
thoughts/reactions.
Star Wars Scene Stealer TR-8R Has An Official Name, A Nickname, And...Red Hair?
Potential Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers lurk beyond this point. Tread lightly.
We recently learned a little bit about TR-8R’s backstory, which is something we haven’t had about most stormtroopers in the past, but now we know even more. According to the official Star Wars website, the soldier who inspired a thousand viral memes is actually named FN-2199. His friends, among which number Finn used to be counted, call him Nines for short. He is even pictured in the background of a piece of concept art without his helmet, which shows that he has a shock of bright red head.
Nines shows up during the scene where the First Order arrives at Maz Kanata’s cantina on Takodana, and when he sees Finn, he bellows at him, whips out his Z6 riot control baton, and the two come to blows. It’s easy enough to pass this off as one dedicated soldier being pissed off that another deserted and went AWOL, but there’s much more to the story.
In the book Before the Awakening, it is revealed that Finn, previously designated FN-2187, and Nines served together as part of a four-man squad. Working together in such a manner, it sounds like they must have become fairly close, which would certainly explain why he recognizes Finn so quickly, as well as why he’s so butt hurt about it. It isn’t just that a soldier deserted, but he lost a friend, too.
It was actually another member of their crew that played a part in Finn’s decision to leave. The stormtrooper who dies on Jakku in the early going, the one that smears his own blood across Finn’s mask, was named Slip, and was part of their team. Watching his friend die in combat is what compelled Finn to abandon ship.
Not only does this illustrate just how detailed the stories in the Star Wars universe truly are, it helps add a whole other dimension to the stormtroopers. For the most part, they’ve been little more than faceless canon fodder in the saga, but Star Wars: The Force Awakens has gone to great lengths in order to humanize them, to give them feelings and emotions and their own individual personalities and stories like never before.
It’ll be interesting to see if this develops as we move towards Star Wars: Episode VIII, and many have already expressed the hope that FN-2199, Nines, TR-8R, or whatever you want to call him, survived getting shot and will show up in the future. It could provide an interesting wrinkle for Finn’s narrative moving forward.
Thursday, January 07, 2016
Pat Harrington, Schneider on 'One Day at a Time,' dead at 86
From nbcnews [excerpt], Pat Harrington Jr., who won an Emmy Award for playing handyman Schneider on the popular sitcom "One Day at a Time," has died at age 86, his daughter announced Thursday morning.
Tresa Harrington posted on Facebook that her father died Wednesday night, two months after she wrote that he had Alzheimer's disease and his health was deteriorating.
"My heart is broken to pieces and I will cry and cry until I just won't," Harringtonsaid in her post.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens bests Avatar as the biggest domestic movie in history
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has dethroned Avatar as the biggest domestic movie of all time.
Disney announced on Wednesday that the latest Star Wars film has surpassed James Cameron’s blockbuster after just 20 days of release.
It’s important to note that accounting for inflation, The Force Awakens is considerably further down the list of all-time biggest domestic releases, placing 21st. Gone with the Wind still holds that record with an adjusted $1.74 billion, while the original Star Wars is in second place with $1.53 billion. Still, The Force Awakens’ success is a massive accomplishment, especially when you consider that Avatar’s $760.5 million total includes its entire theatrical run.
Internationally, The Force Awakens has pulled in $799.1 million for a global total of $1.56 billion, becoming the fastest movie in history to hit that number. It currently ranks as the fourth-biggest movie of all time, unadjusted for inflation. So far, it’s opened in all international territories except China, where it will debut on Saturday.
Over the course of its theatrical run, The Force Awakens has broken records left and right, setting a new high mark for the biggest domestic debut of all time ($247.9 million). On its first day in theaters (including Thursday previews), it hauled in a total of $119.1 million domestically, becoming the first movie in history to make $100 million in a single day. Not only that, but it also narrowly dethroned Jurassic World to earn the biggest global debut, too, raking in $529 million in its first weekend [via EW].
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Watch Mark Hamill Host the TV Premiere of ‘Star Wars’ in 1984
From slashfilm, Before the advent of home video, if you loved a movie enough, you had to keep going back to the theater to see it. And despite the fact that VHS came to the United States in 1977, fans of Star Wars wouldn’t be able to see the movie on tape until 1985. And that’s what made the TV premiere of the movie so exciting in 1984. It was such a big event that Mark Hamill was rounded up in a tuxedo to host the premiere, complete with a glimpse of the fandom from decades ago.
Nowadays movies hit home video months before they end up playing on TV, and with the advent of DVR, there are few broadcast productions that truly tun out to be event television. But it’s clear that in 1984, a movie like Star Wars coming to TV was a big deal, and the fandom surrounding it was unprecedented. And that tradition has continued as The Force Awakens continues breaking box office records.
What’s even more fascinating is how many times some of the fans featured in the beginning of this video have seen Star Wars. This was back when movie tickets only cost a few dollars, but for these fans to see the movie that many times today would cost some of them hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.
Monday, January 04, 2016
Hey Guys! Happy New Year!
Hello! Here's another in a series of posts about things I said I was gonna do -- and I'm still gonna! After finishing my reviews, I flaked off while we all did Xmas and New Years and Star Wars and now I have a new thing looming. The second-ever Bricks LA is in Pasadena this weekend, and I'm scrambling to build as much as I can. Enjoy a sneak peek!
Afterwards, I'll be posting my Best Ofs and finishing off those trophies, so stay the hell tuned!
(Wish me luck. There's prizes. Which are more Lego.)
Box office report: Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits $1.51 billion worldwide
From ew, Star Wars: The Force Awakens rang in the new year by breaking even more box office records this weekend, raking in an estimated $88.3 million domestically.\
That means that The Force Awakens earned the highest domestic third weekend ever, and its domestic total is now at $740.3 million. Earlier this weekend, it surpassed both Jurassic World ($652.3 million) and Titanic ($658.7 million) to become the second-highest grossing domestic movie ever (unadjusted for inflation), and within the next few days, it should dethrone Avatar ($760.5 million) to become the biggest domestic movie ever.
The Force Awakens also became the fastest (and only the second movie ever) to reach $700 million, doing it 16 days. Avatar took 72 days to hit that mark. The Force Awakens also set a new domestic record for the biggest New Year’s Day box office haul with $34.5 million.
Globally, The Force Awakens pulled in $184.6 million this weekend, bringing its worldwide total to a whopping $1.51 billion. It will soon surpass The Avengers ($1.52 billion) and Furious 7 ($1.515 billion) to become the fourth-biggest movie of all time. It’s also become IMAX’s second highest-grossing movie ever with a global total of $152 million, and in record time: The Force Awakens reached that total in only 19 days, as opposed to Avatar, which took 47 days. The Force Awakens has opened worldwide with the exception of China, where it will debut this weekend.
In other box office news from a galaxy not so far, far away, Daddy’s Home took second for the weekend, earning an estimated $29 million. The Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg-starring comedy debuted above expectations last weekend, and it held up well in its second outing, falling only 25 percent. Its domestic total is now at $93.7 million.
After an exclusive 70mm debut in only 100 theaters,The Hateful Eight went wide this week, expanding to 2,474 theaters and earning $16.2 million for third place. The Quentin Tarantino picture earned a B CinemaScore, and its domestic total is now at $29.6 million.
Holdovers Sisters and Alvins and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip rounded out the top five, and both have held up well since opening against The Force Awakens. The R-rated Sisters, which stars Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, fell only 11 percent and earned $12.6 million this weekend. Its domestic total is now at $61.7 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks fell 10 percent to earn $11.8 million for a total of $67.4 million.
At the specialty box office, Anomalisa debuted in four locations on Wednesday, earning $140,000 over three days and $215,000 over five. The Revenant also continued its successful four-theater run, earning an estimated $474,560 in its second weekend.
Here are this weekend’s top five at the box office:
1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens — $88.3 million
2. Daddy’s Home — $29 million
3. The Hateful Eight — $16.2 million
4. Sisters — $12.6 million
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip — $11.8 million
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Salem's Lot 1979 and Salem's Lot 2024
Happy Halloween everybody! Julie's working late and the boy doesn't have school tomorrow so he's heading to one of those crazy f...
-
(2007) * First of all let me say that as far as I could tell there are absolutely no dead teenagers in this entire film. Every year just ...
