Culture Clips: All I Want for Christmas is Three World Records
We haven’t even cooked the Thanksgiving turkey yet, but no matter: Lots of people have moved on to Christmas. Trees are up, tiny lights are twinkling and Santa Claus is already shilling stuff on television. Who is Plugged In to squelch all this Christmas spirit? So let’s kick this edition of Culture Clips off with […]
Frozen II Chills at No. 1
Joker aside, the box office has suffered through a bit of a cold spell since, oh, The Lion King was roaring. Sequels underperformed. Durable franchises showed their age. Last weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, was one of the weakest of the year. And in a year of weak weekends, that’s saying something. With that […]
Culture Clips: Alone … With Our Screens
Plugged In reviewed a strange little video game last week called Death Stranding. Our own Bob Hoose calls it part shooter, part adventure game, part building game and all weird. While dark and bloody, the game has also earned the most nominations this year from the Game Awards (an awards “show” that was watched by […]
Ford v Ferrari Takes Checkered Flag
Sure, the showdown between Ford and Ferrari was a big deal back in the day. But when it comes to this weekend’s box-office tourney, it was all about the showdown between two anticipated newcomers: Ford v Ferrari v Charlie’s Angels. And folks, turns out it was no contest. The historical drama Ford v Ferrari lapped […]
‘Fred Had a Lot of Heroes.’ A Conversation with Joanne Rogers, Mister Rogers’ Wife
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a film about legendary children’s television host Fred Rogers, comes to theaters next week. We’ll publish our full review next Thursday, of course, but for starters it’s not a biopic: We don’t see Rogers (who died in 2003) grow up or his formative years in television. For that, you […]
Culture Clips: Disney+ Storms Into 10 Million Homes … but Not Without Problems
Remember that big ol’ Imperial Cruiser that fills the screen at the beginning of the original Star Wars movie? Yeah, that’s a little like what the coming of Disney+ felt like yesterday. More than 10 million people have already subscribed to Disney’s new streaming service in its first 24 hours—a pretty good start, considering analysts […]
Midway Wins Weekend Battle Over Doctor Sleep
For Doctor Sleep, Nov. 11 will be a day that lives in infamy. As part of an all-out freshman assault on theaters this weekend, Warner Bros.’ sequel to The Shining was all set to plant its flag on the top of box-office hill. Prognosticators expected the flick to earn in the range of $25-30 million, […]
Terminator is Back. Barely.
Terminator: Dark Fate was as good as its name this weekend. Despite four new movies and a couple of strong holdovers, the latest chapter in this venerable franchise was thought to have little competition for the top spot: It was almost fated to be the weekend’s highest-grossing flick. And sure enough, it was. But the […]
Teens and Tweens Can’t Get Enough Ninja Videos (and Anything Else on YouTube)
Movies? TV? Those things are soooo 2015 for today’s youth. YouTube is where it’s at. That’s what Common Sense Media found in its fresh-off-the-presses 2019 “Media use by Tweens and Teens” census. While tweens and teens aren’t increasing their screen time consumption at the rapid pace we’ve seen over the last decade or two, how […]
Is This Joker’s Last Laugh?
Maybe it’s only appropriate for a character that’s been around since 1940: Warner Bros.’ Joker just won’t go away. The supervillain origin story laughed all the way to the bank—again—reclaiming the weekend’s No. 1 spot in our box-office countdown after slipping to No. 2 last weekend. Granted, it didn’t exactly break the bank this time […]