Why “This is Us” is Sweeping the Nation
Over the last two seasons, NBC’s This is Us has become must-see TV for many a viewer, many of whom watch the show with a box of tissues handy. While the show has its content problems—and really, how many popular TV programs don’t?—it also showcases compelling, deeply emotional narratives that, for many, hit close to […]
Audiences Go Cuckoo for Coco
Leave it to a movie about dead people to inject a little life into the box office. Coco, Pixar Studio’s latest visual feast, carved up the box office over the Thanksgiving weekend, gobbling an estimated $49 million over the traditional three-day frame. Throw in Wednesday night and Thanksgiving Day, and Pixar stuffed about $71.2 million […]
And Now, Something Good (or at Least Interesting) About Justice League
Listen, I’m not going to tell you that Justice League is a great movie. I’ve written and said too much about it already to claim that. But even flawed movies have something to say, and Justice League tells us something pretty interesting. (Warning: A few minor spoilers lie ahead.) Director Zack Snyder was, perhaps, not […]
Justice League Soars and Sinks Simultaneously
If you’re a top-flight team in college football, it’s not enough to just win. You’ve got to win by 50. If you don’t win pretty enough, you’re liable to sink in the standings. The box office tourney is a little like that. Justice League won and won easily this weekend. It earned an estimated $96 […]
Culture Clips: Soaring ‘Reputation,’ Sinking Reputations
This just in: Taylor Swift is kind of a big deal. For months, the pop star has been stirring the pop culture stew with a steady drip-drip-drip of singles, the lyrics of which have been parsed and dissected as if they were ancient Sanskrit texts. Now she’s given her fans a whole album, and it […]
Ragnarok Rages Again
For the second straight week, it was hammertime. No one could touch Thor: Ragnarok this weekend. Marvel’s latest superhero smashfest banked an estimated $56.6 million and pulled its overall gross to around $211.6 million. That makes Ragnarok the most lucrative Thor movie of all time (though, granted, we’ve only seen three of them) and pushed […]
The Invasion of the Christmas Carols
Many of us mark our seasons by firsts: the first robin of spring, the first sunburn of summer, the first interception by our terrible quarterback of the fall. The Christmas season is no different—or, at least, so mall music supervisors tell us: It begins with the first Christmas carol playing in the vicinity of cash […]
Thor: Ragnarok Hammers Home a Win
Ragnarok? Try Ragna-rocks! Thor: Ragnarok roared to a truly thunderous win, plundering North American theaters for a titanic $121 million (estimated, of course). That’s about $35 million more than Thor: The Dark World earned in its first weekend back in 2013, and $55 million more than Chris Hemsworth’s original turn as the God of Thunder […]
Culture Clips: The ‘House of Cards Indeed’ Edition
For five seasons now, two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey has starred in Netflix’s buzzy House of Cards. He played a caddish President Francis Underwood who manipulated and murdered his way to power and—if the show’s title means anything at all—would’ve someday been laid low by his own misdeeds. We may never see Underwood’s comeuppance come […]
Jigsaw Puzzles Together a Win
Given the season and all, perhaps it’s fitting that a horror movie won a truly terrifying weekend—at least terrifying as far as Hollywood bean counters are concerned. Jigsaw, a resurrection of the Saw franchise, took the top spot with a woeful $16.3 million (estimated, of course). Its victory simultaneously confirmed the horror genre’s power this […]