Fate Flies To Third First-place Finish

The box office collectively throttled back a bit this weekend, with no film earning more than $20 million. But even so, the movie industry is still clearly running on diesel. Vin Diesel, that is. The Fate of the Furious collected its third straight weekend win, scraping $19.4 million off the asphalt along the way. The […]

Culture Clips: The Most Dangerous TV Show?

Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why is nearly a month old, but you wouldn’t know it  from the buzz.  The teen drama triggered more than 11 million tweets during its first three weeks of release, making it 2017’s most tweeted-about show.  But while 13 Reasons has been pretty popular with the 18-and-under set, don’t count everyone as […]

Fate Furiously Foisted to First

A herd of cinematic newcomers stampeded into theaters this weekend, hoping to rumble their way into moviegoers hearts. Alas for them, said moviegoers were conspicuously unmoved by all this new cinematic sound and fury and decided to watch The Fate of the Furious again. For the second straight week, Furious punched the gas and roared […]

Culture Clips: The Fate of the Free World (and Vin Diesel) Edition

We have so much serious stuff to get to in our latest edition of Culture Clips. But before we get too grim, let me share with you my reaction to The Fate of the Furious’ mammoth $532.5 million worldwide take on Monday. “Wha??!” Turns out, though, I’m just an old curmudgeon. The Washington Post suggests […]

The Fate of the Furious Roars to Big Win

A race? Hardly. The box office derby was more like a coronation. The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in the preposterously durable Fast and the Furious franchise, roared to victory this weekend, while every other movie just jumped to the curb. All lights were green for Fate—treasury green, that is. The high-octane flick […]

Despite Downsizing, Boss Baby Wins Again

Hey, we all know it’s tough to make a buck these days. Competition is tougher than it’s ever been, and many of the rules of business have been upended by the digital, information economy. But if you’ve got a strong leader, you can still succeed in the cut-throat marketplace … even if that leader still […]

Boss Baby Takes Charge

In a bodacious opening bow, The Boss Baby bypassed the behemouth Beauty and the Beast in a burly battle and banked a big box office blue ribbon. Booyah! It wasn’t supposed to be like this, according to the prognosticators. Beauty and the Beast had dominated the box office like no other 2017 movie had, and […]

Beauty and the Beast Settles In at No. 1

What did the No. 1 slot at the box office tell Disney’s Beauty and the Beast? Be our guest. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast scored the biggest March opening of all time, banking $170 million this weekend, according to Disney’s own estimates. Oh, and rumor has it that those estimates might actually be a little […]

Vodcast: Navigating Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast has a lot going for it, at least on paper: It’s a new, updated version of a beloved classic. It stars the effervescent Emma Watson. And it’s rated PG. Families will flock to the thing, right? And in truth, a lot of them will. But many Christian parents aren’t […]

Culture Clips: The Vexing Conundrum of Social Media

Ah, social media. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it. Seems like there’s a bit of truth in that old, unfunny saying I just co-opted and twisted for my own Culture Clips purposes. Researchers are talking a lot these days about how Instagram, Facebook and the like can negatively impact our lives. But scientists […]