Hollywood Likes Morality: Its Own
Last week, Plugged In Director Bob Waliszewski asked us whether Hollywood should do a better job of making good—as in ethically good—movies. Whether it should focus on creating products that “encourage, inspire and uplift us,” he says, and even sometimes tackle critical issues. He writes: For instance, I can only imagine what could happen if […]
Conjuring Up a Big Win
Hollywood’s sequel machine is reportedly broken. Entertainment pundits have been wringing their hands a good bit as of late, writing that this year’s crop of sequels (minus those nearly invulnerable superhero sequels) have been flopping around like a just-caught carp, leading to some of the most anemic box office returns in decades. But that doom-and-gloom […]
Turtle Power Rules the Weekend
Most turtles content themselves with their built-in mobile homes and eating greens at the local watering hole. But when you’re an anthropomorphized terrapin with mad martial arts skills, wiling the days away by the pond just isn’t an option. That slick sewer hideout and tricked-out garbage truck don’t come free, y’know. You need a job. […]
An Apocalypse Breaks Out at Box Office
Sure, maybe the X-Men franchise may be losing a bit of its mystique. But the superhero squadron still managed to be a beast at the box office over the weekend. According to early estimates, X-Men: Apocalypse stormed multiplexes around the country for an iceman-cool $65.3 million ($80 million if you lump in Monday’s Memorial Day […]
America (And the World) Adores Captain America
We Americans do love our superheroes. Audiences forked over $132.4 million to Deadpool in his opening weekend. They dropped another $166 million to watch the Dark Knight duke it out with the Man of Steel. But we apparently have a special affection for good ol’ Cap. Captain America: Civil War—a covert Avengers movie minus the […]
Jungle Book Covers Third Straight Win
Kaa, the massive snake in Disney’s The Jungle Book, is not a character that many would want to emulate. But the movie itself has taken on some rather, um, constricting characteristics. The Jungle Book squeezed an estimated $42.4 million from audiences this weekend and pert near swallowed its competition whole for its third straight box […]
What Is Google Trying to Tell Us?
We’re coming up to the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death (May 3). It seemed like a good opportunity to talk about England’s most famous Elizabethan bard, and I was thinking about writing a piece about Shakespeare’s faith: Do his plays and sonnets give us any insight into his spiritual beliefs? Naturally, my first research […]
Jungle Book Slithers to Another Win
The Huntsman became the hunted at the box office this weekend, which just goes to show the fiercest animal in the entertainment jungle might just be a mouse in yellow shoes. Disney’s The Jungle Book took home an estimated $60.8 million to win its second-straight weekend box office title. That’s more than three times what […]
Jungle Book Torches Contenders
Mowgli learns a little something about fire in his adventures in The Jungle Book. So it’s fitting, I suppose, that the movie itself was a box office scorcher. Sparked by strong reviews and some high-temperature anticipation, Disney’s live-action The Jungle Book burned up the charts with a white-hot $103.6 million (estimated, of course, at this […]
Superheroes Beaten Down by Boss?
Superman and Batman are each formidable figures in their own right. Together, they are almost unstoppable. But every once in a while, the two face an adversary so fearsome that it causes even these two caped crimefighters to shake in their form-fitting boots: Doomsday. Eclipso. And now, perhaps, Melissa McCarthy. According to early estimates, McCarthy’s […]
