Jacob Hall
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Get Out’ Takes Control
Propelled by great trailers, strong buzz, and a supremely rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, Get Out easily took the number one spot at the box office this weekend, dethroning The LEGO Batman Movie. Will the positive reaction to Get Out help it overcome the second week slump that so many horror movies suffer? We’re in uncharted waters here — critics and audiences rarely like a genre movie this much.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’ and ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Soar, ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Mixed
After of a month of the weekend box office being dominated by Split, the arrival of three new major releases has finally given the top 10 a thorough shake-up. As expected, The LEGO Batman Movie led the pack, with Fifty Shades Darker and John Wick: Chapter 2 following. And while each film opened strong, only two of them feel like unqualified successes.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Rogue One’ Stays Ahead of ‘Passengers’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’
It has long been a fine American tradition to escape the awkward enclosure of your parents’ house over your holiday vacation and spend a few hours in the local movie theater, where everyone can shut up about politics and stop swapping passive aggressive comments on each other’s lifestyle for a few hours. 2016 was no different, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Sing drawing in the big crowds while La La Land and Fences impressed in limited release. Not so impressive: Passengers, Why Him?, and Assassin’s Creed, each of which underperformed.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children’ and ‘Deepwater Horizon’ Take Charge
Despite dominating the box office last week, The Magnificent Seven took a not-insignificant tumble this weekend, slipping to third place and allowing Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon to claim the top two spots. However, both newcomers opened below expectations, making this an odd capper to a September that was otherwise full of surprise hits.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Kubo and the Two Strings,’ ‘War Dogs,’ and ‘Ben-Hur’ All End the Summer With a Sigh
And thus the 2016 summer movie season ended in a manner that reflected these past few months as a whole : with a whimper. Despite three new releases, the rapidly tumbling Suicide Squad clung to the top spot, with last week’s runner-up, the raunchy animated film Sausage Party, once again coming in second place. It was a tough weekend for War Dogs, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Ben-Hur, each of which limped into the top 10 with unspectacular numbers.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Sausage Party’ Devours an August Record While ‘Suicide Squad’ Sinks
There are two big stories to lead with in this edition of the Weekend Box Office Report and both of them are equally interesting in their own little ways. Let’s start with the positive: Sausage Party now inexplicably holds the record for biggest opening for an animated movie released in August. And now the negative: Suicide Squad dropped a staggering 67% in its second weekend, which…isn’t good.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Jungle Book’ Is King of the Box Office Jungle Once Again
For the third weekend in a row, The Jungle Book dominated the box office, taking the top spot and making it look easy. It’s been a fairly astonishing run for a movie that felt like a big question mark a few months ago, but this is what the combination of spectacle, strong reviews, and strong word-of-mouth brings you. While this weekend was ultimately all about Jon Favreau’s big-budget take on Rudyard Kipling’s beloved stories, there were a few other new releases. But as you could have guessed, Keanu, Mother’s Day, and Ratchet and Clank didn’t do solid enough business to warrant mention in the headline.
SNL Takes on the #OscarsSoWhite Controversy, Nails It
When the 2016 Oscar nominations were announced nearly two weeks ago, the response to the overwhelmingly white line-up of talent proved instantly controversial. Film fans and industry veterans alike gathered around the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag to make their voices heard, especially decrying how films starring black actors and directed by black filmmakers — like Creed and Straight Outta Compton — somehow managed to only receive nominations for the white people involved in making them. With material this ripe, of course SNL was going to take a swipe at the Academy Awards this week.
SNL: Darrell Hammond’s Donald Trump and Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, Together at Last
The moment former Alaskan governor and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Donald Trump for President of the United States, you know the producers at SNL hurried to get Tina Fey on the phone. The beloved former cast member, who just hosted the show last month, famously took on the role of Palin eight years ago and many people believe that her scathing imitation actually did lasting harm to the real Palin’s political chances. In any case, this event allowed SNL to pair Fey’s Palin with Darrell Hammond‘s Trump. Thanks, reality!
SNL Makes Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren an ‘Undercover Boss’ on Starkiller Base
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Adam Driver hosting 2016’s first episode of SNL, a Kylo Ren sketch of some kind was inevitable. After all, you don't get the actor who plays the villain in one of the biggest movies of all time to appear on your comedy variety show and not have him reprise that character. And we'll give the show this much: we never would have predicted a faux episode of Undercover Boss set on Starkiller Base, with the angry, murderous Kylo Ren going undercover amongst his troops as a radar technician named Matt.