Jacob Hall
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Hidden Figures’ Gives ‘Rogue One’ a Run For Its Money
Eventually, some movie will unseat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story from its spot at the top of the box office charts. That movie will not be Hidden Figures, but man, it sure came close. Unless the final numbers shift ever-so-slightly, the drama about the African American women behind the math that helped launch NASA's first space missions came this close to unseating the massively successful blockbuster, taking the runner-up position by less than $1 million.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Moana’ Rules the Box Office on a Mixed Holiday Weekend
The box office success of Moana feels like destiny: an old school Disney formula plus 21st century polish plus great songs plus the mere presence of Dwayne Johnson and near-universal critical notices is a surefire recipe for success...
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Magnificent Seven’ Lives Up to the Adjective in Its Title
September is traditionally the month of box office quiet after the summer movie season concludes, a chance for studios to unload movies that wouldn’t find their audience elsewhere in the year and an opportunity for everyone to recharge their batteries before the big movies return in October. But nobody told Sully, which is a bigger hit than most of the summer fare released in 2016. And now, nobody told The Magnificent Seven, which leapt into the number one spot with a very strong debut.
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.
Weekend Box Office Report: It’s Mission Accomplished For ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’
A few weeks ago, tracking for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was supposedly in the toilet. Early reports suggested that Tom Cruise’s fifth outing as super-spy Ethan Hunt was not getting people excited. This would be the end, the experts said, of a franchise that has kept Cruise’s career surging forward for the past two decades. Well, that was apparently a big load of crap because Rogue Nation opened well and opened in the same ballpark as the rest of the franchise. Even with inflation differences, this series keeps on hitting the same box office sweet spot.
“You’re Busted”: Samuel L. Jackson Goes Off on News Anchor Who Mistook Him for Laurence Fishburne
There are good days, there are bad days, and then there are days when you confuse Samuel L. Jackson with Laurence Fishburne and find yourself at the mercy of an actor whose voice can make even the strongest man whimper in terror. This sounds like a joke, but it actually happened on live television, and since this is the internet, it will never go away and the news anchor who made the tragic error
‘Fast and Furious’ Director Justin Lin to Tackle ‘The Battered Bastards of Baseball’
Before he went on to direct four entries in the lovably ludicrous 'Fast and Furious' series, Justin Lin was known for his small, personal film, 'Better Luck Tomorrow' (and, uh, 'Annapolis'). The latest project on his plate looks like it could be a return to the smaller, more character-driven films of his early work: producing a feature adaptation of the acclaimed documentary 'The Battered Bastards
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘After Earth’ and ‘Now You See Me’ Can’t Catch ‘Fast and Furious 6′
How rare is it for a Will Smith sci-fi blockbuster to not open at number one at the box office? Also, how horrible must it feel for a Will Smith sci-fi blockbuster to not only get beaten by the second week of a long running franchise about fast cars, but by a magician thriller headlined by Jesse Eisenberg?
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Pain and Gain’ Leads a Slow Weekend
Some will call this a slow weekend, but it may be better to think of it as the calm before the storm. Next week, the summer movie season begins and people are saving their pennies for 'Iron Man 3,' so it's not really surprising that this was an uneventful couple of days at the multiplex. At least the folks behind 'Pain and Gain' can be glad that their film led an otherwise quiet weekend.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Croods’ and ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ Rise to the Top
You can't imagine two films more different than 'The Croods' and 'Olympus Has Fallen,' but right now the two of them sit on top of the box office chart, both temporarily linked by the fact that a bunch of people apparently wanted to see them this weekend. It's the first time in forever that two films have opened to over $30 million at the same time...but it wasn't golden for all of the new release
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ Saves the Box Office
After a series of increasingly dire weeks at the box office, 'Oz the Great and Powerful' arrived and shook things up in a major way, earning the first truly massive opening weekend of 2013 and setting the table for all kinds of Oz-related content in the near future. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is something that we'll let you judge.