The latest: Critics are saying that Die My Love is Jennifer Lawrence at her most vivid and emotionally raw.
If there ever was a life-or-death need to pick a Hollywood it-girl to define the 2010s, Jennifer Lawrence would surely be the one chosen to save our hides. She started the decade with the star-making Winter’s Bone, the rural mystery that marked only her third feature film appearance, nabbing a Best Actress Oscar nomination in the process. 2011 and 2012 came and it felt like Lawrence was everywhere, across blockbusters like X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games, along with Silver Linings Playbook, for which she finally (“finally” meaning five years into a film acting career) won the Academy Award.
Sequels and franchising were the name of the game in the 2010s, so of course she stuck around as Mystique in every X-Men sequel, all the way to the bitter end with Dark Phoenix. Likewise, Hunger Games completed its dystopic story with Lawrence in the lead. In-between, she collaborated twice more Playbook director David O. Russell (Joy, American Hustle), worked with 2010s it-dude Chris Pratt (Passengers), and released against-type material like mother! and Red Sparrow.
Most recently, Lawrence was in the comedy No Hard Feelings, and the Lynne Ramsey drama Die My Love. See where all her films land as we’re looking back on all Jennifer Lawrence movies ranked by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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(Photo by Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Following Twilight‘s path, the The Hunger Games ignited the box office in the early 2010s, and then it was full-on ignition to the young adult adaptation craze as filmmakers chased that high of dystopian lows extracted from Suzanne Collins’ book series. Divergent, The Giver, The Maze Runner, The 5th Wave, The Host, Ender’s Game came barging in, though few could match the Hunger Games‘ potent action, romance, and world-building, alongside the star-making combination of Jennifer Lawrence as upriser icon Katniss Everdeen. It’s a world where a ruined America, a sinister and deadly national game, and a decent love triangle collide — a maturation for the generation that grew up on millennial fantasy and Harry Potter.
If you’re here to pay tribute by watching the series front-to-back, here’s the order the movies originally released:
And with Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes being a prequel set 64 years before the Katniss’ story, if you want to watch The Hunger Games in the series’ chronological timeline order, simply move that last movie into the first viewing position.
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(Photo by Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection. THE HUNGER GAMES.)
Following Twilight‘s path, the The Hunger Games ignited the box office in the early 2010s, and then it was full-on ignition to the young adult adaptation craze as filmmakers chased that high of dystopian lows extracted from Suzanne Collins’ book series. Divergent, The Giver, The Maze Runner, The 5th Wave, The Host, Ender’s Game came barging in, though few could match the Hunger Games‘ potent action, romance, and world-building, alongside the star-making combination of Jennifer Lawrence as upriser icon Katniss Everdeen. It’s a world where a ruined America, a sinister and deadly national game, and a decent love triangle collide — a maturation for the generation that grew up on millennial fantasy and Harry Potter.
Critics responded to the series overall, and especially to the urgent, thought-provoking Catching Fire. And they praised The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes — a prequel set 64 years before Katniss’ journey — as a surprisingly compelling film that “understands the troubling politics buckling a society of inequality.”
Now, we’re ranking The Hunger Games movies by Tomatometer!
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(Photo by Nicola Dove / © MGM / © Danjaq / Courtesy Everett Collection)
We’re ranking all the movies of actor Jeffrey Wright, including his Basquiat major debut, blockbusters (The Batman, the Daniel Craig Bond films), and arthouse films (The French Dispatch, Only Lovers Left Alive). —Alex Vo
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(Photo by Marvel Studios / Disney, 20th Century Fox, Miramax, TriStar)
For their bravery, wit, general badassery, and unbroken spirit in the face of enormous challenges (be they gender discrimination or acid-hissing aliens), we pay tribute to 87 Fearless Movie Women Who Inspire Us.
How did we arrive at our top 87? With the help of a fearless panel of women critics made up of some of the best writers in the industry, including a few on the Rotten Tomatoes staff. Starting with a long list of candidates, they whittled down the list to an initial set of 72 amazingly heroic characters and ordered them, crowning the most fearless woman movie hero in the process. Want to know more about the ladies who voted? We included their bios at the end! Then, in addition to their contributions, which make up the bulk of the list, we also added a handful of more recent entries chosen by the RT staff.
The final list (you can watch every movie in a special FandangoNOW collection) gives compelling insight into which heroes have resonated through the years, women whose big-screen impact remains even as the times change. We have the usual suspects along with plenty of surprises (Working Girl, your day has come!), and the only way to discover them all is reading on for the 87 fearless women movie heroes — and groups of heroes — who inspire us!
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#1One of the appeals of science-fiction is the luxury to comment on modern issues and social mores, or even eschew them completely. Take a look at the diverse space crews in Star Trek, Sunshine, or Alien, where people are hired based on nothing but competence, and none have proven their competence under extreme pressure as well as Ellen Ripley. She’s tough, pragmatic, and cunning in Alien. Journey with Ripley into Aliens and we get to see her in a new light: mothering and nurturing with hints of deep empathy (Sigourney Weaver was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this performance), which only makes the Xenomorph-stomping side of her even more badass.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#2And on the other side of the Sigourney spectrum, Weaver here plays Katharine, a particular kind of woman who’s nasty to the competition: other women. The object of her scorn is her secretary, Tess McGill (played by Melanie Griffith), who has her great ideas stolen by Katharine. The plucky Tess in turn pretends to be her boss’s colleague, and proceeds to shake things up in this corporate Cinderella story. Who doesn’t dream of one day suddenly arriving in a higher echelon of society? Of course, it’s what you do once you get there that’s important, and the glowing and tenacious Tess makes the most of it.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel)
#3Hard-drinking, ass-kicking Valkyrie makes no apologies for her choices and draws solid boundaries. Sure, she’s flawed, but that’s what makes her successes so sweet. That she’s played by Tessa Thompson doubles the fun.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
#4Letitia Wright proved that a sister doesn’t have to sit in the shadow of her sibling simply because he’s king. Her Shuri has the smarts and the sass to cut her own path, making her technical genius essential not only to the Kingdom of Wakanda, but also the Avengers’ recent efforts to take down the tyrant Thanos.
(Photo by Fox 2000 Pictures)
#5Don’t ask us to choose a favorite among Hidden Figures’ Space Race heroines: Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson. The Oscar-nominated drama tells the story of a real-life team of female African-American mathematicians crucial to NASA’s early space program.
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#6As Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron blazed a trail for enslaved post-apocalyptic cult wives in skimpy clothing – literally. With an assist from Max (Tom Hardy), soldier Furiosa set the road on fire to rescue her charges from madman Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), leader of the Citadel.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Lucasfilm Ltd)
#7Daisy Ridley gave girls everywhere – and full-grown women, in truth – a fresh new hero to adore when she debuted in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of humble origins, scrappy Rey overcomes her circumstances living as an orphan in a harsh environment to become an essential component in the Resistance. It helps, of course, that The Force is with her.
(Photo by Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures)
#8Despite her superpowers and privileged background, Gal Gadot as Diana – princess of Themyscira and the Amazons, daughter of Queen Hippolyta and King of the Gods Zeus – retains her humility and a genuine care for humanity. She’s also the most rock solid member of DC’s boys club of Justice League superheroes.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#9Come on…she’s Princess Leia. She leads the Rebel Alliance. She saves the galaxy again and again (with a little help from Luke, and Han, and Chewy). She eventually becomes a revered general, but from the very start – when she first confronts Darth Vader at the beginning of Episode IV – A New Hope – she shows a defiant, fiery nature that never dims. In her defining film role, Carrie Fisher brings impeccable comic timing to this cosmic princess.
(Photo by Roadside Attractions)
#10Before she was Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence was Ree, the role that made her a star and earned her the first of four Oscar nominations. A no-nonsense teenager, Ree dares to brave the dangers lurking within the Ozark Mountains to track down her drug-dealing father and protect her siblings and their home. With each quietly treacherous encounter, she shows depth and instincts beyond her years, and a willingness to fight for what matters.
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#11You can’t have any fear when you’re going up against Hannibal Lecter – or at least you can’t show it. He’ll sniff it out from a mile away. But what’s exciting about Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning portrayal of the young FBI cadet is the way she works through her fear, harnessing that nervous energy alongside her powerful intellect and dogged determination. Clarice Starling is a hero for every little girl who thought she wasn’t good enough.
(Photo by Universal Pictures)
#12Julia Roberts won a best-actress Oscar for her charismatic portrayal of this larger-than-life, real-life figure. Erin Brockovich is repeatedly underestimated because of the flashy way she dresses and the brash way she carries herself. But as a single mom who becomes an unlikely environmental advocate, she’s a steely fighter. What she lacks in book smarts, she more than makes up for with heart. Steven Soderbergh’s film is an inspiring underdog story.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#13Jane Craig is the toughest, sharpest, most prepared woman in the newsroom at all times, but she isn’t afraid to cry to let it all out when the pressure gets too great. Writer-director James L. Brooks created this feminist heroine, this workplace goddess, but Holly Hunter brilliantly brings her to life. She’s just so vibrant. Even when she’s sitting still (which isn’t often), you can feel her thinking. And while two men compete for her attention, no man could ever define her.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#14It would be easy to underestimate Marge Gunderson. Sure, she’s in a position of power as the Brainerd, Minnesota, police chief. But with her folksy manner – and the fact that she’s so pregnant, she’s about to burst – she’s not exactly the most intimidating figure. But in the hands of the brilliant Frances McDormand, she’s consistently the smartest and most fearless person in the room, and she remains one of the Coen brothers’ most enduring characters. You betcha.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios)
#15Danai Gurira plays Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje who specializes in spear fighting and strategic wig flipping. Of late, Okoye has been seen keeping company with Avengers.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#16Things Bridget Jones is prone to: accidents, fantasizing about sexy coworkers, worrying about her weight, and running mad into the snow wearing tiger-print underwear. All totally relatable things, so it’s no surprise she’s the highest-ranked romcom heroine on this list. It also doesn’t hurt that, at their best, Bridget’s movies are what romantic comedies aspire to: They’re fun, cute, and just when it feels like everything’s about to fall apart, there’s the exhilarating little twist at the end that leaves watchers feel like they’re floating on air.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures)
#17It’s true that Cher is a little oblivious to the world at large, but she’s just so earnest and she tries so hard. She discovers a passion for doing good after successfully matchmaking a pair of teachers, and after a series of difficult lessons learned, she makes an honest effort to escape her privileged bubble and become a better person. Like we all should.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#18Thelma and Louise, best friends who stick by each other no matter what. And when their girls’ getaway weekend quickly turns from frivolous to frightening, they find even deeper levels of loyalty to each other. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon have an effortless chemistry with each other, and Ridley Scott’s intimate and thrilling film never judges these women for the decisions they make — or for the lengths to which they’ll go in the name of freedom.
(Photo by Warner Brothers)
#19Enduring racism, misogyny, and emotional, physical, and sexual violence, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg in her film debut) transcends her traumatic life in the rural South, finding friends, strength, and her own voice.
(Photo by Sony Pictures Classics)
#20As a transgender waitress, Marina constantly endures cruelty and confusion from the ignorant people around her. When the one man who loves her for who she truly is dies unexpectedly, she finds herself in the midst of an even more emotional, personal fight. Transgender actress Daniela Vega initially was hired as a consultant on Sebastian Lelio’s film; instead, she became its star, and A Fantastic Woman deservedly won this year’s foreign-language Oscar.
(Photo by TriStar Pictures)
#21Sarah Connor makes many want to be a better mother – or at least get to the gym and work on our triceps. The once-timid waitress crafts herself into a force of nature, a fearsome and visceral manifestation of pure maternal instinct. Played most memorably by Linda Hamilton in the first two Terminator movies, Sarah may seem unhinged, but she’s got laser-like focus when it comes to protecting her son, John, from the many threats coming his way.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#22The return of blaxploitation queen, Pam Grier! What’s not to love? Especially in Quentin Tarantino’s killer love letter to South Bay Los Angeles. As Jackie Brown, Grier exudes classic cool with a tough exterior.
(Photo by Richard Olley/Columbia Pictures)
#23Jessica Chastain has made a career of playing quick-witted characters with nerves of steel. Nowhere is this truer than in her starring role in Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling depiction of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Maya is obsessively focused in her pursuit of the al Qaeda leader. She’s a confident woman who has to be extra prepared to survive in a man’s world. But when the mission is over and she finally allows some emotion to shine through, it’s cathartic for us all.
(Photo by Warner Brothers/ Everett Collection)
#24She’s the smartest kid in the class, regardless of the subject. The hardest worker, too. And she’s proud of those qualities, making her an excellent role model for girls out there with an interest in math and science. But Hermione isn’t all about the books. Over the eight Harry Potter films, in Emma Watson’s increasingly confident hands, Hermione reveals her resourcefulness, loyalty, and grace. She’s a great student but an even better friend.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/ Everett Collection)
#25Howard Hawks’ celebrated screwball comedy benefited from a not-so-small change to the stage play it was based on: In the original The Front Page, Hildy Johnson was a male. But thanks to Rosalind Russell’s lively performance, as well as a few script changes she personally insisted upon, the character blossomed into an early icon of the independent working woman who’s not only just as effective at her job as her male counterparts, but also equally adept with a witty comeback.
(Photo by Walt Disney/ Everett Collection)
#26Elastigirl takes on all the trials of motherhood: She’s got hyper kids, a bored husband, and has to witness certain parts of her body unperkify. Elastigirl also just happens to be a superhero, with the fate of the world resting on her shoulders.
(Photo by Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)
#27Fans of the short-lived but beloved Fox sci-fi series Firefly were already familiar with Gina Torres‘ badassery as Zoe Washburne in Serenity. A veteran of the Unification War and second in command of the ship, Zoe is a strong and loyal ally who rarely pulls punches, whether she’s stating a controversial opinion or engaged in a literal fistfight. With her free spirit and deadly skills, it’s no wonder she became a fan favorite.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#28Dolly Parton is a national treasure, and 9 to 5 allows her to light up the screen with her sparkling, charismatic personality. But while Doralee may seem like a sweet Southern gal, she’s got a stiff backbone and a sharp tongue, and she isn’t afraid to use them when she’s crossed. When she finally stands up to her sexist bully of a boss alongside co-workers Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, it’s nothing short of a revolution – one that remains sadly relevant today.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
#29The story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is one that deserves to be told, and it’s Geena Davis‘ Dottie Hinson who grounds this fictional account. She’s a talented local player who becomes the star of the Rockford Peaches, and it’s her quick thinking that brings publicity to the sport. When her decision to play in the World Series leads to a spectacular finish, she also demonstrates a very human vulnerability, making her a strong but relatable heroine.
(Photo by Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection)
#30Jane Austen’s classic heroine Elizabeth Bennet jumps off the page in the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley, who gives audiences an intelligent, down-to-Earth, sometimes literally dirty, but uncompromisingly steadfast leading lady.
(Photo by Everett Collection)
#31Never underestimate a sorority girl. They are organized and they know how to get what the want. In the case of Elle Woods, she goes after her law school goals with a smile on her face, a spring in her step, and an impeccably coordinated wardrobe. Reese Witherspoon is impossibly adorable in the role, with a potent combination of smarts and heart to shut down the naysayers who are foolish enough to judge her simply by her looks.
(Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection)
#32Talk brashly and carry a big sword. As Tom Cruise’s character unravels a complex time travel sci-fi story, a constant in his fluctuating world is Rita Vrataski aka the killer Angel of Verdun. But Emily Blunt gives life to Rita beyond burgeoning love interest. She takes the lead and makes the movie just as much her’s.
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
#33When Nick Fury sent that mysterious intergalactic text message right before disappearing into dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, eager fans knew what was in store. As played by Brie Larson, Captain Marvel is one of the most powerful superheroes in the MCU — if not THE most powerful — and she’s in such high demand that she spends most of her time battling evil on other planets. She shows up when it counts, though, and she can rock a mowhawk like nobody’s business.
(Photo by Paramount /Courtesy Everett Collection)
#34Though hit hard by tragedy and seemingly insurmountable odds of surviving an alien invasion, mother and daughter duo Evelin and Regan Abbott prove their mettle in A Quiet Place.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures / Courtesy: Everett Collection)
#35Played first in film by the groundbreaking star of the Star Trek TV series, Nichelle Nichols, the role was passed on to Zoe Saldana in the 2009 reboot film. Uhura, the USS Enterprise chief communications officer, was a critical crew member throughout the franchise in both TV and film.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#36Who can stand up to Hugh Jackman’s fierce Wolverine without flinching? His cloned daughter X-23. Dafne Keen imbued the preteen mutant, a.k.a. “Laura,” with a volatile mix of anger, despondency, obstinance, and hope – that we would very much like to see more of.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#37She’s Buffy. She slays vampires while juggling cheerleading and the SATs. But while Kristy Swanson gives the character a satricial bent, it’s the legendary TV adaptation that gives this character a lasting legacy. But the movie ain’t a bad place to start.
(Photo by Murray Close/©Lionsgate/courtesy Everett Collection)
Following in the footsteps of older brothers Luke and Chris, the youngling Hemsworth got his big break in 2010, starring with future tabloid flame Miley Cyrus in The Last Song. 2012 was also a breakthrough year, as he appeared in The Hunger Games as potential Katniss love interest Gale, and opposite Stallone (and a whole lotta other big guys) in The Expendables 2. Liam survived Hunger Games through three sequels, before jumping franchises with Independence Day: Resurgence.
His 2019 included showing off more of his comedy chops in Isn’t It Romantic, and his dark side with Killerman. With his latest releases, we’re ranking all Liam Hemsworth movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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Oh, mother! With Red Sparrow taking flight this week, we’re looking back on Jennifer Lawrence’s 10 best-reviewed movies!
(Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski/Roadside Attractions)
Aside from hardcore fans of The Bill Engvall Show, not many people knew who Jennifer Lawrence was in 2009 — but that all changed the following year with the release of Winter’s Bone, writer-director Debra Granik’s harrowing portrayal of a teenage girl who embarks on a perilous effort to locate her missing father in order to save her disabled mother and younger siblings from being evicted from their meager Ozarks home. Bleak stuff for sure, but limned with a subtle, yet resolute hope — not to mention the ferocity of Lawrence’s Oscar-nominated performance. “Winter’s Bone is a genuine triumph,” wrote Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic, paying it the ultimate compliment by adding that it’s “a great movie with astounding performances so natural, so genuine, that you forget it’s a movie.”
(Photo by Francois Duhamel/Columbia Pictures)
Wigs and prosthetics are often a dead giveaway that an actor (or a movie in general) is trying way too hard to make a sale, and David O. Russell’s American Hustle is full of ’em. Fortunately, all that artifice stops on the surface. David O. Russell’s ’70s period piece, about a real-life FBI sting operation that used a pair of con artists (played by Christian Bale and Amy Adams) to target corrupt politicians, lays the garish hair and wardrobe on thick, but it makes sense in context, and it’s all backed up by a wall of solid performances; just about the entire cast was nominated for Oscars, including Lawrence for her work as Bale’s unstable wife. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a lot of fun: as Colin Covert wrote for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Even at two hours and 20 minutes, the movie doesn’t wear you down. It carries you along with heedless momentum, giddy and exhilarated at its all-American ambition and scam-artist confidence.”
(Photo by JoJo Whilden/Weinstein Company)
How do you make a seriocomedy about mental illness without coming across as obnoxious or insensitive? It’s obviously easier said than done (just ask anyone who’s seen Mixed Nuts), but David O. Russell found a way with 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, starring Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as a couple of bruised souls who meet cute after enduring terrible personal tragedies and somehow manage to nurture a connection in spite of the many emotional and circumstantial obstacles between them. While a few critics certainly questioned the wisdom of trying to wring any sort of comedy from such a serious subject, the vast majority applauded Playbook‘s deft treatment of sensitive material, and the Academy agreed — the movie picked up eight Oscar nominations, with Lawrence taking home Best Actress. “It’s Lawrence who knocked me sideways,” wrote David Edelstein for New York Magazine. “I loved her in Winter’s Bone and The Hunger Games but she’s very young — I didn’t think she had this kind of deep-toned, layered weirdness in her.”
(Photo by Murray Close/Lionsgate)
Why settle for starring in one blockbuster franchise when you can topline two? Already a prominent part of the rebooted X-Men movies, Jennifer Lawrence took the lead for Lionsgate’s adaptation of The Hunger Games, author Suzanne Collins’ bestselling YA book series about a dystopian future in which boys and girls are forced to fight to the death for a nation’s amusement. Starring as the archer Katniss Everdeen, Lawrence helped bring the books’ rather grim story to life with a soulful performance that went a long way toward setting the Hunger Games films apart from the many likeminded movies that have followed in their wake — and winning consistent praise from critics like the Houston Chronicle’s Amy Biancolli, who wrote of the first installment, “It features a functioning creative imagination and lots of honest-to-goodness acting by its star, Jennifer Lawrence, who brings her usual toughness and emotional transparency to the archer-heroine Katniss.”
(Photo by Alan Markfield/20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
A year after scoring her breakout role in Winter’s Bone, Lawrence committed herself to several films’ worth of CGI action sequences (and slinking around in little more than a blue bodysuit) when she signed on to play the new Mystique in X-Men: First Class, the first installment in the freshly rebooted X-Men series. An Oscar winner by the time she returned for 2014’s Days of Future Past, Lawrence found herself at the center of a complex time-travel storyline that used her character as the emotional fulcrum for the franchise’s most ambitious attempt yet to place thought-provoking questions of prejudice against an action-fueled blockbuster backdrop. The end result blended sheer popcorn thrills almost seamlessly with the sociopolitical subtext the X-Men comics have always been known for; as the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern marveled, “Everything is of a piece, and it’s dazzling.”
(Photo by Fred Hayes/Paramount Pictures)
Anyone who’s ever attempted a long-distance relationship knows they can be hell, and writer-director Drake Doremus knows that pain more intimately than most — as evidenced by Like Crazy, the winsome romantic drama he and co-writer Ben York Jones weaved out of their real-life long-distance broken hearts and turned into a starring vehicle for Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. When the movie opens, he lives in L.A. and she’s a visiting British exchange student, and although falling in love is easy, their permanent addresses aren’t — especially after she overstays her student visa and is exiled to the U.K., driving the couple apart long enough for him to start a new relationship with someone who doesn’t live across the Atlantic (Jennifer Lawrence). While the story’s broad contours may be familiar, Doremus and his sharp cast handle the formula with aplomb; the result is what the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday deemed “A serious, deeply felt romance for an audience Hollywood most often bombards with raunchy sex comedies and video-game adaptations.”
(Photo by Paramount Pictures)
Truly challenging mainstream cinema is typically in short supply regardless of the era, and in our current franchise-driven times, that’s arguably truer than ever. So no matter how it ended up being received by critics, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s mother! offered a wide release worth celebrating in 2017 — a story that dared to challenge, and outright provoke, audiences while offering little in the way of traditional narrative compensation. Starring Lawrence as a woman whose seemingly bucolic existence with her husband (Javier Bardem) is upended by the arrival of some mysterious guests (Michelle Pfeiffer and Ed Harris), the movie was greeted with some of the most wildly divisive reactions of the year — although most critics were more than happy to be baffled, Aronofsky-style. The end result, as Glenn Kenny argued for RogerEbert.com, functions as “A hallucination that’s also an angry cry about the state of this world, but most importantly, a cinematic experience of unique proportions.”
(Photo by Summit Entertainment)
In the years after his fall from public grace following several bouts of bizarre and generally offensive and/or ill-advised behavior, Mel Gibson needed a project that could help regenerate a little goodwill by taking him out of his dramatic wheelhouse and reminding audiences that he could still act — and he got one in the form of The Beaver, a directorial effort from Gibson’s friend Jodie Foster that gave the Lethal Weapon star the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a guy who responds to a series of horrible personal setbacks by developing what appears to be an alternate personality channeled through a beaver puppet on his hand. It’s the kind of left-field premise you have to see to believe, especially given that Foster rounded out her cast with likable pros like Anton Yelchin (as Gibson’s embarrassed son) and, of course, Jennifer Lawrence(as the classmate he’s afraid to get too close to because of his weirdo dad). Destined for the commercial margins and dismissed as too tonally disjointed by some critics, The Beaver was nevertheless hailed as a dam fine film by the majority — including Lisa Kennedy of the Denver Post, who wrote, “The film is amusing, then melancholy, then weirdly funny, then not. It’s a quiet, measured work.”
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell worked Hollywood magic together with Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, so you can hardly blame them for reuniting again — especially to film the stranger-than-fiction real-life story of Joy Mangano, the entrepreneur who became a self-made millionaire after inventing the Miracle Mop. Lawrence and Russell’s undeniable rapport, brought to bear on a classically uplifting story with a postmodern twist, made Joy look like an awards contender — as did the rest of the movie’s terrific cast, rounded out by fellow Russell vets Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper. With all those top-shelf ingredients, the lukewarm reaction to the movie couldn’t help but feel disappointing; still, Lawrence fans shouldn’t come away disappointed by her performance, which drew applause even when the film around her didn’t. “In the end, Joy is more slender and inconsequential than Russell probably intends it to be — it wears its ideas rather than embodying them,” wrote Stephanie Zacharek for Time. “But Lawrence keeps the channels of communication open, every minute, with the audience.”
(Photo by Phase 4 Films courtesy Everett Collection)
Lawrence picked up her first major film role in The Poker House, a grim drama marking Tank Girl star Lori Petty’s debut as a writer-director. While few saw it at the time, there’s no denying Petty’s great taste in casting — aside from Lawrence, playing the oldest of three sisters subjected to deplorable living conditions by their deeply troubled mother (Selma Blair), House also features an early appearance from Chloe Grace Moretz, as well as a disturbing turn from Bokeem Woodbine as the mother’s reprehensible pimp. “The Poker House is one of the most personal, wounded films in years,” wrote John Wheeler for L.A. Weekly. “That it is also one of the most confused reflects how deeply it springs from the psyche of its director.”
This week, Christy reports back on a superhero spectacle that happens to be one of the most anticipated films of the year, as well as a sequel to a surprise hit from 2002 and, on DVD, the final chapter of the Hunger Games franchise. Read on for details.
NEW IN THEATERS
Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of violence and action throughout, and some sensuality.
Director Zack Snyder’s follow-up to his 2013 film Man of Steel finds Superman (Henry Cavill) battling Batman (Ben Affleck) basically for the amusement of crazed industrialist Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). Mass urban destruction ensues. Theoretically, there’s more to it than that, and it involves Batman’s fear that Superman is dangerous following the climactic events of the previous movie. But really, any semblance of plot is just a thin excuse to set up a pantheon of films based on DC Comics characters, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that’s firmly in place. All your usual action-movie elements are here: brutal fistfights, perilous car chases, enormous explosions and deadly gunfire. As in so many other Batman films, BvS replays the moment when young Bruce Wayne watches his parents get shot to death during a robbery outside a movie theater. Plus — without spoiling anything — a new monster arrives on the scene who’s seemingly indestructible. There’s also a disturbing dream sequence. It’s all very noisy and numbing. It’s CGI-inflated comic-book violence. But it’s probably OK for mature tweens and older.
Rating: PG-13, for some suggestive material.
The sequel to the 2002 surprise smash hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding revisits the wacky Portokalos family in all their overbearing, obnoxious glory. And yes, there is indeed another big, fat, Greek wedding. This time, Toula (writer and star Nia Vardalos) must help orchestrate the event when it turns out that her parents (Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan) never were married officially 50 years ago in Greece because the priest didn’t sign the certificate. Madcap hilarity (and lots of Windex spritzing) ensue. The only possibly offensive part of this movie is the thoroughly inappropriate sex talk from Toula’s outspoken Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin). She also buys Toula a racy, red negligee to help her spice things up with Ian (John Corbett), the WASPy dude she married in the first film. But for the most part, this is probably fine for kids around age 9 or 10 and up. (Although I brought my movie-savvy 6 ½-year-old with me to the screening and he complained afterward that it gave him a headache.)
NEW ON DVD
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and for some thematic material.
The final Hunger Games film comes with all the massive carnage and destruction you’ve come to expect from the series — and from any movie within the post-apocalyptic, dystopian-future Young Adult genre. So if you’ve seen any of the three previous films, you know what’s in store for you. There is the threat of all-out war in Panem. Additionally, diabolical President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and his gamesmakers have scattered deadly obstacles — or pods — throughout the capitol to keep Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her fellow rebels from storming in and killing him. These are devastating, ranging from a giant, ferocious wave of black ooze to an army of ravenous, reptilian lizard mutts in the sewers. (The latter scene had me curled up in a ball, watching through splayed fingers.) There’s also a disturbing sequence involving the death of many young children. This is just extremely violent for a PG-13 movie. It’s probably OK for mature, older tweens and up — but if your kids are fans of the book, they know what’s in the movie, and they’ll probably want to see it all unfold for themselves.
This week on DVD and Blu-ray, we’ve got the concluding chapter of the Hunger Games saga, plus a family comedy, a spy series, and a biopic of a famous humanitarian. Read on for details on the rest of the new releases.
In this satisfying — if occasionally overly grim — conclusion to the blockbuster franchise, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) leads a guerrilla army to eliminate the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) — and discovers that some within the rebellion may have agendas of their own.
Jamie Bell stars in AMC’s historical espionage drama, set during the American Revolution.
Will Ferrell stars as a straight-laced radio executive whose struggle to connect with his wife’s children is thrown painfully out of whack when the kids’ cooler bio-dad (Mark Wahlberg) makes a surprise reappearance, sparking a battle for paternal supremacy in which each man makes progressively more elaborate attempts to win the kids’ affection.
This week on streaming video, Netflix has a whole new season of House of Cards, so you can wallow in Frank Underwood’s unscrupulousness yet again. Plus, the concluding chapter of The Hunger Games hits streaming services, along with a bunch of popular favorites. Read on for the full list.
Available now on Amazon Prime: Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2
Available now on: Amazon Prime
Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg star in this thinly fictionalized retelling of a few days in the life of David Foster Wallace on the verge of celebrity.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
In this observational, quasi-autobiographical, totally hilarious FX series, Louis CK plays himself, a stand-up comedian and single dad living in New York City.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
Ethan Hawke, Uma Thrurman, and Jude Law star in this noir-ish sci-fi thriller about a man who steals a friend’s genetic identity and runs afoul with the authorities.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, David Thewlis, Paddy Considine, and Sean Harris star in a dark and bloody adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
Available now on: Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu
In his first outing as 007, Pierce Brosnan helped to restore the layer of suave menace and playful humor that many viewers felt the character had been missing for far too long.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is back to manipulate, glad-hand, rant, negotiate, and turn American politics into a nest of Machiavellian maneuvering — in other words, just another day in Washington.
Available now on: Netflix
Simon Pegg and Lake Bell star in this Certified Fresh romantic comedy about two mismatched people who end up on a date together after a case of mistaken identity.
Available now on: Netflix
Sorta like E.T but with a thicker brogue, this family film tells the story of Angus (Alex Atel), who stumbles upon a mysterious egg that contains a creature that grows up to be the Loch Ness Monster; Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin, and David Morrissey also star.
Available now on: Netflix
In this satisfying — if occasionally overly grim — conclusion to the blockbuster franchise, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) leads a guerrilla army to eliminate the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) — and discovers that some within the rebellion may have agendas of their own.
This weekend, Star Wars: The Force Awakens came within a hair of becoming the top grossing film of all-time, leading the pack easily for a third straight weekend while the latest film from Quentin Tarantino expanded nationwide and made some noise of its own.
Coming within only $20M of the all-time domestic box office record in only 17(!) days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens remained at number one for a third consecutive weekend taking in an estimated $88.3M bringing its out-of-this-galaxy total to $740M, again in only 17 days. Current champ Avatar should be moving into the center lane to let The Force Awakens pass it on the left as early as tomorrow, no later than Tuesday. Since Avatar‘s ascent to the throne in 2010 (including a Special Edition re-release) there have been a couple of films where people thought, will this be the one to topple James Cameron’s stranglehold on the charts? But neither Batman nor The Avengers could put up a fight, though they valiantly tried. Jurassic World shocked the world with its $652M take from this summer, which eclipsed the initial release of Titanic ($600M) but even Chris Pratt fell just a little short. I think, however, that when the rumblings started that there would be a new Star Wars film on the horizon, people starting thinking that this could be it. And then the first trailer came out and fanboys everywhere wet their pants in anticipation. And when the opening night/day/weekend records came crashing down, it was a forgone conclusion that Avatar would fall too, but in less than three weeks? After its third weekend, Avatar wasn’t even halfway to its final total ($352M of $750M). Titanic was barely a quarter of the way to its final total ($157M of $600M). Yes, those two films were anomalies, having extremely slim declines week-to-week and sometimes even increasing after being in theaters for weeks on end (let’s not forget, Titanic was number one for about 4 months straight) so it’s unlikely The Force Awakens is only halfway to its ultimate final gross, but hitting a billion dollars is nowhere near out of the equation at this point. Internationally, The Force Awakens made another $96M this weekend bringing its foreign total up to $770M and its worldwide cume up to $1.51B with China still to come. For reference sake, the highest grossing U.S. film released in China is Furious 7 which made around $370M earlier this year.
What’s even more fascinating is if you look at the all-time chart adjusted for inflation, where Gone With the Wind has ruled the roost for decades with a current adjusted $1.7B gross. The Force Awakens could end up on the top 10 of that list if it ends up making over $938M, which is what Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made over its many releases since 1937. Any way you want to look at it, we’re living through a momentous box office/pop culture moment. And I think, it’s a moment unlike any other we’ll see in at least my lifetime. Anticipation for The Force Awakens was unlike any other I’ve seen and even looking ahead at the release schedule for the next 10-15 years I’m hard pressed to come up with another movie (including the new Star Wars films) that will reach this level of box office domination. I can only hope right now James Cameron is putting the final touches on the artwork of the Na’vi waving at the Millennium Falcon as it flies by his records. With the domestic record set to fall within the next 48 hours, the next one we’re looking at is worldwide box office where The Force Awakens is currently number six all time with Furious 7 ($1.515B), The Avengers ($1.519B) and Jurassic World ($1.669B) set to fall as well. Which would leave only Titanic (2.186B) and Avatar ($2.788B) left to go, though those final two could take a little time.
The new dream team of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg held up nicely in second place for a second straight weekend with their comedy Daddy’s Home slipping 25% to $29M, bringing its total up to $93.7M. I have to imagine Daddy’s Home Again is already in the works – let’s hope it doesn’t end up like Ted 2 or any number of comedy sequels that should have never been made. Why can we never just appreciate what we have?
It’s pretty amazing to me how every Quentin Tarantino films feels like an event when it comes out. Ever since he burst onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs in 1992 ($2.8M final gross) and then took the world by storm with his Oscar-winning Pulp Fiction ($108M in 1994), every 2-3 years Tarantino releases another film that is completely different from his last one, yet feels like a natural progression, like somehow all his films are within the same universe, just in different parts of it. This weekend his latest film, The Hateful Eight shot up an estimated $16.2M in its first full weekend nationwide (after a 100 theater opening last week), bringing its total up to $29.5M. It has a chance of becoming his third straight $100M film after 2012’s Django Unchained ($162M in 2012/2013 – his highest grossing film to date) and 2009’s Inglourious Basterds which made $120M. Both of those films grossed north of $30M in their opening weekends so The Hateful Eight may need some help to get to $100M, and a B CinemaScore isn’t promising, but the film looks like it might be a player during this awards season so it could get there.
There were no other new or expanding films this first weekend of 2016, so the rest of the top 10 looks a lot like last week. Fourth place belonged to Sisters which slipped a slim 11% in its third weekend to an estimated $12.6M bringing its total up to $61.7M. It’s no Daddy’s Home but I’d much rather see Tina Fey and Amy Poehler get back together for another film. Also holding up well over New Year’s weekend was Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip which fell only 10% to $11.8M, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $67M after three weeks. There can be no doubt there will be another Alvin film coming out soon… The Chipmunk Awakens perhaps?
There was less joy for Joy which fell 39% in its second weekend, falling to number six with an estimated $10.4M, bringing its total to $38.7M. A stronger hold in its second weekend would have been nice for this awards hopeful, but that seems to be the trend for prestige pics so far this year. On the other hand, you have The Big Short which fell only 14.5% in its fourth weekend to an estimated $9M bringing the ensemble film up to $33M. Eighth place belonged to Will Smith’s Concussion which held up reasonably well in its second weekend, taking in an estimated $8M, a drop of 24% from last weekend, bringing its total up to $25M. In ninth place was the unnecessary remake Point Break which dropped 30% from its opening weekend to an estimated $6.8M, bringing its cume to $22M. And rounding out the top 10 in its seventh weekend is the final chapter in the Hunger Games saga, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 which took in an additional $4.6M, according to estimates, bringing it’s total to $274M.
Outside of the top 10 saw The Revenant dip only 5% from last weekend while remaining in only 4 theaters, taking in an additional $450,000 this weekend, bringing its cume up to $1.3M so far. It expands nationwide next weekend. And opening in limited release was the stop-motion animated Anomalisa which took in a decent $140,000, according to estimates, from only 4 theaters for a per screen average of $35,000.
The top ten films grossed $196.8M which was up 56% from last year when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies remained at number one for a third straight weekend with $21.7; and up 66% from 2013 when Frozen reclaimed the top spot in its seventh weekend $19.6M.
This weekend, moviegoers flooded the multiplexes for Han Solo’s first new adventure in 32 years as the hotly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens smashed the all-time opening weekend box office record with a jaw-dropping estimate of $238M. That easily beat out the previous record of $208.8M set just this past June by Jurassic World.
Intense fan demand made this one of the most frontloaded debuts too. Thursday night kicked off the release with pre-shows starting at 7:00pm which resulted in a mammoth $57M – a new record. The final Harry Potter held that record for over four years with $43.5M with shows starting later at midnight.
Studios insist on bundling pre-shows into the opening day figure which for Force Awakens came in at an astounding $120.5M. That beat the $91.1M of the final Potter to become the new all-time best opening day ever. Both films featured 3D and IMAX, though Force‘s gross included five more hours worth of showtimes. The opening day tally accounted for a whopping 51% of the full weekend figure.
The new Star Wars collected a staggering $68.7M on Saturday which represented a 43% drop from the THU/FRI opening day figure. Sunday is estimated to decline by 29% to $48.8M. At these box office heights, slight fluctuations in percentage drops can cause big changes to the grosses. It is possible that Sunday overperforms and the weekend finishes in $240M+ territory.
The PG-13 Force arrived after years of hype. Star Wars fans unhappy with the prequels were hoping the new film would bring back the excitement they had with the first trilogy. Critics and fans have agreed that director J.J. Abrams succeeded. Force combined beloved characters from the old films with fun new characters all encompassed in the space Western packaging which made the first Star Wars in 1977 become such a runaway blockbuster.
Reviews were sensational and moviegoer feedback has been electric. The CinemaScore grade was an encouraging A and other audience metrics also show extremely high levels of customer satisfaction. That will bode well for the weeks ahead in terms of attracting non-fans plus piling up repeat viewing over the holidays from the Jedi faithful. All six previous Star Wars episodes opened in May. For the seventh episode, Disney decided to shift to mid-December and open on the same weekend that kicked off record runs for both Titanic and Avatar with Christmas helping the second weekend and New Year’s aiding the third frame.
The raw stats on Force are mesmerizing. The opening weekend generated an average of $57,571 from 4,134 theaters – the best ever for a wide release. 3D screens accounted for 47% of the gross which is impressive by today’s standards. The audience was 58% male and 63% over 25. Also coming out as winners this weekend – all the 2016 films lucky enough to get their trailers in front of the new Rey and Finn adventure.
The road ahead could not be more promising. Given the record weekend start and the fact that people are taking off from work and school as the week progresses, mid-week daily grosses could be in the $30M vicinity with Thursday dropping down due to Christmas Eve. The second weekend should have a smaller than usual drop for a tentpole because of Friday being Christmas Day. Every day between December 25 and January 1 behaves like a Saturday at the box office and the film’s third frame will also be a holiday session. Star Wars: The Force Awakens could very well have more than $600M in the domestic bank coming out of New Year’s weekend with all of January to look forward to.
Fans sought out IMAX screens in record numbers to maximize their experience. The 391 IMAX sites grossed a staggering $30.1M this weekend vaulting past the old record of $20.9M set by Jurassic World. That made for a scorching $77,000 screen average. Worldwide, 667 IMAX screens opened to a record $48M edging the $44.1M of Jurassic World which included China. Star Wars opens there next month so its global bow becomes even more impressive.
Outside North America, Force debuted to a stunning $279M from international markets for an eye-popping global launch of $517M. Top markets were the U.K. with $48.9M, Germany with $27.3M, France with $22.7M, Australia with $18.9M, and Japan with $13.5M. Most every country opened this weekend with the exceptions of India and Greece which debut next weekend and China which is set for a January 9 opening. Star Wars: The Force Awakens stands an excellent chance of becoming only the second film ever to reach the $2 billion club joining Avatar.
Of course, Disney has no plans to stop with just this film. The Force Awakens was intended to rejuvenate the Star Wars moviegoing experience and more installments are on the calendar to keep the billions rolling in. Next up is the spin-off Rogue One on this very same weekend next year followed by Episode VIII on Memorial Day weekend 2017. A Han Solo film is planned for Memorial Day weekend 2018, Episode IX is slated for 2019, and more films may also be announced later taking the franchise into its sixth decade.
Moviegoers actually spent some cash on films not about Han Solo this weekend. Fox debuted its kidpic sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and took second place with an estimated $14.4M from 3,653 theaters for a $3,942 average. The PG-rated comedy delivered the lowest opening yet in the four-film franchise and is setting itself up as the alternative to the violent Star Wars for parents with smaller children. All of them opened in mid-December and the two sequels both finished with more than four times their openings. But competing against BB-8 will be a formidable task.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler joined forces again, this time for an R-rated comedy, and saw Sisters debut in third place with an estimated $13.4M averaging $4,530 from 2,962 playdates. Reactions to the Universal release have been mixed with critics giving somewhat decent marks and audiences feeling the same way. The CinemaScore grade was a mediocre B. With Star Wars out there, it was no surprise that Sisters skewed 79% female.
Four-time champ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 fell to fourth dropping 51% to an estimated $5.7M pushing Lionsgate to $254.4M to date. All four films in the franchise have now broken the quarter-billion mark. Global tally is up to $595.5M. Down 50% was the boxing hit Creed with an estimated $5.1M putting Warner Bros. at $87.9M.
Disney’s Lucasfilm unit clobbered the competition and one of the victims was the studio’s other division Pixar. Its latest toon The Good Dinosaur tumbled 59% to an estimated $4.2M upping the cume to only $96.5M. After 26 days of play, the kidpic still has not broken the $100M mark. Universal’s horror-comedy Krampus followed with an estimated $3.8M, off 55%, for a $34.8M total. Ron Howard’s adventure In the Heart of the Sea got decimated in its second weekend crumbling 69% to an estimated $3.5M giving Warner Bros. another misfire this year with a weak $18.6M cume.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $291.6M which was up a staggering 139% from last year when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opened at number one with $54.7M; and up 115% from 2013 when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug stayed in the top spot with $31.5M.
Call it the calm before the Jedi storm. The North American box office plummeted to one of its worst showings of 2015 with the top ten generating a measly $66M in ticket sales led for the fourth week in a row by the latest Hunger Games while the only new wide release, the epic Moby Dick adventure In the Heart of the Sea, attracted little interest from moviegoers. Film fans are focused on the highly-anticipated arrival of Star Wars: The Force Awakens which begins breaking records this Thursday night with 7 p.m. pre-shows.
In its fourth weekend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 collected an estimated $11.3M declining by a moderate 40%. Lionsgate has amassed $244.5M to date which is still the smallest gross yet for the profitable series with the new chapter currently running 12% behind the pace of its 2014 predecessor which sat at $276.9M at this same point. The only other film in this franchise to four-peat was the first Hunger Games in the spring of 2012. Of course, part of the reason for the new film staying on top is next weekend’s Star Wars scaring away studios from programming anything worthwhile on this frame.
Overseas, the second Mockingjay boosted its cume to $320.1M led by the U.K. and Germany with $38.1M and $36.2M, respectively. The global haul stands at $564.6M including China where the film has finished its run. Last year’s chapter was higher at this stage with $611M and that total did not include China which opened later in the run. The entire franchise has grossed just under $2.9M worldwide to date.
Opening close behind in second place was Ron Howard’s historical adventure In the Heart of the Sea with an estimated $11M from 3,103 theaters for a weak $3,547 average. The Warner Bros. release starring Chris Hemsworth earned lackluster reviews and never commanded much consumer interest in the first place. Add in the fact that the PG-13 actioner found no love from end-of-year awards groups and Heart clearly had no must-see buzz.
Studio data showed that the audience was 68% over the age of 35 and 54% male as young people were not engaged at all. The CinemaScore grade was a B+ which is decent, but not strong enough to signal nice legs ahead. Thursday night’s arrival of Force will only make matters worse, though the studio can always have a new hope trying to capture spillover business from those sold out of Star Wars.
Even if a solid holiday run results in the weeks ahead, it will be difficult for In the Heart of the Sea to finish its domestic run much past the $50M mark. That would be a big disappointment for Warners, given the production cost estimated to be over $100M. Even international may not save this one.
Kidpic The Good Dinosaur isn’t exactly showing sensational legs. A decent hold saw the toon drop 32% to an estimated $10.5M lifting the total to just $89.7M. Dinosaur is running a mere 7% ahead of 1998’s A Bug’s Life, Pixar’s lowest-grossing movie ever. Luckily ,the Disney empire will be taking in truckloads of cash next weekend with the return of Mr. Solo.
This weekend, Creed became the highest-grossing Rocky franchise installment in 30 years as movie fans delivered another good hold with a 33% slip to an estimated $10.1M. With an impressive $79.3M after its third weekend, the second-generation boxing drama surpassed the $70.3M of 2006’s Rocky Balboa on Friday. A trip to the $100M club looks very likely.
The rest of the holdovers were slumming it in single-digit-millions land. In its second weekend, the horror-comedy Krampus enjoyed an acceptable hold thanks to good buzz and no new competition falling 51% to an estimated $8M. Universal has banked $28.2M to date.
Sony’s big end-of-year offering SPECTRE dropped 28% to an estimated $4M boosting the domestic haul to $190.8M which is 30% behind Skyfall from the same point three years ago. Global grosses have exceeded $820M now. The studio’s Seth Rogen holiday comedy The Night Before followed with an estimated $3.9M, down 23%, for a cume of $38.2M. Collecting an estimated $2.7M in its sixth weekend was Fox’s The Peanuts Movie which dipped 26% and sits at a sum of $125M.
Gaining awards season momentum with three Golden Globe nominations for picture, director, and screenplay, Open Road’s Spotlight did well again easing just 10% to an estimated $2.5M as its theater count broke the 1,000 mark for the first time. Cume is now $20.3M with plenty to come thanks to the upcoming holiday season plus continued Oscar talk. Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn hung in the top ten again with an estimated $2M, off 19%, for a new total of $14.3M.
Generating spectacular results in its platform debut was the all-star financial meltdown pic The Big Short which opened to an estimated $720,000 from only eight locations for a stunning $90,000 average. The Paramount release combined starpower from Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt with great reviews and growing awards buzz including the four Golden Globe nominations that came out on the day before it released. All audience metrics show very positive support from paying moviegoers. Short will remain limited while Star Wars opens and then expands nationwide on Dec. 23 as it embarks on a potentially lucrative holiday season run despite a crowded field.
The Weinstein Co. finally expanded its awards contender Carol after three weeks in four theaters. With five Globe nominations including Best Picture – more than any other film – it went out slowly to 16 sites and grossed an estimated $337,000 for a solid $21,063 average. Sum is $1.2M.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $66M which was down 11% from last year when Exodus: Gods and Kings opened at number one with $24.1M; and down a steep 52% from 2013 when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug debuted in the top spot with $73.6M.
Compared to projections, In the Heart of the Sea opened very close to my $12M forecast.
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This weekend, Katniss was the ruler again as the franchise ender The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 remained at number one over the session following the Thanksgiving holiday frame which typically sees multiplex spending get cut in half. The Lionsgate hit grossed an estimated $18.6M falling a steep 64%. That puts it in between the 65% of 2013’s Catching Fire and the 61% of last year’s Mockingjay Part 1. All were in their third weekend at this time.
The final Panem pic has brought in $227.1M which is down 12% from where last year’s chapter was at the same point. Current trajectory puts it on course for a domestic final of about $295M, although it would not be surprising if Lionsgate gives it an extra push over the holidays to bump it into triple-century territory. Both Mockingjay sequels have grossed less than their predecessor.
The international arena is a bit brighter thanks in part to China opening earlier than last time. This weekend collected an estimated $32.4M overseas to boost the offshore cume to $296.8M and the worldwide tally to $523.9M.
Universal found a nice hit with its new horror-comedy Krampus which debuted above expectations in second place with an estimated $16M from 2,902 locations for a solid $5,520 average. The PG-13 film earned decent reviews and offered a unique mix of scares and laughs in a Christmas setting which moviegoers responded to. Krampus is the first film in ten years to open on the normally sluggish weekend after the Thanksgiving frame and debut north of $10M. Usually studios either skip opening any major films on this session, or program in titles that open to about $5M or so.
Studio exit polls showed that the film played younger and had plenty of cross-gender appeal. 51% were under 21 while males and females were evenly split. Ethnic appeal helped too as 62% of the audience was non-white. The CinemaScore grade was a B- which is pretty good for a scary movie. Krampus cost only $15M to produce.
Two Thanksgiving weekend openers tied for third place with an estimated $15.5M each. Final numbers to be reported on Monday will determine the final chart order. Regardless, the boxing drama Creed had a terrific hold dropping 48% which is superb for a franchise film coming off of a holiday frame. Strong word of mouth is allowing the Warner Bros.-MGM pic to grow beyond its older male base. With a strong $65.1M to date, Creed will surpass the $70.3M of 2006’s Rocky Balboa by this Friday on its way to becoming the first $100M+ grosser for the popular franchise in 30 years.
In a virtual tie for third was Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur which fell 60% to an estimated $15.5M as well in its second weekend. That was a larger post-turkey decline than recent Thanksgiving toons from Disney like Frozen (53%) and Tangled (56%). After 12 days, Dinosaur‘s cume is just $76M. Pixar’s last two films Inside Out and Monsters University made more than that in just their first three days. At its current pace, The Good Dinosaur is on track to finish its domestic run with about $160M which would beat 1998’s A Bug’s Life to become the lowest-grossing Pixar movie ever.
International markets have collected $55.4M for a global gross of $131.4M. The animation studio is going back to sequels (and summer) with its upcoming films being Finding Dory next June and Cars 3 in June 2017. Also on the calendar later on are Toy Story 4 in June 2018 and The Incredibles 2 in June 2019.
Still in the top five in its fifth weekend was the James Bond film Spectre with an estimated $5.4M, down 58%, for a $184.5M total. It’s currently running 29% behind Skyfall which had banked $261.4M at the same point in 2012, while the global tally has climbed past $790M.
The holiday comedy The Night Before enjoyed a good hold dipping only 41% to an estimated $4.9M boosting the total to $32M for Sony. The far more tame comedy The Peanuts Movie followed with an estimated $3.5M dropping 64% from Thanksgiving. Fox’s sum is now $121.4M.
The priest molestation drama Spotlight has been generating plenty of awards buzz which is helping it at the box office. Adding a few more screens, the Open Road release held up very well with an estimated $2.9M from 980 locations for a $2,987 average. The steady expansion has been executed brilliantly and there is plenty of potential ahead as more end of year awards and nominations come out. Cume stands at $16.6M.
Also faring well with arthouse audiences is Fox Searchlight’s Brooklyn which declined 38% and grossed an estimated $2.4M bumping the total up to $11.2M. Rounding out the top ten was The Secret In Their Eyes with an estimated $2M, off 56%, for a $17.2M sum for STX.
Opening in platform release was Fox Searchlight’s Youth with an estimated $80,000 from four houses for a $20,000 average in New York and Los Angeles. Starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, and Jane Fonda, the R-rated pic earned generally positive reviews and hopes to grow across December’s crowded specialty marketplace as more awards contenders arrive every week.
Among specialty holdovers staying put in four theaters, Carol grossed an estimated $147,000 this weekend (down 26%) after winning best picture, director, screenplay, and cinematography from the New York Film Critics Circle. The Weinstein Co. release averaged a solid $36,750 and has a total of $817,000. Focus saw a 43% fall for The Danish Girl which averaged $26,500 with a weekend estimate of $106,000. Cume is $352,000 and Friday sees an expansion to 23 theaters as it debuts in seven new markets.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $86.8M which was up 28% from last year when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 stayed at number one with $22M; and up 4% from 2013 when Frozen rose to the top spot with $31.6M.
Compared to projections, Krampus opened ahead of my $9M forecast.
Though the hold was impressive, Part 2 is still running 12% behind last year’s Part 1 which had banked $225.7M at the same point. Look for the final Katniss flick to break $200M on Monday and finish its North American run with about $300M. That would be the lowest total in the franchise, but still it is extremely rare for a movie franchise to boast $100M+ openings and $300M+ finals for each of four installments.
International weekend grosses brought in an estimated $62M with all major markets playing now. Cume rose to $242.4M putting the worldwide tally at $440.7M and the entire Hunger Games franchise at $2.7 billion since 2012.
Lionsgate has owned the turkey session over the past five years with its Twilight and Hunger Games sequels which all opened huge on the weekend before Thanksgiving and then held the top spot again over the holiday frame. But the Harry Potter franchise hopes to reclaim its territory next year with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on November 18 which will try to stay on top for at least two weekends.
The Pixar brand is not bulletproof after all. The computer animation leader saw its latest entry The Good Dinosaur open in second place with some of the worst numbers in company history launching to an estimated $39.2M over the Friday-to-Sunday span and $55.6M over the long five-day holiday frame. The last 13 Pixar films all generated bigger opening weekends across the last 16 years. The only ones to debut smaller were the company’s first two films in the 1990s – Toy Story and A Bug’s Life – and both of those sold more tickets than Dinosaur did.
Reviews were not as glowing as for recent original Pixar films, but they were still very strong. The CinemaScore grade was a solid A so those who did come out and buy tickets enjoyed the product they got. In a first, Pixar released two films in the same year as The Good Dinosaur followed June’s Inside Out which bowed to a much more muscular $90.4M over a standard three-day weekend. Dinosaur‘s look and feel were more kid-oriented too so some of the non-family crowd – which Pixar films do great with – skipped this time around contributing to the deficit. The last seven consecutive films from the toon giant all opened north of $60M.
Disney still has plenty of time ahead. With good word-of-mouth, Dinosaur should continue to play as it faces no competition over the next two weeks. Historically, Thanksgiving kidpics with positive buzz can finish with three times their 5-day openings or more. Of its 15 movies over two decades, Pixar’s lowest grossing film ever is 1998’s A Bug’s Life with $162.8M. Reaching that mark is not guaranteed right now for The Good Dinosaur.
Overseas openings were also softer for The Good Dinosaur. Compared to the debuts for Inside Out, Mexico was down 59%, the U.K. fell 61%, France was down 39%, Argentina was off 33%, and Russia was down 73%. Many key markets will open after Christmas.
Now in its fifth decade, the Rocky franchise offered a new installment with the spinoff film Creed which delivered a terrific opening grossing an estimated $30.1M over the Friday-to-Sunday span and $42.6M over five days. With Michael B. Jordan playing the son of Apollo Creed and Sylvester Stallone back as the Italian Stallion, this PG-13 entry catered to long-time Rocky fans plus wider audiences too.
At the core of the success is a very strong product. Both reviews and word-of-mouth from moviegoers are off the charts and that bodes well for the weeks ahead. Creed averaged a stellar $8,848 from 3,404 locations with older males powering the sales. Studio data showed that men made up 66% of the crowd and 62% were over 25. Thanksgiving weekend 30 years ago was ruled by the record opening of Rocky IV which featured the death of Apollo Creed (spoiler alert!) Now, that character’s son is hoping to reach the highest gross ever in franchise history.
Another decades-old franchise having good luck in November is James Bond and its latest installment, SPECTRE, claimed fourth place with $12.8M over the Friday-to-Sunday span. The 15% dip was almost identical to Skyfall’s 14% slide when it was a holdover on Thanksgiving weekend in 2012. The new 007 has banked $176.1M domestically making it the second biggest Bond ever, but is also running 28% behind the pace of Skyfall. Powered by sensational numbers in China and the U.K., SPECTRE has climbed to more than $750M worldwide which is also second best for the long-running franchise.
With a new toon in the marketplace, The Peanuts Movie slipped 27% to an estimated $9.7M in its fourth round. Fox’s cume to date is $116.8M. Sony’s raunchy comedy The Night Before followed with an estimated $8.2M dropping only 17% in its sophomore session. Total is $24.1M.
Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman saw their crime drama The Secret In Their Eyes fall 32% to an estimated $4.5M in its second weekend. It was the second biggest drop in the top ten behind Mockingjay and STX has collected just $14M.
Awards hopefuls filled up the rest of the top ten. The critically acclaimed Spotlight expanded and boosted its theater count by 50% going from 598 to 897 locations and grossed an estimated $4.5M for a good $5,011 average. Fox Searchlight’s period piece Brooklyn widened from 111 to 845 locations and climbed up to ninth place with an estimated $3.8M and $4,535 average. Totals are $12.3M and $7.3M, respectively.
Spending an incredible ninth straight weekend in the top ten, The Martian dipped only 13% to an estimated $3.3M pushing the cume up to $218.6M for Fox. It’s the second biggest hit ever for Matt Damon and still has a shot at surpassing The Bourne Ultimatum thanks to great legs.
The horror adventure Victor Frankenstein was utterly rejected by audiences over Thanksgiving. The PG-13 pic starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe grossed an estimated $2.4M over the three-day span and just $3.4M across the five-day holiday weekend. That gave Fox a puny $840 average over three days from 2,797 locations. Reviews were negative and there was never any consumer demand for this one. The five-day holiday gross did not even reach half of the $8.6M opening weekend for last year’s I, Frankenstein which bowed over a standard three-day period. Darker fare has always struggled over cheery holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and it was no different this year.
Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne saw a good start for his attempt at winning back-to-back Best Actor trophies as The Danish Girl bowed to an estimated $185,000 from four theaters for a strong $46,250 average. Reviews have been good, but not stellar for the Focus release. The R-rated drama will now face the same challenge as so many other art films from recent months – selling to audiences outside of the safety zones of New York and Los Angeles. The Danish Girl expands on December 11 and will continue to widen throughout the Christmas season.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $167.7M which was up 11% from last year’s Thanksgiving when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 stayed at number one with $57M; but down 12% from 2013 when Catching Fire remained in the top spot with $74.2M.
It’s the final countdown! We ranked every major release (films that reach 600+ theaters, or with 80+ critic reviews) from November and December by Tomatometer and have the final result, from Point Break to early favorites (Spotlight, Brooklyn) and everything in-between. (Love the Coopers? Does anyone remember the Coopers?)
The PG-13 actioner opened 17% below the $121.9M of Mockingjay Part 1 and 36% below the $158.1M of Catching Fire. All the Hunger Games sequels opened on this same November frame over consecutive years. Audience erosion has been at play across these films with many fans that lined up for the first two chapters deciding to skip one or both of the final ones. Still, these are hefty grosses that make for profitable films on a worldwide scale.
Reviews were about even with Part 1’s from last year. But the declining grosses are in sharp contrast to the way the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises concluded. All were based on wildly popular books and featured the final book divided into two films in order to grab more cash from the pockets of fans. As with Hunger Games, the final Twilight films (Breaking Dawn) launched on the weekend before Thanksgiving in November but Part 2‘s opening actually enjoyed a slight uptick from Part 1 with fans gathering together for the finale. That was not the case for the Jennifer Lawrence series as interest and excitement deflated steadily.
The new Mockingjay‘s weekend kicked off with a $46M opening day Friday which included $16M from Thursday night pre-shows starting at 7:00pm. Saturday fell 27% to $33.8M and Sunday is projected to drop another 37% to $21.3M. That is the same Sunday decline as last year’s chapter. IMAX was part of the fun this time with 371 screens for Part 2‘s opening unlike last year when Interstellar already locked them up leaving Part 1 with other PLF screens.
Recent Katniss sequels had the same calendar and achieved 36-37% of their domestic finals on opening weekend. A similar road for the new installment would put it on course to end in the $270-280M neighborhood.
Overseas markets saw good launches for Mockingjay Part 2 with the foreign total reaching $146M from 87 markets which was slightly below the $152M from 85 markets for Part 1 a year ago which did not even include China which opened much later. So Americans are not the only ones losing interest in Katniss.
China was part of the first weekend of markets on Part 2 and delivered $16.4M which was second behind only the $17.1M from the U.K. Germany was the only other territory to break double digit millions with $14.4M. Openings dipped from Part 1’s numbers in many key markets like the U.K., Russia, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. To date, the Hunger Games films have collectively grossed $2.56 billion worldwide and may reach the $3 billion mark for a remarkable average of $750M global per pic.
The latest James Bond film Spectre took a hit in its third round falling 57% to an estimated $14.6M pushing the domestic total up to $153.7M. With massive cumes in China and the U.K., Sony’s global tally shot up past $670M.
Kidpic The Peanuts Movie dropped 47% in its third weekend to an estimated $12.8M putting Fox at $98.9M overall. The long Thanksgiving holiday frame will open the doors for more families to come out and see Snoopy and friends, however the opening of Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur will make for some hefty competition.
Seth Rogen’s new raunchy comedy The Night Before debuted in fourth with mild results making an estimated $10.1M from 2,960 locations for a so-so $3,412 average. Sony plugged the film into this weekend as counter-programming against Katniss hoping to lure in young men and hopes word-of-mouth will be good enough to take it into the turkey frame. The opening was in line with past Rogen comedies with no other big stars. The CinemaScore was a good A- and reviews were decent.
Stars of yesteryear Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman failed to draw in audiences for their new crime thriller The Secret In Their Eyes which bowed in fifth with an estimated $6.7M from 2,392 locations for a weak $2,780 average for STX. A PG-13 remake of an Oscar-winning film from Argentina, Secret was panned by critics and ticket buyers were not pleased either as the CinemaScore was a lousy B-. Appeal was limited to mature women who had better options.
With bad reviews and lukewarm audience buzz, the Christmas comedy Love the Coopers did not see the type of good hold many holiday films see this time of year. The CBS pic fell 53% in its second frame to an estimated $3.9M lifting the total to a modest $14.9M. Fox’s The Martian enjoyed its eighth weekend in the top ten grossing an estimated $3.7M, off 45%, for a new cume of $213M.
Unlike many awards hopefuls this fall, the investigative journalism drama Spotlight fared well in its national expansion grossing an estimated $3.6M from 598 locations for a solid $6,025 average. Open Road widened the critically acclaimed pic from 60 theaters into only moderate national play this frame and will go wider over the crowded Thanksgiving session. Cume is $5.9M and with its strong audience buzz, this one could play well over the weeks ahead with upscale adults.
The mining disaster flick The 33 tumbled 61% in its sophomore frame to an estimated $2.2M giving Warner Bros. a terrible $9.9M. Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies clung to the top ten in its sixth round with an estimated $1.9M, down 54%, putting Disney at $65.2M. It remains on course to end as one of the famed director’s lowest grossing wide releases ever.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $160.6M which was down 13% from last year when The Hunger Games — Mockingjay Part 1 opened at number one with $121.9M; and down 25% from 2013 when The Hunger Games: Catching Fire debuted in the top spot with $158.1M.
This week, Christy breaks down the much-anticipated final chapter of the Hunger Games series, a star-studded remake of an Oscar-winning Argentinean thriller, and a coming-of-age drama from Turkey, as well as Guy Ritchie’s zippy spy movie on DVD. Read on for details.
NEW IN THEATERS
Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of violence and action, and for some thematic material.
It’s the final movie in the Hunger Games series — no, really, it is. So if you’ve seen any of the three previous films — or any movie within the post-apocalyptic, dystopian-future Young Adult genre — you know what’s in store for you. The second half of the Mockingjay finale features massive amounts of carnage and destruction, as well as the constant threat of all-out war. Additionally, diabolical President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and his gamesmakers have scattered deadly obstacles — or pods — throughout Panem’s capitol to keep Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her fellow rebels from storming in and killing him. These are devastating, ranging from a giant, ferocious wave of black ooze to an army of ravenous, reptilian lizard mutts in the sewers. (The latter scene had me curled up in a ball, watching through splayed fingers.) There’s also a disturbing sequence involving the death of many young children. This is just extremely violent for a PG-13 movie. I’d say it’s OK for mature, older tweens and up — but if your kids are fans of the book, they know what’s in the movie, and they’ll probably want to see it all unfold for themselves.
Rating: PG-13, for thematic material involving disturbing violent content, language and some sexual references.
Julia Roberts, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman star in an English-language remake of Argentina’s El secreto de sus ojos, which won the Academy Award for best foreign-language film in 2010. It follows a group of investigators and close friends still reeling from the brutal rape and murder 13 years earlier of Roberts’ character’s daughter, and it jumps back and forth in time as it reveals clues and twists. We see the young woman’s body — soaked in bleach and tossed in a Dumpster — as well as her mother’s anguish at the discovery. We also see montages of partially obscured images from the attack itself. There’s some disturbing imagery here as well as some fatal shootings. I’d say this is probably appropriate for mature young teens and older.
Rating: PG-13, for mature thematic material, sexual content and a rude gesture.
A great choice for the older girls in your house, the debut film from Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Erguven provides an intimate look at five sisters who become imprisoned in their own home. A neighbor in their small, coastal village sees them romping on the shores of the Black Sea on the last day of school and misinterprets their behavior as being inappropriately sexual. Embarrassed and enraged, their grandmother and uncle take away their belongings, lock them inside and make plans to marry them off, one by one. You could think of it as a Turkish version of Sofia Coppola’s haunting 1999 debut The Virgin Suicides, but Mustang has its own sense of melancholy as well as a rebellious spirit. There’s some frank talk in here about virginity and ensuring that the girls have maintained theirs — or not, on their wedding night, once the older sisters enter into their arranged marriages. And at one point, one of the sisters playfully flips the bird to another at the dinner table. But it’s also about young women who are loyal and brave as they assert their identities in the face of patriarchal oppression. Fine for tweens and up (who don’t mind reading subtitles).
NEW ON DVD
Rating: PG-13, for action violence, some suggestive content, and partial nudity.
Guy Ritchie’s big-screen version of the 1960s TV spy series is a great example of what the British director does so well through his signature, kinetic style. It’s slick and sexy, fizzy and funny. But it can also be quite violent — although less so than his best films, the R-rated Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and RocknRolla. You don’t need to know a thing about the television show (I certainly didn’t) to have a good time here. Henry Cavill stars as a suave, American CIA agent sent on a mission to East Berlin during the Cold War to rescue a beautiful mechanic (Alicia Vikander) whose estranged father is a world-renowned rocket scientist working on a nuclear bomb. Also on the hunt for her is a Russian KGB agent (Armie Hammer), who’s as highly skilled as Cavill’s character but burdened with a beast of a temper. Multiple shootouts, car chases and fistfights ensue, including one in a men’s bathroom between the two spies. Characters are fatally shot but there’s no blood. There’s also a bit of torture, with one supporting character dying in spectacularly grisly fashion — but we see it from a distance, so there’s sort of a detachment to how disturbing it is, and it’s played for laughs. If sex is what you’re worried about, Cavill’s character effortlessly beds the hotel’s front desk clerk, whom we see afterward from behind in nothing but a pair of lacy panties. And there’s a playfully flirty fight between Hammer and a drunk Vikander that results in a trashed hotel room. This is probably OK for tweens and older.
Jennifer Lawrence and her Hunger Games pals celebrated the release of Mockingjay – Part 2, while Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and more hit the red carpet for the premiere of Carol. Also, there was The Night Before, featuring a couple of comely ugly Christmas sweaters. Check out photos:
This week at the movies, we’ve got Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Julianne Moore), some party-hearty bros (The Night Before, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen), and a dogged detective (Secret in their Eyes, starring Chiwetel Ejioforand Julia Roberts). What do the critics have to say?
The Hunger Games franchise has helped make Jennifer Lawrence a household name, and critics say her assured performance as Katniss Everdeen is the best thing about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, a satisfying — if occasionally overly grim — conclusion to the series. This time, Katniss leads a guerilla army to eliminate the despotic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) — and discovers that some within the rebellion may have agendas of their own. The pundits say Mockingjay – Part 2 is bleak and a little too long, but it’s also rousing, jolting, and intelligent, which befits a saga that has done much to alter the action movie landscape.
When Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and director Jonathan Levine last joined forces, the result was 2011’s 50/50, a funny, heartfelt dramedy that was as moving as it was funny. Anthony Mackie joins them in their latest collaboration, The Night Before, and critics say the result is a surprisingly warm holiday bromance, even if its drug-fueled humor sometimes misses the mark. Boyhood buddies Isaac (Rogen), Ethan (Gordon-Levitt)
Not every American remake of a foreign language film is doomed to failure; some, like Best Picture winner The Departed, have equaled or surpassed the originals. Unfortunately, critics say Secret in their Eyes (based upon the Oscar-winning 2009 Argentinian film of the same name) never justifies its own existence, despite the best effort of an A-list cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, and Nicole Kidman. Ejiofor stars as a former FBI agent who has resumed his investigation into the murder of a colleague’s daughter after discovering new information — but solving this mystery may uncover even darker secrets. The pundits say Secret in their Eyes lacks the specific political context that made the original so chilling, and what’s left is little more than a decent police procedural.
The Man in the High Castle is unlike anything else on TV, with an immediately engrossing plot driven by quickly developed characters in a fully realized post-World War II dystopia.
Jessica Jones builds a multifaceted drama around its engaging antihero, delivering what might be Marvel’s strongest TV franchise to date.
Into the Badlands is loaded with off-kilter potential that’s left largely unfulfilled — although its well-choreographed action sequences should satisfy martial arts fans.
While adding nothing new to the established medical procedural formula, Dick Wolf‘s Chicago Med hits its familiar beats forcefully enough to satisfy a few genre enthusiasts.
Also Opening This Week In Limited Release
In this week’s video, Jennifer Lawrence tries to understand the finer points of pasta, and the cast of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks, Natalie Dormer, Josh Hutcherson, Sam Claflin, Donald Sutherland, plus director Francis Lawrence) discuss what they would release in positive pods, and what board games they would like to see brought to life.
