(Photo by Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
All Morgan Freeman Movies Ranked By Tomatometer
Morgan Freeman. Read this sentence in his voice. That familiar sound of authoritative benevolence, that could make an intro paragraph soar like a songbird with world-weariest wings. Freeman has lent his sonorous gift for narration to dozens of documentaries, including March of the Penguins, and to several of his narrative films, like Million Dollar Baby and, to lasting generational effect, in The Shawshank Redemption.
But before the voice of God got to play God (see: Bruce and Evan Almighty), Freeman had to humbly serve the silver screen in bit and seriously secondary parts for two decades. He got his big break performing the the lead villain in Christopher Reeve’s journalism thriller Street Smart, for which he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. That was released in 1987 and is where we’ll start Freeman’s filmography for this guide. Just two years later, he was on the national radar with the Best Picture-winning Driving Miss Daisy, for which he was once more nominated. The Academy has recognized his work three times since: Shawshank, Million Dollar Baby (for which he won), and Invictus.
The Daisy prestige brought in a raft of memorable roles for Freeman, including in Glory, Unforgiven, and Seven. He also seems to have a knack for being in the right comic book movie at the right time: see Red, Wanted, and his turn as Lucius Fox in The Dark Knight trilogy. We’re taking a look back on a celebrated career with this list of all Morgan Freeman movies ranked by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
Critics Consensus: A thoroughly unfunny misfire, Just Getting Started manages the incredible feat of wasting more than a century of combined acting experience from its three talented leads.
Synopsis: Duke Diver is living the high life as the freewheeling manager of a luxurious resort in Palm Springs, Calif. He [More]
Synopsis: Ambitious young reporter Pollack (Justin Timberlake) suspects insidious corruption in his town's elite police unit, known as F.R.A.T., and finds [More]
Critics Consensus: As blandly unimaginative as its title, Last Knights revisits well-worn sword-and-sandal tropes without adding anything new -- or interesting -- to the genre.
Synopsis: A fallen swordsman (Clive Owen) leads a small army against a sadistic ruler to avenge his dishonored master (Morgan Freeman). [More]
Critics Consensus: Lazily crafted and light on substance, The Big Bounce takes few chances and strands its promising cast in a subpar adaptation that fails to do its source material justice.
Synopsis: Beach bum and petty criminal Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) gets into a fight while working at a construction site owned [More]
Critics Consensus:The Bonfire of the Vanities is a vapid adaptation of a thoughtful book, fatally miscast and shorn of the source material's crucial sense of irony. Add it to the pyre of Hollywood's ambitious failures.
Synopsis: In this adaptation of the Tom Wolfe novel, powerful Wall Street executive Sherman McCoy (Tom Hanks) is riding with his [More]
Critics Consensus: Ironic given the scientific breakthrough at the story's core, Chain Reaction is a man-on-the-run thriller that mostly sticks to generic formula.
Synopsis: At a Chicago university, a research team that includes brilliant Eddie Kasalivich (Keanu Reeves) experiences a breakthrough: a stable form [More]
Critics Consensus: In his directorial debut, ace cinematographer Wally Pfister remains a distinctive visual stylist, but Transcendence's thought-provoking themes exceed the movie's narrative grasp.
Synopsis: Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), the world's foremost authority on artificial intelligence, is conducting highly controversial experiments to create a [More]
Critics Consensus: Big on special effects but short on laughs, Evan Almighty underutilizes a star-studded cast that includes Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman.
Synopsis: Newscaster Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) leaves Buffalo behind when he wins a seat in Congress. Moving his wife (Lauren Graham) [More]
Critics Consensus:London Has Fallen traps a talented cast -- and all who dare to see it -- in a mid-1990s basic-cable nightmare of a film loaded with xenophobia and threadbare action-thriller clichés.
Synopsis: After the death of the British prime minister, the world's most powerful leaders gather in London to pay their respects. [More]
Critics Consensus: Neither Rob Reiner nor Morgan Freeman are able to conjure up their old magic in this dull trifle, with both director and star appearing content to tread through the paces of the saccharine script.
Synopsis: An alcoholic, disabled novelist finds his muse again after he moves into a lakeside cabin and meets a single mother [More]
Critics Consensus: Detective Alex Cross makes his inauspicious cinematic debut in Kiss the Girls, a clunky thriller that offers few surprises.
Synopsis: Successful forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) discovers that his niece has gone missing. Once he consults with police Detective [More]
Critics Consensus: Derivative and contains too many implausible situations.
Synopsis: A psychological suspense thriller adapted from James Patterson's first highly acclaimed novel in the Alex Cross series, Morgan Freeman reprises [More]
Critics Consensus: Lacking a transporting yuletide story or dazzling dance routines, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a hollow holiday confection that's lovely to look at -- and easy to forget.
Synopsis: Young Clara needs a magical, one-of-a-kind key to unlock a box that contains a priceless gift. A golden thread leads [More]
Critics Consensus: Cut from the same rough cloth as its predecessors, Angel Has Fallen rounds out a mostly forgettable action trilogy in fittingly mediocre fashion.
Synopsis: Authorities take Secret Service agent Mike Banning into custody for the failed assassination attempt of U.S. President Allan Trumbull. After [More]
Critics Consensus:Ted 2 reunites Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane for another round of sophomoric, scatological humor -- and just as before, your enjoyment will depend on your tolerance for all of the above.
Synopsis: Life has changed drastically for thunder buddies John (Mark Wahlberg), now a bachelor, and best pal Ted (Seth MacFarlane), now [More]
Critics Consensus:5 Flights Up is a bit of a narrative fixer-upper, but when it comes to watching Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman share screen time, you really can't beat the view.
Synopsis: A husband (Morgan Freeman) and wife (Diane Keaton) spend a hectic weekend pondering the sale of the apartment they've shared [More]
Critics Consensus: Though Hackman and Freeman turn in solid performances, Under Suspicion moves at a plodding rate and has a disappointing ending.
Synopsis: "Under Suspicion" is an intense, psychological thriller, with veteran Police Captain Victor Benezet squaring off against prominent tax attorney Henry [More]
Critics Consensus: It's far from original, but Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Antoine Fuqua's tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard Butler -- which might just be enough for action junkies.
Synopsis: The unthinkable happens when heavily armed and highly trained terrorists launch a bold daytime attack on the White House. The [More]
Critics Consensus: Decades after its predecessor joked about the fine line between love and nausea, Coming 2 America reminds audiences that there's an equally fine line between sequel and retread.
Synopsis: Set in the lush and royal country of Zamunda, newly-crowned King Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his trusted confidante Semmi(Arsenio Hall) [More]
Critics Consensus:Now You See Me's thinly sketched characters and scattered plot rely on sleight of hand from the director to distract audiences.
Synopsis: Charismatic magician Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) leads a team of talented illusionists called the Four Horsemen. Atlas and his comrades mesmerize [More]
Critics Consensus:Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves brings a wonderfully villainous Alan Rickman to this oft-adapted tale, but he's robbed by big-budget bombast and a muddled screenplay.
Synopsis: Nobleman crusader Robin of Locksley breaks out of a Jerusalem prison with the help of fellow prisoner Azeem, a Moor, [More]
Critics Consensus: Trying too hard to be clever in a Pulp Fiction kind of way, this film succumbs to a convoluted plot, overly stylized characters, and dizzying set design.
Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity puts a man named Slevin (Josh Hartnett) in the middle of a war between two [More]
Critics Consensus: A story of disjointed family members yearning for true emotional depth, An Unfinished Life teeters between overtly saccharine sentiments and moments of real intimacy.
Synopsis: Einar (Robert Redford), a recovering alcoholic rancher who lives with his loyal pal Mitch (Morgan Freeman), gets an unexpected visit [More]
Critics Consensus: A frustratingly uneven all-star disaster drama, Outbreak ultimately proves only mildly contagious and leaves few lasting side effects.
Synopsis: A dangerous airborne virus threatens civilization in this tense thriller. After an African monkey carrying a lethal virus is smuggled [More]
Critics Consensus: Jet Li gets to emote in some emotionally awkward scenes, but the gritty fight sequences come through in what is Li's best English language film.
Synopsis: Crime boss Bart raises orphan Danny with no knowledge of anything other than how to fight, using him as an [More]
Critics Consensus: Enthusiastic and silly, Lucy powers through the movie's logic gaps with cheesy thrills plus Scarlett Johansson's charm -- and mostly succeeds at it.
Synopsis: When a boyfriend tricks Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) into delivering a briefcase to a supposed business contact, the once-carefree student is [More]
Synopsis: In this fact-based film, a New Jersey superintendent, Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume), watches helplessly as East Side High becomes [More]
Critics Consensus:Wanted is stylish, energetic popcorn fare with witty performances from Angelina Jolie (playing an expert assassin), James McAvoy, and Morgan Freeman that help to distract from its absurdly over-the-top plot.
Synopsis: Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is an office worker whose life is going nowhere. After his estranged father is murdered, he [More]
Critics Consensus: It may not be the killer thrill ride you'd expect from an action movie with a cast of this caliber, but Red still thoroughly outshines most of its big-budget counterparts with its wit and style.
Synopsis: After surviving an assault from a squad of hit men, retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) reassembles his old [More]
Critics Consensus: Delivered with typically stately precision by director Clint Eastwood, Invictus may not be rousing enough for some viewers, but Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman inhabit their real-life characters with admirable conviction.
Synopsis: Following the fall of apartheid, newly elected President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) faces a South Africa that is racially and [More]
Critics Consensus: While it's fueled in part by outdated stereotypes, Driving Miss Daisy takes audiences on a heartwarming journey with a pair of outstanding actors.
Synopsis: Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy), an elderly Jewish widow living in Atlanta, is determined to maintain her independence. However, when she [More]
Critics Consensus: Wisely dialing down the schmaltz, Dolphin Tale is earnest, sweet, and well-told, a rare family film that both kids and parents can enjoy.
Synopsis: While swimming free in the ocean, a young dolphin gets caught in a trap and severely damages her tail. Though [More]
Critics Consensus: Quirky in the best sense of the word, Nurse Betty finds director Neil LaBute corralling a talented cast in service of a sharp, imaginative script.
Synopsis: What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress [More]
Critics Consensus: Brooding and dark, but also exciting and smart, Batman Begins is a film that understands the essence of one of the definitive superheroes.
Synopsis: A young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels to the Far East, where he's trained in the martial arts by Henri [More]
Critics Consensus:The Dark Knight Rises is an ambitious, thoughtful, and potent action film that concludes Christopher Nolan's franchise in spectacular fashion.
Synopsis: It has been eight years since Batman (Christian Bale), in collusion with Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), vanished into the night. [More]
Critics Consensus: Clint Eastwood's assured direction - combined with knockout performances from Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman - help Million Dollar Baby to transcend its clichés, and the result is deeply heartfelt and moving.
Synopsis: Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a veteran Los Angeles boxing trainer who keeps almost everyone at arm's length, except his [More]
Critics Consensus: Steeped in old-fashioned storytelling and given evergreen humanity by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption chronicles the hardship of incarceration patiently enough to come by its uplift honestly.
Synopsis: Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and [More]
Critics Consensus: Bolstered by exceptional cinematography, powerful storytelling, and an Oscar-winning performance by Denzel Washington, Glory remains one of the finest Civil War movies ever made.
Synopsis: Following the Battle of Antietam, Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) is offered command of the United States' first all-African-American [More]
Critics Consensus: Ben Affleck proves his directing credentials in this gripping dramatic thriller, drawing strong performances from the excellent cast and bringing working-class Boston to the screen.
Synopsis: Along with his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan), a private detective (Casey Affleck) takes on the difficult task of searching for a [More]
Critics Consensus: Dark, complex, and unforgettable, The Dark Knight succeeds not just as an entertaining comic book film, but as a richly thrilling crime saga.
Synopsis: With the help of allies, Lt. Jim Gordon and DA Harvey Dent, Batman is able to keep a tight lid [More]
Critics Consensus: Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The Lego Movie is colorful fun for all ages.
Synopsis: An ordinary LEGO figurine Emmet who always follows the rules, is mistakenly identified as an extraordinary being and the key [More]
Critics Consensus: As both director and star, Clint Eastwood strips away decades of Hollywood varnish applied to the Wild West, and emerges with a series of harshly eloquent statements about the nature of violence.
Synopsis: When prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald (Anna Thomson) is disfigured by a pair of cowboys in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, her fellow brothel [More]
This week on home video, we’ve got a heist movie sequel, a lot of excellent television, a real-time thriller, a few Certified Fresh indies, and more. Read on for the full list.
Grant Gustin stars in this CW series, adapted from the DC comic, about a forensic investigator who is struck by radioactive lightning and becomes the fastest man alive. The season two package comes with featurettes on the visual effects and the characters, as well as the show’s 2015 Comic-Con panel and PaleyFest panel, plus more.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Emmy-winning animated series follows four friends in a fictional Colorado town as they get up to hijinks that mirror real-world pop culture touchstones. The 19th season set comes with deleted scenes, mini commentaries, and a trailer for its video game The Fractured But Whole.
Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny star in Whit Stillman‘s Certified Fresh adaptation of the Jane Austen novel about a widow who attracts the attention of three suitors. Information on special features is currently unavailable.
Cuba Gooding Jr., Sarah Paulson, and John Travolta lead an ensemble cast in this Emmy-nominated first season of the anthology series American Crime Story, which focuses on the O.J. Simpsons trial during the mid-1990s. Extras include interviews with the cast and filmmakers about their reflections on the case, and an interactive timeline.
Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes. and Dakota Johnson star in this drama about an injured rock star whose recuperation from an injury is interrupted when she’s visited by an old flame. Bonus features include promotional featurettes and a photo gallery.
Bryan Cranston stars as president Lyndon B. Johnson in this HBO original film adaptation of the eponymous stage play about LBJ’s early days in office. Special features include a short look at Cranston’s makeup transformation and a featurette on the actual events depicted in the film.
Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles star in this popular CW series about two brothers who battle vampires, werewolves, demons, and other monsters. Extras include a look behind the scenes, an interview with Ackles about directing an episode, the shows 2015 Comic-Con panel, commentary tracks, and more.
Susan Sarandon and Rose Byrne star in this Certified Fresh dramedy about a recently widowed woman who tries to give strangers a helping hand. Bonus features include a commentary track with Sarandon and director Lorene Scafaria, a making-of doc, and a gag reel.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts star in Jodie Foster’s real-time thriller about an angry investor who holds a TV stock pundit hostage after a recommended investment goes south inexplicably quickly. Special features include deleted scenes, an analysis of the film’s ending, a discussion of Clooney’s character, and more.
Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, and Woody Harrelson anchor this ensemble heist sequel about a group of stage musicians who perform grand illusions with an activist twist. Extras include a commentary with director John M. Chu, a profile of the film’s large cast, and a look at the film’s visual effects, and it’s also available in a 4K transfer.
Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult star in this sci-fi romance set in a dystopian future in which emotions have been outlawed. Bonus features include an audio commentary track, a making-of featurette, interviews with Hoult and Stewart, and a detailed look at the production design and backstory of the film.
Finally, as always, we have a new release of a classic from the Criterion Collection, namely this Carol Reed thriller about a scientist and his daughter fleeing from the Nazis with the help of an undercover agent, all taking place during a long train journey. Newly available in Blu-ray, it comes with a 2010 conversation between film scholars about Reed and his two screenwriters on the film.
This weekend, Disney and Pixar ruled the box office with ease as the animated smash Finding Dory was once again the most popular film in the land taking in an estimated $73.2M in its second weekend of release. That represented a 46% decline which is good considering the record opening it is coming off of which included massive Thursday pre-shows from last week, and the fact that it is a sequel. Last year’s Pixar entry Inside Out was an original film that dropped 42% and the 2013 sequel Monsters University fell by 45%. All three Pixar movies opened in the second half of June right as schools were letting out for summer vacation.
Through the second weekend, Dory stands tall at $286.6M surpassing the final domestic total of University. On Monday, it will pass Up to become Pixar’s fourth biggest blockbuster ever and on Tuesday it should crack the $300M mark. Eventually the fish tale will beat out Finding Nemo, Inside Out, and Toy Story 3 to become the animation leader’s highest-grossing film of all-time on its way to a finish in the $500M range. Seven of the top ten films this weekend are sequels and all are performing worse than their predecessors – with the notable exception of Dory.
The overseas take climbed to $110.3M led by China where the second weekend tumbled by two-thirds for a cume of $30.2M. That put the global sum at $396.9M with several top markets yet to open.
Opening in second place to rocky results was the big-budget sci-fi sequel Independence Day: Resurgence with an estimated $41.6M from 4,068 locations for a $10,226 average. The PG-13 film continued this summer’s string of sequels that audiences never asked for and performed below the levels of its predecessor. 20 years ago, Independence Day was a pop culture phenomenon opening mid-week ahead of the Fourth of July holiday with $50.2M over the Friday-to-Sunday period and $96.1M over the six-day debut period which began on Tuesday evening with shows starting at 6pm. Yes, pre-shows existed many years ago too. ID4 ended up as the top-grossing film of that year.
Even with a Friday launch, higher ticket prices, 3D, IMAX, and 1,186 more theaters, Resurgence still saw a much lower opening weekend than the 1996 hit. In fact when comparing admissions, the sequel pulled in 55-60% fewer people. Many cast members returned in the sequel, but Will Smith was noticeably absent. The actor has had more flops than hits in recent times so it is hard to determine what impact his presence would have had, but overall consumer excitement was never very high for Resurgence.
Studio data from Fox showed that the audience was understandably more male (58%) while 64% were over 25. Reviews were mostly bad and the B CinemaScore grade indicates that paying audiences were only moderately happy with the entertainment they got.
With a budget reportedly north of $160M, the Roland Emmerich-directed action tale is global in scope and made to earn its revenues from around the world. Independence Day: Resurgence made use of its day-and-date roll-out by grossing a hefty $102.1M internationally for a $143.7M global bow this weekend. China, of course, repped the biggest share with a large $37.3M weekend almost matching the domestic gross. The next biggest markets were Korea with $7.4M, the U.K. with $7.3M, and Mexico with $6.8M.
Kevin Hart films often tank on the second weekend, but with The Rock on board, Central Intelligence dropped 48% to an estimated $18.4M taking third place. Given the big marketing push and the arrival of new action offerings, that was a reasonable sophomore decline for Warner Bros. With $69.3M to date, the action-comedy looks to end its run in the area of $115M which would be second-best all-time for Hart after Ride Along‘s $134.9M.
Blake Lively scored a commercial hit, and proved her box office pull, with the shark attack thriller The Shallows which exceeded expectations to open to an estimated $16.7M in fourth. Averaging a solid $5,638 from 2,962 locations, the PG-13 pic was powered by young women and served as fresh content in a marketplace filled with recycled brands. Sony’s well-reviewed one-woman survival story played to an audience that was 54% female and 50% under 25. With a production cost of only $17M, Shallows will end up as one of the more profitable titles of the summer.
Audiences had no interest in Matthew McConaughey’s new slave drama Free State of Jones which flopped with an opening weekend of only $7.8M, according to estimates, from 2,815 theaters for a weak $2,761 average. Backed in part by Chinese financing, the STX release earned negative reviews which turned off its target audience of serious-minded adults. Plus the story was something that summer ticket buyers were just not in the mood for in the first place.
A five-pack of sequels filled up the rest of the top ten. Horror offering The Conjuring 2 grossed an estimated $7.7M, down 48%, giving Warner Bros. $86.9M to date. Global is now a fantastic $242.9M. Lionsgate’s Now You See Me 2 dropped 40% to an estimated $5.7M for a $52.1M cume. The magic pic is the latest Hollywood movie to open bigger in China than in the U.S. thanks to this weekend’s $43.3M debut which is not surprising since half the film is set there. Global on NYSM2 is $159.8M.
Dropping out of the top ten in only its third weekend was the big-budget adventure Warcraft with an estimated $2.1M and terrible $43.9M cume. The Universal tentpole has suffered back-to-back 70% declines and is looking at a domestic final of about $47M. The video-game-inspired Mortal Kombat from 21 years ago did much better with $70.4M in the summer of 1995. But overseas is a different story for Warcraft where the China total has risen to $221M even though it is decelerating fast there. Global is now $412.2M with a whopping 89% coming from outside North America.
Disney owns four of the six biggest blockbusters of 2016 and two of them fell out of the top ten this weekend. Captain America: Civil War climbed to $403.9M domestic and $1.15 billion worldwide while The Jungle Book rose to $358M and $929.5M global.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $178.1M which was up 2% from last year when Jurassic World remained at number one for a third time with $54.5M; and up 4% from 2014 when Transformers: Age of Extinction debuted in the top spot with $100M, a figure other distributors disputed.
Compared to projections, Finding Dory was on target with my $74M forecast while Independence Day was close to my $39M prediction. The Shallows opened well above my $10M projection and Free State of Jones was on target with my $7M forecast.
This weekend, proving to be about as popular as the first hit film, the supernatural sequel The Conjuring 2 opened at number one with an impressive gross of an estimated $40.4M. Warner Bros., which has been in need of a hit, enjoyed a fantastic $12,070 average from 3,343 locations.
Both Conjuring films have opened north of $40M which is an astonishing feat for the horror genre. Director James Wan and stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson all returned and the marketing promised another spooky story with a PG-13 rating that can attract teens and young adults. And having a quality product was key to the success too. Reviews were very strong and audiences were quite pleased as the CinemaScore grade was an A-. These are incredible results for a fright sequel.
Conjuring 2 enjoyed the best opening weekend for any horror film since the first pic opened three summers ago to $41.9M. Studio research on the sequel showed that the crowd was 52% female and 57% over 25. Good word-of-mouth helped the first chapter have legs which led to a terrific $137.4M domestic final and $318.4M worldwide take. Longevity may once again be a factor here given the good will the sequel is generating.
Overseas, The Conjuring 2 launched with an estimated $50M from 44 markets with 26 of them seeing the best horror movie opening of all-time. Breaking $300M global is possible again especially since most top European markets have not opened yet. That means a pair of films that cost $60M combined to produce will end up grossing more than $600M together.
The pricey video-game-inspired adventure film Warcraft opened in second place with an estimated $24.4M which normally would be a disappointing performance, but with the film’s massive success in China, the U.S. numbers will not be so important. Universal opened the PG-13 actioner in 3,400 locations and averaged $7,164 per site. Reviews were lousy and consumer interest never really materialized outside the gamer community.
Demo data indicated that the audience was very male (66%) and 54% were under 30. The CinemaScore grade was a B+ which was decent. Films like Warcraft are made to draw their fan bases upfront so a final domestic total of around $60M seems likely which is even worse than the new Alice movie.
But the North American market is essentially gravy for Warcraft. China leads the way as the most critical territory for this film and will probably contribute more than half of the final global gross. With a Wednesday holiday launch, the orc pic grossed a staggering $156M in its first five days there putting it about even with last summer’s Furious 7 which set all-time industry records at the time on its way to a jaw-dropping $391M final there. The game has been immensely popular in that country and the casting of Chinese-American actor Daniel Wu (who got the ‘and’ credit) helped. 292 IMAX screens in China delivered a robust $20M as the visual effects made it a prime movie to experience in a premium format.
Other international markets have contributed $105.7M to date. Add in China and North America and the Warcraft global cume now stands at $286.1M and climbing rapidly. Produced for $160M, the final global gross could approach the $600M mark with a whopping 85-90% coming from outside North America.
Another new release followed in third place. The magic sequel Now You See Me 2 debuted well with an estimated $23M from 3,232 locations for a solid $7,124 average. Lionsgate saw lackluster reviews for its PG-13 pic. In the summer of 2013, Now You See Me was an unlikely hit opening to $29.3M on its way to $117.7M. The all-star sequel’s debut was an acceptable amount smaller than its predecessor’s. A $20.1M international bow put the global total at $45.8M. NYSM2 opens in China in two weeks and expects a healthy run there given that half the film is set in Macau.
Falling 58% in its second weekend was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows with an estimated $14.8M putting Paramount at $61M to date. A domestic final of $90-100M seems likely amounting to only half of the $191.2M of its 2014 predecessor. The international cume rose to $55.3M for a current global tally of $116.3M.
Another summer sequel declining hard was X-Men: Apocalypse which fell 56% to an estimated $10M putting Fox at $136.4M through the third weekend. The latest mutant saga is running 28% behind the pace of 2014’s Days of Future Past. Apocalypse grossed another $25M overseas this weekend boosting the international haul to $342.1M and the worldwide sum to $478.5M. China leads all markets with $96M which beats what Batman v Superman did there.
The romance Me Before You followed with an estimated $9.2M dropping 51% in its second weekend. Warner Bros. has banked $36.8M to date. With an estimated $6.7M, The Angry Birds Movie took seventh place sliding only 34%. Sony has collected $98.2M from North America and $312.1M worldwide. China leads all overseas markets by a mile with $72M while all other territories have grossed under $14M each.
Rounding out the top ten was Disney with three big-budget films — two megahits and a flop. Alice Through the Looking Glass dropped 51% to an estimated $5.5M for a weak cume of $62.4M. A dismal domestic final of about $75M is likely which would be a disturbing fall of 78% from the $334.2M of 2010’s Alice in Wonderland.
Top hit Captain America: Civil War grossed an estimated $4.3M, down 45%, with a new cume of $396.9M. The global run is winding down now and the cume stands at $1.14 billion. The Jungle Book cracked $350M domestic and $900M worldwide this weekend. The effects-driven adventure took in an estimated $2.7M, off 39%, pushing the sum to $352.7M. It passed American Sniper and Transformers: Dark of the Moon to reach number 34 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters and will surpass Furious 7 within a day or two.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $141M which was down 47% from last year when Jurassic World broke the all-time opening weekend record with $208.8M; and down 21% from 2014 when 22 Jump Street debuted in the top spot with $57.1M.
RT Senior Editor Grae Drake got some pet-naming permissions from Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson, and got involved in some serious poop-talking (along with bonus anatomy lessons). Then she talked to Lizzy Caplan and Dave Franco about how much fun it is on the set of Now You See Me 2, where everybody has their day!
The red carpet was rolled out for Two sequels and a long-developed adaptation of a classic game series this week; see Paula Patton, Lizzy Caplan, Vera Farmiga and more as they celebrate the premieres of The Conjuring 2, Now You See Me 2, and Warcraft:
Paula Patton
Lizzy Caplan
Vera Farmiga
Niki Koss
Patrick Wilson
Rosanna Pansino
Maite Perroni
Ruth Negga
Anna Galvin
Travis Fimmel
Paula Patton
Kelly Bensimon
Daniel Radcliff
Dave Franco
Jesse Eisenberg
Jamie Lee Curtis
Duncan Jones
Chloe Dykstra
Matt and Grae talk about what scares them, then share their thoughts on The Conjuring 2, Warcraft and Now You See Me 2.
Now You See Me didn’t exactly inspire critical adulation when it arrived in theaters in 2013, but it made a lot of money — so now we have Now You See Me 2, which reunites most of the original’s showy cast while adding a few new faces for another magical heist filled with twists, turns, and double-crosses. The problem, according to most critics, is the same one that dogged the original — namely, that the movie is more interested in giving the appearance of a busy caper than actually making sense. If it’s a talented onscreen assemblage you’re after, Now You See Me 2 offers this weekend’s biggest bang for your buck, but for genuine cinematic magic, the pundits suggest looking elsewhere.
It isn’t often that the critical establishment even bothers to feign interest in a video game adaptation — but then, most video game adaptations don’t have Warcraft‘s pedigree. With director Duncan Jones at the helm, this fantasy saga threatened to deliver more than just another exercise in franchise-building; alas, instead of offering filmgoers an experience as enchanting as its source material, critics say the Warcraft movie is a hollow shell of CGI eye candy with a narrative void at its center. Although Jones gets credit for assembling an impressive visual spectacle, his efforts aren’t enough to compensate for subpar acting, dense mythology, and a plodding plot — and in the end, Warcraft is one more in a long line of game-to-film journeys ending with a critical walk of shame.
Director James Wan gave horror enthusiasts a Certified Fresh surprise with 2013’s The Conjuring, which used chilling restraint to tell a terrifically creepy tale drawn from the archives of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. More than $300 million later, Wan is back — along with stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga — to offer another dramatization of the Warrens’ ghostbusting exploits. Although most critics can’t help but point out that this stuff isn’t quite as scary the second time around, they’re also quick to admit that Wan remains a deft genre filmmaker, and while The Conjuring 2 is subject to the laws of diminishing returns suggested by its title, it’s still got its share of suitably nasty scares.
Maya & Marty is a safer, weekday version of Saturday Night Live with little to recommend it other than Maya Rudolph and Martin Short‘s admittedly considerable charms.
Feed the Beast‘s visual appeal isn’t enough to make up for predictable plotting, convoluted dialogue and unlikable characters.
Also Opening This Week In Limited Release
King Jack (2015)94%
, a coming-of-age drama about a troubled young teen tasked with looking after his visiting cousin, is at 100 percent.
Tikkun (2015)95%
, a drama about an Orthodox religious schoolar whose life changes dramatically after he survives a near-death experience, is at 100 percent.
Last Cab to Darwin (2015)88%
, a drama about a terminally ill man who drives accross Australia to a place where he can die on his own terms, is at 88 percent.
Therapy for a Vampire (2014)63%
, a horror/comedy in which a bored bloodsucker becomes a patient of Sigmund Freud, is at 86 percent.
From Afar (2015)79%
, a drama about a lonely older man who befriends the teenaged leader of a criminal gang, is at 74 percent.
Len and Company (2015)70%
, starring Rhys Ifans and Juno Temple in a comedy about a reclusive musician who’s shaken from complacency when he’s visited by his estranged son, is at 67 percent.
Diary of a Chambermaid (2015)66%
, starring Léa Seydoux in a period drama about a domestic worker and the difficulties she has with both her employers and a fellow servant, is at 64 percent.
Another (2014)29%
, a supernatural thriller about a young woman who discovers terrifying things about her own history, is at 50 percent.
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, starring Colin Firth and Jude Law in a biopic of influential book editor Max Perkins, is at 46 percent.
Few of us will ever have the opportunity to hang out with Mark Ruffalo in real life, but he’s one of those actors whose screen presence feels so honest and effortlessly down-to-earth that you can’t help feeling like you sort of know him. All that charm may not help his latest release, Now You See Me 2, achieve Certified Fresh status, but no matter — we’re using its arrival as our long-overdue excuse for taking a fond look back at some of his brightest critical highlights. It’s time for Total Recall!
With 2007’s Once, writer-director John Carney proved himself a deft hand with musically driven romantic drama — and then he went and did it again seven years later with Begin Again. Sunnier and poppier than its predecessor, it finds Carney telling the tale of a record exec (Ruffalo) who’s at loose ends in his personal and professional lives when he happens across a rough-edged singer/songwriter (Keira Knightley) whose gifts inspire him to… well, you get the idea. It’s sweet, crowd-pleasing stuff, and if it hits some of the same beats Carney played with Once, they land with irresistible sincerity. “There are times when the thing you want most is not a big, important movie but a simple, beautiful story told with sensitivity, warmth, humor and a big heart,” observed TheWrap’s Steve Pond. “Times when you don’t need a movie to save your life, you just need a movie to make you feel good.”
Michael Mann’s Collateral was largely sold as a two-hander pitting Tom Cruise (as a hitman hired to murder witnesses and a prosecutor in a court case) against Jamie Foxx (as the cab driver he hires to drive him to the killings). Really, though, this sleek thriller took more than a couple of big-name stars — for one thing, as in other Mann productions, Los Angeles essentially served as a supporting character, and for another, Cruise and Foxx were ably abetted by a talented ensemble that included Jada Pinkett Smith, Javier Bardem, and (as the cop who ends up on their tail) Mark Ruffalo. It all added up to what the Washington Post’s Stephen Hunter called “The best kind of genre filmmaking: It plays by the rules, obeys the traditions and is both familiar and fresh at once.”
Moneyball director Bennett Miller brought his knack for adapting real-life stories to bear on a decidedly darker tale with 2014’s Foxcatcher, which dramatizes multimillionaire heir John E. du Pont’s stranger-than-fiction descent into mental illness — and the terrible impact it had on the lives of Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and his brother Dave (Ruffalo). Joined by Steve Carell as du Pont, Ruffalo and Tatum anchored a film whose painful conclusion can be felt from the first few moments, but still exerts an inexorable grip. As Peter Rainer wrote for the Christian Science Monitor, “It’s rare to see an American movie that explores, let alone acknowledges, the class system in this country, or one that gets so far inside the abyss of the ethic that drives so many men to succeed — and to implode when they don’t.”
In the hands of an ordinary filmmaker, any attempt to tell the story of the Zodiac Killer might have been equal parts conjecture and garden-variety gore — after all, the serial murderer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area for years in the 1960s and 1970s, taunting the police with a series of cryptic letters, eventually disappeared, never to be identified. For director David Fincher, though, the truly interesting story didn’t lie so much with the Zodiac as it did with the men and women who devoted themselves to apprehending him — particularly Robert Graysmith (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), the San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who broke the Zodiac’s code and eventually became an asset to the investigation led by police detective Dave Toschi (Ruffalo). Gyllenhaal and Ruffalo led the viewer on a darkening spiral of dead ends, wild goose chases, and grim obsession — and anchored a showy cast that included Robert Downey, Jr., Chloe Sevigny, and Anthony Edwards. Unfortunately, the words “David Fincher” and “serial killer drama” sparked hopes that Fincher was returning to his Se7en roots, and the studio’s marketing campaign did nothing to set filmgoers straight; ultimately, despite a strongly positive reaction from critics, Zodiac was a non-starter at the box office, and by the time awards season arrived, this March release was all but forgotten. It deserved better, according to writers like the Toronto Star’s Geoff Pevere, who argued, “It makes you want to study it even more closely, in search of things you might have missed, trailing after leads that flash by in the relentless momentum of going nowhere fast. If you’re not careful, it might make you obsessed.”
The Hulk is a creature of mindless rage and limitless strength who lurks within a mild-mannered scientist horrified by his own alter ego — all of which sounds like it should be more than compelling enough for its own film franchise. Yet after a pair of somewhat underwhelming attempts at a Hulk movie, it became obvious that it was going to take more than simply hiring a leading man and a fleet of CGI programmers to turn the comics legend into big-screen big green. The answer, as presented by Marvel’s The Avengers, was to turn the Hulk into a supporting player — and one whose human face was played by Mark Ruffalo. Over a pair of Avengers movies, Ruffalo breathed new life into his character’s cinematic fortunes, turning the split-personality brute into something much more than a wrecking ball — and although he’s just one cog in the smoothly running Marvel machine, more than a few fans have clamored for a standalone Hulk feature in the MCU. “Never,” warned CNN’s Tom Charity, “underestimate the entertainment value of the Hulk Smash.”
Ruffalo received a BAFTA nomination for his work in this Lisa Cholodenko dramedy, which traces the messy fallout after a boy (Josh Hutcherson) enlists his sister (Mia Wasikowska) to find the sperm donor responsible for siring the two of them — thus setting off a chain of events that brings the man in question (Ruffalo) into the domestic orbit of the women who raised the kids (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore). It’s just as messy as it sounds, yet thanks to Cholodenko’s empathetic work — and the fine efforts of her incredible cast — The Kids Are All Right never teeters into indie caricature. As Ann Hornaday wrote for the Washington Post, “Just about everyone who has been a parent, child or partner will find resonance in its bittersweet depiction of the joys and trials of lifelong intimacy.”
Ruffalo’s critically acclaimed turn in 2000’s You Can Count on Me didn’t immediately lead to a major increase in his Hollywood profile — he’d been working steadily for years leading up to the film, and he continued to log supporting turns for a few years after, many of them in ill-remembered efforts like Committed and The Last Castle. He picked a winner, though, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which found him logging screen time with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet (not to mention Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood) in Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry’s endearingly bizarre drama about love lost and the nature of memory. The result, wrote Owen Gleiberman for Entertainment Weekly, “may be the first movie I’ve seen that bends your brain and breaks your heart at the same time.”
Ruffalo earned a slew of nominations (and a SAG Award) for his portrayal of an activist in director Ryan Murphy’s HBO adaptation of the Larry Kramer play, which takes a hard street-level look at the dawn of the public’s awareness of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. Surrounded by a sterling cast that included Julia Roberts and Alfred Molina, Ruffalo helped dramatize agonizing events that impacted real people — some of whom directly inspired the characters in the film. “You should watch,” wrote David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle, “because Larry Kramer’s play is so much more than an agitprop relic from the early years of AIDS — it is a great play that has become an even greater television film.”
Ruffalo found relatively steady work during his early years in Hollywood, but mainly via roles in films like The Dentist and a couple of Mirror, Mirror sequels. It wasn’t until he developed a working relationship with writer-director Kenneth Lonergan that things started to pick up — most notably with 2000’s You Can Count on Me, a small-scale, character-driven drama, written and directed by Lonergan, that eventually served as a critically lauded calling card for himself, Ruffalo, and Laura Linney (who earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work). Ruffalo doesn’t get to smash in this story about a ne’er-do-well brother whose sudden reappearance proves a mixed blessing for his sister and nephew, but his performance is infused with the same quiet soulfulness that Joss Whedon has relied on to help ground some of the Avengers movies’ more meaningful moments. Observed Michael Dequina for the Movie Report, “Linney and Ruffalo’s rapport is warm but raw and unsentimental, capturing the unconditional tough love dynamic that can only exist between siblings.”
Investigative reporting isn’t typically exciting work, but you’d never know it from watching Spotlight. Director/co-writer Tom McCarthy commanded an imposing ensemble cast for this Best Picture Academy Award winner — including Michael Keaton, Liv Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, and (of course) Mark Ruffalo — to tell the sadly fact-based tale of the Boston Globe reporters who fought their way past systemic corruption and indifference to unearth decades of child abuse at the hands of the city’s Catholic priests, all allowed to continue while the church turned a blind eye or actively covered it up. Despite the inherently uncinematic nature of the work, and the fact that most filmgoers knew the end of the story going in, Spotlight proved positively gripping stuff — and a critical and commercial hit that racked up nearly $90 million at the box office on its way to earning six Oscar nominations (including Best Supporting Actor for Ruffalo).
As August passes, we’ve now completed ranking every major movie (releases that hit 600+ theaters and/or with 80+ critic reviews) by Tomatometer since the start of May, concluding another summer blockbuster season. The “blockbuster” this year, though, carried a more ominous weight, with a drumline of sequels and remakes bombing critically and commercially on a weekly basis. Only two movies in the scorecard’s top 10 this year dominated global attention spans (Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory), with the rest featuring works from auteurs typically reserved for awards season, like Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship or Shane Black’s The Nice Guys.
Summer’s here, and the time is right for heading to the multiplex. We at Rotten Tomatoes want everyone to be prepared for the onslaught of summer movies. So we’re here to help you get ready for the biggest cinematic season of the year with RT’s 2016 Summer Movie Calendar.
There are so many superheroes in this movie, it’s almost The Avengers 3. This time, though, Captain America (Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans) faces off against a friend: Iron Man (Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr.). After several massive battles in the previous Marvel movies, the government wants to regulate superheroes. Stark surprisingly agrees, but Rogers does not, and all the other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are forced to pick sides.<!--There are so many superheroes in this movie, it’s almost The Avengers 3. But there are two rival leaders: Captain America (Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans) faces off against Iron Man (Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr.). After several massive battles in the previous Marvel movies, the government wants to regulate superheroes. Stark surprisingly agrees, but Rogers does not, and all the other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have to pick sides.-->
In the latest Blumhouse horror film, a family returns from a trip to the Grand Canyon to find an unwanted souvenir has followed them home. Blumhouse movies like Insidious and Sinister are great at squeezing maximum scares out of minimal settings, so what remains unseen in The Darkness may be more frightening than anything else you see all summer.
Halle Berry shifts into Taken mode as a desperate mother who sets out to rescue her kidnapped son. There’s no trailer out yet, and the film was held up during Relativity’s recent financial troubles, so here’s hoping it was worth keeping on the schedule.
A disgruntled 99 percenter takes a TV financial host (George Clooney) hostage on the air as revenge for losing everything in the economic crisis. Instead, the host actually helps him uncover the corruption in finance, with his director (Julia Roberts) filming the whole thing live.
Finally, an explanation as to why those birds are so angry! Red (Jason Sudeikis) actually comes from an island of happy birds. He’s the only angry one at first, but when pigs come to steal their eggs, the rest of the birds form a furious flock. The slingshot destruction game comes to life in full 3D animation.
This time out, Mac and Kelly (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) must contend with a sorority who’s moved into the house next to theirs. Now the only way they can battle their new neighbors is to enlist their former next-door nemesis, frat boy Teddy (Zac Efron), in hopes they can scare the sisters off.
After spending some time in Marvel’s cinematic universe, Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang writer Shane Black returns to action comedies with Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play goofy detectives in the 1970s. This is the sort of hard boiled genre Black loves, and who wouldn’t want to see Gosling and Crowe in corduroys?
Lewis Carroll wrote a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so why not make a sequel to the movie? This time, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to Wonderland for all new whimsical adventures with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter), White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and all the creatures of the realm.
The First Class of X-Men are back to face the world’s first mutant, Apocalypse. Based on a classic story from the comics, this sequel will also introduce young versions of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and Storm (Alexandra Shipp).
Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin star in this romantic weepie about a young care worker who falls in love with a disabled patient who’s lost his will to live. Come prepared with a box of tissues for this one.
The creators of “D*** In a Box” and “I’m On a Boat” couldn’t just do a talkie, so of course the Lonely Island movie is about music. Andy Samberg stars as Connor4real, a rap star whose album bombs, forcing him to bring his old boy band back together. Expect a lot of laughs and some sly satire on the lavish lifestyle of music celebrities.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles weren’t warmly received by critics when they were rebooted in 2014, but they’re back again anyway. This time they’re joined by Casey Jones (Stephen Amell) to fight Kraang, Bebop, and Rocksteady. We can’t promise these are the same turtles you grew up with, but fans of the first installment will likely return for this one.
The creator of Saw and Insidious is back with another terrifying tale based on a true story. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) travel to England to look into reports of a poltergeist. We hear British ghosts are even meaner than American ghosts, so let’s hope that means double the scares.
After the surprise hit of 2013’s Now You See Me, the Four Horsemen team of magicians are back. This time they’re enlisted to perform a heist by the same man they put away in the first movie. Let’s see if they can pull off another unexpected twist.
There’s a whole world of Warcraft, so how can they narrow it down to one movie? Based on the massively popular video game franchise, the film focuses on a looming battle between orcs and humans. Even if you don’t play the games, this looks to be the most epic fantasy tale since The Lord of the Rings.
Kevin Hart tackles another action comedy, this time with The Rock. Dwayne Johnson plays a badass CIA agent who recruits his old high school buddy (Hart) to help him with a case. Hart and Johnson are both entertaining performers with a knack for playing off their co-stars, so this could be a perfect pairing.
In the long awaited sequel to Finding Nemo, it’s Dory (Ellen Degeneres) who goes missing. She leaves to look for her family, and Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) go searching for her. Pixar films are almost always worth the price of admission, and who doesn’t want to meet more of Pixar’s under-the-sea creations?
Five years after the “McConaissance” began in earnest with The Lincoln Lawyer, it looks like he’s still on a roll. Here, Matthew McConnaughey plays a deserting Confederate soldier during the Civil War who leads a rebellion that declares Jones County, Mississippi a free state. Opening just a week before Independence Day, it’s a seldom told but perfectly relevant Civil War story worth knowing.
20 years ago, Independence Day was the must-see movie of the summer thanks to a teaser trailer at Christmas showing aliens destroying the White House. This summer, they’re back, and only former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) and scientist David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) can defeat them without the help of Will Smith.
Blue Crush, this is not. Blake Lively plays a surfer who is attacked by a great white shark and attempts to make it back to shore, despite her injuries. Cue 90 minutes of tension, thanks to a circling shark.
A new Steven Spielberg movie? Enough said. But knowing that it’s about a “Big Friendly Giant” is even better, especially since friendly giants are rare. This one refuses to eat children so the other giants are mean to him, but he finds a friend in a little girl. This is also based on a Roald Dahl story and a screenplay by the late Melissa Mathison, writer of E.T., who passed away last year.<!--A new Steven Spielberg movie? Enough said. But knowing that it’s about a “Big Friendly Giant” is even better, especially since friendly giants are rare. This one refuses to eat children so the other giants are mean to him, but he finds a friend in a little girl. This is also based on a Roald Dahl story and a screenplay by the late Melissa Mathison, writer of E.T., who passed away last year.-->
Back in the 1930s, Tarzan was not only king of the jungle but king of his own franchise. This summer, he comes swinging onto the big screen again, this time with Alexander Skarsgard as the Lord of the Apes. Skarsgard in a loincloth, Margot Robbie as his Jane, and apes like The Jungle Book? This is a Tarzan for modern times.
One night a year, all crime is legal, and every year they make a movie about it. In this third installment of the Purge series, the hero (Frank Grillo) is working security for a candidate who wants to end The Purge. If you want more Purge movies, you’d better vote against her.
This summer, we get a double dose of Zac Efron. He and Adam DeVine play brothers who’ve ruined so many family gatherings, their parents force them to find proper dates to their sister’s wedding. They post a video online to attract the perfect dates, but end up with girls who may be even wilder than they are.
Remember how Toy Story showed us what our toys get up to when we’re not around? Well, what about our pets? Illumination Entertainment, the animators who brought us Despicable Me and Minions, has the answer. In a big city high rise where pets lead a different life when their owners are at work, one dog must adjust when his owner gets a second pup.
You probably haven’t heard enough about his one, right? The all new, all female Ghostbusters reboot comes from the director of Spy and Bridesmaids. Four women open a business investigating paranormal activity in New York City, and supernatural hilarity ensues with a feminine twist.
In stark contrast to Breaking Bad’s Walter White, Bryan Crantson stars in this drama as an undercover DEA agent in the 1980s trying to bust Pablo Escobar. Less Medellin on Entourage and more Narcos on Netflix, this crime thriller based on true events should serve as counterprogramming to all the fantastical blockbusters of the summer.
Rumors of the Ice Age melting have been greatly exaggerated, considering this is the fifth movie in the franchise. This time, everybody’s favorite Scrat accidentally causes a meteor shower, forcing Manny, Sid, Diego and Ellie to leave their home and meet all new prehistoric characters in their journey.
James Wan wants to scare us twice this summer. The Conjuring 2 director produced this horror movie, based on a short film by Swedish director David F. Sandberg, who makes his feature debut here. As with the viral short, the monster here only appears when the lights are out, so keep that popcorn close and your significant other closer.
The third voyage of the rebooted Enterprise crew finds them fleeing their destroyed starship and finding an all new adventure on the planet where they land. Justin Lin brings his Fast and the Furious energy to the action, which means the Enterprise doesn’t have a crew. They have a family.
We’ve had bad Santas, bad teachers, and bad lieutenants, so why not Bad Moms? Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Kathryn Hahn take a weekend off from being perfect moms and get into some R-rated fun, much to the chagrin of PTA supermom Christina Applegate. Think Bridesmaids-meets-Mean Girls.
Jason Bourne wants to be sure everyone knows this is strictly a Matt Damon joint (the less said about The Bourne Legacy’s Aaron Cross, the better). Aside from that, though, the studio’s kept details about this sequel pretty secret. We do see a bare knuckle fist fight and car chase in the trailers, so here’s hoping it’s a return to form.
They’ve served billions and billions, but even McDonald’s was an underdog in the beginning. The Founder tells the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a traveling salesman who discovered one burger joint with golden arches and battled the original owners to take it national.
Did they really remake Oh Heavenly Dog with Kevin Spacey and a feline twist? Spacey plays a workaholic dad who’s taught a lesson when a pet shop owner (Christopher Walken) puts him in the body of a cat he bought for his daughter’s birthday. This means we’ll see more CGI cat than Kevin, but it worked for Bill Murray in Garfield, right?
Dr. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) recruits a team of comic book supervillains to be her dirty dozen. Jared Leto has reportedly taken his role of The Joker a little too seriously by sending his cast mates dead animals, but Margot Robbie looks like a hoot as Harley Quinn. This will be the next step in the DC Extended Universe after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
There’s a chariot race in this reimagining of the epic tale made famous by Charlton Heston, but there’s also some naval combat and battles in severe climates. The story revolves around Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), escapes slavery and enters a chariot race to avenge his family. Except this time, it’s so much more extreme.
The original Pete’s Dragon was a musical with a Disney animated dragon. The teaser trailers have kept the new dragon well hidden, but in this remake, young Pete (Oakes Fegley) returns to society after surviving six years in the forest. Maybe he can adapt to the modern world, but what happens when his dragon comes looking for him?
Imagine an R-rated comedy featuring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Salma Hayek, Edward Norton and more. Now imagine that it’s an animated film about pieces of talking meat. Yes, you read that right. This cartoon for grown-ups was a huge hit at South by Southwest, but it might just be too weird for the average moviegoer.
Legendary Entertainment, the producers of the Godzilla and 300 films, are working on a new legend this summer. We haven’t gotten a peek at Spectral yet, but it’s about a special ops team fighting supernatural beings in Europe. Could be the ones that fled the Ghostbusters in New York.
Based on a true story, this war comedy stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as David and Efraim, a pair of young war profiteers who get their hands dirty running guns through Iraq. The subject matter is potentially sensitive, but don’t expect many deep social critiques with the Hangover franchise’s Todd Phillips at the helm.
Laika can add another magical adventure to their roster, which already includes ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls. Kubo is a boy on a quest to find his father’s armor after he wakes up in the ashes of his village. The animation looks impressive, and the exotic realms and dazzling creatures he encounters are rendered in superb detail.
Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson star in this sci-fi romance about a boy from Mars who falls in love with an Earth girl he’s been communicating with and sets off to meet her. Talk about a long distance relationship…
In this horror movie, a group of young thieves break into a blind man’s house, only for him to quickly turn the tables on them. He’s a military veteran, and the burglars find he’s much more when they make some discoveries in his basement.
Edgar Ramirez stars in this biopic of Roberto Duran, a young boxer from Panama who started his career at 16 and went on to become a champion, partially thanks to the help of his trainer, Ray Arcel (Robert DeNiro). This isn’t quite Raging Bull passing the torch, but it’ll be interesting to see DeNiro on the other side of the ropes.
This sequel makes The Mechanic Jason Statham’s fifth franchise. Just when he thought he was out, someone kidnaps his girl and blackmails the Mechanic to perform more assassinations. Michelle Yeoh is in this movie, so let’s hope she and Statham get to share a fight or two.
This spare drama about Jesus Christ (Ewan McGregor) praying and fasting for 40 days and 40 nights before his crucifixion made quite an impression at Sundance last year. More intimate than your typical Bible film, Last Days focuses on Jesus’s personal connection with a family he meets.
From the author of Crash and Empire of the Sun and the director of Kill List and Sightseers comes this drama in which an all-star cast play residents of a luxury high-rise who go primal and savage when the power goes out. It’s all fun and games until the rape and cannibalism start.
In a future where it’s illegal to be single, those who are divorced or widowed are obligated to stay at a hotel for singles and pair off. Failure to do so is punishable by death, but you get to choose which animal you’d like to be reincarnated as. David (Colin Farrell) chooses to become a lobster, but he makes a break for it before he has to live under the sea.
In this Jane Austen comedy, Lady Susan Vernon (Beckinsale) visits her in-laws and uses manipulation and deception to defy the social order. The Austen story was called Lady Susan but this title makes it a trilogy with Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.
Greta Gerwig stars in this understated comedy as a woman named Maggie whose plan to get pregnant by artificial insemination is complicated when she falls in love with a married professor (Ethan Hawke). Perennial indie darling Gerwig is always charming in these roles, so it’s a good bet she’ll shine here, too.
You might want to sit down for this one. Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) plays a dead body whose gas is so strong that a man (Paul Dano) stranded on a deserted island uses it to propel himself to safety. It only gets weirder from there. It’s probably safe to say there’s nothing else like this Sundance selection coming out this summer.
The Night Manager will be over by July so John Le Carre fans should be ready for another dose of espionage intrigue. Ewan McGregor plays a vacationing Brit who is given a flash drive by a Russian mafia money launderer (Stellan Skarsgard). After doing his civic duty and turning it in, a British Secret Service agent (Damian Lewis) insists he help them further.<!--The Night Manager will be over by July so John Le Carré fans should be ready for another dose of espionage intrigue. Ewan McGregor plays a vacationing Brit who is given a flash drive by a Russian mafia money launderer (Stellan Skarsgard). After doing his civic duty and turning it in, a British Secret Service agent (Damian Lewis) insists he help them further.-->
Ab Fab officially ended in 2005 but aired a few additional episodes in 2011 and 2012. Now Patsy (Joanna Lumley) and Edina (Jennifer Saunders) finally have their own movie, and they’re still living the high life. This time, they find themselves in hot water when they accidentally kill Kate Moss at a fashion show. We think Kate probably turns up okay, but Edina and Patsy will bumble things hilariously until then.
In the second movie directed by John Krasinski, he also stars as John Hollar, who reconnects with his family when his mother (Margot Martindale) is diagnosed with a brain tumor. This bittersweet family dramedy, which premiered at Sundance, features an impressive supporting cast that includes Anna Kendrick, Richard Jenkins, and more.
This romantic comedy recounts an afternoon in the lives of arguably the most famous couple in the world: Barack and Michelle Obama. During a summer off from Harvard in 1989, young law associate Barack took Michelle on their first date, walking around Chicago and catching Do the Right Thing at the movies. It’s an understated story, but so far, it’s gotten great reviews.
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