Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown Sign Up for Frozen 2

Chris here. Now that Frozen's Broadway adaptation was largely met with "meh", fans are all eyes on next year's upcoming sequel. While we have the headling cast of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel returning along with original directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck, we have had nary a detail about what to expect before the film arrives on November 27, 2019. But now we have two new exciting additions to the cast, two recent Emmy nominees This Is Us' Sterling K. Brown and Westworld's Evan Rachel Wood.

Naturally, we have no details whatsoever on who they will be playing but that need not stop us from speculating. Brown has become something of a steady franchise supporting player, having appeared earlier this year in Black Panther and will show up in this year's rehash of The Predator. With Santino Fontana's surprise villain Hans out of the picture, could he be a new romantic rival for Anna? Wood's presence however presents an intriguing notion or two - starting with the excitement that she might sing on screen again. The bigger question: could she be the answer to the Give Elsa A Girlfriend petition?

Halfway Mark - Box Office Hits of 2018 (Thus Far) in Multiple Categories

by Nathaniel R

It's time for the annual "halfway mark" festivities. With the first six months of the year done, we are triggered to look back at one came before. To make this far more interesting than just "biggest blockbusters" we're listing the biggest hits of multiple categories. If we've written about them extensively, talked about them, or reviewed them, that's where the links take you.

Key: The totals are domestic as of estimates this weekend.Titles that still have life in them (i.e. are still in active release and not done or just about to leave) have up arrows next to them. OKAY THE LISTS. Ready? Let's go!

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Soundtracking: "Wall-E"

by Chris Feil

It’s a rare thing for a Disney film to borrow music for a film rather than provide original material, but Pixar’s Wall-E is an even rarer brand of masterpiece. Today, on its tenth anniversary, it is still as sublime an experience for the senses as it ever was.

When the film opens with a musical theatre classic, we are told instantly that we are in for a different kind of science fiction world view. Its nearly dialogue free visual storytelling has been rightly lauded, detailing the a polluted post-evacuation earth through the robots left behind. But one crucial and charming aspect to the silent love story it tells is how swiftly it reveals character through its needle drops...

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Soundtracking: "The Lion King"

by Chris Feil

When The Lion King arrived in 1994, it felt like the first Disney film fully developed in its post-Little Mermaid resurrected era. Whereas the genius of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin feel like passion projects born of new financial fluidity, this film rings like a triumphant self-actualization of its return to dominance. It’s right there in the in the rising sun and thunderous opening incantation of “Circle of Life” - Disney reclaiming with force what they had lost and owning the cyclical nature of creative power.

It’s arresting stuff on a meta level, but that’s still incomparable to the song’s visceral gut level impact. Paired with the imagery of a convening animal kingdom both too fantastical to be true and rendered with breathtaking reality, “Circle of Life” feels so monumental that even immersive IMAX screens and sound systems can’t do its scale justice...

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Box Office Gets "Incredible" Again

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office Estimates (June 15-17)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Incredibles 2	Gotti
1.🔺 INCREDIBLES 2 $180 *NEW*	1. 🔺 GOTTI $1.6 on 503 screens *NEW*
2. OCEANS 8 $19.5 (cum. $79.1)  CATE'S PROMO SUITS	2. 🔺RACE 3 $1.6 on 315 screens *NEW*
3.🔺TAG $14.6 *NEW*	3. 🔺WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? $985k on 96 screens (cum. $1.6)
4. SOLO  $9 (cum $192.8) REVIEW, BEHIND THE SCENES	4. RBG $483k on 290 screens (cum. $10.1) REVIEW
5. DEADPOOL 2 $8.8 (cum. $294.6)	5. FIRST REFORMED $329K (cum. $2.4) REVIEW, ETHAN HAWKE

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