Box Office: Cars 3 road blocks Wonder Woman 1... temporarily.

By Nathaniel R

Rule #1 of Hollywood: If it's making money, keep sequelizing it. Yes, even if it's as much of a lemon as Pixar's Cars franchise, basically the sole significant weight dragging down their otherwise blissful quality to quantity ratio (Sigh). But the world keeps buying so they'll keep selling. Cars won't have much time at the top of the charts, though, since another long-in-the-tooth franchise that's a blight on the cinemascape (Transformers) arrives Wednesday with its 5th installment. With so many lackluster sequels out this summer it's no wonder that people have been so thirsty for Wonder Woman, which at least has the benefit of being a "first" in multiple ways. Charts are after the jump...

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Today's 5: Batman Begins, Dick Tracy, Lara Croft...

Happy Thursday!

Five mood-boosting ways to celebrate this day (June 15th) in movie history

2005 Batman Begins opens, taking Christopher Nolan from critical darling to mainstream sensation, particularly for the fanboys. It also reignites the Batman franchise which we'll never be free of. In short: it's a good movie but it basically doomed us to countless retellings of origin stories we already sat through and reboot culture. Thomas and Martha Wayne have now died so many times... (sigh) 

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "Flatliners" trailer

by Robert Balkovich

Today in "time is a flat circle" news we've got the trailer for the reboot/remake of the 1990 Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland thriller Flatliners. The plot of this film seems to mirror the plot of the original movie: a group of med students attempt to discover the secrets of death by killing themselves and then bringing themselves back to life which, of course, has unintended supernatural consequences. This version stars Ellen Page, Diego Luna, and Nina Debrov of The Vampire Diaries fame. The trailer and a YES, NO, MAYBE SO are after the jump...

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What are you up to this weekend?

This Memorial Day Weekend isn't on fire at the movies. Nobody much cares about Baywatch (which is neither exciting like an action movie or funny like a comedy, but can still be amply defined as an "action comedy") and a new Pirates of the Caribbean is getting only the usual flock of lemming moviegoers for an established franchise and no one else. This is, by a very wide margin, the worst opening for a Pirates sequels. Elsewhere in sequel land the news isn't much better. Alien Covenant is the least popular Alien film yet if you adjust for inflation (and dont count those Predator crossovers because why would you?). Will Wonder Woman turn things around next week for audience interest or is counterprogramming that Big Hollywood rarely does anymore what they actually needed to do this very summer?

In limited release, slightly better news. Two unconventional romcoms are performing pretty well: Israel's 'wedding without a groom' film The Wedding Plan and the unfaithful ole marrieds of The Lovers are still expanding to decent business.

Weekend Box Office (May 26-28)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1.🔺 PIRATES (5) $62.1  NEW	1. 🔺 THE LOVERS $665K (cum. $1.3) (443 screens)  REVIEW
2. GUARDIANS (2) $19.8  (cum. $333.2) REVIEW	2. LOWRIDERS $539K (cum. $5.1) (334 screens)
3.🔺 BAYWATCH $18.1 NEW (cum. $22.7)	3. NORMAN $503k (cum. $3.0) (324 screens)
4. ALIEN (6)  $10.5 (cum. $57.3)  REVIEW | FRANCHISE	4.🔺 PARIS CAN WAIT $456k (cum. $860k) (70 screens)
5. EVERYTHING EVERYTHING $6.1 (cum. $21.5) REVIEW	5.🔺 THE WEDDING PLAN $311k (cum. $595K | 91 screens)
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo

What did you see this weekend? 

In Celebration of "Top Gun 2"...