Scarlett Johannson is the grossest actress ever

...as in, the cumilative box office grossings of the films she's starred in!

Josh here to quickly talk earnings. Scarlett's cumulative box office grossings earn her the title of highest grossing actress ever in the USA according to Box Office Mojo. This title is a little misleading as it's not exactly just Scarlett drawing people to all those Marvel movies that she isn't even the lead of (shame!). Along with the Marvel cinematic universe, her massive tally includes her 5 seconds of voice work in The Jungle Book and actual star vehicle Lucy. This puts her ahead of Cameron Diaz, Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett and Julia Roberts (who is the only lady on the list not propped up massively by a mega-franchise).

The top ten and more facts about the cashed up list after the jump

Click to read more ...

Water Sports with Dory, Blake, and Dead Daniel

Moviegoers were content to keep swimming with Dory this weekend as the new releases didn't stir audiences. Well that's not wholly true. Moviegoers turned out for other water sports like water skiing on Daniel Radcliffe's corpse in Swiss Army Man (crowded houses but only available in NY & LA) and shark dodging with Blake Lively in The Shallows which had a solid per screen average, a low budget, and surprisingly good reviews. That triple combo could signify big profits for The Shallows ahead if the film finds legs in July, especially if it doesn't lose momentum over the 4th of July holiday week frenzy when The BFG, Tarzan, and The Purge 3 are all newly available to moviegoers. 

The two films that had the toughest time this weekend were the 20 years later (aka way too late) sequel Independence Day Resurgence and the horror/fashion/noir/thriller/satire/whatsit/drama Neon Demon, which risked a nearly wide opening (just under 800 theaters) but couldn't fill theaters -- Elle Fanning isn't bankable yet. Whatever happened to Dakota? *sniffle*

TOP TEN WIDE
1000+ screens. arrows indicate gaining or losing screens
▫️01 Finding Dory $73.2 (cum. $286.5) Review
🔺02 Independence Day: Resurgence $41.6 NEW 
▫️03 Central Intelligence $18.3 (cum. $69.3)
🔺04 The Shallows $16.7 NEW
🔺05 Free State of Jones $7.7 NEW 
🔻06 The Conjuring 2 $7.7 (cum. $86.9) 
🔻07 Now You See Me 2 $5.6 (cum. $52)
🔻08 X-Men Apocalypse $2.4 (cum. $151.1) Review, Podcast
🔻09 TMNT: Out of the Shadows $2.4 (cum. $77.1)
🔻10 Warcraft $2.1 (cum. $43.8) Six Questions

Fan Art by The Glitchway. Click here for more

TOP TEN LIMITED
Less than 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide. 
🔺01 The Neon Demon $606K NEW
🔻02 Love & Friendship $490K (cum. $11.8) Review, Podcast  
🔻03 The Lobster $436K (cum. $7) Reviewish, Podcast 
🔻04 Maggie's Plan $297K (cum. $2.2)  Review
🔺05 Genius $216K (cum. $807K) 
🔺06 Weiner $115K (cum. $1.2)  Review
🔺07 Swiss Army Man $114K NEW Review 
🔺08 Dark Horse $92K (cum. $493K) Review
🔻09 The Man Who Knew Infinity $88K (cum. $3.5)
🔻10 The Hunt for Wilderpeople $85K NEW Review 
 

Happy Pride Weekend, Everyone!
What movies did you catch this week?

Somehow I kicked off the weekend by visiting a facade of the Psycho house (Mommy issues for everyone!) with my bestie and The Flick Filosopher who was visiting from London. But I also caught Genius, The Neon Demon and Swiss Army Man and more on those soon.

Cue the Imperial March.

Daddy's back!

One of the most iconic characters of all time is set to return to the big screen. Darth Vader returns to cinemas when Rogue One hits on December 16th. But do you sense a disturbance in the force? A few questions get raised here. Was Darth Vader added in the reshoots when the studio was reportedly in panic? Perhaps the biggest question of all is: do we need to see Darth Vader again?

It would be surprising not to have Darth Vader mentioned at all as he is a very large character in the universe at that time this new (old) story takes place, but to appear on screen is a huge moment to promise. Audiences will return just to see this character again but isn't that, perhaps, detrimental to the larger revival of the franchise. Part of the success of The Force Awakens was the way it balanced nostalgia whilst shaping a new path. It ensured Vader cast a dark shadow, and his absence was felt which is a successful use of nostalgia but not overkill.

Have we already spied Darth Vader in the Rogue One trailer?

Vader has appeared frequently in the animated TV series but the big screen where he’s the big bad is another thing. Still a tip of the hat to the never ending successful Star Wars PR machine. They reveal only that Darth Vader will reappear, and millions of voices cry out in glee. But do you find the lack of originality disturbing?

Links: Danielle Brooks, Shark Movies, Ghostbuster Themes

The Ringer "True confessions of Shark," the star who invented the blockbuster (Ha!)
IndieWire calls The Shallows the best shark movie since Jaws. Wow... but then, on the other hand, are there any good shark movies since Jaws so maybe that's not such high praise?
Buzzfeed has a long gripping read about director Karyn Kusama's tough journey from Girlfight (2000) through two studio disasters and on to her new film The Invitation (2016)
TFE... which we reviewed in April, icymi
YouTube the new Ghostbusters theme song "Ghostbusters (I'm Not Afraid)" by Fall Out Boy is basically a cover with some new flourishes including Missy Elliott so it won't be Oscar nominated (or even eligible) like the original tune from 1984

 

US Magazine there's a Golden Girls Cafe opening in NYC but "cheesecake" isn't the menu headliner so fire everyone. (If you read the fine print it's actually a restaurant in honor of Rue McClanahan... but they're really pushing it as a Golden Girls Cafe so they need to step up their menu game)
Variety This Euphoria movie cast gets better and better: Eva Green, Alicia Vikander...and now Charlotte Rampling? And it's got a female director and a great cinematographer (Ex Machina's Rob Hardy). Be still my (frost-bitten) heart 
Slate rips apart 2016's sequels as anti-storytelling, pro-branding. Yes. 
BeSpoke Redmayne awww a little precocious 8 year old who loves Stephen Hawkings and "Eddie's Marilyn movie" got to meet her idol Eddie Redmayne  
NY Theater in case you want a headstart on NEXT SUMMER's Tony Awards - lots of potentially exciting shows opening in the next 11 months including revivals of Falsettos, The Little Foxes, Hello Dolly, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer as the Merquise de Merteuil and Liev Schreiber as her partner-in-love-crime Valmont

Quote of the Day
Today Show Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black, The Color Purple) says: 

My career is a Crayola box now!"

I demand remakes of Blue Angel, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Foxy Brown, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon all starring this fine actress. LOVE HER SO MUCH. Hoping Emmy notices her soon for Orange is the New Black. 

Uh... Try 'Movie of the Year'

iTunes rental deal this week is Todd Hayne's Carol, our #1 film of 2015. It's only 99¢ so there's no time like the now if you've been putting it off. (If you're into buying digital copies of things -- I am not. I need physical copies as digitial is too ephemeral and as soon as there are technology updates or you get a new computer suddenly you lose things -- there are a ton of great deals on LGBT movies at iTunes under their Pride month label)

Complete the (Fishy) Sentence

Eager to see where you're at with this since you were so hushed about the review. Have at it in the comments.

Finding Dory is to Finding Nemo as _____ is to ________." 

(Don't feel the need to be too literal)