"Winter's War" didn't find summer-like grosses

Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?

Oh, Charlize you're gorg but those beasts in Jungle Book are fairest to moviegoers, who plucked down another $60 million to watch dem pixels. And all those other computer generated animals in Zootopia in their eighth weekend were also still going strong. Maybe you should have dissolved into birds more often? (With a budget north of $100 million, the opening of The Huntsman reminds Hollywood of a fairly obvious lesson: not every hit is meant to morph into a cash cow franchise by sequelizing it.)

TOP FIVE
01 The Jungle Book $60.8 (cum. $191.4)
02 The Huntsman: Winter's War $20 NEW Review
03 Barbershop: The Next Cut $10.8 (cum. $36)
04 Zootopia $6.6 (cum. $316.4) Reviewish
05 The Boss $6 (cum. $49.5) Review

Susan Sarandon in The MeddlerTHE NEW RELEASES
09 Compadres $1.3 on 368 screens
11 A Hologram for the King $1.2 on 401 screens Review
20 Elvis & Nixon $450K on 381 screens Review
38 The Meddler $15K on 4 screens Review
40 Tale of Tales $9K on 2 Screens Review
42 How to Let Go of the World and... $6K on 1 screen
43 Men & Chicken $2K on 2 screens 

Outside the top ten and new release Don Cheadle's Miles Ahead and Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! risked adding a few hundred screens and took in a good $600K+ each while Sing Street and Green Room inched into a couple dozen more theaters with solid per screen averages. 

What did you see this weekend ?? The extra question mark is in homage to Everybody Wants Some !! for which we've published both negative and positive reviews. I saw it this weekend and was so glad I finally got around to it.

The Huntsman: Winter's War

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad...

The Huntsman: Winter’s War, now playing, promises a “new” fairy tale. That’s true only if you’re willing to stretch the definition of the word. This “new” and awkwardly titled picture is both prequel and sequel to Snow White with some Frozen fan fiction in the middle. It begins long before the events of the revisionist Snow White & The Huntsman (2012) and eventually skips ahead to pick up where the last movie left off. In case you’ve forgotten your blockbuster history — spoiler alert! — Snow White and her Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) triumphed at the end by killing the true twin stars of the picture: Queen Ravenna and Her Oscar Nominated Costumes (a.k.a. former Oscar winners Charlize Theron & Colleen Atwood).

Dead though Ravenna was, when there is money to be made in franchise resurrection, nobody stays buried. In the new film we learn that the royal witch came to power alongside her kind loving sister Freya (Emily Blunt). After an unspeakable tragedy, though, Freya also became evil. Ravenna had that Magic Mirror to inspire her wickedness but Freya opts for a worn Blu-ray of Frozen as unholy talisman...

Click to read more ...

Chastain Fashiongasm

It's a fashiongasm. Or at least a #swoon, yes? It's Jessica Chastain in Beijing promoting The Huntsman: Winter's War. W Magazine informs that this is a Giles Deacon, a designer also favored by two of our truest fashionistas, Cate & Kerry. 

P.S. I understand that the early buzz on this feature is all about Emily Blunt if it's about anything but my body is so ready for Chastain to mesmerize again. When's that going to happen? Come on, Jess! I don't mean to be disrespectful because when she delivers... but perhaps, there's no middle ground with her? She's either underwhelming or ectastic to watch. In short: yours truly is eager for the next Most Violent Zero Help Thirty jawdropping star turn. Where isssss it?

Burning Question: What current star would have benefitted most from the Studio System?

This post is brought to you by agonizing advertisements for The Huntsman: Winter's War. Which looks dreadful.

Sometimes when I look at Charlize Theron, it hurts. She has such old school "MOTION! PICTURE! SPECTACULAR!" scale to her persona, this inarguable magnificence / screen beauty. The catch: she's almost never in movies that do anything for her when she's doing so much for them.

She might be my #1 choice for current star whose career is alright but would have been spectacular under the Studio System when star magnetism was carefully catered to, packaged, and regularly served up rather than an "extra" your random movie can sometimes benefit from.

Who is yours?

Yes, No, Maybe So : The Huntsman Winters War

Here's Murtada deconstructing the trailer for the ridiculously titled The Huntsman Winters War.

YES

- The actresses of course. Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron = a formidable trio.
- Chastain as a the Warrior. Yes!
- Blunt and Theron as dueling evil sisters. Yes again! May campiness rule the day.
- The oversize gestures of Blunt and Theron as they wreak havoc. Give me more!
- So it’s obviously all about the actresses. Oh and the possibility of a shirtless Chris Hemsworth.

NO

- From the producer of Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland….. NOOOOOOO.
- Hemsworth gets top billing?? I guess he's The Hunstman.
- The CGI doesn't look very convincing.
- “Men have forgotten what it means to be afraid. We will bring fear”. Hmmm cheesy line. It could be fun if the tone is over the top campy. The trailer is playing it straight so we are dubious.

MAYBE SO

- Does Blunt’s ice crown look odd above her face? It certainly is not as fierce as Theron’s crown. Is Colleen Atwood showing favorites?
- No enough Shirtless Chris. Will it be just the one scene like in Thor?
- Chastain is almost mute in the trailer. Only one line. More Warrior Jessica!
- Will we get enough of the British supporting cast of Nick Frost, Rob Brydon and Alexandra Roach as supposedly the dwarfs. They are hardly in the trailer.

It's a maybe so despite the fabulous trio of actresses. What’s your verdict?