Box Office

Black Panther coming for your ticket moneyWhile Captain America v. Iron Man didn't prove to be that much hotter a ringside ticket than Batman v. Superman did in its opening weekend (there's just a 15 million difference or so), the gap will surely widen. The movie's general quality will help it outlive and outperform that earlier embarrassment. One thing the two films do have in common is that the audience excitement appears to be primarily wrapped up in the new characters (Wonder Woman then & Spider-Man/Black Panther now) as opposed to the familiar faces. In related news, Bunny v Fox aka Zootopia overtook Batman v Superman this weekend to become the second highest grossing film of the year thus far.

But real question: who on earth was going to Batman v Superman THIS weekend of all weekends (it earned another million) with Iron Man vs. Captain America available to them? 

TOP TEN WIDE
01 Captain America: Civil War $181.7 NEW Review
02 The Jungle Book $21.8 (cum. $285.9) Articles
03 Mother's Day $9 (cum. $20.7)
04 The Huntsman Winters War $3.5 (cum. $40.3)  Review
05 Keanu $3 (cum. $15.1) 
06 Barbershop: The Next Cut $2.7 (cum. $48.7)
07 Zootopia $2.6 (cum. $327.6)  Reviewish
08 The Boss $1.7 (cum. $59.1)  Review
09 Ratchet & Clank $1.4 (cum. $7) 
10 Batman v. Superman $1 (cum. $327.2) Review 

Sing Street is benefitting from great word of mouth as it expands

Other movies steered clear of opening against the third Avengers film but for Luca Guadagino's I Am Love follow up A Bigger Splash which began its platform release. Now there's an annual franchise option we could get behind. Imagine a world where each Gaudagino & Swinton release is as buzzed about and dissected as any new "Underoos!" moment from Marvel. We're here for that world, whenever it collides with this one.

TOP TEN PLATFORM
01 Sing Street $422K on 153 screens (cum. $1.1) Review
02 Green Room $343K on 470 screens (cum. $2)
03 The Meddler $294K on 53 screens (cum. $.6)  Review
04 The Man Who Knew Infinity $220K on 40 screens (cum. $.3)
05 Papa Hemingway in Cuba $181K on 208 Screens (cum. $.8)
06 Compadres $170K on 212 screens (cum. $2.7)
07 Miles Ahead $131K on 141 screens (cum. $2.2) Review
08 Everybody Wants Some $110K on 131 screens (cum. $3.2) Review Con, Review Pro, Podcast
09 A Bigger Splash $110K on 5 screens NEW Articles
10 The Family Fang $104K on 52 screens Review

What did you catch this week in theaters? 

Swing, Tarzan, Swing! Ch.1: Buster Crabbe's Loincloth

New Miniseries! As we approach the release of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) we'll be ogling past screen incarnations of the Lord of the Apes each weekend like we're going to an old timey matinee.

We begin with Buster Crabbe as Tarzan the Fearless (1933) who looks much better in this movie than implied on the poster which imagines him from maxi-challenge workroom outtakes from RuPaul's Drag Race. Blend, man, blend!

This next image is more flattering I promise...

Click to read more ...

12 Memorable Screen Moms for Mother's Day

A huge virtual hug and bouquet of flowers going out to every reader who is a mother, every reader's mother, and all the actresses that have played mothers over the years.

A dozen favorite random delights (from hundreds of great examples) of cinematic motherhood after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Where My Girls At? New Roles for Jess, Charlize, and The Bening

Four new projects for three favorites, two of whom are in theaters right now in a bad movie called Winter's War.

Charlize Theron
Her Gorgeousness will star in a new comedy called Tully which is not to be confused with that new drama called Sully starring Tom Hanks. Theron will play a woman who has difficulty dealing her child's new nanny (who happens to be the title character). But here's the best part: It's reuniting the core Young Adult team with Jason Reitman behind the camera and Diablo Cody scripting and since Young Adult is all three of them in peak powers, we can be very grateful/hopeful about it. If lightning strikes twice we'll know the three of them all bring out the best in each other creatively.

In related news that's the first set picture of Charlize on Fast & Furious 8 (gee, they didn't waste any time getting another film going) in which we think she's playing the villain. They've apparently gone meta with her 'Angelina Jolie Gone in 60 Seconds' look -- Drag racing car fetish movies have to stick together!

Jessica Chastain
Jess will headline Molly's Game with Idris Elba as her co-star. Since this is Jess we're talking about there's already a cutesy photo to illustrate.

So excited to work with the lovely @idriselba #MollysGame #AaronSorkin pic.twitter.com/9HtbK1QnQ4

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) May 7, 2016

Molly's Game is  based on the memoir by skier Molly Bloom which chronicles her arrest by the FBI for a high stakes poker game. Sounds like a string of words that don't make much sense together right but apparently it was a true enough story to write a book about and get a movie deal. Famed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will write (duh) & direct (wha?!?).

And the best news for last...

Annette Bening
After headlining 20th Century Women and a supporting role of some sort in her husband's still Untitled Howard Hughes film, The Bening will be back in a bio: She'll be playing Academy Award winning actress Gloria Grahame in a drama about the star's final days battling cancer when she was 57. The casting is totally brilliant visually. Our collective images of Grahame are all from her youthful heyday in noirs but if you imagine her growing older offscreen it's easy to imagine her looking exactly like the 57 year-old Annette Bening of right now. The project is called Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (I can't imagine they won't change the name) and Jamie Bell will play the male lead of Peter Turner who wrote the memoir it's based on and who cared for Grahame in her last days. Sherlock director Paul McGuigan is on board and the screenplay is from the writer of Control & Nowhere Boy. 

In related news: Annette Bening is still aiming for that Oscar so this may well be her backup plan if she doesn't win it this year...

The Mother of all Feuds

a must readAs you've surely heard by now, since it's one of the most striking actressy announcements in some time, Ryan Murphy's next anthology series will be called "Feud" and for its first season the subject is the über showbiz catfight: Bette Davis vs. Joan Crawford. Bette & Joan's famous loathing for each other was not confined to just the horror classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) but the series will be confined there since that set is the natural place to dramatize. It was the only film the two combative actresses made together. After the success of Baby Jane, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was intended as a reunion but ultimately Olivia de Havilland (who had her own legendary feud with sister Joan Fontaine) took Crawford's place.

Since Ryan Murphy can't live without Jessica Lange he's cast her as Joan Crawford. It's a terrible call because their screen personas are antithetical...

Click to read more ...