Here is our final group of directors whom we have categorized as The New Breed, the ones we have watched in recent years and will continue to over many years to come.
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Live From Hollywood...
Nov14
Red One: Dwayne Johnson Movie's Box Office Could Be Lower Than Black Adam
Chris Evans [left] and Dwayne Johnson in a still from 'Red One' (image courtesy Amazon / MGM)
by Tamal Kundu
Red One, featuring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, has a production budget of $200–250 million, but box office predictions indicate a lesser opening. The movie is slated to debut in US theaters this weekend and is predicted to open with lower numbers than Black Adam, the last movie in which Johnson played a major role.
Red One is tracking to make $30 million to $35 million in North America in its opening weekend.
According to the above estimation by The Hollywood Reporter, this is lower than Black Adam. The latter made $67 million at the domestic box office during the opening weekend.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, Red One was initially supposed to come out on Prime Video on December 20, 2023. However, the film was delayed, reportedly due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Eventually, the announcement came that it would have a worldwide theatrical release. While Amazon MGM will be handling the distribution duties in the US, Warner Bros. Pictures will step in to do the job internationally.
The aforementioned numbers would be a matter of concern for any legacy studio. But per The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon believes its business model doesn't completely rely on box-office performances because it's ultimately a subscription-based service. Moreover, Amazon has a franchise ambition with Red One, as it wants to launch a set of Christmas movies with this tentpole project.
Red One tells the story of Callum Drift (Johnson), the leader of Santa Claus's ELF (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification) security. He teams up with hacker and bounty hunter Jack O'Malley (Evans) to find a missing Santa Claus. Jake Kasdan has directed the movie from a script by Chris Morgan.
It Only Took 'Heretic' One Weekend To Become One of A24's Highest-Grossing Movies Ever
Hugh Grant in a publicity still from "Heretic" (image courtesy A24)
by Adam Blevins
Heretic had one of the most successful opening weekends ever for an A24 film, bringing in $11 million domestically to pair with $2.5 million internationally for a worldwide total of $13 million, all on a reported budget of under $10 million. Not only did it take Heretic only a few days in theaters to earn back its budget and become a profit, but the film is also already one of the top 25 highest-grossing A24 movies ever, after only one weekend. Heretic had no trouble moving past the total domestic box office hauls of other 2024 films such as Sing Sing, The Front Room, I Saw the TV Glow, and Love Lies Bleeding, and now the low-budget horror film will zero in on MaXXXine with the hopes of passing it to take the #18 spot.
In addition to becoming one of the top 25 highest-grossing A24 movies of all-time after one weekend, Heretic is also the #67 highest-grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office, surpassing the total of major flops such as Halle Berry's [Never Let Go], Bill Skarsgård's The Crow, and Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. Heretic is in a race against The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, another film to premiere this weekend that narrowly earned more by less than $100,000. In the coming days, Heretic will strive to move past Borderlands, which is one of the biggest box office flops of the year, and the horror flick will also attempt to pass others in the same genre such as Immaculate and The Substance, each of which finished their theatrical run in the $15 million ballpark.
'Mission: Impossible 8' Trailer: Tom Cruise Returns for 'The Final Reckoning' in Action-Packed First Footage
Poster for the new (and possibly last?) "Mission Impossible" installment (image courtesy Paramount)
by Andrés Buenahora
The title for Tom Cruise's eighth "Mission: Impossible" movie has finally been revealed, along with the first trailer.
"The Final Reckoning" is now the official title for "Mission: Impossible 8," which was originally slated to be the "Part Two" to 2023's "Dead Reckoning." It's scheduled to be released on May 23, 2025. The film originally was set for 2022, but was delayed multiple times by the pandemic and SAG-AFTRA actors strike.
Cruise revealed the title and a poster Monday morning, along with the caption "Every choice has led to this."
In the action-packed trailer, Cruise scuba dives and explores a wrecked submarine, flies and falls out of a biplane and does a lot of running. Angela Bassett is also revealed to be back as CIA Director Erika Sloane, after she first appeared in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout."
In "Dead Reckoning," Cruise's Ethan Hunt finds himself up against a dangerous AI program called The Entity that seems to predict his every move and could cause disaster if it falls into the wrong hands. After escaping a calamitous train crash in the ending of the movie, Ethan realizes The Entity is stashed aboard an old Russian submarine, but a foe from Ethan's past named Gabriel (Esai Morales) is also on the trail.
Morales returns for the upcoming movie, in addition to Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Henry Czerny, Greg Tarzan Davis, Mariela Garriga and Indira Varma. Newcomers to the franchise include Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Holt McCallany, Katy O’Brian, Nick Offerman and Tramell Tillman.
Box Office: 'Venom 3' Leads Quiet Frame as Major Studios Abandon Post-Election Weekend
by Pamela McClintock
The major Hollywood studios always knew the post-presidential Nov. 8-10 weekend was going to be especially quiet this year as they avoided releasing big event films, both because of jacked-up ad rates and worries of civil unrest if Republican candidate Donald Trump didn't win (the images of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump's loss in 2020 have not been forgotten.) As it turned out, Trump easily defeated Democratic opponent Kamela Harris.
The lack of a big new title on the marquee - two years ago on this weekend, Disney unfurled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, for example, followed by The Marvels last year - allowed Sony's Venom: The Last Dance to stay atop the domestic box office chart in its third weekend with an estimated $16.2 million from 3,905 theaters for a domestic tally of $114.8 million and a huge $394.2 million globally, including $82.8 million from China.
Aside from the major studios, not everyone stayed on the sidelines in the U.S. and there's a close race underway for second place between Lionsgate and Kingdom Films faith-tinged Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is reporting an estimated opening of $11.1 million from 3,020 theaters, and A24's psychological horror pic Heretic, which is reporting an estimated $11 million from 3,221 cinemas. (Christmas Pageants' tally includes $2.2 from incentivized screenings, meaning for every ticket bought, a person was given an additional free ticket.)
The exact order will be determined Monday morning when final weekend numbers are tallied, but Pageant appears to have an edge. Directed by The Chosen filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, the well-reviewed adaptation of Barbara Robinson's 1972 children's book about six unruly siblings stars Judy Greer, Pete Holmes and Lauren Graham. It is played best in conservative states, and earned a perfect A CinemaScore.
In recent weeks, indie outfit A24 changed their minds and decided to go ahead and open Heretic nationwide despite post-election concerns. Its debut marks Hugh Grant's best opening as a leading man in more than 20 years thanks to great reviews and a huge turnout out among moviegoers between ages 18-35, which made up 67 percent of all ticket buyers.
From filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Wood, Heretic received a C+ CineamScore, which isn’t an uncommon grade for a horror pic. The cat-and-mouse thriller follows two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) who knock on the wrong door.
Tony Todd as Candyman in the 1992 classic horror film. The actor has died aged 69. (image courtesy Columbia / Allstar)
by Sian Cain
Tony Todd, the actor who played the titular killer in classic horror film Candyman, as well as appearing in Final Destination, The Rock and Platoon, has died aged 69.
Todd died on Wednesday at home in Los Angeles after a long illness, his wife, Fatima, confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter on Friday.
Born in Washington DC in 1954, Todd had hundreds of television and movie credits to his name in a 40-year career. One of his first roles was the heroin-addicted Sergeant Warren in Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning war drama Platoon; he also appeared in 1996's The Rock opposite Nicolas Cage, played funeral home owner William Bludworth in the Final Destination franchise, and Grange in 1994's The Crow, with Brandon Lee.
On television Todd appeared in many popular series, including 24, Homicide: Life on the Street, The X-Files, 21 Jump Street, Night Court, MacGyver, Matlock, Law & Order, Beverly Hills 90210, Xena: Warrior Princess and Murder, She Wrote. He also played multiple roles in Star Trek, most prominently as the Klingon Kurn, brother of Worf, in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
He was also a prolific voice actor, playing characters in the Call of Duty and Half Life games, as well as Venom in the film Spider-Man 2 and the villain in Transformers: Rise of the Fallen.
In the 1992 film Candyman, Todd played the titular hook-handed killer, who is summoned when someone repeats his name five times before a mirror. The horror classic explored racism and social class; Todd's character Daniel Robitaille was lynched by a white mob on the spot where a public housing project is later built, which he haunts.
In 2019 Todd told the Guardian that he was paid $1,000 extra each time he was stung by a bee in one of the film's most famous scene. "And I got stung 23 times. Everything that's worth making has to involve some sort of pain."
Todd reprised his role in Jordan Peele's 2021 Candyman reboot.
Lionsgate CEO on Borderlands Movie: 'Nearly Everything That Could Go Wrong Did Go Wrong'
From left: Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis in "Borderlands" (image courtesy Lionsgate)
by Alex Stedman
The tone surrounding Lionsgate's quarterly earnings report on Thursday was a somber one, and the studio's CEO didn't mince words when talking about some of its recent missteps.
Specifically, Lionsgate's Jon Feltheimer addressed "the poor box office performance of Borderlands," the critically reviled adaptation of the beloved looter-shooter games. Releasing this past August after a long development and production period, it quickly became an inarguable flop, ending its box office run with a dismal $31 million worldwide.
"On Borderlands, nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong," Feltheimer admitted on the call. "It sat on the shelf for too long during the pandemic, and reshoots and rising interest rates took it outside the safety zone of our usually strict financial models."
He added that several of their other releases in the quarter, "though cushioned by financial models that worked as intended, didn't live up to either our standards or our projections." Feltheimer is likely referencing the studio's recent remake of The Crow, which topped out at just $50 million worldwide.
Feltheimer told investors that the box office disappointments "reflected an environment with less margin for error than ever before," although he did express more hope for the future. Specifically, he brought up films like next year's John Wick spinoff Ballerina, as well as a new Hunger Games film coming in 2026.
The CEO's comments are only the latest recent reflection on the now fairly infamous Borderlands film. On the games side, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick was less doom-and-gloom, telling IGN earlier this week, "Obviously that movie was disappointing. That said, it actually sold more catalog. So, I don't think it hurt at all, if anything I think it may have helped a little bit."
Lionsgate reported a loss of $163.3 million in its quarterly earnings, with revenue at $948.6 million, down from the $1.01 billion from the same period a year ago. In the investor document, Feltheimer acknowledged that the earnings were "disappointing" and pointed to "a transitional, disrupted and difficult year for our industry."