Shirley Chen and McKenna Grace from ‘Slanted' use the internet for weird animals
Shirley Chen, McKenna Grace, Fang Du, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Amy Wang and Amelie Zilber came by the L.A. Times studio at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival to talk about their film, 'Slanted.'
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Lilo & Stitch Quietly Passed A Box Office Milestone That Previously Went To Sinners
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We're slightly less than halfway through the 2025 movie schedule, and some wild times have already been had at the box office. A pair of Marvel movies failed to make their usual explosive debut, and instead, one of the biggest movies of the year has been Sinners, an original film not connected to any franchise. The film had previously been the second highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, but Disney's Lilo & Stitch remake has now taken that honor. At over $267 million at the domestic box office, Sinners had been the number two movie of 2025. Lilo & Stitch now sits at nearly $285 million. It's going to take some doing for Disney's little blue troublemaker to become the highest-grossing movie of the year, however. A Minecraft Movie currently sits atop the box office at $423 million. With numerous major blockbusters set to come out over the next couple of months, it's quite likely that Sinners will continue to slide down the box office chart. Still, wherever it happens to end up, its achievement cannot be overstated. Franchise filmmaking had already been the focus of studios back when more people still went to theaters, and in an era where getting people to do that is becoming increasingly difficult, audiences aren't leaving the house to see anything other than familiar franchises. To be fair, the fact that it took Lilo & Stitch as long as it did to overtake Sinners at the box office is a testament to the film's popularity and staying power. Stitch had an opening weekend that was three times that of Sinners. Sinners, however, had virtually no drop in its box office take between its first two weekends, a nearly unheard of statistic. Lilo & Stitch saw a nearly 60% drop between its first two weekends, which is fairly standard for major tentpole releases. If Lilo & Stitch means anything in the broader box office landscape, it's that despite the overall failure of Snow White, live-action remakes of popular animated films are still popular with fans. Lilo & Stitch is in the upper tier of the box office results for those films, only behind movies that grossed a billion dollars worldwide, like Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, and The Lion King. Lilo & Stitch seems unlikely to reach quite those heights; it's broken $600 million and the global box office, but with the movie having been released in all countries, save Japan, where it will open this weekend, it has certainly made most of the money it's going to make. The major thing that may stop the momentum of Lilo & Stitch may, ironically, be another family-friendly live-action remake of a popular animated film. How to Train Your Dragon is set to hit theaters next weekend.
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The Action In Ballerina Is Very Different From John Wick, And It's Really Surprising Given The Plot
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains a few light spoilers from Ballerina. If you have not yet seen the John Wick spin-off, be wary of the consequences as you continue to read on. I have said before that I believe the John Wick movies make up the greatest action franchise of all time. I am happy to say that, in my opinion, director Len Wiseman's new Ana de Armas-led spin-off, Ballerina, is anything but damaging to that reputation. However, I must say that I was surprised by just how different the new 2025 movie is from the modern action movie classics that precede it. It is still a relentlessly action-packed revenge movie that even sees Keanu Reeves reprise his iconic role of the famed, troubled assassin, but what makes it stand out from the rest is the fighting style, which is not at all what I expected from it. Allow me to explain… When describing the revolutionary action choreography of the John Wick movies, the first word that always comes to mind for me is 'balletic.' The eponymous anti-hero lives in a world full of warriors who deliver combat that, while brutal, somehow boasts a sense of picturesque grace and seemingly rehearsed elegance that would fit in a production of Swan Lake. I assumed I would see more of that in a spin-off called Ballerina, but I turned out to be wrong. Ana de Armas' Eve Macarro starts training in the arts of both ballet and contract killing as a child, which had me convinced she would utilize her skills as a dancer while conducting 'business.' However, any sense of a balletic performance style starts and ends at the stage, because Eve fights in a way that I would describe as dirty, scrappy, and even clumsy. Yet, that is actually one of my favorite things about Ballerina. Stream the John Wick saga for less. Before you see Ballerina, you can catch up on all four John Wick movies and the prequel series, The Continental, with a Peacock subscription. The platform's typical premium plan is $7.99 per month, but you can save two months' worth of payment with an annual subscription costing $79.99 Deal For as much as I adore the unique style of the action sequences in the central John Wick movies, I cannot say that I have ever found it particularly realistic. However, much to my surprise, I would call Ballerina the most realistic installment yet in terms of fight choreography… by comparison, at least. The film follows Eve's rookie days as an assassin, so to see her prone to mistakes and lacking the same fluency in the field as experienced veterans like Wick is what keeps the story somewhat grounded and the character empathetically and refreshingly human. Plus, it gives her the opportunity to try out new, gloriously over-the-top tricks, such as flame-thrower duels, slicing people up with ice skate blades, and breaking plates over her adversaries' faces. Echoing Eric Eisenberg's Ballerina review, I went into the film with relatively low expectations, considering how this is the fifth installment in a beloved franchise, and a spin-off at that. Luckily, while I would still rank it pretty low among its predecessors for some ridiculous plot twists and, to be frank, the ultimately unnecessary inclusion of Reeves as Wick, it still greatly exceeded those expectations by delivering some of the best action of the year so far.
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SteamDB changes might finally herald the end of a long wait for Silksong (again), though with SGF on the horizon, I think Team Cherry has the potential to do the funniest thing of all time
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Every time I write about Silksong, I feel as though I'm inching closer to an abyss of madness from which there is no return. Each article starts the same—a rite for the uninitiated, an explanation that yes, this game really was announced in 2019, and yes, it really was stated to be coming out "in the next 12 months" in 2022, and yes, fan hopefuls really did wait three more years for a hilariously short clip in a 2025 Nintendo direct promising a release date this year with zero other specifics. Now, from the bottom of a well of conspiracy, a scrap comes tumbling down the cobbled walls: There've been more SteamDB changes that… wait holy crap, these might actually mean something. As spotted by eagle-eyed industry buff Wario64 on X, several SteamDB updates have been published for Hollow Knight: Silksong, which have quickly gained traction as a deep hit of hopium on the unfailingly unhinged subreddit, with nary a "silkpost" flair in sight. The main meat is the introduction of achievement languages, which are a pretty good sign the game's nearing completion—you generally don't decide what achievements are going to be notable, then translate them unless you're pretty certain you won't be making any more structural changes to your game. Even more hype came down the pipeline when some depots changed. A depot, as explained by the Steamworks documentation, is "a logical grouping of files which are all delivered to a customer as a single group", which then gets "downloaded and 'mounted' on their local drive" when you download a game. The last time one of these depots changed was in 2019, when the game was first announced. While I don't think user HHrnz, who spotted the change, is exactly right when they say "This is pretty much confirmation that the game is complete and ready to have its release date announced," it is a sign that something is going on. And as a resolute skonger, something is always able to be everything. I'm about to call an utterly unfounded shot, with zero basis in reality and all the hope of someone shouting 'Kobe!' from halfway down the court, but, just think about it—Summer Games Fest is coming up. Heaps upon heaps of trailers and events and showcases. What is the funniest thing that Team Cherry could possibly do after six entire years of anticipation? A shadow drop. Just… put it out there. After all, who needs pithy things like press releases or developer diaries when you've got a swarm of feverish hollows clamouring for your next game? The Switch 2 is here. The ground is ripe, and the marketing does itself in a resounding swarm of skong. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together
