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Japan Today
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
'Lilo & Stitch' passes 'Sinners' to become 2nd highest grossing film of 2025
This image shows the character Stitch in a still from the film "Lilo & Stitch." (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures via AP) By LINDSEY BAHR 'Lilo & Stich' and 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' dominated the box office charts again after fueling a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend. Theaters in the U.S. and Canada had several new films to offer this weekend as well, including Sony's family friendly 'Karate Kid: Legends' and the A24 horror movie 'Bring Her Back. ' According to studio estimates Sunday, it added up to a robust $149 million post-holiday weekend that's up over 120% from the same timeframe last year. Disney's live-action hybrid 'Lilo & Stitch' took first place again with $63 million from 4,410 locations in North America. It was enough to pass 'Sinners' to become the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $280.1 million in domestic ticket sales. Globally, its running total is $610.8 million. 'Sinners,' meanwhile, is still going strong in its seventh weekend with another $5.2 million, bumping it to $267.1 million domestically and $350.1 million globally. The eighth 'Mission: Impossible' movie also repeated in second place, with $27.3 million from 3,861 locations. As with 'Lilo & Stitch,' that's down 57% from its opening. With $122.6 million in domestic tickets sold, it's performing in line with the two previous installments. But with a reported production budget of $400 million, profitability is a ways off. Internationally, it added $76.1 million (including $25.2 million from China where it just opened), bringing its global total to $353.8 million. 'This is the year of longterm playability,' said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's senior media analyst. 'The currency of word of mouth and the strong hold is more important than opening weekend dollars.' Leading the newcomers was Sony's 'Karate Kid: Legends,' with an estimated $21 million from 3,809 locations. The movie brings Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together to train a new kid, the kung fu prodigy Li Fong ( Ben Wang ). Chan starred in a 2010 reboot of the 1984 original, while Macchio has found a new generation of fans in the series 'Cobra Kai,' which just concluded a six-season run. Reviews might have been mixed, but opening weekend audiences gave the PG-13 rated film a strong A- CinemaScore and 4.5 stars on PostTrak. It also only cost a reported $45 million to produce and has several weeks until a new family-friendly film arrives. 'Karate Kid: Legends' opened earlier internationally and has a worldwide total of $47 million. Fourth place went 'Final Destination: Bloodlines,' which earned $10.8 million in its third weekend. The movie is the highest-grossing in the franchise, not accounting for inflation, with $229.3 million globally. The weekend's other big newcomer, 'Bring Her Back' rounded out the top five with $7.1 million from 2,449 screens. Starring Sally Hawkins as a foster mother with some disturbing plans, the film is the sophomore feature of twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou, who made the 2023 horror breakout 'Talk to Me.' It earned a rare-for-horror B+ CinemaScore and is essentially the only new film in the genre until '28 Years Later' opens on June 20. A new Wes Anderson movie, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' also debuted in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, where it made $270,000. It expands nationwide next weekend. The summer box office forecast remains promising, though there's a long way to go to get to the $4 billion target (a pre-pandemic norm that only the 'Barbenheimer' summer has surpassed). The month of May is expected to close out with $973 million – up 75% from May 2024, according to data from Comscore. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
James Foley, ‘Glengarry Glen Ross' director, dies at 71
FILE - Director James Foley poses during a photocall for the world premiere of "Fifty Shades Freed" in Paris on Feb. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File) By LINDSEY BAHR James Foley, a journeyman director best known for 'Glengarry Glen Ross,' has died. He was 71. He died earlier this week after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, his representative, Taylor Lomax, said Friday. In his long and varied career, Foley directed Madonna music videos, 12 episodes of 'House of Cards' and the two 'Fifty Shades of Grey' sequels, but it was his 1992 adaptation of David Mamet's foulmouthed Pulitzer Prize winning play that stood above the rest. Although it wasn't a hit at the time, 'Glengarry Glen Ross' wormed its way into the culture and grew into an oft-quoted cult favorite, especially Alec Baldwin's made-for-the-film 'always be closing' monologue. Critic Tim Grierson wrote 20 years after its release that it remains 'one of the quintessential modern movies about masculinity.' He added, 'while there are many fine Mamet movies, it's interesting that the best of them was this one — the one he didn't direct.' Born on Dec. 28, 1953, in Brooklyn, Foley studied film in graduate school at the University of Southern California. Legend has it that Hal Ashby once wandered into a film school party where his short happened to be playing at the time and he took a liking to him. Foley would later attribute his ability to make his first feature, 'Reckless,' a 1984 romantic drama about mismatched teenagers in love starring Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Adam Baldwin, to the Ashby stamp of approval. It was also the first screenplay credited to Chris Columbus, though there were reports of creative differences. He followed it with the Sean Penn crime drama 'At Close Range,' the Madonna and Griffin Dunne screwball comedy 'Who's That Girl' and the neo-noir thriller 'After Dark, My Sweet," with Jason Patric. Critic Roger Ebert included 'After Dark, My Sweet' in his great movies list, calling it 'one of the purest and most uncompromising of modern film noir' despite having been 'almost forgotten.' He also directed several music videos for Madonna including 'Papa Don't Preach,' 'Live to Tell,' and 'Who's That Girl,' and an episode of 'Twin Peaks.' Foley adapted John Grisham and worked with Gene Hackman on 'The Chamber' and made the Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg teenage love-gone-scary thriller 'Fear,' as well as the largely derided Halle Berry and Bruce Willis psychological thriller 'Perfect Stranger,' which was released in 2007. It would be a decade before his next film was released, when he was given the reigns to the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' sequels, 'Fifty Shades Darker' and 'Fifty Shades Freed.' 'For me, what's most challenging is stuff that doesn't involve the actors, oddly enough — in three, there's a big car chase and there's different stunts and stuff and that stuff really bores me,' he told The Associated Press at the UK premiere of 'Fifty Shades Darker.' 'So when the actors aren't around, that's difficult because the actors give me so much energy and kind of engagement and a car driving by doesn't do the same thing.' Foley was not an easily definable director, but that was by design. In 2017, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he had no interest in repeating himself. 'I've always just followed my nose, for better or for worse, sometimes for worse,' Foley said. 'What's best and what's worst (about the industry) are almost the same to me. What's worst is you get pigeonholed and what's best is I haven't been. It means that I'm still making movies, despite hopping all over the place.' Foley is survived by his brother, Kevin Foley, and sisters Eileen and Jo Ann. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
This summer at the movies, superheroes, from ‘Superman' to ‘Fantastic Four,' return
By LINDSEY BAHR Superman already has a lot on his broad shoulders. It seems unfair to add the fate of Hollywood to his worries. But that's the kind of pressure that comes with being one of the biggest stars in the comic book universe, who is getting a grand reintroduction at a tumultuous time. Thankfully he's not doing it alone — Marvel Studios is also returning to theaters in a big way with two movies this summer, 'Thunderbolts' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps.' Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic brought movie business to a halt, and two years after the strikes, the industry has yet to fully recover. Critics may have complained of superhero fatigue, but after several summers of depleted offerings, it's clear that they're a vital part of the mix — especially when they're good. The $4 billion summer of 'Barbenheimer' may be most remembered for those two movies, but it didn't get to that number without the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'Spider-Man ' movies, the second- and third-highest grossing of the season. The filmmakers behind some of the summer's biggest movies spoke to The Associated Press about what to expect in 2025. Summer begins early in Hollywood, on the first weekend in May. Kids might still be in school, and pools might still be closed, but that kickoff can make or break that pivotal 123-day corridor that has historically accounted for around 40% of the annual box office. Last year was the first in many that didn't launch with a Marvel movie and it showed — the business limped along for weeks until Disney came to the rescue with 'Inside Out 2' and 'Deadpool & Wolverine.' This year, the powerful studio is back in that familiar spot with 'Thunderbolts,' which brings together misfits and antiheroes like Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). 'It's a fun twist on what a movie like this could be,' said director Jake Schreier. 'There are some places we're gonna go that are different from what you would normally expect.' He added: 'It's trying to be a movie about something and the moment we're in — not in a political sense, but just where everybody's at and what everyone's been going through.' The Memorial Day weekend could also be a behemoth a few weeks later with the live action 'Lilo & Stitch' and 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' storming theaters. With a new 'Jurassic World,' a live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon' and a Formula One movie also on the schedule through June and July, the summer 2025 season has the potential to be the biggest in the post-COVID era. Before the pandemic, all but one summer since 2007 broke the $4 billion mark. Since 2020, only one has: 2023, led by 'Barbie.' After three 'Guardians' movies, James Gunn knows enough to know that he doesn't have much control over whether people buy tickets for his movies. His job is to make something good, entertaining and 'worthy' of the audience. But that's also possibly underplaying the pressure of taking on Superman and overseeing a unified DC universe that kicks off with 'Superman' on July 11. He considers it the first true superhero movie he's ever made. 'It's a personal journey for Superman that's entirely new,' Gunn said. 'It is, first and foremost, about what does Superman learn about himself. But it's also about the robots and the flying dogs and all that stuff. It's taking a very real person and putting them in the middle of this outrageous situation and outrageous world and playing with that. I think it's a lot of fun because of that.' The film introduces a new actor to the role of Superman/Clark Kent in David Corenswet, who stars alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Gunn said to expect different things from both. 'It was a lot of fun making a Lex that is actually going to kill Superman,' he said. 'He's pretty scary.' The film is also 'seeding the rest of the DCU,' Gunn said. 'If it works as a movie in a basic way, that's what we need to happen, that's what I care about.' Superman as a brand has always trailed Batman at the box office. None of the Zack Snyder films crossed $1 billion, not accounting for inflation, while both Christopher Nolan 'Dark Knight' sequels did. But Gunn isn't thinking a lot about that. 'I just want to make a decent movie that makes a little money,' Gunn said. Superman's not the only legacy brand getting a splashy reintroduction this summer. A new Fantastic Four crew, assembled for the first time under umbrella of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Kevin Feige, is heading to theaters July 25. 'Fantastic Four is a comic I've loved since I was a kid,' said director Matt Shakman. 'They are the legendary heroes of the '60s that the Marvel silver age was built on.' Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Fantastic Four is among Marvel's longest-running comics series. But it has not had the most distinguished history on film, including two with Chris Evans and one with Michael B. Jordan. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' is set in a retro-futuristic 1960s New York, where Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards is 'basically Steve Jobs meets Einstein who's creating technology that's changing the world' and Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm is 'essentially the secretary-general of the U.N.,' Shakman said. A television veteran with directing credits on shows like 'WandaVision' and 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,' Shakman said he wants to do right by the characters, and audience. 'It's working on an incredibly large scale in terms of world building, but it's also no different from all of the great comedies and dramas that I've done,' Shakman said. 'In the end, it comes down to character, it comes down to relationships, it comes down to heart and humor.' Plus, he feels a responsibility to the idea of the big summer movie. 'It was the joy of my childhood. ... A lot of it has to do with building worlds and entering into a place of wonder,' he said. 'That's what I felt when I saw 'Indiana Jones' when I was a kid and it's what I hope people feel when they see 'Fantastic Four' this summer.' Studios know that superheroes alone don't make a robust theatrical marketplace and there are plenty of other options on the menu including franchises, event movies and independents: There are family pics ('Smurfs,' 'Elio,' 'The Bad Guys 2'); action and adventures ('Ballerina,' 'The Karate Kid: Legends'); horrors, thrillers and slashers ('28 Years Later,' 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' 'M3GAN 2.0'); romances ('Materialists,' 'Jane Austen Wrecked My Life'); dramas ('Sorry, Baby,' 'The Life of Chuck'); a new Wes Anderson movie ('The Phoenician Scheme'); and comedies ('Freakier Friday,' 'Bride Hard,' 'The Naked Gun') — though one of the most anticipated, 'Happy Gilmore 2,' will be on Netflix. 'The frequency of movies, the cadence, the sheer number of them and the perceived quality and excitement surrounding this lineup is like almost like never before,' said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. 'Draw me a blueprint of a perfect summer lineup: 2025 is it.' One of the biggest movies of the season may be 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' the seventh movie in a $6 billion franchise. Even its poorly received predecessor made $1 billion. This time they enlisted a new filmmaker, self-proclaimed 'Jurassic Park' superfan Gareth Edwards, and the original's screenwriter for a new adventure with Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey. 'People say, like, do you feel pressure and the most pressure I feel is from myself as a fan and to Steven Spielberg, to not disappoint him,' Edwards said. 'Weirdly what's great about doing a 'Jurassic' movie is that everybody knows deep down that like half the reason they're in this business is because of that film and Steven's work.' It's fitting, in a way, that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of what's considered the first summer blockbuster: 'Jaws.' Edwards said he was born into that world of big summer blockbusters that shaped his early love of movies. Directing one, he said, 'is kind of the dream. You get the chance to swing for the fences.' And the unstable economy might work in the industry's favor, at least when it comes to moviegoing. Even with increased ticket prices, theatrical movies remain the most affordable entertainment outside of the home and attendance tends to increase during recession years. The annual domestic box office crossed $10 billion for the first time in 2009. More recently, the week the tariffs were announced, 'A Minecraft Movie' doubled its opening weekend projections, and all of those ticket buyers saw trailers and posters for everything to come. It was, Dergarabedian noted, one of the only positive financial stories that week. 'Top Gun: Maverick' filmmaker Joseph Kosinski knows a few things about launching a pricey big screen spectacle into a turbulent marketplace. But he's feeling good about the summer and 'F1's' place within it. Warner Bros. will release 'F1' on June 27. 'This is the summer where all this product that we've all been working on for the last few years is finally coming into the marketplace, so I'm very optimistic,' Kosinski said. 'By the end of this summer, hopefully people aren't talking about being in a funk anymore and it feels like we got our mojo back and we're off to the races.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
‘Sinners' has phenomenal 2nd weekend as a 20-year-old 'Star Wars' movie takes 2nd place
This image released by Warner Bros Pictures shows Michael B. Jordan in a scene from "Sinners." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) By LINDSEY BAHR Horror movies are often one-week wonders at the box office, but Ryan Coogler's'Sinners' is defying the odds and proving to be true event cinema. In its second weekend in theaters, 'Sinners' earned $45 million in ticket sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. That's down a miniscule 6% from its Easter holiday launch, the smallest drop in any genre since 'Avatar' in 2009. Worldwide, 'Sinners' has now made $161.6 million. For the industry, the showing proves the film's reach has broadened beyond horror fans to mainstream audiences wanting to see what the hype is about. Last weekend, men made up 56% of the audience. This weekend, the gender divide narrowed to 50/50. Premium large format showings, like the 70mm IMAX screens, are also a big draw. IMAX screens worldwide accounted for some 21% of the second weekend globally, a nearly 9% increase from last weekend. The original ensemble movie, starring Michael B. Jordan as twins, rode into theaters on a wave of great reviews. And, to be fair, 'Sinners' isn't simply a horror film: It blends elements of drama, action and musical into its southern gothic milieu. 'That's one of the lowest second weekend holds for an overperforming wide release ever,' said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. 'It's an absolute phenomenon." Hollywood expects significant drop off in a movie's second week of release. Even a 50% dip is considered a solid number, baked into the movie math. When it's anything less than that, it's notable. 'You can buy a great opening weekend with marketing, but if a movie doesn't have the goods, it'll drop off," Dergarabedian said. 'There's no greater barometer of success than a second weekend hold like this." The film was produced by Coogler's Proximity Media and Warner Bros., which handled the theatrical release. After some disappointments earlier in the year, it's the second major win for the studio after 'A Minecraft Movie' helped energize the box office earlier this month. 'Sinners' easily topped the biggest new competition this week: 'The Accountant 2,' a sequel starring Ben Affleck and released by Amazon MGM Studios, which opened in third place with an estimated $24.5 million in its first weekend. Gavin O'Connor directed the film, which played in 3,610 theaters in North America. Audiences gave it a promising A- CinemaScore. The film that beat 'The Accountant 2' for second place was a 20-year-old Star Wars movie: 'Revenge of the Sith.' The anniversary re-release took in an estimated $25.2 million over the weekend, with many sellouts reported, more than doubling last year's release of 'The Phantom Menace.' Internationally, it earned $17 million from 34 territories, giving it a $42.2 million global weekend. It's one of the top grossing re-releases ever. 'A Minecraft Movie' landed in fourth place with $22.7 million, bringing its domestic total to around $380 million. The scary video game adaptation 'Until Dawn' also opened this weekend to an estimated $8 million. Sony Pictures released the film, starring Ella Rubin and Michael Cimino, which has earned $18.1 million globally. The 'Minecraft' and 'Sinners' wins have meant a huge boost for the April box office, which is up 102% from April 2024. The annual box office is also up over 10% from last year after running at a double-digit deficit in March. And this is all happening right before the industry's summer movie season kicks off on May 2 with Disney's 'Thunderbolts.' 'There cannot be a better opening act for the summer movie season than this weekend,' Dergarabedian said. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
