Comedy is back; Super Mario Bros has proved that laughs are good for a half billion dollars. The antihero business is intact. Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4 hit their marks. But affairs of the heart are still suffering at the movie box office. Love Again is the latest
Drama
As box offices start to test the waters, Roger Michell’s family drama Blackbird starring Susan Sarandon is set to open in theaters and on demand starting today. Known for My Cousin Rachel and Notting Hill, Michell directs a script by Christian Torpe, who wrote the 2014 Danish film, Silent Heart on which the family drama is based. In it,
Will the movies ever let religion back into the mainstream? It doesn’t seem likely, given the secular bent of most critics, festivals, and film awards. But the question could certainly occur to any thoughtful viewer of Marco Pontecorvo’s Fátima, which is set for release by Picturehouse in theaters and via PVOD on Aug. 28. The
Suddenly, 2020 is a year of imponderables. Will there be a Cannes Film Festival? Given the coronavirus-induced cancellation of SXSW, MipTV, and the AFI Life Achievement Gala, who knows? Is Marvel’s Black Widow the big spring-summer hit, now that No Time To Die is bumped to November? Maybe, if an April/May release still looks wise
IFC Films’ Official Secrets starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes is tracking atop the specialty box office Labor Day weekend with a solid start in four theaters. The Sundance ’19 premiere has a three-day estimate of $80,046 in four New York and Los Angeles theaters, averaging $18,061. Directed by Gavin Hood, the title’s launch is one of
The weekend has had a sizable crowd of specialty newcomers, though as summer begins its sunset, it appears some audiences are going beyond the big studio brouhaha. Sundance psycho-thriller Luce lead the pack with a $132,916 start in five locations, grabbing a $26,583 per theater average for the Neon release in the three-day estimate, while not
Having brain-screamed at yet another driver blowing through a stop sign at 30 miles per hour in my quiet, child-filled residential neighborhood, I got to wondering: Whatever happened to Garp? Released 37 years ago, on in the summer of 1982, George Roy Hill’s film version of John Irving’s novel The World According to Garp seemed to
Three documentaries that likely will be awards-season contenders begin their theatrical rollouts Friday. Magnolia Pictures is opening Sundance Film Festival pickup Mike Wallace Is Here in New York and Los Angeles. The company is hoping to tap the timeliness of the U.S. president’s ongoing attacks on the press to drive audiences to celebrate a legend
When will the Sleeping Giant wake up? In the second half of every year for the past 10, the grown-up audience has opened its eyes, stretched its legs and gone to the movies in numbers big enough to make a certified hit of at least one non-animated, not-too-scary, non-sequel drama. If ascent to the year-end