With Barbenheimer living up to the hype, this weekend represents the first time in box office history a film has made over $100 million while a second has earned over $50 million.

This weekend was one of those weekends where I absolutely love doing what I do. To be a box office reporter for this site has always been an amazing gig, but this weekend took it to another level because of what it represented. It was historic in all the right ways. Two tent pole sized movies go head to head, but instead of one being hailed the victor and the other the loser, they both get to go down in history as success stories. It was a weekend that truly represented the power of movies. Whether your social media feed was filled with people taking pictures in front of movie theaters wearing their pinkest outfits, to parking lots across the country being filled to the brim as people saw one (or both) of these films before heading out to a restaurant or to the mall. This weekend felt like a time long forgotten, when people would line up around the block to score tickets to a highly anticipated new movie. 

Sure, we have seen massive movies hit theaters in the not too distant past, Avatar: The Way of Water is less than a year old and already the third highest grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office. In December 2021, we saw Spider-Man: No Way Home absolutely crush it with a $260.1 million opening weekend. And yet, this weekend felt different, this weekend felt like a cultural milestone that will be remembered for years, maybe even decades to come. I can picture it now, I will be sitting down to read my grandchild a bed time story in our house on Mars and as I close the book, he or she will look at me and ask “Grandpa, did you go see Barbenheimer on opening weekend?” And I will proudly say “Yes child, I sure did” before my hologram disappears.

So, let’s start at the top: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie easily claimed the top of the charts with a reported $155 million, exactly $85 million more than Warner Bros was predicting for the film on Thursday, and $40 million more than what we predicted. To put that into even more perspective, Transformers, another property based on a popular toy line, opened with $70.5 million back in 2007, which in 2023 dollars would be a little under $104 million. This is the type of win that Warner Bros so desperately needed after a few years of horrible headlines after David Zaslav took over the company which hit a fever pitch just last month when The Flash bombed beyond anyones expectations. Of course, Warner Bros being Warner Bros wanted to balance out the good headlines of Barbie’s opening with the headlines that they are considering pushing the remainder of their 2023 slate to 2024, which would delay the highly anticipated Dune 2. 

With that number, Greta Gerwig can now lay claim to having the highest opening weekend ever for a female director, beating out the co-directed effort of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for Captain Marvel ($153 million) and the solo directing record of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman ($103 million). It also beat The Super Mario Bros. Movie for biggest opening weekend of the year. With solid reviews (currently 90% on Rotten Tomatoes) and excellent audience reception (90% audience score with an A Cinemascore) you can expect Barbie to have long legs (pun intended) at the box office and with a worldwide opening over $300 million, will more than likely be the newest member of the Billion dollar club when all is said and done. You can check out Chris Bumbray’s 7/10 review here.

Coming in second place is the Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer with an estimated $80.5 million, making it the iconic filmmakers biggest non Dark Knight opening weekend ever (beating Inception’s $62.7 million, while The Dark Knight Rises remains his all time best opener at $160.8 million.) Nolan is a name that brings people out to theaters, but I’m not sure anyone thought an R-rated, 3-hour long drama with just one true action scene would pull in the numbers it did. Is the Barbenheimer effect real? Was the one two punch of a light hearted glamorous comedy juxtaposed against a darker moody drama just too much for movie goers to pass up? Perhaps, but it also helps that Oppenheimer is one of the best films of not just the year, but perhaps ever made (in my most humble of opinions.) The film could have just been the two hours leading up to the Trinity test and it would have been an amazing experience, but for my money, it was that last hour that took the film from amazing to a flat out masterpiece. To the Academy voters, who all obviously read our box office reports every week, when it comes time for your nominations, make sure Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt are all on your lists, as well as Christopher Nolan (and to bring Barbie into the mix, don’t forget Ryan Gosling, because that was one of the best comedic performances I have ever seen, while I’m sure that film’s Production Design will easily nab a nomination and probably the win. I’m sure Gerwig’s name will be in the conversation for Director while I wouldn’t be surprised at a screenplay nomination either.) You can expect Oppenheimer to have solid legs at the box office as it will retain its Imax screens for at the very least the next three weeks while critics and audiences agree that it is one of the best films of the year (94% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94% audience score and an A cinemascore.) You can check out Eric Walkuski’s 8/10 review here.

Sadly it looks like all that fandom for the Barbenheimer event took its toll on Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One as that film looks to take a 64% dive from its already soft opening with a reported $19.5 million weekend for a fourth place finish. I don’t think this is a case of the movie being bad, because it isn’t! it is actually one of the best action movies of the last few years and  has garnered great reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) and great reaction from those who have paid to see it (94% Audience Score with an A cinemascore.) I think this was just a case of an insanely crowded weekend where the top two movies released weren’t just big movies, they were events. I still think Dead Reckoning Part One will even out in the weeks to come and ultimately have decent numbers, but that $300 million budget will weigh down just how successful this film really is. Dead Reckoning Part Two is currently slated to hit theaters on June 28, 2024, which puts it in prime position for a solid Independence Day run, with currently only Despicable Me 4 and Mufasa: The Lion King expected to open the week after, so it should have a better runway for success than Part One did.

The other major story of the summer is the massive success of the independent film Sound of Freedom which leap frogged Dead Reckoning this weekend to take the third place spot with an additional $20.1 million and a domestic total of $124.7 million. I personally don’t know anyone who has seen the movie (apart from our Editor in Chief Chris Bumbray who gave the film a 6/10 in his review) but apparently the film has its fans and they are showing their appreciation for the movie with their wallets. 

The remainder of the box office this week are your summer holdovers such as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ($6.7 million), Insidious: The Red Door ($6.5 million), Elemental ($5.8 million), Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse ($2.8 million), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts ($1.1 million) and No Hard Feelings ($1.07 million).

Were you one of the reported 18.5 million people who saw Barbie and Oppenheimer this weekend? Let us know in the comments section your thoughts on this monumental weekend at the theaters and don’t forget to check out our weekly poll where we ask: What is your Favorite Christopher Nolan Film?

Nic Cage is at his Cagiest here with random screaming, intense eye contact, and an accent you don’t want to miss. Film’s not half-bad either.

REVIEW: After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.

PLOT: Sympathy For The Devil will constantly play with your expectations from the opening frame. Every bit of information given, is a means to manipulate you into thinking one way or another. And this is what makes the film is so interesting, even when very little is happening. Because it allows you to examine the small moments that have the potential to snowball into much bigger ones. And even as I say that, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that the film is polarizing to audiences. But aren’t those some of the best?

Like most cat-and-mouse thrillers, there’s a lot of reliance on the chemistry between the two leads in Sympathy for the Devil. Thankfully, this film has Nic Cage and Joel Kinnaman in those roles. Cage’s performance is one that may seem odd at first, but the more the film goes on, the more it makes sense. Sure, you have to be a fan of unhinged Cage for it to land, but I am, so it did. Even so, there are some intense moments where Cage strikes a more subtle chord. And I love his Boston accent which comes and goes in the more heated moments but leaves a big impact. Joel Kinnaman gives a layered performance as The Driver that will only improve with repeated viewings. The less said of his character, the better.

The biting dialogue is where the film is at its most entertaining. Whether it’s Cage talking to a police officer that just pulled them over or Cage talking to a waitress about cheese on a tuna melt. Really, Cage talking about anything here is absolute gold. I could have watched this man interact with people for the entire duration. Then there’s Las Vegas which always serves as such a great setting due to the city having a personality all its own. This is more on the outskirts but the glimpses really help to create an interesting visual language, whether through reflections or downright neon signs.

Sympathy for the Devil will likely play entirely different on a rewatch. And I find those to be some of the most fascinating types of films as they allow you to dissect them in a unique way. Because, unless you have a terrible memory, you’re never going to have an experience quite like that first viewing. And yet, this film still manages to hold up on another watch. Which, to me, says that it’s a well-thought-out and executed twist. And I have a hard time even calling it that as it’s just a natural progression of the story. But even still, it’s a massive spoiler, so I won’t be getting into it here and highly suggest you avoid it.

If you’re going into this wanting amped-up Nic Cage then you’re going to enjoy yourself for the most part. But be prepared for plenty of slower moments and a lot of talking between the Driver and the Passenger. There are some story beats that are sure to make some people squirm in their seat. But ultimately, this is a character piece where the actors are really given some room to work. And sometimes that’s all you need to make for an interesting time at the movies.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL releases to theaters on JULY 28TH, 2023.

8

With delays, cast drama and ongoing strikes, a lot remains unclear about the final season of hit western Yellowstone.

As the Dutton family and the cast of Yellowstone face uncertainties amid the hit series coming to an end, fans are also wondering not just what to expect in the final season but when they can expect it. But it looks like between the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, casting issues and more, we might want to hold our horses…

One of the biggest problems facing the final season of Yellowstone stems directly from those strikes, as creator Taylor Sheridan had yet to complete the scripts. Of course, even if they were done, the SAG-AFTRA strike would prevent any filming from taking place until that gets resolved. Still, The Hollywood Reporter remains hopeful that the last set of episodes will air sometime next year. As for how many episodes there will be, while it was originally planned that there would be six (compared to the first part’s eight, which concluded in January), Sheridan says he has the freedom over at Paramount to make as many episodes as he needs to.

But how much will Kevin Costner be involved in the final season of Yellowstone, especially if more episodes get tacked on? Yellowstone made more headlines than ever when it was revealed that Costner wanted to put in fewer hours during the final season partly so he could focus on his passion project Horizon: An American Saga. Once it was out that Costner would officially be leaving the ranch, word came that the show itself would not be returning after its fifth season. While we wait for the last set of episodes, CBS announced that Yellowstone re-runs would be part of their Sunday night schedule this fall, hopefully holding fans over until we get more concrete answers.

But don’t think that the final season of Yellowstone will mark the conclusion to the expanded universe, as there are still a lot of projects to lasso up, including an upcoming sequel series starring Matthew McConaughey. No word yet on what the series will involve, but you can be sure that John Dutton won’t be tipping his hat – both because of Costner and, come on, Dutton has to die in Yellowstone, right?

What do you expect to see in the final season of Yellowstone? Which character(s) do you think won’t make it out alive? Let us know!

James Gunn says Superman: Legacy is the first movie in the new DCU canon, even though actors from the previous iteration will return.

Orchestrating a reboot of a single property is tricky, but reintroducing audiences to a universe is far more complex. Do you start from scratch? Do you keep certain characters because of their established history and fan appeal? Does rewriting a world mean everything that came before is moot? These likely are some of the questions DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran asked themselves when shaping the new DC Universe. Thankfully, Gunn isn’t shy about engaging with fans and recently clarified when the new DCU canon begins.

When Edi Gathegi, Isabela Merced, and Nathan Fillion joined the cast of Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, Fillion’s casting confused those following DC’s cinematic superhero output for the past decade and then some. Previously, Fillion played Cory Pitzner, a.k.a. T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid), in The Suicide Squad. Given this, how does the actor play a Green Lantern in Gunn’s forthcoming Superman film? To help explain how the new DCU works, Gunn responded to a fan post on Reddit to shed light on the situation.

“Soooo excited James, this is going to be the greatest Superman movie,” a fan wrote to Gunn on Reddit. “But what about Nathan’s character in The Suicide Squad??? (TDK) is supposed to be alive? ?? You are rebooting that part? How does it fit everything?? I cannot understand. Can you explain it? I’m confused. Thanks for everything boss, DC fans are with you!”

“DC Studios movies (and canon) start with [Superman:] Legacy,” Gunn responded to the enthusiastic query.

Although Gunn and Safran are rebooting the DCU, some actors will return to the universe to portray their old roles. However, Gunn will rework the characters to match his signature tone for the DCU, which will differ from before. A handful of actors are making the jump from the DCEU to Gunn’s DCU, including Peacemaker castmembers John Cena’s Christopher Smith, a.k.a. Peacemaker, Freddie Stroma’s Adrian Chase, a.k.a. Vigilante, and Steve Agee’s John Economos. Viola Davis remains in the role of Amanda Waller, and Xolo Maridueña, who plays Jaime Reyes, a.k.a. Blue Beetle, remains the actor with a scarab attached to his spine. Meanwhile, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, and Jason Momoa might not make the cut, but that remains to be seen.

Does this help clear up any confusion about the state of the DCU? Are you excited for Gunn and Safran to wipe the slate (mostly) clean? Let us know in the comments below.

Ms. Marvel actress Iman Vellani is co-writing a new Ms. Marvel comic that reintroduces the character as a member of the mutant community.

Much like the Goonies, superheroes never say die. Exciting comic book news comes from Entertainment Weekly this Friday, with word that Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani is co-writing a new Ms. Marvel comic as a part of the character’s embiggened reintroduction to Marvel Comics. Before we share the details, you should know that Marvel recently killed Ms. Marvel after the character sacrificed herself earlier this year in Amazing Spider-Man #26. Ms. Marvel’s death elicited mixed reactions from fans, but like most things in comics, there’s always a plan.

Vellani will co-write a new Ms. Marvel comic alongside Ms. Marvel TV writer Sabir Pirzada. Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham supply the art, with Sara Pichelli creating covers for the series.

“This was way scarier than joining the MCU for me,” Vellani tells Entertainment Weekly. “Those projects feel like they live in their own dimension, so I guess I can separate myself easier. But you can hold a comic book! I’ve never written anything before in my entire life, but I have read many comics, so I just wrote what I would want to read. I was given a very professional tool to write what is essentially my own fan fiction.”

The new comic is titled Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, which refers to Kamala Khan’s second life on the printed page. Kamala’s mutant lineage was teased in the final episodes of Ms. Marvel, a plot detail continued in the comics. Even though Kamala is dead, Professor X and some of Marvel’s mutant community live on Krakoa, home to a complex system that allows the island’s inhabitants to cheat death. Thanks, Egg and the rest of the Five!

Before you sharpen your pitchforks, Vellani and Pirzada won’t be doing any Inhuman erasure regarding Ms. Marvel’s heritage. Instead, Kamala’s mutant awakening adds to her complex past, giving the character a more complex background than your garden-variety Child of X.

“I want to make it very, very clear that we are not retconning her Inhuman origin. That’s a part of Kamala’s identity that Marvel editorial and myself would very much like to keep and protect,” Vellani says. “Our book will absolutely reflect all those core themes of identity that the Ms. Marvel comics have consistently explored — only now there’s a whole new label that Kamala has to learn to accept. It’s going to be pretty crazy.”

Vellani continues, “Hopefully those readers who are kind of getting into the comics after the Disney+ show are are going to have something fun to look forward to on shelves.”

Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant features a costume redesign by Jamie McKelvie, who designed the character’s original costume. In discussing his collaboration with Vellani, Pirzada says the young actress knows her stuff better than he does. “She was throwing out references to specific comics that came out before either of us were born. She has a very great eye for what makes for a good sequence on the page as drawn by an artist. It was very impressive to me to see her throw out all these references to different artists that she’s been following through the years.”

As a hardcore Ms. Marvel fan, I can’t wait to see what Vellani and Pirzada bring to the character upon her return. Kamala is one of Marvel’s most essential characters in decades, and it’s nice to see her legacy grow with each new idea and evolution. Bring it on!

Iman Vellani returns as Kamala Khan in The Marvels, flying into theaters on November 10, 2023.

Seasons three through six of Friends had some of Chandler Bing’s funniest and most character-defining moments. There he is handcuffed, without pants, to a filing cabinet; remaining in “time out” in a box for nearly a full episode; hooking up with—and later marrying—Monica…We all remember them fondly. The one who doesn’t? Matthew Perry, who says these seasons were a blur due to his problems with substance abuse.

WTF Happened to…Matthew Perry?

But to truly understand what the fuck happened to Matthew Perry, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when he was born on August 19th in Williamstown, MA, the son of two prominent people: actor John Bennett Perry and mother Suzanne, who later served as press secretary to Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau (father of Justin, who Perry says he beat up in school).

Perry developed an interest in acting after he served it up on the tennis court as a youth, moving from Canada to L.A. to live with his father, starting with small bits on shows like 240-Robert (1979)—a series that starred his father and is considered lost—and HBO sketch series Not Necessarily the News (1983), along with more popular fare like Charles in Charge and Silver Spoons. After TV movie Morning Maggie, Perry got his first consistent acting job on the Fox sitcom Second Chance aka Boys Will Be Boys, retitled to focus more on Perry’s character, Chazz. It only lasted one season, but the year it ended, 1988, was a turning point for the actor.

Although most of us haven’t heard of the titles, Matthew Perry was getting steady work. There was TV movie Dance ‘Til Dawn alongside Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano and Tracey Gold; a one-off on sitcom Just the Ten of Us; a two-episode stint on fantasy Highway to Heaven; and his feature debut, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (River Phoenix was Jimmy). In 1989, he appeared in the Tony Danza-starring comedy She’s Out of Control, not to mention a three-episode arc on Growing Pains, playing Gold’s boyfriend who drinks and drives, resulting in his death—as part of the “very special episode” craze.

Around this time, he would call it quits on being credited as Matthew L. Perry, which seemed like sort of a good luck charm, since he landed his first lead in a sitcom, co-headlining CBS’ Sydney (1990, with Valerie Bertinelli and Craig Bierko, the fool who turned down Friends a few years later). But it was hardly a good luck charm, with Perry looking to becoming trapped in a series of TV movies and shows, playing Desi Arnaz Jr. in Call Me Anna (1990) and doing one-offs on Beverly Hills 90210 (1991), Dream On (1992), Sibs (1992) before sticking another series, 1993’s Home Free, for ABC, which lasted just 11 episodes (with two unaired). There would also be TV movies such as Deadly Relations (1993) and Parallel Lives (1994), as well as L.A.X. 2194, an unaired pilot that he was too busy doing to initially take a little show called Six of One…He, too, did Doug Liman’s DTV Getting In…And yes, Perry would be getting in the business in a major way that same year…

After Bierko dropped out, Matthew Perry joined the cast of Six of One fortunately renamed to Friends, as the youngest member, playing Chandler Bing, the sarcastic one of the group. Either way, he was a fan favorite. Perry and the cast would end up earning up to $1 million per episode in the last two seasons (up from $22,500 in the first season). This money, tragically, would come in handy…

It was during this run that Perry went full-on with his drug addiction—he always wanted to be famous but neglected to take into account some of its trappings—first becoming addicted to Vicodin following a jet ski accident in 1997, something that later turned into a 55-pill/day habit, only enhanced by the mounting pressures of shooting Fools Rush In (1997), an innocent yet generic flick that proved a major departure from the TV environment. In 1998, Perry co-starred opposite Chris Farley in Almost Heroes. Far from a Farley/Spade pairing, it remains a tarnish on Farley’s filmography. 1999 would bring another non-challenging rom-com, Three to Tango, while the next year saw the decent enough The Whole Nine Yards, which excels more due to Bruce Willis and his chemistry with Perry and everyone else in the cast. The same year, Perry suffered from pancreatitis, brought on by alcohol abuse, something his Friends co-stars tried and failed to get him off of. By 2001, Perry was heavily into alcohol, Vicodin, methadone, and amphetamines.

This came to a head in 2002 while Perry was filming Serving Sara with Elizabeth Hurley. With less than two weeks left in production, his addictions truly started affecting his work, as his quart of vodka/day habit sent him to much-needed rehab…but only because he thought he would die. To date, Perry estimates he spent around $9 million to get sober, going to rehab more than 60 times.

The next few years would see a two-episode stint on Ally McBeal and Perry giving drama a legit go, with three episodes on The West Wing (2003)—earning two Emmy nods—and co-starring in his first play, David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago (more commonly known for its big screen adaptation, About Last Night). But he couldn’t avoid comedy, next starring in the pointless sequel The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and directing an episode of Scrubs alongside his father.

Following Friends’ end in 2004, many in the cast wondered what would come of their careers. Perry waited until 2006 to get in front of the camera, starring in TV movie The Ron Clark Story to Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG nominations. So began a fairly reliable pattern of passable but still forgettable TV and movie work that still seems to be active. There was the promising but failed, one-season Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, playing the head writer of an SNL-esque show; 2007’s Numb, which went DTV in the US despite a strong enough turn as a depressive with depersonalization disorder; indie attempt Birds of America (2008); the casually charming 17 Again (2009) with Zac Efron—which capped off the decade and surprisingly and unjustly still remains his most recent feature.

The 2010s started off with potential, with the creators giving him a voice in the video game Fallout: New Vegas based on his avid love for the series. 2011 brought another series, ABC’s Mr. Sunshine—which Perry co-created and wrote episodes of—but that was canceled after just nine episodes. Perry again returned to drama with a four-episode arc as an attorney on The Good Wife (2012-2013), which he’d reprise for a 2017 three-episode run on The Good Fight. Perry yet again was given a shot at headlining a sitcom, playing a sportscaster on Go On, which, yes, was canned after one season. The same year that ended, Perry gave back in a most noble way, opening a Malibu rehab center that unfortunately shut down in 2015—but that’s twice as long as most of his shows at least…That same year, Perry latched onto the Oscar Madison role in an Odd Couple reboot, which miraculously lasted three seasons. In 2016, Perry returned to the stage, writing The End of Longing, which played London and off-Broadway. In 2017, Perry seemed to want to let his fans in more on his personal life, playing famous boozer Ted Kennedy in TV movie The Kennedys: After Camelot.

And then his colon exploded. No, really. His aggressive OxyContin abuse in the latter part of the decade led to an exploded colon, leaving him with a colostomy bag. His abuse also put him in a coma with two weeks on life support, with doctors giving him a 2% chance of survival, detailed graphically and effectively in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

And still Matthew Perry survived and has been sober since 2021. Could he be any luckier?