Disney’s ‘Moana 2’ launched to a huge $221 million over five days.
It’s the biggest five-day opening number in history.
‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ continued to be successful.
Box office tills both here and around the world continued to ring out (well, probably beep in this day and age) with glee as the long Thanksgiving weekend powered to a massive total.
That’s primarily thanks to the new Disney animated movie sequel ‘Moana 2,’ which locked in a new Thanksgiving box office record with $221 million domestically over the five-day holiday frame, obliterating the previous high-water marks set by 2019’s ‘Frozen II’ ($125 million) and 2013’s ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.’ ($109 million).
It’s also the biggest five-day debut in history, overtaking Universal’s 2023 behemoth ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ ($205.6 million).
And Disney will be happy –– the film’s three day tally of $135.5 million registers as the best start for its animation arm, ahead of ‘Frozen II’ (which opened to $130.2 million the weekend prior to Thanksgiving).
Ticket sales for the ‘Moana’ sequel were far above the early estimates of $135 million to $145 million. Worldwide, the movie has made more than $386.3 million, with launches still set for several counties this week.
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Here’s what Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman had to say:
“ ‘Moana 2’ has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that ‘Moana’ has become. This is a moment to celebrate, and we’re thankful to all the moviegoers and fans who’ve helped make this a record-breaking debut.”
While the movie was seen as something of a gamble –– it originated as a TV series spin-off to the 2016 movie, before being retooled for a theatrical release, that has certainly paid off.
It’s been a good year for Disney, thanks to the successful likes of Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ (whose current worldwide box office tally stands at $1.69 billion) and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (now at $1.33 billion globally).
The box office in total did well, surging to more than $400 million this weekend. It’s a much needed boost for an industry that has been struggling to recover from the pandemic in particular.
And that’s also partly thanks to second week and weekends for fellow heavy hitters ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II.’
How is ‘Wicked’ performing in its second weekend at the box office?
(L to R) Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in ‘Wicked’, directed by Jon M. Chu. Photo: Universal Pictures.
‘Wicked’ danced through life to another huge turnout, landing in the No. 2 spot with $80 million over the traditional weekend and $117.5 million over the five-day holiday stretch.
The movie has earned $262.4 million in North America and $359.2 million globally to date.
It already ranks as the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in domestic box office history, ahead of 1978’s ‘Grease’ ($188.62 million), as well as the fourth-biggest worldwide stage-to-screen reimagining behind 2008’s ‘Mamma Mia’ ($611 million), 2012’s ‘Les Misérables’ ($442 million) and, yes ‘Grease’ ($396 million).
There were concerns that the fact it’s part one of two might hurt sales but confirming the split between films ahead of time seems to have reassured viewers. It doesn’t hurt that the movie enjoyed positive reviews and was embraced by a large slice of the moviegoing public.
Universal will need it to stay popular –– the combined two movies come with a $300 million price tag and the company spent untold millions on a worldwide promotional tour with the cast. Still, the blizzard of Oz-related partnership deals will help.
How about ‘Gladiator II’?
(L to R) Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius and Paul Mescal plays Lucius in ‘Gladiator II’ from Paramount Pictures.
‘Gladiator II’ might not be on the same level as either of its box office colleagues, but it’s certainly seeing some hefty rewards.
A sequel to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning 2000 original has been in development almost as long as the first film has been out, but it has taken years for Scott and a cadre of writers to crack the sequel story.
In the end, they chose to follow Lucius, the young man seen in the first film (played there by Spencer Treat Clark) who is the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, who returns for the sequel).
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The new movie follows a grown Lucius (with rising star Paul Mescal in the role) as he finds himself enslaved by the Roman empire and forced to fight as a gladiator. He’s also drawn into the turbulent politics of Rome via Macrinus, a slave-turned-slave-owning arms dealer, played to scene-stealing effect by Denzel Washington.
Following a $55.5 million domestic opening (slightly behind predictions) the second weekend of release, the sequel took third place with $30.7 million over the traditional weekend and $44 million over the five day frame.
So far, it has grossed $111.2 million domestically and $320 million worldwide.
But, like the other movies, it needs to earn, as it was also massively expensive to make, costing more than $250 million to produce and another $100 million to market to global audiences.
What else happened at the box office this week?
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Red One.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
With the new competition in the market place, ‘Red One’ was shoved down to fourth. Despite opening in the top spot three weeks ago, the Christmas action movie (which also stars Dwayne Johnson) has struggled somewhat.
Its stocking was filled with $12.8 million over the main weekend and $18.7 million over the five-day holiday frame.
The Amazon MGM film has grossed $75 million in North America and $148.7 million globally, which is solid but still probably behind what the company might hope for given the expansive $250 million budget.
Still, the company is partly looking for the movie to drive interest in its Prime Video streaming service.
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Lionsgate’s ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ rounded out the top five with $3.2 million over the traditional weekend and $4.85 million through the extended Thanksgiving period.
The family-friendly faith-based holiday film cost $10 million to make and has grossed $32 million in North America since opening four weeks ago. It won’t exactly set the studio’s heart aflame, but it’s honestly a better result than some of its underperforming releases this year. Looking at you, ‘Borderlands’ ($115 million budget before marketing costs, $32.9 million worldwide to date).
Not to be confused with Netflix’s ‘Red Notice,’ another algorithm-induced action movie starring Dwayne Johnson and a Marvel superhero, ‘Red One’ aims to be something for everyone: it’s not just an action movie, but it’s also trying to be a fantastical Christmas story and a heartwarming family yarn. As often happens, however, the effort to please all audience quadrants results in something bland, boring, and derivative.
Directed by Jake Kasdan, who also collaborated with The Rock on the recent, overrated ‘Jumanji’ movies, ‘Red One’ does feature a cute idea at its core and a winning performance from J.K. Simmons as a very different kind of Santa Claus. But a lethargic pace, an often-murky visual palette and a ton of half-baked CG, along with less than stellar efforts from some of the cast, makes ‘Red One’ the kind of holiday present you hope they included the gift receipt for.
‘Red One’ opens with a prologue in which a young boy named Jack O’Malley (Wyatt Hunt) shows his disappointed cousins where the Christmas gifts are hidden, simultaneously smashing their dreams and foreshadowing his adult career as a cynical, clandestine tracker and bounty hunter (now played by Chris Evans) who claims he can find anything. He’s also – as par for the course for this kind of thing – divorced and a largely absentee dad to his son. But Jack’s life takes an unexpected turn when he helps an anonymous client pinpoint a security breach at some kind of mysterious location near the North Pole.
That location happens to be the complex where Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), his wife (Bonnie Hunt), and their many human and non-human employees live and work behind a security shield that might give Wakanda a run for its money. But that security is compromised thanks to Jack, and despite the best efforts of Santa’s head of security, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), a quasi-military squad parachutes in and kidnaps “Nick” – as Callum calls him – whisking him into the clutches of Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), a legendary winter witch who wants to channel Santa’s magical powers to disrupt Christmas with her own nefarious plans.
That leaves it up to Drift and Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu), head of the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (M.O.R.A.), which oversees the existence of mythological creatures around the world, to forcibly recruit Jack in their efforts to reacquire Santa and keep Christmas on schedule. Along the way they’ll interact with more creatures out of legend, including Santa’s estranged brother Krampus (Kristofer Hivju), while Jack learns the value of family and Drift slowly regains the positive outlook he’s lost over the centuries as more and more humans migrate to – you guessed it – the Naughty List.
On paper, this sounds like a fun, even fresh premise for a Christmas movie – all the creatures of myth and folklore are real and live in a cautious détente with humanity, while Santa himself trains for Christmas like an Olympian and covertly visits department stores in presidential-style motorcades just to reconnect with the public. Some of this material elicits a smile for sure, even as the world-building threatens to overwhelm the narrative at times.
The bigger issue is the film moves at the pace of an elf who’s had far too much spiked egg nog. It’s also tonally all over the place; one minute it’s a self-referential action movie, the next it’s a family comedy desperate to tug at the heart. Either way, none of the jokes or emotional beats land very well, and when a comic performer like Nick Kroll gets wasted in a painful cameo you know this is the cinematic equivalent to the Christmas that you really wanted that Xbox and got a sweater instead.
And it looks like hell too. Large swaths of the movie take place at night in the snow, but Kasdan makes it inexplicably murky, particularly the climactic sequences, and there’s enough bad CG to make ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ look like ‘Dune: Part Two.’ One scene set at a beach resort can’t escape painfully looking like it was shot on a Volume stage, with the digital snowmen that launch a surprise attack in the sequence looking pasted into the action. For a movie that reportedly cost $250 million to make, ‘Red One’ doesn’t deliver on the kind of big-screen wonder necessary to make this work.
The Cast
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Red One.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
If there is one thing that stands out in ‘Red One,’ it’s J.K. Simmons’ performance as Santa. Playing against the archetype – this wiry St. Nicholas lays off the holiday cookies and trains relentlessly for his ‘Mission: Impossible’-like Christmas Eve run – Simmons nevertheless generates real warmth, good will, and wisdom as the jolly old fellow. It’s a shame that he’s only active for the beginning and end of the film, as a movie built around him might have been more interesting.
As for the leads, both Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans seem to be in something of a rut lately. The Rock has lost some of the self-deprecating sense of fun that has powered some of his best performances, and takes Callum Drift – a centuries-old head of security – so seriously that he comes across as monotonous. Evans as well, seemingly intent on getting past his earnest Captain America image, plays a variation here on the kind of cynical wisenheimer he’s essayed in recent duds like ‘The Gray Man,’ although he’s also trapped by the script’s rote characterization. Other members of the cast, like Lucy Liu and an underused Bonnie Hunt, more or less understand the assignment, although Kiernan Shipka is miscast as the villain, delivering no real menace at all. Kristofer Hivju stands out under a mountain of prosthetics as Krampus, although the scene at his castle goes on way too long.
You can’t just manufacture a holiday classic, but that certainly isn’t stopping Jake Kasdan, Dwayne Johnson, and company from trying. But Kasdan, who brought a certain amount of surreal humor to the ‘Jumanji’ movies, can’t work any magic here. ‘Red One’ huffs and puffs so hard to be all things to all people that it just ends up playing in similar fashion to one of those Netflix pics that’s good for Sunday-afternoon-chores background noise.
Perhaps a different, less ponderous, and less digitized story starring J.K. Simmons’ Nick could have concentrated on generating some real holiday spirit, but ‘Red One’ is likely to be packed away with the rest of the Christmas trinkets in the attic once the season is over, never to be seen or heard from again.
‘Red One’ receives 4 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Red One’?
A hacker (Chris Evans) is recruited by the head of Santa Claus’s security team (Dwayne Johnson) to help rescue St. Nick (J.K. Simmons) after he’s kidnapped by a witch intent on ruining Christmas for everyone.
With ‘Red One,’ stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, along with director Jake Kasdan (‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’), hope to create a modern Christmas classic infused with the sensibility of a large-scale action film and the heart of a family comedy. Johnson plays Callum Drift, the head of security for Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), whose annual mission to deliver gifts around the world is run with the precision of a military operation out of his massive, well-hidden complex at the North Pole.
But a security breach allows Santa to be kidnapped right out from under Drift’s nose, with the breach traced to Jack O’Malley (Evans), a dark web tracker and bounty hunter who is forcibly recruited to help Drift locate Santa and his kidnappers. The trail leads them to Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), a winter witch out of Icelandic folklore who plans to use Santa’s own magical powers to rid the world of naughty children forever – unless Drift and O’Malley can stop her and rescue the man who Drift simply knows as “Nick.”
With ‘Red One’ scheduled to open in theaters on November 15 as an early holiday present for moviegoers, members of the cast and crew – including Evans, Johnson, Shipka, Simmons, Lucy Liu (Zoe Harlow), Kristofer Hivju (Krampus), Bonnie Hunt (Mrs. Claus), Kasdan, producer Hiram Garcia, and others — participated in a virtual global press conference that Moviefone had the opportunity to attend (minus the egg nog and cookies).
Director Jake Kasdan revealed that the initial impetus for ‘Red One’ was to bring audiences a whole new vision of Santa Claus – as an action hero who trains hard to get in shape for Christmas, and who leads a vast, well-organized, and tightly-secured operation.
Jake Kasdan: That was absolutely one of the most exciting aspects of this movie, was sort of looking at a way that we could tell Santa’s story that we’ve never quite seen before. You’ve seen him a certain way your whole life, and we always thought that the great exciting idea for this was, what if you could sort of pull back the curtain and see what he’s really like? So all of those aspects of this came from that sort of seed idea.
Producer Hiram Garcia, who also came up with the original story for the movie, said he wanted to create the “definitive” Santa onscreen and make him cool again.
Hiram Garcia: I think when we did start working on this, one of the goals was, and actually when we were going around pitching it, we always ended the pitch with saying our hope was to tell a story that really inspired people, turn Christmas on its head in the mythology, but also to create the definitive Santa Claus. There’s been so many good Santa Clauses, but to find one that really took a connection with the audience to the next level and brought a coolness out in Santa that as a big Christmas fan, I always knew Santa’s got. I feel like we did that with J.K. and especially the way Jake envisioned him on screen. J.K.’s performance as Santa is everything we dreamed and more.
Chris Evans said that making an action movie based around Christmas was easier than it might seem because the folklore around the world is full of such fantastical legends and creations.
Chris Evans: We had a whole team of people who [were] trying to crack that code. I mean, I think it actually provides a lot of fun. There’s such great Christmas lore, folklore, not just the stories we all grew up with, but internationally…When you hear about some of these creatures and stories and mythology, it almost begs for some sort of action-adventure movie. So it’s not quite as hard as you think.
4) The Secret Ingredient To This Christmas Confection
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Red One.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
Dwayne Johnson said that director Jake Kasdan brought something to ‘Red One’ that makes the movie special.
Dwayne Johnson: Something that Jake inherently does in his films — and I’ve had the privilege of working with him now three times, on the first two ‘Jumanji’ movies and now ‘Red One’ — is heart. There’s so much heart in this movie. That’s often an overstatement, I think, in storytelling in Hollywood, but it’s true. One of my favorite parts of the movie is where J.K. as Santa Claus reminds me that it’s our job to see the best in people and look beyond if they’re on the naughty list, and look at the kid in everybody.
5) Lucy Liu Didn’t Know At First She Had A Big Action Scene
Lucy Liu plays Zoe Harlow, the director of MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), an agency charged with keeping track of the world’s mythological beings. Although initially it didn’t seem like she’d participate in any of the action, things took a different turn during filming.
Lucy Liu: Well, it was impromptu. I had spoken to Jake and I said, “Is there any training or do you need me to prep anything?” He said, “No, I think maybe she’s going to throw a kick and maybe a punch. Maybe that’s it. You’re just the boss lady and then that’s all it’s going to be.” I said, “Okay, great. No problem.” I show up to the set, we’re doing the costume fittings and everything, and then the stunt coordinator comes in and he says, “I just want to give you a little bit of a previs of what we’re going to do.” He shows me this entire action scene. And my face just turned white. But then I was like, “Okay, let’s do this.” As soon as I got the sticks in my hands, it was like muscle memory kicked in. It was like I was alive again…I hadn’t done it in a long time, but it just came back to me. I love watching action movies. I grew up watching them, and actually being on the screen doing action is so exciting. I think that it gets kids excited, it gets girls excited, it gets women excited. So it’s nice that you still got it.
6) Kiernan Shipka Got Her Villain On For The First Time
Kiernan Shipka (‘Longlegs’) appears as Gryla, the legendary winter witch who masterminds Santa’s kidnapping, and said she relished her first opportunity to play the main villain in a movie.
Kiernan Shipka: It was really fun. I loved it. I’ve never really played a proper villain before. I’ve definitely played people who were dark and twisted, but the film kind of hinges on this kidnapping. It was really cool to feel like I had a part in the movie that was sort of moving things in any sort of direction. That was really fun. I liked those stakes. I love that this movie’s so fun. I mean, there’s a lot of heart in it, there’s a lot of action in it, but at the end of the day, I think you sit down and it’s a really fun watch. So playing someone who is a villain, but also maintaining a sense of levity and fun with the whole thing was also really lovely. So it was great. I’ll play a villain anytime. It was fun.
7) Kristofer Hivju Went A Different Way Playing Krampus
The figure of Krampus, in European Alpine folklore, is said to accompany Santa/St. Nicholas on his rounds and punish the children who have been naughty. Although wearing a full, practical costume complete with horns, actor Kristofer Hivju (‘Game of Thrones’) decided to play him not as a horrific monster but as Santa’s estranged, self-absorbed brother, who indulges in wild parties and slapping contests with his obedient guests.
Kristofer Hivju: For me it was like the character is more or less the suit, right? So I tried to play against the suit, and actually play him as feminine, as narcissistic, and self-indulging as possible. Suddenly that mixture became a bit disturbing. But the funny thing about Krampus is that he has the same objective as Nick. They want the same thing. It’s just the method [that’s different] — punishing or rewarding. Sometimes you need a bit of slapping.
Dwayne Johnson said that having Krampus played by an actor in a suit on the set was a huge advantage over the character being created via CG.
Dwayne Johnson: For Chris and I, when we step on set and we had the privilege of obviously being on set for many, many days with Kristofer as Krampus, it is one of the most impressive things we had ever seen. He’s massive and he really does such a spectacular job as Krampus. In our story the mythology is that he’s the brother of Santa, and the prosthetics that he was wearing are from Joel Harlow, who’s an Academy Award winner, and you really see it. But the challenge is that there has to be so much life going on in his eyes because everything else is just these incredible prosthetics. Because he’s such a superior actor, you feel that in the movie.
Chris Evans added that working with practical effects and creatures like Krampus on set brought back memories of the movies he loved growing up.
Chris Evans: I grew up on movies like ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘NeverEnding Story’ where it was all practical and it was real. Those things stuck with you as a kid because it was things that you never saw in your normal life. I know now that every other movie is just loaded with CG. In a way there’s so much of it that when you do get a film that goes practical, it still sticks with you in that same way because it’s still rare like it was when I was a kid. That’s what makes it feel like a real character, a real performance. It’s not common anymore, which is nice.
Dwayne Johnson shared what was most important for him about the Christmas holidays.
Dwayne Johnson: Just getting family together would be our #1 greatest family tradition. I know it’s simplistic, but a lot of times when I was growing up, my dad was always on the road and he wasn’t always home for Christmas. In the business that we’re in, sometimes it requires us to work over the holidays. So for me, just to have the entire family together, that’s the most important thing.
Santa himself, J.K. Simmons, shared a story about his family during the holidays and how Christmas taught him and his sister a valuable lesson.
J.K. Simmons: I have an older sister, two years older. She was probably six and I was four, and my little brother was a baby. Of course on Christmas morning we’re up before the crack of dawn, bothering our parents and getting them out of bed and they’re dragging their butts out of bed. But I think that was the Christmas that my mom just said, “Go make some oatmeal.” My sister, she’s the oldest, so she’s the assistant mom. So from every Christmas from then on, my sister and I would get up, we would make the oatmeal, and after we ate the oatmeal, then we were allowed to open the stockings from Santa. Then we waited for mom and dad to wake up to open all the rest of the presents. So it taught us a real kind of self-sufficiency, and it gave my sister, especially, a sense of responsibility.
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What is the plot of ‘Red One’?
After a villain kidnaps Santa from the North Pole, an E.L.F (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative (Dwayne Johnson) must partner with the world’s most accomplished tracker (Chris Evans) to find Santa and save Christmas.
Moviefone has compiled a list of the most anticipated movies opening in theaters and/or streaming from September to December of 2024, which not only includes major studio releases but also smaller independent films that you won’t want to miss.
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(L to R) Peter Dinklage in ‘The Thicket’. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn Films.
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A 19th-century widow is tasked with making an impossible choice when, during an especially cruel winter, a ship sinks off the coast of her impoverished Icelandic fishing village. Any attempt to rescue survivors risks further depleting the starving villagers’ supplies.
Sam Claflin as Patrick McKee in ‘Bagman’. Photo Credit: Vladislav Lepoev.
In the dark horror film ‘Bagman’, a family finds themselves ensnared in a nightmare as they are hunted by a malevolent, mythical creature. For centuries and across cultures, parents have warned their children of the legendary Bagman, who snatches innocent children and stuffs them into his vile, rotting bag—never to be seen again. Patrick McKee (Sam Claflin) narrowly escaped such an encounter as a boy, which left him with lasting scars throughout his adulthood. Now, Patrick’s childhood tormentor has returned, threatening the safety of his wife Karina (Antonia Thomas) and son Jake (Caréll Rhoden).
Sarah Paulson in ‘Hold Your Breath’. Photo: Searchlight Pictures.
A young mother in 1930s Oklahoma who is haunted by her past and trapped in horrifying dust storms. She becomes convinced that her family is threatened by a mysterious presence and takes extraordinary measures to protect them.
(L to R) Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck / Joker and Lady Gaga as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn in ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ Photo: Todd Phillips’ Instagram Account.
While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that’s always been inside him.
(L to R) Adam David Thompson as “Joseph” and Riley Dandy as “Sidney” in the Sci-Fi/Thriller, ‘Things Will Be Different’, a Magnet release. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.
In order to escape the police after a robbery, two estranged siblings lay low in a metaphysical farmhouse that hides them away in a different time. There they reckon with a mysterious force that pushes their familial bonds to unnatural breaking points.
(L to R) Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Jane Curtain (Kim Matula), Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener) and Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) in ‘Saturday Night’. Photo: Sony Pictures.
At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of ‘Saturday Night Live‘.
(L to R) Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield in ‘We Live in Time’. Photo: A24.
Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) are brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives. As they embark on a path challenged by the limits of time, they learn to cherish each moment of the unconventional route their love story has taken, in filmmaker John Crowley’s decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) unleashes chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.
Heather Graham in ‘Chosen Family’. Photo: Bleeker Street.
Ann (Heather Graham) is a yoga teacher struggling to achieve inner peace despite the fact her family is driving her crazy and her dating life is miserable. She doesn’t know how to say no and wants to fix everyone’s problems.
‘Piece By Piece’ is a unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO® animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music’s most innovative minds.
Naomi Scott stars in Paramount Pictures Presents a Temple Hill Production of a Parker Finn Film ‘Smile 2’.
About to embark on a new world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her dark past to regain control of her life before it spirals out of control.
Mikey Madison as Ani in ‘Anora’. Courtesy of Neon.
Anora (Mikey Madison), a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
(L to R) André Holland and Andra Day in ‘Exhibiting Forgiveness’. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions.
Utilizing his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
(L to R) Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher in ‘Bookworm’. Photo: Rialto Distribution.
Eleven-year-old Mildred’s (Nell Fisher) life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise (Elijah Wood), comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding – a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.
(L to R) Carrie-Anne Moss and Douglas Smith in ‘Die Alone’. Photo: Filmoption.
Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, a young man with amnesia teams up with an eccentric survivalist to find his missing girlfriend.
Eddie (Tom Hardy) and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.
From director Edward Berger (‘All Quiet on the Western Front’) ‘Conclave’ follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting a new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of The Church.
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Red One.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
After a villain kidnaps Santa (J.K. Simmons) from the North Pole, an E.L.F (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative (Dwayne Johnson) must partner with the world’s most accomplished tracker (Chris Evans) to find Santa and save Christmas.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in ‘Gladiator II’ from Paramount Pictures.
Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus (Russell Crowe) at the hands of his uncle (Joaquin Phoenix), Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
(L to R) Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Granda is Glinda in ‘Wicked’, directed by Jon M. Chu.
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), an ostracized but defiant girl born with green skin, and Glinda (Ariana Grande), a privileged aristocrat born popular, become extremely unlikely friends in the magical Land of Oz. As the two girls struggle with their opposing personalities, their friendship is tested as both begin to fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and The Wicked Witch of the West. The first of a two-part film adaptation of the Broadway musical.
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ epic animated musical ‘Moana 2’ takes audiences on an expansive new voyage with Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and a brand-new crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.
183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy, a sudden attack by Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox) and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra (Gaia Wise), the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter in ‘Kraven the Hunter.’
Kraven the Hunter is the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
Shadow (Keanu Reeves) in ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ from Paramount Pictures and Sega of America, Inc.
Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba), and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow (Keanu Reeves), a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.
Rafiki (John Kani) relays the legend of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) to lion cub Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé). Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) —the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion a journey of misfits searching for their destiny and working together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.
Robert Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans are starring in ‘Materialists’.
This is the new movie from ‘Past Lives’ director Celine Song.
It’ll be a New York-set rom-com.
It’s fair to say that with ‘Past Lives’, Korean writer/director Celine Song has announced herself as a new cinematic voice.
Her romantic drama feature debut, which stars Greta Lee, Teo Woo and John Magaro, first garnered attention at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where its quietly powerful story of old friends and potential lovers reconnecting hit a chord.
It has since gone on to win numerous awards and dominate critics’ Best Of lists for the year and is in the running for two Oscars –– Original Screenplay and Best Picture.
You can imagine, then, that big-name talent would be beating down the down to work with her, and for the director’s next film, ‘Materialists’, she’s scored quite the potential cast in Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, who are all in talks to star.
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What’s the story of ‘Materialists’?
Here’s the official synopsis for the new movie:
“Set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City, a city that never sleeps and is known for its diverse and dynamic relationships, ‘Materialists’ provides a unique glimpse into the lives of the city’s elite. Lucy’s expertise in matchmaking is highly sought after by those willing to pay a premium for her services. However, with a broke actor-waiter in her romantic past and a new attachment to a wealthy man, all signs point to a toxic love triangle that threatens to unravel the lives of all involved.”
According to the director, the new movie is inspired by the sort of spiky romantic comedies such as ‘Broadcast News’ that James L. Brooks specializes in, which makes us even more eager to see what Song could do with a film like this.
Who is backing Song’s new movie?
(L to R) Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in ‘Past Lives.’ Photo: A24.
The new movie reteams the director with distributors A24 and with producers Killer Films, both of which shepherded ‘Past Lives’ to screens.
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in Prime Video’s ‘Red One.’
If you were awaiting news of Dwayne Johnson’s big Christmas action movie to arrive like a gift in your news stocking, then we’re happy to play Father Christmas. But in the movie, it’s J.K. Simmons who will be Santa.
Oddly, the trade site’s report claims that the movie, once called ‘Red One’, is now in search of a new title. Yet Johnson’s tweet about the news still refers to the ‘Red One’ title. So we’ll have to wait and see what it actually ends up being called.
Oh hey it’s @ChrisEvans and the fella famous for wearing a fanny pack. Christmas comes early as we kick off production for our Christmas franchise,“RED ONE” 🎅🏼🎄😈🎅🏾🧸❤️💀🌍 Directed by, Jake Kasdan (JUMANJI franchise) @SevenBucksProd@PrimeVideohttps://t.co/1BkcupSnvn
The idea sprang from the brain of Hiram Garcia, who is Johnson’s producing partner in his Seven Bucks production company. But the person who brought the script to life has also worked with Johnson in the past – Chris Morgan, who wrote many of the ‘Fast & Furious’ movies, including its 2019 spin-off, ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.’
Details are still few and far between, and we don’t know, for example, what the actual story is. Prime Video, which snapped up the project in its early days, is hoping that it’ll turn into a new franchise for the streaming service and plans to sell merchandise through Amazon.
We can speculate from the first picture that Johnson might be some sort of agent or superhero given the suit, while Evans – who spent plenty of time playing Captain America in the Marvel movies –is in more civilian garb, layered up for the Holiday Season.
Oscar winner Simmons scored his award for ‘Whiplash’, though he has been nominated several times. He might be best known for playing J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ movies, reprising the role (albeit as a variant version) in the more recent ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
Hunt is known for her TV work, including an eponymous show and ‘The Building’. She’s also scored regular work voicing characters in Pixar movies.
‘Red One’ – or whatever the title changes to, doesn’t have a strict release date yet, but is likely to hit Prime Video around Christmas 2023.
(L to R) J.K. Simmons in Prime Video’s ‘Big Sky.’ Photo: Chuck Hodes. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
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A movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sounds like a Christmas gift. But to learn that the former cinematic Captain America himself, Chris Evans has joined forces with him, that’ll have you wondering if we all somehow got on the Nice List.
Yet it’s true: Evans, who played Steve Rogers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is on board for a holiday-themed action-adventure comedy called ‘Red One’.
Exact details of what the movie will be about are being stashed in Santa’s sack for now, but we wouldn’t be surprised, given its “holiday” tag, to see Johnson either playing some version of Santa Claus, or helping him out in some way. We can see the poster now… “This Year, Christmas Rocks!”
The idea sprang from the brain of Hiram Garcia, who is Johnson’s producing partner in his Seven Bucks production company. But the person bringing the script to life has also worked with Johnson in the past – Chris Morgan, who wrote many of the ‘Fast & Furious’ movies, including its 2019 spin-off, ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.’
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham in ‘Hobbs & Shaw.’
And continuing the theme of past Rock collaborators is director Jake Kasdan, who worked on the ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’, both of which featured Johnson and became big box office hits. All involved are clearly hoping for success with this one, and perhaps the birth of a new franchise, as with Johnson’s recent Netflix movie “Red Notice” (2020), which is already spawning not one, but two sequels.
Christmas movies don’t typically tend to feature lots of action, so it’ll be interesting to see how Johnson adapts his usual brand to the holiday season.
Aside from his Disney/Marvel work, Evans is known for appearing in the comic book company’s two Fox ‘Fantastic Four’ films and, also in the graphic novel vein, the cult movie 2010’s ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’.
Next up for the actor is voicing ‘Lightyear’ from Pixar, which will feature the “human” version of ‘Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, the inspiration for the astronaut toy. He’ll also be seen in ‘The Gray Man’, a Netflix action thriller that co-stars Ryan Gosling and reunites Evans with regular MCU directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo.
Chris Evans in Pixar’s ‘Lightyear.’
Johnson’s schedule is also typically packed, with two films headed to screens this summer. First is the animated ‘DC League of Super-Pets’, in which the canine companion of Superman and a group of shelter animals who unexpectedly develop powers must save the Justice League from the clutches of villain Lex Luthor. That movie finds him working once again (albeit in a voice booth) with old friend Kevin Hart and is in cinemas on May 20.
Then, staying with the DC Universe, Johnson is starring in ‘Black Adam’, a powerful anti-hero with abilities like Superman but a commitment to justice by any means that brings him into conflict with other characters. It’ll arrive on July 29.
As for ‘Red One’, Amazon jumped to acquire the rights to make the movie, and while it doesn’t have a specific release date yet, it should be on screens around Christmas 2023.
