It’s looking like Kung Fu Panda is about to K’O Dune: Part Two at the box office – for this weekend anyway – with the Dreamworks sequel on its way to the highest-grossing weekend of the franchise since the original film in 2008. Indeed, Kung Fu Panda 4 is set to open way beyond our expectations, with Deadline’s early numbers predicting a potential $55 million opening in the cards. Dune: Part Two slips to second place with about $44 million on the books. While Panda will be this weekend’s champ, Dune is the real winner in many ways. Consider this – the film posted a huge $82 million opening last weekend and has only posted a 47% week-to-week drop, which is exceedingly rare for a tentpole movie. In just a week, the movie has already beaten the lifetime gross of the first film at the domestic box office (although we should remember that it opened during the pandemic). 

Overall, this weekend is shaping up to be a massive win for Hollywood. It’s no secret that the industry has been challenged recently, with the holiday movie season not posting any four-quadrant smash hits (although Wonka did quite well). While Kung Fu Panda’s opening is nothing compared to what Jack Black’s other animated movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed last year, it’s worth noting that this is a much higher opening than what the last two films in the franchise posted. Perhaps this Panda hasn’t run out of gas after all. 

Meanwhile, Dune: Part Two is shaping up to be a major hit for Warner Bros and Denis Villeneuve. Given the grosses, I’d expect the studio to pressure Villeneuve to get cracking on Dune Messiah immediately. However, he told us recently that he hoped to film another movie before returning to Arakkis. 

The weekend’s other major release, Blumhouse’s Imaginary, is looking to open in the $10 million area, a shade below what their last film, Night Swim, pulled off earlier this year. However, given the awful reviews (including one from our critic Tyler Nichols) and the low budget, I think Blumhouse and the studio, Lionsgate, are happy enough with this opening.

Of course, we’ll return with a full box office wrap-up tomorrow!

The post Early box office wrap: Kung Fu Panda 4 on its way to a $55 million opening; Dune 2 has major legs appeared first on JoBlo.

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Tomorrow night, ABC is airing The Oscars. Hooray? While I’ll certainly be watching, I must admit that the Oscars have certainly lost their lustre over the years, at least as far as I’m concerned. When I was a kid, the Oscars seemed so much larger than life. I vividly remember every Oscar night being an event as a kid, with the ceremony (more often than not hosted by Billy Crystal) crowning the winners as – in my mind anyway – the kings and queens of Hollywood. 

Indeed, it seemed like a movie winning an Oscar was the ultimate judge of a film’s quality. When something like The Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars, it was as if the movie was being minted as an all-time classic (which it ended up being). However, when the Oscars happen tomorrow, does anyone think a major win will permanently change anyone’s career? When Christopher Nolan inevitably wins his Best Director Oscar, does that change his standing in the industry? I don’t think so. I believe the ultimate judge was the box office in his case. When an R-rated, three-hour movie about the creator of the nuclear bomb makes a billion dollars, you don’t need an Oscar win to cement a reputation.

In that way, the Oscars matter less now than they ever did back in the day. However, if one looks back at the history of the Oscars, one will see that they’ve always been pretty far from perfect and not all that accurate in predicting what would become a classic. Take, for example, Robert Redford’s Ordinary People beating Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull at the 1981 ceremony. Do people honestly think Ordinary People is a better movie than Raging Bull? Do people even talk about Ordinary People anymore? 

Or how about the Oscars in 1986, when Sidney Pollack’s Out of Africa won Best Picture, and Back to the Future, widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, wasn’t even nominated? Do people still really like Out of Africa? It’s a good (if somewhat dull) movie but not a timeless classic. If you take the John Barry score out of it, is it all that great?

Oscar history is full of moments like that. In his recent memoirs, Ed Zwick remembers when Shakespeare in Love (which he was a producer on) beat Saving Private Ryan at the Oscars and feeling embarrassed. Heck, Crash won Best Picture, and it feels like people don’t even really like that movie anymore. 

But there’s more to it than just the wrong movies winning. The ceremony and the Academy itself feel phony. Jump back to the pandemic-ravaged 2021 edition. For my money, that was the cringiest Oscars ever, with it infamously ending with the Academy putting the Best Actor award at the end of the ceremony. Why did they do this? The people putting on the ceremony assumed that the late Chadwick Boseman would win for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and that his win would end the show on this massive emotional crescendo. It didn’t happen, with Anthony Hopkins winning (deservedly) for The Father and not even being there to collect his trophy. It was such a vast anti-climax, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, as it felt like the producers (one of whom was Steven Soderbergh) were trying to manipulate the ceremony into this uplifting kind of narrative, which is what it shouldn’t be.

Let’s also not forget that just a few months before this, the Academy implemented the controversial inclusion standards, which left a bad taste in the mouths of many as it warned a film not adhering to these standards would be ineligible for an Oscar nomination beginning with the 2024 ceremony. That’s actually this year’s ceremony, and as far as I know, no movie in the award conversation was deemed ineligible.

Nevertheless, should the Academy be taking the moral high ground like this? It’s hard to say, but for me, the Academy has always seemed preoccupied with its image rather than its intended purpose, which is to elevate and award excellence in film. Let’s not forget that for a good twenty-year stretch, the Oscars essentially became the Harvey Weinstein show. No one had any qualms about awarding his movies over and over, even when his long-standing abuse of women (and his employees) was common knowledge all over town. The same thing goes for the notoriously abusive Scott Rudin. There’s something so superficial and performative about The Academy as a whole, and when they’re put to a real test, they can’t help but come up short. 

How so? I can’t help but remember the infamous Oscar slap, which I think led to the most grotesque moment in Academy history. Moments after we all had to watch Will Smith slap Chris Rock for perhaps the mildest joke in Oscar history, we saw him get a standing ovation when he won Best Actor for King Richard. Never mind that we had literally just watched him assault someone. All was forgotten (or rather ignored) in moments so that the show could go on. Whoever was in charge that night should have asked Smith to leave the ceremony when he hit Rock, but they did nothing as no one wanted to rock the boat. The next day, they tried to retake the moral high ground by suspending Smith from the ceremony for ten years, but does anyone think that will hold? I say this while acknowledging that Smith is human and, like all of us, made a mistake. It shouldn’t define his career after the fact. The time to address it was the night of the ceremony, and all involved failed spectacularly.

All this demystifies the Academy, doesn’t it? While I think this year’s crop of nominees is terrific, to me, the Oscars only symbolize one thing: Hollywood patting itself on the back. That’s all well and good, but for me, the mystique of the Oscars wore off a long time ago, and I’m curious about how our readers feel (make sure to let us know in the comments). Do the Oscars still matter? For me, they don’t really – even if I’ll still be watching the show. 

The post The Oscars: Do They Even Matter Anymore? appeared first on JoBlo.

The first reactions to Road House have arrived out of its premiere at this year’s SXSW, with some surprise praise that seems to highlight to a missed opportunity for Amazon to release it in theaters. Ahead of its streaming debut later this month, all signs point to Road House being just the sort of flick that has to be watched with a crowd, while a number of attendees noted that Jake Gyllenhaal is not to be messed with and Conor McGregor is a genuine scene-stealing presence.

Check out the initial Road House reactions via X below:

This modern Road House twist — Gyllenhaal is a former UFC fighter, compared to Patrick Swayze’s bouncer, for one — has been the subject of much discussion and behind-the-scenes controversy as of late, with topics ranging from everything from the use of artificial intelligence to its disputed release strategy. Somewhere in between, the writer of the original Road House, R. Lance Hill, has claimed the filmmakers are guilty of copyright infringement on his screenplay. (Hill went credited as David Lee Henry on 1989’s Road House.)

The release of Road House outside of its SXSW screening has launched some discourse from some of the movie’s key players: director Doug Liman and star Jake Gyllenhaal. Liman originally announced that he would be boycotting the movie’s premiere over Amazon’s alleged shifting of the film’s release from a theatrical one to streaming only. On this, Liam said, “The movie is fantastic, maybe my best, and I’m sure it will bring the house down and possibly have the audience dancing in their seats during the end credits. But I will not be there.” However, it was reported that Liman did in fact attend Road House’s premiere, although he did not actively participate in any promotion, leaving that to the cast. Regardless of Liman’s official stance, Gyllenhaal maintains that the movie was always headed towards a streaming release. As such, Road House will kick its way to Amazon Prime Video in less than two weeks on March 21st.

How does the reception of Road House fresh out of SXSW change your anticipation for the movie? Do you wish it had gotten a theatrical release? Let us know!

The post Road House premiere: First reactions praise “brutal” fights, Conor McGregor’s scene chewing appeared first on JoBlo.

It’s only been a week since launch, so you’ll have to forgive us for still being completely obsessed with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a sprawling RPG sequel with a lovable cast that we have a whole lotta feelings about. This week also marked a couple big anniversaries for the Nintendo Switch and the concluding chapter…

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It’s only been a week since launch, so you’ll have to forgive us for still being completely obsessed with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a sprawling RPG sequel with a lovable cast that we have a whole lotta feelings about. This week also marked a couple big anniversaries for the Nintendo Switch and the concluding chapter…

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Awards season tends to give movie fans all of the glitz and glamor that we love about Hollywood…That is, until it doesn’t. As is tradition, the weekend of the 96th Academy Awards also saw the industry honoring the worst in motion pictures, with the Golden Raspberry Awards aka the Razzies giving out statues to the likes of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Sylvester Stallone and Megan Fox.

While Expend4bles had the most nominations going into this year’s Razzies with seven, it was Blood and Honey – which popularized a hopefully limited trend of public domain horror – that won the most with five.

Here is the full list of Razzie Award winners:

WORST PICTURE

The Exorcist: Believer

Expend4bles

Meg 2: The Trench

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Wait, shouldn’t that be spelled “Hunny”?) – WINNER

WORST ACTOR

Russell Crowe, The Pope’s Exorcist

Vin Diesel, Fast X

Chris Evans, Ghosted

Jason Statham, Meg 2: The Trench

Jon Voight, Mercy – WINNER

WORST ACTRESS

Ana de Armas,Ghosted

Megan Fox, Johnny & Clyde – WINNER

Salma Hayek, Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Jennifer Lopez, The Mother

Dame Helen Mirren, Shazam! Fury of the Gods

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kim Cattrall, About My Father

Megan Fox, Expend4bles – WINNER

Bai Ling, Johnny & Clyde

Lucy Liu, Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Mary Stuart Masterson, Five Nights at Freddy’s

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Douglas, Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania

Mel Gibson, Confidential Informant

Bill Murray, Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania

Franco Nero (as “The Pope”), The Pope’s Exorcist

Sylvester Stallone,  Expend4ables – WINNER

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

Any 2 “Merciless Mercenaries”, Expend4bles

Any 2 Money-Grubbing Investors Who Donated to the $400 Million for Remake Rights to The Exorcist

Ana de Armas & Chris Evans (who flunked Screen Chemistry), Ghosted

Salma Hayek & Channing Tatum, Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Pooh & Piglet as Blood-Thirsty Slasher/Killers(!), Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania

The Exorcist: Believer

Expend4bles

Indiana Jones and The Dial of … Still Beating a Dead Horse

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER

WORST DIRECTOR

Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER

David Gordon Green, The Exorcist: Believer

Peyton Reed, Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania

Scott Waugh, Expend4bles

Ben Wheatley, Meg 2: The Trench

WORST SCREENPLAY

The Exorcist: Believer

Expend4bles

Indiana Jones and the Dial of … Can I go home now?

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey – WINNER

In addition to these “winners”, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher was bestowed the Razzie Redeemer Award for “for her brilliant shepherding of the actors’ guild through a prolonged 2023 strike with a successful conclusion.” Drescher had previously been nominated for Worst Actress for 1997’s The Beautician and the Beast.

What do you think of this year’s Razzies? Drop your own picks below!

The post Razzie winners: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey takes the pot with 5 wins appeared first on JoBlo.

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Beetlejuice by Sam Dunn

Dragon Ball Z by Edwin Huang

Dune Part Two by Owen Ruthven

The Hulk by The Pokeball Guy

Jaws by Phase Runner

Kung Fu Panda by Patrick Connan

Loki by MVG Studios

Mad Max: The Road Warrior by Melvin Mago

Psycho by Carles Ganya

The post Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Dragon Ball, Dune, The Hulk, Jaws, Kung Fu Panda, Loki, and More! appeared first on JoBlo.

Spring is around the corner and the gaming news keeps pouring in. This week was a big one, with silly Star Wars memes about a Chilean beer ad, Fortnite leaks, Persona 3 Reload DLC news, and a huge, new conspiracy theory running rampant throuhg the industry.

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