Month: September 2024

22 Sep

Weekend Box Office: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beats Transformers One in a surprise upset

By . FilmTV No Comments

Industry estimates for the weekend had Paramount’s Transformers One, the critically acclaimed animated prequel, easily winning the weekend box office race with about $40 million. In our box office predictions, we were somewhat more conservative, expecting the animated pic to earn about $30 million. Yet, in a surprise twist of fate at the weekend box office, the film underperformed pretty drastically, allowing Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to win the box office crown for the third week in a row, with the hit sequel making $26 million compared to Transformers One’s $25 million.

So what happened? It could be that audiences have just grown weary of the Transformers franchise, which has been on a downslide at the box office since back in 2017 when Transformers: The Last Knight earned about half what the previous instalment, Age of Extinction, did domestically. Since then, none of the Transformers movies have performed all that well domestically, with the highest grosser being Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with $157 million. Yet, the franchise is still strong overseas, particularly in China, which is why the studio is still making them.

Transformers One was expected to reverse the downslide, being animated and sporting an all-star voice cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, and Scarlett Johansson. But, despite an amazing A CinemaScore rating, audiences just did not turn out to see the movie. The audience reaction could mean that the movie will be a word-of-mouth hit, but it faces steep competition next weekend from The Wild Robot, which earned raves out of TIFF.

All told, this is a fabulous result for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which now has a huge $225 million domestic total and should have no trouble passing about $270-ish, with a $300 million finish not out of the question. Blumhouse’s well-reviewed Speak No Evil fell a modest 49% to $5.8 million this weekend, which is good for a genre flick. It’s made just over $21 million so far and should end up with a $30 million-ish gross.

It managed to beat Lionsgate’s Never Let Go, which continued the studio’s disastrous reign at the box office with a poor $4.5 million opening. At the end of the day, the movie’s hook just wasn’t enough to pull in a genre audience despite the presence of Halle Berry in the lead. The studio’s slate isn’t likely to get any better, with them also distributing Francis Ford Coppola’s critically maligned Megalopolis next weekend. 

The Substance

Another horror flick, Mubi’s demented (and awesome) The Substance, underperformed this weekend, only making $3.1 million despite amazing reviews. It was beaten by Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $3.9 million for a smashing $627 million plus total. The controversial documentary Am I Racist?, earned $2.53 million, bringing its total to a decent $9 million (quite good for an independently distributed doc). At the same time, the biopic Reagan added another $1.7 million to its coffers for a $26.5 million total, with a potential $30 million finish in reach. Finally, the K-pop concert film Jung Kook: I Am Still made $1.42 million for a $2.57 million total, while Alien: Romulus started to close out its theatrical run with $1.32 million and a $103 million domestic total.

Next weekend sees the release of The Wild Robot. Will it be able to finally take down Beetlejuice Beetlejuice? Let us know in the comments!

The post Weekend Box Office: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice beats Transformers One in a surprise upset appeared first on JoBlo.

22 Sep

Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen

By . FilmTV No Comments
Transformers One Chris Hemsworth

Transformers One is now playing in theaters, and many critics (including this one) say it’s the best Transformers movie ever made (disagree with that? Take our poll!) Yet, the film has been the subject of a bit of controversy, with some fans resenting that, for the first time in the movies, someone else is voicing Optimus Prime other than the legendary Peter Cullen, with Chris Hemsworth taking over the role. We recently sat down with Transformers One director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), who addressed the change head-on. 

“Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime,” Cooley said, adding, “he’s my Optimus Prime. That’s what I grew up with. That’s the iconic voice. And Chris and I talked a lot about that early on. And even before Chris came on, I was, you know, how, how are we going to do this? But the thing that really clicked for me was that this is Orion Pax. So it’s before he becomes Optimus Prime, which means he doesn’t need to have all the knowledge and the power yet to be Optimus.”

Indeed, much of the film revolves around Optimus in his early days, when he’s still just a miner (without the ability to transform) opposite his best pal, turned archenemy, D-16, later to become Megatron. Yet, as the film continues, Chris Hemsworth’s voice starts to take on a more Peter Cullen-like cadence.

“When I heard Chris’s voice, he’s got the weight to it,” said Cooley. “He’s got that power in his voice naturally. And so when we first met, we talked about it a lot, and we’re like, okay, Orion can be a little looser. He can be kind of a little more naive, a little more kind of, you know, shooting from the seat of his pants. And then Chris just brought that super charm that he has into the voice. And, I remember that moment when he’s, you know, we were reading through the script. And he, I think it was the speech that he’s giving to the miners that even in his performance, he was standing up a little straighter chest out and just kind of had, you know, the cadence of the power and just had the rhythm of, of starting to sound like Optimus. I got goosebumps because I thought it worked so well.”

What do you think of Chris Hemsworth’s voice acting in Transformers One? Let us know in the comments!

The post Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen appeared first on JoBlo.

22 Sep

Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen

By . FilmTV No Comments

Transformers One is now playing in theaters, and many critics (including this one) say it’s the best Transformers movie ever made (disagree with that? Take our poll!) Yet, the film has been the subject of a bit of controversy, with some fans resenting that, for the first time in the movies, someone else is voicing Optimus Prime other than the legendary Peter Cullen. We recently sat down with Transformers One director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), who addressed the change head-on. 

“Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime,” Cooley said, adding, “he’s my Optimus Prime. That’s what I grew up with. That’s the iconic voice. And Chris and I talked a lot about that early on. And even before Chris came on, I was, you know, how, how are we going to do this? But the thing that really clicked for me was that this is Orion Pax. So it’s before he becomes Optimus Prime, which means he doesn’t need to have all the knowledge and the power yet to be Optimus.”

Indeed, much of the film revolves around Optimus in his early days, when he’s still just a miner (without the ability to transform) opposite his best pal, turned archenemy, D-16, later to become Megatron. Yet, as the film continues, Hemsworth’s voice starts to take on a more Peter Cullen-like cadence.

“When I heard Chris’s voice, he’s got the weight to it,” said Cooley. “He’s got that power in his voice naturally. And so when we first met, we talked about it a lot, and we’re like, okay, Orion can be a little looser. He can be kind of a little more naive, a little more kind of, you know, shooting from the seat of his pants. And then Chris just brought that super charm that he has into the voice. And, I remember that moment when he’s, you know, we were reading through the script. And he, I think it was the speech that he’s giving to the miners that even in his performance, he was standing up a little straighter chest out and just kind of had, you know, the cadence of the power and just had the rhythm of, of starting to sound like Optimus. I got goosebumps because I thought it worked so well.”

What do you think of Hemsworth’s voice acting in Transformers One? Let us know in the comments!

The post Transformers One: Director Josh Cooley on why Chris Hemsworth took over as Optimus Prime from Peter Cullen appeared first on JoBlo.

22 Sep

Poll: What’s Your Favorite Transformers Movie?

By . FilmTV No Comments

With Transformers One earning the best review in the franchise’s history, we want to know how you think it ranks in the pantheon of Transformers films. Is it better than the very best of the Michael Bay films? Does it outrank the critically acclaimed Bumblebee? Is it even better than the animated classic, Transformers: The Movie? Let us know by taking the poll below!

Poll: Best Transformers Movie
Vote

The post Poll: What’s Your Favorite Transformers Movie? appeared first on JoBlo.

© 2024 - DIGIGROSS | All rights reserved