This Friday, Scarlett Johannson enters Angelina Jolie territory as she headlines the action thriller Lucy, from director Luc Besson. Costarring the Narrator in Chief Morgan Freeman, Universal Studios has shown confidence in the project by moving it from its original August time slot to late July. The marketing campaign has been strong and the trailers and TV spots are effective.
The big question is whether Lucy will be negatively affected by its competition, Hercules featuring The Rock. Both pictures could cause the other to lose out on their full box office potential. What Lucy has that Hercules may not is the chance to bring more females into the fold. Audiences are used to seeing Johannson in action mode following her appearances in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is still 2014’s highest grosser.
Add that up and Lucy has a real chance to be a sleeper summer hit and nab the #1 spot over its competitors.
Being that I’ll be watching Mr. Justin Timberlake in concert in a few days, it felt sensible to present you with my personal Top 25 tracks from the artist. He’s only put out four albums in 12 years and yet he’s arguably been the most influential and important figure in pop music during that period. Timberlake’s work with mega producer Timbaland is reminiscent of the magic that Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones achieved over three decades ago.
I’m an unapologetic pop music lover and JT has been the best at it for some time. So let’s get to it! This will be a five-part series posted everyday.
25. “Take Back the Night” from The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 (2013)
This horn heavy disco-ish groove served as the lead single from the second part of last year’s 20/20 Experience. It sounds like it could’ve been on Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album.
24. “You Got It On” from The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 (2013)
One of the least talked about tracks from 20/20 part two, this slow jam features some of the most gorgeous strings in JT’s catalogue.
23. “Suit & Tie” from The 20/20 Experience (2013)
The first single from the first 20/20, it gave us a preview of the brilliance to come from the two part album. It’s also got a terrific David Fincher directed video and a rap verse from Jay-Z.
22. “Only When I Walk Away” from The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 (2013)
This seven minute tour de force features some of JT’s most memorable vocals and typical innovative production from Timbaland.
21. “Strawberry Bubblegum” from The 20/20 Experience (2013)
One of the most infectious grooves on the entire 20/20 Experience, its lyrics may be a little silly with its endless sexual innuendos – but the production is amazing.
And that’s all for today’s edition. I promise you’ll be seeing songs that weren’t on 20/20 as well! It just worked out that way for this list. Songs 20-16 coming tomorrow…
When it comes to actors who have perfected the art of the scowl, Ice Cube is among the best. Whereas Will Ferrell and Gene Hackman are great cinematic yellers, Mr. Cube has displayed his knack for good scowling in numerous pictures – most notably the Jump Street franchise. He gets to scowl a lot at costar Kevin Hart in Ride Along.
Cube plays James, the hardened Atlanta detective. Hart is Ben, a wannabe cop currently pulling duty as a high school security guard. Ben is dating James’s girlfriend and he wants her brother’s blessing before he pops the question. James doesn’t believe he deserves her. He decides to kill two birds with one stone when he offers to take Ben on a ride along to prove he can’t hack it in the law enforcement world or in his family.
What follows is a series of very familiar buddy cop scenarios that are directed and written with little energy and zero originality. We have Bruce McGill as the police captain who likes to yell. The main villain is a mysterious arms dealer named Omar who’s played a paycheck cashing Laurence Fishburne. There’s the double crossing cops who are actually in cahoots with the villain. And, obviously, the central female character is going to be put in danger at some point.
Much of these by-the-numbers development that permeate the picture could be forgiven if it had enough genuinely humorous moments. There aren’t many at all. Kevin Hart is a ball of energy, but it doesn’t usually equate to laughs. Then there’s Cube. He’s proven on several occasions that he’s a solid actor whether in drama or comedy. And yet Cube is just left scowling for most of Ride Along‘s running time. With the material he has to work with here, the scowling is justified.
We’ve got three new titles populating theaters this coming Friday: the Cameron Diaz/Jason Segel comedy Sex Tape, the horror sequel The Purge: Anarchy and Disney’s animated sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue. You can find my detailed prediction posts on each of them here:
These newbies could create a legitimate three-way race for the #1 spot. The main question is whether Sex Tape or Planes could exceed my expectations and knock current champ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes from its perch? It’s certainly possible. Some could make the argument that the Purge sequel could over perform and compete, but I just don’t see that happening.
Ultimately I’m predicting the Apes will keep their considerable monkey business at #1 with the new entries coming in second through fourth. The well-reviewed Apes flick is likely to lose 45-55% of its audience in its sophomore frame. Transformers: Age of Extinction should fall to fifth.
And with that, my top five predictions for the upcoming weekend:
1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Predicted Gross: $34.6 million (representing a drop of 52%)
2. Sex Tape
Predicted Gross: $29.1 million
3. Planes: Fire & Rescue
Predicted Gross: $25.4 million
4. The Purge: Anarchy
Predicted Gross: $15.5 million
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction
Predicted Gross: $7.7 million (representing a drop of 53%)
Box Office Results (July 11-13)
As expected, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes dominated the weekend with a very solid $72.6 million haul – though it did fall a little short of my $77.2M projection. This is a great start for it and pretty much guarantees more franchise entrees in the near future.
Falling to second in weekend #3 was Transformers: Age of Extinction with $16.3 million, right in range with my $16.8M prediction. The fourth film in the Michael Bay series has earned $208 million so far. It will likely top out around $250 million and will easily be the lowest domestic grosser of the franchise.
Melissa McCarthy’s critically panned Tammy held up a bit better than I figured, placing third with $12.5 million – above my $10.7M estimate. The comedy has earned $56 million in two weeks.
In fourth was 22 Jump Street with $6.5 million, just outshining my $5.6M prediction. The sequel has earned $171 million. In fifth was How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $6 million. My prediction? $6 million! The animated sequel has earned a less than expected $152 million. Finally, Earth to Echo was sixth in weekend #2 with $5.4 million, in line with my $5.2M projection. Its taken in $24 million in two weeks.
“Sometimes I think I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel, and from here on out I’m not gonna feel anything new… just… lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.”
It is Joaquin Phoenix’s main character in Her that utters these words and he along with most of the human and not human characters seem to feel that way. They are all proven wrong eventually in this strangely romantic tale from Spike Jonze, a visionary director working off his own highly creative screenplay.
Set in the likely not too distant future, Her focuses on Theodore Twombly (Phoenix), who is surrounded by love all day in the form of his job as a composer of heartfelt letters that he’s hired to develop for others. In his real life, there is a severe lack of the emotion that earns him his living. He’s long separated from his wife (Rooney Mara) and not able to bring himself to sign divorce papers.
His lonely existence leads him to purchase an operating system (or OS) that is designed to adapt to their owner. His OS comes in the form of Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johannson) and her existence in Theodore’s life becomes serious very quickly. The artificial intelligence that OS’s can develop turns out to be more than either Theodore or Samantha could possibly expect and they fall in love.
Her has a lot to say about the human race’s constantly increasing reliance on technology, but more to say about our need for companionship and love. If the concept of a person falling love with their computer had been made 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago, it would’ve have felt like true science fiction. This film doesn’t feel that way and it’s a massive credit to Jonze for steeping Her in relative realism. The characters surrounding Theodore are not horrified or even that surprised of his love for Samantha and neither are we as an audience.
Those characters surrounding Theodore include his friend Amy (Amy Adams), who is going through her own divorce. Unlike Samantha, Mara as the ex-wife is seen a lot through flashbacks but only heard from in one scene where the childhood sweethearts finalize the end of their journey together.
Yet this film belongs to Phoenix and Johannson. Ever since his bizarre and planned meltdown from a few years back, Phoenix has gone a long way in reminding us that he’s one of his generation’s greatest actors. After his amazing turn in 2012’s The Master, his performance here is equally masterful. Johannson is never seen, but her voice work is terrific. Simply put, if their performances and Jonze’s screenplay didn’t convince you of their true love for each other, Her would fall apart. It does the opposite. And as their relationship becomes more complicated (as real relationships always do), we buy where Jonze takes us every step of the way.
Through Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and (to a lesser degree) Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze has delivered each time he steps behind the camera. For his two greatest pics (Malkovich, Adaptation), he had the help of brilliant screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. It is with Her that he proves his writing matches his direction.
Last summer The Purge came out of nowhere and earned $64 million domestically against a tiny budget of only $3 million. Naturally, a sequel quickly got the green light from Universal Pictures and writer/director James DeMonaco is back in charge with Frank Grillo and Carmen Ejogo starring.
So it would stand to reason that the horror/thriller sequel should keep the gravy train rolling, right? Well… not so fast. When the original debuted in early June 2013, it started strongly out of the gate with a $34 million opening. That means it earned over half of its domestic gross in its first three days. What does that mean? It received a dismal “C” Cinemascore grade. So audiences didn’t like what they saw and they certainly weren’t telling their friends to check it out.
The Purge: Anarchy faces an uphill battle to come close to competing with its predecessor. The lackluster reaction to last year’s entry doesn’t bode well. If something like Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones could only manage an opening just north of $18 million in January, it’s hard to see this earning more in a much more competitive time frame.
As I see it, Anarchy is primed for a mediocre premiere and I don’t believe it’ll even start with half of what the first hauled in a year ago.
The Purge: Anarchy opening weekend prediction: $15.5 million
Three summers ago, Bad Teacher performed well with audiences to the tune of a $100 million domestic gross. On Friday, that film’s director Jake Kasdan and its stars Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel reunite for Sex Tape. The raunchy comedy’s concept is simple: bored married couple makes sex tape to spice things up and it accidentally goes viral. Costars include Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, and Rob Lowe.
Diaz, especially, has proven herself to be a valuable commodity in these types of pictures. Just this spring, The Other Woman got off to a $24 million debut on its way to an $83M domestic haul. And Sex Tape could be more successful in bringing in a male audience as Woman was geared more towards… well, women. Similar types of movies such as No Strings Attached or Friends with Benefits both opened to just shy of $20 million, but this should outdo them.
The most fair comparison for how Sex Tape plays is likely Bad Teacher itself. It opened to $31 million in June 2011 and it’s certainly possible that this could open in the same range. Ultimately I’m predicting it falls just short of that for a solid opening.
Sex Tape opening weekend prediction: $29.1 million
Walt Disney Studios brings their animated sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue to theaters this Friday and they are hoping to find more success than other animated follow-ups in 2014. This spring, 20th Century Fox saw lackluster results with Rio 2, which grossed $129 million (less than the $143M of its 2011 predecessor). And then there’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 which has taken in a disappointing $147 million, far less than the $217M of its 2010 original.
The Planes sequel may have better luck for a couple of reasons. First, the expectations aren’t nearly as high. Featuring the voices of Dane Cook, Julie Bowen, Ed Harris, and many others – Fire & Rescue isn’t expected to greatly outdo the $90 million haul of its original, which came out last summer. That factor – that the predecessor came out less than a year ago – should keep it fresh in family audience’s minds. On the other hand, the first Rio and Dragon pictures had come out three and four years prior.
Planes took in $22 million last August on its way to that $90M gross. #2 may manage to take in a bit more than that and I figure it’ll pretty much take in what its predecessor did when all is said and done.
Planes: Fire & Rescue opening weekend prediction: $25.4 million
Director Richard Linklater has been a critics darling for over two decades since his acclaimed 1991 debut Slacker. His second picture Dazed and Confused is now considered an American classic. And there’s his critically beloved trilogy of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight in addition to Waking Life, School of Rock, Fast Food Nation, and Bernie.
What does his filmography currently have in common? None have received a great deal of attention from the Academy and not one has received a Best Picture or Director nomination. This could potentially change with Linklater’s latest effort Boyhood.
The pic premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and just opened this weekend in limited release. The shooting of Boyhood is unique. Linklater shot the film over a nearly 12 year period and it focuses on the life of a boy (Ellar Coltrane) from childhood to adulthood. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette play his divorced parents.
Critics have been absolutely over the moon on it. Based on 97 reviews, Boyhood stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers calling it the best movie of the year so far. Richard Roeper has referred to it as one of the greatest pictures he’s ever seen.
The question of Boyhood‘s Oscar viability may come down to how much mainstream exposure it receives. However, based on reviews alone, this stands the best chance of any of Linklater’s catalogue to receive a Best Picture and Director nomination, as well as Actor (Coltrane), Supporting Actor (Hawke), and Supporting Actress (Arquette).
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