On this episode of Collider Movie Talk (January 4th, 2016), John Campea, Mark Ellis, and Jon Schnepp discuss the following:
- Box office report (brought to you by AMC Theatres)
- Jet Li and Tony Ja to join xXx 3
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaks box office records
- Why Will Smith didn't return for Independence Day: Resurgence
- Weekend box office numbers
- Doctor Strange trailer
- Can Infinity War be a contender against Star Wars: The Force Awakens records?
- Gay characters in Star Wars
- and much more…
It’s Monday which means it’s time for our weekly Box Office Report brought to you by our friends at AMC Theatres. Coming in at #1 is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, taking in over $88.3 million dollars setting a new record for a movie in its 3rd weekend. Coming in second spot is the Will Ferrell / Mark Wahlberg comedy Daddy's Home making $29 million dollars. In the #3 spot is Quentin Tarantino film The Hateful Eight making $16.2 million dollars. In the number 4 position is the Tina Fey / Amy Poehler comedy Sisters making $12.6 million dollars. And rounding out the top 5 is Alvin and the Chipmunks making $11.8 million dollars.
As many of you know, a brand new xXx movie is on the way with Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson returning to reprise their roles. Among the new faces is UFC champion Conor McGregor, and now possibly legendary big screen martial arts stars Jet Li and Tony Ja. According to a report on TwitchFilm the two would be joining the franchise in hero roles but no further information was given.
As we previously mentioned in the box office report, Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to march on in its box office dominance. How dominant is it? Well, in just its 3rd week of release The Force Awakens has now overtaken James Cameron’s Titanic for the #2 domestic box office position of all time. For some context, Titanic took 8 months to hit its $658 million dollars domestic total… and Star Wars has beat it with $740 million in just 3 weeks. The Force Awakens has also passed Frozen, Harry Potter an the Deathly Hallow Part 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron in the all time worldwide box office rankings to now sit at #6 all time, still trailing only Furious 7, Avengers, Jurassic World, Titanic and Avatar.
The new Independence Day: Resurgence trailer recently dropped and while many of us already knew Will Smith would not be returning for the sequel, many average film fans were left scratching their heads wondering where the former Fresh Prince was. Now, Smith has sat down to discuss the situation with Yahoo to explain his absence saying the following: “I was working on Suicide Squad during that time. Roland and I had talked about it. The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting around with tears in my eyes when that one comes out… It was terrible when I found out my character died.” According to a promotional website for the film the movie will explain how Smith’s character died in an accident in 2007 while testing one of the first hybrid fighters the world had developed from Alien technology.
MAIL BAG
Chris Clark writes: My question is about the box office. I was wondering why they only count the numbers over the weekend and not throughout the week. Where I live in Canada, Tuesday is cheap night so most people go then. Thanks and bring on the filthy!
Emil Johansson writes: When do you think a Doctor Strange trailer or teaser could come out?
Oran Domingue writes: My question is, what are the chances that Infinity Wars 1 or 2 could become the next contenders against The Force Awakens' box office records?
Jed Arain writes: There have been a few articles and videos on this subject and many of them imply that Oscar Isaac himself is hinting to fans that his character is gay. For Star Wars, an openly gay character is definitely new ground. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with the character being gay, but I'd rather not see Star Wars being used or "forced" into having to deal with this subject simply because of it's popularity. I want all of the future Star Wars films to be the best they can possibly be and some fans feel that Lucasfilm under Disney might sacrifice the best possible story because of political correctness. Is there such a thing as being "too politically correct" in film?