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The summer box office is back to some kind of normal after reports of its death were exaggerated.
“Despicable Me 4” has made $122 million in just five days. What a brand these Minions have turned into! We’ll be seeing them for the rest of our natural lives.
“A Quiet Place Day One” is approaching $100 million this week and will play all summer even when it moves to streaming on Paramount Plus — likely coming sooner than later. The thirty day window will open on July 28th. But you want to see “AQPD1” on a big screen with real sound, and with an audience.
Meanwhile. the dribs and drabs are running out. “Horizon” is down 50% in its second weekend, with a total of $22 million. That window may open sooner on MAX. “The Bikeriders” is approaching $20 million.
But wait — the big story this month is Magnolia’s “Thelma.” The June Squibb action film has made $6.8 million already. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s that company’s fourth highest grosser of all time. It could turn out to their biggest narrative film. Only the Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary “RBG” is higher at $14 million. Ninety four year old June Squibb is going to get an Oscar nomination! (She’ll be 95 this winter.) What a nice little success story!
Carly Simon wrote about her friend, Judy Belushi, tonight on Instagram. They met nearly 50 years ago. It was Carly and James Taylor who introduced John and Judy to Martha’s Vineyard.
Lately, Simon and other friends had been writing and producing music for Judy, which we may hear one day.
Carly wrote: “I’m one of the lucky people who got to occasionally visit with Judy in the wee spaces in the afternoons when she was up for a conversation, a laugh, a song.
“If I’m not wrong or if I’m not overly bragging, I think it might have been James, my husband way back when and myself, who first introduced Judy and John to the Vineyard.
“I knew her all of a sudden many times and I will especially remember her this last season with The Ukulele Ladies and their songs, as well as the song I am proud to have collaborated on (four in the morning) with her.
“My son, Ben, was mixing her music with Luke, sitting on the couch just a few weeks ago. Oh Judy what a large, laughing, loving space you have left. I love you and will always relish your dearness. It will fan out gently always, through time and space.”
The widow of “SNL” legend John Belushi tended his legacy after his untimely death in 1982. Judy lived on Martha’s Vineyard, where John Belushi is buried.
In 1990, Judy married Vincent Pisano. They divorced in 2010 and had at least one child.
Belushi had been battling cancer for a couple of years, according to friends. In the last year she’d been writing songs and having musician friends on Martha’s Vineyard help to finish and record them.
After “Saturday Night Live” became an overnight hit, John and Judy Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd, discovered the Vineyard, which had had become an unlikely hot spot because of rock stars Carly Simon and James Taylor.
Songwriter Stephen Bishop wrote on Twitter: “Today, I am devastated by the passing of my friend Judy Pisano (Belushi). Her love for her husband John Belushi, his career, and his legacy was unmatched.
“I have fond memories of working and hanging out with Judy and John. She was always kind to me and stayed in touch through the years. I so enjoyed seeing her at Animal House reunions. My memories of her are filled with warmth and affection. I’ll always cherish them.
“My sincere condolences to both the Pisano and Belushi families. She will be greatly missed.”
Judy Belushi produced an award winning documentary about her late husband in 2020, designed to correct an earlier film and book called “Wired.” The new film, “Belushi,” contained John’s unheard audiotapes and home movies.
Maybe Kevin Costner should have released “Horizon 2” before first installment.
That’s because sequels are booming at the box office.
Today, “Despicable Me 4,” which opened on Wednesday, will hit $100 million. Not bad for the Minions! At least we didn’t have to call a minyan.
In the last two days, “Inside Out 2,” another sequel, hit $514 million. Total weekend should bring it to $535 million. And Anxiety is the lead character.
“Horizon” is still dead, crawling to $19 mil today. I really think if New Line Cinema just said, this is the sequel, no one would have been the wiser. Alas, the main character in “Horizon” is, coincidentally, Anxiety, among its bookkeepers, bankers, and accountants!
Alec Baldwin looked confident and calm last night hosting a screening of the “Skywalkers” documentary set hit IMAX next Friday and Netflix a week later.
The East Hampton screening was the first at the newly renovated Guild Hall, one of the great venues on the east coast. Baldwin is on his way this weekend to Santa Fe, New Mexico for a ridiculous 10 day trial to determine his culpability in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Nevertheless, the famed actor — who many think is being scapegoated by the Santa Fe DA’s office — introduced “Skywalkers” and then returned to moderate the Q&A with producers Maria Bukhonia (also a co-director) and Tamir Ardon.
“Skywalkers” — a likely Oscar nominee — tells the incredible cinema verite story of young Russian couple Angela Nikolau and Ivan “Vanya” Beerkus, who became social media sensations for scaling skyscrapers and filming their astonishing achievements. They are basically in trouble all over the world for breaking laws to accomplish their mission.
The one place the couple has not done any rooftopping — the United States, New York in particular. Former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly, who was in the audience, laughed when I asked him if these daredevil artists could get away with this in New York.
“I don’t think so,” he chortled, with a dead serious expression.
On stage, Bukhonia revealed that it wasn’t so easy to get the couple — who are camera ready movie stars — into the United States this winter for a premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
“I probably shouldn’t say, but Mitt Romney got them their visas.” Romney is the US Senator from Utah, the state where Sundance is held. And he serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, so it all makes sense.
Was that difficult, Baldwin asked? Ardon replied: “Russian artists who are always in trouble with the law? Nah!”
You can watch “Skywalkers” on a TV or computer, but seeing it on a screen — particularly IMAX — is the way to go. Fans of the mountain climbing movie “Free Solo” will be thrilled and frightened as Ivan and Angela fall in love as they sneak to the top of various urban pinnacles, dangling over the side, cheating death and evading the law.
Eventually the couple — mind you, they do this barefoot in socks, with no parachutes or nets — decide to conquer Kuala Lampur’s megascraper, Merdeka Tower, before it’s finished being built. They choose the final night of the World Cup in December 2022 — France vs Argentina –knowing everyone including the security guards will be glued to screens.
What ensues is better than a “Mission Impossible” movie, and you can only imagine that when Tom Cruise sees what they pull off he’ll want to try it himself. Directors Bukhonina and Jeff Zimbalist build the tension of the couple hiding in the steeple for nearly 24 hours and then scoring their most impressive rooftopping ever.
There’s a lot going on here. The producers told us not only did they hire some aerial photographers, but Beerkus is a sophisticated drone filmmaker. He would carry a drone to the tops of these 100 story buildings, then launch the drone and film the couple’s adventures!
Hopefully, Mitt Romney can bring them back for awards season this fall and winter (unless Putin catches wind of this whole thing).
Season 2 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” is turning into a bit of a ratings problem. The numbers are going in a downward direction, not upward.
Last Sunday night’s ratings were down again, this time by 10.68% in total viewers and a whopping 27% in the key age demo.
Since the new season premiered four weeks ago, the trend is unabated in decline.
This is pretty shocking since, in its heyday, “Game of Thrones” was up between 10 and 12 million viewers
“House of the Dragon” numbers are much lower than seasons 1 and 2 of “Game of Thrones.” Season 2 of that series was averaging 3.8 million linear viewers.
HBO may say the “Dragon” numbers are higher counting in Max and other platforms. But the basic HBO numbers tell the story: viewers are slowly turning off the show.
Why? I don’t know. The production values are tremendous, and so is the acting. But the story arcs are not as vivid as “Game of Thrones.” It’s’ unclear who to root for. The leading men — especially Daemon (Matt Smith) aren’t heroic. The women — and I really like Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra — just seem stressed all the time.
“House of the Dragon” is already renewed for season 3, so it’s not like these ratings will do it in. But if it keeps spiraling down, look for some changes next time around.
Ellen DeGeneres is having trouble selling tickets to her Last Stand Up Tour.
Four shows have been cancelled already without explanation. More may be in the offing.
In some cities, The Last Stand Up tour is actually sold out. But in many others, it’s not, and there are wide swathes of blue — meaning plenty of available seats.
There are plenty ready for fans at Ellen’s August 1st show at Radio City Music Hall, for example, mostly in the orchestra. The same is true of her San Francisco show on July 20th. One show there was cancelled.
The other cancelled dates are, surprisingly, in Seattle, Chicago, and Dallas. There’s another Seattle show that’s also struggling. But clearly there wasn’t demand for a second one. In the cases of the cancelled shows they were all cities where expectations may just have been too high to have two nights. One was enough.
All these cities were where DeGeneres’s talk show enjoyed 17 years of big ratings. But in the last couple of seasons, numbers collapsed as the comic’s reputation was battered by accusations of a toxic backstage atmosphere. DeGeneres — very wealthy from the show and from real estate mansion flipping — finally stepped down after 19 seasons.
DeGeneres remains a very gifted comedian nevertheless. And while this tour is playing a little like one from Deborah Vance on “Hacks,” I’ve no doubt she’s well worth seeing live — especially if this is indeed the last time.
Matthew R. Walter, a conservative writer from Michigan, contributes op-ed pieces to the New York time.
Walther, editor of the Catholic magazine The Lamp, urges his readers in today’s Times not to vote. In his piece called “Why I Don’t Vote,” Walther writes:
“Why does anyone vote?” I ask myself. The answer cannot be that we believe that by doing so, we will influence the outcome of an election. My vote, were it not withheld, would have no such effect. This is true even at the county or municipal level. The vote margins for the State of Florida in the presidential election of 2000 — the closest in modern American history — were in the hundreds, not the single digits. Voting is, strictly speaking, pointless.
But in fact, Walther — according to public records — has voted at least twice and recently. He voted in the 2020 and 2022 general elections from his home in Three Rivers, Michigan.
Another Matthew Walther, also from Michigan but 23 years his senior, also voted in those elections.
The fact that the Times would run such an essay is deeply troubling, especially in light of current events. “Why I Don’t Vote” is already being ridiculed. But the idea that they didn’t even vet Walther’s”s story and just believed him says a lot for this much compromised newspaper.
There’s even more information at the Twitter account @capitolhunters which identifies Walther as an extreme right winger with ties to the January 6th Capitol insurrection.
The Times either doesn’t care about what they’re publishing, or they’re doing it on purpose. Either way, we’re losing our “newspaper of record” at the time we need them most. It’s more than just a shame. It’s criminal.
Now that I’ve seen all of “The Bear Season 3,” I know why Hulu just dropped it for bingeing instead of releasing it one or two weeks at a time.
The reason? Fans would have stopped watching it before the end. And that would have been a mistake.
If anything Season 3 — a drama, not a comedy, there are no laughs — takes time to build up to anything. Even then, the best episodes — concentrating on Tina’s backstory and Carmie’s sister giving birth (with Jamie Lee Curtis back as Donna, magnificently) — are standalone. They have no “bear”–ing on any of the others.
There’s no question that “The Bear” is great. It’s also ambitious now. But I think in rushing to make Season 3, Christopher Storer either had no cohesive plan, or just figured that he’d tell actual story in Season 4 (or Season 3, Part 2). Almost nothing happens in this season, but there’s a lot of character development among the supporting players. And if you like the Fak brothers, there’e a lot of them this time around. They are the comic relief, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of “The Bear.”
The person we learn least about is Carmy, star Jeremy Allen White. Storer has turned him into a Bruce Weber model, brooding in muted colors. I’ve never seen so much brooding. Carmy is emotionally constipated, which is too bad because originally it was his adventure we were all on. But between long montages, clips from the first two seasons, and endless cooking of expensive, small Per Se type dishes, Carmy is barely present. I hope he’ll come back soon.
The key theme for these 10 episodes: something called “Haunting.” The Faks keep talking about “haunting” as something tangible — basically stalking or ghosting (to use the modern slang) a person you love or hate. It’s like cerebral planking, or putting a hex on someone. But Carmy is actually haunted, by his brother, Michael, who committed suicide, by his own history, etc. When he picks a fight with the star chef who abused him psychologically, it’s almost as if he has exorcism when the chef says, I made you into a better person. Are the ghosts gone? We’ll see.
The standouts are many, however: Oliver Platt is so good as Uncle Jimmy, you realize how much time he’s been wasting on “Chicago Med.” Ayo Edebiri just disappears into Sydney, the heart and soul of the show. She’s living this empathetic young woman, who could also have her own show. Abby Elliott — she astonishes me when I think of her dad, Chris Elliott, and his dad, radio star Bob Elliott. What a family. And there aren’t enough good things to say about Ebon-Moss Bacharach, who plays “lost” with unusual subtlety.
Some random notes: “Billions” creator Brian Koppelman is a great Easter egg as Uncle Jimmy’s bookkeeper sidekick. I loved the Eddie Vedder version of Dave Wakeling’s insanely great 1982 hit, “Save it for Later.” All the music, especially the Nine Inch Nails score for Episode 1, is tremendous. The music supervisors have nailed Emo-Sad for this series, underlining Carmy’s melancholy.
So let’s just say Season 3, Part 1 is a placeholder. In the old days, when a series would have 20 episodes, these 10 would just be the appetizers to the main course. Let’s hope the back 10 are a sumptuous meal.
For the latest Minions movie, “Descipable Me 4,” the numbers last night were huge.
The new installment of the Steve Carell-led animated film made $27 million on its opening night.
The Wednesday to Sunday totals will be off the charts, of course.
On the low end, Kevin Costner’s “Horizon” remains deader than dead. The total now is $14.8 million. Yesterday’s take was down 31% from the previous night.
Apart from “Horizon,” the box office is hot. “Inside Out 2” will hit $500 million.
