‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ sneaks past $700 million at the global box office

In unsurprising news, Minions: The Rise of Gru has continued to be a summer success, with the film now recording a massive box office gross, and it’s still going strong.

Released July 1, Minions has had a spectacular ascension and impact on pop culture that far exceeded most people’s expectations. The infamous GentleMinions trend may just be to thank as Rise of Gru coolly rolls past $700 million at the global box office, proving animation is still a major player during summer movie season.

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‘Spider-Verse’ merch gives us a taste of another new Spider-Man variant

Another Spider-Man variant has been uncovered for the upcoming animation, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse. Thanks to the merchandise being released for the film, fans have gotten to see what new characters may swing into action as they are released in toy form.

This isn’t the first character reveal spoiled by merchandise for the film, Spider-Punk toys also appeared on shelves last week. It is unclear whether or not the decision to have these toys released at this time was intentional or whether the schedules may have gotten a little mixed up due to the film release date being pushed back. Whatever the case, the latest toy has revealed that Cyborg Spider-Woman will be joining Miles Morales and the rest in the animated sequel.

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‘Harry Potter’ fans question why the Wizarding World is so far behind the times

Harry Potter has often been praised for its profound study into important sociological dilemmas like racism and elitism, but the way J.K. Rowling goes about spinning this narrative into existence raises a few questions as to whether Hogwarts — the beating heart of the Wizarding World — has hypocritically fueled these contentious philosophies through the way it has treated students for a millennium.

One of the first things we learn about Hogwarts is that students get sorted into four different houses, with the magical Sorting Hat determining where each student can thrive given the stereotypical characteristics that go along with the history of each house. 

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MCU heads pick a side and choose their favourite non-Avengers team-up

Although everyone is eagerly anticipating the return of the Avengers movies happening next year, there’s no doubt that that team spirit has thankfully been present more than once across the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Eternals, Guardians of the Galaxy, the Revengers, the three Spider-Men… There’s plenty of great team-ups in the MCU for every taste and a viral thread on Reddit is asking everyone to name their top pick for a non-Avengers squad.

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‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ becomes first A24 movie to hit $100 million

July has been a great month for independent cinema. Everything Everywhere All at Once, A24’s unprecedented phenomenon, has just become the first movie from the independent entertainment company to cross the $100 million mark at the global box office.

The martial arts meets multiverse spectacle directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert was first released in theaters in March. Only two months later, it had already passed the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems as A24’s highest domestic grosser. In June, it took over Ari Aster’s 2018 horror film Hereditary to become the company’s biggest ever global hit. But the records didn’t stop there.

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Hot take on the MCU ‘elevating’ the comics opens an angry can of worms

As much as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is inspired and influenced by its source material, the vast majority of fans don’t seem to mind too much when Kevin Feige and his creative teams make changes to comic book canon to better fit the tone of the film or television project in question.

Of course, sometimes it can lead to an outpouring of rage, fury, confusion, and heated debate, with the decision to establish Kamala Khan as a mutant in the Ms. Marvel finale generating plenty of chatter in the aftermath, even if we should have seen it coming given Feige’s disdain for the Inhumans.

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A different kind of Dwayne Johnson movie gets in too deep on the streaming charts

Having become the biggest, most popular, and highest-paid star in the industry, everyone knows what to expect from a Dwayne Johnson movie at this stage, which has essentially become a subgenre unto itself over the last decade.

The leading man will almost always produce through his Seven Bucks company, the budget will be north of $100 million, CGI-driven spectacle and chaos will be the order of the day, and the former professional wrestler will embody either a current or former member of law enforcement or military, who also doubles as a family man with a 50/50 chance of being divorced.

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Keanu Reeves reveals how heavily he’s involved in Netflix’s ‘BRZRKR’ adaptation

Comic book creators being unfairly remunerated for their work when blockbuster live-action adaptations hit the big and/or small screens has become a hot topic of conversation recently, but it’s not a problem Netflix’s BRZRKR universe is going to have to worry itself with when the source material was co-created by A-list superstar Keanu Reeves.

Then again, the actor is known as one of the most kind and wholesome figures in Hollywood, so there’s a distinct possibility he’ll be making sure fellow key creatives Matt Kindt and Ron Garney are well compensated for their contributions. The Batman writer and Mother/Android director Mattson Tomlin is handling the screenplay for the futuristic action extravaganza, with Reeves revealing to ScreenRant how heavily he’s involved in the development process.

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Fans share their hopes, dreams, and expectations for ‘Captain America: New World Order’

Following last weekend’s earth-shattering San Diego Comic-Con panel, we’ve got a much clearer idea of how the Multiverse Saga is going to shake out, with Phase Five being rounded out by Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts, which are releasing less than three months apart on May 3 and July 26 of 2024.

Having been announced the very same day The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cemented him as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new star-spangled superhero, The Cloverfield Paradox director Julius Onah will call the shots on the fourth standalone Captain America movie and first with Anthony Mackie in the lead, but any and all plot details (bar the inevitable inclusion of Bucky Barnes) remain shrouded in mystery.

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‘Star Wars’ fans continue to be amazed by this subtle parrallel

As one of the biggest stories in modern history, Star Wars people have pored over every little element of it, but some of these from the first two trilogies are proving so mind-numbingly subtle that they went over 99% of our heads. A particular instance of this has got devotees to our favorite galaxy far, far away community all worked up and it involves the relationship dynamic between Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, and, believe it or not, Palpatine.

After all, most of the prequel trilogy revolves around the Emperor’s twisted plan to sway Anakin to the dark side of the Force, not only using his friendship with Obi-Wan, but also the protagonist’s love for Padme to achieve that goal.

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Fans celebrate Christopher Nolan’s birthday by arguing over his best movie

Today marks the 52nd birthday of Christopher Nolan, one of the greatest movie directors in living memory whose work has repeatedly set a standard for the rest of the industry, especially when studios set about crossing the thin line where artistry and blockbuster filmmaking meet.

As you can imagine, the internet is out in force to celebrate the director’s life and success the only way it knows how: Arguing about which Nolan movie is the best, heedless of the subjectivity of a presupposition like that.

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Music buffs share the terrible movies almost saved by a soundtrack that slaps

Queen of the Damned may have been a mediocre film, but it had a slamming soundtrack, according to one assessment by a fan of movies and music, which sparked a broader discussion about terrible movies with excellent musical accompaniments.

“Personally I think Queen of the Damned was a garbage movie but had a super memorable soundtrack. I always hear people have the same kind of opinion on that movie as well,” the Reddit user u/njablonski33 said in a post on the r/Movies subreddit, kicking off a discussion about similarly situated films.

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Robot-friendly ‘Star Wars’ fans name the droid they’d most want as their companion

If there’s any object in the Star Wars galaxy that fans most covet, it’s the lightsaber. Practically every person who saw the first, second, or third set of trilogies in their childhood harbors a desperate wish to own the weapon of the Jedi (or Sith, let’s be honest). But let’s be practical, those things are likely to just get you into an ugly bar fight in your local cantina then they are to help you slay a galactic potentate. Wouldn’t you rather have a nice droid?

User’s on Reddit recently answered what exact droid from the decades-spanning Star Wars saga they’d prefer to own and the answers were surprising. Of course, it wasn’t any surprise that many favored a nice dependable Astromech droid along the lines of R2-D2. And who wouldn’t want a combination toolkit/mechanic with a bonus movie projector, jet pack, and fire suppression system thrown in as a bonus?

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‘Star Wars’ fans horrified by how casually the droids burn bodies

Some Star Wars fans have realized how comfortable R2-D2 and C-3PO are with burning the Jawas on Tatooine in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. 

Before Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi join Han Solo on the Millenium Falcon, the group burn a bunch of Jawas in a bonfire. Some Redditors have pointed out that R2-D2 and C-3PO just stood idly by, while the Jawas burned away. Most of the Reddit comments are joking about R2-D2 claiming that he’s seen much worse, with one Redditor saying, “That’s Tuesday for R2.”

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‘DC League of Super-Pets’ sails past $2.2m in opening previews

With children’s movies mostly absent from the studios’ Summer 2022 schedule, it might seem like a forgone conclusion that any family friendly films released in-season would be a huge hit. But of the slate of major kiddie flicks released thus far, including seeming sure bet Lightyear and WTF-inducing Trolls World Tour, thus far Despicable Me spin-off Minions: The Rise of Gru is the only one that’s stood out as a hit.

But post-COVID Hollywood is seeing the season of superheroes, with The Batman, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all opening back-to-back to huge numbers, and Thor: Love & Thunder opening strong before word-of-mouth led to steep box office drop-off, so it’s no surprise that the animated DC League of Super-Pets would dominate the weekend box office.

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Watch: Brad Pitt gets duped in first ‘Bullet Train’ clip

This may be a spoiler, but we’re pretty sure that backpack isn’t stuck. Sony Pictures has released a teaser clip from its upcoming action comedy Bullet Train, due out next weekend and it looks like a trap.

Of course, Brad Pitt’s character Ladybug, a contract assassin looking to change his life, doesn’t have the benefit of seeing the apparently helpless schoolgirl in any of the film’s trailers. If he had, he’d probably be a little less hesitant about leaving her on the train. But by the end of the line, he’ll have figured out that very few people on this train are what they seem to be. If he survives, that is.

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‘Madame Web’ set photos could tease ‘Spider-Man 2’ Easter Egg

Does Sony’s upcoming Madame Web take place in the same universe as Sam Raimi’s 2004 masterpiece Spider-Man 2? That’s one conclusion one could take away from a set photo prop of the forthcoming superhero movie, even though it is still somewhat ambiguous.

The set photo leak in question is a series of dispenser boxes for the fictional Daily Bugle newspaper as well as for The New York Times and the New York Post. At first, the image seems innocuous. Considering Madame Web will be part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and thus a version of Daily Bugle is expected to exist in that world, it’s not necessarily a firm connection to Spider-Man 2 in and of itself.

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MCU fans mark one year until the release of ‘The Marvels’

We’re just one year away from The Marvels coming to theaters, which teases a team-up of epic proportions from the likes of Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers ⏤ aka Captain Marvel ⏤ Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan ⏤ aka Ms. Marvel ⏤ and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau.

One fan put it best in a Twitter post by saying “our girls are inching closer to us” and sharing a collage of each respective comic book character and the actors who will portray them.

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Review: ‘The Honor Society’ is pure John Hughes for a new generation

The Honor Society, which premieres on Paramount Plus on July 29, is a savvy rites-of-passage piece which mainlines top tier John Hughes during his prolific Eighties period.

With a disarming delivery of straight-to-camera dialogue, Angourie Rice attempts to steal this film as Honor, a prim and proper high school senior with Ferris Bueller-levels of sass, who runs rings around all comers in her attempts to get a Harvard scholarship.

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Taron Egerton reveals he turned down the lead role in ‘Solo’

Solo: A Star Wars Story is one of those projects from the Mouse House era that fans generally prefer not to think about, even though most of them would admit Alden Ehrenreich did a wonderful job of bringing a younger Han Solo to life on the big screens. But while every viewer indeed breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Ehrenreich’s dedication to the role, Lucasfilm apparently had someone else in mind to play the scruffy looking nerf-herder.

The star of The King’s Man recently sat down for a conversation with Josh Horowitz, where he revealed that Disney initially wanted him to portray Han in his solo outing (pun intended), but he turned them down because he didn’t feel like the role was meant for him.

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In a shocking turn of events, Mel Gibson signs on for an action thriller

In Hollywood, there’s “showbiz jail,” which is what befalls big stars when, for example, they slap a comedian on live television during Hollywood’s biggest night, and they’re not allowed to make movies for a year or two until the public decides they don’t really care.

And then there’s Mel Gibson‘s exile to “showbiz Siberia,” which is what happens when a star is deemed too much of a liability to ever headline a big-budget film, either due to being such a drug addict that the production can’t be insured, or such a toxic public presence that the general public will actively stay away from their films.

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When is ‘Black Adam’ Set in the DCEU Timeline? Here’s What We Know So Far

Dwayne Johnson has promised to change the hierarchy of the DC Universe when Black Adam comes to theaters, but when exactly is it taking place?

The DCEU has been a confusing universe because of its incohesive timeline. There are two versions of the Justice League movie, the Flash movie Flashpoint is presumably resetting the universe, and there are multiple movies set in the multiverse rather than the main timeline. There’s been no official word yet if Henry Cavill’s Superman will return and creators have been quiet about these stories connecting. Despite this, it’s still possible to ascertain where Black Adam fits into the DCEU timeline. It just takes a bit of analysis and deduction to get a clearer picture.

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‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ villain is a narcissistic Shakespearean sociopath

The return of Star-Lord and his gang of intergalactic misfits in Love and Thunder was so brief that Taika Waititi might as well have written them off from the story without actually bringing them on set to shoot that hasty opening. Fortunately, less than a year separates us from James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, in which the titular MCU heroes not only return in earnest, but go up against their greatest adversaries yet.

From what Gunn has revealed about the third installment, Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock will serve as a major antagonistic figure, though based on the latest SDCC 2022 trailer that was shown to a select group of fans and members of the press behind closed doors, the actor will share that spotlight with Chukwudi Iwuji, who’ll be portraying the High Revolutionary.

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Jonathan Majors compares embodying Kang to playing quarterback

Actor Jonathan Majors is playing the next big bad guy in the Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His Kang is a figure who travels across time, bends reality and, according to Majors, is a bit like someone leading a football team in high school.

The actor makes the comments about his role in a piece published by Collider today. Essentially, while portraying the character, Majors focuses just on the script and story, and this is similar to how people in Texas handle the pigskin when on the gridiron for work.

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Daniel Radcliffe’s Weird Al biopic reveals first poster and release date

At long last, we’re finally getting our first glimpse of Daniel Radcliffe as renowned parody musician “Weird Al” in the official poster for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which is set to release this fall. And while Radcliffe is far out-stretched from his younger days of portraying legendary wizard Harry Potter, the 33-year-old actor has the perfect balance of glutes and hair in the eye-popping poster.

Over on Twitter, The Hollywood Reporter’s official account revealed the aesthetically-pleasing poster, which features Radcliffe as Weird Al and holding an accordion while he overlooks the Hollywood sign. You can check out the poster for yourself down below:

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