After months of anticipation, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot finally hits theaters. Step Up All In, the fifth movie in that series, also makes its way to theaters. Daniel Radcliffe returns to the silver screen, not as Harry Potter, but as Wallace in the romantic comedy What If.  Into The Storm is a small-budget found-footage disaster film that will find a niche at the box office. Also

Recapping Last Weekend

1. Guardians of the Galaxy -$94.3 million 2. Lucy – $18.25 million 3. Get On Up $13.585 million 4. Hercules $11 million 5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $8.7 million

From Box Office Mojo

Guardians of the Galaxy‘s $94 million opening stomped the previous August opening record of $69.3 million by The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. Hercules has earned $112 million worldwide in 12 days of release with 50.4% of that coming from overseas markets.

Opening This Weekend

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Turtles are back in their first live-action film since 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonarodo and Donatello look a wee bit different this time around than they did in 1990. The latest film’s $125 million budget is a tad bit larger than the original’s $13.5 million. Even adjusted for inflation, there’s still a $100 million more going into this one. The original live-action made the 2014 equivalent of almost $250 million during its theater run. The sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze, fell 45% and the third installment fell even further, to what would now equal a total theater run of $69.4 million. The 1990 film was the fifth highest grossing movie of the year, behind Home Alone, Ghost, Dances with Wolves and Pretty Woman. 1993’s installment was the 34th highest-grossing movie of that year. “Turtle Power” finished slightly ahead of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and a re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Paramount Pictures hopes that 25+ years after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series first aired is a good time to rekindle the majic of the series.  Megan Fox stars as reporter April O’Neil and Will Arnett plays her cameraman Vernon Fenwick. Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shalhoub are among the voices of the Turtles. Judith Hoag played April O’Neil in the 1990 original. She can now be seen on Nashville as Connie Britton’s sister, Tandy.

Expect Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to earn about $35 million this weekend. Several sites have taken to looking a bit too much into a Superhero movie about four life-size, crime-fighting turtles. This is a Michael Bay-produced flick, so expect “bums on multiplex seats”. Also, be prepared for a terrible rap.

See Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tonight at MX Movies. The film is showing at 7 pm and 9:40 pm

 

Step Up All In

The fifth installment in the greatest series of all time (personal preference) hits theaters tomorrow. Step Up All In features a virtual All-Star cast culled from previous films in the franchise. Channing Tatum of course isn’t there, but Briana Evigan, Adam Sevani, Misha Gabriel Hamilton, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, Ryan Guzman and Alyson Stoner are among those that are. This one won’t win an Academy Award for its plot, which has the dance crew trying to win a reality television contest where the top prize is a casino dance show. The Telegraph calls it “preposterous fun”. By most accounts, Ryan Guzman is fairly terrible in the film. Projections have Step Up All In bringing in around $10 million this weekend. The film has already been released in many countries around the world and has made an estimated $26.2 million thus far.

Go see Step Up All In to have a great time and see some dance sequences that will surely be worthy of being on this list.

 

What If

Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Karzan star in this romantic comedy. Whereas Radcliffe has already had a wildly-successful career with Harry Potter, Kazan’s biggest roles have come in Ruby Sparks and Revolutionary Road. The Guardian was among the reviewers that give this film high marks and love the chemistry between the stars.

 

Into The Storm

Into The Storm is being billed as a “found footage” disaster thriller. The genre has lost favor with audiences gradually since The Blair Witch Project pioneered it. The film doesn’t have a  lot of star power but does feature Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Dr. Sara Tancredi in Prison Break. Richard Armitage of The Hobbit fame also stars. Director Steven Quale has some serious special effects credits on his resume. Writer John Swetnam has four film-writing credits to his name. One of the others is Step Up All In. It’s not too often a writer has two movies open in the same year, much less on the same weekend. Breaking Through is a film Swetnam is currently filming and his first film, Evidence, was financed with $50,000 on his credit card. With the projected $12 million this one will make this weekend, that $50,000 seems like a good investment in his future.

 

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Keller 8 Cinema welcomes Maleficent, How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Transformers: Age of Extinction to its theaters this weekend. All three will leave you feeling like you definitely got your money’s worth.

Make It A Redbox Night

Redbox welcomes Divergent, Bad Words, Need For Speed and God’s Not Dead among others this week. After making $275 million worldwide at the box office, Divergent is likely to become a multi-movie franchise. Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.

 

Coming Soon

 

Night At The Museum 3

Coming to theaters December 19.

 

The Theory of Everything

The story of Stephen Hawking hits theaters on November 7.

 

Birdman

Starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Zach Galifianakis, this one opens at the Venice Film Festival on August 27.

 

Fifty Shades of Grey

Out February 14, 2015

 

The Prince

 

Laggies

 

Exodus: Gods and Kings

 

The Interview

 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

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