This weekend sees Dumb and Dumber To and Beyond The Lights open in wide release. Foxcatcher, starring Steve Carell and Channing Tatum, opens in limited but release most is probably the most talked about movie out there. Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater, also comes out in limited release.

Recapping Last Weekend

 Big Hero 6 ultimately took the box office over the weekend with a $56.2 million opening weekend. Interstellar came in second with $47.5 million. Gone Girl, which finished third overall, passed the $145 million mark with $6 million in its sixth weekend of release. Ouija is now over $40 million as it earned another $5.8 million to finish fourth. Fury rounded out the top five with $5.6 million in its fourth weekend of release. It has now barely passed its $68 million budget domestically.

Worldwide, Fury has made $122.7 million. Ouija has made $58 million on a budget of just $5 million.

Guardians of the Galaxy, in its 15th week of release, cracked the Top 20 with $419,000 in receipts. It has now grossed $330 million domestically and $768 million worldwide.

 

Opening This Weekend

 

Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher starring Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo is only opening in limited release this weekend, but it is one of the most talked about movies opening. In St. Louis, you can see it at 8:30 pm this Friday at Plaza Frontenac as part of the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.

 

 

 

Dumb and Dumber To

It has been 20 years since Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels delighted us with Dumb and Dumber. The Farrelly brothers, who directed the original and this sequel, revealed some details about both films in a recent interview series they were a part of at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television. According a transcript of the event from The Hollywood Reporter, Jim Carrey was originally willing to make about $400,000 for his role in the original before the unbelievable success of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. That allowed him to negotiate for a payday of $7 million.

The studio backing the movie was completely against Jeff Daniels being in the movie but the Farrelly brothers insisted. The studio offered Daniels $50,000 figuring he’d turn it down and they’d be able to say they tried. He accepted and the film went on to make $127 million on a budget of $7 million. It was the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1994. Forrest Gump and The Lion King took 1 and 2, respectively, for the year with each earning over $300 million domestically. Here’s a review of Dumb and Dumber from 1994.

Co-star Rob Riggle signed on to Dumb and Dumber To without even reading the script and Kathleen Turner elected to do it because “they sent me a script and it made me laugh”.

See Dumb and Dumber To tonight at 8 pm at MX Movies.

Box Office Projection: $35 Million

 

 

Beyond The Lights

Beyond The Lights stars Danny Glover, Minnie Driver and Machine Gun Kelly. It’s getting pretty good reviews from critics. Jezebel says this one “exposes the music industry’s woman problem”.

Box Office Projection: $8-10 Million

 

Rosewater

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show makes his directorial debut with this telling of the story of Maziar Bahari, who spent four months in an Iranian jail in 2009. Bahari was accused of “being a spy” by the Iranian authorities. He was on assignment for Newsweek at the time and one of the pieces of evidence used against him was a segment he taped on The Daily Show. Variety called Rosewater “an alternately somber and darkly funny drama that may occupy the same geographic terrain as “Argo””.

Around St. Louis. you can see Rosewater at Chase Park Plaza Cinemas, Landmark Plza Frontenac Cinema and AMC West Olive 16 this weekend.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

 

Keller 8 Cinema welcomes Dracula Untold, The Equalizer and The Boxtrolls this weekend.

Make It A Redbox Night

 

Redbox welcomes X-Men: Days of Future Past and Mr. Peabody & Sherman among their new releases this week. Yes, it might be too early for Christmas movies, but Redbox has two under-the-radar ones available you might want to check out.

A Merry Friggin’ Christmas stars the late Robin Williams and Joel McHale. The cast of the film recently gave an interview about what an honor it was to work with Williams during his last starring role.

 

Happy Christmas stars Anna Kendrick and Lena Dunham and is directed by Joe Swanberg, who also was behind Drinking Buddies.

 

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