Recapping Last Weekend

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies took the box office last weekend with $21.7 million in receipts. It was its third weekend box office win in a row. Into The Woods brought in $18.7 million to edge out Unbroken for second place. From Unbroken‘s $18.2 million to fourth place, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death‘s $15 million, was a larger drop. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb rounded out the top five with $14.5 million.

Hobbit has now brought in $224 million domestically in three weeks and a total of $726.4 million worldwide.

Guardians of the Galaxy was the highest-grossing movie domestically in 2014 with $333 million.

 

Predicting This Weekend

BoxOffice.com is predicting a weekend box office victory for Taken 3 with $31 million. The folks there think Selma will finish in second place with $23 million. ScreenRant also predicts a box office win for Liam Neeson, but pegs the receipts at around $29 million. They also figure Selma will come in second and note that the film opened on Christmas in 22 theaters across the country and has grossed an impressive $2 million in those.

Opening This Weekend

 

Taken 3

Taken 3 is the third installment in the franchise that somehow made Liam Neeson into an action star. Maggie grace returns as Kim, Neeson’s on-screen daughter. In this final installment in the trilogy, Bryan Mills (Neeson) is accused of the murder of his wife, Lenore, played by Famke Janssen. Critics won’t be counting this as one of their favorite films of 2015 by any stretch. However, that’s not what this is about. If you enjoyed the first two Taken films, you’re likely to enjoy this one. The original film opened to $24 million back in 2009 and grossed $145 million domestically at the box office on a budget of $25 million. Taken 2 opened to $49 million in 2012 on a budget of $45 million. It did much better than the original overseas and ended up with $376 million worldwide. Neeson, now 61, reportedly is making $20 million himself for starring in Taken 3.

The Taken 3 trailer

Selma

David Oyelowo stars as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. Oyelowo first read the script seven years ago and felt him was destined to play the Civil Rights leaders. The film chronicles a march that King coordinated in 1965 to promote equal voting rights for African Americans. One aspect of Selma that is already being portrayed as a bit controversial is the way President Lyndon Johnson is portrayed. Director Ava DuVernay maintained recently that she believes the way the film paints Johnson is in line with the way journalists that covered the events portrayed him. Political historians and folks who worked in LBJ’s administration, like Joseph Califano, say that the President was a supporter of King and voting rights for African Americans.  Looking for more on the events that inspired Selma? Read this commentary from Andrew Young, who worked closely with Kind at the time.

Selma currently has a 100% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The film opens in wide release tomorrow, but is showing in select theaters like MX Movies tonight. Here are 10 things to know before seeing Selma.

The Selma trailer

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Keller 8 welcomes Interstellar this weekend. This film written and directed by Christopher Nolan is one that you probably want to see in theaters. The films features a host of big name stars like Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, John Lithgow, Matt Damon and Topher Grace. David Oyelowo, starring in Selma this weekend, also appears. It opened to $47.5 million back in November and has grossed $183 million domestically since then. Its overseas numbers have been massive and have accounted for 72.3 percent of its $660.6 million worldwide gross thus far.

 The Interstellar trailer

Make It A Redbox Night

Redbox welcomes No Good Deed and Boyhood this week. No Good Deed opened back in September with $24 million in its first weekend. It ended up with $52.5 million in total receipts in seven weeks at the box office.  Boyhood was on many 204 Year-End lists as the best film of the year. The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater and stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette. It never showed in more that 775 theaters across the country but managed to bring in $24.3 million on a $4 million budget.

Richard Linklater, may be best known for Dazed and Confused back in 1993, started shooting Boyhood back in 2002 and shot a little bit each year. Ellar Coltrane was just six when he began filming scenes as the child star of the movie. The resulting product has earned raves from critics across the country as a ground-breaking film production.

The Boyhood trailer 

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