Pixels, Southpaw, Paper Towns and The Vatican Tapes open in theaters nation-wide this weekend. You can see Southpaw tonight at MX Movies in downtown St. Louis.

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Recapping Last Weekend

The enjoyable Ant-Man easily topped the weekend box office with $57.2 million in its debut. Minions had a strong second weekend with $49.3 million while the hilariously awesome Trainwreck pulled in $30.1 million in its debut. Inside Out made $11.5 million in its fifth weekend of release and Jurassic World closed out the top five about $90,000 behind in its sixth weekend.

It took Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, LeBron James, John Cena, Judd Apatow and the rest of the Trainwreck crew less that five full days of release to top its budget of $35 million.

Jurassic World has now topped $1.5 billion worldwide and ranks as the fourth highest-grossing movie worldwide ever.

Pixels

People all over seem to love to hate Adam Sandler these days. I will admit that I thought his last film, the straight-to-video The Cobbler. was terrible but I was a fan of Blended. Will Leitch writes on Deadspin that Pixels is “Adam Sandler’s laziest movie yet“.

Chris Columbus directs Pixels, which he says gave him a chance to somewhat get back to his roots. The films also stars Kevin James, another favorite of the critics, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad. Dan Aykroyd also appears as a 1982 video game champion brought in to give Sandler and his team advice.

In case you didn’t know, Pixels is based on a 2010 short film of the same name. While movie critics aren’t early fans of the movie, there are still plenty of people out there waiting to buy tickets. The trailer was reportedly viewed 34 million times in its first day of release. ScreenRant is predicting a $34 million opening weekend for Pixels.

Southpaw

Jake Gyllenhaal reportedly did 2,00 sit ups and six hours of additional training per day preparing to star as a boxer in Southpaw. He put on 15 pounds of muscle after gaining back the 30 he had lost for Nightcrawler. The New York Daily News says the film, which also stars Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, doesn’t always deliver with its abundance of boxing cliches. Critic Tony Hicks focused on the stellar performances from Gyllenhaal, Whitaker and OOna Laurence in his review of the film.  Critic Steve Persall says the film “packs a violent and emotional punch“.

See Southpaw tonight at MX Movies in downtown St. Louis. The film is expected to open with around $13 million. While that may sound low, The Weinstein Co. movie reportedly only had a budget of $30 million.

Paper Towns

Paper Towns is the second film based on a John Green novel. The first, last year’s The Fault In Our Stars, opened to the tune of $48 million and went on to make $307 million worldwide on a $12 million budget. The prevailing opinion is that this film won’t reach the heights of that film due to the absence of a star like Shailene Woodley.  Nat Wolff moves from an acclaimed supporting role in Stars to the male lead here. Before his recent movie roles, Wolff was known for starring in The Naked Brothers Band on Nickelodeon along with his younger brother, Alex. The brothers have also released a number of albums together.

Cara Delevingne plays the female lead, Margo Roth Spiegelman. The pair had quite the time filming the movie, including arguing over who was worse behind the wheel. Wolff likened filming the movie to summer camp.

The same production team is behind this film, including screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber.  The writers recently talked to The Wrap about working with Green to “pare back on the darkness” of the book to adapt it to the big screen.

St. Louis’s own Karlie Kloss attended the Paper Towns premiere to support supermodel friend Delevingne. She brought along younger sister Kimberly and talk of the pair on the red carpet is currently burning up the internet.

Variety predicts Paper Towns will pull in about $20 million this weekend.

The Vatican Tapes

Are you craving a good scare in the movie theater? The Vatican Tapes is here to fulfill that craving.

The Vatican Tapes only plays in one theater in the St. Louis area this weekend. Wherenberg Ronnies 20 Cine in South County has a full slate of showings all weekend.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Insidious: Chapter 3 hits Keller 8 in South County this week.

Make It A Redbox Night

Redbox welcomes a host of movies this week that you probably haven’t heard of. Wild Horses, What We Do In The Shadows and Pound Of Flesh with Jean-Claude Van Damme are all now available. Wild Horses stars Robert Duvall, James Franco and Josh Hartnett. It was written and directed by Duvall.

In Other Movie News

Tom Cruise Is Getting Cozy With His Assistant

Reports are saying that 53-year old Tom Cruise is becoming quite enamored with his 22-year old assistant Emily Thomas. The Daily Mail is claiming that Cruise is close to proposing to Thomas.

One Step Closer To Space Jam 2 With LeBron James?

The internet was buzzing yesterday when news spread that LeBron James’s SpringHill Entertainment will be partnering with Warner Bros. Entertainment. A Space Jam remake has been rumored for years now. Could we be one step closer? It’s highly likely although no official word has come out.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 “We March Together’ Trailer

 

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