Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 open in movie theaters around St. Louis this weekend. Spotlight and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens begin showing  at Keller 8, while The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, Spotlight and Daddy’s Home are among the movies now available to rent at Redbox.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice  premieres at MX Movies in downtown St. Louis tonight while My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 begins showing tomorrow. The Divergent Series: Allegiant is also playing.

Don’t pay regular price for a ticket to see one of these new releases in the theater. Sign up now for MoviePass at MoviePass.com.

Recapping Last Weekend

Zootopia easily took the weekend box office crown in its third weekend of release. Disney’s animated hit brought in another $37.2 million and brought its domestic box office take to over $200 million. Worldwide it has grossed more than $600 million.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant was second over the weekend and the #1 debut with $29 million. Fellow opener Miracles from Heaven made $14.8 million to take the third spot. 10 Cloverfield Lane ($12.5 million) and Deadpool ($8 million) closed out the top five.

What I Saw This Week

I went and saw Allegiant earlier this week. I’ve generally liked the Divergent movies so I was looking forward to this one. I’ll admit I haven’t read the books, but I was fairly disappointed in this film. Some of the scenes look terrible and the story seems to skip around too much. I would have loved for some of the longer scenes to have been cut and some of the other ones explained better. Let’s hope for a better movie in 2017 to end the franchise.

Opening This Weekend

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

From the time Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice started being promoted I’ve been at a loss trying to figure out 1) why this movie was being made and 2) how in the world could the filmmakers would make this a decent movie? The answer to the first question appears to be that this film is a bridge between 2013’s Man of Steel and Justice League: Part One, coming out next summer. The success of this film is important for the movie plan laid out by DC Comics and Warner Bros.  The answer to the second question appears to be that they couldn’t. Rob Harvilla calls it “loud, droning, incoherent and bonkers” in a review for The Concourse.

The thing is, people will turn out for this movie. Will it be enough to justify its estimated $250 million budget plus marketing expenses? That part is highly doubtful  Todd M. Thatcher predicts a debut of $166.4 million for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

2002’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding was an extremely rare kind of box office hit. FiveThirtyEight broke down just how rare its box success was, including being in theaters for four months before it had a weekend of more than $11 million.

The majority of the cast is back, 14 years later, in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. Writer and star Nia Vardalos told ABC News that she’s glad she took the time to write this sequel.

Todd M. Thatcher predicts an opening weekend of $13.1 million for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 trailer

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been in theaters for 14 weeks now and  made more than $2 billion worldwide.  Were you waiting for the crowds to die down before you saw it in theaters or do you just really have the urge to see it one more time on the big screen? This weekend is your chance as it finally makes an appearance on the screens of Keller 8 Cinema in South County.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer

Make It A Redbox Night

Spotlight is now showing at Keller 8 Cinema, but it is also being released on Redbox this weekend for your home-watching pleasure. The story of the Boston Globe team uncovering the sex scandal in the Catholic Church won an Oscar for Best Picture and another for Best Original Screenplay.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Daddy’s Home are also new to the magical red boxes this week.

Spotlight trailer

Entertainment News

Concerned Student 1950 Documentary Begins Streaming Online

The Concerned Student 1950 documentary made by Adam Dietrich, Varun Bajaj and Kellan Marvin is now streaming for free on The Intercept_. The documentary premiered at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri. The documentary goes behind the scenes of the student-led protests in 2015 at the University of Missouri-Columbia that led to the resignation of the university president.

Hulk Hogan Wants To Return To WWE

Now that Terry Bollea is theoretically $140 million dollars richer after the jury’s verdict in his case against Nick Denton and Gawker Media, he hopes to one day return to the WWE and his alter ego, Hulk Hogan. Bollea was fired from the WWE for racist language he used in a leaked video. He says maintains he is not racist.

LEGO Batman Movie Batcave Teaser Trailer

Will Arnett, Rosario Dawson and Ralph Fiennes are among the actors and actresses lending their voices to the characters in The LEGO Batman Movie. It’s in theaters on February 10, 2016. Watch the teaser trailer below.

LEGO Batman Movie Batcave Teaser Trailer

 

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