Incredibles 2 Delivers an Incredible Opening Weekend
It has been more than a decade since Pixar’s animated action adventure The Incredibles thrilled and delighted the audiences all around the planet. 13 years later, Incredibles 2 aims to do the same. Brad Bird’s sequel to his own animated film about a family of superheroes opened last week and, according to Box Office Mojo, earned over $182,6 million at the domestic box office. Apparently, nobody can withstand the charms of the superheroic Parr family.
In the second place of the last weekend’s box office is Ocean’s 8. A heist movie featuring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Rihanna earned $18,9 million in its second weekend in cinemas. In the third place with $14,9 million is the comedy Tag about a group of grownups – played by Hannibal Buress (Broad City), Jake Johnson (Jurassic World), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Ed Helms (Hangover trilogy) and Jeremy Renner (Avengers) – who each year engage in a month-long game of tag. Now in its fourth week in cinemas, Solo: A Star Wars Story has dropped to the fourth place with $10 million while in the fifth place is the superhero action comedy Deadpool 2 with $8,8 million.
Standalone Star Wars Spinoffs On Hold?
It is a dark time for spinoffs in the Star Wars galaxy. Collider reports rumors that the executives at LucasFilm are thinking of ditching standalone Star Wars movies and focusing instead on J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX as well as on the next Star Wars trilogy that will be helmed by Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi.
The main reason for the studio’s doubts about the Star Wars extended cinematic universe is the relative failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Now, the latest entry in the franchise did well at the box office, earning over $340 million worldwide. However, for the studio that expected a financial success along the lines of The Last Jedi or at least at the level of Rogue One, Solo proved out a disappointment.
While all of this isn’t exactly unexpected, it is sudden. After all, it was just a couple of weeks ago that we reported how the studio is trying to get James Mangold, director of Logan, to make a Boba Fett movie. And then there’s the rumored Star Wars movie project about the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi set in-between the events of the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. The fate of both these projects is as yet unknown.
Star Trek: Discovery Facing Showrunner Troubles… Again
Recently, Variety reported that Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg, showrunners of Star Trek: Discovery, decided to leave the series in the middle of the filming of its upcoming second season. While the reasons for their decision aren’t exactly clear, Variety cites building tensions in the writers’ room – apparently, a problem that plagues the show for a while now. Showrunner duties will be taken on by the show’s executive producer and co-creator Alex Kurtzman, who previously worked on J. J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek movie reboot as well as on its 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness. Kurtzman also directed The Mummy in 2017 that pretty much tanked Universal’s Dark Universe.
This isn’t the first time showrunners left the set of Star Trek: Discovery. Its first showrunner Bryan Fuller also left the show. However, this wasn’t all that surprising considering that Fuller also similarly left the production of several other shows, such as American Gods. On the other hand, AV Club reports that Kurtzman just signed the five-year deal with CBS to help the network produce several other Star Trek shows, including both live-action and animated TV shows as well as a new mini-series project. Not much is known about any of these projects but, judging from Kurtzman’s previous Star Trek work, it will be grim and gritty. You know, like Star Trek.
