Aquaman Still Reigns Over the Box Office
According to the Box Office Mojo, last weekend of 2018 brought no new surprises in cinemas. The list of the top five highest grossing movies remained virtually unchanged from the weekend before.
Aquaman is still going strong. Directed by James Wan, best known for horror movies such as Insidious, The Conjuring and the Saw franchise, the latest DCEU superhero blockbuster earned $52,1 million in cinemas, thus keeping the first place in the weekend box office. Mary Poppins Returns is once again in the second place. This musical fantasy directed by Rob Marshall (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) grossed a bit over $28,3 million in its second weekend. Bumblebee kept the third place by grossing $20,9 million. Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings), this Transformers prequel/soft reboot received mostly positive reviews. In the fourth place is once again the much-hyped 3D animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with $18,8 million. Finally, in the fifth place of the weekend box office list, we find once again sole non-superhero non-blockbuster: Clint Eastwood’s crime drama The Mule. Based on the true life story of a 90-year-old WWII veteran who took on smuggling drugs, The Mule grossed $12,1 million in its third week in cinemas.
Mysteries of Spider-Man’s Mysterio Unveiled
When Columbia Pictures released the first synopsis for the upcoming superhero movie Spider-Man: Far From Home, fans of the Web-slinger were surprised to learn that comic-book supervillain Mysterio (played in the movie by Jake Gyllenhaal – Source Code) won’t actually be a villain. Additionally, a recent issue of Empire Magazine published a concept art sketch of Mysterio’s costume in the upcoming film.
In a recent interview with Collider, Gyllenhaal revealed some of the mysteries of Mysterio. According to him, Mysterio – aka Quentin Beck – will be recruited by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) along with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to fight against immortal extra-dimensional beings known as the Elementals.
Released in 2017, Marvel and Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man: Homecoming was a massively successful blockbuster, earning almost $900 million worldwide on a $175 million budget. And even though Spider-Man got Thanosed at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, no one in their right mind thought for a moment that the studio would just give up on such a juicy superhero property. Apparently, Spider-Man: Far From Home takes place in the aftermath of the upcoming Avengers: Endgame as Peter Parker goes on a trip around Europe. Most of the actors from Spider-Man: Homecoming will reprise their performances, including Jon Favreau (Iron Man), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Marisa Tomei (The First Purge) and Zendaya (The Greatest Showman).
Spider-Man: Far From Home is set for a release on July 5, 2019.
Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray to Join Zombieland 2?
GeekWorldWide reports that Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray have reportedly joined the cast of the upcoming zombie horror comedy Zombieland 2. While not much is known about their roles in the upcoming film, the famous comedians behind the original 1984 Ghostbusters film will supposedly play heavily fictionalized versions of themselves.
Speculations about the possible Zombieland sequel have been circulating for years. Originally envisioned as a TV show, Zombieland was released in cinemas by Columbia Pictures in September 2009. The movie became an unexpected hit, earning over $100 million worldwide on a $23,6 million budget. This success worked well for Zombieland’s creators: its director Ruben Fleischer went on to direct this year’s superhero blockbuster Venom, while screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote both Deadpool movies. As we already reported back in July, not only will Zombieland’s director and writers return to work on a sequel but the original cast is on board as well. Abigail Breslin (Scream Queens), Jesse Eisenberg (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Woody Harrelson (True Detective) and Emma Stone (Maniac) are all set to reprise their roles from the original film.
