Black Panther Continues to Reign Supreme
Five weeks after it arrived in cinemas, Black Panther still dominates the weekend box office, reports Box Office Mojo. By earning $26.6 million domestically last weekend, gross totals for the Marvel’s latest superhero behemoth about the superhero T’Challa/Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman – Marshall) reached almost $600 million.
In the second place of the last weekend’s box office is the action adventure film Tomb Raider. Heavily inspired by the 2013 reboot of the popular video game franchise, Tomb Raider restarts the movie franchise started over a decade ago by focusing on the first adventure of the young Lara Croft (played by Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina) as she finds herself shipwrecked on a cursed island in the Devil’s Sea, fighting for survival. Featuring Walton Goggins (TV show Justified), Dominic West (300) and Daniel Wu (Geostorm), Tomb Raider grossed $23.6 million in its first weekend. In the third place with $17.1 million is the Christian biopic I Can Only Imagine. Fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time earned $16.2 million in its second weekend in cinemas and dropped from the second to the fourth place. Finally, in the fifth place of the weekend box office is the young adult comedy-drama Love, Simon with $11.7 million.
Avengers: Infinity Wars Breaks Pre-Sales Records
Variety reports that Avengers: Infinity Wars broke Fandango’s record for the best-selling superhero movie tickets in only six hours, surpassing the success of the top two previous record holders: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Black Panther. Meanwhile, online ticket seller Atom Tickets reports that Avengers: Infinity Wars sold more tickets in its first day of pre-sale than Black Panther sold in the entire first month.
Expectations are high for what will be the biggest crossover film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Most of the characters from earlier Avengers movies will appear along with the characters from James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as the newcomers like Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and Tessa Thompson (Thor: Ragnarok). Avengers: Infinity Wars will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo who previously made Captain America: Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. However, in an exclusive interview with Fandango, Joe Russo explained how he sees this film as a Thanos film first, which is certainly an interesting perspective. Avengers: Infinity Wars, as well as its belligerent purple super villain, arrive in cinemas on April 27th.
Ava DuVernay to Direct Jack Kirby’s New Gods
Ava DuVernay, director of the recent young adult fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time, has been approached by the Warner Bros studio and DC to direct a big-budget adaptation of Jack Kirby’s New Gods comic book, says Deadline. The studio has also hired the veteran actor and screenwriter Kario Salem to help DuVernay shape the movie that will most probably be a standalone superhero story unrelated to earlier DCEU movies.
First comic book created and designed by Jack Kirby after he left Marvel for DC, New Gods follows the titanic conflict of the gods created after Old Gods perished in Ragnarok. Featuring superheroes like Big Barda and Mister Miracle as well as villains such as Darkseid and Granny Goodness, New Gods was first published in 1971 as a standalone story that was only later integrated into the larger DC Comics universe.
Producer, screenwriter and director Ava DuVernay has, so far, been nominated two times for an Academy Award. Her biopic Selma was nominated for the Best Film in 2015 and in 2017 she was once again nominated for an Academy Award for her documentary 13th. If the New Gods project comes through, it will become the second blockbuster film helmed by DuVernay.
