Jurassic World Still Stomping Over the Competition
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continued its rampage in cinemas throughout the last weekend, earning almost $61 million. So far, the latest sequel in the Jurassic Park franchise grossed around $266 million worldwide, proving that people really enjoy watching angry dinosaurs destroying things and occasionally, bad guys.
Fallen Kingdom was closely followed by Incredibles 2. Pixar’s latest is still going strong: now in its third week in cinemas, Incredibles 2 nevertheless earned $46,7 million. According to Box Office Mojo, the third place of the last weekend’s box office belongs to Sicario: Day of the Soldado. This completely unnecessary and Emily Blunt-less sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 masterful thriller Sicario earned a bit over $19 million in its opening weekend. In the fourth place is a sports comedy Uncle Drew with $15,2 million. Based on a character created for a series of TV ads, Uncle Drew (played by Kyrie Irving) features basketball stars such as Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Nate Robinson and Chris Webber.Finally, in the fifth place of the last week’s weekend box office is the heist comedy Ocean 8’s with 8,3 million.
Kumail Nanjiani Joins Men the Men in Black Spin-Off
The Wrap reports that actor and stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani has joined the cast of the upcoming Men In Black sequel/spin-off. Nanjiani joins star-studded cast that already includes Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson who both starred in Thor: Ragnarok as well as Liam Neeson (Taken series). The star of the critically-acclaimed series Silicon Valley, Nanjiani was recently nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay alongside his wife Emily V. Gordon for their romantic comedy The Big Sick.
In September 2017 Sony announced its plans to film a new Men in Black movie. This caused some amount of scepticism among the fans considering the lack of involvement of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith who starred in the first three MiB movies. However, people involved with the movie – both in front and behind the camera – give some cause for optimism. Movie will be helmed by F. Gary Gray, directors of movies such as The Negotiator and The Italian Job whose entry in the Fast and Furious franchise – The Fate of the Furious – earned over a billion dollars worldwide. The script will be penned by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, a screenwriting duo who also collaborated on the first Iron Man movie. This as-yet-untitled Men in Black spin-off is set for a release in 2019.
Survey Confirms That, Yes, Netflix Really Is That Popular
According to a recent survey, streaming service Netflix is the viewing platform of choice for 27% of Americans, making it more popular not only when compared to similar services such as Youtube (17%), but more popular than basic cable (20%) and broadcast television (18%) as well. The results are even more dramatic among the 18 – 34 age group where almost 40% of those surveyed prefer to watch their video content on Netflix.
The importance of this survey can’t be overstated since this streaming giant is notoriously secretive about its viewership numbers. Variety reports that Wall Street firm Cowen & Co. surveyed 2,500 U.S. adults this spring, asking them a simple question: what platforms do they use most often to view video content on television. The results of the survey confirm the ambitious plans of this streaming giant. Last year, we reported that Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, announced plans for a release of eighty movies this year. This May, during the speech at MoffettNathanson’s Media & Communications Summit in New York, Sarandos announced plans for Netflix to stream around 1000 original movies and TV shows by the end of this year.
