Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: The big hit of this past weekend is “Red One” which barely met it’s predicted box office with $32 million. Everything else basically just went down 1 spot. “Venom The Last Dance” went down to #2 with $7.3 million, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and “Heretic” continued to run neck and neck both going down about 51% from last weekend. “The Best Christmas Pageant” made $5.25 million and “Heretic” made $5.16 million. The only other new release in the top 10 was the independent release “Hello, Love, Again” which was #8 with $2.3 million.
Overall, the total domestic box office was pretty much the same as thew previous week going up just 1.7% to make almost $70 million. However, compared to last year when 3 new movies opened – “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” ($44 million), “Trolls Band Together” ($30 million), and “Thanksgiving” ($10 million) – were released this weekend was about 40% less than a year ago. However, a year ago Thanksgiving week was this week. This year it’s NEXT WEEK so the big movies that opened for Thanksgiving last year will be opening this weekend.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “Gladiator 2” – which opens in the US NEXT weekend – opened in several foreign countries and made a staggering $87 million to win the foreign box office this weekend. Its worldwide total is ALREADY higher than “Red One” which made $14 million internationally this past weekend for an international total of about $50 million (it opened in some foreign countries a week ago) for a worldwide total of $83 million. “Paddington in Peru” is still going pretty strong in the UK making a total of $23.7 million which makes it the #9 movie released in the UK so far this year.
OTHER NEWS: A few days ago, it was announced that Simon Kinberg will be working on the CONTINUING “Skywalker Saga” (Episode 10-12 I guess) but a few days ago Disney announced that the next movie will NOT be coming out in 2 years. An untitled Star Wars movie was removed from the Dec 18, 2026 date and replaced with “Ice Age 6” – another franchise inherited from Fox.
They announced that Conan O’Brien with be the host of the Academy Awards which will air on March 2, 2025.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
Continuing with last weeks “movie mistakes”….
There’s a FAKE movie mistake from the first “Gladiator” movie that you can see a plane in the sky in one scene but there are quite a few REAL mistakes in the movie like this one. Apparently, the person lying down for the full shot (not sure if it was Russell Crowe or a stand-in) got a little tired so for a couple shots you can see a “pillow” of sand holding his head up.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 