Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: Partly thanks to the Super Bowl, this weeks domestic box office was the lowest of 2025 so far. “Dog Man” was #1 again with $13 million – down almost two thirds from the previous weekend. The new movies “Heart Eyes” and “Love Hurts” opened at #2 and #3. The horror/comedy “Heart Eyes” only made $8.3 million, and the action/comedy “Love Hurts” made $5.8 million.
Overall, the total domestic box office was just under $53.9 million which is down almost 37% from the previous weekend but up approx. 45% from the same weekend last year. Hopefully, the upcoming holiday weekend where “Paddington in Peru” and “Captain America: Brave New World” opens domestically will give the domestic box office a huge boost.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: Internationally, the big news over the past weekend was the Chinese movie “Ne Zha 2” which passed $1 BILLION at the CHINA BOX OFFICE ONLY. It’s the first movie to make over a billion in China alone. That movie is also one of the first non-American movies to pass $1 BILLION at the box office. Meanwhile, for American movies, “Mufasa The Lion King” is still doing strong approaching a worldwide gross of $675 million. “Paddington in Peru” is past $100 million worldwide before opening domestically and in several other foreign countries this weekend.
AWARD NEWS: A few awards which were postponed due to the L.A fires happened this weekend.
Critics’ Choice Awards Winners:
BEST PICTURE: Anora
BEST ACTOR: Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)
BEST ACTRESS: Demi Moore (The Substance)
BEST DIRECTOR: Jon M Chu (Wicked)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Coralie Fargeat (The Substance)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Peter Straughan (Conclave)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE: Emilia Perez
Producers Guild Awards:
BEST PICTURE: Anora
BEST ANIMATED MOVIE: The Wild Robot
Directors Guild Awards:
BEST PICTURE DIRECTOR: Sean Baker – Anora
BEST FIRST TIME DIRECTOR: Ramell Ross – Nickel Boys
(so it looks like “Anora” is the frontrunner for Academy Awards best picture)
OTHER NEWS:
Another movie theater is finally reopening in the Los Angeles area. This time it’s the former Arclight Beach Cities (south of L.A.X.) now run by CinemaWest. It officially opens this coming weekend. The lobby will have a Pinks Hot Dog restaurant with a bar (I believe it’s the first Pinks that sells alcohol).
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
If you look up the best FOOTBALL MOVIES of all time this is the top 3…..
#1 and #3 are documentaries and #2 I wouldn’t call a “football movie”. It’s about a former football player who dies before it’s his time to die so he goes back to earth as a billionaire. There’s hardly any football in the movie. How is this a “football movie”? Also, #4 is “Jerry Maguire” – which is about an agent more than about football. I wouldn’t call any of the top 4 “football movies”.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 