Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: “A Minecraft Movie” continues to rule the box office making $78.5 million on its second weekend which is down approx. 52% from it’s opening weekend. It has now reached almost $300 million – $278 million to be exact – in just 9 days to become the #1 movie at the domestic box office for 2025 so far. The religious animated movie “The King of Kings” did a pretty impressive $19 million for #2. The other two wide openings didn’t do so well with 20th Century Studios “The Amateur” making just under $15 million for #3, the A24 movie “Warfare”made $8.3 million for 4th, and the Universal movie “Drop” made $7.3 million for 5th.
Audiences seem to be slowly losing interest for “The Chosen Last Supper” movies. Part 3 came out this past weekend and made $6 million which is slightly less than part 2 opening ($6.9 million) and they both were less than the part 1 opening ($11.8 million).
The overall domestic box office dropped approx. 27% to $148 million.
Another bit of domestic box office news is that some theaters kicking out some teenagers and other theaters not letting children into the movie without an adult – although the movie is rated PG. This is because some teenagers are participating in some TikTok games and messing up or even damaging movie theaters. Jack Black, one of the stars of the movie, made a surprise appearance at some movie theaters this past weekend and asked that people don’t throw their popcorn around. Other theaters are taking a different look at the issue and scheduling special screenings for the people that want to do the TikTok challenge “chicken jockeys”.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: “A Minecraft Movie” is also dominating most international movie theaters. It’s worldwide total is now slightly over $550 million (second to “Ne Zha 2” on the worldwide box office for 2025). Also, the new movie “The Amateur” is doing about as well internationally as it is domestically. It made $17.2 million internationally for a global total of $32 million.
Unfortunately, the current trade wars will soon be hurting the box office for US movies in China. China recently announced that there will be less US movies playing in China and – if the trade wars keep up – in a few weeks there could be NO MORE American movies playing in country that has the most movie theaters (China passed the US a few years ago). It’s already affecting the China box office with “A Minecraft Movie” sinking to #2 on the China box office and a Chinese movie “We Girls” taking over the #1 spot.
OTHER NEWS:
The Academy Award for stunt people that people have been asking about for DECADES (when Russell Crowe won his Academy Award for “Gladiator” he recommended adding one) will FINALLY HAPPEN…in 2 years. The Academy announced that starting with the 2027 Academy Awards (at the start of 2028) there will be an additional Academy Award for “stunt design”.
According to a recent story, the famous Cinerama Dome in Hollywood will not be reopening anytime soon. According to previous reports, the movie theater that has been seen in several movies and TV shows would re-open sometime this year but according to a recent story, the remodeling has been paused or delayed.
I mentioned last week that “Wizard of Oz” will be shown on the giant MSG Sphere in Las Vegas starting in a few months. More news about it says they will use AI and “advanced computing” to make the picture of the movie MUCH MUCH bigger. Like how they added a lot more sky in the photo on the outside of the MSG Sphere below.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
Someone PLEASE explain this to me….
At a convention this past weekend, 5 actors in their late 50s or 60s got together for the first time since the movie was released to talk about a movie they made 40 years ago when they played teenagers (although 3 of the 5 were in their 20s when they filmed the movie). If you’re under 30 you may not know when they are. From left to right that’s Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and the host of the discussion Josh Hororwitz. I really wish I knew why people go crazy for an actor or actors who were in a movie made SEVERAL DECADES AGO. Other actors like William Shatner attend discussions of movies or TV shows made OVER 50 YEARS AGO. Is it nostalgia or do the actors just need more money (some of those actors aren’t acting much these days).
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 