Hello everyone,
Today’s post is dedicated to Chuck Norris and Valerie Perrine. Chuck Norris passed away a few days ago. He was one of the original action heroes along with Bruce Lee (before Van Damme, Stallone, and Schwarzenegger). Valerie Perrine was probably best known as “Ms. Tessmacher” with Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor is “Superman” (1978). RIP to both.
BOX OFFICE: “Project Hail Mary” was #1 this past weekend with $80 million. It didn’t hit the $100 million predicted by some before it opened but it is the highest domestic opening weekend of 2026 so far and the best non-sequel/non-prequel/non-spinoff movie opening in March ever. “Hoppers” was #2 way behind with $17 million ( “Project Hail Mary” made more than that in 1 day). The new movie from India “Dhurandhar The Revenge” was #3 with $10 million and the horror sequel “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” was #4 with $9 million.
The total domestic box office was also the highest of 2026 so far with $140 million which is up 67% over the previous weekend.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: Worldwide box office “Project Hail Mary” was also the best worldwide opening of 2026 so far with $141 million. There’s only 2 other movies that made over $50 million worldwide post COVID (not including sequels/prequels/spinoff/reboot movies) – “Oppenheimer” and “F1”.
OTHER NEWS:
Universal Pictures recently announced that they’re extending their exclusive theatrical window to 5 weekends this year and 45 day (7 weekends) windows in 2027. Going back to what they were doing for some releases pre-COVID.
According to some sources, the new “prediction market” websites (another version of gambling) saw over $120 million bets placed on the Oscar winners a little over a week ago. That is probably one of the reasons why the “Kalshi” prediction website has been temporarily banned in Nevada starting late last week. Full disclosure: I put a little money down on the top 5 Oscar winners (Picture and the 4 acting categories) – taking the favorite for each – and I won a little bit of money because the odds of some nominees were very low (for the best actress winner – if you bet $90 you won $10).
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR: There have been a lot of Chuck Norris jokes over the years….
They added a couple more after he died.
- Chuck Norris died yesterday but he’s feeling better today.
- They told Chuck Norris he died yesterday. Today they apologized to him.
Too bad they aren’t true. RIP – to Valerie Perrine too.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 