Jacob Hall
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and More Battle It Out
Although you'd think people would spend the holidays in their homes catching up with their families and what-not, they actually tend to go to the movies after opening gifts and having awkward conversations. And Christmas Day moviegoers had a bunch of options this week, with recent releases (and not-so-recent releases) still going strong and a whole bunch of new releases arriving to coincide with the holiday.
[
New ‘The Monuments Men’ Trailer: Support the War Effort!
'The Monuments Men' was one of our most anticipated movies of 2013, so when it got bumped to next year, it immediately became one of our most anticipated movies of 2014. Although the schedule change has moved it out of potential awards contention, the marketing train has kept on rolling and the latest trailer takes a slightly more unique approach than the others, stylizing itself as a period-appropriate newsreel.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Anchorman 2′ Can’t Quite Catch ‘The Hobbit’
The return of Ron Burgundy and his news team has been positioned as a big, huge deal. 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues' has been marketed more than any major release this month and everyone just assumed that the film would effortlessly snag massive box office numbers thanks purely to saturation (on top of the fact that the original is quite beloved). So it must sting a little for Paramount to see the film open in second place and it must sting even more once they compare the opening numbers to the opening of the first film from 2004.
[
The Ladies of ‘SNL’ Say “Let’s Do It on My Twin Bed”
It's a situation that virtually every couple with a healthy, long term relationship has faced. You and your loved one go home to visit the family and find yourself forced to sleep in your childhood room, most likely on the tiny twin bed that was barely tolerable when you were half your current size. Since this is a 'SNL' sketch, this predicament takes the form of music video, where the ladies of the show invite their men for some sexy time on a bed that has no business being the location of an, uh, adult encounter.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Rises to the Top
If it's set in Middle Earth, it's going to open at number one. That's common knowledge. The big question is always how big or how small it's going to open at number one. 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' did open at number one this weekend, but it's a number that's going to feel controversial for people who like to bicker about box office numbers. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it disappointing? Honestly, you could make a case for all of those.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Frozen’ Heats Up, ‘Catching Fire’ Cools Down and ‘Out of the Furnace’ Freezes
The weekend following a major holiday is always a little slow. The boost from vacationing moviegoers is gone, so everyone tends to take a major dip. Some films end up okay. Some die on the vine. This weekend saw two films weather the storm perfectly fine and one new release collapse on the starting line.
[
‘SNL’: The Cast of ‘Anchorman 2′ and One Direction Sing “Afternoon Delight”
Paul Rudd - Monologue (1 Direction & Cast of... by IdolxMuzic
When someone guest hosts 'SNL,' it's usually because they have something to promote. Even the great Paul Rudd doesn't host the show for no reason. The man has 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues' coming out soon and he's got to keep the promotional train a'moving. Call this week's opening monologue a commercial if you want, but man, it's one heck of a commercial. Anything that lets us see Ron Burgundy's news team reunite to perform "Afternoon Delight" is worth the effort. Oh, and there's also that band One Direction because the kids like 'em.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ and ‘Frozen’ Heat Up the Box Office
In one of the biggest holiday weekends of all time, the combined might of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'Frozen' proved that yes, ladies can star in major blockbuster movies. We'll see if this lesson sticks (it won't), but between those two and the surprisingly female-friendly 'Thor: The Dark World,' this was a great weekend if you were looking for quality family entertainment that didn't treat its woman characters like crap.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Lights the Box Office on, Well, You Know
Everyone knew that 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' was going to do well this weekend, but the lingering question was always whether or not it was going to do "really, really well" or "stupidly, gobsmackingly well." We should know by now that you always bet on Katniss Everdeen defying the odds, because it was the latter and everyone made it look easy.
[
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Best Man Holiday’ Stands Toe-to-Toe With ‘Thor: The Dark World’
If there's one thing that we're reminded of a few times a year here at the Weekend Box Office Report, it's that films targeted at black audiences are always ignored by many mainstream movie websites ... until they open huge at the box office. 'The Best Man Holiday' is the latest film to prove that there's an entire group of moviegoers who aren't being given the films they obviously want to see, and hopefully its success will spur Hollywood into action, allowing for the production of more movies with black casts and filmmakers. Maybe. This is Hollywood, after all.