by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of January 28-30, 2022
5. The King’s Man ($1.6 million)
4. Redeeming Love ($1.7 million)
3. Sing 2 ($4.6 million)
2. Scream ($7.2 million)
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home ($11 million)
This past weekend marked the seventh weekend of release for “Spider-Man: No Way Home”; it was by far its least profitable weekend yet, raking in only $11 million. This is a 21% decrease from earlier, and is most likely due to the nor’easter that smacked the east coast, knocking out power for thousands, in addition to increasing restrictions due to the Omicron variant. To date, the latest installment in the “Spider-Man” films has grossed $1 billion overseas, making for a grand total of $1.7 billion. The total revenue makes “No Way Home” the 6th highest grossing film of all time, behind “Avengers: Infinity War” ($2 billion) and right in front of “Jurassic World” ($1.6 billion).
by Emily Nagle
Jason Momoa is in final negotiations to join the cast for the tenth installment in the “Fast and Furious” film series.
The “Aquaman” star would star alongside Vin Diesel‘s character Dominic Toretto, as well as Diesel’s costars Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Charlize Theron, Ludacris, and Sung Kang.
Since the action film series began in 2001, “Fast and Furious” has recruited big names including Gal Gadot, John Cena, and Helen Mirren. Diesel tried to get Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to return to the series as agent Lucas Hobbs after taking a break during the most recent film, but Johnson turned down the invitation privately, as well as publicly on social media. It is unknown what kind of role Momoa’s character would play in the film due to the script still being in production.
In an interview with Variety, director Justin Lin and Diesel explained that they are still brainstorming storylines for the upcoming “Fast” films.
“We’ve been talking a lot about Mrs. Toretto, from the very beginning of [me] coming back for ‘F9,'” Lin explained of the series’ future. “So, I feel like there’s gonna be a time and place to be able to reveal that.”
Directed by Justin Lin, “Fast and Furious 10”, as it is tentatively called, is set to begin production this spring and speed into theaters in summer 2023. It is the penultimate film in the series, with an 11th movie planned to be the final one.
by Emily Nagle
In preparation for the launch of HBO Max in Asia, WarnerMedia has hired three new senior content execs based out of Singapore and India.
From Singapore, Mark Francis has climbed aboard WarnerMedia as Group Lead of Production and Development, while Wee Shi Ming is now Lead of Entertainment Content Acquisition for North Asia. Francis and Shi Ming will report to Magdalene Ew, WarnerMedia’s Head of Content & Entertainment for Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Francis boasts nearly 2 decades of production experience. He joins WarnerMedia from Astro, where he was the head of OTT content; he was also the chief content officer at the now-defunct South Asian streamer Iflix. Francis’ other experience include the Asian divisions of National Geographic, Fox, and Discovery. His new position at WarnerMedia will involve developing original content exclusive to HBO Max Asia.
Wee Shi Ming has experience at Viu and Sony Television Networks; she was the head of acquisition and programming for Asian content at the latter. She will work alongside Katheryn Lim, who leads content acquisition for international and English-language entertainment titles at HBO Asia.
In Mumbai, Saugata Mukherjee has been appointed as Head of Content & Entertainment for India. He was previously head of original content at Sony Pictures Networks India, and has also worked at Hotstar and Star TV Network. He will report to Clement Schwebig, Managing Director of India, Southeast Asia & Korea.
Schwebig described of the new hires, “These are vital roles as we look to ramp up our original content and programming ambitions in this region. Saugata, Mark and Shi Ming have a great eye for a winning project and have enviable connections within the industry.”
HBO Asia has been bolstering their production teams over the past several months to prepare for the eventual launch of HBO Max, which does not yet have an official launch date. In September, Audrey Wee was hired as the physical production lead for regional entertainment content in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Earlier this month, Jason Monteiro was announced to oversee HBO Max when it launches; currently, Monteiro is overseeing interim streamer HBO Go, which is available in eight different markets of the region.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of April 9-11
5. The King’s Man ($1.8 million)
4. Redeeming Love ($3.5 million)
3. Sing 2 ($5.7 million)
2. Scream ($12.2 million)
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home ($14 million)
After being beat out last weekend by “Scream”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” climbed back up to number one. Its $14 million gross was a 30% decrease compared to the long weekend, and to date it has made $720.9 million since its release 6 weeks ago.
“Scream” came in fairly close to number one, not trailing far behind “No Way Home”. Its box office performance this weekend was a 59% decrease compared to its opening last weekend, and to date it has made $51 million in theaters. The previous installment in the slasher film series, “Scream 4”, only made $97 million due to mixed reviews from critics; “Scream” already seems to be more promising, with amazing reviews from critics who described the film as honoring the late Wes Craven’s legacy.
“Redeeming Love” released this weekend, and broke into the top 5 with $3.5 million. The movie is based on Francine Rivers’ novel of the same name; Rivers co-wrote the screenplay with director DJ Caruso, which is set in 1850s California and follows Angel (Abigail Cowen), who only knows suffering after being sold into prostitution as a child, but finds healing when she falls in love with Michael Hosea (Tom Lewis). Even though it made the number-four spot this weekend, reviews from critics were mostly unfavorable, with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7/10 on IMDb, and A.A. Dowd of AV Club called the story an “icky power imbalance”.
by Emily Nagle
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With the release of his first feature-length film “Eighth Grade” in 2018, followed by his Emmy-winning special “Inside” on Netflix last summer, comedian Bo Burnham‘s fanbase has only been growing over the years. Even still, the comedian-turned-writer/director’s first go at creating a television series is much lesser known.
“Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous” aired briefly on MTV in summer 2013, getting cancelled after a single season. After such a short run, episodes of the show were difficult to find online – luckily, Netflix added all 12 episodes of the series to their platform just in time for the holidays, allowing the previously unpopular show to find a whole new audience nearly a decade after its television debut. Twitter users have written that the show makes them laugh out loud, and have even expressed that they would love to see a second season!
The show focuses on Zach Stone (Bo Burnham), a new high school graduate who dreams of becoming famous. Zach is so dedicated to making this dream a reality that instead of attending college like his peers, he has saved up money from his grocery store job to hire a camera crew to follow him around everywhere to document his rise to stardom, much to the annoyance of his brother Andy (Cameron Palatas), mother (Kari Coleman), and father Andrew (Tom Wilson). But here’s the thing…Zach doesn’t exactly know what he’s going to become famous for. “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous” takes viewers on a wild ride as the idealistic teen tries various activities to rise to stardom. Zach’s stunts include recording ringtones, pretending to go missing, and even filming his first date with Christy (Shelley Hennig), the hottest girl from his high school.
I found the format of this show to be creative and fun! Long before he got into television, Bo posted musical comedy videos to YouTube in the early 2000s, and “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous” isn’t short of catchy songs. Each episode has a unique, super goofy opening sequence featuring Zach singing about his latest plan to get noticed. As someone who has several of Bo’s albums saved on Spotify, I wholeheartedly approve. As for the visual style, this series is shot as a mockumentary, like “The Office”. The difference is that the crew members actually show up in the episodes, as they’re dragged along for Zach’s shenanigans – for example, when he attends his first college party, he initially makes them remain in the car for a few hours.
“Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous” isn’t my favorite show of all time, but it’s not totally awful. Burnham wrote this show to serve as a criticism of young people at the time, specifically how they idealize fame. Still, at times it felt a little too in-your-face. Zach is kind of an ass towards his friends Greg (Armen Weitzman) and Amy (Caitlin Gerard) at times, and it took me a while to figure out that it’s supposed to be riffing on young people’s preoccupation with getting famous. Maybe the reason why I didn’t fall in love with it was because as much as I love Bo Burnham, I’m not much of a reality TV watcher. Upon finding this out, though, I liked the idea that the show was spoofing most of the content that aired on MTV at the time. The only other show I can think of that pokes fun at reality shows in a similar way is “Total Drama Island”.
Because there aren’t that many episodes, and they’re all fairly short – each is about 20 minutes long – it’s good for binge-watching. Personally, I watched this entire show over a weekend after getting my COVID booster shot, because my whole body ached for days and I didn’t feel up to doing much. I recommend “Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous” to anyone who likes to watch reality TV shows to poke fun at them, and/or is a fan of Bo Burnham!
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for MLK Day Weekend 2022
5. The King’s Man ($2.6 million)
4. The 355 ($2.7 million)
3. Sing 2 ($10.3 million)
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home ($24.6 million)
1. Scream ($33.8 million)
For the first time in its 5 weeks in theaters, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” didn’t make the number-one spot for highest grossing films. It was dethroned by “Scream”, the fifth installment in the popular slasher film franchise. Also unofficially referred as “Scream 5” by fans, “Scream” serves as a sequel to “Scream 4” (2011), with many original cast members – including Neve Campbell as protagonist Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox as journalist Gale Weathers – reprising their roles. Newcomers to the series include Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, and Jack Quaid. The first installment in the series since 2011, “Scream” is set 21 years after the events of the first movie, and a new killer is behind the mask targeting a group of Woodsboro teenagers. Some critics have called it the best “Scream” movie yet, praising it for maintaining the meta commentary on horror films that its predecessors had; Cass Clarke of CBR even wrote that “2022’s Scream would make the late Wes Craven incredibly proud.” “Scream” was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, making it the first film in the series to not be directed by Wes Craven.
Although “Spider-Man: No Way Home” wasn’t at number one this weekend, it is continuing to rake in some serious money a month after its release. It made more than $20 million over the extended MLK Day weekend, making it the seventh-highest-grossing fifth weekend for a film, right behind “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (which made $26.3 million during its fifth weekend in theaters).
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