Karate Kid

It didn’t seem like too long ago that conservatives mocked the activism of liberal-minded Hollywood activists and the futility of their pursuits in far-off countries. But now the members of a congressional delegation to Russia over the weekend are praising one of their unexpected guests, Steven Seagal. “Because of his black belt in karate and... Read more »

SATURDAY 7 AM, 3RD UPDATE: Still clocking in at #1 is Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 (3,686 theaters) which is easily dominating the field again with $10.5M Friday and $35.1M this weekend. The domestic cume should reach a huge $171M through Sunday. But the big story – or should I say,  the sad story – is Sony Pictures/Columbia’s After Earth (3,401 theaters) starring Will Smith and his son and directed by the now unwatchable M Night Shyamalan. Big online ticketseller Fandango first spotted the pic’s underperformance when After Earth ticket sales began lagging Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment’s Now You See Me (2,925 theaters) on Thursday for shows beginning at 9 PM. The magic-themed heist thriller amazingly overtook After Earth on Friday and should stay #2 all weekend, debuting with $10M Friday (including tickets sold for shows beginning at 7 PM Thursday) and as much as $27.8M for the weekend. That’s overperforming the $20M which the studio was predicting. It earned an enviable ‘A’ CinemaScore which should help word of mouth stay strong. But #3 After Earth earned only a ‘B’ CinemaScore which won’t help or hurt word of mouth. It opened to $9.7M Friday for a $27.2M weekend. That’s much less than the high $30sM to low $40sM which Sony was predicting and which tracking showed was possible right into Friday. Rival studios chortled it’s “2.5 times worse than Jaden Smith’s Karate Kid reboot and half of Oblivion‘s opening” with Tom Cruise. Not hard ... Read More »