‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Number One Again This Weekend

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Number One Again This Weekend
Nina Terrero — Entertainment Weekly

Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy was the top-grossing film of the weekend, beating out a trio of new releases—and in the process, becoming the No. 3 movie of the year and the highest earner of the summer with nearly $252 million.

The Marvel Studios-produced film—starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista and Lee Pace—has now grossed $251.9 million since its stateside release four weeks ago, outpacing films like Transformers: Age of Extinction ($251 million), Maleficent ($237 million), X-Men: Days of Future Past ($232 million total domestic gross), Godzilla

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‘Turtles’ tops ‘Guardians’ with $65 million

‘Turtles’ tops ‘Guardians’ with $65 million
Lindsey Bahr — Entertainment Weekly

Turtle Power does exist after all. The heroes in a half shell surpassed industry and analyst expectations by more than $20 million, raking in an estimated $65 million in its first weekend in theaters. With an additional $28.7 million from 19 international territories, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which cost $125 million to produce, has earned $93.7 million globally. No wonder Paramount has already announced plans for a summer 2016 sequel.

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Guardians of the Galaxy took second place with $41.5 million, falling an expected 56 percent from its blockbuster debut.

There is no justice in…

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‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Pushes Disney over the $1B Mark This Year

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Pushes Disney over the $1B Mark This Year
Jackson McHenry — Entertainment Weekly

Following last weekend’s record-breaking debut of Guardians of the Galaxy, Disney hit the $1 billion mark for domestic box-office returns this week.

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Aside from the $219.3 million global total of Guardians to date, Disney’s earnings have come primarily from Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($713.6 million), Maleficent ($727.9 million), and Frozen (which earned at total of $1.27 billion worldwide, much of that this year).

Gangbuster of a year for Disney.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Blows The Box Office Away With $94 Million Domestic

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Blows The Box Office Away With $94 Million Domestic
Kevin Jagernauth — The Playlist

So, where do we start? Marvel’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy” came into the weekend with good tracking numbers, with many expecting it to come near or even modestly past the previous August weekend record holder, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” which opened to $69.3 million in 2007. But no one expected this.

‘Guardians’ took a staggering $94 million this weekend, becoming the third biggest opening of the year (behind “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), and it also tallied $66.4 million overseas, for a total worldwide haul of $160.4 million. Not bad for a movie…

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A Most Wanted Man — Review

4 of 5 stars
A Most Wanted Man

If you were looking for a modern spy thriller with lots of bangs and explosions, a lot of high paced action scenes and over the top explosions and bombs going off in all directions, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this film is not the right one for you. There is only one scene in this film which might fall under the heading of action chase scene — and the chase part lasted exactly 5 seconds.

The thing is, this film is almost too slowly paced. Almost. Perhaps this is what actually elevates the film that much higher. There was a knife edge to ride, and this film rides it brilliantly…

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‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Has Great Opening Weekend

‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Has Great Opening Weekend
Rodrigo Perez — The Playlist

Biting sharply into Michael Bay’s box-office hegemony, 20th Century Fox’s “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” took the #1 spot this weekend with an extremely healthy $73 million opening. That’s up around 33% from 2011’s “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes,” a surprise hit that veered very close to $500 million worldwide. A lot of components factored into its success: extremely positive reviews (here’s ours), great word of mouth and little competition And considering Matt Reeves’ sequel is darker, more adult and nowhere near as “crowd-pleasing” as the average blockbuster (at least not in the…

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Earth to Echo — Review

2 of 5 stars
Earth to Echo

I may not actually be the best person to write this review. I have known for a long time that I liked films and wanted to watch all of them and evaluate them. But before I was running MovieByte, it was more difficult to justify the expense. As a consequence, I have seen only one of the previous films that treads the ground that this film waltzes across a little haphazardly. That one film is E.T., which I remember hating from my childhood. Yes, yes, I know, you may all gasp in shock and horror at the atrocity I have just committed. And to be fair, I haven’t actually seen E.T. since well before…

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‘Transformers 4’ Holds No. 1 Spot At Box Office

‘Transformers 4’ Holds No. 1 Spot At Box Office
Lindsey Bahr — Entertainment Weekly

Transformers: Age of Extinction showed its summer might once more by holding onto the No. 1 spot in its second weekend of release, grossing an estimated $36.4 million from 4,233 locations and effectively shutting out the slate of new releases. Michael Bay’s explosive epic also hit $400 million internationally after just 12 days in release.

There is no justice in the world. The best film to be released so far this year, Edge of Tomorrow, has only brought in $90.8 Million domestically and a worldwide total of $339.4 Million world wide. While that’s nothing to sneeze at, compared to the…

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‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ Certified Fresh

‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ Certified Fresh
Tim Ryan — RottenTomatoes

When How to Train Your Dragon became a runaway critical and commercial hit, it helped to quiet the contention that DreamWorks was simply a second banana to Pixar. Happily, critics say the inevitable sequel lives up to the high standards set by its predecessor—it’s exuberant, ambitious, and visually striking.

Good to hear. I’m on vacation this week and had some traveling over the weekend so I haven’t had a chance to see it yet. I plan to see it with my kids (7, 5, and 3) later today.

It is unfortunate though that the box office is not looking good for this film at the moment. Or, at least,…

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