With just six days before the first major blockbuster since The Dark Knight Rises, the box office seems on top of its game. Wreck-It Ralph managed $49.1 million and the top spot while Denzel Washington’s Flight soared to $25 million all while Ben Affleck’s Argo continued to do heavy business with another $10.2 million (down just 15%.)
Wreck-It Ralph dipped a lot since Friday, suggesting the movie did beyond just pure family business on the whopper of an opening day ($13.4 million.) It looked early on that $55 million could be in the cards, but the Saturday numbers are bringing things down to earth with a studio gross similar to Disney Animation Studio’s last CGI effort Tangled–a movie that banked $200 million domestically in its entire theatrical run. Continue Reading
The first weekend post-Hurricane Sandy has some pretty solid numbers to start November. While Wreck-It Ralph is performing on pace with the biggest of animated features, Flight seems to be above what the early prognosticators have suggested. The two went one and two Friday with $13.4 million and $8.2 million respectfully, leading us to classify this weekend as a ‘strong’ performance from what Hollywood has to offer.
Hats off to THR for having the most accurate box office estimates going into the weekend. The trade publication had Wreck-It Ralph opening $45-50 million and Flight seeing low to mid-teens, and that is exactly what the first numbers are showing. While the weekend is far from complete, this shows that Disney Animation Studios’ CGI follow-up to Tangled will mirror its predecessor’s success at least early on.
Jimmy Fallon welcomed rapper-turned-director RZA to the program last night where he discussed The Man with the Iron Fists at length. The movie setup as a nod to Kung Fu seems a little big for its britches considering no one has even heard of the hip hop artist in the framework of film, but that is all explained here. RZA apparently asked Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill era whether he could be his apprentice and five years later he is good to go complete with an action flick produced by his mentor. He also dished on how he got such an incredible ensemble with specific mention to Russell Crowe. It was all thanks to a meeting of the two on the set of The Next Three Days. 
Audiences of violent Kung Fu movies are in luck because there are more character trailers to spotlight in regards to RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fists. These are pretty much just introduction pieces for each leading actor’s role. The ones released thus far feature Russell Crowe’s Jackknife, Dave Bautista’s Brass Body, and Lucy Liu’s Madame Blossom.
Before Russell Crowe goes all musical on us in Les Miserables, the actor is set to get his Kung Fu on via the RZA-directed The Man with the Iron Fists. Check out the first trailer which just hit the web.