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Anthony Mackie’s 2024 post-apocalyptic thriller has found renewed success as it rises up the Prime Video streaming charts. Known for his iconic role as Sam Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mackie’s success has only grown in recent years as he’s taken over the mantle of Captain America from Chris Evans in Captain America: Brave New World.

While many will know Mackie for his work in the superhero genre, this is just one of his many talents, as he’s taken on historical roles like Tupac Shakur in Notorious and Martin Luther King Jr. in All the Way. With plenty of underrated, hidden gems, one recent Mackie release is now gaining a second lease of life on streaming.

Elevation Has Become A Streaming Hit Elevation Is Number 3 On Prime Video’s Global Charts

Recent figures show that Elevation has become a streaming hit, as viewers are tuning in...

Despite the fast-tracking of Shawn Levy’s standalone Star Wars movie with Ryan Gosling in talks, Daisy Ridley's Rise of Skywalker sequel is getting another pass, this time by writer George Nolfi.

Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is still attached to direct the story about Rey Skywalker, 15 years after the events of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. The plot is rumored that Rey, the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, will oversee a school of Jedis.

Previous scribes on the Rey story included Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson. In April 2023 Peaky Blinder creator Steven Knight was also making a go at it, but stepped away last October.

Ridley told Deadline at SXSW last year that “I know bits and bobs” about the sequel. “I know there’s an introduction of new characters,” the actress said, “I don’t know about previous characters” — and that includes her twin flame Kylo Ren.

Tune in for...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Following last edition’s trip to Latvia, we are heading to Hong Kong with Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, a martial arts hit that is making waves at the global box office. Bolstered by an all-star cast, the film follows an illegal migrant, who is also a skilled fighter, as he finds a way to survive in the triad-ridden Kowloon Walled City, invoking Hong Kong’s martial arts movies of the past. Although concrete walls tower onscreen, the film’s success has scaled all blockades,...

What ever happened to writer/director George Nolfi? Well, he did an uncredited re-write on “The Bourne Supremacy,” and that impressed Matt Damon so much he starred in Nolfi’s directorial debut, “The Adjustment Bureau” co-starring Emily Blunt. From there he directed things like “Birth Of The Dragon” and “The Banker” with Anthony Mackie (“Captain America: Brave New World”) who returns to star in Nolfi’s latest effort “Elevation,”

Read More: 2024 Fall Film Preview: 50 Movies To Watch

A post-apocalyptic action thriller film, “Elevation” is set in the rocky mountains during the post-invasion of creatures or aliens that are now part of the Earth’s eco-system—the new apex predator.

Continue reading ‘Elevation’ Trailer: Anthony Mackie & Morena Baccarin Try and Survive In A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller at The Playlist.

Stephen J. Rivele, who shared an Oscar nomination for the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s Nixon and worked on such other biopics as Michael Mann’s Ali, Agnieszka Holland’s Copying Beethoven and Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead, has died. He was 75.

Rivele had heart issues and died May 17 at his home in Pasadena, California, his son Eli Bocek-Rivele told The Hollywood Reporter.

Rivele wrote on Bradley Cooper’s remake of A Star Is Born and did an early draft for another 2018 release, Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

He also handled uncredited rewrites on the baseball movie Moneyball (2011) and All Eyez on Me (2017), about Tupac Shakur.

Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson enjoyed a 30-year screenwriting partnership. They worked together on Nixon (1995), starring Anthony Hopkins; Ali (2001), starring Will Smith; Copying Beethoven (2006), starring Ed Harris; Miles Ahead (2015), the Miles Davis biopic that Cheadle directed and starred in; Pawn Sacrifice...

Stephen J. Rivele, the screenwriter whose 1995 collaboration on Nixon with Oliver Stone and longtime writing partner Christopher Wilkinson earned the trio an Oscar nomination, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Pasadena, California, on May 17. He was 75.

His death was announced by son Eli Rivele and Wilkinson.

A published author, playwright and poet, Rivele shared a 30-year career with Wilkinson. In addition to Nixon, their credits include Ali, the 2001 Muhammad Ali biopic starring Will Smith and co-written by director Michael Mann and Eric Roth; Copying Beethoven, the 2006 drama starring Ed Harris as the great composer; and Birth of the Dragon, the 2016 martial arts film with Philip Wan-lung Ng as Bruce Lee.

Rivele and Wilkinson had story credits for such other notable biopics as Miles Ahead (2015), directed by and starring Don Cheadle as jazz giant Miles Davis; and Pawn Sacrifice (2014), with Tobey Maguire as chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer.

Born May 6, 1949, in Philadelphia,...

Trinity CineAsia has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, the Hong Kong period action drama that will screen at Cannes next month, in a deal with Media Asia.

Directed by Soi Cheang, the highly anticipated feature is set to be released in Hong Kong and China on May 1 before it plays in the Midnight Screenings section of Cannes. An opening date in the UK and Ireland has yet to be announced but Trinity CineAsia said it is “scheduled for release across cinemas nationwide soon after” the festival, which runs May 14-25.

Distribution deals were...

Recently, it has been announced that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee is directing a new biopic of the martial arts legend, Bruce Lee, and Ang’s son, Mason Lee, will be filling the shoes of the Dragon. The producer of the yet-to-be-named film, Lawrence Grey, spoke with Collider recently at the Toronto International Film Festival about Mason getting the larger-than-life role. “Early on, Ang introduced me to his son, Mason Lee, who’s a very accomplished actor—particularly works a lot in China, although he’s been in some very successful American films—and he is a spitting image of Bruce. We had that in our pockets, and said, ‘Okay, we don’t wanna be producers who succumb to nepotism. We’ll put that aside.’ And then, we did a worldwide search all across Asia and North America, and we didn’t find anyone as compelling as Mason.”

Grey, then,...

“Candyman” dominated every platform in its first weekend on premium VOD. Available for $19.99, the Universal horror movie aligned with standard studio strategy to debut on home platforms after its third week of theatrical play. It still ranked #4 in theaters, falling only 26 percent.

Nia DaCosta’s update of the 1993 horror classic displaced the studio’s own “F9” ($19.99), after an expanded edition returned the widely seen sequel to #1 across all charts last week. The worldwide top grossing film of 2021 is now #2 at both Vudu and Google Play, and #3 at iTunes.

The strength of “Candyman” took #1 on Vudu’s full week chart, even though its release covered only three days of Vudu’s listing period. Of the 17 different films on the three VOD charts, 10 are PVOD titles ($19.99 or higher) and fill 23 of the 30 total slots.

Four PVOD films made all three charts: “Candyman,” “F9,” “Black Widow” (now reduced to $19.99), and “The Suicide Squad,...

"If this was easy, somebody else would've done it a long time ago." We're entering a new era. Apple TV has debuted the first official trailer for one of their very first "An Apple Original" films. The Banker is a feature directed by George Nolfi that will be opening in limited theaters in December before it's available later on the new "Apple TV" subscription streaming service. The film tells the story of one of the first African American bankers in the Us. Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson star in this true story as two businessmen who devise a plan to help "other African Americans pursue the American dream." The cast also includes Nia Long, Nicholas Hoult, Jessie T. Usher, Colm Meaney, Paul Ben-Victor, Gregory Alan Williams, Michael Harney, and James DuMont. This looks like a solid film, wit h an upbeat and inspirational vibe that should give it an edge.

Joseph Baxter Jan 17, 2020

Apple TV+ movie The Banker reunites Avengers actors Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie, joined by Nicholas Hoult, for a fact-based drama.

The Banker is a big-names-headlined feature film that will complement a rapidly-expanding array of television content for the just-launched premium streaming service, Apple TV+.

...And by “big names,” we mean two members in good standing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Avengers, Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie. However, the thing for which the duo will assemble here is a 1960s-set drama in which they play the U.S.’s first African-American bankers, who initially had to operate behind a white figurehead they trained, played here by Nicholas Hoult. – Essentially a version of the Remington Steele gambit.

George Nolfi stepped in as director for The Banker, working off a fact-based script that he co-wrote with Niceole Levy, along with burgeoning scribes David Lewis Smith and Stan Younger,...

In mixing real and fictional movie stars in Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino helped his cause by casting performers who were careful not to do impressions, but bite sized performances as iconic stars who in moments are eerily reminiscent of those subjects. Margot Robbie captured the essence of Sharon Tate, and Billions and Homeland star Damian Lewis perfectly channels Steve McQueen in a scene at the Playboy Mansion. A performance people are also talking about is Mike Moh’s brief but memorable turn as Bruce Lee. It is one of the funniest scenes in the movie, when Lee locks up with Brad Pitt’s stuntman character Cliff Booth in a disagreement over how the iconic Bruce Lee, all 5’8″ and 141 pounds of him, would fare in a brawl with the 6’3″ 200+ pound heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.

Moh’s road to a role that might put him on the map...

Exclusive: Emmy-nominated producer Janice Williams has signed her Well Red banner to a first look deal with Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories. This follows their successful collaboration on the Facebook Watch series Queen America. They worked together on the Andrew Jarecki-directed All Good Things and the Gus Van Sant-directed Oscar winner Milk.

Made Up Stories is coming off a strong Sundance, produced the Abe Forsythe-directed Lupita Nyong’o dark zombie comedy Little Monsters that was bought by Neon and Hulu and Jennifer Kent’s Nightingale which landed at IFC. On the TV side, the company is currently in pre-production on the David E. Kelley-scripted Susanne Bier-directed HBO limited series The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, and in post-production on the TNT series Tell Me Your Secrets, written by Harriet Warner and directed by Houda Benyamina.

Williams hatched her company in early 2018 after an...

A defamation fight centered on the rivalry between Kylin Pictures and Bliss Media is back on after a California appeals court found a rights-acquisition dispute over the Bruce Lee film Birth of the Dragon doesn't meet the public interest standard required by California's anti-slapp statute.

Bliss and its CEO Wei Han sued Kylin in January 2017, claiming its CFO Leo Shi Young defamed her and her company by referring to Han as a "swindler" and Bliss as a "shell company." Young was speaking at a press conference in China, during which he discussed the two companies' history ...

A defamation fight centered on the rivalry between Kylin Pictures and Bliss Media is back on after a California appeals court found a rights-acquisition dispute over the Bruce Lee film Birth of the Dragon doesn't meet the public interest standard required by California's anti-slapp statute.

Bliss and its CEO Wei Han sued Kylin in January 2017, claiming its CFO Leo Shi Young defamed her and her company by referring to Han as a "swindler" and Bliss as a "shell company." Young was speaking at a press conference in China, during which he discussed the two companies' history ...

Exclusive: Director George Nolfi has set Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Nicholas Hoult and Nia Long to star in The Banker, a fact based drama that Nolfi wrote with Niceole Levy. Romulus Entertainment is financing the film, with Brad Feinstein of Romulus producing.

The drama is based on the true story of two African American entrepreneurs, Bernard Garrett (Mackie) and Joe Morris (Jackson), who during the 1950’s tried to circumvent the racial limitations of the era and take on the establishment by recruiting a working class white man, Matt Steiner (Hoult) and training him to pose as the head of their business empire while they posed as a janitor and a chauffeur. Bernard’s wife Eunice (Nia Long), plays a key role in setting up the enterprise. Garrett and Morris become two of the wealthiest and most successful real estate owners in the country with Steiner as their front man,...

Stars: Billy Magnussen, Philip Ng, Xia Yu, Qu Jingjing, Jin Xing, Simon Yin, Van Ness Wu, Ron Yuan, Terry Chen | Written by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson | Directed by George Nolfi

Directed by George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), this account of a life-changing real-life fight between kung fu superstar-in-waiting Bruce Lee and martial arts grandmaster Wong Jack Man is less a of biopic and more of a fictionalisation based on a true story. Taken on those terms, it’s a lot of fun, though it’s likely to frustrate Bruce Lee aficionados looking for a more faithful approach.

The story begins in San Francisco in 1964, where a not-yet-famous Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) is teaching martial arts and focusing on becoming a superstar. When Shaolin monk Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu) arrives in San Francisco, Lee is rattled by his presence and challenges him to a duel, believing that the martial...

To celebrate the release of Birth of a Dragon - available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD 4th June – we are giving away a copy on Blu-ray.

Loosely inspired by true events, Birth of the Dragon puts a fictional spin on the events surrounding the infamous fight between a young Bruce Lee and martial arts master Wong Jack Man in 1960s San Francisco. Fun, fast and full of fights, the film is a must-watch for fans of Bruce Lee and martial arts alike.

The 1965 fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man is infamous largely due to the fact it was played out in private in front of a handful of individuals. Accounts of what actually happened differ greatly but all are agreed that Lee came out on top and that it helped give birth to his martial arts legend status.

“Genuinely compelling” Den of Geek

Order today: https://amzn.

Stars: Billy Magnussen, Philip Ng, Xia Yu, Qu Jingjing, Jin Xing, Simon Yin, Van Ness Wu, Ron Yuan, Terry Chen | Written by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson | Directed by George Nolfi

Directed by George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau), this account of a life-changing real-life fight between kung fu superstar-in-waiting Bruce Lee and martial arts grandmaster Wong Jack Man is less a of biopic and more of a fictionalisation based on a true story. Taken on those terms, it’s a lot of fun, though it’s likely to frustrate Bruce Lee aficionados looking for a more faithful approach.

The story begins in San Francisco in 1964, where a not-yet-famous Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) is teaching martial arts and focusing on becoming a superstar. When Shaolin monk Wong Jack Man (Xia Yu) arrives in San Francisco, Lee is rattled by his presence and challenges him to a duel, believing that the martial...

Loosely inspired by true events, and particularly an article by Michael Dorgan, which was first published on Official Karate in 1980, “Birth of the Dragon” attempts a recreation of the events that led to the infamous fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man in San Francisco, in 1964.

Birth of The Dragon is being released in UK cinemas from Altitude Film Entertainment, starting February 23rd

At the time the film takes place, 24-year-old Bruce Lee owns and operates a martial arts school, and is on the verge of making a break into the show business, with “Green Hornet”. He is hip, cocky, and willing to go to extremes to introduce himself and kung fu to the world. However, everything changes when Wong Jack Man, a Buddhist monk who is also a martial arts master and a man, who, according to Lee, can unravel everything he has accomplished, arrives in town. Lee...

Author: Euan Franklin

Biopics never have a firm grasp on the truth, and any reasonably intelligent moviegoer understands this. Often, it’s obvious (merely by watching) what’s fact and what’s fantasy and it doesn’t hinder our enjoyment. In George Nolfi’s Birth of the Dragon, facts are kicked into the dirt of gangster-ridden Chinatown.

Set nine years before the release of Enter the Dragon, a young Bruce Lee (Philip Ng) is a martial-arts teacher (known as a sifu) in San Francisco. He is performative and egotistical, eager to introduce kung-fu to the Western world. But when Wong Jack Man (Xiu Yu) arrives in San Francisco, as penance for a sin committed in China, he threatens Lee’s aspirations – believing kung-fu shouldn’t be taught to Westerners. This builds to the famous (real) fight between the two of them – the results from which remain ambiguous.

The fantasies of...

Simon Brew Jan 19, 2018

Birth Of The Dragon looks set to tell the story of a young Bruce Lee. Here's the trailer...

We’ve already had one big screen biopic of the late Bruce Lee, back when Jason Scott Lee played him in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Now, though, comes another attempt to tell Lee’s story, in a film by the name of Birth Of The Dragon.

It’s directed by The Adjustment Bureau’s George Nolfi, working off a script from Stephen J Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson. Lee will be played by Philip Ng, and he’s joined in the cast by Xia Yu and Billy Magnussen.

A trailer has just been released for the film too, that looks like this…

And we’ve got a synopsis as well…

In the world of martial arts, there is one man above all: Bruce Lee. San Francisco, 1965. Young, hungry and...

September 2017 saw record returns with calendar grosses topping $695 million, falling just shy of becoming the first September to ever total $700 million at the domestic box office. Leading the way was Warner Bros. and New Line's massive hit It, which delivered record numbers of its own and accounted for over 40% of the month's total gross. September is also the first month since April to show an improvement over the same month in 2016, with September grosses finishing 18.3% higher than 2016. From a yearly stand point, 2017 was pacing 6.3% behind 2016 at the end of August and September grosses helped turn things around somewhat with 2017 pacing 4.6% behind 2016's record year by the end of the month. However, with October already pacing 20.8% behind last year (as of October 9) it's looking like September's gains will be lost throughout the current month, putting additional pressure on final two months of the year to turn the tide.Overall, September 2017 saw calendar grosses reach $696.2 million,...

The cast of Disney's Aladdin remake keeps getting bigger and bigger, with today bringing news that another actor has signed on to play a brand new character that didn't originate in the 1992 animated classic. Billy Magnussen has come aboard to play a character named Prince Anders, although no other details have been given at this time. He will become the second cast member who is playing a character created specifically for this musical, with Nasim Pedrad playing another character named Mara, a handmaiden and friend of Jasmine who wasn't in the original animated classic.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the casting news today, with the report adding that this is not the first time Billy Magnussen has portrayed a Disney prince. The actor portrayed the prince vying for the attention of Rapunzel in the 2014 live-action musical adaptation of Into the Woods. He joins a growing cast that includes Will Smith as the iconic Genie,...

Saturday Am Update: With an estimated $2.4 million, The Hitman's Bodyguard topped Friday's box office on its way to a third straight weekend at #1, looking to deliver nearly $9.5 million for the three-day and nearly $12 million for the four-day holiday. Annabelle: Creation falls into second place with $1.8 million on Friday, heading toward a $6.8 million three-day and the Weinstein's Wind River delivered an estimated $1.5 million on Friday and is looking at a three-day around $5.5-6 million. As for the weekend's new releases, Sony's re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind brought in an estimated $485k and is looking at a solid $1.6 million for the three-day, likely to find a spot in the top twelve. The Weinstein's Tulip Fever brought in an estimated $357k and is looking at a three-day around $1.2 million and Lionsgate's Hazlo Como Hombre is falling well short of our forecast after bringing in an estimated $347k on Friday, headed toward a three-day around $1.2 million.

CinemaBlend recently asked Birth of the Dragon star Philip Ng why it has taken so long to get a proper Bruce Lee biopic. Here's what he had to say.

With the Houston flood, impending race riots and a looming nuclear war all on the horizon, folks aren't really thinking about movies. And this weekend will prove that as it shapes up to be the worst Labor Day at the box office since 2001. Last weekend was a historic one at the box office, but not exactly in a good way. The action-comedy The Hitman's Bodyguard managed to repeat with just $10.2 million, as a trio of underperforming new releases fell way short, resulting in the worst overall weekend for the top 12 movies in 16 years, and the lowest August weekend in 20 years. It's entirely possible that record for box office futility could already be broken over the Labor Day holiday, a weekend that is traditionally one of the lowest of the year, but with only two movies debuting, The Weinstein Compan's Tulip Fever and Sony's re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind,...

Here's your estimated 3-day box office returns (new releases bolded): 1. The Hitman’s Bodyguard - $10.0 million ($39.6 million total) 2. Annabelle: Creation - $7.3 million ($77.8 million total) 3. Leap! - $5.0 million ($5.0 million total) 4. Wind River - $4.4 million ($9.8 million total) 5. Logan Lucky - $4.3 million ($15.0 million total) 6. Dunkirk - $3.9 million ($172.4 million total) 7. Spider-Man: Homecoming - $2.7 million ($318.8 million total) 8. Birth of the Dragon - $2.5 million ($2.5 million total) 9. The Emoji Movie - $2.3 million ($76.4 million total) 10. Girls Trip - $2.2 million ($108.0 million total) The Big Stories While one Hurricane Harvey may be used as an excuse for the lack of moviegoing this weekend, it’s the other...

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2017-08-28T05:11:32-07:00What a Horrible Weekend for Hollywood!

The summer ended with a whimper at the box office this week. Just how bad was it? Well, it hasn't been this bad since the days after 9/11.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie business got knocked out at the box office over the weekend as revenue fell to its lowest level since the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A lack of product is the main culprit as summer limps to a close, with none of the new offerings earning more than $5 million. Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight was a major distraction, while Hurricane Harvey prompted theater closures in numerous Texas markets, including Houston.

Weekend revenue is estimated at $65 million, the worst showing since the Sept. 21-23 weekend in 2001 ($59.4 million) almost 16 years ago, and down 45 percent from the same frame last year when Don't Breathe opened to an impressive $24.6 million.

The last weekend in August before the Labor Day holiday also signifies the final weekend of the summer movie season at the box office. This year, the summer movie season is definitely going out like a lamb, with last weekend's winner The Hitman's Bodyguard beating out three new movies and a heavily-promoted fight screening in select theaters across the country, to take the top spot with just $10 million. In fact, the combined gross of the top 12 movies was the lowest in 16 years, since September 2001.

Box Office Mojo reports that the combined gross for the top 12 movies added up to $49 million, the first time that the top 12 failed to earn more than $50 million in over 20 years, and the worst since the September 21-23 weekend in 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the top 12 earned just $43.5 million, topped by Hardball starring Keanu Reeves, with $8 million. It's possible that, when...

It was an incredibly slow weekend at the domestic box office. There were many reasons for that. A lack of overly appealing new releases, Hurricane Harvey hammering Texas and the highly-anticipated fight between Floyd "Money" Mayweather and Ufc champion Conor McGregor. Ironically, even though the fight may have kept some people from heading out to the movies this weekend, the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight (the gladiator event of the year) actually managed to be a big hit at the box office itself.

The Mayweather vs. McGregor fight was screened in theaters across the country, offering boxing fans an alternative to paying for the fight on Pay-Per-View. According to Variety that strategy paid off quite handsomely, as the fight managed to bring in $2.4 million from just 481 theaters. To put that in perspective, that is only a little less than the $2.5 million that the Bruce Lee inspired Birth of the Dragon managed...

Talk about the dog days of summer. This weekend marked the worst box office in this century.

If “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” (Lionsgate) holds on to the top position for a third time next week, it would mark the lowest gross in memory to repeat again. The actioner dropped a ho-hum 53 per cent, boosted by the absence of any real competition. Count stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson among rare winners at the moment.

Domestic theaters grossed around $65 million in movie ticket sales this weekend. (That doesn’t count the revenue for closed circuit live showings of the Mayweather/McGregor fight which would have placed it in the Top Ten.)

That’s about seven million tickets sold total. The number is easily a record low for this century. And you have to reach back to World War II to match the attendance numbers. More people went the movies the...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Aug 25th-27th)

W I D E  L I M I T E D 1. The Hitman's Bodyguard $10 (cum. $39.6) 

1.

No need to sugar coat it, this was a miserable weekend. The combined gross of the top twelve failed to total over $50 million, something that hasn't happened in an August weekend in over 20 years. In fact, the combined $49 million for the top twelve is the worst since the top twelve combined for $43.5 million in late September 2001. Making matters worse, with next weekend seeing no major, new wide releases things aren't going to improve until It arrives on September 8. Keeping things to this weekend, The Hitman's Bodyguard finished in the top spot for a second weekend in a row with an estimated $10 million. That gross, however, appears a bit precarious. It wouldn't be at all surprising to see actuals dip below the double-digit mark. Should that happen this would be the first weekend in two years to not have a film break double digits over the three-day. The last time was...

If you can put aside the bland white guy named Steve pinging between scenes, stitching the various strands of story together with his white-guy need to learn martial arts badassery and save a beautiful Chinese girl from prostitution, then the otherwise all-Asian-cast, Bruce Lee biography-inspired “Birth of the Dragon” can be kind of fun. George Nolfi’s period kung fu tale, set in an evocative 1960s San Francisco, is an elaborately fictionalized account of a real fight between the young, pre-legend Lee and a Shaolin master. It was an East-meets-Westernized showdown — seen by few, its details disputed ever since —...

A quiet August weekend kicked off Thursday night with the martial arts movie Birth of the Dragon taking in $200,000, and All Saints, a faith-based film from Sony's Affirm label that is starting off with a smaller release, taking in $70,000. Weinstein Co.'s animated Leap! also opens wide this weekend.

This weekend is expected to be one of the sleepier of the summer, with all three new films opening behind holdover The Hitman's Bodyguard, Lionsgate's action comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson. The pic should have no problem repeating a No. 1 finish in its second weekend.

Birth...

There eventually will be, if there aren’t already, more movies about Bruce Lee than ones in which the martial arts legend actually appeared. It’s understandable, considering Lee’s tragically brief career that ended just as he was reaching global superstardom. Unfortunately, George Nolfi’s fictionalized account of an infamous 1964 bout between Lee and Shaolin master Wong Jack Man is an inferior effort that fails to do justice to both its central character and provocative premise. Birth of the Dragon only serves to disprove the cinematic saying, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

The film has apparently been recut and...

Birth of the dragon and Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D top our What to Watch weekend previewBirth of the dragon and Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D top our What to Watch weekend previewTanner Zipchen8/24/2017 4:43:00 Pm

This weekend in theatres we have Birth of the Dragon and Terminator 2: Judgement Day 3D!

Set against the backdrop of 1960s San Francisco, Birth of the Dragon is a modern take on the classic movies that Bruce Lee was known for. It takes its inspiration from the epic and still controversial showdown between an up-and-coming Bruce Lee and kung fu master Wong Jack Man - a battle that gave birth to a legend.

James Cameron’s epic action/sci-fi masterpiece, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his most iconic role, has been converted in immersive 3D by Cameron himself. First hitting our screens in 1991 with ground-breaking special effects, the 3D version will take the...

We are looking at what may be the worst August weekend in over 20 years with a top twelve that could struggle to reach a combined $50 million, something that hasn't happened in August since 1993. In fact, while this will undoubtedly be the worst weekend of 2017 thus far, it could be the worst weekend for the top twelve since early September 2014 should Mojo's current forecast hold. For more context, August is currently pacing 36% behind last year and expected to be the first August since 2000 not to have a new release top $100 million domestically. That said, this weekend features a trio of new wide releases and several films expanding (or returning to theaters), but beyond that a lot of attention goes to Saturday night's Mayweather-McGregor fight, which must be taken into account. Current projections anticipate nearly 50 million people will be watching the fight in the U.S. alone, and while this weekend doesn't...

2017-08-24T14:15:38-07:00Box Office Preview: Another Quiet Weekend on the Way

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this weekend is shaping up to be even quieter at the box office than last week was.

Via The Hollywood Reporter–

The dog days of August are just that at the U.S. box office.

This weekend, a trio of smaller offerings enter the fray — The Weinstein Co.'s animated Leap!, martial arts pic Birth of the Dragon and All Saints, a faith-based film from Sony's Affirm label that is only opening in 700-plus locations. Even if they do solid business in their own right, tracking shows Leap! grossing the most of the three, or $4 million-$5 million, as summer revenue slips even farther behind from last year.

The Hitman's Bodyguard, Lionsgate's action comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, is tipped to stay atop the chart in its...

Our favourite martial arts scenes in time for Birth of the DragonOur favourite martial arts scenes in time for Birth of the DragonAdriana Floridia8/24/2017 12:08:00 Pm

Martial Arts have a special place in the movies.

For those of us who have never practiced martial arts, they're especially a marvel to experience on the big screen. While primarily being featured in Asian cinema, many American films have adopted the enthralling combat style for their own fight sequences.

The most notable martial artist ever in film has to be Bruce Lee. He nearly single-handedly brought martial arts into pop culture, and with films like Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury and The Big Boss, he has cemented his status as a legend.

This Friday, Birth of the Dragon hits theatres. The film tells documents Bruce Lee's early days in 1960's San Francisco. In celebration of the films release, we are...

Bruce Lee, one of cinema's most iconic, ambitious, and tragic heroes, lives on through his TV and movie performances long after he was taken from the world at the age of 32. His short career brought us some of the most recognizable and often-imitated fight scenes in cinematic history, but one of Lee's most famous fights occurred off-screen and behind closed doors. Birth of the Dragon is a dramatized version of that fight, a private match, a one-on-one contest of skill and style between Lee and martial arts master Wong Jack Man. The 1964 …...

The dog days of August are just that at the U.S. box office.

This weekend, a trio of smaller offerings enter the fray: The Weinstein Co.'s animated Leap!, martial arts pic Birth of the Dragon and All Saints, a faith-based film from Sony's Affirm label that is only opening in 700-plus locations. Even if they do solid business in their own right, tracking shows Leap! grossing the most of the three at only $4 million-$5 million as summer revenue slips even farther behind from last year.

The Hitman's Bodyguard, Lionsgate's action comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson, is tipped to...

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:   Training Montage of the Day: Watch Dolph Lundgren get ready for his return as Ivan Drago in Creed 2 from the actor's Instagram (via Geek Tyrant):   Getting ready for something big! ?? @officialslystallone #Creed2 #IvanDrago A post shared by Dolph Lundgren (@dolphlundgren) on Aug 21, 2017 at 8:30am Pdt     Mashup of the Day: Horror icons including Freddy Krueger, Pinhead and Pennywise the clown were inserted to the trailer for Stranger Things Season 2 (via /Film):    Movie Trivia of the Day: With Birth of the Dragon out this weekend, ScreenCrush shares some trivia about the Bruce Lee...

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While the action-thriller The Hitman's Bodyguard ended up managing an easy opening weekend box office win just a few days ago, it also set a record for box office futility, with the lowest-grossing overall weekend to date in 2017. As the summer movie season comes to an end this weekend, that record may be broken, with three under-promoted movies hitting theaters, the animated comedy Leap!, the Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon and the religious drama All Saints, which are expected to open in 2,000 theaters or less. We're predicting that The Hitman's Bodyguard will actually come out on top again this weekend with a projected $12.5 million as the disappointing summer season comes to a close.

While The Hitman's Bodyguard didn't exactly have a stellar opening weekend, it will still have a much wider release than any of these newcomers. Box Office Mojo reports that Leap! will have the "widest" release of any of these newcomers,...

Bruce Lee Last year, at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was among the visiting journos who caused a bit of a commotion after watching the purported Bruce Lee biopic, Birth Of The Dragon, with many of us complaining that Lee was unnecessarily sidelined in his own movie. Instead, it became about the journey of Lee’s white sidekick, a part ludicrously patterned on Steve McQueen (ignoring... Read More...

Heading into the weekend, some believed that PG-13 heist comedy Logan Lucky would have no trouble taking down the R-rated action-comedy The Hitman's Bodyguard, in one of the last summer movie box office weekends. It was quite the opposite, in fact, with The Hitman's Bodyguard continuing the trend of over-performing R-rated fare, easily coming away with the box office win in its opening weekend with $21.6 million. Last weekend's winner, Annabelle: Creation, dropped to second place with $15.5 million while the underperforming Logan Lucky debuted in third place this weekend with $8 million.

While The Hitman's Bodyguard, starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson had no trouble winning at box office, it had a much more difficult time trying to win over the critics. The movie currently sits at a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, down from the 46% rating it had earlier this week, while Logan Lucky proved to be a bona fide...

Lionsgate and Summit's action-comedy The Hitman's Bodyguard finished ahead of pre-weekend expectations and took the #1 spot at the weekend box office while WB and New Line's Annabelle: Creation scored a second place finish over its sophomore frame. The weekend wasn't too kind, however, to Bleecker's Logan Lucky, which did manage to finish third, but was unable to crack double digits from over 3,000 locations. As for the weekend overall, the top twelve narrowly escaped becoming the worst weekend of 2017 by less than $1 million by combining for $81.5 million. As of right now, this means the month of August is currently pacing 34% behind August last year while the summer season is pacing 12.8% behind last year. With an estimated $21.6 million, Lionsgate's release of The Hitman's Bodyguard finished #1 at the box office. This outperforms Mojo's pre-release forecast and is just a shade below historical averages for a film of this size and genre from Lionsgate.

2 new Birth of the Dragon clips show off some serious stunts2 new Birth of the Dragon clips show off some serious stuntsAmanda Wood8/16/2017 2:07:00 Pm

We’re always happy when we get to close off the cinematic summer with a bang, and one of this summer’s final films definitely counts as a bang.

Birth of the Dragon is a martial arts-filled true story of street fighter-turned-actor Bruce Lee and his early days in ‘60s San Francisco, and it looks like an action lover’s dream come true. Philip Ng stars as Lee, and Yu Xia and Billy Magnussen also star. We don’t often get to see the origin stories of legends such as Bruce Lee, so it’s exciting to see his street-fighting confidence depicted on screen.

We have two clips to share with you from Birth of the Dragon: one gives a little taste of...

An exclusive clip from the action-packed biopic Birth of the Dragon which sees Bruce Lee training to fight Chinese kung fu master Wong Jack Man.