Box Office: "The Revenant" Claims #1 in it's Fifth Week!

1. The Revenant- $16M/$119M
It's almost unheard of for a movie to claim the top spot on the box office for the first time in it's 3rd week much less it's 5th, but that's what Leo and his bear have done. Knocking Ride Along 2 out of the way and leaving the new releases in the dust Leo's best Oscar chance yet has some staying power!

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- $14M/$879M
Speaking of staying power Star Wars maintains it's hold on the #2 spot, now in it's sixth week of release episode VII doesn't look to be going anywhere soon.

3. Ride Along 2- $12.9M/$59M
Ice Cube and Kevin Hart drop two spots but still manage to stay ahead of the new releases this week, while it looks like it'll be a tough road to $100M but at the end of the day this has to be a success.

4. Dirty Grandpa- $11.5M
The first of four films released this week Dirty Grandpa pulls in $11.5M despite abysmal reviews, with the blizzard hammering the east coast you have to wonder how much that affects the totals? Zac Efron has to have more box office draw than this, doesn't he?

5. The Boy- $11.2M
The Lauren Cohen (The Walking Dead) starring horror film which, in my opinion, suffered from horrible marketing managed a little over 11 million pulling in just behind the top scoring new release of the week. I always wondered why horror movies chose to release in January...I get that it's wasteland of the year making it a better time to take a risk but doesn't the September-November time frame make more sense? That's not to mention the plot of the movie was never easily understood from the trailers.

6. The 5th Wave- $10.7M
After the admirable statement made by Chloe Moretz, asking her fans not to venture out in the storm and rather wait to see the film, you almost wish there was a great film waiting for those fans on the other side of this storm...there's not. Another pre-teen book adaptation, maybe we can hope that this means an end for that craze!

7. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi- $9.7M/$33M

8. Daddy's Home- $5.2M/$138M
The second team up between Mark Whalberg and Will Ferrall has quietly made it's way to a VERY respectable $138M. I'm going to go ahead and guess that this isn't the last we've seem of these two on-screen together. Poor John C Reilly must be so sad.

9 Norm of the North- $4.1M/$14M

10. The Big Short- $3.5M/$56M

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Box Office: 'Star Wars' Still #1 But 'The Revenant' Is A Close 2nd With $38M

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- $41.6M/$812M
After nearly a month there's still something new to say about the latest Star Wars film as it races up the charts faster than a jump through hyperspace. The film has now passed the $800M domestically, and worldwide it has hit $1.7B, soaring past Jurassic World into 3rd place all-time. That said, it's starting to slow down now and very nearly lost the top spot to The Revenant's expanded rollout, but it looks like it will be next week's Ride Along 2 that gets the honor. Get ready for those lame ass graphics all over Facebook: "Ride Along 2 dethrones Star Wars!". Yeah, who cares?
2. The Revenant- $38M/$39.5M
Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu's brilliant and possibly Oscar-winning The Revenant expanded nationally in its third week and earned $38M, plus one very special honor. By being the top film on Friday it's the first to defeat Star Wars for even a single day since it was released in December. Perhaps they should make an ad out of that? Maybe show Leonardo DiCaprio holding up a lightsaber and a bear pelt? As it's beginning to look more likely that DiCaprio will at least be nominated for Best Actor, with many expecting him to finally win, we should see the film steam along for a few weeks of strong returns. Already it's on the verge of surpassing the entire domestic total of Inarritu's Best Picture-winning Birdman, and the $38M debut marks one of DiCaprio's biggest of his career.
3. Daddy's Home- $15M/$116.3M
4. The Forest (review here)- $13M
The first real test of popular Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer's box office muscle proved to be a modest success. The Forest, another in a long tradition of cheap horror movies at the beginning of a new year, opened with $13M, which isn't bad considering the $10M budget. However, it's likely to tank hard next week meaning there aren't going to be huge returns on this one for anybody.
5. Sisters- $7.1M/$74.8M
6. The Hateful Eight- $6.35M/$41.4M
7. The Big Short- $6.3M/$42.8M
8. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip- $5.5M/$75.6M
9. Joy- $4.5M/$46.5M
10. Concussion- $3M/$30.9M

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Box Office: 'Star Wars' Tops $1B As New Releases Start Strong

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens- $153.5M/$544.5M

The amazing thing about Star Wars: the Force Awakens' $153M second weekend is that it faced such stiff competition. A slew of varied films from A-list stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Will Ferrell, Will Smith, and Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't put a dent in the powerhouse, which dropped only 38% and amassed $544M domestically, the fastest to that number ever. Worldwide it's doing even better with $1.09B, ranking fifth all-time. Uhhh...it's only been out for 12 days, ya'll.

2. Daddy's Home (review here)- $38.8M
While we can all count on Will Ferrell as one of today's most consistent comedy stars, his opening weekends don't tend to be all that huge. Case in point, Daddy's Home, which sees him paired with another reliable box office star in Mark Wahlberg, opened at $38.8M, the 3rd-highest of his career. It's a solid score for both stars, especially Wahlberg who could use a bounce-back after Ted 2 underwhelmed earlier this year.
3. Joy (review here)- $17.5M
Despite the many hit films and awards already under her belt, Joy makes the strongest case for Jennifer Lawrence as a box office draw. The film, largely built and promoted around her, got off to a very good start with $17.5M. The biopic on entrepreneur and inventor Joy Mangano was directed by David O. Russell and reteams Lawrence with Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, the foursome having worked together on awards fodder American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook. Certainly, the Oscar potential in Joy helped out considerably and will likely carry it along for a few weeks, but this is a win for Lawrence, for sure.
4. Sisters- $13.8M/$37.1M
Barely moving an inch from last week when it dared to open opposite Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy, Sisters. The fairly mediocre film didn't even drop a full percentage point this week, meaning that its attempt at counter-programming was a definite success. Women can't live on lightsabers and Wookies alone, fellas.
5. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip- $12.7M/$39.3M
6. Concussion (review here)- $11M
Traditionally football movies have only done okay at the box office, but what about a movie that hammers the NFL for being negligent about the health of its players? Well, that's one Hell of a tough sell. Concussion, which is earning Will Smith the best reviews he's had in years, opened with a lackluster $11M.The film centers on the discovery of the connection between NFL players and severe head injury, which the league and commissioner Roger Goodell denied for way too long. There was a lot of pre-buzz that the story would be toned down to ease up on the league, but the advanced controversy doesn't seem to have attracted much of an audience domestically. Now, Smith is a huge star overseas and there's a good chance the film is huge internationally. And considering the Oscar talk swirling around Smith's performance we could see a boost somewhere down the line.
7. The Big Short- $10.5M/$16M
8. Point Break- $10.2M
Nobody wanted a remake of Point Break, the classic bro flick that starred Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. But we got one anyway, and Warner Bros. decided on top of all the negative buzz they would also not screen it for critics. Bad call, gang. The film opened at $10.2M which is about as bad as could have been expected. In the famous lead roles are the less-than-famous Edgar Ramirez (who thankfully has Joy to fall back on) and Luke Bracy, neither of which is known to put butts in seats.
9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2- $5.3M/$264.6M
10. Creed- $4.6M/$96.3M

The 70mm gamble by Quentin Tarantino appears to have paid off as The Hateful Eight's (review here) road show opened with $4.5M at 100 select locations outfitted for the format. That's an incredible $45K per site average, which would look even more amazing if it weren't for the ridiculous business done by Star Wars last week. This came after weeks of haggling over the actual theaters that would present the film in 70mm, plus The Weinstein Company's significant expense outfitting them so they could.  The only downside is that it probably could have done better except the film was leaked onto the Internet early, although this is likely to affect the theatrical version a bit more.

And finally (God damn this was a busy week!) Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's bear-mawling survival thriller The Revenant (review here) opened in 4 locations, earning $471K in the process. It's a hefty start for a film that is expected to earn Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar nomination, and depending on who you ask it may get him his first win. It's worth noting that Inarritu's Best Picture-winning Birdman didn't start off so hot but Oscar buzz and international audiences powered it to over $100M. Don't be surprised if something similar happens here.

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Review: 'Daddy's Home', starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg

The most frustrating thing about Daddy's Home is that it didn't have to be bad.  Will Ferrell has his ups and downs, but this feels less like a Ferrell vehicle than an Adam Sandler movie.  I wish I could lay it cleanly at the feet of Dumb and Dumber To writer and That's My Boy director Sean Anders, but he's made some not-awful comedies too, so there was hope.

I've said before that Ferrell needs some sort of constraint to really perform at his best.  That can be a high-concept gimmick like Casa de Mi Padre, working outside straight, zany comedy as he did in Everything Must Go, or just a really strong opposing lead, like Zach Galifianakis provided in The Campaign.  Ferrell's Daddy's Home co-star Mark Wahlberg actually provided exactly this last kind of push-back when they made The Other Guys, and they actually balance pretty well here too.

The problem is that they're balancing on a really boring and unimaginative script.  Ferrell is Brad Taggart, a schnook who wants nothing more than to be a dad, but who lost the ability in a dental office mishap.  Luckily, he married Sarah (Linda Cardellini), who has two kids -- Megan (Scarlett Estevez) and Dylan (Owen Vaccaro) -- from her previous marriage to Dusty Mayron (Wahlberg).  And, after a long settling in period, they're finally starting to accept Brad when Dusty shows up.

Brad wants to play nice with Dusty, allowing the kids to spend time with him rather than setting him up as a forbidden fruit.  And under normal circumstances that would be the right move, but not here.  Sarah tells Brad she thinks it's a bad idea being so friendly with Dusty.  "He gets in your head", she says.  And while Dusty may not have been violent with her or the kids, he's a master manipulator, and his gaslighting tactics in any other movie would mark him as an abusive partner.

Except in this movie, there seems to be nothing wrong with Dusty.  Very late in the game we see that he's temperamentally unsuited to domesticity, but up until that point his only flaw is being a jerk to Ferrell, who frankly is as much of a jerk to him.  Not only Dusty everything Brad isn't, he's everything he is as well, and better.  He's strong and tough and cool.  While Brad struggles to find a new voice for the smooth-jazz radio network he works at, Dusty comes in and records a spot in a single take, making himself instantly wealthy and winning the loyalty of Brad's boss (Thomas Haden Church) on top of everything else.  At home, he sets Brad up to look improbably racist in front of a contractor (Hannibal Buress) and then even more improbably moves the contractor into Brad's house.

Yes, improbable things happen in zany comedies, but at every turn Daddy's Home relies on every single character being exactly as stupid as the writers need them to be to let all this slide.  And the worst of all is Sarah herself, who has a history with Dusty and knows all his moves, and yet still is not only powerless to cut him off at the pass, she falls for his gambits as strongly as anyone else.  It evidently never crosses what I'm pretty certain Anders thinks of as her little woman-brain that Dusty might be up to the exact sort of dirty tricks she knows and says he once used on her.  News flash: women who have escaped from abusive partners are usually pretty highly sensitive to seeing the warning signs again.  If she has already recognized him as a manipulator, Sarah is the last person who should ever fall for Dusty's manipulations again.

There's no give-and-take between Brad and Dusty.  There's no move of Brad's that Dusty doesn't immediately outdo.  The best lick Brad gets in is trying to buy the kids' love even if it means going into debt, and even that shouldn't actually work because the movie already established that his own company is already paying Dusty thousands of dollars a day.  It's not just that the dweeby critic sticks up for the dweeby character; without a lot more balance, this whole thing degenerates into Ferrell acting as a punching bag until the writers decide to jam the "right" ending into place so we can all go home.

Rating: 1 out of 5

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Win Passes to an Advance Screening of 'Daddy's Home' Starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg

We're happy to offer our DC readers a chance to attend a free advance screening of the new comedy, Daddy's Home, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Ferrell plays the mild-mannered stepdad to his wife's two kids, but he's forced to fight for their love when their real father (Wahlberg) shows up.

The screening takes place on Sunday, December 13th at 3pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. To enter, simply complete the Rafflecopter contest form below! Winners will be selected on Thursday, December 10th and notified by email. Good luck!

Daddy's Home opens Christmas Day.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Stepdad vs. Dad in the New 'Daddy's Home' Trailer with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell

Ding ding ding! In this corner is frequent action hero and part-time burger salesman Mark Wahlberg! and in this corner is perennial funnyman and all-around goof Will Ferrell. The two have made for an unlikely pair before in the cop comedy The Other Guys, but in the new film Daddy's Home they're forced to square off to prove which one is the better father. Let the hijinks begin.

The latest trailer for the film is a lot like the first. Ferrell is the abnormally earnest stepdad to Linda Cardellini's kids, while Wahlberg is their arrogant and manly biological father who shows up and makes his life a nightmare. Of course, these two are an oil & water pair if there ever was one, which is what makes them such fun to watch. Here's the synopsis:

“DADDY’S HOME” follows a mild-mannered radio executive (Ferrell) who strives to become the best stepdad to his wife’s two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father (Wahlberg) arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids.

Directed by Sean Anders, Daddy's Home opens on Christmas Day.

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Will Ferrell vs. Mark Wahlberg in the First Trailer for Comedy 'Daddy's Home'

One of the great comedic twists on The Other Guys was that Mark Wahlberg's tough-guy cop character couldn't understand how his hapless partner, played by Will Ferrell, was such a irresistible force to women. It kept the buddy-comedy dynamic a little bit off the typical course and made for some great laughs. Wahlberg and Ferrell are back together again in Daddy' Home, and again their clashing personalities will cause some competitive fireworks in under the roof.

"It's Dad vs. Step-Dad" should tell you all you need to know about this comedy from directors Sean Anderson and John Morris, who previously co-wrote Horrible Bosses 2.  Ferrell plays a loyal, responsible stepfather to his wife's (Linda Cardellini) children, but faces some stiff competition when their badass, hunky biological father (Wahlberg) shows up.

This looks like an easy sell for fans of both stars, and certainly more appealing than Ferrell's last film, the R-rated Get Hard.

Daddy's Home opens Christmas Day.


DADDY'S HOME Movie Trailer - Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Linda Cardellini (HD) by 80PoundMedia

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Michael Pena goes on 'Vacation', Linda Cardellini Joins 'Daddy's Home'

A trio of Fox favorites have come aboard New Line's sequel/remake of the classic road trip comedy, Vacation. Michael Pena, who stars in the network's Gracepoint, along with Kaitlin Olson of FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Nick Kroll of The League, are joining the film which centers on a grown-up Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms).  Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo will reprise their roles from the earlier movies, with Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Tim Heidecker, Keegan-Michael Key, and Olson's 'Sunny' co-star Charlie Day also part of the cast. Production is underway now with John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Horrible Bosses ) directing.

Linda Cardellini may not be a Ghostbuster yet (*fingers crossed*) but that will give her time to join Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell in Daddy's Home. She'll play the wife to Ferrell's character, "a mild-mannered radio executive looking to become the best stepdad to his wife’s two children just as their freewheeling and freeloading real father arrives on the scene." Sean Anders will direct when production begins later this year. [THR]

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Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell will Reteam for 'Daddy's Home'

Looks like The Other Guys are getting back together again. A few months ago it was reported that Mark Wahlberg would be joining Will Ferrell for Daddy's Home, replacing Ferrell's Old School co-star, Vince Vaughn. Paramount has now officially the confirmed the duo will be reuniting on the comedy, with filming expected to begin later this year.

Directed by Sean Anders who co-wrote the script that has seen revisions from Adam McKay, Chris Henchy, John Morris, and Etan Cohen, the story has Ferrell playing a mild-mannered radio executive who strives to become the best stepdad to his wife’s two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father (Wahlberg) arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids.

Ferrell and Wahlberg are both funny guys on their own, but together they have tremendous comedic chemistry. Hopefully Daddy's Home turns out better than the synopsis would suggest. 

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Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg May Reunite for 'Daddy's Home'

When Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell teamed up on The Other Guys, it was the mismatching styles that made the film so much fun. Here you had the action-ready Wahlberg, a funny guy in his own right, alongside Ferrell in one of his goofiest roles. The combination worked, and we may be fortunate enough to see the duo together again on something different.

Last year it was looking like another reunion for Ferrell, joining his Old School pal Vince Vaughn for the comedy Daddy's Home. Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) was on board to direct, but the project has now undergone some changes. Vaughn is out and Paramount want Wahlberg to take his place in the film about a mild-mannered stepfather (Ferrell) who must compete for the love of his wife's kids against their freewheelin', freeloadin' real father. Also, Coen is out and replaced by co-directors Sean Anders (Sex Drive) and John Morris.

Filming is set to begin this fall if everything comes together.

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