Monday Mixer: It's 'Back to the Future' week!
Posted Monday, October 19, 2015 at 4:39 PM Central
by John Couture
Sports, man. Some weeks you're a winner while others you're not a winner.
For Tim and myself, this weekend was more along the lines of the latter. Tim is a dyed-in-the-wool Cubs fan, so his boys being off to a 0-2 start in the NLCS is less than ideal, but hardly the worst bit of news for our teams this weekend.
On the gridiron, we both support Michigan football and I don't think I need to rehash that finish for anyone. Needless to say, I was 10 seconds away from purging a half decade's worth of pain and suffering at the hands of spiteful Michigan State fans on facebook when the unthinkable happened.
Of course, as much as that play was a jaw-dropper, it was quickly topped by the Colts ineptitude on Sunday Night Football. Known as the fake punt that wasn't, the Colts were denied when they snapped the ball on 4th and 3 and their player was immediately tackled by five Patriots players when the center was unable to block five guys by himself. Yep, it was a weekend worthy of drinking.
And yet, the sun still came up this morning and life goes on. Even better, we can talk about something more enjoyable like this weekend's box office.
Box Office 411
Despite Sony's pessimism for a $12-15 million opening, Goosebumps captured the top spot at the box office with $23.5 million. With original projections close to $30 million, this still feels like a bit of a letdown to me.
The good news is that audiences have been very receptive to the film and without true competition from another family film until The Peanuts Movie debuts on November 6. Goosebumps should enjoy good holds and end up with just north of $100 million when the dust settles.
Bridge of Spies opened up in third place with $15.3 million. With Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, expectations were much higher, but this is actually in line with their last collaboration The Terminal. That film ended up with $77 million and while this one probably won't reach that number, a nice awards season bump might get it up to $60 million.
The two other new releases Crimson Peak ($12.8 million) and Woodlawn ($4.1 million) also fell below expectations. The Guillermo del Toro horror film was highly touted and might be considered one of only a couple missteps from Universal this year. Of course, when this is considered a misstep, you know that you're having a good year.
Quick Hitters
- I dig the hell out of The Big Lebowski, but that's hardly surprising given my love of everything Coen Brothers. What is surprising is that there's a store in New York City called The Little Lebowski dedicated to all things Lebowski, big and small. What is sad is that the store is closing.
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So, this is the week. If things go as planned, Marty McFly will arrive from the year 1985 on Wednesday. To celebrate, Universal is pulling out all of the stops and making it a worthy tribute to the 30-year-old film. Personally, I'll be headed to the local megaplex to watch all three of the Back to the Future films on the big screen on Wednesday (check out my review on Thursday).
Claudia Wells, aka Jennifer Parker, lets us in on that fateful lake trip.
Here's a recreation of that fateful first trip in time travel.
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunite and discuss what the film got right and wrong.
And then there's this. Break out your tin foil hats for this one. Somehow, Back to the Future is being used as being a harbinger of 9/11.
- The best thing that came out of the total trainwreck that was Fantastic Four might be this news. It seems that Fox is raising the white flag on the franchise and the rights are reverting back to Marvel. A new Marvel film of the first family of comics is rumored for 2020.
- Die Hard 6 is supposedly in the works. What is even more bizarre is that it's supposed to be a prequel set in the 1970s. There's no word on Bruce Willis' involvement, but a prequel set that far in the past would usually indicate a re-casting.
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The rest of the big news this weekend is yesterday's release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster and today's pending release of the final trailer for the film during Monday Night Football. Here's the poster.
Yes, that looks like yet another Death Star, but don't get me started. Thankfully, this guy on Twitter took the poster and made it "better."
I just improved #StarWars #TheForceAwakens by 10000% #JarJarBinks pic.twitter.com/tQJSJfUsYs
— Olly Gibbs (@ollyog) October 18, 2015If you want to buy tickets to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you can do that starting tomorrow. Here are all the details straight from the source. Yes, there will be a seven-film marathon on December 17. Yes, I will be there and you can too. Tickets will be here starting tomorrow on Fandango.
John Boyega is back on Instagram and he's posting a few Star Wars tidbits like this one.
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And finally today, we teased that there will be a new and final trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens this evening, but until then you can enjoy these three teasers.
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One last thing. Kevin Smith reminded us that this week is the 21st anniversary of the release of Clerks and the 20th anniversary of the release of Mallrats. Congrats bud! And yes, we're working on something big to commemorate the occasion, check back later on in the week.
21 years ago today, CLERKS was released in theaters. My baby is all grown up and ready to drink! (Tomorrow marks 20th anni of RATS release.)
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) October 19, 2015
I'm not even supposed to Mixer today!