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Monday Mixer: More 'Star Wars' news than you can handle

Posted Monday, April 20, 2015 at 2:54 PM Central
Last updated Monday, April 20, 2015 at 2:55 PM Central

by John Couture

Was this weekend national trailer weekend? It sure felt like it.

With all of the news emanating from Anaheim from Celebration about Star Wars, it seems like all of the other studios wanted to ride the coattails of The Force Awakens. And do you blame them? We've already posted a story about The Force Awakens trailer and if you haven't seen it yet, go now!

If that trailer wasn't enough, the first official look at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice debuted as well as new trailers from Jurassic World and Fantastic Four. Yes, it was a busy weekend for trailers and we'll highlight some of them below while others will get their own news stories later.

But the biggest story of the weekend by a wide margin was all of the Star Wars news that filtered out of Celebration and even some that wasn't quite ready for prime time. More info on that cryptic nugget soon, I promise. Others have made the argument and I will simply throw my hat in the ring of support, Comic Con should take note at what Celebration did this weekend.

They provided live feeds from most of their highly anticipated panels and filled in the gaps with interviews and footage from the floor. How amazing would it be if Comic Con were to implement a similar solution. I would love to go to Comic Con someday, but since it's not feasible at the moment, this would be the next best thing.

Time to put away my soapbox and dig into it. If you like trailers, this MM is for you.

Box Office 411

Before we get into the many trailers of the weekend, we do have to pay some lip service to the box office. My greatest joy in the world this morning is not having to utter the words "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 #1 at the box office." That would have been the straw that broke my box office back as it were.

That honor, once again, belonged to Furious 7 who checked in at #1 for the third consecutive week with $29 million. To date, Furious 7 has earned just under $300 million at North American theaters and over $1.1 billion world-wide. If the film is able to hold on when Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in a couple of weeks, it could flirt with that rare $400 million barrier.

While Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 didn't unseat Furious 7 this weekend, there is a chance that it might leapfrog the film next week as the new slate of films are something less than impressive. Still, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 did make $24 million which was the second biggest solo performance ever for Kevin James. His best performance? Paul Blart: Mall Cop naturally, but the sequel will struggle to beat the first film's $146 million take. In fact, I think it's possible that Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 will end up short of the $100 million mark.

The other big release this weekend, Unfriended performed admirably with a $16 million opening. The ultra low budget horror film will end up turning a profit and should end its run with about $40 million. The continued success of these type of films only guarantees that we will see more of these in the months and years to come.

Quick Hitters

May the Mix be with you!