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Avengers: Infinity War squashes Life of the Party and Breaking In at box office

With all due respect to Melissa McCarthy and Gabrielle Union: It’s Thanos’ world, we just live in it.

In its third weekend, Disney and Marvel’s superhero blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War continues to dominate the box office, earning an estimated $61.8 million from 4,474 theaters in the U.S. and Canada while trouncing McCarthy’s new comedy Life of the Party and Union’s new thriller Breaking In.

On Saturday, Infinity War cracked the $500 million mark at the domestic box office, becoming the second-fastest film to do so, and through Sunday it will have grossed about $547.8 million. The movie also bowed in China this weekend, powering a massive $281.3 million international haul. Its worldwide total now stands at about $1.6 billion and ranks fifth all time, behind Avatar, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Jurassic World.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and made for close to $300 million, Infinity War marks the third Avengers film and the 19th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It features heroes from across the MCU franchise — including Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and the Chris Pratt-led Guardians of the Galaxy — and pits them against Thanos (Josh Brolin), an interplanetary warlord trying to wipe out half the life in the universe.

An untitled sequel is already on the calendar for May 3, 2019.

In second place, Warner Bros’. Life of the Party will take in about $18.5 million at 3,656 domestic theaters. That figure is in line with industry projections but falls short of recent McCarthy films Tammy ($21.6 million), The Boss ($23.6 million), and Spy ($29.1 million)

Written by McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, who also directed, Life of the Party centers on a middle-aged divorcée (McCarthy) who returns to college to finish her degree and winds up in class with her daughter (Molly Gordon). The film received lackluster reviews from critics, and audiences gave it a tepid B CinemaScore.

The weekend’s other new wide release, Universal’s Breaking In, is on pace to gross about $16.5 million at 2,537 theaters, good for third place. That’s a solid start for a film that cost a modest $6 million to make.

Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), the film stars Union as a mother forced to protect her kids when the mansion of her recently deceased dad is invaded by burglars. Reviews have been poor, and moviegoers gave it a B CinemaScore.

Rounding out the top five this weekend are Lionsgate and MGM’s rom-com remake Overboard, with about $10.1 million, and Paramount’s silently spooky horror hit A Quiet Place, with about $6.4 million.

According to ComScore, overall box office is up 4.8 percent year-to-date. Check out the May 11-13 figures below.

1. Avengers: Infinity War — $61.8 million
2. Life of the Party — $18.5 million
3. Breaking In — $16.5 million
4. Overboard — $10.1 million
5. A Quiet Place — $6.4 million
6. I Feel Pretty — $3.7 million
7. Rampage — $3.4 million
8. Tully — $2.2 million
9. Black Panther — $1.9 million
10. Blockers — $1.1 million

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter Reteaming for ‘Bill & Ted 3’

‘Bill & Ted Face the Music,’ which is being shopped in Cannes, is actually happening, some 29 years after the duo’s first excellent adventure.
It’s official: Wyld Stallyns are reforming.

Following 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that a much-discussed third Bill & Ted installment — Bill & Ted Face the Music — is now firmly in the works some 27 years later. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are set to reprise their iconic roles as time-traveling metalheads “Ted” Theodore Logan and “Bill” S. Preston Esq.

Original creators Chris Matheson (Imagine That) and Ed Solomon (Men in Black, Mosaic, Now You See Me) have penned the script, with Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Red 2, Fun With Dick and Jane) confirmed to direct. Scott Kroopf (Limitless) will produce together with Alex Lebovici and Steve Ponce of Hammerstone Studios, with Steven Soderbergh serving as an executive producer alongside Scott Fischer, John Ryan Jr. and John Santilli.

MGM owns the rights to the film and will release it in the U.S. under its Orion Pictures banner. Bloom is handling international sales, which commenced in Cannes where the project is likely to be one of the buzziest films in the market. Endeavor Content negotiated the deal.

Currently in preproduction, Bill & Ted Face the Music will see the duo long past their days as time-traveling teenagers and now weighed down by middle age and the responsibilities of family. They’ve written thousands of tunes, but they have yet to write a good one, much less the greatest song ever written. With the fabric of time and space tearing around them, a visitor from the future warns our heroes that only their song can save life as we know it. Out of luck and fresh out of inspiration, Bill and Ted set out on a time travel adventure to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe. Together with the aid of their daughters, a new crop of historical figures, and some sympathetic music legends, they find much, much more than just a song.

“We couldn’t be more excited to get the whole band back together again,” said Reeves and Winter. “Chris and Ed wrote an amazing script, and with Dean at the helm we’ve got a dream team!”

Bloom’s Alex Walton said: “Fans of Bill and Ted have been waiting for Reeves and Winter to reunite since their last Bogus Journey in 1991. This is excellent!”

Solomon and Matheson reportedly began working on a script in 2010, with both Reeves and Winter indicating in various interviews over the years that they were interested in making the film happen.

In 2017, Reeves told BBC talk show host Graham Norton that the film had been written and the story would see the duo “supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven’t done that. The pressure of having to save the world, their marriages are falling apart, their kids are kind of mad at them, and then someone comes from the future and tells them if they don’t write the song it’s just not the world, it’s the universe.”

Earlier this year, Solomon described the hold-up to Entertainment Weekly, saying: “We’ve been to the altar a few times. We get rejected right about the ‘now you may kiss the bride’ part of it.”

Reeves is represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham; Winter is represented by CAA, Forward Entertainment, Hollander Entertainment and Sloss Eckhouse LawCo; Parisot is represented by WME; and Hammerstone Studios is represented by Rosen Law Group.

What Happened to Killmonger’s Mother in ‘Black Panther’ May Make You Cry

(If you haven’t seen “Black Panther” by now, you already know spoilers are ahead.)

Erik “Killmonger” Stevens’ story in “Black Panther” just became even more tragic.

The movie’s villain, played by Michael B. Jordan, lost his father N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) at the hands of Wakanda’s king T’Chaka (John Kani). But it turns out that he lost his mother, too.

In the recently released Blu-Ray commentary for the movie, director Ryan Coogler shed some light on what N’Jobu and young Zuri (Denzel Whitaker) were up to in the movie’s opening scene.

“The idea was when you see those guys talking over the paperwork in the beginning of the film, they’re talking about a way to break her out of jail,” Coogler said. “The idea was they never got her out, and she passed away in prison, so Killmonger didn’t come up with a mom either.”

Not gonna cry. Nope. **sniff**

N’Jobu’s death is what leads Killmonger to seek revenge on Wakanda, and when T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) finds out that his father killed his uncle, it’s one of the most shocking reveals of the movie.

N’Jobu’s vision for using Wakandan tech to help the outside world eventually becomes realized, even though his son dies in the end, because Black Panther decides to help the outside world at the end of the movie — and we get to see exactly how in “Avengers: Infinity War.” Sorry though, Okoye (Danai Gurira): it’s not by building a Starbucks.

Black Widow Has Reportedly Looked At A Huge Number Of Directors

Ever since she debuted in Iron Man 2, Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, has been one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s key heroes, whether it’s as a supporting character in another hero’s movie or being part of a big ensemble. Eight years after her introduction, it sounds Marvel Studios is finally ready to spotlight the KGB agent-turned-S.H.I.E.L.D. operative-turned-superhero in her own story, as it was reported back in January that a Black Widow movie is in development. While we don’t have a timetable yet on when this movie could come out, evidently Marvel isn’t sparing any effort with finding the right person to helm it, as the studio has reportedly met with more than 65 directors.

This information comes to us from Variety reporter Justin Kroll, and while we don’t know most of the names that are on this list, it was revealed last week that Mustang’s Deniz Gamze Erguven, The Rider’s Chloe Zhao and A United Kingdom’s Amma Asante are among the candidates. Whether the directing job goes to one of those three or someone else we haven’t heard about yet, it sounds like Marvel’s been quite thorough with its search. With a character like Black Widow, who’s both been an important player in the comics and an integral member of the MCU, it’s important to ensure that her standalone movie is the best it can be. If that means chatting with upwards of 65 directors, then by all means, schedule those meetings!

All we know for sure about the Black Widow movie, aside from Scarlett Johansson obviously reprising the heroine, is that it’s being written by Jac Schaffer, who also penned Olaf’s Frozen Adventure and The Hustle. However, it was recently rumored that rather than being set after the events of Avengers 4, it would be a prequel following Natasha Romaoff approximately 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would place the movie around 2006, a couple years before her appearance in Iron Man 2. Assuming this is true, it’s unclear if at this point in time she was still working for Russian intelligence or had already defected to join S.H.I.E.L.D., but since Sebastian Stan has expressed interest in appearing in the Black Widow movie, perhaps the tale could chronicle Natasha’s first encounter with The Winter Soldier.

Assuming that Black Widow is released during Phase Four, that makes it the third movie that’s confirmed for this slate of films, following Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (an Eternals movie is also in consideration). We here at CinemaBlend will keep you updated on how the Black Widow movie is developing as more information becomes available, including who scores the directing gig. In the meantime, Black Widow can currently be seen alongside most of the MCU’s other heroes in Avengers: Infinity War, and you can look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what other projects this franchise has in the works.