The War with Grandpa Defeats Tenet
Last weekend, The War with Grandpa dethroned Tenet in the first place at the box office. Yes, you’ve read this right: after five consecutive weeks at the top spot, a $200 million mind-bending science fiction thriller was sent packing by a lazy family film featuring pratfalls. It just goes to show: never send a witch to do a grandpa’s job.
Tim Hill (Alvin and the Chipmunks, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run) directed a comedy in which Robert de Niro, who once starred in classics like Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, plays an elderly parody of himself. Based on a novel by Robert Kimmel Smith, the story follows Peter (Oakes Fegley – Pete’s Dragon), who declares war on his grandpa after he moves into his room. Other luminaries in the movie include Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, Uma Thurman, and Christopher Walken. In its inaugural weekend, The War with Grandpa earned $3,6 million.
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is now in second place with approximately $2,1 million. Disney’s re-release of its 1993 Halloween-themed children’s film Hocus Pocus is coming in third with $1,2 million. The New Mutants is still holding onto the fourth place with $706,000 before its November digital release. And in fifth place at the last weekend’s box office is Unhinged with a weekend gross of $683,000. All of this data comes courtesy of the Box Office Mojo.
Ewan McGregor Claims Obi-Wan Kenobi TV Series Still in Works
SlashFilm reports Ewan McGregor confirmed that the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series is still in production. This happened during an interview on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show. The famous actor stated Disney Plus plans to start shooting the show in March 2021.
This is quite surprising for several reasons. First of all, the COVID-19 pandemic messed up production schedules for most movies and TV shows. Studios keep experimenting with ways to resume work while safeguarding the health and safety of people on sets. Furthermore, in January, LucasFilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy unceremoniously put the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series on hold. She wasn’t satisfied with scripts by Hossein Amini (Drive), who then left the project.
So, what happened next? In April 2020, Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) came on board to revise the scripts. Director Deborah Chow (Better Call Saul, The Mandalorian) still seems to be on board. And McGregor kept mentioning the show throughout the year. Among other things, he talked about how the project evolved from a feature film into a six-episode standalone series. Additionally, he mentioned plans to use Mandalorian‘s revolutionary LED technology for special effects.
AMC Theaters May Run Out of Money in 2021
AMC may be running out of money by the end of this year, reports CNN. The biggest US movie theater chain revealed it is running out of cash reserves. It may very well deplete them either by the end of 2020 or early in 2021.
The reasons for this are all too familiar. In March, government and local authorities alike responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by shutting down cinemas. They were rightfully concerned indoor gatherings of people may turn into superspreader events. By late August, even after many movie theaters reopened and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet arrived on big screens, audiences were hesitant to return. In response, major Hollywood studios like Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. postponed most of their upcoming releases, leaving reopened movie theaters stranded.
By early October, AMC reopened 494 of its nearly 600 US theaters. However, even with a seating capacity reduced down to between 20 and 40 percent due to health and safety regulations, AMC failed to fill the seats. While the company is currently exploring additional debt financing, renegotiations with landlords, and potential sales of assets, it doesn’t have its hopes up.
