Movies
More Actors Suit Up ‘Pacific Rim’ Battle
“Aftermath” star Levi Meaden, pictured in the green shirt above, has joined the cast of Pacific Rim 2 opposite John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny and Jing Tian, Variety reports.
The sequel is directed by Steven S. DeKnight with Guillermo del Toro, Jon Jashni, Femi Oguns, Mary Parent, and Thomas Tull producing.
Plot details are vague with Boyega playing the son of the character played by Idris Elba, whose character sacrificed his life in the original film. Meaden is joining the franchise as Ilya, an irreverent and offbeat cadet.
The first Pacific Rim, directed by del Toro, starred Elba, Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Robert Kazinsky. It was set in the near future with Earth at war with the Kaiju, monsters that emerged from an inter-dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and grossed $411 million at the worldwide box office.
The film begins production this November in Australia and will also film a portion in China. It will be released by Universal on Feb. 23, 2018.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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