Chris Bumbray

5 days ago | joblo.com | Chris Bumbray

In Hollywood, there’s no greater risk than mounting a vanity project. You know the type – when a director or star achieves superstar level, they can’t resist the temptation to turn their pet project into a film, no matter how poorly conceived or uncommercial it may be. When a star gets that big, chances are they’ll find someone to fund their movie, with notable examples being John Travolta’s Battlefield Earth, Chris Pine’s Poolman, or The Weeknd’s recent flop, Hurry Up Tomorrow.

6 days ago | joblo.com | Chris Bumbray

As expected, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch easily took the weekend box office crown, earning $63 million (about what we predicted), pushing its domestic total to an impressive $280 million. To put that into context, the movie was initially planned for a Disney+ debut, the same as Moana 2. With both movies making hundreds of millions in profit, Disney’s new policy to go theatrical is paying off, even if Snow White might have been better off being pushed to streaming, with it a rare misfire for them.

6 days ago | joblo.com | Chris Bumbray

The weekend sees the release of the sixth Karate Kid film, Karate Kid: Legends. This one tries to string together the continuity of the original 1984 film (and Cobra Kai) with the 2010 reboot led by Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. While I wrote in my review the many reasons I didn’t think it worked (for one thing, despite sharing a name, Chan doesn’t seem to be playing the same character he did in 2010), audiences liked it, giving it an A-minus CinemaScore, and an opening north of $20 million.

1 week ago | joblo.com | Chris Bumbray

Just as we predicted earlier this week, last weekend’s Memorial Day box office champ, Lilo & Stitch, will easily take the top spot once again, with it on track to make $60-64 million as per Deadline’s early numbers. While that was expected by all, many box office pundits (but not us) felt that Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends had an opportunity to claim second place over Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

1 week ago | joblo.com | Chris Bumbray

PLOT: After the sudden death of their father, two Australian teens (Billy Barratt and Sora Wong) find themselves stuck with an eccentric foster mother (Sally Hawkins), with a dark secret. REVIEW: Bring Her Back, the sophomore film from Talk to Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou, has a purposely familiar plot. How often have we seen horror movies about orphaned children saddled with creepy foster parents?