Christmas Day will see acclaimed films like “Little Women” and “Uncut Gems” make their wide release, all while the industry eyes whether word of mouth about “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will be strong enough to maintain high turnout despite tepid critic reviews.
The film earned a strong $175 million opening, which fell well below the $220 million opening earned two years ago by “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The good news is that “Rise” opened closer to Christmas Day than “Last Jedi,” so a big 5-day weekend from families on holiday is within possibility. Hardcore fans made up the majority of this weekend’s audience with 59% male and 71% being non-family adult audiences.
The bar for “Rise of Skywalker” to clear is $27 million, the total that “Last Jedi” made on Christmas Day and Dec. 26. A mark above that would be a good sign for the blockbuster’s second weekend. If it is lower, we may see a noticeable drop in the final domestic and global totals compared to Rian Johnson’s polarizing installment.
Meanwhile, three other films will be released wide on Wednesday, the most prominent being Sony/Columbia’s “Little Women,” Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to her directorial debut “Lady Bird.” With a murderers’ row of a cast, a beloved novel to adapt from, and a director still riding high from her Oscar nomination, “Little Women” is earning critical acclaim as Sony hopes the film will leg out all the way to Oscar Sunday from its projected $21-23 million 5-day opening on 3,100+ screens. Sony is projecting a $16-17 million start against a $40 million budget.
But while the film is expected to have major turnout from female moviegoers — especially older demos — trackers tell TheWrap that the film is lagging in awareness and interest from their male counterparts. This comes as Vanity Fair reports that male awards voters — who make up the majority of voters for Hollywood’s many awards including the Oscars — are conspicuously absent from many industry screenings of the film. This is believed to be a factor in why Gerwig was snubbed from the Golden Globes — the film only got a Best Actress and Best Score nomination — and why the film was completely shut out from the SAG Awards.
Sony’s best case scenario is that “Little Women” gets such strong word of mouth that it helps it beat the perception among some male moviegoers that it’s not for them, turning them into converts. Hopefully the Golden Globe and SAG snubs don’t have a domino effect and hurt its chances at multiple Oscar nominations,, something that could boost the film’s numbers in January.
“Little Women” stars Saoirse Ronan as the erudite and headstrong Jo March, who endeavors to get her first novel published while helping her sisters (Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen and Florence Pugh) and mother (Laura Dern) navigate the trials of life during and after the Civil War. Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, Chris Cooper and Tracy Letts also star. The film has a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Little Women” will face major competition for male arthouse audiences from A24’s “Uncut Gems,” which is also getting critical acclaim for directors Josh and Ben Safdie and for Adam Sandler’s lead performance as a New York jeweler with self-destructive tendencies. The film has already made $1 million from a five screen limited run in Los Angeles and New York and sports a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score. With its relentlessly intense pacing and criminal dealings, the film is expected to draw Gen X men who grew up watching Sandler’s work and is projected by trackers to earn a 5-day start in the mid-teens.
“Uncut Gems” stars Sandler as Howard Ratner, a jeweler whose gambling addiction has led him into serious trouble with loan sharks. With his marriage crumbling and the walls on his life closing in, he hatches a desperate scheme involving a rare, uncut Ethiopian gem and Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett, played by himself. Julia Fox, LaKeith Stanfield, The Weeknd and Idina Menzel also star.
The third release is the Fox/Blue Sky animated film “Spies in Disguise,” which was pushed repeatedly down the 2019 release slate from its original January release while Fox’s acquisition by Disney was being completed. Fox hopes “Spies” draws families with younger children who might find “Star Wars” too intense. The presence of “Frozen II,” which is still popular among families even a month after release, may be stronger than expected competition, but “Spies” is still projected for a $25 million 5-day opening.
“Spies in Disguise” stars Will Smith as a spy who is turned into a pigeon by a gadget created by his awkward tech specialist (Tom Holland). With the world threatened by a cybernetic madman (Ben Mendelsohn), the two must quickly find a way to change him back. Rashida Jones, Reba McEntire, Rachel Brosnahan, Karen Gillan, DJ Khaled and Masi Oka also star in the film, which is directed by Troy Quane and Nick Bruno.
Also releasing this holiday weekend in select cities is Universal’s “1917,” Sam Mendes’ World War I film shot and edited to look like one continuous take. Universal is releasing the film after a terrible opening weekend for their wide release hopeful “Cats,” which opened to just $6.5 million and poor reviews.
With “Cats” likely to bomb, the studio is hoping to rebound with a war film that earned three Golden Globe nominations — including Best Picture — and is expected to be a major player at the Oscars. A big awards haul, combined with word of mouth from limited release, could help earn the film a big weekend when it opens wide next month.
“1917” stars George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman as two British soldiers tasked with a deadly and critical mission: to deliver a message in less than 24 hours to cancel an attack that will lead to an ambush and the deaths of over 1,600 men. Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch also appear in the film, which Mendes directed and co-wrote with Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
10 Best Remakes of the 2010s, From 'Cinderella' to 'It' (Photos)
Remakes have been a part of the studio machine since at least as far back as 1904 when the groundbreaking “The Great Train Robbery” was reshot and resold. In the century-plus that followed, remakes have gotten a bad name for themselves and, to some, are indicative of the creative vacancy of the mainstream entertainment industry. But look closer and you’ll find that many filmmakers are doing wonderful things by taking old stories and making them new again, either by adding visual flair or injecting nuance where, perhaps, there was little to be found before. Some of the best movies of the last decade were remakes. And these, we dare say, were the 10 best.
Runners-Up (alphabetically): "About Last Night" (2014), "Benji" (2018), "The Crazies" (2010), "Frankenweenie" (2012), "Ghostbusters" (2016), "The Jungle Book" (2016), "Murder on the Orient Express" (2017), "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (2013), "A Star Is Born" (2018), "We Are What We Are" (2013)
10. "Let Me In" (2010)
Tomas Alfredson’s modern classic Swedish vampire drama “Let the Right One In” was only two years old when Matt Reeves remade it for American audiences, but “Let Me In” is anything but a superfluous rehash. Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz bring their own pain and warmth to their characters (a bullied boy and the immortal vampire who takes a shine to him, respectively), and Reeves adds a handful of gruesome shocks that make Alfredson’s icy original seem more brutal than before. “Let the Right One In” is the more mature and graceful film, but “Let Me In” is an expertly crafted crowdpleaser, equally valid but made for slightly different tastes.
Relativity Media
9. "Pete’s Dragon" (2016)
Of the recent spate of Disney blockbuster remakes, David Lowery’s “Pete's Dragon” is by far the loosest. Lowery transforms the original, quirky and bizarre musical into a focused and elegiac family fantasy about an orphaned boy raised by a dragon in the woods, and the family who wants to bring him back into the world without fully understand what he might lose in the process. Gorgeously photographed and sensitively acted, the new “Pete’s Dragon” is its own beast, full of charm and love and ambition, and arguably better than the original.
Walt Disney Studios
8. "True Grit" (2010)
The first time the Coen Bros. took a stab at remaking a classic film it was “The Ladykillers,” and we’ve all collectively agreed not to speak about that. Their second, “True Grit,” is a modern western classic. Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar-nominated for her big-screen debut, plays Mattie Ross, who hires the gruff and eccentric gunman Rooster Cogburn to hunt her father’s killer. Jeff Bridges takes over the Cogburn role from John Wayne (it’s the role than won Wayne an Oscar), and he makes the character over within the Coens' vivid vision of the west as ruled by loutish miscreants, all of whom lack the moral fiber of a teenage girl. A fantastic western from start to finish, filled with impressive detail and memorable performances.
Paframount
7. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011)
One of the most intriguing decisions any blockbuster franchise made this decade was to restart the “Planet of the Apes” series not by remaking the original, but by remaking the fourth film in the series, the underrated “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” (1972). Directed by Rupert Wyatt, the loose remake also tells the story of Caesar, the first intelligent ape who led a rebellion against his human oppressors. But without the baggage of multitudinous prequels, “Rise” is free to weave a distinctive new version of the sci-fi tragedy, in which a helpless animal forms attachments to humanity, only to watch his faith go unrewarded and punished before finally fighting back. Andy Serkis’ performance as Caesar over the course of the three rebooted “Apes” movies is perhaps the most accomplished piece of motion-capture acting filmed so far, and the intelligence and sensitivity with which “Rise” sets up his journey is nothing short of stellar.
20th Century Fox
6. "Cinderella" (2015)
Disney’s original “Cinderella” is a triumph of animation, but the 1950 film's story and characters were undeniably underdeveloped by contemporary standards. Kenneth Branagh’s luminous remake can’t hold a candle to the original’s historical significance to the medium, but it tells the superior version of the story, fleshing out Cate Blanchett’s “wicked stepmother” character into a nuanced and sympathetic villain and giving Ella (Lily James) and her Prince Charming (Richard Madden) more time than ever to build a romantic bond before fate -- or at least, the magical stroke of midnight -- tears them apart. The remake views Ella not as a victim but as a principled heroine whose nobility emerges in ways that her persecutors cannot comprehend, let alone stifle. Branagh's “Cinderella" is one of the greatest fairy-tale movies.
Walt Disney Pictures
5. "Evil Dead" (2013)
Sam Raimi’s low-budget, independent, raw, ultraviolent and hyperkinetic cult classic was remade by Fede Alvarez into a raw, ultraviolent and hyperkinetic film that’s no less daring or subversive or grotesque for being paid for and released by a studio. In the remake, a group of young friends convene at an isolated cabin in the woods to help Mia (Jane Levy) battle her addiction to heroin, but along the way they accidentally release an ancient evil force that possesses Mia and tries to mutilate and destroy them all. The new “Evil Dead” captures Raimi’s virtuosic storytelling -- and reminds us all just how limp and conventional most modern camerawork really is -- while subverting audience expectations about where this remake is going, and how despicably it’s going to get there. It’s just as frightening and bizarre as the original, remake or no.
TriStar
4. "Suspiria" (2018)
Dario Argento’s hypnotic and hallucinogenic “Suspiria” defies conventional critical analysis, and searching its nightmarish surrealism for deeper meaning may have been beside the point. So it was bold as hell of Luca Guadagnino to remake “Suspiria” and to infuse the spooky narrative, about a ballet school run by witches, with vibrant political and social symbolism. Dakota Johnson stars as Susie Bannion, an American dancer studying under the great Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), and veering further and further into the school’s matriarchal world of empowerment and violence. As dense as the original is ephemeral, Guadagnino’s complex and ambitious new take on “Suspiria” is the mirror image of Argento’s classic and may reveal itself to be its own kind of horror classic as time goes on.
Amazon Studios
3. "It" (2017)
The cries that the two-part feature film “It” adaptation isn’t technically a remake of the two-part mini-series “It” adaptation have fallen on deaf ears; even the bloody format is the same. Andy Muschietti’s new version doesn’t have Tim Curry’s iconically horrifying chuckle as Pennywise, but the first half is more interested in Stephen King’s demonic clown as an insidious influence than as a scene-stealer. The story of a small-town “Loser’s Club,” comprised of adolescent outcasts who band together to conquer their fears -- as personified by Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, absolutely terrifying) -- has been transported into the late 1980s and now takes on a truly epic quality. “It” is a superbly produced horror-thriller that doubles as a sharp and meaningful coming-of-age allegory. The follow-up, “It: Chapter Two,” can’t stick the landing, falling prey to tedious mythologizing and an over-reliance on flashbacks, but Chapter One stands perfectly well on its own, and is so frightfully effective it could be destined for classic status.
Warner Bros.
2. "Silence" (2016)
In Scorsese’s “Silence,” a failure to be Christ-like is not a failure to be Christian. That’s not necessarily the reading one gets from Masahiro Shinoda’s original film version of Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel about Christian persecution in Japan in the 17th century. The author was reportedly unhappy with that first adaptation, and Scorsese seems determined to explore the story in a different way. “Silence” stars Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as Jesuit priests investigating claims that another member of their order has publicly renounced his faith under pressure from the Japanese government, who are eager to root out the western influence by any means necessary. Along the way, they too are challenged to give up their beliefs in exchange for an end to their suffering and the suffering of those they know. The film may be a tale of persecution, but it’s not a simple “us vs. them” propaganda narrative; Scorsese seems most eager to frame the story as a thoughtful treatise on the seeming impossibility of genuine faith in a world of danger, doubt and endless complications. It’s as fine and nuanced a work as any the filmmaker has ever crafted.
Paramount
1. "Little Women" (2019)
You know what they say about not fixing what ain't broke, but Greta Gerwig’s remake of “Little Women” fixes parts of Louisa May Alcott’s original novel, and its many adaptations, that some of us didn’t even realize needed fixing. Gerwig’s adaptation changes the timeline of the story, reframing it as a story being written instead of using the authorship of “Little Women” as a climax, and in so doing allows the love affair of Amy (Florence Pugh) and Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) to play as the most important relationship. (Previous adaptations sometimes made it seem like an afterthought, or worse, creepy.) The bold and welcome changes don’t end there, but Gerwig blissfully keeps the majority of the wonderful, timeless story intact. The cast is as fine as any ever assembled -- no easy task -- and the family squabbles, the romance, the humor and the progressive themes are as radiant as ever, and arguably more intelligently presented than in any previous rendition.
Sony
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Decade in Review: “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “Little Women” rank among the highlights of the decade
Remakes have been a part of the studio machine since at least as far back as 1904 when the groundbreaking “The Great Train Robbery” was reshot and resold. In the century-plus that followed, remakes have gotten a bad name for themselves and, to some, are indicative of the creative vacancy of the mainstream entertainment industry. But look closer and you’ll find that many filmmakers are doing wonderful things by taking old stories and making them new again, either by adding visual flair or injecting nuance where, perhaps, there was little to be found before. Some of the best movies of the last decade were remakes. And these, we dare say, were the 10 best.
