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Monday Mixer: Casting news for a 'Star Wars' spinoff?

Posted Monday, January 26, 2015 at 2:43 PM Central

by John Couture

Another weekend, another awards show.

Get used to it, between now and February 22 when the Oscars are handed out, there are exactly 1,246 different award shows. OK, maybe not exactly, but doesn't it feel like it?

I understand that everyone wants to recognize the best of the best in the past year, but do we really need each component weighing in? I can't wait until the Gaffer and Best Boy's award show, they always seem to throw a monkey wrench into the festivities every year.

I jest, but only barely. This weekend was another "big" awards show and Birdman added more bling to their awards season resumé and if you want to read all about it, click here. For the rest of Hollywood, it was yet another quiet weekend as many stars dashed to the mountains of Utah to kick off the Sundance Film Festival.

But here at the MM, we don't get to rest or a chance to escape to the mountains. Nope, we are here for you, so let's get to it.

Box Office 411

American Sniper hit its mark yet again. Really, that's all I have for this film. The surprising hit continued its dominance of the box office with interesting ramifications. In its second weekend of wide release, American Sniper added a whopping $64 million to its coffers, good enough for the eighth best second weekend of all time.

The interesting thing about this amazing performance is that all of that money is technically 2014 earnings since it opened in late December for awards consideration. However, the real monetary figures will count for 2015. Does that make any sense? Not really. Basically, it's fancy accounting. But the money earned in 2015 will count towards the annual box office of 2015, but American Sniper will not count as being a 2015 film to surpass the box office markers.

And what's worse? Its performance is having dire consequences on the rest of the box office. Remember my concern about this year and the fact that there's only so many box office dollars to go around. The first casualty appears to be Taken 3, but we'll get there in a moment.

American Sniper crossed the $200 million and with no signs of slowing down and with relatively weak new releases between now and Valentine's Day, it is almost assured to break $300 million. It may even sniff $340 million and become the top grossing film of 2014 (technically).

Oh, that reminds me, when last week's numbers were crunched, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 had officially surpassed Guardians of the Galaxy by something like $10,000 to become the highest grossing film of 2014 (for now).

Back to American Sniper, Tim doesn't have much faith in the legs of the movie, so he and I have a Randolph/Mortimer bet that American Sniper will surpass $300 million. I'm thinking that I'm lock on this one, but I'm not sure if it can keep up enough momentum to surpass Mockingjay Part 1. Although, a nice post-Oscar bump could be enough to push it over the edge.

The J. Lo-starrer (are we still calling her that?) The Boy Next Door creeped in to second place with $15 million. The Lolita in reverse tale didn't really excite me too much in the pre-release marketing, although the timing is rather fortuitous as it seems like a week doesn't go by without another teacher sleeping with her student(s) story dominating the headlines.

The Boy Next Door probably exceeded expectations a bit, but still seems destined to sputter out right around $45 million or so. The other two new releases Strange Magic ($5.5M) and Mortdecai ($4.1M) were D.O.A. at the box office. The only surprise here is that the latest, unheralded George Lucas film outperformed a Johnny Depp vehicle with a stout cast.

Both films will struggle mightily to make it to $20 million.

As I teased earlier, Taken 3 has gone into a tail-spin of sorts. It made a measly $7.6 million this weekend in fifth place and it looks like it won't make it to that $100 million plateau that I previously predicted. The biggest reason for this drop-off other than Taken fatigue is the dominating performance by American Sniper.

Quick Hitters

  • We've spent so much time talking about The Force Awakens, that we've almost neglected the fact that there are going to be a couple of stand alone Star Wars films released in the off years. Up first is 2016's film directed by Gareth Edwards. According to this story, actresses Rooney Mara and Tatiana Maslany are testing for a lead role.

    Hmm, that's a bit curious, no?

  • The Super Bowl is this weekend and is it me or are we over this whole "Deflategate" fiasco? Well, if you're more into the betting side of things, it appears that a couple of on-screen superheroes have made a super wager on the big game.

  • The last we heard, news wasn't so hot for Star Trek 3. Director Robert Orci had been replaced by Justin Lin and the film was a bit of a limbo. Well, rest assured, Simon Pegg to the rescue. The actor who plays Scottie in the film series is writing a new draft for the film.

  • Finally today, I've been looking for a place for this on the site and I'll throw it up on here. It's the screen test of a very young Matthew McConaughey for the film that put him on the map, Dazed and Confused. Remember, this young man would go on to win an Oscar.

Well now, that's one way to start the week. Enjoy and have a great one. Until next time, Mix Well!