F1's in pole position, Michael Madsen passes away, Edgar Wright starts running, and More!
Plus: M3GAN 2.0, OLD GUARD 2, AIRPLANE, DUNE: MESSIAH...
F1 The Movie got off to a roaring start, making $57M in the US and $4.9M in the UK and Ireland on its opening weekend. The Brad Pitt-starring motorsports drama has now made $144M worldwide so far, making it Apple Studios’ most successful film to date, helped by its more expensive IMAX tickets. Hey, it’s almost like streamers should embrace the old model of releasing films into cinemas instead of dropping them online to be forgotten about after a few days. Crazy!
How to Train You Dragon thus slipped into the No.2 spot as a result of F1’s success, with $19.4M, having now made $200M after three weeks.
Elio added $10.7M and 28 Years Later added $9.76M to their box office takings, but the most notable box office news was the surprise flop of action horror sequel M3GAN 2.0, which only clawed back $10.2M over its opening weekend! The original film made $30.4M for comparison.
M3GAN 2.0 enjoyed good reviews, with most critics saying it’s an improvement on the original, and it may be profitable in the long-run, but Blumhouse will have to rethink the sustainability of the M3GAN franchise. Maybe it was just a novelty audiences embraced once thanks to a viral trailer, but after seeing it there wasn’t actually an appetite for more ‘dancing A.I killer robot girl’ films.
In related news, Lilo & Stitch has now become Hollywood’s highest-grossing movie of 2025, so far, with $951M at the global box office. Can it be dislodged this summer by Jurassic World: Rebirth or Superman?
RIP: Michael Madsen, 1957-2025.
The tough guy actor sadly passed away at the age of 67 from a heart attack at his Malibu home. Michael Madsen came to wide attention playing psychopath Mr White in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs in 1992, and returned for the director’s Kill Bill: Vol.2 and The Hateful Eight. He was also in Free Willy, Species, The Getaway, Donnie Brasco, Die Another Day, and many others.
I recommend his appearance on Stephen Baldwin’s podcast, One Bad Movie, particularly the moment his brother Alex Baldwin calls in and reveals Madsen was hitting on his then-wife Kim Basinger while they filmed The Getaway.
🏃♂️➡️ Trailer Spotlight: THE RUNNING MAN
Edgar Wright’s version of Stephen King’s The Running Man, which wrote under his ‘Richard Bachman’ pseudonym, has released its first trailer. And it looks significantly different to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film from the 1980s, mostly because it seems the hero, Ben Richards (Glen Powell), is being pursued across the real world while it’s all being filmed for television, and everyday people are also incentivised to try and kill him? In the ‘80s film, it was instead an enormous arena that ultimately inspired the creation of NBCs American Gladiators.
This trailer makes ‘The Running Man’ TV show feel closer to a dystopian, life-and-death take on Channel 4’s Hunted—which Wright will have seen—where ordinary people go on the run across the UK, pursued by ex-police ‘hunters’ and surveillance experts. I’m sure that show was partly inspired by the core Running Man idea itself, of course, but it’s fun to see these influences eat themselves.
News: Cruise goes DEEPER, DUNE resumes, and HIGHLANDER casts ‘Amy Winehouse’
Tom Cruise has lined up his next film now the Mission: Impossible franchise has come to an end, and it’s a deep-sea supernatural thriller called Deeper, where Cruise will play a disgraced astronaut who finds a mysterious force inside a newly discovered ocean trench. Directed by Doug Liman, co-starring Ana de Armas, the only problem is the $200M+ budget, as Warner Bros. has turned it down and now Cruise is hoping Universal pick it up. This likely all stems from the fact the last two M:I films had enormous budgets and Dead Reckoning, in particular, failed to justify the expense. Maybe Cruise’s time as the golden boy you can’t say ‘no’ to has come to an end? [Source: World of Reel]
Dune: Messiah is reportedly beginning its shoot next week, as Zendaya has been photographed in Budapest.
Marisa Abela (who played Amy Winehouse in Back to Black) is set to join Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe in the Highlander reboot, presumably as the love interest.
🔎 Critical Lens: a killer robot, immortal warriors, a box-headed man, and a sick housewife…
Jack Heslop found much to enjoy about M3GAN 2.0.
reviewed The Old Guard 2 on Netflix.
Alexander Boucher looked back at Todd Haynes’ Safe for its 30th anniversary.
reminisced about his time writing for Frame Rated, to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and also wrote about surreal Japanese film The Box Man on Blu-ray.
Dan Perrin crawled down for another viewing of UK horror classic The Descent for its 20th anniversary.
revisited the classic spoof comedy Airplane! for its 45th anniversary.
Marios Papadoniou looked back at The Conformist for its 55th anniversary.
👀 What Have We Been Watching or Listening To?
: “I stopped watching Marvel's Ironheart after the first episode, despite hearing the final episodes improved. A clip I saw satisfied my curiosity. It's tough to get invested in newer, lesser-known characters, especially in a TV format.
MCU shows succeed when they place established film characters (like Wanda or Loki) in new, compelling long-form stories. Shows introducing new characters (e.g., Moon Knight, Ironheart, Ms. Marvel) are less effective. While Riri Williams appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, her own show quickly undoes all that.
Introducing new characters works best when they're a fresh addition to an existing hero's story, like Kate Bishop in Hawkeye. (Ms. Marvel was an exception, succeeding primarily due to the lead actress's charisma, but the show itself isn't memorable beyond her performance.) She-Hulk fans are already upset, ironically.”
: “It's a family treat to settle down for Columbo (1971-1990) and we’ve reached Season 9. I can recall the classic cases from first time through in the 1970s, but there have been a good proportion I’d never seen—including “Murder, A Self Portrait”, first broadcast in 1989. Helmed by director James Frawley (The Muppet Movie), it was outstanding for several reasons but for me it was its giallo leanings—a macho artist with an unconventional lifestyle involving three women, a cold-hearted murderer, a dark secret from the past, pop-psychology concerning repressed memories, and some inventively visualised dream sequences… and Columbo’s sleuthing was cleverly understated, so the audience got to figure things out that were never explicitly explained.”
Alexander Boucher: “The podcast With Gourley and Rust, in which American comedians Matt Gourley and Paul Rust have long, tangential and very funny chats about horror and thrillers, has long been a favourite. This week I enjoyed their ‘dual-mersion’ commentary of Psycho and its 1998 remake, which they ran concurrently on split screens. I even joined them for the experiment at home, with Hitchcock’s film playing on the TV, Van Sant’s on a laptop, and the podcast playing from a speaker. Utterly absurd and fascinating, and worth it alone for Gourley’s description of Vince Vaughn’s ‘statement turtleneck’ in the remake. A ridiculous and enjoyable time.”
: “I watched the Jurassic World trilogy in preparation for Rebirth. The first one still holds up as a great action film. The second was ok but not as good as it could have been. The third was actually what could have been two separate decent movies inexpertly forced into one over long and bloated film for the sake of nostalgia.”