15 Best Tom Hanks Movies, Both Popular and Underrated

15 Best Tom Hanks Movies, Both Popular and Underrated

If there ever was a Mount Rushmore of actors that are loved by the entire world, one of the first names to be submitted for approval would have to be Tom Hanks. Starting out as a star of TV, through roles in shows like Happy Days, Family Ties, and most notably, Bosom Buddies, Hanks eventually became an actor that would take the world of movies by storm. Launching the greatest charm offensive known to humanity, this legendary performer would traverse the spectrum of human behavior, with the ability to draw a crowd no matter where he landed.

In that career are hallmark roles that everyone knows and loves, but on top of those fan favorites are some roles that should be talked about with the same reverent tones that are used for all the popular picks. Which is why today, we’re going run down not only the best and most popular Tom Hanks movies that everyone can name by heart, but also talk about those films that need a friend. And buddy, these films have a friend in us.

Let's kick things off by delving into the 'popular' portion of his filmography.

15. Splash

His first big Hollywood credit, Splash not only was a gamble at the newly born Touchstone Pictures label, it was also Tom Hanks’ first shot as a romantic comedy lead. While he would cash in on more bawdy and outrageous films for a little while longer, this story about a man who falls in love with a mermaid, played by Daryl Hannah, already laid down the foundation that would carry his career into a new phase in the next decade. Even in this early film, the chemistry between the leads only showed that Hanks and Hannah had the chops to play heart and humor, and it showed that director Ron Howard was a talent to keep watching out for as well. And to think, Tom Hanks originally auditioned for the supporting role that John Candy would eventually play.

14. A League Of Their Own

Tom Hanks has been known as a man that straddles the lines of comedy and drama with great style, and a knowledge of knowing when to play which side of the coin. A League of Their Own is the first calling card that Hanks picked up in that respect, as the role of crass alcoholic Jimmy Dugan gave him the chance to play both an arrogant baseball coach and a supportive teammate to the women he’s coaching. Mixing it up with Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna, Tom Hanks keeps up with everyone he’s playing to in each scene, and he taught us the greatest lesson of all: there’s no crying in baseball.

13. Big

It’s not easy to play a kid on screen, whether you’re a child performer or an adult that has to pretend that they’re of that same mindset. Big was the moment that Tom Hanks learned that lesson, and it was the first great success that really showed how strong his acting game was. His first collaboration with director Penny Marshall, before their famous re-teaming on A League of Their Own, Hanks’ role of Josh Baskin was mostly a vehicle for the laughs involved with a kid physically growing up overnight. Though it’s not the total package, as Josh’s story also delves into the pressures of adult life and the yearning to go back to the simplicity of childhood. You’ll laugh, cry and smile when Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia play piano at F.A.O. Schwartz.

12. Sleepless In Seattle

There are great shifts in Tom Hanks’ career that allowed him to play various roles, and Sleepless In Seattle is definitely one of them. Portraying a widower whose son casts a wide net to find him a new love, Hanks is teamed for the first time with Meg Ryan, who plays a reporter that’s interested in meeting his lonely character, all in the name of love. Wry wit sets the scene and heartfelt emotion takes the cake, as everything from riffing on romantic movies to a fateful meeting at the Empire State Building, find a way into everyone’s hearts. Naturally, with Tom Hanks as a leading man, it’s not that hard of a job, but it sure doesn’t downplay the results. Even if the man himself admits that during production, he might have been a bit cranky.

11. Saving Private Ryan

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks is a combination that has gone down in history as one of those peanut butter/chocolate mashups that usually brings something beautiful to the table. Their first teaming was in the 1998 World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan, and thinking back to how that film played out, one could see why they decided to stay together. Seeing Hanks’ Captain John Miller lead a platoon of men into occupied Germany, with the task of saving the last remaining survivor of a family of brothers fighting the war, invokes shades of the classic wartime epics that came before it. Of course, differentiating this film from its inspirations is the fact that Tom Hanks and his co-stars get to show the brutalities of war, in addition to its camaraderie. One of his most heartbreaking performances, and undoubtedly one of Spielberg’s greatest films, Hanks gave his director a lead to remember, and it helped keep them working together for some time into the future.

10. Toy Story

In the modern era of animation, taking a voice-over role in an animated film feels like a logical step, as well as a big cash-in. But back in the days of Pixar’s Toy Story, that practice was still getting its legs underneath it, even in the camp of Disney’s dream factory. In fact, it’s probably because of Tom Hanks’ iconic role as Sheriff Woody that the phenomenon of big stars in animated films kicked into overdrive by the late ‘90s. Co-starring Tim Allen and a cast of notables, Toy Story broke all sorts of ground for a genre that was merely seen as kids’ entertainment, and a lot of that effort came from the heart that Hanks and his co-stars put into the toy box. And from the looks of what’s been going on with Toy Story 4, it’s something that none of them have ever forgotten.

9. Apollo 13

In his earlier career, Tom Hanks thrived on roles that showed him as a person who would antagonize and even shirk off the yolk of authority. But eventually, this era of his career ended, and in its place was an air of authority that is undoubtedly present in most of his performances. And Apollo 13 is one of the films you should thank for it, as previous collaborator Ron Howard directed Hanks in this film about an infamous disaster during the American space race, and the efforts of all involved to save those caught in the aftermath. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon are the astronauts at the heart of the story, all sharing the burden of portraying real life figures, while keeping in mind that they’re more humans than gods. The results are unforgettable, and to this day, Apollo 13 is still one of the best movies about early space flight.

8. Forrest Gump

You knew this was coming. You cannot have a list of Tom Hanks’ most popular roles without mentioning his Academy Award winning role in director Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump. Whether you love the film, or absolutely hate its guts, there’s no denying that without Hanks in the center of that story’s universe, it all falls apart. Playing a man of less than average intelligence, Hanks doesn’t play the desperate cards that some might resort to for sympathy. Rather, he roots his decisions for the character in a humanity that links the entire world together. It’s because of this that anyone can identify with Forrest Gump, and in turn, anyone can laugh, cry or stare at the world as it’s shown through his particular viewpoint. Life may be like a box of chocolates, but Tom Hanks’ performance is that one piece you always run to in that box when you need an extra pick-me-up.

Now that we've covered Tom Hanks' popular movies, let's look at the underrated ones, i.e. the movies that don't get as much love as they should.

7. Dragnet

Right out of the gates holding back the underrated portion of this rundown is Dragnet, a movie that, by conventional wisdom and its place in time, should not have worked. It was a movie adaptation of a show that the '80s nostalgia machine was ready to play ball with, and you can see it in Dan Aykroyd’s Sgt. Joe Friday. That character is an almost note-for-note adaptation of the original TV character of the same name, and if the film had stuck solely on that track, it might have had problems. But adding in a younger comic relief character in Tom Hanks’ rookie Pep Strebeck not only gave Aykroyd’s schtick something to bounce off of, it allowed Dragnet to mash up its past history with a more modern beat. The result is something that’s so wonderfully right, it’s a shame it never spawned at least one sequel.

6. Road To Perdition

Sam Mendes had a blank creative check to do anything as a follow up to American Beauty, and it didn’t take long for the director to cash it. Paid out to the order of the comic adaptation Road To Perdition, Tom Hanks plays way against type as Michael Sullivan, a hitman working for the Chicago mob who has to run for his life. Protecting his son, who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, Hanks’ character gets to show a lethal edge that the actor didn’t get to show off too often before that point, and sadly hasn’t had too much of a chance to do again. The film, much like its lead performance, is a balance of emotional truth and raw survival in a world of organized crime.

5. The Terminal

We previously discussed the beautiful pairing that is Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, as the two collaborators have made legendary hits like Saving Private Ryan. But sitting in the darker corners of their collective canon is The Terminal, a Frank Capra-esque tale of Viktor Navorski, a man literally without a country. As a victim of a horribly timed coup in his home nation, Hanks’ Navorski plays through a fictionalized version of a similar event that happened in real life. Dealing with both threatening bureaucracy, as well as his own awkwardly funny lessons in acting more like an American, he melts into the central role in a tale of heartbreak and hilarity.

4. The 'Burbs

How the hell does a film between Gremlins’ Joe Dante and Tom Hanks fall into obscurity? It’s a question that comes out of thinking back on The ‘Burbs, a movie that took full advantage of the actor’s zany comic energy while it was still his stock in trade. Hanks’ protagonist, Ray Peterson, starts to believe that his neighbors are murderers, and the entire film is a sliding descent into madness that takes Ray and his friends by storm, as they become increasingly desperate to prove to the neighborhood that they aren’t crazy. Playing like a cross between Rear Window and The Little Rascals, this dark comedy only rises in value as it teams Tom Hanks with co-stars Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, and Corey Feldman to revel in the madness.

3. Charlie Wilson’s War

History isn’t always a stuffy, simple affair that gets told time and time again. Sometimes, like in director Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War, it’s about colorful characters who take matters into their own hands. Senator Charlie Wilson was definitely one of those figures, and the film recounting his efforts has Tom Hanks starring as the drug-using, womanizing senator who, despite his wild reputation, tried to do some good in the war between Afghanistan and Russia. Writer Aaron Sorkin gives Hanks the sharp dialogue he thrives on, while Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman further fuel his performance as the titular senator, which makes for something both informative and incredibly hysterical.

2. Cloud Atlas

If you’re an actor at the top of your craft, you probably have a list of directors and creative talent that you’re dying to work with. That feels like the reasoning behind directors The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer teaming up with an all-star cast that includes Tom Hanks in the severely underrated mind-bender Cloud Atlas. Playing everything from a villainous doctor to a morally conflicted survivor of a future apocalypse, Hanks is given a laundry list of challenges and tropes to work into this collection of six narratives that run together with one common thread. Whether he be menacing, charming or anywhere in between, this is a film that gave one of American’s most treasured actors one hell of a performance exercise, and it deserves to be talked about so much more than it already is.

1. Bridge Of Spies

Honestly, at this point, history and Tom Hanks are inseparable, as it’s more likely that he’ll play every historical figure of note before his career is over. And yet, Bridge of Spies manages to take this, and the fact that it’s another Spielberg/Hanks collaboration, and use both aspects to their full effect. The film tells the real life story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who was drafted by the United States government to not only defend an outed Russian spy at trial, but also to exchange him for a U.S. hostage captured by the Russian government, and it does so in an interesting manner. Intrigue is mixed with sharp witted repartee in Donavan’s quest to make the best deal possible, and putting dialogue co-written by the Coen Brothers should be all you need to convince you to watch Bridge of Spies.

Whether the performance is popular or underrated, Tom Hanks always shows up to play like a champion. The man is a hard worker, and he’s also one of last remaining nice guys in a world that feels colder and more bitter than ever. But, of course, everyone has their favorite Hanks roles, and we may not have covered some of your A-List picks. So tell us in the comments below which popular or underrated roles of the man’s career you favor! There’s no wrong answers, as the answer always ties back to Tom Hanks.

Dark Phoenix Footage At WonderCon Shows Off Outer Space Chaos And An Emotional Battle

Dark Phoenix Footage At WonderCon Shows Off Outer Space Chaos And An Emotional Battle

Though Dark Phoenix has been in the works for a while, we really haven’t seen all that much footage from the blockbuster. Sure, we’ve seen a couple of trailers come out, but when considered in the context of how much time there was between previews, what we’ve seen doesn’t amount to much. It’s a bit of a surprise, given that the film is now just a few months away from release, but the marketing for the movie broke the drought in a big way today by showing off a couple of full scenes at WonderCon.

20th Century Fox held a special Dark Phoenix panel at the Anaheim Convention Center today, and in addition to having a panel featuring a bunch of stars and filmmakers, the film also showed off nearly 20 minutes of footage. It’s all pretty cool stuff, and you can find the details about it below:

The sequence started with a shot from behind the X Mansion, with the basketball court opening up and the Blackbird launching from the hanger underneath. The X-Men are on a mission - on board are Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Quicksilver (Evan Peters), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), and Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) – but it isn’t a typical Earthbound adventure. For the first time ever they are making their way into space, and it’s clear that it’s not an environment in which they are totally comfortable.

News stations from around the world are broadcasting the event, showcasing the popularity of the world’s first superhero team. While the X-Men are on the move, Professor X (James McAvoy) is in Cerebro communicating with NASA, who are reporting an incident with a shuttle in trouble involving a solar flare. As we see through the eyes of the mutant team, however, it’s not exactly a normal cosmic event, as it looks more like there is a dangerous mass floating and getting closer to the troubled spaceship – which is shown spinning out of control with a busted thruster.

Calling the shots, Mystique notes that before they can do anything they need to stop the rotation of shuttle, but Nightcrawler notes that he can’t teleport in because he can’t see into it. The job then falls to Cyclops, who is told that he needs to blast the thruster and stop the spin. He goes below deck, lines his specialized visor up with a periscope-esque targeting system, and successfully fires an optic blast that gets the in-trouble ship to stop.

With the situation more manageable, Nightcrawler and Quicksilver are called into action to teleport to the NASA vessel – and meanwhile Storm seals the damage that’s been done with ice. In hyper-speed mode, Quicksilver takes the seatbelts off all of the astronauts, and then tosses them towards the back of the shuttle where Nightcrawler is waiting. Once everyone is collected, they BAMF and find themselves back on the Blackbird.

All seems well and good and the call is made to head home… until one of the rescued astronauts points out that the mission isn’t done yet. Their commander was in the airlock trying to fix the thruster at the time of the rescue, and he remains there with the “solar flare” getting closer and closer. Mystique wants to leave, not wanting to risk the members of her team for one more person, but Professor X insists that they stay and do everything they possibly can to save the remaining life in danger.

With Storm no longer able to keep the ship together with ice, Jean Grey boldly claims that she can slow the destruction, but she needs to get closer to the ship. Both Cyclops and Professor X back her up, though Beast notes that there is less than a minute before the solar flare hits and becomes too dangerous to survive. The call is made, and Nightcrawler and Jean teleport over, with the powerful telepath keeping the construction of the ship together. The commander is saved by Nightcrawler, but as time runs out Jean finds herself trapped as the flare hits. Cyclops screams asking where Jean is, but all they can do is helplessly watch from afar as the cosmic energy engulfs the damaged shuttle.

With Jean, we watch as she starts to absorb the energy – screaming as she does – and it’s an experience that it seems Professor X has right along with her. What adds an interesting note, however, is that while part of the solar flare seems to try and reach out to the Blackbird, Jean uses her concentration to divert it, and winds up absorbing all of it. The shuttle explodes and everyone thinks that Jean is dead. Once all the chaos is over, Nightcrawler teleports and brings her to be back with the X-Men – and while the group initially mourns, she then opens her eyes to reveal that she is alive (with a bit of orange swimming around in her irises).

The X-Men land back on Earth to much fanfare, and the celebrating continues when they get back to the X Mansion. Everyone is happy, and Professor X is feeling enough pride to cancel all classes for the rest of the day, but Mystique is definitely not happy about the whole situation. After Xavier checks in on Jean Grey, sending her to get a full medical exam, Mystique takes him into his office, and she has a frank discussion with him about the increased risks that are being taken. She is worried about the safety of the recruits, and is afraid that the wheelchair-bound telepath is taking on bigger and bigger challenges just for the sake of his ego. He counters, however, by acknowledging that mutants are being accepted unlike any other time in history, and that only one bad day could result in their kind being hated and despised again. It’s clear that it’s not an issue that is going to be solved with one discussion, but at the very end Mystique gets in one last shot, noting not only that it’s been a minute since Xavier last risked his own life, and that women are so consistently saving the men that the team name should be changed to X-Women.

Jumping ahead in the movie (and clearly skipping over some major, major developments), the other big sequence in the Dark Phoenix footage showed off a showdown that seemingly happens in the second half of the film – so if you don’t wish to be spoiled on anything, you may want to stop reading here.

Starting with Xavier in Cerebro with Cyclops, it’s made clear that Jean Grey has started to go off the deep end, and that crap is really starting to hit the fan. Beast has teamed up with Magneto, and they have decided that Jean needs to die – which, naturally, Professor X is unwilling to let happen. He psychically connects with Nightcrawler, showing the place where he needs to go, and together they travel along with Storm (after some argument) to try and stop the assassination.

The members of the X-Men then quickly find themselves in a confrontation with Magneto and Beast in Central Park, as well as two other mutants: one, Red Lotus, with braids that basically act as prehensile tentacles, and another, Selene, with the ability to control minds. Following a verbal scuffle (including an F-bomb from Cyclops), a battle begins as Magneto makes his way towards a building where Jean Grey and Jessica Chastain’s mystery character are staying, and they know that he is on his way to kill Phoenix – what is basically spelled out as an act of revenge for the killing of Mystique. The fight rages on, but the Master of Magnetism gets the upper hand when he uses his powers to pull an entire subway car out of the ground and positions it to block the entrance of the aforementioned building.

Once inside, Magneto is confronted by Jean Grey and Jessica Chastain’s character, and his big move is executed by pulling a metal banister from its spokes and pointing the jagged end at Jean. As emotional as he is, though, he can’t go through with it. Unfortunately for him, it seems that Jean doesn’t feel the same way. With her heightened abilities, she starts to crush Magneto’s head with the villains helmet… though it cuts to black before we can see what happens.

Overall, the footage was interesting if not just because it shows off a lot of new stuff that we haven’t actually seen in past X-Men movies. The titular team operates in a completely different way than other iterations – particularly with the way in which it pairs certain mutant abilities together in order to achieve a certain goal. It’s also a bit that gives us quite a lot of clarity when it comes to where all of these characters stand within this story – particularly Professor X, Mystique, Magneto, Cyclops, and particularly Jean Grey.

We’ve obviously been waiting for Dark Phoenix for a long time, but it’s now actually almost here. The film will be arriving in theaters everywhere on June 7th, and be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for not only more of our WonderCon footage, but also our interviews at the convention with the movie’s filmmakers and stars.

The 7 Best And Most Realistic War Movies

The 7 Best And Most Realistic War Movies

War is a rough subject that's very hard to fully grasp if you haven't been there. With that being said, the world of cinema has managed to get the horrors and humor of war right a handful of times, according to the accounts of actual veterans who were actually present for the conflict. Is that all it takes to create one of the best war movies?

Realism is important, of course, but it may not mean a ton if a movie itself isn't a must-watch drama that civilians and those curious are looking to years in the future to understand just how grizzly these conflicts can be. The following are a list of films that hit that mark of best war movies in terms of realism and quality, listed in chronological order.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Arguably the most famous war movie on the list, Francis Ford Coppola's tale of a Vietnam soldier tasked with terminating a rogue officer "with extreme prejudice." The story starts off pretty standardly, and slowly devolves into something much darker and different as the film goes on. This has led to some criticism from veterans, many of whom say the first third of the movie is a far more realistic depiction of war than the parts after. Still, the early stuff seems to be spot on and this is, of course, an enduring movie.

Part of this is due to Francis Ford Coppola's vision, which was to adapt the famous 1899 novella Heart of Darkness into a story about Vietnam. Luckily, the film's engaging story and iconic moments have made it a classic amongst war movie aficionados and certainly a contender for the best war movie of all time.

Das Boot (1981)

Das Boot was a German drama that was based on the novel of the same name and the efforts of a real German submarine, the U-96. The movie was created using a mock-up replica of the actual ship, in an effort to effectively capture the mixture of inaction and action German submariners went through during WWII.

Though the novel's author criticized Das Boot for its glorification of war (the book was meant to be anti-war), American and German audiences responded well to the movie. That's likely thanks in no small part to this best war movie's painstaking recreation of the boat, which was also rented by Steven Spielberg during production for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Platoon (1986)

There are several great films about the Vietnam War, although Platoon tends to stand out as one of the leaders of the pack in terms of realism. This "best war movie" is often mentioned by Vietnam veterans of one of the most accurate depictions of the war, thanks in no small part to its Vietnam veteran director, Oliver Stone.

Unlike other popular war movies like Apocalypse Now, Stone's screenplay meshes his experience with the accounts of other Marines who were in the conflict. The result was a graphic and powerful performances by talented actors and a depiction of war that won't soon be forgotten. It's even hard to find a criticism on inaccuracies it shows, which speaks both to its realism and quality as one of the best war movies.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

When one thinks of the best war movies, Saving Private Ryan may and definitely should be at the top of the list. The Omaha landing sequence is frequently referenced as one of the most accurate war scenes of WW2 in cinematic history which, quite frankly, is a terrifying thought. What's more impressive is the scene did not get a storyboard, and Steven Spielberg opted instead to direct his camera toward more spontaneous moments.

There are a few less factual parts of the tale, but Steven Spielberg explained that he let realism fall by the wayside for a couple of scenes for dramatic effect, to better speak to the emotion of the story. Perhaps more so than any other entry on this list, Saving Private Ryan walks the line between fact and fiction the best.

Black Hawk Down (2002)

Black Hawk Down is Ridley Scott's telling of The Battle of Mogadishu with an all-star cast that includes the likes of Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, and Tom Hardy. The story follows three special forces units, all tasked with capturing Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Things go south, and result in an event that ended in the death of 1000 Somali and 19 American soldiers.

While Black Hawk Down is often lauded as one of the best war movies for its accurate combat depictions, it has found criticism for being a fairly one-sided account of the conflict. In reality American soldiers were aided by Malaysian and Pakistani forces, neither of which are represented in the movie. Additionally, Somali advocacy groups have noted the depiction of Somalis in the film is inaccurate, and it's worth noting no Somalis were cast in the film.

We Were Soldiers (2002)

Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers is a more modern film that chronicles the Vietnam War, and specifically, the Battle of la Drang. It's spot as one of the best war movies is backed by the numerous efforts made to maintain realism and recall the events of Hal Moore's memoir We Were Soldiers Once... And Young.

For all the movie gets right, it does bend the truth in showing the final charge by American forces. There was no such event, and the North Vietnamese were not destroyed. It's one of the big glaring differences, but for the most part, the rest are simply details that seem trimmed for the sake of shortening the story. Perhaps if a TV series was made, the full depiction of events could be brought to life.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

Speaking of atypical depictions of war, Hacksaw Ridge tells the mostly true account of Desmond Doss, who went through his service in WW2 without a weapon. Despite his lack of a firearm, Doss saved numerous lives in The Battle of Okinawa at the cost of severe injuries that inevitably affected the rest of his life.

Surprisingly, the factual inaccuracies of Hacksaw Ridge are not on the field of battle, but in the stories outside of Desmond Doss' service. Doss' wife didn't become a nurse until after the war, and the family fight that encouraged him to never use a weapon was between his uncle and father, not his father and mother. Doss was never actually court martial-ed, but was threatened many times. It makes for a great story nonetheless, hence its place on the list.

There are plenty of great war movies and plenty of other realistic war movies out there, so if there are any that have been left off the list that deserve mention for an exceptional mix of quality and realism, drop it down in the comments below. We're always looking to add to our binge-watching lists anyway.

The Curse Of La Llorona Box Office: The Conjuring Universe Has Another Overperformer

The Curse Of La Llorona Box Office: The Conjuring Universe Has Another Overperformer

The Conjuring Universe has unquestionably become one of the strongest brands in the Warner Bros. arsenal. Going back to 2013, every release has been an absolutely massive hit, with the $250 million-plus worldwide earnings for each title looking even more impressive when you consider that none of them have been made with a budget larger than $40 million. It's a train that doesn't appear ready to stop any time soon, and Michael Chaves' The Curse Of La Llorona demonstrated that this weekend by earning the franchise yet another box office crown. Check out its opening weekend numbers - as well as the rest of the Top 10 - below, and join me after for analysis!

It should be noted that The Curse Of La Llorona had the weakest opening of any Conjuring Universe movie thus far - with David F. Sandberg's Annabelle: Creation previously holding that title with its $35 million take back in 2017 - but part of the reason why it can still be considered a victory is the fact that it still managed to exceed expectations. Last week prognosticators suggested that the film would struggle to make more than $20 million, with Box Office Mojo suggesting a $17 million start, but those estimates proved to be a bit too conservative. Instead, the horror flick managed to beat that number by nearly $10 million, which is pretty significant when you consider that the feature only cost a reported $9 million to make.

There is no question that it's a step down for the brand, particularly after the record-breaking numbers put up by Corin Hardy's The Nun last fall, but the performance certainly says something about the hunger for stories in this universe. Adding in numbers from foreign territories, the movie has already made $56.5 million worldwide, and it will likely be the sixth feature in the franchise to get a nine figure total by the end of its theatrical run. It might take an extra minute, though, as there are a few things working against it in the coming weeks.

The first and most obvious roadblock is the forthcoming arrival of what is unquestionably one of the most anticipated blockbuster releases of all time. Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Endgame is expected to have the attention of everyone in the world when screenings start on Thursday night, and there is probably little chance that folks are planning on doing a weird double feature that pairs the three-hour superhero epic with The Curse Of La Llorona.

Also, the film doesn't have quite the same level of buzz that the previous Conjuring Universe efforts have received. Not only have professional reviews not been super kind to the release, but audiences don't seem to be falling in love with it either. On CinemaScore, it doesn't look so great when you compare its "B-" grade" to the "A-" earned by both Conjuring titles and the "B" that both of the Annabelle movies received.

All that being said, it's already profitable after just three days, so Warner Bros. can't complain too much.

Speaking of the studio, this weekend was actually a double win for WB, as another one of their big brands - the DC Extended Universe - crossed an important milestone. It took a few weeks, but David F. Sandberg's Shazam! is now the seventh title in the franchise to join the century club. The movie only dropped about 29 percent in its third week, and while its still the slowest performer among recent DC releases (it's still made only half of what Zack Snyder's Justice League did in 2017), it has an ace up its sleeve: the fact that it didn't cost nearly as much to make as your average big comic book adaptation. Put in perspective, it's already made three times its budget worldwide - albeit before the cost of marketing and publicity.

As for the rest of the Top 10 beyond the two biggest releases, it was actually a very strange weekend. First there is the disappointment of Roxann Dawson's Breakthrough, which failed to make the $17-18 million that was expected in its first five days (screenings started mid-week). It was thought that the feature would get a nice boost from the religious crowd, and it actually earned better reviews than most god-centric releases, but apparently it couldn't stir up too much interest.

That's really the least of it, though, as the big theme for this weekend was unexpected ranking flip flops. For starters, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Captain Marvel seemingly got a boost from the aforementioned forthcoming release of Avengers: Endgame, as the blockbuster jumped from its sixth place position last week into fourth place. The $9.1 million it earned over the last few days now puts its domestic total over $400 million, and its only the seventh of 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe releases to hit that benchmark. To date it has made $1.1 billion worldwide, and while it looks like it won't surpass the numbers put up by Joe and Anthony Russo's Captain America: Civil War back in 2016, the performance is still nothing short of astonishing.

Another surprise this weekend was the performance of Chris Butler's Missing Link - albeit the significance is relative. The stop-motion animated film got off to a depressing start last time around, as it started its theatrical run in ninth place, but this week it actually climbed a bit thanks to the fact that it only dropped about 26.5 percent. The movie has still only made about $13 million in North America, which isn't exactly impressive, but it is trying to put up a fight.

The middle of the chart also saw some weird switches, as Tina Gordon Chism's Little went from second place to fifth, and Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer's Pet Sematary went from fourth to seventh. Those are far less noteworthy than what happened to Neil Marshall's Hellboy, however. The panned Lionsgate release played in the exact same number of theaters this weekend as it did when it opened, but far fewer seats were filled in the last three days. Not only did it drop from third place to 10th, but it suffered a drop of nearly 68 percent. It failed to cross the $20 million mark, and things are looking seriously bad for the feature, which reportedly cost $50 million to make.

It was definitely a weird weekend at the box office, but things should change in a massive way next time around. It's entirely possible that Avengers: Endgame will soon become the new record holder for biggest worldwide opening - and we'll have all of the details for you next Sunday.

Sylvester Stallone Shares Gritty Video From Rambo V: Last Blood Set

Sylvester Stallone Shares Gritty Video From Rambo V: Last Blood Set

Like fellow action stars Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sylvester Stallone is quite generous with giving his fans behind-the-scenes looks at his movies and showing some of the magic that made them possible. Later this year, the actor returns to his iconic character John Rambo one final time in Rambo V: Last Blood. While we have yet to see a trailer for the movie, Sly has shared a gritty video from the set on social media. Check it out:

We are used to seeing the final product where Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo dispatches bad guys with ruthless brutality, but this video shows how those kinds of scenes are set up. Sylvester Stallone is rehearsing the choreography of the scene, what motions he has to perform and what marks he has to hit. It looks like a lot of fun too, other than the fact that the environment he is in looks rather unpleasant.

As Sylvester Stallone said in the caption on his Instagram, they are underground in a dusty cave where it is hard to breathe. You can clearly see what he’s talking about in the video and it’s an environment that surely adds another level of difficulty to the physical action that he has to perform in the scene.

As for the scene itself, it finds Sly’s Rambo emptying and dropping a shotgun that one imagines he has already used on someone. He then grabs a spear to kill someone on the other side of the wall. The part at the end is the best though, where Rambo dives and gets ready to cut the leg off some poor fool who dared to be on the wrong side of things.

It’s some classically awesome Rambo savagery. Dobby from the Harry Potter stories didn’t mean to kill, only to maim or seriously injure, but Rambo, Rambo means to do all three. He’s a warrior who is just as deadly with modern firearms as he is with hunter-gatherer and early weapons like bow and arrows and spears.

We don’t know the context this scene takes place in during Rambo V: Last Blood, but we know enough about the story to take some guesses. The film sees Rambo living on a ranch when his housekeeper’s granddaughter, who is like a surrogate daughter to him, goes missing in Mexico while searching for her father. It turns out she was kidnapped by a dangerous drug cartel and Rambo goes on a path of vengeance to rescue her.

So maybe this scene takes place in some sort of underground drug tunnel that the cartel uses or is some kind of hideout Rambo must infiltrate in his pursuit of Yvette Monreal’s Gabriella and the deaths of those who kidnapped her. Maybe we’ll get a look at this scene when the first trailer drops, which should hopefully not be that far off.

Rambo V: Last Blood opens in theaters on September 20. Before that there’s plenty still to look forward to this summer, check it all out in our 2019 Release Schedule.

Watch Halle Berry's Intense Weapon Training For John Wick 3

Watch Halle Berry's Intense Weapon Training For John Wick 3

In this weekend’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman is finally getting some much-needed backup in the form of Halle Berry’s Sofia. The Oscar-winning actress is no stranger to action franchises, given her history in the X-Men movies and as a Bond girl, but there’s action and then there’s John Wick action. Thus, Halle Berry had to prepare for the role and that meant going through some seriously intense weapons training, which you can see in the video below.

Halle Berry has said that she learned some serious skills training for John Wick 3 and you can’t doubt her after seeing how dedicated she is to the role and how seriously she is taking her training in this video. Getting good with these weapons takes time and effort, and Halle Berry clearly put in the work; she didn’t just show up for a half day one time.

You can see Halle Berry’s progress throughout the video, and her changing outfits indicate her training took place over a period of time; this wasn’t all from one session. This video from Taran Tactical isn’t gussied up with movie magic to make Halle Berry look better or more accurate either, it appears to be all her.

The actress looks like a pro as she quickly reloads and moves from target to target with purpose and confidence, using both a handgun and a rifle. The sequence where she comes off the line, quickly drawing her sidearm and firing before easily switching to her rifle and continuing is particularly badass.

I also like how she looks super intense and serious while doing the training, but can’t help but crack a smile when she’s done and receives a compliment, like on her double taps. Maybe Halle Berry should call up Ruben Fleischer and see if she can snag a role in Zombieland: Double Tap because she’s certainly qualified.

No wonder Halle Berry called up John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum director Chad Stahelski to pitch herself for a role. She obviously loves doing this kind of stuff and is pretty good at it. It must also be mentioned that Keanu Reeves was keeping time for Halle Berry as she went through the course. How cool is that?

The Oscar-winning actress joins the franchise as an old friend of John Wick’s, a former assassin and fellow dog lover who now runs a hotel and no longer goes around shooting people in the head. That won’t last long though, and Halle Berry made sure that she’d look legit and lethal as Sofia, opposite the seasoned pro Keanu Reeves who does the majority of the action in his movies.

Reviews are in and John Wick 3 looks like another great action-filled entry in the series. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is aiming to take the top spot at the box office from Avengers: Endgame when it arrives in theaters this weekend. Check out what you need to remember before seeing it and head over to our 2019 Release Schedule to see what else is hitting theaters this year.

Kathleen Kennedy Teases The Star Wars Sequel Characters Returning For Future Installments

Kathleen Kennedy Teases The Star Wars Sequel Characters Returning For Future Installments

Through the course of the most recent trilogy of films released to the public, the Star Wars saga has introduced new and exciting characters like Poe, Finn, and Rey to audiences that have come to love them. But with the end of the Skywalker Saga coming in Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker, a lot of people are worried their new favorites might not be coming back.

That concern has been addressed Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy who, when asked about whether or not we’ll have to wait for any of these characters to come back, gave a pretty optimistic case for their return:

You know, there is an appropriate time. We're using this appropriate time as an opportunity to see where we're going now that we're leaving the Skywalker Saga behind. But there's no question that there's certain characters that we've created certainly in the last three movies that we may very well wanna see down the line in the future.

So while Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker will close out the stories of characters like General Leia Organa or Luke Skywalker, it sounds like the younger wave of characters that brought this new trilogy to the masses are still up for grabs. And Kennedy had her eye on one specific platform to make that all come true.

As she discussed this matter with MTV News at the most recent Star Wars Celebration, Kathleen Kennedy played the Disney+ card, stating that the platform is being keenly looked at for ways that these characters can live on. Everything from the broad scope of the upcoming Mandalorian series to what Kennedy calls potentially smaller and grittier stories, are in play.

Both film and TV appearances certainly feel like good ideas, and since Poe, Finn, and Rey aren’t as deeply entrenched in the Star Wars lore as key figures like Han Solo or General Leia Organa, there’s room for them to be part of new and exciting adventures outside of that realm. And that’s where the universe seems to be headed on the whole.

With two different film trilogies being crafted by both Rian Johnson, he of Star Wars: The Last Jedi fame, and Game of Thrones masterminds David Benioff and D.B.Weiss, both of those series have opportunities to expand the Star Wars brand to a point where the original trilogy isn’t such a cornerstone of accessibility.

Combine that with the fact that Disney+ has already lined up star-studded shows continuing their Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you’ve got another chance to jump into a new corner of that world. If Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen, and Anthony Mackie can jump on board for MCU projects on Disney+, then Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, and Daisy Ridley don’t sound like terrible reaches.

There’s far from an exact game plan as to how or when we may see our favorite characters from the final trilogy in the Skywalker Saga. But at the very least, there’s hope that we will see them again; and as Star Wars has taught us, hope is a very powerful thing.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings us the last installment of the Skywalker Saga on December 20th. But seeing as you’re probably an avid moviegoer, use our 2019 release schedule to plan out all the fun movies that can help pass the time between now and then.