Indeed, The Avengers: Age of Ultron took the top spot at the box office. Two full generations of children being branded from birth to identify with that which is familiar has resulted in exactly this. Fewer choices, expectations met, massive profits. So it followed the pattern and made the requisite amount of money even if it might not be one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Human beings – hella predictable.
But behind the giant hard-on are a few minor successes worth mentioning and that’s The Age of Adeline, Ex Machina, Hot Pursuit, Woman in Gold, Home, Cinderella and Unfriended, all in the top ten. Sure, it could just be that these are the only movies in release right now but it’s kind of interesting. I would wager that 100% of the top ten this weekend was majority female on the ticket buying end. We have Mad Max coming next, which is also a female-driven film. I know we haven’t gotten to the Oscar movies yet where it will be (as it was last year) all men all of the time, but for now, it’s interesting to see such a dramatic shift in box office returns appealing to women of all ages:
From boxoffice.com
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
Sasha, it’s not surprising Charlize Theron is considered the lead for the new Mad Max. I think I read it on Hitfix that each of the Mad Max movies seem to be told from a different point of view that is not Max’s. I’ve only seen the original movie and while it’s not told from a single point of view, it’s certainly not Mel Gibson’s movie. I remember equal time being split between Mel Gibson, his partner, the villain and Max’s wife. Max is almost like a myth that’s never the true center in his movies. I’m so excited to see it this weekend.
Paddy, Adaline was ‘alright’, no more no less, a pleasant night at the movies, but it was no Benjamin Button (a film I loved), it was more in the neighbourhood of Tuck Everlasting (unchallenging though remarkably pretty foreveryoung romance).
Yeah, I forgot all about Jack Ryan, too bad for that one, it had potential.
I thought BUTTON was an elegant bore so we might be coming from different “sensibilities”. I just saw you already saw (and loved) Petzold’s PHOENIX and now I hate you because I can’t.
Fight me.
So Age of Adaline isn’t terrible? My bf wanted to see it yday but we didn’t have the time. I rly want it to be completely shit so I don’t feel bad about giving it a miss. Is it actually alright? Like, I think Benjamin Button’s terrific, so if Age of Adaline’s better then wtf…
Phantom, homeboy Kenneth Branagh actually made Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit between those other two for-hire pieces. It was such a fucking disastrous flop it seems you’ve forgotten about it entirely, along with the rest of the world. Makes a hella lot of sense that he’d do whatever any studio told him to do thereafter, tho I’d argue that Cinderella is far more up his alley than Thor ever was. He kinda treated it like Much Ado About Nothing 2.
Blake Lively was grand in Oliver Stone’s SAVAGES, so I’ve been onto here for a while now.
that, and
ADALINE > BENNY BUTTON
P.S. They showed the trailer for The Longest Ride yesterday. Not a fucking chance in hell I would ever come close to even consider to go see that one. When the trailer didn’t feel like an SNL sketch, it just simply felt like a huge insult to the intelligence of the audience. I want those two minutes back.
I saw The Age of Adaline (yesterday), Far from the madding crowd (last week), Woman in Gold (two weeks ago) and Cinderella (three weeks ago). No masterpieces, no doubt about that but still, entertaining and classy films, ones that made me feel slightly better about women in film (something the Avengers sequel I also watched last week, couldn’t do) :
1. After very promising character actress work ( The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Town), Blake Lively is ready to live up to her leading lady potential. Her film wasn’t excellent but her rock solid, understated, elegant performance was…and we need more leading ladies so that’s good.
2. Carey Mulligan seems to be on fire this year : she has just received her first Tony nomination (well-deserved, Skylight was great), Far from the madding crowd got good/great reviews and seems to be turning into a decent indie hit and she still has Suffragette on the horizon. I also love that all three characters are strong women who refuse to live their lives with their men at the center…and I also love that after a bunch of supporting roles, she headlines all three of these projects. Hollywood take note, that’s the kind of leading lady treatment Jessica Chastain should get, too !
3. British dame Helen Mirren is critic-proof in the US : neither The Hundred-Foot Journey nor The Woman in Gold received good reviews yet both made money proving furthermore that women over 60 can and should carry movies because there is definitely a market for them.
4. The rather cool Kenneth Branagh was man enough to go from a superhero film (Thor) to a princess movie (Cinderella). Not many male directors would have the balls to do that…even less could pull it off with such spectacular success.
P.S. Good for Shailene Woodley for being the lead of Insurgent a quite succesful franchise. I didn’t support it, I didn’t go see it mainly because I couldn’t make myself give a fuck about this one, though as much as I hate to admit it, her views on feminism didn’t help, either but that wasn’t the dealbreaker, had the film looked good, I would have watched it. I mean I still watch Tom Cruise movies, too, and I don’t agree with the things he says, either.