Is "Annihilation" Guilty of White-Washing?

This past August, actor Ed Skrein decided that he wanted to be part of the solution and not just another part of the problem. After being cast as Major Ben Daimo, a character with Asian ancestry, in the upcoming Hellboy reboot, the British movie star made what he called a moral decision and stepped away from the high-profile film.

Sadly, as it turns out, the caucasian actor has actually turned out to be a member of the minority when it comes to white big-screen players refusing to portray persons of color. The newly-released Natalie Portman movie, Annihilation, features both Portman and co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh breathing life into characters who are Asian and Native American, respectively, in the source material. The two Hollywood veterans' characters, Lena and Dr. Ventress, appear in the the Southern Reach Trilogy book series. Add Portman and Leigh to the list (Scarlett Johannson in Ghost in the Shell; Tilda Swinton in Doctor Strange; Emma Stone in Aloha) of white stars who've graced the screen in roles intended for minorities in the last few years. 

While Portman has lent her name to the #MeToo movement (despite her past support of controversial director Roman Polanski and participation in the film Everyone Says I Love You, by even more controversial director Woody Allen), she's conspicuously absent from efforts to eliminate white-washing in Tinseltown. It seems that the women of Hollywood (the caucasian ones, at least) pushing for more female representation in the film industry don't necessarily view their crusade as inclusive of their minority counterparts.

Originally Posted 2/24/18  

Liam Neeson Admits to Racist Hate Crime Plot

During an interview with British online newspaper The Independent Monday to promote his latest movie, Cold Pursuit, global superstar Liam Neeson recounted a personal story in which he unwittingly confessed to being homicidally racist. In an attempt to illustrate the power of vengeance, his character's driving motivation in the film, the veteran actor revealed that years ago, a woman that he cared about disclosed to him that she'd recently been raped. Neeson's response was to ask if she knew the identity of her attacker. When she denied any familiarity with the rapist, Neeson inquired about his race. The Taken star continued -- unprompted -- that after being told that the perpetrator was Black, he subsequently roamed the streets for a week with a cosh (British slang for a heavy club) in search of a Black man to kill. He even went to "Black areas" in search of an unsuspecting man to assault. Neeson also discussed his upbringing in Ireland during "The Troubles", a guerrilla war between Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant unionists that claimed the lives of 3,500 people, 52% of whom were civilians. Despite his identification as a Roman Catholic, the actor's only admitted intentions of violence were aimed at random Black men and not white Protestants, some of whom waged attacks against the wider Catholic community, nor the British troops deployed to the island to (often brutally) suppress the violence. Read Neeson's comments below:

“She handled the situation of the rape in the most extraordinary way,” Neeson says. “But my immediate reaction was…” There’s a pause. “I asked, did she know who it was? No. What colour were they? She said it was a black person." 

“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody – I’m ashamed to say that – and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,” another pause, “kill him.”

“It took me a week, maybe a week and a half, to go through that. She would say, ‘Where are you going?’ and I would say, ‘I’m just going out for a walk.’ You know? ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘No no, nothing’s wrong.’”

“Holy shit,” says Tom Bateman, his co-star, who is sitting beside him. All three of us know – Neeson, Bateman and I – that this is a distressing admission. “I come from a society – I grew up in Northern Ireland in the Troubles – and, you know, I knew a couple of guys that died on hunger strike, and I had acquaintances who were very caught up in the Troubles, and I understand that need for revenge, but it just leads to more revenge, to more killing and more killing, and Northern Ireland’s proof of that. All this stuff that’s happening in the world, the violence, is proof of that, you know. But that primal need, I understand.”

It's worth noting that Neeson didn't make any claims to attempting to track down the specific person responsible, he simply intended to murder a Black man. Following the public relations nightmare that his revelation ignited, Neeson appeared on Good Morning America the day after his Independent interview was published and after somehow denying being a racist, explained to co-host Robin Roberts that the events he described took place 40 years ago. However, that would place the actor at 26-year-old and unquestionably adult.

Originally Posted 2/5/19

A New Hope for Star Trek?

After the unwatchable Star Trek Beyond, the least-profitable entry in the latest trilogy, it seemed like the franchise had crashed and burned -- again. But there's finally some good news on the horizon for Captain Kirk and his crew: director J.J. Abrams, who oversaw 2009's Star Trek and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness, has teamed up with fellow director and producer Quentin Tarantino to develop concepts for the next movie in the series. Tarantino, who grew up as a fan of the original television series, believes that Star Trek has plenty of potential and has stated that the original show's only weaknesses were its low budget and fast-paced shooting schedule. Tarantino's trademark gritty violence may be a welcome change in direction from Beyond's cheesy turn into screwball comedy.

It may take a while for the project to hit theaters though, since Abrams, who initially left Star Trek in order to direct The Force Awakens, is currently working on the upcoming Star Wars Episode XI.

It's worth noting that the studio has given Tarantino the freedom to include R-rated content. Can you imagine The Hateful Eight in space? Sounds great as long as that big-headed bastard doesn't try to sneak the N-word in.

Originally Posted 12/6/17

Leslie Jones Takes a Somewhat Hypocritical Stance on "Ghostbusters 3"

Leslie Jones, one of the stars of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, recently took to Twitter to express her outrage over the premise of the upcoming Ghostbusters 3. The movie, to be directed by the son (Jason Reitman) of the original film's director (Ivan Reitman) will reportedly serve as a direct sequel to 1989's Ghostbusters II, essentially ignoring the existence of the 2016 movie. And that's what pissed Jones off.

The thing is, that film ignored the existence of Ghostbusters II and the 1984 original -- which is what reboots do. Jones even complained that the filmmakers' decision to ignore the 2016 movie is something that Trump would do. Though four actors from the first two Ghostbusters films (Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd and Sigourney Weaver) made cameos in the reboot, none of them reprised their earlier roles.  Ironically, Jones decision to publicly vent her highly hypocritical frustrations on Twitter actually is something that Trump would do. See the comedian's comments below:

“So insulting. Like f—k us. We dint count,” “It’s like something trump would do. (Trump voice) ‘Gonna redo ghostbusteeeeers, better with men, will be huge. Those women ain’t ghostbusteeeeers’ ugh so annoying. Such a d—k move. And I don’t give f—k I’m saying something!!”

Originally Posted 1/21/19

The Magnitude of Disney's "Solo" Scheduling Screw-up

In 2018, for the first time since Disney took over the reins from creator George Lucas, the burgeoning entertainment monopoly released a Star Wars movie outside of December. After hitting Lucas off with a $4 billion payout in 2012, the company that Mickey built immediately set to work on a new era of Star Wars. They even boldly announced that they'd roll out a new film every year for the foreseeable future.

Their first offering, The Force Awakens, was released in mid-December of 2015 -- a time of year usually populated by dramatic Oscar-bait, not big-budget action extravaganzas. But the unusual scheduling worked. TFA didn't snag any Oscars (though it did receive five nominations) but it did rack up huge box office sales. The movie was pretty much guaranteed to be a hit but nobody could've expected that it would gross over $2 billion. And Disney execs justifiably stuck with the formula. The following year, Disney's first Star Wars prequel, Rogue One, was released on December 16 and went on to gross over $1.3 billion. Though divisive, the next installment, The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017 and rang up $1 billion as well.

But then the Disney suits decided to fix what wasn't broken at all from a revenue standpoint. Instead of waiting for December, the next prequel, Solo, debuted on May 25, 2018, roughly five months after TLJ's release and in the wake of that film's still-fresh negative publicity. While pre-sale numbers looked promising, Solo ended its theatrical run having grossed less than $393 million. Because of its $275 million budget, Solo will go down in history as the first (and so far, only) Star Wars movie to lose money (studios have to split their films' grosses with theaters). And while each of its predecessors landed in one of the top two spots on the list of the highest-grossing movies in their respective years of release, Solo won't even be among the top 10 highest-grossing movies released in 2018. In fact, the film will be lucky to maintain its hold on the 23rd spot.

What's more, the movie that Disney did see fit to place in the mid-December 2018 slot, Mary Poppins Returns, has so far made even less money than Solo. MPR's theatrical run isn't over and it is showing a small profit (its budget was smaller than Solo's) but the other big December releases (Into the Spider-Verse, Aquaman and Bumblebee), all from other studios, have all outgrossed Poppins. And Spider-Verse features the fourth big-screen version of Spider-Man in a decade-and-a-half (Ironically, Into the Spider-Verse was produced by Solo's original directors, who were fired before its completion). And Bumblebee is the first Transformers film following the franchise's worst received release. And Aquaman, which did gross over $1 billion, is the first movie devoted to perhaps the most-ridiculed superhero of all time.

The thinking was likely: "Star Wars is guaranteed to hit. We can release it anytime and it'll bring in a billion. Let's slip something else in that December date and keep dominating at the end of the year."

Sometimes it's better to stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.

As a result, Disney's gamble bait-and-switch and jetissoning of a tried-and-true method yielded two disappointments instead of two smash hits and paved the way for three competitors to shine when they otherwise may not have.

Originally Posted 1/25/19

Did Disney Mis-cast Han Solo?

Originally Posted 3/4/17

Disney will release another "standalone Star Wars movie" (Just keep it 100 and call 'em prequels, man.) next summer. This one will be all about Han Solo in his younger days. As we all know, Harrison Ford brought the space hustler to life in the original trilogy. Alden Ehrenreich has been announced as the titular smuggler-with-swag alongside Atlanta-creator and star Danny Glover (Childish Gambino) as Lando Calrissian. Ehrenreich is the guy in the first pic below. 

No disrespect to Alden's acting skills but there's another actor who looks and sounds exactly like a young Harrison Ford. Ford showed up in 2015's Age of Adaline as a 70-something-year-old who's gets reacquainted with an old flame from 40 years earlier -- who his son happens to be dating (she hasn't aged at all herself -- it's a long story). Anyway, the younger version of Ford's character is played by Anthony Ingruber and he fit the part perfectly. Hell, back in 2008 he even got internet-famous for his YouTube videos in which he nailed a Han Solo impression. The question is: Did Lucasfilm and Disney give Ingruber an audition? Did they even know about him? 

It's not too late. The movie's May 25 release date is more than a year away. Changing the lead may be the best thing for the film and wouldn't even have to be such a bad move for Ehrenreich. The producers could always cast him in a future Star Wars role -- one in which he's not limited to only one movie. Right now this all seems like a wasted opportunity. Ingruber could be a new hope for the Indiana Jones and Blade Runner franchises as well. Star Wars superfans have been pushing for Ingruber to land the role as far back as 2015. A petition  on change.org was even organized. And when Ehrenreich's casting was announced last year there was plenty of online unrest amongst Solo-devotees.

On the surface, Ingruber seems like the perfect choice. On the other hand, James Bond fans had campaigned for nine years for Pierce Brosnan to take over as the legendary superspy while he impatiently filled his contract with NBC. He finally got his license to kill in 1995's GoldenEye. But in hindsight the guy who took over for him, Daniel Craig (the first and only blond Bond), proved to be a waaay better 007 than Brosnan. And let's not forget the lesson that Heath Ledger taught us. Protests against his selection as the Joker had reached a fever pitch -- and then fans actually saw The Dark Knight and haven't stopped singing his praises yet. Maybe the casting director for the Han Solo joint saw some mind-blowing stuff during Ehrenreich's audition. Maybe Ingruber wasn't as convincing as a tough guy (like Brosnan -- at least compared to Craig). Who knows?

For now, judge for yourself. Check out the pics and video below.

Alden Ehrenreich -- star of the upcoming Han Solo movie

Harrison Ford (left) and Anthony Ingruber (right)

Related:



"Solo" Deserved to Flop





Let's Take One Last Look at "The Last Jedi" and Then Forget it Ever Happened...Forever





The Best Films of 2016





The Greatest Space Films of All Time

Did Disney Sanction the Use of Brownface for Several of the White Actors in the "Aladdin" Remake?

Disney has admitted that over 100 white actors have been hired to appear in director Guy Ritchie's live-action remake of the hit animated film Aladdin. The actors have reportedly been tanned and made-up to resemble natives of the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Agrabah, where the story is set. The excuse given by the studio is that non-white performers couldn't be located to fill the roles in question -- animal handlers and stunt people. Really? Apparently it's not a whole new world after all. But surely 100 or so blackfaced caucasian stunt performers didn't appear in Black Panther. Actor Kal Penn (star of the Harold & Kumar movie series) criticized Disney's (the studio backing the film) defense of the casting on Twitter...

At least one crew member, Kaushal Odedra, has reported that most of his fellow crew members are white as well. Given the white-washing scandals that preceded other recent box office bombs like Ghost in the Shell, Aloha and Disney's own Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Lone Ranger, the studio can't be happy with a potential public relations disaster over diversity issues. Some have cited this latest incident as reinforcement for the argument that movies about people of color should be overseen (directed) by people of color, who at least have the potential to better understand the nuances involved.

Originally Posted 12/23/18

Related:

Why Were So Many White Actors Cast in "The Lion King" Remake?

Stream "Just Mercy", "Selma", "Ali" and "The Hate U Give" for Free All Month

In the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hand of Minneapolis police officers and the ensuing global protests against racism, a handful of movie studios have decided to offer films free of charge for the remainder of June.

Just Mercy is the film adaptation of attorney Bryan Stevenson's critically-acclaimed 2014 memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Focusing primarily on Stevenson's attempts to free a wrongfully-convicted African-American man sentenced to the death penalty in Monroeville, Alabama,
the movie highlights the astounding level of institutional racism within the Alabama (and American) justice system -- which persists to this day. Some moviegoers may initially have trouble comprehending the magnitude of the problem and believing the extraordinary lengths to which those in power went in order to uphold a system of oppression.

Interestingly enough, director Destin Daniel Cretton strongly indicts the caucasian male members of the communities involved. But though history tells a different story, the movie goes out of its way to absolve white women of any complicity in connection to the systemic racism that it depicts.

A courtroom drama that outshines genre favorites like A Few Good Men, A Time to Kill, Primal Instinct and Philadelphia, Just Mercy rivals To Kill a Mockingbird. Ironically, the author of the book on which that movie was based, Harper Lee, was a native of Monroeville.

Onscreen, Stevenson endures police intimidation, legal stonewalling and reluctance to come forward on the part of witnesses to obtain justice for just one client. Would you believe he's gone on to save 125 men from death sentences?

Just Mercy should be required viewing, particularly for those concerned with the need for criminal justice reform. It's available for free on YouTube, Amazon and Google Play.

More than any other movie of 2018, The Hate U Give conveys the African-American Millenial experience. And like Blindspotting, released earlier that year, Hate also delves into multi-generational issues such as code-switching and murder-by-cop.

Both movies feature a fatal shooting of an unarmed African-American male by a white police officer. Unlike the relatively recent spate of police murders captured on video, there is only one eyewitness -- aside from the cop. The remainder of the films explore the effects that the shootings have on the witnesses.

In the case of Hate, the witness, Starr Carter, was a childhood friend of the victim, Khalil Harris. The two are pulled over for failure to signal a lane change on an empty street when Khalil drives Starr home from a house party. After Khalil is ordered out of the car, he's shot to death by the officer.

What follows is Starr's struggle to come to terms with the death of her friend, her efforts to achieve justice for Khalil while remaining anonymous, and her continued fight to be accepted by her predominantly African-American community without being solely defined by her ethnicity at her predominantly white high school. Despite Starr's wish to blend in and be a "normal" teenager, the seed of social activism planted in her by her father begins to grow.

The Hate U Give is available for free on YouTube, Vudu, the Apple TV, FandangoNow, the Microsoft store and RedBox.

Ali explores a decade in the life of legendary heavyweight boxing champion and political activist Muhammad Ali. The movie begins in 1964, the year that Ali, then known as Cassius Clay Jr., defeated Sonny Liston to become only the second-youngest (at 22 years old) fighter to win the heavyweight title. Liston refused to continue the bout before the seventh round. Prior to the fight, Clay verbally harassed Liston, describing him as a "big, ugly bear". Jeering opponents would be a signature of Clay's. After befriending civil rights activist Malcolm X, Clay joins the Nation of Islam and is renamed Muhammad Ali (he was initially renamed Cassius X) by the group's leader, Elijah Muhammad. However, when a rift develops between X and the Nation leadership, Ali sides with the NOI and abandons his friend. The two never reconcile prior to X's 1965 assassination.

The following year, Ali is drafted to serve in the Vietnam War but refuses based on his religious and political beliefs. He famously declares, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong...They never called me nigger." However, his refusal results in his being stripped of his heavyweight title (which he'd successfully defended in a rematch with Liston), losing his boxing license and his passport. He's also criminally charged, convicted of refusing to serve and faces five years in prison as well as a $10,000 fine.

Ali's conviction is finally overturned in 1971 and he goes on to challenge undefeated Philadelphia-native Joe Frazier in a title bout billed as the Fight of the Century. Ali's loss, by decision, is the first of his career. However, Frazier is subsequently defeated by George Foreman who later agrees put his title on the line against Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The 1974 fight, billed as the Rumble in the Jungle, is promoted by Don King and is preceded by a concert headlined by music legend James Brown. During the bout, attended by 60,000 fans and watched by one billion on television, Ali employs his famous rope-a-dope strategy and beats the previously undefeated Foreman with an eighth round knockout. Ali's victory over Foreman, who was seven years his junior, making him the the first boxer to win the heavyweight belt twice.

Ali is available for free on FandangoNow.

Last but certainly not least, Selma is the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. film that got it right. And better than anyone could have hoped. Like previous non-documentary films featuring the civil rights leader, it's not about King. The title is appropriate because the focus of the film is the series of protest marches conducted in 1965 in Alabama in order to pressure lawmakers into legislating protection for the voting rights of African-Americans.

Selma feels legitimate. It's neither a sweeping, grandiose epic nor a melodramatic character study into the depths of a famous person's soul. It's a matter-of-fact depiction of events in the lives of history-making, celebrated men and women. In some cases, the film is a glimpse into the political beginnings of future elected officials. The film notes that Andrew Young was ultimately appointed UN Ambassador by President Carter after serving three terms in Congress, and was later twice-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 and has served in Congress ever since. Hosea Williams went on to serve on the Atlanta City Council, Georgia General Assembly and Dekalb County Commission, one of the few Georgia politicians to ever be elected to seats in city, county and state government.

Several members of the cast have turned in their finest performances to date. Much has been made of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (the organization that awards Oscars) failure to nominate David Oyelowo for Best Actor, and rightly so. Oyelowo, however, is not the only overlooked actor here. Carmen Ejogo manages to downright illuminate King's wife, Coretta. She stands by her man, and in his shadow, but Ejogo shows us a three-dimensional person behind the solemn image that we know. Media-mogul Oprah Winfrey uncharacteristically, but wholly, disappears into her role as Annie Lee Cooper, who famously punched Selma Sheriff Jim Clark in the jaw in front of the Dallas County Courthouse in 1965. Rapper-turned-actor Common, whose track, "Glory", is nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th annual Academy Awards, is perhaps the biggest surprise. He was probably hired mostly because he bears an uncanny resemblance to the SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education James Bevel, who conceived the idea of marching from Selma, Alabama to the state capital, Montgomery. The rapper really has unexpectedly, if only this once, turned into an actor and fits in rather nicely with the professionals.

Selma ranks right up there with universally lauded biographical works such as Gandhi, Malcolm X, Coal Miner's Daughter, The Social Network and yes, even Patton.

Selma received a standing ovation when it premiered in Los Angeles. When I went to see it, the audience applauded when the film ended. Without exaggeration or hyperbole, Selma is simply - and unequivocally - the best film of 2014.

Selma is available for free on FandangoNow and iTunes.

The 2020 Oscar Nominees

by John Zenoni

Frankly, I'm shocked by the lack of diversity among this year's Oscar nominees. I just don't get it. But here's what I'm hoping for versus what I think will happen regarding the winners in the major categories:





Best Picture

Should Win: Joker

Will Win: 1917









Best Actor

Should Win: Joaquin Phoenix

Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix









Best Actress

Should Win: Renee Zellwegger

Will Win: Renee Zellwegger









Best Director

Should Win: Todd Phillips

Will Win: Sam Mendes









Best Animated Feature

Should Win: Klaus

Will Win: Frozen II

The 11 Biggest Movie Flops of 2018

When it comes to movies, they can't all be winners. And lately, more and more of them are proving to be financial disasters. This year has seen its fair share of box-office bombs and 2018 seemed to follow the same trend. Here are the biggest losers of the year:

11. Proud Mary

Loss: $20 million

10. Holmes & Watson

Loss: $21 million

9. The Girl in the Spider's Web

Loss: $26 million

8. The Happytime Murders

Loss: $34 million

7. Annihilation

Loss: $34 million

6. Welcome to Marwen

Loss: $60 million

5. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Loss: $65.8 million 

4. Solo

Loss: $76.9 million

Both Lucasfilm and Disney would love to explain away Solo's box office failure with excuses about an ill-advised release date, an abundance of competition and skimpy marketing. But the truth is, like The Last Jedi, Solo just wasn't a very good Star Wars movie.

3. Robin Hood

Loss: $83.7 million

2. A Wrinkle in Time

Loss: $131 million

While Disney enjoyed staggering success in 2018 (courtesy of movies such as Black Panther and Infinity War), the studio had its share of failures as well (most notably in the form of Solo). A Wrinkle in Time falls into the second category. Vivid colors and discussions about self-confidence abound but staying awake through this snooze-fest long enough to catch it all is a challenge. Despite the fact that the source material was published more than half a century ago, Wrinkle comes off as a much less-entertaining rip-off of the 1984 film The Neverending Story. The only thing missing was a furry white dragon.

1. Mortal Engines

Loss: $175 million

The Future Looks Bright for R-Rated Comic Book Movies

Updated 3/2/20

It's been 21 years since Blade graced movie screens, ushering in the current wave of comic book movie adaptations. The bloody vampire action flick's $131.2 million take was enough to make it not just a standalone story but the beginning of a trilogy. Ironically, though the Blade saga kicked off Marvel's cinematic dominance, the company wouldn't continue its R-rated leanings until 12 years after the release of 2004's Blade: Trinity.

But 2005's Sin City continued the streak, albeit for Dark Horse Comics (though the 2014 sequel, A Dame to Kill For, flopped like hell and bodied the series.)

Director Zack Snyder's first foray into the genre, the live-action adaptation of the graphic novel 300, was an unqualified success in 2007, pulling down $456.1 million from the 17-and-older crowd. The movie's 2014 sequel, Rise of an Empire, was good for $337.6 million.

DC finally got in on the action with 2009's Watchmen. But though critically-acclaimed, the mature-themed film bombed and handed Snyder his only CBM flop.

2016's Deadpool shocked industry experts when its winter rollout completely upended the established order and proved that neither cliches nor standard practices were necessary for theatrical victory. The "Merc with the Mouth"'s origin story racked up $783.1 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

And since the wildly successful first outing of the anti-hero's debut, a new mature (with the requisite MPAA rating to match) comic book film has been released every year since. 2017 saw the cinematic send-off of the most popular X-Man, Wolverine, in March of that year, in Logan. The film's $619 take make it not only the best X-Men movie but also one of the most profitable. Only one of the X-series' more modestly rated entries -- Days of Future Past -- had a bigger box-office haul ($747.9 million).

Deadpool returned in 2018 and the sequel snagged $785 million from moviegoers, becoming the biggest-seller of the 12 X-movies. This year, DC's R-rated Joker bagged plenty of critical acclaim -- and controversy -- to go with its $619 million in global earnings -- after only two weeks in theaters. Joker received an eight-minute standing ovation following its screening at the Venice Film Festival, copping the event's top prize, the Golden Lion award, in the process. 

At $1.073 billion and counting, the villain's origin story has since become the top-grossing R-rated film of all time and the first to gross ten figures at the box-office. It's also the third-highest grossing DC movie of all time, surpassing all but billion-selling PG-13 hits The Dark Knight Rises and Aquaman. Joker has even outsold all of the previous movies featuring the title character (including the Oscar-winning and billion-grossing The Dark Knight). Amazingly enough, Joker has also out-grossed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; former highest-grossing movie of all time, Jurassic Park; The Phantom Menace; animated franchise-starter Despicable Me; and Disney hits, Toy Story 3 and 4, Zootopia, Finding Dory, Dead Man's Chest, On Stranger Tides and the live-action versions of both Aladdin and Alice in Wonderland -- and it did so without a 3-D release or screenings in China.

What does all of this mean? Only one R-rated movie of any genre has made it into the billion-dollar club so far so don't expect Hollywood to turn its back on PG-13 superhero adventures anytime soon. But just maybe the big studios will make a little more room for those who like a little blood (and locker room talk) with their onscreen violence.

The 19 Biggest Movie Flops of 2019

Updated 1/7/20

When it comes to movies, they can't all be winners. And lately, more and more of them are proving to be financial disasters. Last year saw its fair share of box-office bombs and 2019 seems to have followed the same trend. Here are the biggest losers of the year:





19. Lucy in the Sky

Loss: $27 million

Not only did Lucy in the Sky lose millions of dollars, the movie only made $319,976.









18. The Kitchen

Loss: $31 million









17. Playmobil: The Movie

Loss: $33 million









16. UglyDolls

Loss: $37 million









15. Wonder Park

Loss: $41 million









14. The Kid Who Would Be King

Loss: $43 million

King Arthur hasn't been a hit with movie lovers in 37 years -- since 1981's
Excalibur. And this is the second Arthurian flop in a row to be done in by shoddy grand finale CGI.









13. Late Night

Loss: $43 million

Late Night is a low-budget film. But the cost of acquiring its domestic distribution rights and the marketing, combined with audiences' lack of willingness to pay to see it, pushed this high-profile comedy beyond the realm of profitability. 









12. The Goldfinch

Loss: $45 million









11. Men In Black: International

Loss: $47 million

Nobody really wanted to see a Men In Black movie without Will Smith. And his chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones is light-years better than that of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Liam Neeson's addition to the cast was just a nail in the movie's coffin.









10. Zombieland: Double Tap

Loss: $50 million









9. Gemini Man

Loss: $75 million









8. Charlie's Angels

Loss: $78 million









7. Missing Link

Loss: $88 million

Laika, the studio behind such animated hits as ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings, really swung for the fences with Missing Link's $100 million budget. But they struck out hard and came away with the biggest loss in the studio's 14-year history.









6. Alita: Battle Angel 

Loss: $53 ($96 million)

James Cameron may have dreamed of scoring his third billion-dollar-grosser with this sci-fi spectacle tailor-made for 3-D but Cam and company must've realized that disaster was looming because Alita: Battle Angel was screened for free in hundreds of theaters around the country a mere two weeks before the movie's actual release.









5. Cats

Projected Loss: $100 million

4. Terminator: Dark Fate

Loss: $130 million

3. Dumbo 

Loss: $149 million

Dumbo made lots of money. It's only on this list because so much was spent on the movie's production and marketing that it was unable to make a profit.










2. Dark Phoenix

Loss: $150 million

The X-Men went out with a deafening whimper. The final movie -- and lowest-grossing entry -- in the franchise, Dark Phoenix bombed so hard upon release that it was pulled from theaters early.










1. King of the Monsters

Loss: $215 million

A direct sequel to King of the Monsters is scheduled for release next Spring, which makes you wonder how nervous the studio is about gambling even more money on this particular monsterverse.