Author: dpugh007

The new western The Magnificent Seven officially opened in theaters on Friday and raked in $35 million for its opening weekend in the US, Sony has announced. That made it the No. 1 movie of the weekend domestically, with new animated film Storks landing in the No. 2 position with $21.8 million.

According to Deadline, which supplied the numbers, The Magnificent Seven‘s $35 million is a career-best opening weekend domestic figure for director Antoine Fuqua. His previous record-holder was The Equalizer, which pulled in $34.1 million for its opening weekend back in 2014.

It’s the third-highest opening for star Denzel Washington, following Safe House ($40.2 million) and American Gangster ($43.6 million), according to Box Office Mojo. $35 million is also the second-best debut for a western, following Cowboys & Aliens, which made $36.4 million for its opening.

Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) and and Ethan Hawke (Training Day) also star in the film. The movie follows seven gunslingers as they defend a small town from a mining tycoon and his cronies, who intend on taking control of the town by force.

GameSpot critic Randolph Ramsay reviewed The Magnificent Seven and said, “It’s certainly fun and cheer-worthy as the honorable good guys stand against the deeds of evil men. And its dedication to the well-trodden path makes it enjoyable, but not necessarily memorable. The Magnificent Seven is a bubblegum western in the best way possible, and it’s about time we had another one of those mosey into town.”

The Magnificent Seven‘s $35 million opening is just ahead of expectations, which predicted the movie would make $32 million-$34 million.

Go to Deadline to see a full breakdown of this weekend’s US box office performance.

Powered by WPeMatico

The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red’s PC games store, GOG, has launched a “Back to School” sale. As part of the promotion, more than 300 games are marked down by as much as 90 percent.

Some of the discounted games right now include Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines ($6.70), Day of the Tentacle Remastered ($7.50), Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Edition ($80), and Dying Light: The Following – Enhanced Edition ($30). There are also collections of games on sale, including a LucasArts collection that has 10 games for under 17 and an Anno collection for around $11.

Go to GOG to see all the available deals. Don’t see anything you like? New titles will be added every day for the duration of the sale, which runs until Sunday, October 2. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

Additionally, GOG announced today that new GOG Connect titles have been added to the library, including Hotline Miami, X Rebirth, Anno 1404, Dex, and Shadow Warrior (2013). As announced previously, GOG Connect lets you link your GOG and Steam accounts to add some GOG games to your Steam library for free. This service launched in June 2016.

GOG said in June that the service is based on the premise, “Why buy the games more than once?”

Powered by WPeMatico

One of the big surprises of last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that Han Solo and Princess (now General) Leia were no longer together. The fact that their son had become evil Kylo Renn probably didn’t help matters, and now actress Carrie Fisher has spoken about some their other relationship issues, in typically frank style.

In a Q&A at the Saskatoon Comic & Entertainer Expo, Fisher explained that Han’s profession and choice of friends may have been a problem. “He smuggled way too much,” she joked, as posted on the Expo’s Facebook page. “And girls, I know you don’t want your husband smuggling, do you? [And] hanging out with the hairy guy too often. I think there are a lot of problems with that.

“He wouldn’t take me on that hyperspace thing enough. [That’s a] euphemism.”

Fisher will return as Leia in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is directed by Rian Johnson. The film finished shooting in July, and is now in post-production ahead of its December 2017 release.

In a recent interview, Adam Driver, who plays Kylo in the new Star Wars movies, shared some insight into the film’s script.

“It’s great,” he told Collider. “It’s similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go, ‘Oooh, it’s dark.’ But I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear.

“[Rian] trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play,” he added.

Star Wars: Episode VIII arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017. It also stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.

Powered by WPeMatico