OBSESSION Wins Two More Awards This Summer...

6th Annual Critics Choice Super Awards – List of Nominees and Winners (Press Release)

BEST ACTION MOVIE
THE FURIOUS
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Motor City
The Naked Gun
Normal
The Rip
Sisu: Road to Revenge

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Matt Damon – The Rip
Taron Egerton – Apex
XIE MIAO – THE FURIOUS
Bob Odenkirk – Normal
Alan Ritchson – Motor City
Joe Taslim – The Furious
Jorma Tommila – Sisu: Road to Revenge

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Pamela Anderson – The Naked Gun
Priyanka Chopra Jonas – The Bluff
Eiza González – Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Akari Takaishi – Ghost Killer
CHARLIZE THERON – APEX
Samara Weaving – Over Your Dead Body
Maddie Ziegler – Pretty Lethal

BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE*
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Exit 8
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Masters of the Universe
Mortal Kombat II
Supergirl
SUPERMAN

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPERHERO MOVIE*
DAVID CORENSWET – SUPERMAN
Nicholas Galitzine – Masters of the Universe
Edi Gathegi – Superman
Nicholas Hoult – Superman
Kazunari Ninomiya – Exit 8
Pedro Pascal – The Fantastic Four: First Steps

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPERHERO MOVIE*
MILLY ALCOCK – SUPERGIRL
Rachel Brosnahan – Superman
Julia Garner – The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Vanessa Kirby – The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Camila Mendes – Masters of the Universe
Adeline Rudolph – Mortal Kombat II

BEST HORROR MOVIE
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Backrooms
The Long Walk
OBSESSION
Send Help
Weapons

BEST ACTOR IN A HORROR MOVIE
Josh Brolin – Weapons
Chiwetel Ejiofor – Backrooms
RALPH FIENNES – 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE
Michael Johnston – Obsession
David Jonsson – The Long Walk
Jack O’Connell – 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Adam Scott – Hokum

BEST ACTRESS IN A HORROR MOVIE
Alison Brie – Together
Jessie Buckley – The Bride!
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Rachel McAdams – Send Help
INDE NAVARRETTE – OBSESSION
Renate Reinsve – Backrooms

BEST SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE
Bugonia
Disclosure Day
Frankenstein
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
I Love Boosters
Predator: Badlands
PROJECT HAIL MARY

BEST ACTOR IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
RYAN GOSLING – PROJECT HAIL MARY
Matt Johnson – Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
James Ortiz – Project Hail Mary
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia
Sam Rockwell – Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

BEST ACTRESS IN A SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY MOVIE
EMILY BLUNT – DISCLOSURE DAY
Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Elle Fanning – Predator: Badlands
Sandra Hüller – Project Hail Mary
Keke Palmer – I Love Boosters
Emma Stone – Bugonia

BEST VILLAIN IN A MOVIE
Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Nicholas Hoult – Superman
Michael Johnston – Obsession
Jared Leto – Masters of the Universe
AMY MADIGAN – WEAPONS

BEST GOOD BOY IN A HORROR MOVIE
INDY – GOOD BOY

* Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired movies

Source: Critics Choice Association

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Inde Navarrette's thank-you video for winning Best Actress in a Horror Movie at this year's Critics' Choice Super Awards!#Obsession pic.twitter.com/5zIvTREKSo

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) August 6, 2026

A Day of Moviegoing at Harkins Theatres...

Gettin' ready to watch Avatar: Fire and Ash today!

Lookin' Ahead to THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU!

Earlier today, Lucasfilm released the teaser poster and teaser trailer for next year's Star Wars film, The Mandalorian and Grogu...with Pedro Pascal reprising his role as Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin. Grogu, the young Force user who was rescued from the Jedi Temple during the Order 66 massacre in Revenge of the Sith, is off to partake in a new adventure with the Mandalorian that sees them working with Colonel Ward, a New Republic officer played by Sigourney Weaver...and running into the likes of Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba who'll be voiced by Jeremy Allen White (of the FX TV series The Bear).

The Mandalorian and Grogu will be released in theaters nationwide on May 22, 2026. Its teaser trailer should supposedly be shown in front of next month's Tron: Ares, but definitely in front of December's Avatar: Fire and Ash. This is the way!

Filming Has Begun on STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER!

So an hour ago, Lucasfilm announced that principal photography has begun in the United Kingdom on Star Wars: Starfighter! Joining Ryan Gosling, Mia Goth and Matt Smith on Shawn Levy's standalone Star Wars flick is Flynn Gray, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Amy Adams.

Starfighter—which will be the second brand-new Star Wars movie (behind next May's The Mandalorian and Grogu) to be released on the big screen since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker—will come out in theaters nationwide on May 28, 2027. (The story for Starfighter takes place five years after the events in The Rise of Skywalker.) As for The Mandalorian and Grogu, it remains to be seen if we'll see a teaser trailer for it before the end of this year...possibly in front of December's Avatar: Fire and Ash (since that's Disney's final blockbuster for 2025).

Also, the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, will be re-released in theaters nationwide on April 30, 2027, for its 50th anniversary! The last time I saw A New Hope on the big screen was in January 1997, for its Special Edition. I was a junior in high school at that time.

Pretty cool that a pair of Star Wars films will be shown at theaters in the span of one month less than two years from now. Carry on!

On This Day in 1995: Remembering APOLLO 13...

30 years ago today, Apollo 13 was released in theaters nationwide.

This is one of Ron Howard's best movies (and definitely one of the best space flicks of all time) and contains one of the best film scores by the late James Horner...who went on to compose music for director James Cameron on the 1997 Oscar winner Titanic and 2009's Best Picture nominee Avatar.

Speaking of the Academy Awards, Apollo 13 was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (for Ed Harris), Best Supporting Actress (for Kathleen Quinlan), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 68th Academy Awards on March 25, 1996.

Apollo 13 took home trophies for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing, respectively.

And the Winners of the 2023 Academy Awards Are...

Congratulations to Everything Everywhere All at Once for winning Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards tonight! In total, this quarky sci-fi/adventure flick took home 7 trophies...for Best Picture, Best Directing (for the Daniels), Best Actress (for Michelle Yeoh), Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (for Ke Huy Quan) and Best Supporting Actress (for Jamie Lee Curtis).

Germany's World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front—which looked like it could've upset Everything Everywhere at the end considering all of the categories it won today—took home Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography, respectively.

Top Gun: Maverick, which received 6 nominations, won the Oscar for Best Sound Design. Avatar: The Way of Water surprisingly (just kidding) won the award for Best Visual Effects.

I was rooting for Lady Gaga to win Best Original Song for Top Gun: Maverick's Hold My Hand, but the Oscar for this category went to Naatu Naatu...a song from the Indian action-adventure drama, RRR.

And Brendan Fraser, who—along with Ke Huy Quan—appeared in the 1992 comedy flick Encino Man, won Best Actor for The Whale. The Whale also won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Tonight's ceremony was an eventful one...in a positive way, that is. History was made when Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan became the first two Asian actors to win Oscars in the same year!

Also, Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel managed to avoid getting slapped by an Academy Award nominee on-stage—unlike previous host Chris Rock last year. Google that if you are unaware of what I'm talking about...

Click here for the full list of Oscar winners. Congrats to all!

The 2023 Academy Award Nominations...

Congratulations to all of the movies, filmmakers and thespians who received an Oscar nomination this morning by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences! The winners will be revealed during the 95th Academy Awards that will be televised March 12 on ABC TV.

As shown below, Everything Everywhere All at Once (which I saw at the theater last April and immensely enjoyed) leads the Best Picture pack with 11 nominations. Top Gun: Maverick—which I saw multiple times at the theater last year—is up for 6 trophies; it unfortunately isn't up for Best Cinematography but is amazingly up for Best Adapted Screenplay!

Most-Nominated Movies for the 95th Academy Awards:

Everything Everywhere All at Once - 11 nominations
All Quiet on the Western Front - 9 nominations
The Banshees of Inisherin - 9 nominations
Elvis - 8 nominations
The Fabelmans - 7 nominations
Tár - 6 nominations
Top Gun: Maverick - 6 nominations
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - 5 nominations

I didn't watch the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde, but I do know that Ana de Armas is a very talented actress who was great in 2017's Blade Runner 2049 and 2019's Knives Out. Congrats to her for her Best Actress nomination!

Click here to see all of the nominees for this year's Academy Awards.

One actor who I hoped would get nominated was John Boyega for his role as a down-on-his-luck Marine veteran in last August's Breaking. I gave this dramatic crime thriller an enthusiastic review last summer, and I was hoping that the Academy would give this movie the kudos it deserves... Next time, Boyega.

And up for Best Visual Effects for 2022 is Top Gun: Maverick, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Batman (which should've also been nominated for Best Original Score), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water. Yes, James Cameron's sequel to the 2009 sci-fi epic will go home with the trophy.

Can't wait to watch the Oscars on March 12!

Movie Review: BABYLON...

Yesterday, I went to AMC theaters to watch Damien Chazelle's newest film Babylon.

While it wasn't as moving as 2014's Whiplash or 2016's La La Land, Babylon was more enjoyable than Chazelle's previous movie, the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man.

I commend Chazelle for tackling the glory days of NASA like Ron Howard did with 1995's Apollo 13 (Chazelle also co-wrote the 2016 sci-fi flick 10 Cloverfield Lane), but he was more in his element doing another film with a strong musical theme (even though this theme was mostly featured during a huge orgy scene at the beginning of Babylon), as was the case with Whiplash and La La Land.

In Babylon, the story depicts an incredibly insane (but in a good way) take on Hollywood's silent film era during the late 1920s, and how the 'talkies' (movies with sound) wrought havoc on it the following decade. We see this transition have a huge impact on the four main characters in Chazelle's comedy drama: Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie), Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) and Manny Torres (Diego Calva).

Only two of the four characters above make it through this transition relatively unscathed.

Even though it was hugely exaggerated, the depiction of set life in Babylon made me both dread and appreciate the fact that I experience this as a background actor...which I've been working as since late 2011.

And just like with the final scene in the movie (spoilers ahead), where Manny Torres grows teary-eyed as he watches a couple of 'talkies' at a crowded theater after he visits his old job at Kinoscope Studios (which is actually Paramount Pictures...where I worked between mid-2005 to '06) from years past, I'll probably grow emotional in my hopeful old age thinking about my time in the entertainment industry should I finally leave it for greener pastures.

Babylon is Chazelle's love letter to filmmaking...with a montage showing actual movies like the first Avatar flick, The Matrix and Raiders of the Lost Ark featured at the end of the film. Babylon, with its extremely-long running time of 189 minutes, may not be as simple and impactful as La La Land, but it's still an intriguing flick by Chazelle that should be appreciated by filmgoers who have an extreme passion for cinema.

Merry Christmas!

On This Day in 1997: Remembering TITANIC...

It was 25 years ago today that I watched James Cameron's Oscar-winning epic about the story of Jack Dawson, Rose DeWitt Bukater and a doomed ocean liner on the big screen for the first time.

I originally saw Titanic at the theater to receive extra credit for my British Literature class in high school. I was completing my first semester of senior year when the film was released in cinemas nationwide.

Little did I know, Titanic would become the highest-grossing film ever (after enduring controversy about its whopping $200 million production budget...which was unheard of for movies at the time), win 11 Academy Awards, spawn a hugely popular song in Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, and become such an enduring flick that I saw it on the big screen almost a dozen times—through the summer of 1998!

I was hoping Titanic would be back in theaters for its 25-year anniversary this month, but it's all good. (Cameron obviously wanted the focus to be on the newly-released Avatar: The Way of Water.) I watched Titanic in IMAX a few times when it celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2017, so it's nice to know that I was able to re-experience this amazing movie at the multiplex recently.

Only 5 more years till we might see Titanic on the big screen again for its 30-year anniversary! Happy Christmas Eve.

#OTD 25 years ago, I watched #Titanic on the big screen for the first time.

I originally saw this film to get extra credit for my British Literature class in 12th grade; little did I know that it would be the best film of 1997 (the #Oscars and my senior yearbook got it right) 😄 pic.twitter.com/QiA4r4pjyh

— Richard Par (@RichTPar) December 24, 2022

Movie Review - AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER...

Earlier today, I went to AMC theaters to watch James Cameron's latest adventure on the extrasolar moon of Pandora in Avatar: The Way of Water.

Just like 2009's Avatar, The Way of Water was just as visually beautiful and epic on the big screen! But the sequel had a better storyline than the original film...even though villain-wise, it might make certain moviegoers like myself think of recent flicks like last year's The Matrix Resurrections.

[Actually, I'm thinking of all of The Matrix sequels in general—as I'm referring to the evolution of Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) throughout those installments.]

The first Avatar movie was derided for having a plot that was similar to those of Fern Gully, Braveheart and Cameron's own Aliens, but The Way of Water had an entertaining story that was already in high gear from the very first scene of the film.

Like the Fast & Furious movies, The Way of Water placed a huge emphasis on family—with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) doing everything they could to protect their four children after they were forced to move to a distant seaside village in response to their forest home being ravaged by the "sky people" [led by by General Ardmore (Edie Falco) and Stephen Lang (portraying a new incarnation of Quaritch from the previous film)] once more.

Also back in The Way of Water are Sigourney Weaver (as Dr. Grace Augustine and Kiri) and Giovanni Ribisi (as Parker Selfridge), while Kate Winslet reunited with her Titanic director after 25 years to play the Na'vi warrior Ronal...the tsahìk of the Metkayina clan. (Yes, I looked that up on Google just now.)

What really impressed me about The Way of Water was its music. Composer Simon Franglen did a wonderful job keeping true to the original Avatar score that was conducted by the late and great James Horner.

As mentioned at the start of this review, the visuals in The Way of Water were just absolutely beautiful! Weta and Industrial Light & Magic did a terrific job making Pandora look even more majestic on the big screen than it did 13 years ago.

I saw The Way of Water in the traditional 2-D format today, I look forward to seeing it on IMAX 3-D next!

PS: Those tulkun (Pandora's essentially bulletproof whales who are smarter than humans in The Way of Water) are awesome. Carry on.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK Has Reached a Huge Milestone at the Box Office!

Congratulations to Paramount Pictures for the enormous success that Top Gun: Maverick has enjoyed at the theaters since its release almost two months ago!

As of today, the Tom Cruise action sequel has earned $601.9 million at the domestic box office...surpassing Titanic's initial domestic box office gross of $600.8 million that it accumulated back in 1997-'98.

Top Gun: Maverick is currently the highest-grossing film, both domestically and internationally, of 2022. However, Titanic still remains Paramount Pictures' highest-grossing domestic movie in the studio's 110-year history—with re-releases in 2012 and 2017 bringing the North American gross of James Cameron's Oscar-winning epic to $659.3 million.

Speaking of Titanic and James Cameron, the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet film is celebrating the 25-year anniversary of its theatrical release this December. We'll see if Paramount commemorates this occcasion on the big screen...as Disney is unveiling James Cameron's first Avatar sequel, The Way of Water, that same month!

Happy Wednesday.

The Teaser Poster and Trailer for AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER Are Here!

Almost 13 years after the first Avatar movie landed in theaters nationwide and broke box office records, the first of four sequels—Avatar: The Way of Water—will soon be upon us!

The teaser trailer for the December 16 flick premiered online today...after being shown exclusively in front of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on the big screen last weekend.

Just like the 2009 film, director James Cameron intends to release The Way of Water in both the 2D and 3D formats. I'll definitely view this movie in 3rd dimension...but we'll see if this plan holds since the coronavirus pandemic is still raging around the world. And COVID-19 cases will no doubt surge come Christmas time.

Health issues aside, I'm excited to see what amazing visuals Cameron has in store for us with The Way of Water! The story in the first Avatar film wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but Pandora is absolutely one of the most beautiful worlds to ever be created for cinema. We'll see if that's still the case about seven months from now.

Judging from the new trailer, it will be.

Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang are reprising their roles from the first Avatar movie, while joining them in The Way of Water are Michelle Yeoh, Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Jemaine Clement and Edie Falco, respectively. Happy Monday!

A Sad Day for L.A. Moviegoers...

FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images

A few hours ago, I found out through the Hollywood Reporter that ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres will permanently shut their doors—as business was unable to recover due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All I can say is, this is hugely disappointing...to the point where I almost became a bit teary-eyed as I read various news articles about this. Between 2004 and 2010, I had a fun job at a market research company where I worked movie test and press screenings at the ArcLight in Hollywood and Pacific Theatres throughout Southern California. Also, I watched such films as Avatar, Zero Dark Thirty and two Star Wars films (Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens, to be specific) at the ArcLight as well. Not only that, but I visited the ArcLight on Sunset Boulevard numerous times over the past decade to see costumes and vehicles used in flicks like Ant-Man and the Wasp, Deadpool 2, The Force Awakens and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, respectively, inside its main theater lobby.

And now it's all gone.

It's just painful that more nails continue to be placed in the coffin in terms of my memories at places that I'll no longer work at that I do want to work in again. I could make this Blog entry extremely long to voice more of my disappointment at this breaking news, but I'll conclude this here. Another era that I cherished comes to an end.

Disney to Release the First AVATAR Sequel in 2021...Followed by a New STAR WARS Film in 2022!

The Walt Disney Studios Announces Film Release Schedule (News Release)

The Walt Disney Studios has unveiled its upcoming slate following the recent acquisition of the Fox film studios, including changes to previously dated films and a number of major additions.

After kicking off with the record-setting success of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame, The Walt Disney Studios’ 2019 summer slate includes Disney’s Aladdin on May 24, Fox’s Dark Phoenix on June 7, Pixar’s Toy Story 4 on June 21, Fox’s Stuber on July 12 and Disney’s The Lion King on July 19. Fox 2000’s The Art of Racing in the Rain moves up to August 9, and Fox Searchlight’s Ready or Not will release on August 23, while three films move to later dates: Ad Astra (September 20, 2019), The New Mutants (April 3, 2020) and Artemis Fowl (May 29, 2020).

The Studios’ 2019 slate rounds out with Fox’s The Woman in the Window on October 4 and Ford V. Ferrari on November 15, Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil on October 18 and Disney Animation’s Frozen 2 on November 22, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on December 20 and Blue Sky Studios’ Spies in Disguise, moving from September to Christmas. Among early 2020 titles are Fox’s Underwater on January 10, a new Kingsman movie on February 14 and Call of the Wild on February 21, followed by Pixar’s Onward on March 6 and Disney’s Mulan on March 27.

The updated calendar also sets release dates for major franchises Avatar and Star Wars. With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker bringing the original Skywalker saga to its conclusion, three new as-yet-untitled Star Wars films will release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2022. Four forthcoming Avatar films, expanding the vibrant world of Pandora, will release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2021. In the holiday corridor for 2020, Fox’s West Side Story adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, will debut December 18 in the pre-Christmas slot, with Disney’s Cruella opening Wednesday, December 23, for the long holiday weekend.

“We’re excited to put in place a robust and diverse slate that lays the foundation of our long-term strategy, bringing together a breadth of films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox, Fox Searchlight and Blue Sky Studios to create an extraordinary collection of cinematic experiences for audiences around the world,” said Cathleen Taff, president, Theatrical Distribution, Franchise Management, and Business & Audience Insights, The Walt Disney Studios. “With a strong summer already in place, we are eager to carry that momentum forward over the coming years thanks to a creative wellspring of bold and imaginative stories coming from our world-class studios—including several new chapters of two revered franchises, Avatar and Star Wars.”

Source: The Walt Disney Company

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THE SHAPE OF WATER Wins Best Picture!

In honor of Guillermo del Toro's latest film winning the Academy Award for Best Picture (plus Best Director, Original Score and Production Design) tonight, just thought I'd share these pics that I took at a special screening for The Shape of Water on February 22. Guillermo del Toro and his co-writer Vanessa Taylor were on-hand after the movie ended to discuss the adventure-fantasy drama at Landmark Theatres in west Los Angeles. Needless to day, del Toro is a genius! He is absolutely inspirational... There are so many insightful things that he said during the Q&A last month, but this one comment stood out: "Cinema has been around for over a hundred years. All you have is your voice." So true.

It doesn't matter if a certain story has been retold over and over on the big screen since the dawn of the 20th century. All that matters is that you put your own personal spin on this tale—much like how George Lucas put a spin on old Flash Gordon sci-fi serials as well as western and Japanese samurai flicks by creating Star Wars, Ridley Scott brought back sword-and-sandal epics with Gladiator, horror films were re-defined by the Scream, Saw, and Paranormal Activity franchises, and James Cameron put a spin on Fern Gully and Dances with Wolves with Avatar. Though um, I think that last example isn't particularly flattering to Mr. Cameron... But the message still stands: Even if the story may not be completely original, write it anyway with the knowledge that you're hopefully adding a neat twist to it via your own unique idiosyncrasy. Carry on.

Oh, and congrats to retired NBA legend Kobe Bryant on winning an Oscar for his animated short film Dear Basketball tonight!

Disney Acquires 21st Century Fox...

So as of today, Disney not only owns Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the majority of the Marvel film franchise, but it now has total control over The Simpsons, Aliens, Avatar, Independence Day, Family Guy and the rest of the Marvel film franchise (Sony owns Spider-Man but Marvel Studios is allowed to use him in its own movies). All I can say is, offer Hugh Jackman a huge paycheck so he can play Wolverine one last time in Avengers 4, make sure that Deadpool remains R-rated, ensure that James Cameron's Avatar sequels don't conflict with the release dates of future Star Wars movies (i.e. Rian Johnson's new trilogy) and (this is a NO-BRAINER) make sure that the next Fantastic Four and X-Men flicks (Will next year's Dark Phoenix be canceled? Of course not) are officially included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh, and create an Independence Day sequel that's as good as the first one! Carry on.

And yes, I will be watching The Last Jedi during a 7 PM screening at AMC Theatres tonight.

THE FORCE AWAKENS: The $900 Million Threshold Will Soon Be Crossed...

By the end of Super Bowl Sunday (this coming Sunday), The Force Awakens will have achieved two major milestones as it soon completes its historic theatrical run around the world. By the end of tonight, it will have crossed the $900 million domestic box office mark in the United States and Canada, while tomorrow will see J.J. Abrams' uber-successful Star Wars installment passing the $2 billion box office mark internationally. By the end of its run, The Force Awakens will possibly pass Titanic to become the second highest-grossing film worldwide (James Cameron's 1998 Best Picture winner grossed $2.19 billion globally) but fall short of Avatar's mammoth gross (at $2.78 billion) in 2010. Go to Deadline.com for more details.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII... Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren Set to Return to the Big Screen on December 15, 2017

Considering how successful The Force Awakens was during its record-breaking box office run over the past month or so, it's no surprise that Disney and Lucasfilm have decided to try catching lightning in a bottle twice by changing Star Wars: Episode VIII's release date. Instead of bowing in theaters on May 26, 2017 (which would've marked the 40th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope's theatrical debut on May 25, 1977), Episode VIII will instead be unleashed in cinemas seven months later. And just like how Marvel's decision to release Captain America: Cvil War (Marvel is also owned by Disney) on May 6 prompted Warner Bros. to change Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's release date to March 25 instead (Dawn of Justice was originally intended to come out on May 6 as well), Episode VIII's schedule change has prompted FOX and director James Cameron to indefinitely delay the release of Avatar 2—which was set to debut on Christmas Day, 2017.

FOX cites Cameron's pace on the sequel's lengthy pre-production period as reason for the delay, but it's also likely that the idea of clashing with the follow-up to the most successful domestic film of all time (inflation aside) was another catalyst for not releasing Avatar 2 next year. If it was a choice between going up against Episode VIII in 2017 or the Han Solo spin-off film in December of 2018, I think that FOX would prefer the latter...unless Harrison Ford decides to make a cameo in the Han Solo flick. Carry on.

AVATAR Is Finally Bested By THE FORCE AWAKENS!

Yesterday, Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally made history by surpassing Avatar's domestic gross of $760.5 million at the box office. The Force Awakens earned $6.2 million on Wednesday...leading to a current tally of $764.4 million in North America. One wonders if James Cameron is currently hard at work coming up with even more awesome action sequences that will give Avatar 2 a chance at reclaiming the box office crown in late 2017. We'll see. Star Wars: Episode VIII storms theaters nationwide seven months before the Na'vi returns to the big screen next year.

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2 Is Coming!

Happy Thanksgiving Day, everyone!!! Just thought I'd marked this holiday by posting these screenshots from the 1996 sci-fi hit, Independence Day. In case you guys didn't know yet, 20th Century Fox has just given the green light to commencing production on Independence Day 2! Known as ID Forever Part I (though Part II is dependent on how well the first installment will do at the box office), this sequel is due to invade theaters nationwide on June 24, 2016. This is another film to look forward to that year...which is already loaded with surefire blockbusters such as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse, Avatar 2 and of course, the first Star Wars spin-off movie that will be directed by Godzilla director Gareth Edwards. But this entry is about the film that made blowing up the White House popular (on the big screen, that is). What iconic building still left standing from the first flick will be obliterated in this one? We'll see.