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Weekend Box Office: 'Furious 6' Leads Biggest Memorial Day In History, Doubles 'Hangover Part III' Opening

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • May 26, 2013 1:28 PM
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  • 9 Comments
Box Office
It was touted as one of the biggest box office match-ups of the year, but now that the dust has settled, it wasn’t even close. “Fast & Furious 6” more than doubled the weekend take of closest competitor “The Hangover Part III” in a showdown between two sequels we never expected to happen four years ago, when Universal reluctantly re-assembled the pieces for “Fast & Furious” and Warner Bros. gave us the first 'Hangover.' For one, success in perpetuity: an immediate sequel to “Fast & Furious 6” is already slated for next summer. But put down your bottles and cans, boys and girls – “The Hangover” ends here. With this weekend, Vin Diesel and the boys might be looking at a three-day global total close to $270 million.
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More: Fast & Furious 6, The Hangover Part 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Great Gatsby, Iron Man 3, Epic, Weekend Box-Office, Universal, Warner Bros. Pictures, Todd Phillips, Justin Lin

Watch: J.J. Abrams Counters Alice Eve Underwear Moment In 'Star Trek 2' With Deleted Benedict Cumberbatch Shower Scene

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • May 23, 2013 5:44 PM
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  • 11 Comments
News
Following the release of "Star Trek Into Darkness," its male creators came under fire for a sequence where Alice Eve, playing a brilliant scientist who in the original continuity is responsible for a godlike device that can create life on barren planets, strips down to her underwear for no discernible reason. Kirk (and by extension, the camera) chooses to leer. It's a pretty unnecessary sequence and no matter how adorable Eve is (and, truly, her physique could be described as godlike), it had no real business being in the movie. While co-writer/producer Damon Lindelof has issued a public apology, director J.J. Abrams has taken a different approach. One that involves footage of Benedict Cumberbatch in the shower. That'll certainly even the scales…
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More: Star Trek Into Darkness, Alice Eve, Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams, Benedict Cumberbatch

Why 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Suggests J.J. Abrams Needs To Leave His Mystery Box Alone For A While

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • May 21, 2013 2:34 PM
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  • 13 Comments
Star Trek Into Darkness, JJ Abrams
Features
In 2007, J.J Abrams gave a TED talk about the mystery box; principally, a Tannen's Mystery Box he was bought by his grandfather from a magic store when he was a child. Abrams, in a typically articulate, engaging and funny address, talked about how the box had come to represent, for him, infinite possibility, and became a kind of manifesto for much of his work up to that point. And in the years since (quite deliberately, in a lot of way; it served as the front cover of an issue of Wired he edited, for one), it's become a recurring motif in his work, and often referred to in reviews or commentary of his work. And with "Star Trek Into Darkness," it's started to become a bit of an albatross.
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More: J. J. Abrams, Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Wars: Episode 7, Features

J.J. Abrams Redubbed & Retouched Preview Scenes To Keep The 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Villain Secret

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • May 20, 2013 7:39 PM
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  • 10 Comments
News
By now almost everyone who really, really wanted to see "Star Trek Into Darkness" has. And those who haven't probably don't care who the villain in "Star Trek Into Darkness" is. That said, we should still issue a perfunctory spoiler warning to those who get queasy at the sight of plot specifics. Not that this is really about whom the "Star Trek Into Darkness" villain is, but rather the insane lengths to which director J.J. Abrams went to cover up and classify this revelation. Homeboy's crazy.
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More: Star Trek Into Darkness, J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto

The Best & Worst Of 'Star Trek Into Darkness'

  • By The Playlist Staff
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  • May 20, 2013 3:37 PM
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  • 75 Comments
Features
This past Friday saw the release of one of the more hotly-anticipated blockbusters of a packed summer; J.J Abrams' "Star Trek Into Darkness." The film was already on the radars of many, thanks to its well-liked 2009 predecessor, but sci-fi geeks everywhere became doubly keen to see when it was announced earlier in the year that Abrams would be helming "Star Wars Episode VII."
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More: Features, Star Trek Into Darkness, J. J. Abrams, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto

Box Office: 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Opens At Number #1 But Falls Below Expectations

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • May 19, 2013 12:43 PM
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  • 9 Comments
Star Trek Into Darkness
Box Office
Has anyone stopped to think that maybe the success of 2009's "Star Trek" was a fluke? Coming off the worst-performing entry of a ten film series ("Star Trek Nemesis" grossed $43 million in 2002), Paramount produced a big-budgeted sexy version of what was once considered a "nerdy property" and broke out with a $385 million worldwide gross. With "Star Trek Into Darkness," most were expecting audience goodwill and the addition of 3D would boost this picture into a four-day opening close to $100 million. That was assuming that most of the public was aware the studio made a last-minute decision to push the release from Friday to Thursday, and either the $81 million four-day take suggests they weren't, or that maybe we've overestimated the appeal of these films in the first place.
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More: Weekend Box-Office, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, The Great Gatsby

What Are You Seeing This Weekend? The 'Star Trek' Franchise Faces Off Against Indies 'Frances Ha' & 'Erased'

  • By Emma Bernstein
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  • May 17, 2013 3:10 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
We haven't hit Memorial Day Weekend yet, but it's official: Summer Blockbuster Season is underway. Between comic books, Michael Bay's latest flick, a Tom Cruise vehicle, and summer dalliances in the Hamptons, the second installment of the rebooted "Star Trek" franchise almost seems superfluous. Almost. Still, there's plenty of other delightful fare at the cinemas: another "Taken" imitation, a New-York-set coming-of-late-20s-ager, a B-horror movie set in Maine, a Korean thriller that may or may not feature Oedipal urges, and plenty of engaging documentaries. So enjoy the early onset of summer, faithful readers! And tell us what you want to see to celebrate it in the comments below!
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More: Star Trek Into Darkness, Erased, Frances Ha, The English Teacher, Black Rock, Pieta, Augustine, Old Dog

The Lost, Forgotten & Unmade Projects Of J.J. Abrams

  • By The Playlist Staff
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  • May 16, 2013 3:10 PM
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  • 5 Comments
Features
It's easy enough to think of J.J Abrams as some kind of overnight success. After all, it's only seven years since his first film as director, "Mission Impossible III," and "Star Trek Into Darkness," which opens on Friday, marks only his fourth film to date. And yet, even when he made that first film, he was already a brand name -- the man behind two bona-fide TV pop culture phenomena in "Alias" and "Lost," and that's only become more true since; his films have all taken at least $200 million worldwide, he's birthed several other successful TV shows, and he's taking over the Holy Grail of nerddom, "Star Wars," with 2015's "Episode VII."
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More: J. J. Abrams, Star Trek Into Darkness, Features

5 Things You Might Not Know About 'Star Trek Into Darkness'

  • By Drew Taylor
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  • May 14, 2013 12:57 PM
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  • 8 Comments
Star Trek Into Darkness, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto
Features
This week, one of the most hotly anticipated (and deliberately mysterious) movies of the summer movie season boldly goes into theaters nationwide. "Star Trek Into Darkness" is director J.J. Abrams' follow-up to the ridiculously entertaining 2009 "Star Trek" reboot, which introduced audiences to a younger, sexier Enterprise crew and turned the occasionally lifeless original series into a zippy space opera. The first film was the best kind of surprise – Abrams only had a single feature under his belt (the somewhat disappointing "Mission: Impossible III") and had yet to solidify his magic-loving geek-cred persona into an identifiable, Steven Spielberg-like brand. "Star Trek Into Darkness" is less of an unknown quantity in that respect, but Abrams and his confederates have tried, tirelessly, to keep the movie shrouded in mystery, offering all sorts of red herrings and deliberate attempts at obscuring plot details from being delivered prematurely. Still, there are some things we can tell you about this new 'Star Trek' experience. And so, without further ado, we will deliver five things you might not know about "Star Trek Into Darkness." Because in space, no one will hear you nerd out.
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More: Features, J. J. Abrams, Star Trek Into Darkness, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Jon Stewart, Benicio Del Toro

Edgar Wright Reveals He Directed One Shot In ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’

  • By Diana Drumm
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  • May 10, 2013 4:08 PM
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  • 0 Comments
News
This is why Twitter is awesome. Yesterday, “Shaun of the Dead” director Edgar Wright went to his account to reveal that he shot a scene in the upcoming “Star Trek Into Darkness,” the highly anticipated latest installation in the J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" reboot (read our review here). The uber-secretive Abrams might not be so happy, but it was inevitable things were going to leak with the film already open in the U.K., only a week until it’s official U.S. release and reviews pouring in. Just enough to keep us enticed, but not enough to give away any plot points (or really any aspect of the film). This is within days of the release of the trailer for Wright’s latest “The World’s End.”
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More: Star Trek Into Darkness, Edgar Wright

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