Box Office: ‘Cocaine Bear’ Takes on Marvel’s ’Quantumania,’ Aims for $15 Million-Plus Debut

Accidents happen! Elizabeth Banks tripped on stage at the Oscars as she walked on stage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Scream VI” collected $44.5 million in its opening weekend, a scary-good start for Paramount and Spyglass Media’s long-running slasher series. Those ticket sales were enough to top domestic box office charts over two newcomers, Sony’s prehistoric sci-fi thriller “65” and the Focus Features heartwarming comedy “Champions,” as well as last weekend’s victor “Creed III.” The initial haul for “Scream VI” is frighteningly strong for the sixth installment in a franchise. Not only did it greatly improve upon the start of last year’s hit reboot “Scream,” which scored with $30 million, but it crushed the all-time opening weekend record previously set by 2000’s “Scream 3” with $34 million. And, “Scream VI” cost $35 million so it’ll easily turn a profit in its theatrical run.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Half a dozen movies in, and the bloodletting hasn’t eased up — or gotten less popular. “Scream VI,” the latest installment in the long-running horror series, looks to slash its way to new opening weekend heights at the box office. Paramount is releasing the film in 3,670 North American theaters on Friday. Based on early estimates, “Scream VI” is projected to debut to at least $35 million and as much as $40 million over the weekend. As of now, 2000’s “Scream 3” remains the franchise’s top opener with $34 million. Records aside, the newest entry is expected to improve upon the start of last year’s hit “Scream” (not to be confused with 1996’s “Scream”), which scored a solid $30 million debut in January. By bringing back franchise stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette — and adding in newcomers Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega and Dylan Minnette — to the quiet town of Woodsboro, 2022’s “Scream” earned positive reviews and ended its box office run with $81 million domestically and $137 million. Not too shabby, considering it cost $25 million and was released amid the omicron COVID surge.

We Need To Talk About Kevin and Marvel’s Doctor Strange, revealed her favourite films in a poll for Sight And Sound magazine.Since 1952, the magazine has asked filmmakers every decade for their lists of the greatest films of all time. As part of the Winter 2022-23 issue, directors like Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and Barry Jenkins were invited to contribute their favourites.Swinton, who has directing and producing credits over her career, features a mix of Japanese animation and British classics in her list. You can check out the list below.1. A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)2. Vertigo (1958)3. Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)4. To Be Or Not To Be (1942)5. Walkabout (1971)6. Journey To Italy (1954)7. Pickpocket (1959)8. Jeanne Dielman (1975)9. My Neighbour Totoro (1988)10. La Dolce Vita (1960)The actor’s top pick, A Matter Of Life And Death, is directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s the battle of the threequels at the weekend box office. Michael B. Jordan’s sports drama “Creed III” is taking on two-time champ “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” at the movies, though the heavyweight boxer is expected to emerge victorious over Marvel’s tiniest Avenger. “Creed III,” which Jordan directed in his feature filmmaking debut, is projected to earn a trilogy-best $36 million to $40 million from 4,007 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Those ticket sales will easily be enough to defeat Disney’s superhero tentpole “Ant-Man 3,” which looks to add $16 million to $19 million in its third weekend of release. So far, the comic book adventure has grossed $170 million domestically and $366 million globally.

When one thinks of women and Elvis Presley, it’s either his widow Priscilla, his late daughter Lisa Marie, or the legion of ladies left weak in the knee when the badass kid from Tupelo, Mississippi began shaking that moneymaker. In the case of the eight-time Oscar-nominated film Elvis, the front men are writer/director Baz Luhrmann, Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. Behind the camera, the film was entirely made possible by a chorus of women, many of whom are nominated. They include Luhrmann’s partner Catherine Martin, who’s up for the Production Design Oscar with cohorts Beverley Dunne and Karen Murphy; Mandy Walker, for Cinematography; Gail Berman for Best Picture with Martin, Luhrmann, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss; and Martin again for Costume Design.

“Elvis” “I always thought, if you’re going to do a movie about a music icon, go big,” Luhrmann said when he first spoke to TheWrap about Elvis. And the film does indeed go big, even though the writer-director started with the idea of Elvis as canvas or Elvis as metaphor before realizing that the man was pretty interesting too – particularly when played by an actor as obsessive as Butler, who immersed himself in all things Elvis for years.

EXCLUSIVE: Sugar23 has signed rising star Brooklynn Prince, on the heels of her new film Cocaine Bear‘s opening weekend triumph, with a current worldwide gross of $28M+ at the worldwide box office, against a production budget of roughly $30M.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” continued atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row with £3.04 million ($3.6 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its fourth weekend, Universal’s “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” collected £1.7 million in second place for a total of £20.4 million. Another Universal title, Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear,” debuted in third position with £1.5 million. Studiocanal’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” debuted in fourth place with £1.08 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” that earned £470,020 in its third weekend for a total of £4.9 million.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The cocaine bear in Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” is an impressive feat of visual effects wizardry, but there was an actual person behind the 500-pound, drug-addicted beast. Meet Allan Henry, the motion capture performer who played the bear on set so that actors such as Keri Russell, Ray Liotta, and Alden Ehrenreich had something real to interact with during scenes. When Liotta fights the bear in the film’s third act, for instance, he was actually facing off with Henry on set. Henry is a motion capture veteran who already has experience playing animals thanks to his work on the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy. But the actor said said in an interview with /Film that “Cocaine Bear” was a different beast because the eponymous animal is not as humanistic as the apes in “Planet of the Apes.”

“Cocaine Bear” is barreling into theatres in a big way.

a briliant binge of comedy horror.” Here’s what you need to know about the movie, which is directed by Elizabeth Banks and stars Keri Russell, Ray Liotta and O’Shea Jackson Jr.It was released on Friday, Feb. 24 by Universal Pictures.Like other Universal, DreamWorks, Illumination, and Focus Films, it will stream exclusively on Peacock within four months of its theatrical debut.

“Cocaine Bear” is barreling into theatres in a big way.

Arguably an early contender for the wildest movie of 2023, Elizabeth Banks‘ “Cocaine Bear” is based on the true story of a 175-pound Black Bear who overdosed on cocaine after ingesting the drug in 1985. While the bear did not kill anyone and died shortly after consuming cocaine, Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden fictionalize a story where the bear goes on a killing spree while massively high on cocaine.

Bear hits cinemas today (February 24) – and is expected to scare up a storm at the box office.Based on the 1985 story about an American Black Bear that ingested a duffle bag’s worth of coke, Cocaine Bear doesn’t stick to the facts. Instead of being found dead by police shortly after its drug binge, the furry beast goes on a murderous rampage, attacking anyone who gets in its way.

slated to open somewhere in the mid-teens, with the possibility of hitting $20 million in ticket sales this weekend. For a comparison, the Christmas action comedy “Violent Night” made $1.1 million in Thursday preview showings to kick off a $13 million opening weekend. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Jimmy Warden’s stranger-than-fiction screenplay tells the story of Cokey the Bear, a Black bear who in 1985 consumed a large amount of cocaine a drug runner had dropped into a Georgia forest.

Jordan Moreau “Cocaine Bear” is snorting up a solid opening weekend. The R-rated action-comedy earned $2 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It opened in 3,000 North American theaters Thursday night and will expand to 3,534 on Friday. Universal’s bloody, real-life tale about a black bear on a cocaine-fueled rampage is projected to open with $15 million to $17 million this weekend. Some predictions have it opening with as much as $20 million, thanks to its positive word-of-mouth (or word-of-snout) and memeability online. The mid-budget film cost roughly $35 million, with much of it used on the CGI bear, so a launch in the upper teens would be a good sign.

Stretching the phrase “inspired by true events” to its bare limits, Cocaine Bear (★★★☆☆) takes off from the stranger-than-fiction real-life tale of a Kentucky drug runner who, in 1985, dumped bundles of cocaine from a plane over Georgia, then perished trying to parachute after the drugs, a large, expensive portion of which were found and somehow consumed by a 500-lb. black bear deep in the Georgia woods.Anyone interested in the dead-serious facts of the case can grab a copy of Sally Denton’s comprehensive chronicle The Bluegrass Conspiracy, originally published in 1990.This movie, on the other hand, takes a bold leap off that plane with Thornton’s duffel bags full of brown paper-wrapped bricks of blow, and never looks back.Directed by Pitch Perfect mogul Elizabeth Banks, and scripted by Jimmy Warden, Cocaine Bear leaves no gruesome gag unturned, no outrageous one-liner untold, serving up the sort of anything-goes big-screen comedy that comes along rarely.Mid-rampage, the coke-fueled bear snorts a line off someone’s severed leg.

“A bear did COCAINE!” screams a frazzled Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), trying to explain a patently absurd concept like a rational person – and exposing the vast capacity for humor that lies between the two. “Cocaine Bear,” a film that really puts the high in high-concept comedy, contains promise and peril in its premise.

Cocaine Bear is a dark action-comedy film set in a small town in Georgia.READ MOREThe synopsis reads: “After ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine, a 500 lb American black bear goes on a killing rampage in a small town of Georgia where a group of locals and tourists must join forces to survive the attack.”Directed and co-produced by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear features an ensemble cast that includes  Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta in one of his final performances before his death in 2022.Oh, absolutely. According to the official website, Cocaine Bear is “inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it.”Dubbed Pablo Eskobear (after “the king of cocaine” Pablo Escobar), the real life bear was a 150lb American black bear who was discovered on a hillside in Fannin County, Georgia next to a duffel bag and 40 half-consumed packs of cocaine.Well, rather than heading out “on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow and blood,” Pablo Eskobear overdosed on cocaine and was found dead on the scene.According to the Washington Post, an autopsy found the bear had around three to four grams of the drug in its blood stream. The narcotics investigators who made the discovery believe the drugs were ditched months earlier by trafficker Andrew Carter Thornton II who had planned to return.However, Thornton died after falling out of a plane in September 1985.