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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.

Zack Sharf Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” is now playing in theaters, bringing with it an onslaught of detached limbs, blood-soaked bodies and gory mayhem. But that’s not exactly how one would describe the real story of the Cocaine Bear, also known as Pablo Eskobear. Banks’ film, scripted by Jimmy Warden, is inspired by the 1985 discovery of a dead bear in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest. The true story behind “Cocaine Bear” started in September 1985, when convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton died after a parachuting accident. The working theory is that Thorton was traveling in a plane with 880 pounds of cocaine and thought the Feds were trailing him, so he decided to throw some of the stash out of the plane and take some more with him when he parachuted out. His plan went awry.

EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed actress and producer Kate Mara for for representation.

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.

Universal’s R-rated Elizabeth Banks campy genre pic Cocaine Bear lifted $2M last night from previews at 3,000 theaters that began at 5PM.

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.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic The last time a movie was marketed with a this-sounds-so-wretchedly-over-the-top-not-to-mention-insane-it-could-almost-be-fun low/high concept, the results, to put it kindly, were mixed. “Snakes on a Plane,” which sounded like a title that Don Simpson scrawled in white powder on a table at 4:00 a.m., was a movie that wore its brain-deadness on both lapels. But 17 years ago, that title inspired mountains of online chatter, to the point that the filmmakers incorporated bits and pieces of the obsessive fan gabble into the movie, most famously the Samuel L. Jackson line, “I have had it with these mothefuckin’ snakes on this motherfuckin‘ plane!” The result was that “Snakes on a Plane” felt like the first piece of brazen Hollywood schlock that was crowdsourced. The audience went in thinking: It may be trash, but it’s our trash.   

The title says it all. Just like Snakes On A Plane was about just that, the new horror comedy Cocaine Bear is about a 500 pound bear on a jihad after coming upon a ton of cocaine dropped into rural Georgia on a drug run gone wrong. The bear ingests the coke and soon you have a beast roaring out of control devouring whatever human comes on to his path. It is all not to be taken seriously, but fortunately director Elizabeth Banks (Charlie’s Angels, Pitch Perfect 2) is smart enough to give audiences hungry for a ‘Jaws’ in the wilderness, some nice scares mixed in with the laughs plus a bit more bang for their buck than just a marketable title.

director Elizabeth Banks keeps the powder gags fresh throughout, as the mammal maims her way through a Southern forest preserve. The movie about blow never blows.Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout.) In theaters.The hysterical film is based on a true story in the loosest possible sense.

Todd Gilchrist editor On Feb. 24, Ray Liotta is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, just shy of a year since his death at the age of 67. The honor comes the same week as the release of “Cocaine Bear,” the sensational based-on-a-true-story film directed by Elizabeth Banks in which he plays a character she describes as “a gangster … but he’s also an unfit grandpa as well.” That characterization also encapsulates the breadth of his accomplishments on both film and TV as an actor, which range from mobsters and tough guys to loving fathers — and plenty in between. Ahead of the ceremony, Banks tells Variety that she cast Liotta after remembering her experiences working with him on the 2011 film “The Details.”

In an interview with the New York Times last September, actor-filmmaker Elizabeth Banks shared a piece of career advice from Lorne Michaels that’s been of enduring value to her.

. «And so I showed it to her.

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.

Elizabeth Banks has a special memory of the late Ray Liotta.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor “Cocaine Bear” director Elizabeth Banks is worried about her mother seeing the horror comedy when it opens on Friday. “I’m going to be honest with you, no one knows what to make of it when I tell them about it,” Banks told Variety at the movie’s premiere Tuesday night at Regal LA Live. “My poor mother is the least informed. She’s going to go with my aunts and they’re going to lose their minds. I told her she’s going to be mad. She will laugh and she’s going to love Margo Martindale and Isiah Whitlock Jr. and the dog. Not enough people talk about the dog, Rosette. She’ll love those parts, but she’ll close her eyes for a lot of it.”

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer When Jimmy Warden was a kid growing up in Chicago, he wound up watching “a lot” of horror movies when he was, he says, “far too young.” “I became used to seeing people get their guts eaten or torn out of their bodies, stuff like that,” he says over Zoom with a wry chuckle. “So that’s where a lot of my taste is right now.” Warden’s sensibility is on robust display in his screenplay for “Cocaine Bear,” the R-rated action-comedy, directed by Elizabeth Banks, that is loosely based on the true story of a black bear who died after ingesting a mountain of cocaine in 1985 from a botched drug smuggling operation. Warden stumbled on the account in the mid-2010s while scrolling through Twitter, “not doing work that I should have been doing,” and instantly realized that “there was something there.”

Elizabeth Banks and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are stepping out for the premiere of their new movie!

Keri Russell's new action horror comedy has one impressive ensemble cast. It also serves as something of a reunion of actors — which Russell says might not have been an coincidence.The actress walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new action horror comedy in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and spoke with ET's Ash Crossan about the film's link to the universe — namely through a cast that includes her, Alden Ehrenreich and O'Shea Jackson Jr.«There's a lot, yeah!» Russell said with a smile. «Maybe that's what [director Elizabeth Banks] was going for it by casting us! Yeah.»Ehrenreich previously starred as a young Han Solo in 2018's , while Jackson played Kawlan Roken in the TV series  Russell, meanwhile, played an anti-hero outlaw Zorii Bliss in 2019's Russell's Bliss managed to avoid getting killed in her installment in the saga, leaving fans wondering if they may see her again in a future tale.The actress played coy, however, when asked about the possibility, and left the door open, simply sharing, "[It] could happen!«As for, it also serves as something of a reunion for, as it also stars Russell's real-life love and former TV co-star Matthew Rhys.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson's husband, Justin Mikita, is certainly looking out for him. In fact, the alum says his husband is the one responsible for his scene-stealing role in Cocaine Bear.Ferguson walked the red carpet at the premiere of the action horror comedy in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and he spoke with ET's Ash Crossan about how the gig came about thanks to a fortuitous social media post shared by director Elizabeth Banks.«It's very cool, he actually kind of got me this job,» Ferguson shared. «Because Liz is a friend of mine, I've known her for 20 years.

Elizabeth Banks is sharing her fond memories of working with the late Ray Liotta on what would be his final film.The actress and filmmaker walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new film,, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and she spoke with ET's Ash Crossan about getting the chance to work with Liotta shortly before his death last May.«He never saw the final movie, but he did see all of his scenes,» Banks shared. «And he saw the bear, which is the most important thing, because the poor guy like everyone had to act with, you know, a guy in a black suit and a stuntman and just sort of hope that it looks cool.»In the high-energy action horror comedy, the titular cocaine bear — for obvious reasons — was created entirely with CGI, and Banks explained that Liotta came in to re-record some audio, which is when he was able to see the finished product, or at least his part.«He came in for ADR eight days before he passed away, actually, and he loved it. He was so happy.

Tatyana Ali is headed back to a town called Bel-Air in a very different role than when she left it! The actress, who played Ashley Banks in the originalseries, joined the cast of Peacock's for its upcoming second season, and she sat down with ET's Kevin Frazier to share her experience with the reboot's cast.Season 2 of  -- which reimagines the Will Smith-starring '90s sitcom as a flashy, modern drama — picks up with Will at a crossroads as a new figure comes into his life who challenges what he’s learned in Bel-Air and competes for control of his influence. He juggles this while navigating his home life with the Banks family and trying to rebuild the trust that was broken at the end of last season.Ali joined the cast in a recurring guest star appearance as Mrs.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man is taking on his scariest adversary yet: a 500-pound black bear on cocaine. Universal’s gruesome action-comedy “Cocaine Bear” won’t come close to “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” in terms of weekend ticket sales, but the drugged-up animal adventure is expected to start strong at the domestic box office. “Cocaine Bear” hopes to take in $15 million to $17 million from 3,500 North American theaters, with a chance that positive buzz could propel initial returns to $20 million. The wild R-rated movie was budgeted at roughly $35 million, which was mostly dedicated to the CGI used to bring to life the coked-out grizzly alongside the human cast of Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Brooklynn Prince. Elizabeth Banks directed “Cocaine Bear,” which is one of today’s rare original theatrical comedies. (But viewers, beware, it’s not exactly a laugh-a-minute romp… unless you’re tickled by blood, blood and more blood.) Inspired by a stranger-than-fiction story about a drug runner’s plane crash, the film imagines the events that would have transpired if the American black bear that ingested a duffle bag full of blow had lived to tell the tale.

Gorgeous girl! Madelyn Cline doesn’t just slay on screen — she also commands attention on the red carpet.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” debuted in pole position at the U.K. and Ireland box office with £8.8 million ($10.6 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In its third weekend, Universal’s “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” collected £3.1 million in second place for a total of £17.1 million. In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” earned £888,435 in its second weekend for a total of £3.8 million. Disney blockbuster“Avatar: The Way Of Water” continued to chart with £531,213 in its 10th weekend in fourth place for a mighty total of £75.5 million.

Margo Martindale is one of the stars of Cocaine Bear, the dark comedy action film directed by Elizabeth Banks. The story is based on true events from 1985 when an American black bear ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine.

Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover franchise) has signed on to star in the live-action Lilo & Stitch film from Marcell the Shell With Shoes On filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp, Deadline can confirm.