Movies

As expected, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 topped the box office charts this weekend. But like the war in the movie itself, it all feels like something of a hollow victory. That may seem like a weird thing to say about a movie that broke $100 million in its opening weekend, but this is a new low for the series’ box office receipts…and it’s not even close.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was one of the best M:I outings yet, thanks in no small part to Christopher McQuarrie’s script and direction, as well as Rebecca Ferguson’s kick-ass supporting role. Paramount clearly recognizes a good thing when they’ve got it, as the studio is reportedly in talks with McQuarrie to return to both write and direct Mission: Impossible 6, with the option for Ferguson to reprise her role, if she wants it.

As was widely rumored yesterday following NBC’s official notice that Charlie Sheen would be making a “revealing personal announcement,” the actor has come forward to publicly reveal that he is HIV positive. Sheen’s appearance on the Today show to declare this intimate battle seems solemnly appropriate given how highly-publicized and well-documented his struggles have been throughout the years.

In a development likely to give Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan some sense of relief, Universal has officially decided to shoot Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed back to back, giving its actors a chance to fulfill their commitments to the troubled franchise in one fell swoop. In addition, the studio has confirmed James Foley to direct both sequels, with author E.L. James’ husband Niall Leonard adapting both stories for the big screen.

And your dad of the year is here.

Harrison Ford appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night to talk publicly for the first time about breaking his ankle on the set of Star Wars, crashing his plane and how Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an “incredible” movie. Oh, we should also mention he did all this while dressed up as a hot dog.

Stephen Colbert may be the wildly successful host of a popular late night talk show on a major television network, but that doesn’t change who he really is: a huge nerd. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said of Colbert, “I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life.” The Late Show host appeared in The Desolation of Smaug and hosted a Hobbit panel at Comic-Con. But his geek cred is not limited to Middle Earth. Last night, Colbert delivered an impassioned prediction of how Star Wars: The Force Awakens will end, and the funniest thing is, he wasn’t joking.

YouTube is full of prank videos. Some are very funny, some are very lame. As a fan of the Friday the 13th movies, I thought this one was well done, and brilliant in its simplicity. Basically, someone puts on a hockey mask, grabs a machete, then scares unsuspecting campers to death. Not literally. But close.

Ever wonder what the nation's number one movie was on the day you were born, or on any date? Now you can easily find out thanks to a web page called playback.fm.

Pre-sale tickets for Star Wars: The Force Awakens were not meant to go on sale until after the trailer officially arrives tonight during halftime on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, but Fandango, MovieTickets.com and a few theater websites made tickets available to purchase early this evening — and their websites are already down, unsurprisingly...