Matthew Monagle

Welcome to the calm before the storm. With a handful of blockbuster movies already released, and more on the way, the second weekend in April was a relatively quiet affair, with a few old favorites dominating the weekend yet again and a few new releases grabbing whatever box office they could before things get fast and furious at your local multiplex. Let’s take a look at the projected grosses through Sunday afternoon.

It’s been a few months since the world lost Carrie Fisher, and while many would prefer to expand the conversation to her accomplishments outside of the Star Wars universe, plenty of people are anxiously wondering how her death might affect her character in the upcoming Star Wars sequels. For some, this can be viewed as a tacky approach to celebrity, but there’s a sweeter side to things as well. Leia Organa remains an icon for people around the world; finding an appropriate way to say goodbye to her character will be, in essence, the way many Star Wars fans say goodbye to Fisher herself.

When word got out that Emily Blunt had been cast as the title character in Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, the overwhelming response from most people was, “Well, sure.” Blunt has proven herself to be genre agnostic over the years, as likely to wow audiences in a science-fiction or action film as she is in a light-hearted comedy. That alone would make her an ideal candidate for Mary Poppins  —  as the rare actress capable of convincing audiences that she’d do justice to an iconic character  —  but she also bears a physical resemblance to Julie Andrews to boot. You couldn’t ask for better casting.

In a parallel universe where Paramount Pictures doesn’t alienate its fanbase, we might be talking about Ghost in the Shell as the big winner of this weekend and the de facto start of a new wave of Japanese Hollywood adaptations. Instead, DreamWorks Animation and The Boss Baby blew up the box office, no doubt delighting a handful of DreamWorks executives who watched the Ghost in the Shell controversy unfold with glasses of champagne in hand. After all, nobody’s going to boycott a movie about a baby who wears a suit.

With Hugh Jackman’s Logan opening in theaters this weekend, the top spot of this list was never in doubt. The questions were always whether audiences would respond well to the first major R-rated superhero movie. Was the big opening of Deadpool an abberation or a sign of things to come? If today’s numbers are any indication, the answer is, maybe a little bit of both.

While it’s been a few years since we last saw Lindsay Lohan in a feature film, that doesn’t mean the former Disney wunderkind hasn’t been busy. Not only has Lohan popped in for a handful of guest appearances on shows like Two Broke Girls and Eastbound & Down, she’s also been hard at work on her big screen comeback, The Shadow Within, a supernatural thriller about a private investigator who is looking into the death of her werewolf father. It may not compare to her previous heights as a child actress, but it’s a living. Not everybody gets to be a movie star.

I’d be hard-pressed to name a Disney villain I like as much as Beauty and the Beast’s Gaston. In addition to being a Sondheim-esque twist on the traditional idea of a fairy tale prince  —  vain, violent, and eager to confuse chivalry with misogyny  —  the character of Gaston has also become something of a method actor’s dream for Disney theme park employees. Remember the time that Gaston challenged a kid to a push-up contest? Or how about the time that Gaston got shouted down by a young girl? It turns out that no one goes viral like Gaston, either.

Remember those days in high school where your regular history teacher would call in sick and some anonymous substitute would just put on a VHS of Glory or Gettysburg and call it a day? It turns out that practice is still alive and well at universities across the country, with one small difference: instead of some random recent college graduate as a substitute teacher, these students will be visited by Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey.

One of the major truths of the entertainment industry is that there will never be a more interesting movie than the one you haven’t yet made. This weekend, while The Legend of Tarzan director David Yates was gently trying to nudge conversations towards his film currently in theaters, people were understandably curious about his upcoming return to Hogwarts, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And Yates let a particularly interesting piece of information drop.