The reboot of Ghostbusters defied all the negative comments prior to its opening and not only received favourable reviews (73 per cent ‘Certified Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes), good audience reaction (B+ Cinemascore) and a better than predicted box office of $46 million.
While a sequel has not been officially announced, the weekend results has one executive at Sony Pictures saying that he has no doubt that there will be one with hopes of it becoming one of that studio’s tent pole franchises.
However, it is facing competition from another beloved franchise. The third movie in the Star Trek reboot is opening this weekend and promises to be another action-packed romp through space. The entire crew is including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock respectively, as well as Simon Pegg as Scotty, Karl Urban as McCoy, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, John Cho as Sulu and Anton Yelchin (who tragically died in a car accident last month) as Checkov.
Titled Star Trek Beyond, it has the crew of the Starship Enterprise halfway through their five-year mission of deep space exploration when they are attacked by a seemingly unstoppable wave of unknown aliens. Forced to abandon ship, the crew are stranded on an unknown planet with no apparent means of rescue. Idris Elba plays the main villain in the movie.
Long-time Star Trek fan Pegg uses his passion for the franchise to help craft the screenplay. And because he was busy directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams handed the directing reigns over to Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 6), but has stayed on as producer. Even before Star Trek Beyond’s release, Abrams has announced that there will be a fourth film in the rebooted franchise.
And another successful film series has its fifth instalment opening this weekend. Ice Age: Collision Course sees the return of Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), Diego (Denis Leary), Ellie (Queen Latifah) and Scrat (Chris Wedge) for another prehistoric adventure.
In his never-ending quest to bury his acorn, Scrat come across an abandoned alien ship which he activates and flies into deep space where he unwittingly sends several asteroids towards Earth. To save themselves, Sid, Manny and Diego must lead the rest of the heard on a new quest full of comedy and adventure meeting new and colourful characters.
Other voice talents include Seann William Scott, Simon Pegg, Jennifer Lopez, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adam DeVine, Michael Strahan, Nick Offerman and Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Horror movie fans will want to see Lights Out, a supernatural thriller about a young woman (Teresa Palmer), who was tormented throughout her childhood by something in the dark. After she leaves home, her little brother starts experiencing the same terrifying events that jeopardized her safety and sanity. Holding a mysterious attachment to their mother (Maria Bello), the supernatural entity has returned to haunt the entire family.
