Star Trek: Into Darkness didn't warp past its predecessor.
The sci-fi sequel directed by J.J. Abrams earned $70.1 million in its opening weekend. The original Trek reboot starring fresh faces Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana as part of the crew of the Enterprise opened with $75.2 million in 2009.
Abrams' sequel amped up the action with 3D and cast popular British import Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain John Harrison, whom Captain Kirk is dedicated to taking down.
Overall, critics were pleased with the sequel, which brought back its supporting cast including John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg and Karl Urban, earning it an 86 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes,very strong but a little less impressive than the 95 per cent score earned by the 2009 sci-fi flick.
Check out what other movies made the North American Top 10 over the weekend.
The Cannes Film Festival is entering its final star-studded days. With the veritable who’s who of Hollywood and beyond invading the south of France for the eleven day festival, critics have been treated to a number of future awards contenders including Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Roman Polanski’s Venus in Fur, The Bling Ring directed by Sofia Coppola, and Only God Forgives, the latest pairing of Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn.
A few actors are stepping behind the camera at Cannes including Keanu Reeves and James Franco. Reeves is in town to shop his directorial debut, the martial arts-based Man of Tai Chi. Compared to Reeves, Franco is a seasoned veteran when it comes to directing with a number of short films, documentaries and features under his belt. He’s in town for his latest attempt, As I Lay Dying, an adaptation of the William Faulker novel.
Get the latest from the Cannes Film Festival after the jump!
Joel and Ethan Coen had almost given up on casting the lead for their film Inside Llewyn Davis. The part, a folk musician in early 1960s Greenwich Village, demanded the elusive combination of someone who could both carry a movie and perform the songs central to the film.
Then they met Oscar Isaac.
"It just didn't happen until he walked in the room," says Joel Coen. "There was a point at which we wondered if we'd written something that was essentially impossible to cast."
The Coens have long been known for their casting acumen, but they may have outdone even themselves with Isaac, a 33-year-old, Juilliard-trained actor with a few notable credits to his name but nothing on par with a major Coen brothers release. The film was greeted ecstatically at the Cannes Film Festival at its Sunday premiere, with Isaac hailed as the festival's breakout star and a possible Oscar nominee.
Before Fruitvale Station, Michael B. Jordan was glimpsed sporadically in supporting roles on TV shows like "The Wire" and "Friday Night Lights," and in films like Chronicle and Red Tails.
That changes emphatically with Fruitvale Station, a Sundance hit that premiered Thursday night at the Cannes Film Festival. In the film, he plays Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old victim of the infamous 2009 police shooting on the Oakland, California, transit system.
To humanize Grant, first-time filmmaker Ryan Coogler fashioned the movie around his last day: Jordan hardly leaves the frame.
Hollywood has invaded France - no, not like that - and with A-listers making their way to La Croisette for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, there's been plenty of gossip and glamour, with Leo's The Great Gatsby providing the requisite glitter and Sofia Coppola's Emma Watson-led The Bling Ring shining bright like a diamond.
Many celebs are still commenting on the news of Angelina Jolie's preventative double mastectomy and Zach Braff's somewhat ill-received Kickstarter movie funding campaign with breakout stars and ones to watch starting to make themselves known as the fest gets underway.
Here now is a compilation of what's been Seen & Heard so far at the Cannes Film Festival.
Zoe Saldana has played an alien and a future space traveler - but taking on the role of an actual famous person proved even harder.
The 34-year-old star of Avatar and Star Trek plays pianist, singer and activist Nina Simone in the forthcoming biopic Nina.
Her casting drew criticism from some, who argued that Saldana bears little resemblance to the singer, who died in 2003 aged 70.
Musician India.Arie said "they should have chosen someone who looks like Nina Simone," and an online petition for a boycott of the film attracted more than 10,000 signatures.
It's the big Cannes question - what will catch Steven Spielberg's eye?
The king of Hollywood heads the jury that will decide who wins the Palme d'Or and other prizes at the French Riviera film fest, and artistic director Thierry Fremaux can't wait to find out what takes his fancy.
"We know (Spielberg) the director, but we don't know who he will be as a spectator," Fremaux said Tuesday.
"Take the two Japanese films" in competition. Will the director of Jaws, E.T. and Saving Private Ryan root for Takashi Miike's action-packed crime drama Shield of Straw or for Kore-Eda Hirokazu's intimate family story Like Father, Like Son.
Angelina Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer.
The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in the form of an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times under the headline, "My Medical Choice." She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.
Jolie, 37, writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, die too young from cancer.
"My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56," Jolie writes. "She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was."
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