Box Office: 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Blasts Off with Record-Breaking $94M Debut

1. Guardians of the Galaxy- $94M
Remember when Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was deemed their greatest gamble? Well, Marvel just dropped their shorts all over the nay-sayers with the film's $94M debut, the third highest of the year behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Marvel must be poppin' corks everywhere today) and Transformers: Age of Extinction, both of which went on to do pretty well ($700M and $1B respectively) at the box office. It's also the biggest August opening in history, blowing past The Bourne Legacy's $69M. The film got off to an incredible start with an $11M Thursday night, followed by another $11.7M solely in IMAX showings. The space-comedy also played well overseas with another $66M tacked on internationally, so the $170M film should be putting a little more coin in Marvel's coffers. Most important is that audiences and critics dug the film and its cast of irreverent unknown heroes. It currently holds an 'A' Cinemascore and a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the solid buzz is why a sequel was formally announced last week at Comic-Con. Now the question is whether it can maintain this level or if it will suffer a severe second-week drop like Godzilla, which had a similar debut but then slumped across the $200M mark.
2. Lucy- $18.2M/$79.5M
Obviously, Lucy was going to take a tumble since most of the sci-fi flick's audience would be drawn to Guardians of the Galaxy, but at $79M against a $40M budget Luc Besson and Universal are definitely happy. 
3. Get On Up- $14M
The James Brown biopic Get On Up got on up to a $14M debut, a respectable if somewhat underwhelming total. It's not bad, but it falls way short of the $27M opening weekend for 42, which starred Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson. Much of the marketing for Get On Up has focused on one thing and that is Boseman's electrifying performance as Brown, which some are calling potentially Oscar-worthy. But they said the same thing about 42 and Boseman was left largely ignored come awards season. We'll just have to wait and see if that changes this time around.
4. Hercules- $10.7M/$52.3M
Not even the box office might of Dwayne Johnson could prevent Hercules from suffering a huge 65% tumble in week number two. The $100M film isn't doing much domestically but is fairing a bit better overseas with $56M, giving it a $108M total haul.
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- $8.7M/$189.3M
6. Planes: Fire & Rescue- $6.4M/$47.5M
7. The Purge: Anarchy- $5.5M/$62.9M
8. Sex Tape- $3.5M/$33.9M
9. And So It Goes- $3.3M/$10.4M
10. A Most Wanted Man- $3.3M/$7M
The John Le Carre adaptation A Most Wanted Man, which also features the last non-Hunger Games performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, expanded to over 700 theaters and performed well with a $4,500 per site average.

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Box Office: 'Apes' Retains Top Spot, 'The Purge: Anarchy' Kills while 'Sex Tape' Flops

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- $36M/$138.9M
Unsurprisingly, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes held on to the top spot, but what is a little surprising is the small 49% decline. Thank a number of superlative reviews with many claiming it to be the best tentpole film of the summer. Internationally it has added another $32M for a total of $171M, right at the estimated $170M production budget.
2. The Purge: Anarchy- $28.3M
Although The Purge: Anarchy's $28M debut falls short of The Purge's $34M just last year, it perhaps has a better shot at performing better in the long run. The film is getting relatively good reviews for expanding the core premise of a national holiday where all violent crime is legal. That concept has always been the biggest hook, and with audiences happy at seeing more of it, the film has a 'B' Cinemascore, it should mean solid word of mouth buzz.
3. Planes: Fire and Rescue- $18M
The only film with an 'A' Cinemascore this week is Disney's largely unwanted sequel, Planes: Fire and Rescue. The last film began life as a straight-to-DVD project before the Mouse House decided to bring it to theaters, and it succeeded with $219M. 'Fire and Rescue' may not reach those levels but it doesn't really need to in order to be profitable. These movies cost about $50M, are sure to make bank overseas, and are basically just feature-length TV commercials for Cars/Planes merchandise.
4. Sex Tape- $15M
The biggest fail of the week was Sex Tape, the toothless R-rated comedy with Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel. It's actually a pretty funny film, just not as edgy as the marketing suggested, and that has driven many of the bad reviews that have played a part in it doing so poorly. The film inexplicably cost $40M and should manage to recoup that, but it says something that Sex Tape is lagging behind Diaz's most recent sex-themed comedy, The Other Woman, which opened at $25M and ended up with a whopping $190M worldwide. Bad Teacher, which featured the same cast and director, similarly started off slow before ending up with $216M, and maybe Sex Tape will rebound in the same way. Doubtful, but anything's possible.
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction- $10M/$227.1M
$886M and counting for Michael Bay's fourth Transformers flick. It should surpass Maleficent and X-men: Days of Future Past's domestic haul probably by the end of today, and may steal the top slot from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
6. Tammy- $7.6M/$71.2M
7. 22 Jump Street- $4.7M/$180.5M
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2- $3.8M/$160.6M
9. Maleficent- $3.3M/$228.3M
10. Earth to Echo- $3.2M/$31.9M

Zach Braff's Kickstarter-funded Wish I Was Here opened to decent business with $495K at only 68 sites. Richard Linklater's apparent Oscar-contender Boyhood was the big art house winner of the week, expanding to 33 locations with a hefty $36K per-site-average for $1.2M. Overall the film has earned $1.8M and will continue to roll into more cities over the next few weeks. 

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Cinema Royale #70- Sex Tape; Boyhood; Comic-Con Preview

On this week's Cinema Royale it's time to grow up, geek out, and reach for the cloud. Richard Linklater's epic coming-of-age drama Boyhood finally hits theaters after twelve years in the making. The film was a smash at Sundance and we'll see if the wait was truly worth it. Plus, Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz try to get their Sex Tape down from the cloud in their new comedy. The "DC Film Girl" +Lauren Veneziani  joins me to look at two very different summer movies.

With San Diego Comic-Con just days away, fellow attendee Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com will call in to preview some of the biggest panels, events, premieres, and news from the massive geek event. Marvel, Lucasfilm, DC, they'll all be on hand and we'll give you just a taste of what you can expect to see revealed!

Cinema Royale is part of the Hashtag Studios Broadcast Network and brings you movie reviews and news straight from the Nation's Capital! Go to www.cinemaroyaleshow.com and subscribe, and while there consider signing up for the premium service for more content and to be entered in our monthly prize drawing.

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Review: 'Sex Tape' Starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel

The last time we saw Cameron Diaz (ignoring The Other Woman because it's terrible) she was straddling a car while Javier Bardem watched in awe/horror in The Counselor. She's shaken her butt in two Charlie's Angels movies and used male body fluids for hair gel. Basically, raunch is not something she's afraid of in the least, but what will surprise those expecting her new comedy Sex Tape to be full of it, they'll find it's more sweet than salacious yet still very funny.

Reuniting with Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan and co-star Jason Segel, Diaz is the star of this show because, like in the world of adult entertainment, nobody cares about the dudes. She plays Annie, a married mother of two who is trying desperately to figure out where the passion in her marriage has gone. Recounting her sexual history with husband Jay, they started off hot and heavy in college, thinking they'd retain that physical desire through pregnancy and marriage. The flashbacks, which feature Diaz and Segel distractingly aged down, are hilarious for the novelty and frequency of their characters' sexual acts. But years later the romance is gone and they can barely remember what sex is supposed to be like.

She's a blogger who writes about motherhood while he has a nebulous job at a radio station, and their seemingly disparate careers collide in ways neither could predict. When a major corporation agrees to buy Annie's blog to turn into a wholesome family destination, it's a cause for celebration. Sending the kids away for the night, she dresses up like Roller Girl from Boogie Nightsand engages in an epic 3-hour ("That's the length of the movie Lincoln! You did the full Lincoln!") sex romp with Jay in which they do every position in ‘Joy of Sex’. And as part of this renewed coital vigor, aided by a healthy dose of tequila, she also suggests videotaping the night. She demands he erase the footage afterwards, but of course he forgets and this is where his job screws things up even further. Jay has these amazing playlists stored on his IPad and is constantly getting new ones and giving away the old IPads as gifts so others can have the same music. But what he didn't realize is their sex tape would also be synced and sent out to all of the old IPads he gave away. Of course this is stupidly far-fetched but Jay is just enough of a moron that we can accept it and the wild goose chase that follows.

For a couple of reasons Sex Tape reminded me of the first couple of National Lampoon's Vacation flicks. Jay's forgetting to erase the tape was a call back to Clark Griswold's doing the same to his wife, and her image ended up plastered all over Europe as a result. Their increasingly zany journey to collect every single IPad ever given away is one that we know is doomed for failure and significant amounts of property damage. Accompanied by their horny best friends (Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper), Annie and Jay's weirdest stop involves a run-in with the publishing guru who wants to buy her blog. Turns out he's not so wholesome (his collection of Disney-themed art is creepy as Hell) as his public persona would suggest, and as played by Rob Lowe it's probably the most inspired sequence with drugs, rabid attack dogs, and more. It's basically the centerpiece scene and the script by Segel, Nicholas Stoller, and Kate Angelo jams a lot of craziness into it. Pacing becomes an issue as a result, with the energy dipping substantially as a crop of useless subplots emerge to pad out a thin narrative. We get the central message within the first five minutes; marriage is tough and maintaining passion is even tougher, and it would be great if the issue was tackled with more of an edge.  Yes, there are glimpses of nudity and kinky sexual acts in the beginning but once that's over the film is fairly inoffensive. Fortunately, Diaz is versatile enough to shine no matter what, and she's really been hitting her stride as of late. Segel, looking gaunt now that he's gotten into shape, doesn't get as many laugh lines as Diaz but he's got impeccable chemistry with her that elevates the humor a great a deal.

Sex Tape has plenty of laughs but is less like a racy secret rendezvous than an enjoyable date night at the movies.

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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Cameron Diaz Has a Sexy Pair of Roller Skates in First 'Sex Tape' Clip

Jason Segel is used to getting naked on screen, flashing Kristen Bell with some full frontal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but for Cameron Diaz it's something she's never done before. That will apparently change when Sex Tape hits theaters later this month, and to whet our appetites for it the very first clip has been released. The scene shows Diaz doing her best Roller Girl impression as she tries seduce Segel for a roll in the hay. They play a married couple trying to spice up their relationship by making a sex tape, only to have it upload to the cloud and sent to their friends and family.

Check out the sexually charged clip below. Sex Tape is directed by Jake Kasdan and opens July 18th.

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Red Band Trailer! Time to Bring The Nasty With 'Sex Tape'!

Move over Baseball, it's time for the new national past time, the sex tape! Now, I know this new Cameron Diaz/Jason Segel comedy is geared for laughs...but seriously it brings up a scary situation. I don't know if it's just me but that "Automatically stream" option in the IPhone is a constant button of dread. Anyone that's read this site for any amount of time knows that my sense of humor trends quite low-brow. Needless to say this trailer had me cracking up, as someone that's not exactly a fan of Cameron Diaz that's actually saying alot. Basically what we are looking at is an everyday couple that gets drunk and recreates The Joy of Sex for their own viewing pleasure. Remember that auto stream option I mentioned? Yeah, well Jason Segal's character didn't. As they sleep off the liquor and sex their Kardashian special is uploaded to the cloud for all of the world to see. What follows is the pointless quest to eradicate their romp from the interwebs. As I'll always disclaim, it's hard to tell from a trailer, but my early prediction is two ...um, thumbs...up. Check it out 

Sex Tape hits theaters July 18th, 2014

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New U.K. Trailer for 'Sex Tape' with Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel

What happens when an unassuming R-rated comedy like Bad Teacher scores over $200M? The most obvious idea for Sony would be a sequel, and we already know that's on the way after the TV spinoff tanked. That may still be a ways off but the trio of Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, and director Jake Kasdan have filled that time with Sex Tape, and here's the latest trailer.

Segel and Diaz play a bored married couple who try to jumpstart their sex life by making a sex tape. Why doesn't she just straddle the car like in The Counselor? That would spice things up real quick. Anyway, when the footage goes missing and winds up in the hands of everybody they know, the duo race to try and get it back.

Also starring Ellie Kemper, Rob Corddry, and Jack Black, Sex Tape opens July 18th.

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Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel Do the Full Lincoln in New 'Sex Tape' Trailer

This weekend Cameron Diaz will star in the girl power comedy The Other Woman, playing a mistress to the married Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The discovery of his cheating leads to a bunch of silly antics and improbable situations. But after that, Diaz will again find herself in the midst of sexual tomfoolery, only it will be with Jason Segel in Sex Tape.

A red band trailer was released awhile ago, but now a tamer green band version has been released. Diaz and Segel play a married couple who try to spice up their relationship by making a sex tape, only to have it go public and cause all sorts of problems.

Directed by Jake Kasdan with Ellie Kemper and Rob Corddry co-starring, Sex Tape opens July 25th.

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Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz Make a 'Sex Tape' in First Red Band Trailer

It's probably not a coincidence that on the night Jason Segel wraps up the ninth and final season of How I Met Your Mother, Sony drops the first red band trailer for his new film, Sex Tape. Reuniting with his Cameron Diaz and director Jake Kasdan from the $200M-grossing Bad Teacher, the film centers on a married couple looking to break out of their romantic rut by making a sex tape, only to have the private footage end up where others can easily find it. To save their reputation and public humiliation, they race to reclaim the video before it can be shared with the world.

Also starring Rob Lowe, Ellie Kemper, and Rob Corddry, Sex Tape hits play on July 25th.


Sex Tape - Red Band Trailer (2014) [HD] Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel by MEGA-UP

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Cameron Diaz Rocks Roller Skates in First Look at 'Sex Tape'

Remember that scene in National Lampoon's European Vacation when Clark loses the tape of his wife prancing around their house naked, and she justfiably freaks out? Well, that's sort of like the plot of Sex Tape, which reunites the Bad Teacher team of Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, and director Jake Kasdan.

The first image from the (likely) R-rated comedy has been released, and it kind of looks like Segel and Diaz are reenacting a scene from Boogie Nights with Diaz in the role of Roller Girl. They play a long-married couple who are trying to get back their romantic spark, and after an adventurous evening they discover the tape they made has gone missing. That sends them on a road trip to locate the missing footage's whereabouts.

Co-starring Jack Black, Sex Tape unwinds on July 25th.

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Cameron Diaz may make 'Sex Tape' with Jason Segel

Don't let the suggestive title fool you, there won't be any TMZ special reports to come out of this story. Cameron Diaz scored one of the biggest hits of her career in 2011 with Bad Teacher, one of a string of R-rated comedies that dominated the box office. The film, directed by Jake Kasdan and co-starring Jason Segel, earned over $200M, enough that it's pretty much a no-brainer for Sony to bring all of the pieces back together again for another project.

Diaz is in talks to join the raunchy comedy, Sex Tape, which Segel has been attached to for a couple of years. Kasdan came aboard a year ago, and Diaz's name has been mentioned for the other lead role for awhile, but it's only now that a deal appears to be imminent. Kate Angelo's Black List script follows a married couple who decide to get away from the kids for awhile and spice up their love life by making a sex tape, which promptly disappears.

It's been a busy year for Diaz as she'll be seen next opposite Colin Firth in a remake of Gambit, then later in Ridley Scott's The Counselor. Next up she'll begin filming on The Other Woman, which stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Leslie Mann, and Kate Upton.  [TheWrap]

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