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The mystery behind why a beautiful movie theater in the town created by Disney World has been closed for almost a decade

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2x1CelebrationTheater_BI Graphics

  • Walt Disney World created the town of Celebration, Florida in the mid-1990s, and its retro movie theater is the downtown's crown jewel (Disney sold the town to Lexin Capital in 2004).
  • At one time, the theater doubled as a church and high-school graduation site while the town was still developing.
  • But the theater, leased by AMC, has been closed since 2010, and the community is frustrated.
  • Numerous groups from the town have tried to take it over.


It’s a warm November evening in Celebration, Florida, and the town’s charming downtown is mostly quiet outside of a couple busy restaurants and a crowded ice cream shop. The quaint rows of storefronts bring a nostalgic feel of 1940s Anywhere, USA — and everything has a Floridian teal color. Its vibe feels like a carbon copy of Main St. at Walt Disney World, and there’s a good reason for that: The town was created by the iconic amusement park.

If you walk toward the end of downtown Celebration on Front St., you’ll find the town’s movie theater. The marquee shines bright and its Googie-style design gives the warm feeling of the thriving movie houses of yesteryear. 

Celebration really is a town frozen in time.

But if you walk closer to the theater, there are troubling signs. For one, the marquee doesn't have any movie titles listed on it, it’s just a shining blank space. And there is zero foot traffic. In fact, the entire inside is dark. 

In many ways the theater is like Disney World itself, the closer you get to it, the more you realize it’s all a well-designed facade.

How the theater helped a town come into its own

Before his death, Walt Disney dreamed of building a utopian community that would cater to the young and old while featuring futuristic amenities decades ahead of its time — self-sufficient houses powered by their own power plant, residents putting their trash in large tubes built underneath their houses instead of having to worry about curbside pickup, and public transportation so vast that residents would have no need for cars. He called it an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow — or EPCOT.

But this would be one of the few ambitious undertakings Disney could not pull off, mainly because of his death in 1966. No longer around to push the extremely expensive project forward, the dream of a city of tomorrow faded to just a section at Disney World. 

walt disney epcotCelebration, which is located 17 miles from Disney World, is certainly not Disney’s EPCOT dream reincarnate (some see it more as something ripped from “The Truman Show” or “Pleasantville”), but it has Walt’s fingerprints all over it. This is a town where a communal atmosphere is paramount, and the tranquil white picket fences surrounding almost every property are so engrained in the town’s aura they are literally part of its logo (a pig-tailed girl riding a bike by a picket fence with her dog trailing her).

The town, now with a population of 10,000 people, was the brainchild of Disney Development Company, the Florida-based subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company that is involved in the design and construction of the resorts and shopping areas around Walt Disney World. It was inspired by the New Urbanism craze that was growing in popularity in the early 1990s — land developers mixing a small-town feel with attractive downtowns.

What better way to extend the Disney brand than for the conglomerate to build a town in its image?

The two-screen movie theater in Celebration is one of the crown jewels of the Town Center downtown area. It was built — like the entire downtown — in 1994, as a way to draw in people to buy the condos above the storefronts, or surrounding farmland that would soon be transformed into quaint homes (construction on houses began two years later). Disney World hired some of the finest architects in the world to design the buildings downtown. Famed architect César Pelli was brought on to design the theater. What he came up with is a gorgeous post-modern style with round spires and twin round marquees. It makes you feel like the theater was plucked right from the 1950s.

Celebration AMC Theater Jack Coursey Cinema Treasures copy

“I’ll leaf through books on architecture and I’ll see the Celebration theater,” former resident Joe McKinney pointed out to Business Insider.

And as the community grew so did the theater’s responsibilities. In the early years of Celebration, the theater held church services every Sunday morning as the town waited for a place of worship to be built.

“In fact, one church would do its service and you would walk out of the theater and another church would walk in,” resident Floyd McCollum recalled. “The pastors would pass each other.”

The theater was also the site of the town’s first-ever high school graduation for the class of 1996-1997. There were only four graduates, but the theater was packed to witness it.

But in 2004, Disney sold its stake in the town to the private-equity firm Lexin Capital. The theater, operated by theater chain AMC, closed its doors in 2010. However, AMC still owns the lease on the theater to this day. Why has the largest movie theater chain in the world kept a two-screen, 527-seat theater empty for close to a decade?

That's a question residents have been trying to get answered for years. 

Major restrictions held back profitability

The movie theater is one of Joe McKinney’s first memories as a 7 year old moving to Celebration from Minnesota in 2000. He recalled how he and his family got into town for the first time late at night, and due to something going wrong with the move, they all went to a late showing at the theater to kill time.

"It was ‘The Tigger Movie,’” McKinney said. “My family fell asleep watching the movie.”

As the years went on, going to the theater became a ritual for McKinney. He attended Sunday service there before the church was built. He remembers running straight to the theater from school to wait six hours in line to see “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.” And it was also where he would hang out with all his friends.

“We did a thing I used to call ‘Celebration Lunch.’ We would go grab a slice of pizza, go get an ice cream cone, and right next door would be the movie theater and we would see a matinee,” he said.

The theater is where Alex Foster would go to catch a movie late at night when he would have trouble sleeping. And countless residents recalled seeing the “Harry Potter” movies there; standing in a line that would snake around the block.

Celebration 2 Preston Mack GettyBut despite all the fond memories, there’s a troubling fact: the theater was never consistently busy.

“The sellouts were infrequent,” Donald Moysey, who worked at the theater for a year in the late 1990s when he was 16, told Business Insider. “The normal movies, only a couple of people would come out. We would have a lot of showings where no one would show up.”

Outside of the occasional major blockbuster, the theater, called the AMC Celebration 2, was usually empty, he said. Moysey said this was partly due to the infrequent amount of new releases that played there, and the mandate by Disney that the theater could not play any movies that were extremely violent or sexually explicit.

This relates to one of the main myths in Celebration about the theater: Some believe it could only run Disney movies. Others believe the theater could only screen PG-rated or G-rated movies. Moysey said all different kinds of movies were shown there unless they had adult themes, like gore, a lot of bad language, or nudity.

“A Quentin Tarantino movie wasn’t going to show up there,” Moysey said. “If a violent movie or horror movie was the big release that weekend, it wasn’t coming to Celebration. So AMC could not put in the most profitable movie to that theater every week. The theater never turned a profit, it was just a question of how much did we lose that month.”

AMC finally cut bait on the theater in 2010. It took its logos off the building and shut off the marquee lights (after years of public outcry, AMC finally began turning on the marquee lights in the evenings). And though there was a lot of disappointment spouted online about the theater closing, the town didn’t really come out to give it a proper send-off on its final day.

Floyd McCollum and his family were in attendance the last day the theater was open — November 28, 2010. The titles showing were “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1” and the animated movie “Megamind,” starring Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt. McCollum said the only reason he knew that the theater was closing was because he happened to spot a sign in front of the theater saying so.

He went with his wife, son, and neighbor to see “Megamind” and was shocked by what he saw.

“Inside the theater was literally just the four of us,” he said. “Four people to see a movie on the last day ever!”

Celebration AMC Theatre Lobby before final

Things got even stranger.

McCollum said that when they walked in that evening it looked like any other night, with staff checking tickets and making popcorn. But when the movie ended they went to the lobby to find no one there.

“It was completely empty,” he said. “The movie posters were all off the walls and rolled up in the trash — I took the ‘Megamind’ one and my neighbor took the “Harry Potter.” Everything was cleaned out. Nobody was there. I actually checked the door when we left. It was locked once we were out and the door shut. Nobody could come back in. It was really sad."

Celebration AMC Theatre Lobby on last night after final show final

Why AMC has kept the lease to an empty theater

When AMC began work on a massive 24-screen multiplex at Walt Disney World Resort’s Pleasure Island in 1997 (now renamed Disney Springs), the park had one stipulation: If AMC wanted the 24 screens it also had to take on the existing two-screen theater in Celebration (a source close to the negotiation confirmed to Business Insider the deal's stipulation). Some residents in Celebration believe that, over time, AMC saw their theater as an annoyance and always intended to close it up once the Pleasure Island theater got on its feet.

Moysey got a job at the Pleasure Island AMC years after working at the Celebration theater and said there wasn’t much chatter about the Celebration location.

“It was implied that they didn’t have any association with it,” he said. “They definitely didn’t have any intentions of reopening it.”

According to town officials who wished to speak anonymously and documents obtained by Business Insider, AMC has kept the Celebration theater empty for close to a decade because it’s cheaper to take the loss on the theater than to pay staff and operate it. The chain, which recently renewed its lease on the theater, has also held onto it so no competitors can come in and take over the space, the town officials told Business Insider. This leaves Celebration residents and those in the neighboring areas with the closest option for seeing a movie being the AMC in Disney Springs. 

celebration1 Jason Guerrasiofinal

Despite all of this, though, it hasn’t stopped people over the years from devising a business plan that they believe is right for the theater.

McCollum said he’s been involved in three different attempts to take over the theater in the last eight years, the closest being an initiative headed by Alex Foster, who is not a Celebration resident but is very known in the area.

In 2016, Foster’s Jazz Meets Motown, a weekly jam session of area jazz musicians, was a regular attraction at the Bohemian Celebration Hotel. His Monday-night sessions would fill the hotel’s lounge, and at its height the hotel would have to turn away 50 to 60 people, he said. From that, his idea of a center for the arts in Celebration was born.

“I thought we got too big for that space,” Foster said of performing at the hotel. “The plan was to take over the theater: One of the theaters would be for playing jazz and special programming and the other theater would be for small live theater productions and classic movies.”

Foster also found interest from area schools surrounding Celebration to take part in a potential scholarship program as well as a program dedicated to entertaining the senior citizens in the area.

To the shock of many in Celebration, both Lexin and AMC were willing to entertain the offer. Foster just had to come up with some cash. Specifically, he had to get $50,000 up front; $25,000-a-month to rent the space from AMC, which would still be the lease holder; and a $2 million line of credit, according to Foster.

“My problem was the lack of money,” said Foster, who admitted he made the mistake of not putting enough time in trying to get corporate sponsors. “We thought we had community backing, we had these meetings once a month. In desperation I gave a New Year’s Eve fundraiser and that was a disaster. Arms were opened but I was never embraced.”

Foster gave up his dream in 2017. But a new group has come forward since.

The willing takers

Christina and Sean Gerrity are what you call lifers in the performing arts world.

Christina has performed all over the world as a professional dancer, while Sean has done everything from performing full time at Walt Disney World to headlining as a singer onboard Royal Caribbean cruises. They ended up at Celebration six and a half years ago when they got off the road and started a family, but the drive to do something in the arts continued.

They began the Celebration Arts Academy a year ago with a desire to use their talents and experience to mold the next generation of entertainers.

“We started with six students and now we have 105 in one year’s time,” Christina Gerrity told Business Insider. “We want to expand.”

For the last year they’ve been subleasing a 1,000-square-foot space from the Thai restaurant owners in town, and now they have their sights on the theater. At first, Gerrity said their plan was to rent out some space at the theater once Alex Foster started operating there. But soon after he gave up on trying to sublease the theater, the Gerritys decided to take on the task of trying to revive the theater.

“Phase one would be updating the performance space — take out the existing screen, build a backstage, take out a row or two of seats, build a VIP section in the lobby,” Gerrity explained. “The second phase would be building out the education center — have dance rooms, homework area, a tech area where kids learn about working backstage.”

However, like Foster, it’s been a challenge to move forward. Though Gerrity said AMC is very willing to sublease the theater, Lexin Capital also has to okay it, and that’s been the roadblock.

“We formed a non-profit in the last two months in order to build some funds to get in there,” Gerrity said. “But we’ve been told by Lexin we need ‘strong financials,’ up to the millions, just to get in.”

And then there’s the condition of the theater.

Gerrity said she’s been inside the space twice, and the second time she witnessed water pouring down the ceiling of the men’s restroom.

“It was like a lake in there,” she said. “After all these years, and the hurricanes, who knows what’s behind the walls.” (Lexin Capital has been accused in the past of neglecting repairs to the town. In 2016, a civil suit was filed by the condo owners’ association seeking to force Lexin to pay $15 million to $20 million in repairs.) 

Gerrity said she doesn’t know how much it would cost to do the repairs needed to the theater because Lexin refuses to have an inspector look at the building, and the Gerritys say they will not spend their own money to get one themselves.

“We have a legally binding lease with AMC Theater on the space, so we are not at liberty to discuss lease specifics with anyone other than the leaseholder,” a spokesman for Lexin told Business Insider via email. “As far as why AMC closed, current condition, etc., those are questions that would need to be answered by the leaseholder (AMC).” (AMC Theaters did not respond to Business Insider's numerous attempts to comment for this story.) 

Celebration Preston Mack Getty

The Gerritys have since postponed a fundraiser they were going to hold at the end of March and are currently trying to figure out their next move.

“We are not sure what direction to go now because we feel like we’re up against a wall,” she said.

But Gerrity has a glimmer of hope. She said she was told by her business partner recently that the leasing agent for AMC divulged that the movie chain does not plan to renew its lease on the theater when it expires in October of 2021 (Business Insider has substantiated this with another source).

“Once that lease is up they’ll change their tune,” Gerrity said with a hopeful tone of Lexin.

However, for the foreseeable future, the theater that was more than just a movie house for the people of Celebration has been relegated to a slowly rotting structure like so many of its brethren across the country.

If this were an old Disney movie made during the time Walt was at the controls, this would be the moment in the story when he would have a little bit of magic appear — either in the form of a Fairy godmother or some pixie dust — to make things right. But it doesn’t look like this story is going to have a happy ending.

“I’ll often go back," Joe McKinney said of Celebration. "Seeing that movie theater with its beautiful architecture in the middle of town and it’s not open. It’s just strange.”

SEE ALSO: The crazy, drug-fueled story behind one of Hollywood's most notorious lost movies

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All 53 movie and TV sequels or reboots coming out in 2018

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So many movies are reboots or sequels. And these days, that bleeds into the television world, too. 

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to "Star Wars" to "Ocean's 8," a reboot or a sequel is coming to theaters pretty much every weekend for the rest of 2018.

There are some highly anticipated movies like "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" coming. But for every exciting one, there's another a spin-off of Michael Bay's "Transformers" series.

In TV, there are a handful of reboots and revivals, starting with ABC's "Roseanne," which premiered to huge ratings and a lot of controversy. Starz is expected to premiere its "John Wick" spin-off show "The Continental" by the end of the year. And we can expect "Heathers" from the Paramount Network to premiere soon.

Here are all the movie and TV reboots and sequels you can see (or avoid) in 2018:

SEE ALSO: The 5 most anticipated new TV shows premiering in April

MOVIES



"Insidious: The Last Key"— Released January 5



"Maze Runner: The Death Cure"— Released January 26



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The 10 best horror movies of the year so far — and where you can watch them

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We're officially one-quarter of the way into 2018, and while the real world remains more horrifying than anything we've seen onscreen there have already been more than a few stellar horror movies capable of raising our arm-hairs and chilling our blood.

Our best-of lists are typically saved for the end of the year, but I'm offering up a quarterly review of sorts in the hopes of pointing your eyeballs towards some great titles that are currently playing or will be very soon.

To that end, this list encompasses 2018's best horror films — so far — meaning it includes new movies that have been released this year in theaters (or straight to VOD/DVD) as well as titles that previously played festivals and now have an officially scheduled release date in the near future.

The only other requirement? They have to be movies I've actually seen. (Sorry John Krasinski's "A Quiet Place.")

10. "The Lodgers"

Gothic chillers used to be the norm with genre films, but they went out of favor decades ago. One comes along periodically, though, and this year we've already had two. (Another great one is right below.)

This Irish tale of dark family secrets and the supernatural tells a visually inventive, creepy, and sexy tale about guilt, ghosts, and a gross brother wanting to boink his admittedly hot sister. It’s the best movie that could have also been called "The Shape of Water."

Available to rent/buy now on VOD.



9. "Marrowbone"

The writer of "The Orphanage" and "The Impossible" delivers another tale of children in danger with four siblings pretending they're not orphans in order to avoid catching the eye of social services.

It's the least of their problems, though, as something in their house wants out. It's a smartly told chiller with a fantastic young cast including George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, and Mia Goth.

Hits theaters/VOD starting April 13.



8. "The Ritual"

Director David Bruckner's solo feature debut may have premiered on the small screen (via Netflix), but it's plenty big when it comes to the horror. It sends four friends into the woods one year after a fifth friend's murder, but as devastating as that loss was they're in for far, far worse.

It's a creepy tale that takes full advantage of its cold landscape, and it features possibly the best creature design of the past few years. Seriously, the beast alone is reason enough to watch.

Currently streaming on Netflix.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

7 great movies you can watch on Netflix this weekend

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Netflix has too much content. It's a great thing, but it also leads to hours spent trying to figure out what to watch, instead of actually watching something.

We're about to make your streaming a little easier. We combed through Netflix's current inventory and collected some relatively recent movie adds that might spark your interest.

From a blockbuster like "Rogue One" to the ray of British sunshine that is "Paddington," these are some great movies on Netflix that you can watch over the weekend. 

Here's 7 movies you should watch on Netflix this weekend:

SEE ALSO: If you miss 'Game of Thrones' you should watch AMC's 'The Terror' — a historical horror series critics are calling a '10-episode nightmare'

"Wind River" (2017)

Netflix description:"A tracker with the US Fish and Wildlife service assists a rookie FBI agent who's investigating a teen girl's murder on a remote Wyoming reservation."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 87%

Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 90%

Remember Hawkeye? No? He's the lost Avenger, who didn't even make the poster for "Infinity War." While "Wind River" is not in the MCU, it does star Hawkeye himself, Jeremy Renner, who proves in this riveting mystery that he is one of the greatest actors right now. It's violent, but powerfully so, all while being an excellent example of character-driven story. 



"Paddington" (2015)

Netflix description: "He's a bear without a home. They're a family without a bear. It seems like a perfect match, till an evil schemer enters."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98%

Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 80%

Paddington bear wears an old red hat, a blue coat, carries a battered briefcase, and loves marmalade. It is an absolutely delightful, short movie that you won't regret watching, no matter how old you are. It's like a Wes Anderson movie, minus Bill Murray. You will honestly probably want to "Paddington" again right after it's over, it's that good. As an added bonus to the cuteness and exquisite set design, it features Nicole Kidman as the villain, an evil taxidermist. 



"Adventureland" (2009)

Netflix description:"Summer turns bummer for a seriously uptight Gen-Xer. but a crappy job may just be the thing to loosen him up."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 88%

Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 61%

Set in the 80s, years before "Stranger Things" made the era really popular, "Adventureland" is a sweet coming-of-age story about a recent college graduate who has to work at a local theme park to make money after his dad loses his job and can't pay for his grad school in New York. All the characters, played by some of the best comedic actors before they were super famous (Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Martin Starr), make the story more authentic. It also has great dramatic performances from Ryan Reynolds and Kristin Stewart.

 



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Emily Blunt says she had husband John Krasinski 'sack' her friend from the lead role in 'A Quiet Place' so she could have it

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Emily Blunt and John Krasinski A Quiet Place movie premiere AP

  • Husband and wife duo John Krasinski and Emily Blunt co-star in "A Quiet Place."
  • The movie was directed by Krasinski, who was first casting other actresses for Blunt's role.
  • Blunt revealed that she asked Krasinski to "sack" an actress friend of hers after Blunt read the script for "A Quiet Place" and decided she wanted the role.
  • Krasinski was thrilled she wanted the part, and now critics are raving about the film. 

Emily Blunt just revealed the dramatic story behind how she landed the co-star role in her husband John Krasinski's hit horror movie "A Quiet Place."

"When I read the script, I really wanted to do it. John [Krasinski] had already approached another actress — a good friend of mine — so I told him he had to ring her and sack her," Blunt said during a recent appearance on "The Graham Norton Show."

As reported by the Daily Mail, Blunt told Norton she wasn't interested in the project at first because she had recently given birth to their second child and finished the major "Mary Poppins" movie (which will premiere this year).

a quiet place

When Krasinski told the story of casting his wife in "A Quiet Place," the tale omitted any mention of "sacking."

"After I did my rewrite, there was only one person I was thinking about, and that was her," Krasinski told The Daily Beast. "But I gotta be honest: I was too scared to ask her."

He said the nervousness came from worrying either she'd say "no," or that she's take on the project as a favor to him instead of having a genuine interest.

"That would have broken my heart, because I've witnessed firsthand the insane level of taste, the commitment level, and the intelligence that goes behind every decision that she makes, and I didn't want to let her down," Krasinski said. "I didn't want this movie to be her first huge stinker."

Emily Blunt John Krasinski husband red carpet A Quiet Place Movie premiere Getty Images

The rest of Krasinski's story tracks with Blunt's revelation to Norton. According to Krasinski, he never asked her to take the part and so she began "recommending other actresses based on the ideas [he] was pitching her."

"Then one day she said, 'You know, if you're cool with it, I'd love to read the script,'" Krasinski told The Daily Beast. "And she did. And totally on her own she said, 'I have to do this.' It was the greatest compliment of my career."

Clearly the choice worked out for this Hollywood couple — "A Quiet Place" is receiving rave reviews. Read INSIDER's full round-up of reviews here to see why critics love this horror movie so much.

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SEE ALSO: John Krasinski's terrifying new movie 'A Quiet Place' is a rare horror film with rave reviews

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The 44 worst movies made by iconic directors — from Spielberg to Scorsese

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Most of the greatest film directors in history have swung and missed on occasion. 

Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and many other critically acclaimed directors have directed at least one movie that critics tore apart. 

For this list, we chose 45 directors who have largely been praised by critics as masters of their craft, and we turned to the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes to find out which of the films they've directed was the most critically panned.

We excluded a number of great directors who did not have a film in their catalog with a critic score under 70%. (Stanley Kubrick, for instance, is not on this list, as his "worst" film, "Eyes Wide Shut," has a 74% "Fresh" rating on the site.)

Here are the 44 worst movies made by iconic directors, ordered from the (relative) best to worst, according to their critic scores:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics

Alejandro G. Iñárritu — "Biutiful" (2010)

Critic score: 65%

What critics said: "It's the kind of film that congratulates the viewer on her tolerance for the spectacle of unrelieved misery." — Slate



Guillermo del Toro — "Blade II" (2002)

Critic score: 57%

What critics said: "The only dread it inspires is in the possibility that its director prefers turning human flesh into CGI-enhanced mush over exploring genuinely frightening material." — The Village Voice



Sergio Leone — "The Colossus of Rhodes" (1961)

Critic score: 57%

What critics said: "This ludicrous costume epic complete with hambone acting is interesting to film buffs because it is an early work by the king of the spaghetti Westerns, director Sergio Leone."— TV Guide



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'A Quiet Place' scares up $50 million to win the weekend box office (VIA)

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a quiet place

  • Paramount's "A Quiet Place" wins the weekend box office with an estimated $50 million.
  • That's a huge profit for a movie made for only $17 million.
  • "Black Panther" now is the third highest-grossing movie all-time at the domestic box office (not counting inflation).

Paramount's frightening "silent" horror movie "A Quiet Place" proved audiences still love to go to the movies to get scared, as it won the weekend box office with an estimated $50 million, according to boxofficepro.com.

That's a huge success for a movie that has around 15 lines of dialogue and was made for just $17 million.

Directed by John Krasinski, who also stars with his wife Emily Blunt, the movie follows a family trying to survive a group of monsters who are wiping out the human race by attacking anything that makes a sound.

Playing on over 3,500 screens, the horror took in an impressive $19 million on Friday. Sunday's $50 million weekend estimate blows away the industry projects for the movie which ranged from mid-$20 million to low $30 million estimates for the weekend.

Thanks to the hype around the movie, which at one point had a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was able to fend off strong competition.

After a strong $41.7 million opening weekend, Warner Bros.'s "Ready Player One" dipped only 40% to earn $25 million this weekend to come in second place. And Universal's R-rated comedy "Blockers," starring John Cena, took in an impressive $21.4 million for third place.

And while all that was going on, Disney's "Black Panther" is still chugging along. The movie's domestic total is now at $665.3 million, putting it in third place all-time at the domestic box office (not counting inflation), passing "Titanic" ($659.3 million).

More on "A Quiet Place":

SEE ALSO: If you miss "Game of Thones," you should watch AMC's "The Terror"— a historical horror series critics are calling a "10-episode nightmare"

Join the conversation about this story »

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Lucy Hale reveals she used to get mistaken for Selena Gomez — and sometimes she went along with it

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lucy hale

  • INSIDER spoke with "Pretty Little Liars" star Lucy Hale ahead of the release of her upcoming horror thriller, "Truth or Dare."
  • Hale says she used to get mistaken for singer Selena Gomez a lot.
  • The actress says she sees herself having a "similar vibe" to "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland and "Game of Thrones'" Maisie Williams.


It's not just you who may have a doppelganger out in the world. Celebrities get mistaken for each other all the time, too.

"When I was younger, it was a lot of Selena Gomez, during her 'Wizards of Waverly Place' days," Hale told INSIDER while speaking about her upcoming movie, "Truth or Dare." 

lucy hale selena gomez

"Usually, I would correct them, but I remember there was this one time, it was this older lady in an airport, and she was like, 'Can I get a picture with you?' I thought that she thought I was Lucy," Hale said, so she took a quick snap with her.

But that wasn't the case.

"Afterward she started listing off the projects that she liked of mine and I quickly realized that she thought I was Selena. And I kind of just went with it because I didn't want to crush her dreams," she added.

Hale says it isn't just Gomez that she'll get mistaken for. 

"There's a group of girls that all kind of look similar," Hale said. "I get Sarah Hyland or Rachel Bilson or Maisie Williams. There's a crop of us that all have a similar vibe."

Here's Hale on the left next to the "Modern Family,""Game of Thrones," and "Hart of Dixie" stars.

lucy hale sarah hyland maisie williams rachel bilson

When the women have similar short haircuts, it can be a little tough to tell them apart.

Is there one celebrity in particular Hale thinks is her doppelganger? 

"Maybe a little Selena," said Hale. "Sometimes I get Kylie Jenner, but when she was younger. Me and Sarah [Hyland] are both petite with big eyes."

lucy hale kylie jennerlucy hale sarah hyland

While Hale may resemble a few other celebrities, the "Pretty Little Liars" actress is the star of upcoming horror movie, "Truth or Dare." 

The movie, about a cursed game that follows her friends home after a vacation in Mexico, is from Blumhouse, the producers behind hits "Get Out" and "Happy Death Day." You can watch a trailer for it below. "Truth or Dare" is in theaters April 13.

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The funny reason why the audience wasn't scared during the test screening of 'A Quiet Place,' the latest hit horror movie

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  • "A Quiet Place" had one test screening and audiences were very confused while watching it.
  • According to the producers behind the movie, Platinum Dunes' Bradley Fuller and Andrew Form, the CGI wasn't ready yet to have the scary monster in the screening.
  • In fact, some of the footage the audience saw was director John Krasinski in a motion capture suit playing the monster.

Warning: Minor spoiler below if you haven't seen "A Quiet Place."

John Krasinski's latest directing effort, "A Quiet Place," scored a huge $50 million opening weekend for Paramount over the weekend thanks to its frightening premise: monsters that kill anything that makes a sound. 

But how would the movie be if the monsters never appeared on screen? That's what a test screening audience had to endure. 

According to Platinum Dunes heads Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller, the producers behind the hit movie, going through the process of test screening "A Quiet Place" was more excruciating than usual because none of the monster CGI from Industrial Light and Magic was ready yet. 

In its place were basic plate graphics of the monsters or footage where someone dressed in a motion capture suit doing the monster's movements in the scene.

In fact, Krasinski himself played the monster in some scenes.

"Sometimes John was in the motion capture suit playing the monster," Form said. "In that basement scene he was the creature down there."

Bradley Fuller Andrew Form Nicholas Hunt GettyForm and Fuller are no strangers to having to show a test screening with little-to-no CGI. Platinum Dunes also produces Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies, and they said it's always weird to test those movies without the CGI turtles finished. But for "A Quiet Place," they admitted it was a little more confusing for audiences to understand what was going on.

Take, for instance, the pinnacle scene in the movie where one of the monsters runs away from Regan (Millicent Simmonds) because her hearing aid hurts its sensitive ears.

"When her hearing aid goes off in the cornfield you have her in the shot but there was nothing behind her, so the audience did not understand that a creature came up behind her," Form said.

So the movie went into its world premiere at the sci-fi/horror-loving South by Southwest Film Festival a month ago coming off a test screening that confused audiences and likely wasn't very scary because there wasn't much monster footage.

Thankfully, ILM delivered the monster CGI in time and the audience loved the movie. This led to a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes before the movie's theatrical release.

"If there was optimism it was self-created," Fuller said of the lead-up to the SXSW screening. "Usually when you go into a screening like that you know what you have, this was totally blind. It was crazy. We were all very apprehensive. When the movie ended and the people started cheering I put my head on my wife's shoulder and cried because it was so fraught with tension and emotion. Because we had no idea."

"A Quiet Place" is currently playing in theaters.

More on "A Quiet Place": 

SEE ALSO: The best details from the new "Solo: A Star Wars Story" trailer, from Donald Glover to a sarcastic new droid

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12 things you didn't know about the making of the horror movie sensation 'A Quiet Place'

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  • "A Quiet Place" is a surprising critical and box office success.
  • It's made by John Krasinski and stars his wife, Emily Blunt.
  • The movie had an unlikely path to the screen.
  • Blunt and Krasinski planned carefully to make sure they could work well together.
  • Blunt insisted on casting herself in the lead role, and Krasinski wanted to cast Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf in real life.
  • Keeping quiet on set was like playing "red light, green light."

 

"A Quiet Place" is a fascinating surprise success.

It's a high-concept horror movie about a family striving to survive in a world dominated by monsters with hypersensitive hearing. It's directed and co-written by John Krasinski, best known for playing Jim Halpert in NBC's "The Office." And it stars him and his wife, Emily Blunt.

This weekend, the movie made $50 million at the box office and has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Dive deeper, and there are dozens of fascinating stories behind how a movie like "A Quiet Place" was made in the first place.

Here are 12 things you didn't know about the movie.

1. Emily Blunt proposed casting herself in the lead role.

When Krasinski was rewriting the script for "A Quiet Place," he had Blunt in mind for the role or Evelyn Abbot, the mother in the movie. But he was "just too scared to ask her," he told the Los Angeles Times.

emily blunt in a quiet place

Blunt, at first, recommended a few actresses to play the role of Evelyn. But once she read the script herself, she insisted on starring in the movie. It would be the first time they acted together in a movie.

"We both realized how much our own life experience as a couple with children could be mirrored in this," Blunt told the Los Angeles Times. "So we could just bring an authenticity to this family that actually, in many ways as much as we had run away from the fact that we didn't want to work together, I think the fact that we're married lent itself to this particular film."

Blunt said Krasinski had to get rid of another actress so she could have the part.

"When I read the script, I really wanted to do it. John [Krasinski] had already approached another actress — a good friend of mine — so I told him he had to ring her and sack her," Blunt said on "The Graham Norton Show."

2. Krasinski insisted on casting Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf in real life.

One of the children in the family is Regan, whose character is deaf. Krasinski wanted to cast Simmonds, who had a breakout role as a deaf character in "Wonderstruck" last year.

"We always had a deaf character in the script, but John really pushed for them to hire Millicent," co-screenwriter Scott Beck told The Hollywood Reporter. "She came to set and taught everyone sign language. It was really amazing and brought an extra depth to the film."

a quiet place children

Simmonds has also become an advocate for the deaf community.

"I want to see more deaf people have the opportunity to become actors," she told People. "And I want [hearing people] to know that it's okay to learn ASL."

3. The movie has real family photos with Krasinski and Blunt's children.

Some of the family photos in the movie are actually real-life photos of their family. It was meant to add a sense of authenticity, according to BuzzFeed.

4. Kraskinski and Blunt were nervous about working together.

The couple were unsure about how their dynamic would work out on set, where they co-starred in the movie and where Krasinski was the director, literally calling the shots.

john krasinski directing emily blunt in a quiet place

The two solved that by deeply preparing for the shoot. Leading up to it, they pored over the script and explained their visions for different scenes.

"I walked her through the entire movie of what I was going to shoot before we shot it,"Krasinski told Variety. "All the ideas that she had were really smart. She was so confident, so caring, so supportive that by the time we got to the shoot, there was nobody better to have on set than her. She stood next to me and watched me direct the scenes she was in or the scenes she wasn't in. It's the best collaboration I'll ever have."

5. But he deffered to her on the pregnancy scene.

In one pivotal scene, Blunt's character has to give birth in absolute silence, or risk getting attacked by a monster.

Krasinski didn't have any notes for her performance.

"She's the only one out of the two of us that's exactly been through it. So my thing was let her do it," he told Vanity Fair. "No direction needed!"

blunt pregnant krasinski quiet place

6. There appeares to be an "Office" reference in the movie.

Some fans of "The Office" may have spotted a scene in "The Quiet Place" that parallels the show.

As Refinery29 noted, there's a scene in the show where Jim and Pam share a pair of headphones and listen to music in the parking lot.

In "A Quiet Place," there's a similar visual: Krasinki's and Blunt's characters share a pair of headphones to listen to music only they can hear.

It's a possible tribute to the fan favorite scene from "The Office."

7. The movie was almost a "Cloverfield" spinoff.

Paramount, the studio behind "A Quiet Place," also makes the "Cloverfield" movies. It's building a larger expanded "Cloverfield" movie universe.

"A Quiet Place" was almost one of those movies, co-writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods told Slashfilm.

"When we were writing the script, '10 Cloverfield Lane' was at Paramount," Beck said. "We were actually talking to an executive there about this film, and it felt from pitch form that there might be crossover, but when we finally took the final script in to Paramount, they saw it as a totally different movie."

8. To make the movie scary, Krasinski watched a bunch of other recent terrifying movies and noted when he felt scared.

Krasinski said he didn't grow up watching horror movies, and wasn't totally fluent in the genre's language. To make the movie scary, he watched recent horror classics like "The Witch,""Get Out," and "The Babadook" and wrote down when he felt jumpy.

john krasinski in a quiet place

"Instead of looking at others movies and techniques and how to steal from certain things, I wrote down when I was scared," he told The Independent. "What things really made me nervous. And so, instead of visual style, it was about when I started to get tense."

9. Keeping quiet on set was like a game of "red light, green light."

In most movies, the sound is mixed in post production. That sound of a galloping horse, for example, is more likely some dude in a room shaking a belt in front of a microphone.

The crew on "A Quiet Place" assumed that, since the movie is silent, everything would be added in post-production and they could be as loud as they wanted on set.

But Krasinski wanted to record real sounds from where they filmed.

"They were legitimately the loudest crew I'd ever heard for four or five days,"Krasinski told the New York Times. "But then we learned together how quiet it needed to be. ... Like, no, you literally can't move because we need the room tone, we need the breeze through the trees, we need the corn, we need the barn. It wasn't like, yeah, I'll put in 'barn' later."

a quiet place shush

Being on set, Krasinski told IGN, was a constant game of everyone moving and making noise, then freezing and remaining silent.

"It was really fun to see these incredible crew members moving trucks and cables and all that stuff just stop dead, frozen. It was like the red light, green light game," he said.

10. This isn't the first movie Krasinski directed.

While "A Quiet Place" is his breakout movie, Krasinski had a few turns behind the camera before. He directed a little-seen independent movie called "The Hollars" in 2016, which starred Sharlto Copley and Anna Kendrick, the 2009 film "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men," based on a short story collection by David Foster Wallace, and three episodes of "The Office."

11. For a test screening, Krasinski dressed up in a motion capture suit as a stand-in for the monster.

The test screening for "A Quiet Place" didn't go very well, as Business Insider reported. By that phase of production, there wasn't a final design for the monster.

noah jupe krasinski quiet place

Instead, there were various stand-ins for the creature onscreen. One of them was simply Krasinski dressed up in a motion capture suit.

"The big problem was there was no creature in the test," producer Andrew Form told Business Insider. "It was either plates or a motion-capture actor. Sometimes John was in the motion capture suit playing the monster. In that basement scene he was the creature down there."

12. Michael Bay was thrilled to get good reviews.

One surprising thing about "A Quiet Place" is that it was produced by Michael Bay — who's known for very loud movies, like the "Transformers" series — through his production company Platinum Dunes.

Bay's movies are often derided by critics. So he was overjoyed last week to see that "A Quiet Place" had a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"This is a first for my company,"he posted on Instagram.

This is a first for my company. Quiet Place, our movie this weekend.

A post shared by Michael Bay (@michaelbay) on Apr 7, 2018 at 7:40pm PDT on

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Bill Simmons' new HBO documentary about Andre the Giant is an emotionally powerful look at the man behind the myth

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  • Bill Simmons' dream of making a documentary about pro wrestling great Andre the Giant has finally become a reality thanks to director Jason Hehir.
  • The movie is a powerful look at the legend that explores the man as well as the mythology around him, which has grown for decades.
  • Both wrestling fans and general audiences will enjoy this one.


When Bill Simmons launched the ESPN documentary series “30 for 30,” one of his dream movies was telling the life story of Andre the Giant.

Simmons has since left ESPN, but nine years later at HBO, he’s executive producing his first movie (from his The Ringer brand) at the network — and it's about Andre. All we can say is good things come to those who wait. 

Even if you aren’t a professional wrestling fan, you’ve likely heard of Andre the Giant. At 7’ 4” and weighing 500 pounds, before Hulk Hogan it was Andre who was the face of wrestling. And if you really have no clue who I’m taking about, then maybe Fezzik (“Anybody want a peanut?”) from “The Princess Bride” rings a bell? Yes, that's Andre, too.  

The life of Andre Roussimoff is a myth built from years traveling the globe on the wrestling circuit (and has only increased since his death in 1993), and Simmons enlisted director Jason Hehir to uncover the truth about the legendary figure. He succeeded with flying colors. 

Andre the Giant 2 WWEHehir’s HBO documentary “Andre the Giant” (airing on HBO on Tuesday at 10 p.m.) is not the typical documentary on a pro wrestler that celebrates career highlights. Though there’s a lot of that, Hehir pulls no punches in finding some truth about who Andre was, and what it was like to be touted as the 8th Wonder of the World. 

With a powerful score, incredible archival video and photos, and interview clips from almost everyone you would want to hear speak about Andre, the movie shows a man living in a world not made for him — and the good, bad, and ugly that came with it. 

Hehir paints a moving picture of Andre coming up the wrestling ranks in France during the 1960s as the character of a lumberjack called the “Great Fairy.” He catches the eye of wrestling promoters in America and quickly begins to bounce around the circuit, now being called Andre the Giant (as well as traveling to Japan, Canada, and Australia).

Through the 1970s, Andre is the main attraction in wrestling and his antics out of the ring become legendary. There are the "fun" antics, like drinking over 100 beers in a single night; and the less attractive ones, like how uncomfortable it is for him to travel, and how he has a daughter who he never sees because he is on the road so much.

There’s also the hilarious recollections of the wrestlers he didn’t respect. Those include Big John Stud, who Andre didn't like because he would walk over the top rope to get into the ring, using the move that was known to be Andre’s. They also include "Macho Man" Randy Savage, who according to Hulk Hogan would get yelled at by Andre because Savage would always have on too much baby oil.

Andre The Giant WWEThen we get to the early 1980s and the Hulk Hogan era begins, as well as the Vince McMahon era, in which his WWF (now WWE) becomes the first nationwide wrestling outfit. Though Andre is beginning to wear down physically, McMahon convinces him to fight Hogan for the title at WrestleMania III. 

For wrestling fans, the insight Hehir provides for this section of the film is the holy grail. Hogan, McMahon, and others close to Andre and the event (like legendary WWF announcer “Mean” Gene Okerlund) are on camera in the movie laying out what happened behind-the-scenes leading up to WrestleMania III, Hogan vs The Giant — the irresistible force against the immovable object. It was the moment when professional wrestling went mainstream. 

Hehir tells with vivid detail how little Hogan really knew about the match’s outcome and how much physical pain Andre was in at that point in his life.

Pain in Andre’s life is a major theme throughout the doc. Whether it’s talking about “The Princess Bride,” traveling the globe, or the sad final days of his life, Andre lived with a lot of discomfort but wouldn’t show it. And that might be the biggest takeaway from the movie — Andre the Giant really was a gentle giant who was more concerned about making others comfortable around him than worrying about himself.

Simmons found the right person in Hehir to take on one of his dream projects. The director successfully pulls away the layer of legend surrounding a literal giant to reveal the man who amazed so many.

SEE ALSO: Inside the surprise success of "A Quiet Place"— from a worrisome test screening to a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score

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People can't decide if this monster shark movie called 'The Meg' is awesome or horrible — or both

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  • Jason Statham's new movie "The Meg" looks like a mix of comedy and horror.
  • The first full trailer debuted Monday, and people are already enthralled.
  • The movie tells the story of a megaladon shark (a massive, prehistoric predator) surfacing in the ocean after being extinct for over two millions years.
  • "The Meg" trailer is set to a warped version of "Beyond the Sea."
  • People are saying it looks so bad that it's good — a perfect popcorn movie for the summer.

Summer blockbuster season is almost upon us, and the monster shark movie "The Meg" is a new contender for big-budget hit. This new movie tells the story of an ancient prehistoric megaladon shark (hence "The Meg") terrorizing oceans once again.

When the first full trailer debuted Monday, people were instantly enthralled by how bizarrely terrible but amazing "The Meg" looks. 

The movie stars Jason Statham ("Crank" and "Furious 7") and Rainn Wilson ("The Office"), Li Bingbing ("Transformers: Age of Extinction"), and Ruby Rose ("John Wick 2" and "Orange is the New Black"). And it looks like a mashup of everything movie audiences could need in a silly, fun popcorn film. 

The trailer shows off "Jaws"-inspired horror as the gigantic ocean predator stalks people (and a tiny dog) swimming in the ocean. But then Bobby Darin's feel-good "Beyond the Sea" starts playing and all bets are off. 

Watch the trailer to see for yourself:

People don't know how to process the madness of "The Meg"

The trailer sparked a lot of tweets about how it looks so bad that it's probably great. Movie critics and fans alike seem in agreement about how "The Meg" will likely lean into it's own silliness, and that self-awareness could deliver a great movie. 

"The Meg" is currently set for release on August 18. We'll have to wait and see if it lives up to the unexpected hype.

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The 32 movies coming out this summer you can’t miss — from 'Infinity War' to 'Incredibles 2'

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This might come as a shock for those in the Northeast, but summer is just around the corner.

That means we're coming up on the multiplexes being filled with Hollywood's big blockbusters. 

In the coming months that includes titles like "Deadpool 2,""Solo: A Star Wars Story," and "Incredibles 2."

And we can't leave out the movie a decade in the making: "Avengers: Infinity War."

Here are 32 movies we think you should go out and see this summer:

SEE ALSO: 12 of the worst TV reboots of all time, ranked from bad to unbearable

April 27 - “Avengers: Infinity War”

You might have heard about this little movie. It has a few superheroes in it and they finally battle a big purple guy. Yes, it’s going to make a couple of dollars at the movie theaters. Get ready for the most ambitious crossover event in history.



May 4 - “Overboard”

The classic Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell 1987 romantic comedy gets a gender swap for its reboot, as Anna Faris plays the overworked employee of a spoiled Mexican playboy (Eugenio Derbez) who gets some payback when he gets amnesia after falling off his yacht.



May 4 - “Tully”

Jason Reitman reteams with "Young Adult" screenwriter Diablo Cody (“Juno”) and star Charlize Theron for his latest movie about a mother (Theron) who forms a unique bond with her nanny (played by Mackenzie Davis).



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Here's the story behind those creepy faces in the 'Truth or Dare' movie that look like a messed up Snapchat filter

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  • If you've seen any of the trailers for "Truth of Dare," the horror movie starring Lucy Hale, the big takeaway is the creepy smiling faces seen in every trailer.
  • Lucy Hale tells INSIDER the cast had no idea what the faces would look like until they were done filming. 
  • The grisly faces reminded the cast of Snapchat filters, prompting the crew to add in a line of Hale referring to them as messed up Snapchat filters after filming was complete.
  • Hale says the faces are similar to ones "Truth or Dare" director Jeff Wadlow used to doodle "with huge black eyes and a really creepy grin."
  • According to Hale, Wadlow "has that kind of grin" too. So the look may be inspired by him as well.

The movie "Truth or Dare" follows a group of college students forced to play the game after a curse follows them home from spring break.

But if you've seen trailers for the thriller starring Lucy Hale, you may know the movie for the wide-eyed, creepy smiling faces seen in every teaser.

Like this:

creepy faces truth or dare

In the movie, the faces are the result of a demon who makes the players hallucinate and see altered versions of friends and strangers. They're extremely creepy to look at and the actors themselves didn't even know just how creepy they were until after filming was complete.

"You know, when we were filming, I think, Jeff, our director, had an idea of what he wanted the face to look like, but the actors didn't really know [what it would be]," Lucy Hale told INSIDER of the demonic faces. "We were just told to smile really big and put our chin down and they were going to do the rest in effects and CGI later."

lucy hale truth or dare scary face

There's a line in the movie where Hale's character, Olivia, actually refers to look as messed up Snapchat filters. Hale says that line was added later as a result of the stars' reactions to the faces in real time. 

"As an added line, after we were done filming and everyone had seen the face, we were like, 'That really does look like a Snapchat filter,'" said Hale of reacting to seeing the grinning faces. "It was actually an ADR line that I said that it looks like Snapchat because it really does. And then last week we actually had a Snapchat filter that was the 'Truth or Dare' filter where people could put the creepy smile on their face, which I thought was cool."

truth or dare snapchat

Where did the faces come from? They're the brainchild of director, Jeff Wadlow.

"The only backstory I have on it is that it's something that he used to doodle, which sounds really creepy, but he used to doodle this really creepy face with huge black eyes and a really creepy grin," said Hale.

The look may even be slightly inspired by Wadlow himself. 

"I have to say Jeff, our director, has that kind of grin anyway," Hale added. "So maybe he just drew it from himself. And he notices that, too. It's not just me saying that. He notices that it might have something to do with his actual grin."

Do you see some inspiration between Wadlow and his art? 

truth or dare director

"Truth or Dare" is in theaters Friday. You can watch a trailer for the movie below.

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There's a scientific reason why the use of silence in 'A Quiet Place' creeps you out so much

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  • Sound in "A Quiet Place" is used sparingly, making the film that much more terrifying.
  • While the anticipation of being scared adds to the fun of a horror movie, silence in real life has been found to be a crippling fear. 
  • The fear of silence is known, somewhat informally, as "sedatephobia."
  • Most research into the fear associated with silence focuses on the fear of awkward silences in conversation, which can leave people feeling distressed.

The real terror in A Quiet Place, John Krasinski’s critically acclaimed new sci-fi horror film, is an uncomfortably familiar one. Throughout the film, as monsters hunt their prey through super-sensitive hearing and horrified humans cower quietly in the dark, audiences are often plunged into complete silence. The dearth of sound is terrifying, and, some researchers have argued, that fear may linger long after we leave the movie theater.

Silence is used to great effect in horror films by sharpening the contrast between a scary moment and the calm leading up to it. In A Quiet Place, sound is used sparingly, so that, as NPR put it, “the jump-scares really pop.” Silence is terrifying because it means there’s just one less sense we can use to figure out what’s going on around us.

That feeling of fear and anticipation is pleasurable while watching a film, but in real life, it can be crippling. In an article in The Conversation published in 2013, media communications lecturer Bruce Fell of Australia’s Charles Sturt University argued that the fear of silence is a real one — and that it’s a fear that’s uniquely affected humans in the past century or so. It’s known, somewhat informally (as research on the topic is lacking), as “sedatephobia.”

Fell based his argument on his unpublished observations of 580 Australian undergraduate students between 2007 and 2012, which suggested to him that those kids, at least, couldn’t stand silence. From those observations, he wrote, “it can be reasonably argued that their need for noise and their struggle with silence is a learned behavior.” Referring to one Australian government survey, he noted that kids learned from their parents and grandparents to exist in environments where the TV (the “third parent”) was always on. The ubiquity of smartphones and streaming music now, he asserted, might just be making the matter worse, because they don’t allow people to learn how to deal with silence and all its psychological trappings.

a quiet place shush

Fell doesn’t offer much of an explanation after that, though, merely noting that his students can’t stand walking around without headphones and feel frightened without sound. It bears mentioning that a fear of silence is likely a cultural phenomenon, as some countries value — even embrace — it more than others; Japanese culture, as the BBC points out, puts a high value on reticence, and not everyone grows up in environments inundated with noisy technology, though that may be rapidly changing.

Most research into the fear associated with silence focuses on the fear of awkward silences in conversation, which make people feel very unsettled. One study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2013, for example, argued that uncomfortably long silences that interrupted conversations made people feel “distressed, afraid, hurt and rejected” because it decreased their sense of belonging and social validation.

It could be argued that our fear of silence — whether the short, awkward kind; the kind that haunts us when we forget our headphones; or the intentional kind in A Quiet Place — all comes down to a single root fear: the fear of what we don’t know. Part of the reason silence is so scary is that it creates a sense of anticipation — or anxiety — depending on what you’re hoping to expect. Without aural cues to alert you to what’s going on, anything seems possible. And is anything scarier than that?

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The real-life love stories behind 10 iconic films

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Many of the best-told love stories feel at once unexpected and achingly familiar, capable of challenging the viewer's assumptions about love and resonating with their lived experiences all at the same time.

For this reason, it's no surprise that many popular movies are based on real love stories, romances that can be supplemented with memorable dialogue and touching moments (like the ever-quotable "if you're a bird I'm a bird") while still managing to keep the roots of its inspiration intact.

These 10 movies were all in some way inspired by – if not exactly true to – real-life romances.

"The Big Sick"

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon have made headlines for turning their whirlwind romance into an award-winning film. Gordon really was put into a medically induced coma after an unexplainable illness. The couple really did meet when Gordon heckled Nanjiani's stand-up set. Nanjiani's parents really did want him to be in an arranged marriage.

"I'm maybe a bit more private than Kumail so I was definitely like, 'Oh sh-t, if this all goes great, I'm gonna be on a red carpet being like, and yes, I was in a coma!'" Gordon told People. "That's kind of a weird thing."



"The Notebook"

Nicholas Sparks — the author of the book that was later turned into the now-classic movie — was inspired by his wife's grandparents' unusual love story.

"The way his eyes shined when he looked at her, the way he held her hand, the way he got her tea and took care of her," he recalled on his website. "I remember watching them together and thinking to myself that after sixty years of marriage, these two people were treating each other exactly the same as my wife and I were treating each other after 12 hours."



"Walk the Line"

Johnny and June's on-screen romance melted audiences' hearts in the Oscar-winning biopic "Walk the Line." June Carter Cash helped Johnny write "Ring of Fire" and "Jackson," and Johnny proposed to June on-stage in front of 7,000 strangers in Ontario – as is depicted in one of the more memorable scenes in the film.



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5 scary movies that everyone should see this spring — even if you're not a horror buff

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  • It may only be spring, but there's no shortage of upcoming horror films to keep you up at night.
  • From commercial teen scary movies to feminist thrillers, there's something spooky out there for everyone. 

Autumn is usually the scariest of seasons but this spring has got some gruesome treats in store for goths and gore hounds alike. From a film that scored big at Sundance to campy teen treats, here are five big films that are making huge strides in horror and that you should be checking out this season.

"Truth Or Dare," April 13 

truth or dare

A cross between "Final Destination" and "It Follows,""Truth Or Dare" is perhaps the most straight-forward, mainstream horror release of the season. Expect jump-scares and light gore, this PG-13 thriller is clearly marketed for teens.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, whose writing credits include TV series Bates Motel and postmodern superhero flick "Kick Ass 2," this ghastly romp pits adolescents against each other in an eponymous game of wits and courage — with deadly stakes. It's hard to tell who will survive from the trailer, but it's not difficult to guarantee there will be at least one sequel.

"Revenge," May 11

revenge screenshot

Horror movies directed by women are frustratingly hard to come by; this Shudder-exclusive release promises a neon-drenched, hyper-violent treat. "Revenge" is a French-language film directed by relative newcomer Coralie Fargeat. After an American socialite somehow survives a brutal murder attempt, she goes after her would-be killers with ferocious intensity. Offering an almost explicitly feminist take on of one horror's most beloved motifs — bloody retribution —  Dread Central said that the film "gouges the male gaze out of our eyeballs." 

"Bad Samaritan," May 4

bad samaritan

David Tennant may have gained a cult following through his portrayal of the time-traveling Dr. Who, but "Bad Samaritan," directed by Dean Devlin, has him playing a much darker character. When a small-time thief in Portland, Oregon gets mixed up in a psychotic crime beyond his comprehension, the consequences become deadly in this moody horror-thriller.

Although Devlin has acted in a plethora of movies ranging from "Godzilla" to "Flyboys," this is only the second feature-length film he has directed, following the 2017 disaster flick "Geostorm."

"Hereditary," June 8

hereditary 2018

Existential dread is taken to traumatic extremes in "Hereditary," which explores familial trauma with surreal verisimilitude. "Hereditary" is the first feature-length film from director Ari Aster and has proven to be a smashing success on the independent film circuit, with the AV Club describing the movie as "pure emotional terrorism … first-class genre filmmaking." Academy Award-winning actress Toni Colette's hideous unwinding has already garnered the film an ultra-rare 100% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

"Ghost Stories," April 6

ghost stories imdb

This British film, co-directed by Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson, traces the journey of a paranormal investigator named Phillip Goodman's struggle with his faith in the supernatural. Told in an anthology format with three separate stories, the film's methodical pacing and emphasis on psychological scares have critics praising at as a cerebral twist on familiar tropes. Goodman's hellish descent will have you asking: are ghosts just metaphors for our inner demons, or does life after death really exist?

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REVIEW: Lucy Hale's 'Truth or Dare' horror movie is a wannabe 'Final Destination' but it keeps you guessing until the end

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lucy hale truth or dare

Warning: There are minor spoilers ahead.

The concept of "Truth or Dare" may sound juvenile.

The ubiquitous party game follows a group of friends back home from a vacation after a decades-old curse is unleashed. If you've seen the trailers, you may have rolled your eyes as the friends are forced to play the game until each of them are picked off one by one.

And then there are those creepy demon faces accompanying the movie's marketing that look like a Snapchat filter gone wrong. 

Admittedly, the concept of a horror movie built around a game is a bit silly. Remember "Ouija"? But "Truth or Dare" has just enough twists to escape being predictable, which makes for a refreshing turn on the genre.

Why you should care: It's a Blumhouse movie with the star of "Pretty Little Liars."

truth or dare lucy hale

Blumhouse Productions has been on a hot streak lately and this is the production company's latest. If you're scratching your head, wait, you've seen the company's movies. They're responsible for recent hits including "Split,""Happy Death Day," and Oscar-winning movie "Get Out."

If you're a "Pretty Little Liars" fan, Lucy Hale is the star of the thriller and she can definitely hold her own outside of the TV series.

What's Hot: Despite the juvenile concept, the film isn't predictable and may remind you of "Final Destination." 

Several times throughout the movie I found myself thinking "Truth or Dare" had a similar concept to the "Final Destination" franchise. That's a good thing. 

In "Final Destination," the survivors of a plane crash are hunted down one by one in the order they were supposed to die by death itself. Similarly, in "Truth or Dare," everyone has to keep playing the game or they'll die. The only way the game ends is when everyone is dead, unless Olivia (Hale) and her friends can find a way to break the curse on them.

Now, "Truth or Dare" probably isn't the next "Final Destination," but it's a clever spin on a familiar setup.

Several times I was surprised to see that when I expected the film to go in one direction, it veered off course. When you start to wonder why everyone doesn't decide to stick to telling "truth" to make the game go by easy, the movie has an answer for that. 

That's a sign of a Blumhouse movie. It usually knows not to insult a viewer's intelligence or fall for the pitfalls of a corny slasher. 

truth or dare face

Like the "Final Destination" series, I figured the curse would find a way to be broken by the film's end, but I should have realized that wouldn't be the case. 

This film has no happy ending. A twist at the end may have you draw another connection to the end of the recent "Rings" reboot.

It's also refreshing Hale's lead character isn't a one-dimensional college girl in a slasher film.

At the film's start, Olivia claims if she had to choose between her group of friends dying to save the world or vice versa that she would rather have herself and her friends die for the greater good. 

lucy hale truth or dare

At the time, she was telling the truth. But as the movie progresses, you watch Olivia devolve as she becomes desperate to find a way for herself and her friends to survive. It's an interesting character study in how someone will deal under pressure when put to the test.

What's Not: You'll feel like you're watching regurgitated trailers for about the first half hour.

The first half hour or so of the movie plays out exactly like the trailers. A group of friends go to Mexico, they play a game of truth or dare. They head home, the game follows them back. As the game starts to take victims, the first few truth or dare challenges play out exactly as depicted in the trailers. 

truth or dare pool table

There's little surprise there and that's frustrating. 

Thankfully, the rest of the movie makes up for it by being less predictable. 

If you're not a fan of cheap jump scares, there are a few throughout the movie you can see coming a mile away. It's also tough to take those Snapchat-looking faces seriously. 

scary face truth or dare

Warning: There is one really gross scene that may make you cringe.

The trailers show Hale's character ask another to cut out their tongue, and she's not joking. Someone is asked to remove their tongue with a knife.

I can't tell you how much of it is shown. I had to turn my head.

The Bottom Line: It's no "Get Out," but "Truth or Dare" has its moments.

truth or dare wall

This isn't top-tier horror, but if you're looking for a teen thriller to enjoy on Friday the 13th with friends, you may have a fun time. If you're looking for an excellent movie in the genre, we'd recommend John Krasinski's directorial debut, "A Quiet Place."

Grade: C+

"Truth or Dare" is in theaters Friday. Watch the trailer below.

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The director of HBO's Andre the Giant documentary explains how he debunked some major myths and got Vince McMahon to cry

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Andre The Giant WWE

Director Jason Hehir spent over a year doing the ultimate deep-dive into the life of legendary professional wrestler Andre the Giant to separate the man from the myth for his HBO documentary.

The journey took Hehir all over the globe and face-to-face with some of the biggest names in wrestling.

Business Insider talked to Hehir to break down some of the biggest revelations, talk  about his emotional encounter with Vince McMahon, and ask why the Samuel Beckett story isn’t in the movie.

SEE ALSO: The 32 movies coming out this summer you can't miss

Finding Andre's real hometown.

Up until the day “Andre the Giant” aired on HBO, the wrestler's Wikipedia page stated that he was born and raised in Grenoble, France. Like most of the world, whoever contributed that piece to his Wikipedia page thought the hometown given during his introduction to the ring was the truth. But that was just one of many inaccuracies about Andre Roussimoff.

Hehir discovered that Andre was born in Moliens, a small village of 40 people six miles outside of Paris. Andre’s wrestling backstory of him coming from Grenoble was created early in his wrestling career when he was touted by promoters as a friendly lumberjack found in the mountains. 

“The most recognizable town in the Alps to a North American audience was Grenoble because they hosted the Olympics,” Hehir said.

Once Andre's real hometown was discovered, Hehir and his crew traveled to Moliens with a few pictures of Andre with family friends. 

“We literally went door to door and just walked the streets of that village showing these photos to people via a translator, because the people there spoke zero English,” Hehir said. 


They also found Andre’s two brothers. One let Hehir and his crew into the family’s home where Andre grew up and there they found a treasure trove of old photos and wrestling memorabilia of Andre's never before seen by the public. They also filmed the giant chair for Andre in the kitchen, which is featured in the documentary. Andre’s mother had it specifically made for him.

“Andre the Giant is a mythical character, but Andre Roussimoff is a mother's son and she wanted him to be comfortable when he came home,” Hehir said. “She had that made for him. He was still her baby though he could barely fit through the door.”



Vince McMahon's emotional recollection of Andre.

One of the most shocking moments of the documentary is toward the end when during an interview with WWE owner Vince McMahon be begins to choke up and hold back tears when talking about how much Andre meant to him and his company (despite the two having a falling out at the end of Andre's career).

Hehir said that wasn’t the first time McMahon, known for his tough guy swagger, showed a softer side in front of him.


“He got emotional when no cameras were there,” Hehir said. “The first meeting I had with him I mentioned that Andre had a really close relationship with his daughter and he got pretty emotional there.” 

Hehir said that McMahon agreed to do a 45-minute interview for the movie and Hehir could come back later in production to shoot any follow-ups with him. The 45-minute shoot turned into a three-hour interview.

McMahon getting emotional on camera was hard to film, Hehir said.

“Vince seemed to be trying to keep it together and as an interviewer it's excruciating because your instinct is to turn the camera off," he said. "But you have a responsibility to the viewer to let them experience this feeling vicariously through the person who knows the subject well, so we included that in the film.”



That was really Hulk Hogan's handwritten choreographed outline of his WrestleMania III match with Andre.

For wrestling die hards the recollections by Hulk Hogan of the lead-up to his match with Andre at WrestleMania III are something special. One great detail is him explaining how he wrote out the entire match on a yellow legal pad McMahon gave him when McMahon asked the wrestler how he thought the match should go down. Hogan scripted the entire match, but left how it would end empty for Andre to decide. Andre didn’t reveal the ending until during the match, according to Hogan. 


In the movie, while Hogan is telling the story, there are shots of yellow legal pad sheets with handwriting on them. Hehir said that’s really Hogan’s handwriting of the match.


“That yellow legal pad is crucial to the telling of that story,” he said. “But that has been long crumbled and thrown into the trash. Probably the night of the event. So for months I tried to get Hogan to recreate to the best of his recollection what he wrote down.”


Hehir interviewed Hogan for the movie in April of 2017. He said he finally got the pages from Hogan in the middle of December on the final day they could possibly get it into the movie before handing a finished version over to HBO. 

“When we got it you could feel your heart beat opening the envelope,” Hehir said. “I told Hogan even if he could write a few lines we could shoot them really tight, he ended up writing all those pages you see in the shot — two single-spaced pages. And he wrote it as if he was in the moment, so if you freeze frame it you can see it says something like, ‘Don’t let Andre see this.’”


“Any of us could have written those pages and no one would know whose handwriting it was,” Hehir continued. “But I just thought it would be a cool wink to people who do know this world that they would recognize Hogan’s handwriting.”



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Every movie The Rock has starred in, ranked by how much money they made at the US box office

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Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is one of the highest-paid (and busiest) actors working today.

In 2017, he starred in three blockbusters: "Baywatch,""The Fate of the Furious," and "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle." And he raked in $65 million, second only to actor Mark Wahlberg.

Johnson has starred in at least one movie every year since his feature debut in 2001 in "The Mummy Returns"— an impressive accomplishment for the wrestler turned actor.

But how much have his movies made?

With "Rampage" coming to theaters this weekend, Business Insider ranked every movie Johnson has starred in by domestic box-office performance, adjusted for inflation. We also included the original domestic gross and the original worldwide gross for comparison.

We excluded movies Johnson didn't have a significant role in — for instance, he has an uncredited role in "Reno 911!: Miami" according to IMDB, and he only had a cameo in the 2002 film, "Longshot" (it was also never released in American theaters). He also had a starring role in "Empire State," but it was a straight-to-DVD release.

Johnson has starred in box-office disappointments, but he's also been the face of blockbusters such as the "Fast and Furious" franchise and last year's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," which blew away expectations and has reached almost $1 billion worldwide.

Below is every movie Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has starred in, ranked by domestic box-office performance:

SEE ALSO: The Rock calls out his 'Fast and Furious' co-stars who complained about his spin-off movie

29. "Southland Tales" (2007)

Adjusted domestic gross: $367,400

Original domestic gross: $275,380

Original worldwide gross: $374,743



28. "Faster" (2010)

Adjusted domestic gross: $26,644,500

Original domestic gross: $23,240,020

Original worldwide gross: $35,626,958



27. "Doom" (2005)

Adjusted domestic gross: $40,403,900

Original domestic gross: $28,212,337

Original worldwide gross: $55,987,321



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