Movies

For “Bad Boys for Life,” the third weekend was the charm. Just like the second was. And the first.The third film in the action-comedy franchise, which stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, easily led the box office this weekend, bringing in an estimated $17.7 million in domestic ticket sales. It was the film’s third weekend in theaters and third weekend in the top spot; its cumulative domestic sales now stand at around $148.1 million. “Bad Boys for Life” has made an additional $142.7 million overseas according to Sony, the film’s distributor.This weekend’s two newcomers did far less well.“Gretel & Hansel” (United Artists), an eerie rethink of a Grimm fairy tale, opened this weekend to an estimated $6.1 million in domestic sales. That’s weak but not a disaster for a relatively low-budget thriller, and was at least enough to land the movie in the top five. (Estimates have it in fourth place.)Directed by Osgood Perkins, who has made somewhat of a name for himself on the back of two low-budget, atmospheric horror movies, “Gretel & Hansel” keeps the basic setup of the fairy tale that its name is a play on. The movie, which notched middling reviews (it currently holds a 56 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) centers on two siblings (played by Sophia Lillis and Sammy Leakey) who find themselves lured into the woodland cottage of an old, malevolent woman (Alice Krige).[Read our critic’s review of “Gretel & Hansel.”]Still, “Gretel & Hansel” did better than this weekend’s other newcomer. That would be Paramount’s “The Rhythm Section,” an action movie that managed just $2.8 million in estimated domestic sales this weekend — a paltry amount next to the movie’s reported $50 million budget. It was only the tenth highest-grossing movie in domestic theaters this weekend according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.“The Rhythm Section” stars Blake Lively as a woman tracking down the people responsible for a plane crash that killed her family. (She gets some assistance from an English spy played by Jude Law.) The film was directed by Reed Morano (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) from a screenplay by Mark Burnell, upon whose 1999 novel the movie is based. The film was met with a weak critical response (its current Rotten Tomatoes score: 33 percent fresh).[Read our critic’s review of “The Rhythm Section.”]Apart from “Gretel & Hansel,” the top five movies this weekend were all holdovers. Second place went to Universal’s World War I movie “1917,” the best picture front-runner which sold an estimated $9.7 million in tickets this weekend, its fourth in wide release. “Dolittle,” a comedy also distributed by Universal, landed in third with about $7.7 million this weekend, its third in theaters. And STXfilms’s week-old action comedy “The Gentlemen,” from the director Guy Ritchie, sold an estimated $6 million in tickets this weekend. Either that movie or “Gretel & Hansel” could land in fourth place when final counts are made on Monday, though estimates show “Gretel & Hansel” ahead. More

The South Korean hit “Parasite” notched another significant win Saturday night at the awards ceremony held by the Writers Guild of America, as the director Bong Joon Ho and his co-writer, Han Jin Won, triumphed in the original-screenplay race. Meanwhile, Taika Waititi’s World War II satire, “Jojo Rabbit,” picked up the guild’s adapted-screenplay trophy.Unlike last year, when the guild gave one of its top prizes to Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” — a film the Oscars failed to recognize — both “Parasite” and “Jojo Rabbit” are nominated for Oscars and could now be considered the front-runners in their screenplay categories, though both films will still face heavy competition.While “Parasite” triumphed against its chief rival, “1917,” at the WGA Awards, Oscar nominee “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” was not eligible in that race since its writer-director, Quentin Tarantino, is not a guild member. As a two-time winner in the Oscars’ original-screenplay category, Tarantino could still pose a significant threat to “Parasite” as it tries to amass enough heat to become the first foreign-language film to win the Oscar for best picture.Elsewhere at the WGA Awards, held concurrently in Los Angeles and New York, two HBO series took the night’s top television prizes: “Succession,” the best-drama winner, and “Barry,” which won the best-comedy prize.Here is the list of top winners:Original screenplay: “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin WonAdapted screenplay: “Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi, based on the book “Caging Skies” by Christine LeunensDocumentary screenplay: “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” Alex GibneyDrama series: “Succession,” Jesse Armstrong, Alice Birch, Jon Brown, Jonathan Glatzer, Cord Jefferson, Mary Laws, Lucy Prebble, Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche, Gary Shteyngart, Susan Soon He Stanton and Will TracyComedy series: “Barry,” Alec Berg, Duffy Boudreau, Bill Hader, Emily Heller, Jason Kim, Taofik Kolade and Elizabeth SarnoffNew series: “Watchmen,” Lila Byock, Nick Cuse, Christal Henry, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Cord Jefferson, Jeff Jensen, Claire Kiechel, Damon Lindelof, Janine Nabers, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Tom Spezialy and Carly WrayOriginal long form: “Chernobyl,” Craig MazinAdapted long form: “Fosse/Verdon,” Debora Cahn, Joel Fields, Ike Holter, Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson, Charlotte Stoudt, Tracey Scott Wilson, based on the book “Fosse” by Sam Wasson More

The 36th annual Sundance Film Festival ended with a bang: the announcement on Saturday that Tabitha Jackson will be taking the reins as the indie fest’s new director, replacing John Cooper, who said in June that he would step down from the top spot after 11 years in the role.Jackson, 49, joined the Sundance Institute in 2013 as director of the documentary film program. For her new position, she competed against some 700 candidates, internally and externally, domestically and internationally.According to Keri Putnam, chief executive of the Sundance Institute, Jackson’s approach, taste and leadership skills coalesced to make her the lead candidate.“Tabitha is clear about the purpose the Sundance Film Festival serves in the world yet she’s not wedded to orthodoxy,” she said. “She’s very curious and is a risk-taker and provokes us to think differently about how we might adapt to these fast-changing times.”In her six years as the institute’s head documentary programmer, Jackson encouraged filmmakers to take chances, and she worked closely with directors like Nicole Newnham and Jim Lebrecht from Netflix’s “Crip Camp” and Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw of “The Truffle Hunters,” which Sony Pictures Classics acquired in the 2020 festival, among others, to help push the medium forward.“I think a danger of this work, both from being in an institution and dealing with institutional funders, is that we consider the work in too narrow a confine,” Jackson said in an interview. “The artist is moving across all forms, using different languages, either invented or borrowed from unexpected places. Our responsibility is to be a home for that work and provide a context by having the right people in the audience who can carry it more broadly into the culture. That’s important to me.”Before joining Sundance, the British Jackson worked for the BBC and Channel 4, where she served as the series editor of “True Stories” and executive producer of projects for Film 4.For the Sundance board member and producer Jason Blum, who oversaw the final round of candidate interviews with another board member, Sean Bailey, Disney’s president of production, Jackson’s appointment comes at an important time for the festival, when staying relevant is its biggest challenge going forward. Blum advocated for Jackson because of the experience she had accumulated in her work with the festival for the past six years.“Programming is a key part of the festival maintaining its relevance,” he said. “If people don’t find the movies compelling, interesting and thought-provoking then it loses its status. Tabitha understands that.” More

Monique Van Vooren, the Belgian-born actress and singer whose highly eclectic résumé included roles in “Tarzan and the She-Devil,” “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,” the Pop Art television series “Batman” and “Wall Street,” died on Jan. 25 at her home in Manhattan. She was 92.The death was confirmed by Geoffrey Bradfield, a longtime family friend.Ms. Van Vooren found fans in many places. Some American moviegoers knew her from her cult-classic films. Others recognized her from her appearances on game shows like “To Tell the Truth” and “Password.” Big-city nightclub patrons knew her as a cabaret headliner.Her profile photos on Facebook included shots of herself with Rudolf Nureyev, Andy Warhol and David Bowie.In Ms. Van Vooren’s youth, writers tended to describe her in terms of her physical attributes — at least one referred to her as “40-24-36” — reflecting an era when actresses’ measurements were a standard feature on their bios.She made her movie debut playing a schoolgirl in “Domani È Troppo Tardi” (“Tomorrow Is Too Late”), a 1950 Italian drama that starred Vittorio De Sica. In her second film (a very American one), “Tarzan and the She-Devil” (1953), she played an evil ivory poacher, alongside Lex Barker (as Tarzan) and Raymond Burr. In 1955 she starred in two French crime dramas, “Série Noire” (“The Infiltrator”) and “Ça Va Barder,” whose title can be loosely translated as “There’ll Be Hell to Pay.”Her next role was especially brief. She appeared only in the opening credits of the Dean Martin comedy “Ten Thousand Bedrooms” (1957).Her other films included “Happy Anniversary” (1959), a romantic comedy starring David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor; “Ash Wednesday” (1973), with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; “Sugar Cookies” (1973), a low-budget story of erotic games and revenge; and “Flesh for Frankenstein” (1974), also known as “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein.” Ms. Van Vooren played the Baroness Frankenstein, who develops feelings for the stable boy (Joe Dallesandro) while her husband is busy creating monsters.Two television roles stood out. She was Zizi Molnari, the European starlet, in a 1959 NBC adaptation of “What Makes Sammy Run?,” Budd Schulberg’s bleakly satirical Hollywood novel. Almost a decade later, she played the haughty, hygienic henchwoman Miss Clean on “Batman” (1968), opposite Burgess Meredith, in his last portrayal of the Penguin.She appeared on Broadway twice, two decades apart. In 1953, she played multiple roles in the musical revue “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.” In 1975, she played Venus in “Man on the Moon,” a musical written by John Phillips of the rock group the Mamas and the Papas. It closed after less than a week of performances.Monique Bronz was born on March 25, 1927, in Brussels, the daughter of George Bronz and Louise (Van Vooren) Bronz. She often spoke about having grown up in a convent — presumably a boarding school. According to her official biography, she arrived in New York in 1950, just after appearing in her first movie, to study philosophy at New York University on a Fulbright scholarship.When asked about the men in her life, Ms. Van Vooren once casually replied, “I’ve been married three or four times.” Biographies sometimes mention a first husband in the 1940s with the surname Jacobsen or Jakobsen. She married Curt H. Pfenniger in 1950; they separated in 1954 and later divorced. In 1958 she married Gerard W. Purcell, a producer and personal manager, and they were together until his death in 2002.Survivors include a son, Eric Purcell, from her marriage to Mr. Pfenniger, and a granddaughter.Ms. Van Vooren was an ardent New Yorker. But, in a cable-television interview in the late 1980s. she complained that the city’s night life had gone downhill.“In New York we have a population of, what, 12 million?” she said, rounding up by about 30 percent. “Maybe 2,000 people a night go out.”She also had a career as a singer. Her first album was “Mink in Hi-Fi” (1958), a mix of French and English songs. The cover showed her in nothing but diamonds and off-the-shoulder white mink. John S. Wilson’s enthusiastic New York Times review suggested that she had been “hiding her real talent under a bushel of cheesecake.”Later, she was known for her cabaret performances. Once, when working at the Rainbow Room, she decided one of her three male backup dancers, Ronnie Walken, needed a new name. “Why don’t you call yourself Christopher?” she suggested. (Mr. Walken has confirmed the exchange.)Ms. Van Vooren was also a writer. Her first and only novel, “Night Sanctuary,” about three women and a male ballet superstar, was published in 1983.Although her reputation was as a sex symbol, Ms. Van Vooren’s only real scandal was financial. In 1983 she entered a guilty plea to lying to a federal grand jury about having taken the proceeds of more than $18,000 in Social Security checks made out to her mother, who had died years before. She received a suspended sentence and was required to perform 500 hours of community service.There was, however, a whiff of romantic scandal in 2001 when Orin Lehman, a longtime New York State parks commissioner and the comedian Joan Rivers’s late-in-life love interest, left her for Ms. Van Vooren. Ms. Rivers responded by ridiculing the new couple’s advanced ages. Ms. Van Vooren retaliated, telling The New York Post: “She’s one to talk. She’s got more miles on her than an old Checker cab.”Ms. Van Vooren’s last appearance in a major film was as “Woman at ‘21’” (referring to the exclusive Manhattan restaurant) in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” (1987). Her final screen appearance was in “Greystone Park” (2012), a haunted-house drama of the supposed found-footage genre.No one ever told her a blond bombshell couldn’t make wisecracks. When the newspaper columnist Earl Wilson suggested she had been seen out on the town with a married man, she shrugged off the thought.“I’m so nearsighted,” she said, “I wouldn’t know whether they were married or not.”Julia Carmel contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière contributed research. More