Wonka, Eras Tour, Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” has crossed $100 million worldwide to become his highest-grossing movie so far and only the second arthouse release to hit that milestone since the COVID pandemic. Best picture winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was the first. “Poor Things” is also nominated for 11 Oscars, including best picture. Emma Stone won best actress honors at the Critic’s Choice Awards and the BAFTRA Film Awards. Variety film critic Peter Debruge named “Poor Things” the best movie of 2023, writing: “Yorgos Lanthimos assembles a demented, Buñuelian satire of gender roles that’s part ‘Pygmalion,’ part ‘Lolita,’ and otherwise totally distinct from anything else on the scene. While ‘Barbie’ poked fun at the patriarchy, born-again Bella upends it.”

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” arrives on Hulu this month shortly after the Oscars, where it’s nominated for five awards, including best picture. The movie won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year and stars Sandra Huller as a woman accused of killing her husband. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “Anatomy of a Fall” the second best film of 2023, writing: “Triet stages an explosive courtroom drama that turns into ‘Scenes from a Marriage’ as staged by a 21st-century Hitchcock. ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ tells the story of this marriage — but more to the point it tells a story of women and men in our time, when the shifting power dynamics have increased women’s equality, leaving certain men feeling as if that assertion of justice were somehow a fatal assault.”

After earning $261 million at the worldwide box office to become the highest-grossing concert film in history, Taylor Swift brings her “The Eras Tour” movie exclusively to Disney+ this month for its streaming debut. The release will be an extended edition, also known as “Taylor’s Version,” and will include five songs not in previous versions of the film, including her “Folklore” hit “Cardigan.” Disney is reportedly paying more than $75 million to the singer-songwriter-entrepreneur to exclusively stream “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)” on Disney+ worldwide. Disney allegedly outbid Netflix and Universal Pictures (which handled digital/VOD distribution for the film) for the streaming rights.

Timothée Chalamet showed his box office chops with Warner Bros.’ “Wonka,” which has earned a mighty $617 million and counting at the worldwide box office since launching in theaters last Christmas. The film makes its streaming debut on Max this month. Chalamet plays a younger version of Willy Wonka, as he battles fellow chocolatiers to make a name for himself in the world of magical candy. From Variety’s review: “‘Wonka’ is a fun, rousing, impeccably staged, jaw-droppingly old-fashioned musical prequel to the legendary Roald Dahl tale with Timothée Chalamet playing the title character as the beaming soul of effervescent goodness.”

Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix teamed back up together years after “Gladiator” for “Napoleon,” a historical epic that pulled in a decent $220 million at the worldwide box office last year and now makes its streaming debut this month on Apple TV+. The film stars Phoenix as the infamous French emperor and Vanessa Kirby as his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. “Both Scott and Phoenix embrace a touch of camp, portraying the enigma that was Napoleon as a petulant brat-cum-military genius: someone who knew how to get his way on the battlefield, but resorted to food fights at home,” reads Variety’s review. “As written by David Scarpa, ‘Napoleon’ tilts much of the attention away from its title character and toward the man’s wife, Josephine de Beauharnais.”

After Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” arrived on streaming last month, A24 and Max continue their new partnership with the arrival of Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario” on Max this month. Nicolas Cage plays a mild-mannered professor whose life is completely upended when he starts showing up in people’s dreams around the world. The phenomenon turns him into an overnight celebrity in ways both advantageous and destructive. Variety’s Peter Debruge praised Cage for delivering one of his best performances ever in “Dream Scenario,” adding the film is a “brilliant look at viral celebrity.”

Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” technically started streaming exclusively on Max on Feb. 27, but we’re including it here as March will be its first entire month of streaming availability. The comic book tentpole underperformed at the box office with $433 million worldwide, a huge decrease from the $1 billion the original “Aquaman” grossed several years ago. Jason Momoa is back for the sequel as Aquaman teams up with his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to defeat a new threat to the ocean kingdoms. From Variety’s review: “Momoa’s bro superhero unites with his treacherous half-brother to save the world in a DC adventure that’s charged and grandly scaled yet rote.”

Peter Farrelly directs the Amazon Prime Video original comedy movie “Ricky Stanicky,” starring Zac Efron, Andrew Santino and Jermaine Fowler as three best friends who invent a fake person, Ricky Stanicky, to help them get out of personal situations with their families and loved ones. When the friends are forced to bring the fake Ricky to life, they hire a washed-up actor (John Cena) to assume the role. Farrelly and Efron last collaborated on “The Greatest Beer Run Ever.”

Patrick Swayze’s 1989 cult classic “Road House” gets a modern facelift courtesy of director Doug Liman and star Jake Gyllenhaal, who team up for a “Road House” remake that features the actor as a former UFC fighter struggling to make ends meet. After the owner of a Florida Keys road house finds him sleeping in his car, Gyllenhaal’s Elwood Dalton becomes a bouncer and finds himself roped into a war of outlaws and bikers (including one played by mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, making his acting debut). He’s also forced to go up against a developer determined to build a lavish resort for “rich assholes” and end the road house for good.

The third movie in the “Trolls” franchise grossed just over $200 million worldwide last fall and now arrives exclusively on Peacock, where it will surely be one of the top choices for families this month. Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake return to voice Poppy and Branch in a story about Branch reconnecting with his boy band past. Sound familiar? From Variety’s review: “The third installment in DreamWorks’s fizzy animated franchise hasn’t outlived its shelf life, as it reunites an NSYNC-like group (and NSYNC itself) for self-deprecating fun.”

Adam Sandler is back this month with another Netflix original, and it marks the comedian’s most arthouse-driven entry yet on the streaming platform. “Spaceman” is adapted from Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 novel “Spaceman of Bohemia” and stars Sandler as an astronaut living in isolation whose forced down memory lane as he tries to get back to Earth and reunite with his wife (Carey Mulligan). Sandler’s character finds a talking spider (Paul Dano) from the beginning of time hiding in the bowels of his ship, and the two work together to process where life went wrong. “Spaceman” is directed by Johan Renck, best known for his work on HBO’s Emmy-winning miniseries “Chernobyl.”

Netflix is bringing Gareth Edwards’ 2014 “Godzilla” reboot to streaming at an opportune time. Not only is the rampaging kaiju back in the spotlight thanks to the blockbuster success of “Godzilla Minus One,” but Edwards’ own latest movie “The Creator” earned buzz last fall and is currently nominated alongside “Minus One” for the Oscar for visual effects. In Edwards’ 2014 film, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are a father and son forced to put an end to Godzilla’s reign of destruction. From Variety’s review: “Godzilla movies, like wrestling matches, are ultimately judged by the quality of the mayhem, and Edwards excels at blowing things up.”

Millie Bobby Brown successfully used her “Stranger Things” fame to launch a Netflix movie franchise with “Enola Holmes.” Can the magic strike twice? She’s front and center for the streamer’s fantasy film “Damsel,” playing a princess whose happily ever after is disrupted when her prince sacrifices her to a dragon. “She’s a damsel who doesn’t need to be saved,” Brown told Netflix. “She saves herself in many ways. It subverts what you expect: You’re expecting the prince to turn around and save her, and… no. Don’t wait for the prince.”

“What I really loved in the script from Dan Mazeau was embracing the idea of a fantasy adventure and a princess and dragon story, but taking it into a place [where] it’s completely upside down,” director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo added. “It was a very intense journey that I was so excited to design and to develop. At the core, this is such a beautiful story about a young woman becoming a strong, independent, and empowered adult. Elodie doesn’t have any kind of support. It’s a real survival experience.”

“Irish Wish” marks Lindsay Lohan’s second Netflix original romantic-comedy following her 2022 holiday movie “Falling for Christmas.” Netflix’s official synopsis reads: “When the love of her life gets engaged to her best friend, Maddie (Lohan) puts her feelings aside to be a bridesmaid at their wedding in Ireland. Days before the pair are set to marry, Maddie makes a spontaneous wish for true love, only to wake up as the bride-to-be. But as her dream gets closer to coming true, Maddie realizes that her real soulmate is someone else entirely.” Filmed on location in Wicklow, Ireland, “Irish Wish” promises plenty of scenic vistas to serve as the backdrop for Lohan’s latest rom-com.

A24’s horror hit and Gen Z satire “Bodies Bodies Bodies” finally arrives on Netflix this month. The ensemble cast includes Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Myha’la, Chase Sui Wonders, Rachel Sennott, Lee Pace and Pete Davidson. From Variety’s review: “The director, Halina Reijn, works in what you might call the in-your-face school of twenty-something head-game melodrama…The characters get in each other’s faces, and the movie gets in our face; much of it is shot in close-up, in the semi-darkness (at one point a generator gives out), with the storm raging, so that the audience feels like it’s part of the pressure cooker. Yet ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ also has a fast and witty aggro tone.”

Love him or hate him, Jared Leto’s Morbius is arriving on Disney+ this month where it will join other Sony-backed comic book movies like “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies and Tom Hardy’s “Venom” films. From Variety’s review: “It’s close to being a generic Marvel movie, right down to Leto’s one-note scientist-turned-vampire… ‘Morbius’ is a movie in which it’s clear that no one ever sent the script back for a rewrite with the instructions, ‘Please add a script.’ As in: Add spice, add dialogue, add something so that the movie plays like more than a barely colored-in diagram.”

Disney+ is the exclusive home to stream “Madu” this month. The documentary hails from filmmakers Matt Ogens and Kachi Benson and takes a look at the young ballet dancer Anthony Madu, a Nigerian teen who went viral around the world in 2020 after posting a 44-second ballet video online.

Disney’s synopsis reads: “‘Madu’ follows 12-year-old Anthony Madu as he leaves his family and community in Nigeria to study at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the world in England. Having never left his home outside of Lagos, Anthony finds himself thrust into a new world where his wildest dreams are suddenly within reach. His courageous journey is a story of extraordinary obstacles as he searches for belonging and acceptance, a family far away, and unexpected challenges that could impact his future.”

“Whereas the original ‘Blade Runner’ was (eventually) embraced for its unrealized potential, its sequel ranks as one of the great science-fiction films of all time,” Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote in his rave review of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi masterpiece “Blade Runner 2049,” which returns to Netflix this month just as Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” opens in movie theaters worldwide.

“2049” didn’t even cross the $100 million in the U.S., a death knell for a studio-backed tentpole, and it reportedly lost Alcon Entertainment up to $80 million. Regardless, the film won Oscars for cinematography and visual effects and remains a science-fiction touchstone of the 2010s. As Debruge raves, “Villeneuve earns every second of his 2 hours and 44 minute running time, delivering a visually breathtaking, long-fuse action movie whose unconventional thrills could be described as many things — from tantalizing to tedious — but never artificially intelligent.”

The “Harry Potter” franchise is back on Peacock this month. All eight movies are now streaming: ” Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone Harry Potter, ” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.”

Peacock is hoping to bring in viewers with the launch of its original documentary on Stormy Daniels, the porn star who made national headlines when it was revealed that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the former president. “Stormy” is directed and produced by Emmy-nominated helmer Sarah Gibson, best known for her work on documentary films and series including Netflix’s “Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste,” which she co-directed, and “Britney vs. Spears,” which she produced.

“From reporters to lawyers to politicians, many have attempted to define Stormy Daniels,” the doc’s official description reads. “‘Stormy’ tells the unvarnished truth about an unlikely American icon — this time, in her own words.”

It may not have been a critical favorite, but Universal and Blumhouse’s horror movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was the unexpected blockbuster of fall 2023 with $137 million at the domestic box office and nearly $300 million on a $20 million production budget. Never underestimate the power of a popular video game. After making its streaming debut on Peacock last year at the same time it launched in theaters, “Freddy’s” arrives this month on Prime Video at no extra cost to subscribers.