power rangers

We love the ’90s. But not all ’90s movies.

In a parallel universe where Paramount Pictures doesn’t alienate its fanbase, we might be talking about Ghost in the Shell as the big winner of this weekend and the de facto start of a new wave of Japanese Hollywood adaptations. Instead, DreamWorks Animation and The Boss Baby blew up the box office, no doubt delighting a handful of DreamWorks executives who watched the Ghost in the Shell controversy unfold with glasses of champagne in hand. After all, nobody’s going to boycott a movie about a baby who wears a suit.

Ladies and gentlemen: the dangers of cellphones are real...

After several weeks of limited movement, a handful of new releases prompted a pretty thorough shakeup of the Box Office Top 10. While Beauty and the Beast continued its unstoppable assault on the domestic box office, we also said hello this weekend to three new movies and goodbye to a handful of old favorites from the first few months of the year. Let’s start with the estimated numbers as of Sunday afternoon.

As the kids of the ‘80s and early ‘90s are dragged kicking and screaming into middle age, their nostalgia for the things they enjoyed in childhood has only grown stronger. And Hollywood has responded in kind, taking those childhood obsessions and transforming them into movies that are specifically crafted to appeal to adults with fond memories instead of kids. That’s why director Joseph Kahn’s new grim ‘n gritty Power Rangers short film is brilliant and unsettling in equal measure. On one hand, it’s exquisitely made and just tongue-in-cheek enough. On the other, it’s exactly the kind of movie that we’re worried will actually get made in the next few years.

Well, we don't know about you guys, but we've resigned ourselves to our new nostalgia machine overlords. Their latest decree: the film reboot of the long-running 'Power Rangers' TV series will officially hit theaters in 2016. That gives you plenty of time to figure out an excuse for where you need to be that day -- whether that's an excuse so you can go see the movie or an excuse to avoid it is up to you. The power is yours. Wait. That was 'Captain Planet.'

I will give you a couple of hints. He used to be a semi-famous dad on TV's "Malcolm in the Middle" along side Star Frankie Muniz. He also currently plays a "Bad" guy on TV's "Breaking Bad" Gee, I wonder who that could be? Hmmm.