When “Downton Abbey: A New Era” debuted last Thursday night in previews, box office watchers were disappointed. The Simon Curtis- directed sequel took in just over $1 million.

Weekend box office came to just $16 million, about half of what the first film made in 2019.

But then last night, a curious turn of events: “A New Era,” which has great reviews, made $1.7 million. Very unusual. That’s more than it made last Thursday.

The movie is picking up steam. Maybe fans didn’t really know about it, or know that a major character dies and that a lot more things happen, too. Word of mouth is obviously very good.

So let’s see how “A New Era” fares the rest of this week. It’s a must see if you loved this series!

“The Gray Man” hasn’t had a proper trailer yet, here it is. The $220 million movie is Netflix’s most expensive yet. Directed by the Russo brothers and starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans with Ana de Armas, the movie has a lot of explosions. It also sounds like a “Mission Impossible” knock off. Hey, maybe it’s great! We’ll see on July 15th in theaters and July 22nd on Netflix.

The word from Cannes is that a lot of people could not stomach David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future.”

Cronenberg predicted there would be walk outs and apparently there were a lot. The film starring Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux is not easy to watch.

Kyle Buchanan of the NY Times wrote: “I counted around 15 who exited during the film’s first press screening. Maybe walkouts are the new standing ovation!”

Scott Feinberg of the Hollywood Reporter Tweeted: “CRIMES OF THE FUTURE marks a return for 79yo Cronenberg to the sort of body horror for which he made his name. It’s smart, creative, thought-provoking and yes, very f—ing weird. Viggo/Lea’s committed perfs help to make it plausible. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for the Academy.

The headline for the LA Times review: Surgery, sex and superfluous human organs converge in David Cronenberg’s ‘Crimes of the Future’

I was really sad that I couldn’t get to Cannes this year. But all I keep reading about are movies with gross scenes, movies that involve puking and other scatological messes that no one in the real wants to see for $15. But knowing the way things work now, they’ll probably put these films on IMAX screens!

Over the weekend there were reports of a leak- of the trailer of “Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One.” The movie won’t be released until July 14, 2023– 14 months from now.

So now Paramount is forced to release what they call the teaser trailer — it’s two and a half minutes of Tom Cruise doing dangerous stunts. But I’d wager the studio didn’t want this out this week. It interferes with the launch of “Top Gun Maverick” on Thursday night.

But here it is. Next summer looks like a blockbuster!