Hot This Week: June 27

The creepfest film 10 Cloverfield Lane takes over this week's movie listing, and the animated hit Zootopia makes a strong return as well. The new solo disc from Nick Jonas is the top newcomer on the music chart, with Drake standing strong at the top once again. Four new fiction audiobooks line up behind Stephen King's End of Watch, while the memoir of R&B star Bobby Brown is the only new title to make the list in non-fiction.

DVD

1. 10 Cloverfield Lane
2. Zootopia
3. Deadpool
4. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
5. Ride Along 2
6. Gods of Egypt
7. Dirty Grandpa
8. Hello, My Name Is Doris
9. The Boy
10. The Revenant

CD

1. Drake, Views
2. Nick Jonas, Last Year Was Complicated
3. Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Soundtrack
4. Beyonce, Lemonade
5. Jon Bellion, The Human Condition
6. Rihanna, ANTI
7. Twenty One Pilots, Blurryface
8. Adele, 25
9. Blake Shelton, If I'm Honest
10. Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Fiction

1. End of Watch, Stephen King
2. Foreign Agent, Brad Thor
3. The Girls, Emma Cline
4. Duty and Honor, Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood
5. Here's to Us, Elin Hilderbrand
6. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
7. After You, Jojo Moyes
8. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley
9. The Last Mile, David Baldacci
10. The Emperor's Revenge, Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison

Non-Fiction

1. Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots, David Fisher 
2. Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
3. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
4. Grit, Angela Duckworth
5. Five Presidents, Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin 
6. Valiant Ambition, Nathaniel Philbrick
7. The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee
8. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
9. Every Little Step, Bobby Brown and Nick Chiles
10. Shoe Dog, Phil Knight

Two Classic Books Coming to Theaters

Written by Jon Williams

Theatergoers heading to the box office this weekend will be faced with a plethora of choices, as usual, but for many of them it will come down to one big one: will it be Independence Day: Resurgence, opening nearly twenty years after the original, or will it be Finding Dory, the charming animated sequel to Finding Nemo, now in its second week of release? Tough call. And it won’t get any easier next weekend, which sees the opening of two new adaptations of beloved classic books.

One of these is The BFG, which is based upon the 1982 novel by whimsical children’s author Roald Dahl. Brought to the screen by director Steven Spielberg (and with a soundtrack by John Williams), it tells the fantastical tale of an orphan named Sophie, who is kidnapped by what turns out to be a Big Friendly Giant (hence the title), an outcast who needs her help to stop a band of giants with the not-so-friendly tendency to eat other children. This is the first live-action version of The BFG to be produced; a made-for-TV animated version came out in 1989.

Of course, Dahl wrote many classic children’s books, and many well-known adaptations have been made from them. He is perhaps best known for his 1964 tale of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the two movies made from it: the 1971 version Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (for which Dahl wrote the screenplay) starring Gene Wilder, and the 2005 version directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. Other well-known movies made from Dahl’s works include James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Witches, and Matilda.

The other adaptation coming to theaters next week is The Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgard as the fabled man raised in the jungle by apes after the death of his parents. The character originated in the 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs and continued on through a number of sequels. Burroughs was a prolific writer in the sci-fi and fantasy genres; he also wrote the Barsoom series (beginning with A Princess of Mars) that eventually spawned the film John Carter.

Tarzan, though, is far and away Burroughs’s most famous creation; he is, in fact, one of the most well-known characters in fiction, due in part (or maybe even primarily) to the sheer number of movies and TV shows in which he has featured. The most pervasive of these is a series of films starring gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. One of the most successful TV series starred Ron Ely and ran from 1966-1968. Not surprisingly, Disney made the most popular animated version in 1999, with a star-studded voice cast and a soundtrack by Phil Collins.

So if history is any indication, both of these movies are sure to be quite popular, and patrons will be looking for related material (and, as always, you can search on our website for even more). Let us know which one you’ll be seeing when it’s released, and stay tuned in the coming months for DVD and Blu-ray release date information on these exciting new movies.

Hot This Week: June 20

The irreverent and hilarious superhero Deadpool takes top honors on this week's movie listing. Drake and Beyonce once again make up the music chart's one-two punch, with the new album from Paul Simon being the top debut at #3. Stephen King's latest, the end of his Mr. Mercedes trilogy, tops the week's fiction list, while Chuck Klosterman's look at the present from a future perspective is the hottest new title in non-fiction.

DVD

1. Deadpool
2. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
3. Gods of Egypt
4. Ride Along 2
5. The Boy
6. Dirty Grandpa
7. Joy
8. The Revenant
9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
10. Zoolander No. 2

CD

1. Drake, Views
2. Beyonce, Lemonade
3. Paul Simon, Stranger to Stranger
4. Volbeat, Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie
5. Maren Morris, Hero
6. Rihanna, ANTI
7. Ariana Grande, Dangerous Woman
8. Dan + Shay, Obsessed
9. Blake Shelton, If I'm Honest
10. Twenty One Pilots, Blurryface

Fiction

1. End of Watch, Stephen King
2. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
3. The Emperor's Revenge, Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison
4. After You, Jojo Moyes
5. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley
6. The House of Secrets, Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg
7. Dishonorable Intentions, Stuart Woods
8. All Summer Long, Dorothea Benton Frank
9. 15th Affair, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
10. The Last Mile, David Baldacci

Non-Fiction

1. Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots, David Fisher 
2. Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
3. Grit, Angela Duckworth
4. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
5. But What If We're Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman
6. Grunt, Mary Roach
7. The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee
8. Tribe, Sebastian Junger
9. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. Five Presidents, Clint Hill and Lisa McCubbin

Hot This Week: June 13

This week's movie listing is bookended with new titles at #1 and #10, with two more in between. Dierks Bentley's new album is the top newcomer in music, but can't dislodge Drake from his accustomed spot at the top. The top three fiction titles are new this week, while a collection of essays from Neil Gaiman is the week's only debut in non-fiction.

DVD

1. Gods of Egypt
2. Ride Along 2
3. Joy
4. Dirty Grandpa
5. The Revenant
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
7. Zoolander No. 2
8. Risen
9. The 5th Wave
10. The Finest Hours

CD

1. Drake, Views
2. Dierks Bentley, Black
3. Beyonce, Lemonade
4. Fifth Harmony, 7/27
5. Blake Shelton, If I'm Honest
6. Ariana Grande, Dangerous Woman
7. Rihanna, ANTI
8. Flume, Skin
9. Adele, 25
10. Twenty One Pilots, Blurryface

Fiction

1. The Emperor's Revenge, Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison
2. Before the Fall, Noah Hawley
3. All Summer Long, Dorothea Benton Frank
4. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
5. After You, Jojo Moyes 
6. 15th Affair, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
7. A Hero of France, Alan Furst
8. The Weekenders, Mary Kay Andrews
9. The Last Mile, David Baldacci
10. The Nest, Cynthia, D'Aprix Sweeney

Non-Fiction

1. Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots, David Fisher 
2. Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
3. Grit, Angela Duckworth
4. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
5. The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee
6. Valiant Ambition, Nathaniel Philbrick
7. Tribe, Sebastian Junger
8. Shoe Dog, Phil Knight
9. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. The View from the Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman

Hot This Week: June 6

The first HTW of June brings four new movies to the list, led by the hilarious second team-up of Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. Drake manages to keep his hold on the top of the music chart, where Ariana Grande and Blake Shelton edge Beyonce from No. 2 to No. 4. The conclusion to Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy of modern vampire novels takes over in fiction, while Sebastian Junger's exploration of the sense of belonging is the week's top newcomer in non-fiction.

DVD

1. Ride Along 2
2. The Revenant
3. Dirty Grandpa
4. Zoolander No. 2
5. Risen
6. The 5th Wave
7. Krampus
8. The Witch
9. Sisters
10. Daddy's Home

CD

1. Drake, Views
2. Ariana Grande, Dangerous Woman
3. Blake Shelton, If I'm Honest
4. Beyonce, Lemonade
5. Rihanna, ANTI
6. Eric Clapton, I Still Do
7. Bob Dylan, Fallen Angels
8. Meghan Trainor, Thank You
9. Adele, 25
10. Mudcrutch, 2

Fiction

1. The City of Mirrors, Justin Cronin
2. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
3. 15th Affair, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
4. The Weekenders, Mary Kay Andrews
5. The Last Mile, David Baldacci
6. The Nest, Cynthia, D'Aprix Sweeney
7. After You, Jojo Moyes
8. The Fireman, Joe Hill
9. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
10. Everybody's Fool, Richard Russo

Non-Fiction

1. The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee
2. Grit, Angela Duckworth
3. Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
4. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
5. Tribe, Sebastian Junger
6. Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots, David Fisher
7. Valiant Ambition, Nathaniel Philbrick
8. Shoe Dog, Phil Knight
9. The Rainbow Comes and Goes, Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt
10. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates