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By Rebecca Rubin According To The variety Will “Red One,” a Christmas action-comedy where Dwayne Johnson plays Santa’s head of security, bring movie theaters a box office bounty? The film, from Amazon MGM, is targeting $30 million to $35 million from 4,032 locations in its first weekend of release. Independent tracking services are mixed, suggesting that “Red One” could earn as little as $25 million and as much as $40 million in its debut. Ticket sales on the higher end of that range would be decent for an original holiday film. However, “Red One” cost $250 million before accounting for global marketing efforts. So either way, the movie will need positive word-of-mouth to portend a long life in theaters and justify its cost. Of course, Amazon MGM cares about much more than box off...

By Owen Gleiberman According To The variety It may not be high praise, but “Gladiator II,” the sequel to Ridley Scott’s landmark slash-and-burn ancient Rome spectacular, is probably about as good a movie as we could have expected it to be. Written by David Scarpa (“Napoleon”) and directed by Scott (who, at 86, hasn’t lost his touch for the peacock pageantry of teeming masses thirsting for blood), the movie is a solid piece of neoclassical popcorn — a serviceable epic of brutal warfare, Colosseum duels featuring lavish decapitations and beasts both animal and human, along with the middlebrow “decadence” of palace intrigue. The whole film is tailored to the next-generation specifications of its star, Paul Mescal, who plays a descendant of Russell Crowe’s Maximus (I won’t say more)...