Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. are back in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” four years after their first action-packed heist thriller became a hit. The Lionsgate movie has made $1.35 million in Thursday previews so far at the box office. It’s projected to make $11 million to $13 million in its opening weekend and […]

Butler’s brusque, beady-eyed, scowling-hulk charisma has aged well. A quick-fire actor in a caveman’s body, he has the ability to lift a piece of pulp so that it almost seems like a real movie.

Will a gritty, globe-trotting police officer and an anthropomorphic chimpanzee pop star be able to kickstart the 2025 box office? The year’s first two new nationwide releases, Lionsgate’s “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” a heist thriller starring Gerard Butler as a caper-busting sheriff, and Paramount’s big-budget “Better Man,” a musical biopic in which a CGI monkey portrays […]