The Identical Guardians of the Top Box Office Spot
Sunday, September 7, 2014 at 10:21PM Margaret here with the weekend’s box office report-- which, if you squint, could easily be mistaken for last weekend's box office report.
It was a rough couple days for moviegoers and moviemakers alike. The weekend after Labor Day is famously among the slowest year so all major studios steered clear. Guardians of the Galaxy handily took its fourth #1 and the rest of the top fifteen looks very familiar.
The only new nationwide release was The Identical, an faith-based indie movie that is currently sitting pretty with a RottenTomatoes score of 4%. Even without any competition from other new films it couldn't crack the top ten. New in limited release, Stuart Murdoch's quirkfest musical God Help the Girl did respectable business on two screens but came in around #45.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
01 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY $10.2 (cum. $294.6) Review
02 ...NINJA TURTLES $6.5 (cum. $174.6) remember the animated one?
03 IF I STAY $5.8 (cum. $39.7)
04 LET'S BE COPS $5.4 (cum. $66.6)
05 THE NOVEMBER MAN $4.2 (cum. $17.9)
06 AS ABOVE / SO BELOW $3.7 (cum. $15.6)
07 WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL $3.7 (cum. $23.5)
08 THE GIVER $3.6 (cum. $37.8) Review
09 THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY $3.2 (cum. $45.7)
10 LUCY $1.9 (cum. $121.2) Podcast
11 THE IDENTICAL $1.9 *new*
12 THE EXPENDABLES 3 $1.8 (cum. $36.7) recommended read
13 INTO THE STORM $1.5 (cum. $44.6)
14 BOYHOOD $1.4 (cum. $20.7) Review & Podcast
15 CANTINFLAS $1 (cum. $4.8)
Take out Guardians of the Galaxy and Boyhood, and the average RottenTomatoes score is 31%. Oof.
I was looking forward to seeing a movie this weekend since it is torturously hot in Los Angeles, but my local listings looked like a cruel joke and I couldn't make myself go. What about you? Who managed to find something worth seeing?
Reader Comments (17)
i take it i'm exempt from the "did anyone find anything good to see?" question. I'm seeing so many good things Toronto is like heaven for me this year.
I saw The Notebook, the Hungarian Oscar submission from last year that ended up in the nine-wide shortlist. That it got so close to a nomination is SHOCKING to me because it is one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. Think: sociopathic kids and overtones of molestation.
Then I finally caught up with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It had me until the (SPOILER) siege. It went the full Django in the third act! And add me to the camp who thought that the Koba character, whose motivations made absolutely no sense if you ask me, seemed oddly racialized.
Saw Boyhood finally.
Watched The Trip to Italy, which was good for some laughs and a little existential/midlife crisis depth, but you're probably better off waiting for streaming.
Ready for the awards-season releases to hit the theatres!
I heard about The Identical as many said it's the next bad movie that people will talk about for years to come.
Saw Kelly and Cal with Juliette Lewis in a Q&A after the show. She has very authentic, honest and poignant moments and the kid did a good job, but the lines sounded a little cliché at times.
Then saw Love is Strange. The acting was great from everyone. I wish Marisa could have another longer scene focused on her other than the her speech at the beginning, which she delivers masterfully. Don't agree with the ending with the character it did. It was not his story, period.I like sad films and this was a sad film throughout, so I enjoyed it.
I saw "Love is Strange," which just didn't connect with me. It was far too genteel and denied us the film's strongest aspect, the relationship between the two men. They were kept apart practically the entire film! It was, to say the least, a disappointing film.
Jimi: All is By My Side: weird (good), uneven (not so good). André Benjamin is amazing.
Begin Again: a fairy tale. I enjoyed it once it got going. Contemporary Keira is charming.
I actually got to the theater and saw 'Love is Strange' and it was great both Molina and Lithgow both deserve Oscar Nominations
"Boyhood": I still can't believe how powerful it was. Mark my words, history will be very kind to this movie; not only will it go down as one of the best movies ever made but also one of the most important movies of all time. I usually find some fault in movies that are unanimously-acclaimed, but not this time. I feel like a different person after having seen it. It is so rare for a movie to elicit such a personal response from me. This movie helped me remember some of the best moments of my "growing up" experience but also the things that I missed out on. The first two hours after seeing it, I felt like my mind was going to explode because it was racing. What an intense experience!
It would be really nice if the studios gave us something decent to see other than Guardians of the Galaxy. That was released, what, a month ago?
I saw As Above, So Below a few days ago and really enjoyed it. It's too smart for its own good. The marketing was so misleading that there was no chance it would strike with critics at all. It is an adventure film like Indiana Jones, only driven by literature/mythology and with a few scares. Fans of Dante's Divine Comedy (not just Inferno, either; told you it was too smart for its own good) will really find something to latch onto.
I saw The November Man. As a movie in the action movie genre, it was pretty good. Zipped along, short action sequences, some standard tropes. Clear editing and visuals. I was quite taken with the younger actor, newcomer Australian Luke Bracey, who comes across like a young Sean Bean.
I also liked the women in the supporting roles, who each did a clever turn in a small amount of time. The defector, the assassin, the neighbour, the other CIA agent, each distinct and different. The lead actress was also right on the mark.
I saw The Identical, which was the weirdest film I have seen this year... and I saw The Congress. I still have no idea what it was going for.
Saw The Hundred-Foot Journey, which due to the unholy alliance of Oprah and Spielberg I was prepared to loathe. But it was very enjoyable. Hallstrom used a lighter hand than usual so the schmaltz was pretty palatable. Sorry, I guess you can't help using food metaphors when talking about this movie. The new guy shows real promise. And Helen Mirren doing Helen Mirren in French--irresistible. Also, saw Ghostbusters in the theater. Still holds up. I wish Bill and Sigourney would do another movie together, they are a fun couple.
I'm still working on catching up on classic movies and I'm still stuck in 1939, which is not a bad place to be stuck. I saw:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - fun, straightforward entertainment. What a weird movie star James Stewart started out as - so tall and skinny and awkward, his body was almost cartoonish. Yet he is so easy to root for. And Jean Arthur is always charming with her squeaky voice.
Stagecoach - a strange trip with a thrilling chase sequence in the middle. You don't always get character motivations and I have a feeling I'll never really warm to John Wayne's presence, but John Ford really knows how to stage an action scene. It wasn't just thrilling for an old movie, you could put that scene into any current movie and it would still work. The race relations, however, would definitely not.
Last week I did see " Magic in the Moonlight" which has it's charms - the beautiful location photography and the always charming Miss Stone...