Memorial Day Long Weekend Champs
Monday, May 30, 2016 at 5:00PM It's not the story that the media will cover but it looks like the winners of Memorial Day weekend are... limited releases. Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman's funny Jane Austen adaptation cracked the top ten list on just 500-ish screens. The Lobster also had a great weekend on just over 100 screens.
The other significant happening: Captain America: Civil War overtook Deadpool this weekend to become 2016's biggest hit.
Otherwise the long weekend was disappointing with two underperfoming blockbusters as the big tickets. Though Apocalypse's $80 million would be spectacular for many films its still a disappointment as its a far lower opening gross than that of its X-Men predecessor Days of Future Past. Meanwhile Alice Through the Looking Glass, a sequel no one was clamoring for from a film that was a fluke phenomenon based mostly on its absurdly lucky timing post-Avatar back in 2010, opened to $34 million. With a $170 million budget that's rough. Not as rough as Johnny Depp's offscreen trouble though, as an ugly divorce from Amber Heard is brewing. She's accused him of domestic violence and obtained a restraining order, his friends have rushed to defend him, the internet is circling him with torches. That's how these things go.
What did you see this weekend?
Arrows indicate losing or gaining screens
TOP TEN
🔺01 X-Men Apocalypse $80 NEW Review
🔺02 Alice Through the Looking Glass $34.1 NEW
▫️03 Angry Birds $24.6 (cum. $72.2)
🔻04 Captain America: Civil War $19.7 (cum. $377.1) Review
🔺05 Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising $11.4 (cum. $40.6)
🔻06 The Jungle Book $9.2 (cum. $340.7) Articles
▫️07 The Nice Guys $8.1 (cum. $23.5) Shane Black, Review
🔻08 Money Monster $5.5 (cum. $35.2) Jack O'Connell
🔺09 Love & Friendship $3.1 (cum. $4.1) Review
🔻10 Zootopia $1.1 (cum. $336.1) Reviewish
TOP TEN LIMITED
Excluding previously wide & Love & Friendship which remarkably hit the top ten!
🔺01 The Lobster $942K (cum. $1.7) Reviewish, Podcast
🔻02 The Meddler $700K (cum. $3.1) Review
🔺03 The Man Who Knew Infinity $630K (cum. $2.4)
🔺04 A Bigger Splash $530K (cum. $1.4) Reviewish, Podcast
🔺05 Weiner $216K (cum. $344K) Review
🔻06 Sing Street $154K (cum. $2.8) Review, Who's the MVP?, Podcast
🔺07 Maggie's Plan $136K (cum. $225K) Review
🔻08 Hello My Name is Doris $87K (cum. $14.2) Review, Sally Field
🔻09 Dark Horse $44K (cum. $139) Review
🔻10 A Hologram for the King $44K (cum. $4.1) Review
Reader Comments (23)
Thank goodness at least one of those performed below projections. (I was pretty much dead on too. $25 million off highest projection for Alice 2.) It couldn't have happened to a better candidate: The original was garish, badly written, and, on top of that, a stunningly early indicator of Mia Wasikowksa's limits. (And here's the thing: I am not opposed to the idea of Alice in Wonderland: The Spectacle Action movie. The right mix of writer, director and lead actress? Might have made it work. Not masterpiece work, but work at a B/B- level. But post 94 Burton, Linda Woolverton and Mia Wasikowska was almost the most wrong combination possible.)
I really hope Kate Beckinsale gets some awards love at year's end. She is so good!
Depp has had an astounding run of bad performances in bad decision movies. Remember when he basically remade "Lawnmower Man"? Me neither.
I'm still trying to decide how I feel about Beckinsale in "L&F". Something was a bit lacking for me, but it's a very difficult role: she has to be clever, know she's clever, not be quite as clever as she thinks she is, witty, but also unaware of her own absurdity, deadly serious about her sincere beliefs. It's a tough part for anyone, and Beckinsale certainly isn't bad but maybe plays it a bit neutral for my taste.
Love and Friendship is the real hit here, 3 million while in limited release, and word of mouth will make it grow, Austen rules again.
Great to see Kate Beckinsdale in a meaty role, very happy to see her doing well.
Disappointing to see classic sexism on display with John Carney's remarks about Keira Knightley, obviously he was just trying to grab some attention.
"Alice and the Time Machine" would have been a better title for this pointless sequel- yes the movie is visually dazzling but it lacks a sense of wonder.
I hope Love & Friendship expands so I can go see it and not drive 15 minutes from where I live to the nearest art house theater. Not that I mind but I prefer to save gas money.
Dave S -- i had the exact same response. I liked the movie a lot but the central performance didn't feel like a home run. but there's a lot going on in the movie that makes up for it -- those great character card intros, the slightly stupid men all being just hilarious. and Chloe Savigny was the best i've seen her in ages.
Interesting stats about ALICE bomb.
No doubt the biggest drop from one opening weekend to another. From a $116m opening to a $27mil opening (three day weekend). Ouch.
Likely won't even make as much in its entire run as ALICE IN WONDERLAND made in its opening weekend.
If it weren't for MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, we'd probably be looking at the steepest fall of grosses between original and sequel. But MBFGW2 was completely different and was never expected to emulate the $250mil of the original and instead performed like a much more regular rom-com, the audience for which will likely see it on home entertainment than go to the movies these days.
Even without Depp's divorce woes, Johnny's dissipated looks and half a dozen years of self-indulgent film duds have caught up with him.
This picture is amazing.
I'm so excited to see 'The Lobster', 'Love and Friendship', and 'A Bigger Splash'.
I saw the new X-Men as part of a good friend's birthday celebrations, and it was ....fine. It was fine. Fassbender continues to bring it even when he's given little to work with; why cover Oscar Isaac in all that makeup; the newbies were...fine.
I think that some people sreaction to Beckinsale 's performance And comic timing may be due to the fact that her name is always linked to films that are less than average. I think we would be more forgiving if the part had been played by someone who had more prestige than her. I'm just currently quite smitten by her and I want more pairings with Sevigny. they had great chemistry!
Weekend two of the Seattle International Film Festival. Caught both:
Goat - The Nick Jonas frat drama. Ben Schnetzer gave a fantastic performance but Jonas was hit or miss--better in anger than concern. Story overall felt like after school special for college males
Equals - Stewart and Hoult are good. Nathan Parker (screenwriter for Moon) and Drake Doremus (director of Like Crazy) balance each other well. More heartfelt than expected for a movie about emotionless society.
Also saw:
X-Men: Apocalypse - it's a 3D monstrocity that I very much enjoyed.
The Lobster - left the movie thinking, "WTF did I just watch?", and that is a high praise! I need to watch it again.
Weiner, which is a great documentary.
Lobster, which is very weird and oddly satisfying.
Bloodline, Season 2 - thrilling and suspenseful.
1. Money Monster: Didn't make the earth move (no pun intended, see #3 below), but I appreciated it and its nods at some of my favorite films.
2. Captain America: Civil War: ditto.
3. Game of Thrones, Penny Dreadful, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (end of season): discomfort food.
I was "A Bigger Splash" and wasn't disappointed, The actors were great and I didn't even mind Dakota Johnson. It was just so nice to see a sexy, thoughtful drama made for grown folks.
I saw "A Bigger Splash" and wasn't disappointed, The actors were great and I didn't even mind Dakota Johnson. It was just so nice to see a sexy, thoughtful drama made for grown folks.
Thank you thank for reclaiming this ridiculous and ubiquitous still from Apocalypse and using it as god intended.
Just nerding it out with Game of Thrones these past few weeks. Totally obsessing over the stories before the stories. Old characters. TV Show / Book differences. You name it.
The producers are overusing Daenerys Targaryen this season. In her case, less will not only be more but an explosive more.
Glad that Phoenix is finally manifested in X-Men Apocalypse. The Dark Phoenix story in Last Stand was an embarrassment. Barely even two-dimensional.
Didn't enjoy Captain America: Civil War as much as the critics would have wanted me to. Funny how the first Thor movie was such an enjoyable experience with a simple, straightforward story.
I keep thinking/misreading/hoping that Weiner is a belated direct sequel to Welcome To The Dollhouse...
Then I remember that we have Wiener-Dog upcoming (WITHOUT Heather Matarazzo). Sigh.
Had a big movie weekend, seeing Money Monster (better than I had expected given the reviews, but no great shakes or anything), Captain America (SNOOZE - why even pretend this was a Cap movie, when it was really Avengers 3?!? The only good part was Spider-Man, and even then, it was kind of ridiculously hypocritical of Iron Man to bring him into the fray, no?!? I had SO MANY PROBLEMS with this movie. SO. MANY.), and The Nice Guys (quite enjoyable, but ever so slightly underwhelming). Better than all of these, though, was It Follows, which I finally caught up with and completely blew me away. The most gorgeous horror movie in ages, moving like a fever dream around suburbia - PERFECT viewing for a hot, sticky, summer weekend in the city.
A couple of episodes of Bloodline--gawd, I love Kyle Chandler.
Another episode of Vinyl--still don't like it.
The Dresser--again. Nothing better than watching great actors act and act and act.
I saw The Lobster and fell in love. I was also so messed up by it that I didn't make it back to that multiplex to see A Bigger Splash yet. I will. Tilda Swinton films tend to run at least two weekends there and there's quite a few showings a day right now.