Box Office: Super-sized Thor and little films that could.
Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 7:47PM by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office (Nov 3-5) |
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| W I D E 800+ screens |
L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide |
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| 1.🔺 Thor Ragnarok $121 REVIEW, YOUR QUEEN |
1.🔺 Let There Be Light $1.6 on 642 screens (cum. $4) |
| 2.🔺 A Bad Mom's Christmas $17 | 2.🔺 LBJ $1.1 on 659 screens |
| 3. Jigsaw $6.7 (cum. $28.8) . |
3.🔺 Florida Project $663k on 189 screens (cum. $3) REVIEW |
| 4. Boo 2! A Madea Halloween $4.6 (cum. $42.9) | 4.🔺 Loving Vincent $590k on 205 screens (cum. $3) |
| 5. Geostorm $3 (cum. $28.7) . |
5.🔺 Killing of a Sacred Deer $401k (cum. $908k) REVIEW |
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| 6. Happy Death Day $2.8 (cum. $52.9) | 6. 🔺 Lady Bird $375k on 4 screens REVIEW |
| 7. Thank You For Your Service $2.2 (cum. $7.3) | 7. 🔺 Goodbye Christopher Robin $353k on 262 screens (cum. $1.1) |
| 8. Blade Runner 2049 $2.2 (cum. $85.4) REVIEW | SHORTS | "BESTS" |
8. 🔺 Wonderstruck $235k (cum. $517k) REVIEW, PODCAST |
| 9. Only the Brave $1.9 (cum. $15.2) | 9. 🔺 Jane $229k on 55 screens (cum. $517k) CRITICS CHOICE WINNER |
| 10. The Foreigner $1.5 (cum. $31.9) | 10. 🔺 The Square $102k on 19 screens (cum. $207k) EFA NOMINATIONS |
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
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As expected Thor: Ragnarok was thunderous (sorry) at the box office. In fact, "the strongest Avenger" outdid himself this time nearly doubling (!) the first weekend gross of his kick-off back in 2011 and outdoing the previous installment, too. He even outdid Spider-Man Homecoming's opening weekend from earlier this summer! In other words this franchise is still growing. Or maybe people just realized that this film actually looked like FUN which its predeccesor The Dark World most decidedly was not.
Otherwise there's not much to report on this week's box office because the charts look almost identical to last week, especially at the arthouse where slow-and-steady theater count climbs is winning the race. Oscar hopeful The Florida Project and less expectedly the animated bio Loving Vincent, for example, add a couple dozen locations a week and keep chugging along impressively. Both have already amassed $3 million!
In happy news Greta Gerwig's directorial debut Lady Bird is off to a great start with crowded theaters at 4 locations. Other new films starting small were My Friend Dahmer (reviewed) at 4 locations, Last Flag Flying (reviewed) at 4 locations and Blade of the Immortal at 30 locations -- they all grossed around $40,000-45,000
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?
Reader Comments (25)
"The Killing of a Sacred Deer" - Yorgos Lanthimos should direct season 2 of "Big Little Lies". Dern would be up for it.
"A Cure for Wellness" - Unconscionably long, with a few good moments.
I saw "Suburbicon" which works neither as noir thriller or a Stanley Kramer message movie . It's a mess but an interesting and very watchable mess. The main thriller plot works best but it keeps being interrupted by the sub plot about a black family. The black family is made up of a cute kid; an attractive mother who is there to be abused by the white characters ( well at least she was spared a rape scene) and the father who has no dialogue?! Matt Damon and his son are their next door neighbors. Julianne Moore tries to pull a weird "Vertigo" inspired double role Oscar Isaac steals his scenes by just smiling- this man should be a MAJOR movie star by now. The nice black family is threatened by a mob of white men- but they keep a stiff upper lip. Yes you can make a genre movie with a message- but you have to pick the right genre- look at "Far From Heaven" which mixed romantic melodrama with racial tension and closet case husbands.
But I do hope Clooney gets to make another movie- crazy is better than boring
THOR: RAGNAROK - heaps of silly fun and lots of laughs. Recommended.
The trailer for JUSTICE LEAGUE before the movie just looked so tedious by comparison with its dismal palette and stale one-liners.
I saw "Bladerunner 2049" a second time, while it's still easily accessible. Such a melancholic, beautiful and adventurous movie. But jeez, so heart-rending. My heart goes out to Agent K.
I saw A Bad Moms Christmas. In spite of this one taking place on Christmas this time around, it still feels like a rehashed version of the original. The cast is very game with the standouts being Kathryn Hahn and Christine Baranski.
Saw Blade Runner in theaters. Thought it was beautiful and engaging but also a little unsatisfying.
Also saw Loving Vincent which I adored. A loose take on history, murder mystery, and inventive (and beautifully executed) execution of the material.
Watched Laura at home because of the 1944 recommendations. Thanks for a great one! I will be pondering those bathtub scenes for some time...
I saw the new Claire Denis movie and the new Thor movie, but only liked the latter. That was a weird sentence to type.
God's Own Country. Liked it a fair bit. Loving this year for queer cinema.
Faces Places. Terrific feel good documentary about art. Artist JR is adorable.
Stranger Things 2. Very enjoyable. Kids and adults are great. Builds its own world which is not easy to do well.
Saw LADY BIRD which is just exquisite through and through. Ronan and Metcalf astound. Gerwig is a damn keeper.
Also saw THOR RAGNAROK. Perhaps a wee bit long, but then again it was so much fun I didn't really mind. More please!
Sacred Deer - for now, my favorite film of 2017, one I wish was in the mix for awards for Director, Supporting Actor, & Supporting Actress; The Square - found it shallow but I understand the applause for it; and Lady Bird - and am now hoping Ronan and Metcalf are Oscar nominated. I'm kind of thinking Gerwig could turn into a very good director of actors, but I guess we will see.
Do we consider Kidman supporting in Sacred Deer?
Why couldn't i fall in love with "Lady Bird"? Do i not have a heart? :'-(
Also saw "Thor Three" (say that five times fast!), and enjoyed it, but still prefer Captain America's story.
However, they used this new thing called "color" in the movie that did wonders for it. Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett (underused) do seem to be having a ball as villians,
And Gratuitous Shirtless! Chris Hemsworth and Shirtless! Mark Ruffalo are never bad things.
I watched Bonjour Tristesse on Blu-ray - a fabulous film. Jean Seberg is just wonderful. As are DeborahbKerr and David Niven, but then everyone knows that.
And I saw the new Murder on the Orient Express. Mixed feelings, but two pleasant surprises for starters: Poirot's moustache isn't half as over-the-top in the film as it looks in the trailers/stills, and Johnny Depp is very good.
Great to hear that Loving Vincent is doing so well. It really deserves it.
Processing Killing of Sacred Deer and BPM from last week. The former was well-made but did nothing for me. I understand it's purposefully emotionally cold and distant, but I left the theater wondering why I wasted my time with it. The performances are good, however, but it's too obscure to be considered for any awards. I also don't think the director is as original as he and/or critics claim. As Richard Brody pointed out--we've seen this movie before from Haneke. The Lobster and Dogtooth were more entertaining and engaging.
BPM, while I admired it and thought it had its moments, didn't hit me emotionally like I was expecting. Perhaps I lack a personal connection to this time period, being a straight male who came of age in the early 2000s. I've seen better movies about activist movements from France (Something in the Air, La Chinoise, Summertime come to mind), I've seen more emotionally moving LGBT movies (Milk, Weekend, the list goes on). I think my expectations were too high, given the second place showing at Cannes and the great reviews and high praise from this site. Given that it's already out of the Angelika after only three weeks, I wonder if other moviegoers felt the same way.
I saw 'The Square' this weekend. An interesting film to think about, definitely worth seeing for the discussion, but at least 30 minutes too long, and after a while, I felt like the movie had become the very thing it was mocking. For me, the opening premise was great, and I kind of wish and expected the film to focus more on this art-world and the consequences of this Square exhibition. Instead, the film pushes that aside to focus instead on some annoying boy who may or may not have stolen the main character's cell phone and wallet, and whenever the film went to that side story, I kept saying to myself, "Who cares?"
Looking forward to Lady Bird, Thelma, Three Billboards and In God's Country, and may catch the Linklater film at some point if I have the time.
I saw Thor Ragnarok and loved every minute of it. I'm so glad I knew so little going in so as to be surprised by who appeared in the film beyond the main players in the trailer. Also, Team Hela. This film turned my brother, who typically doesn't watch prestige films or dramas, into a Cate Blanchett fan. Our discussion amounted to "oh, so THIS is why you obsess over Cate Blanchett? I get it."
I watched 2/3 of Alias Grace, which is a much better Atwood adaptation than The Handmaid's Tale - the additions the script makes to the book enhance the themes rather than detract from it. That said, lazy writers will be less inclined to use it to make parallels to the Trump era, and it doesn't have big tv stars in it, so it will get less attention.
I also rewatched Ex Machina, which is very, very good, and A Woman Under the Influence, which is a masterpiece.
And I rented Person to Person, which was boring and rather derivative. I don't think Tavi Gevinson should be an actress.
I saw "The Square" and "God's Own Country." "Force Majeure" was my favorite film of that year, and I don't think "The Square" soars to that level, but it is still a cringingly funny film with a terrific lead performance. "God's Own Country" is also terrific, a lovely, well-acted romance that is difficult not to compare to "Brokeback Mountain." This film is more hopeful and more frank with its sexuality.The film also reminded me of "Weekend" especially in the end. I do wonder what the next level is for gay-themed films. The "coming out" film has become a bit of a cliché, although "God's Own Country" rises way above that, but I'd like to see what progress for gay-themed films will look like. I love the performances from the two leads, Josh O'Connor and the soulfully sexy Alec Secareanu. Gemma Jones and Ian Hart also give heartfelt support.
Worth bringing up that Coco is an enormous, enormous hit in Mexico. Propped by the cultural factor but if audiences react that warmly to it could it be a BP contender?
I saw The Square and God's Own Country. Force Majeure was my favorite film of that year, and The Square does not reach the level of that film, but it is still cringingly funny and singular. It's especially pertinent with the recent sexual assault avalanche hitting so-called liberal Hollywood.
God's Own Country is lovely and romantic even with the scenes of animal birthing and death. It's hard not to compare it to Brokeback Mountain, but God's Own Country is more hopeful and sexually frank. It also reminded me of Weekend, especially the ending. Josh O'Connor and the soulfully sexy Alec Secareanu are excellent in the lead roles. Gemma Jones and Ian Hart also provide heartfelt support. It's looking like another banner year for gay-themed films.
I saw Professor Marston and the Wonder Women - glad I saw it as the story is really, really interesting, Rebecca Hall was great and Luke Evans is sexy af (can someone please put him in a gay romance with Trevante Rhodes?). The script and direction were kind of disappointing and didn't really do the subjects justice but not sure it was as bad as its box office performance suggests. I knew a bit about creator of Wonder Woman but I didn't know how explicit he was about feminism and bondage. I assumed it was of the more subtle, wink-wink variety but he really promoted it as strongly as possible.
Also finished season one of One Mississippi which was delightfully odd and am halfway through the most recent season of Orange is the New Black, which is still entertaining but disappointing in its uneven tone and poor pacing.
Also, can we talk about another new film that came out this weekend that no one is discussing? "Bad Grandmas" with Florence Henderson and Pam Grier. Where did that come from?
Watched Maudie with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke....very good and another kudo for Hawkins this year! Can't wait for The Shape of Water & Lady Bird!!
Just wondering Nate - why is Woody Harrelson (LBJ) absent from your Best Actor Oscar predictions? He seems to be campaigning hard, it's a historical bio which the Academy loves and he is a previous nominee. Something you've heard that we haven't?