Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team.

This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms. 

Powered by Squarespace
DON'T MISS THIS

Follow TFE on Substackd 

COMMENTS

Oscar Takeaways
12 thoughts from the big night

 

Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe
« Link Trip | Main | Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969-2018) »
Sunday
Feb112018

What did you see this weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Feb 9th-11th)
W I D E
800+ screens
L I M I T E D
excluding prev. wide
1. 🔺 Fifty Shades Freed $38.8 NEW REVIEW
1. 🔺 La Boda de Valentina $1.1 on 331 screens NEW 
2. 🔺 Peter Rabbit $25 NEW 2. 🔺 Pad Man  $760k on 152 screens NEW
3. 🔺 The 15:17 To Paris $12.6  NEW
3. 🔺 Oscar Nominated Short Films $615k on 180 screens NEW
4. Jumanji $9.8 (cum. $365.6)
4. 🔺  A Fantastic Woman $121k on 20 screens (cum. $232k) CAPSULE | REVIEW
5. The Greatest Showman $6.4 (cum. $146.5) REVIEW | ANOTHER HIT MUSICAL 
5. 🔺 The Insult $109k on 50 screens (cum. $454k)  

 

Fifty Shades Freed  continued its franchise's box office power by opening at #1 again. This weekend's bow also brought the franchise's total box office haul over the billion dollar mark. That's a lot of green for something barely blue...

Peter Rabbit opened well (why? Gah it looks atrocious and the animation looks terrifying) but Clint Eastwood's true story thriller underperformed.

Meanwhile at the arthouses the Oscar short films continued to show strong appeal -- it's such a great tradition that they release them each year now in package form.

In other Oscar box office news, the foreign film nominees The Insult and A Fantastic Woman continue to perform well, essentially winning the lottery of that game distributors play everywhere where they delay the release until around Oscar time and hope for the nomination to serve as free advertising. Yes, that tactic works IF you get nominated. Russia's Loveless will try to make it three for three next week. If not it hurts the film -- In The Fade (Germany) and Happy Ending  (Austria) did solid business over the past month and a half (both opening just days before the new year but they've only managed around $200k in that length of time. Without the Oscar attention they didn't catch on in the way they might have with it, or the way they might have by opening earlier given their marketable famous names (Kruger and Huppert/Haneke, respectively).

6. Maze Runner Death Cure $6 (cum. $49)  REVIEW | WOMEN OF THE POST 6. Bilal A New Breed of Hero $64k on 90 screens (cum. $449k) 
7. Winchester $5 (cum. $17.1) 7. 🔺  Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool $58k on 39 screens (cum. $394k) INTERVIEW
8. The Post $3.5 (cum. $72.8) REVIEW | WOMEN OF THE POST
8. 🔺  Bomb City $31k on 17 screens NEW REVIEW | DOC NOMINEE
9. The Shape of Water $3 (cum. $49.7)  CAPSULE | MUSIC | SCREENPLAY | DESIGN 9. Faces Places  $21k on 13 screens (cum. $810k) REVIEW | DOC NOMINEE
10. Den of Thieves $2.8 (cum. $40.9)  10. 🔺  Golden Exits $12k on 1 screen NEW

🔺 = new or expanding its theater count

numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo 

 

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is having similar problems. It's doing decent business for how little attention it's getting, indicating that it probably had an eager audience given the stars, subject matter, and quality. But much of its target audience was too busy with actual Oscar contenders to find it in the crowded marketplace.

What did you see this weekend?

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (18)

Watched Morgan Spurlock's THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD, which was OK but didn't really teach me anythign new.

In cinemas, I saw HAPPY END - good, not his most profound, but a lesser Haneke-Huppert collaboration is still better than any of the regular movies that get wide releases. (And I don't know why Haneke is denying that it is a sequel to AMOUR - that one scene seemed to make in unambiguous for me.)

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterTravis C

I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And we are in the middle of carnaval. I used tons of drugs e saw a lot of monkeys no poste. É nois

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterThomas

I saw " The Greatest Showman" which I really enjoyed- an old fashion musical with a terrific new score. Thomas sounds like he is living in a movie- "Black Orpheus"

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterjaragon

Just saw A Fantastic Woman at the Angelika ... whoa! Every thing you need to know is right there in the title.

I want Daniela Vega and Mya Taylor to star in some Andrew Haigh directed vehicle now for some reason.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterBushwick

I watched the showings of the Oscar nominated animated short films. I like to go watch it even if I've seen all the nominees beforehand, but this year one of the nominees was not available online when the shortlist and nominees were announced, so I pretty much have to make the showing to watch them all.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterajnrules

I also saw Happy End, which was a lot of fun. Not since The Little Foxes has it been so much fun to watch the machinations of a thoroughly evil family. And Fantine Hardois steals the show as the baddest seed of the bunch. Like Travis C I can't believe this isn't some kind of sequel to Amour.
I also saw the Oscar Shorts programs for Live Action and Animated. The Live Action shorts were a definite improvement over last year's. I'd vote for Watu Wote/All of Us, and My Nephew Emmett is also quite powerful, too. None of the Animated nominees were all that impressive, but The Garden Party would be my favorite.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterken s

I saw the Oscar live shorts and they are excellent. It’s a little heavy with four of them being gut punchers, but they are all extremely well done. Very much recommend.

Just FYI, The Post has grossed over $123 million worldwide. It hasn’t opened yet in Germany where it is expected to be big for obvious reasons. They have been where we don’t want to go.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterTom Ford

Ken and Travis: Happy End can't be a sequel to Amour. The characters are different - Huppert is Eva in Amour and Anne in Happy End. The only thing that is similar between the movies is something Trintigant's character says he has done, and that's it. As a matter of fact, Happy End is more like a Haneke's Greatest Hits. There are several plot points and imagery from his previous movies.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

I finally saw I, TONYA which was well acted but hard to say it was enjoyable.

I also saw SWEET COUNTRY, which was very powerful.

And, for a change of pace, the Brit horror-thriller THE RITUAL on Netflix, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Rafe Spall was terrific.

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterSteve G

Re-watches of Somewhere, The Great Muppet Caper, and Spider-Man: Homecoming plus for the first-time Gifted (an alright film) and The Thief of Bagdad (a must-see for anyone who love fantasy films).

February 11, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterthevoid99

The Square. Inventive, bizarre, hilarious!

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterMarsha Mason

Watched BASMATI BLUES and PADDINGTON 2 which I both loved. Brie Larson’s charisma shines in the original musical despite being made before her ROOM breakthrough, while Hugh Grant is a delight in the Paddington sequel.

Also finally rewatching SING STREET which held up nicely.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterGeorge P

Why are Bening movies not promoted properly,she is a Hollywood great and treatment of her films cause they are considered niche means all the ballyhoo around other films drowns her out,they never get a chance,thank heaven Bafta saw sense and nominated Bell and Bening.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterMARKGORDONUK

I also finally saw I, Tonya this week. Margot was excellent - you can see why she produced this, because she is not being well-served by Hollywood. Sebastian Stan was very good as well. The direction was not good (ugh, those special effects), and Janney should be very grateful she is so beloved in Hollywood! Laurie Metcalf and Lesley Manville, you are getting robbed.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterSuzanne

Why is Paddington 2 not getting the love it deserves? So good.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPam

Saw Abacus, as I'm trying to get through the Documentary and Foreign Film nominees since I've seen most of the major ones. It was...fine? Well-told, and an interesting/frustrating story. But the filmmakers can't really get the "bad guys" to explain WHY they do what they do, so the film is limited and shallow.

Also saw Tab Hunter: Confidential. Wow, what a life. He was given SO MUCH just for being a good looking, blonde, blue-eyed guy. Couldn't really act, couldn't really sing, and yet he did have some kind of natural charisma that was pretty charming. And it's nice to see he's really happy with his life outside Hollywood.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterDJDeeJay

Suzanne - I've seen I, Tonya 3 times now - and I never noticed or was bothered by the supposedly bad CGI and I think Craig Gillespies direction is excellent throughout the movie - playful, exciting, vibrant filmmaking.
I, Tonya is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

February 12, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterUlrich

I watched Felicite. I was very disappointed. How did it make the top 9??

I also watched Paddington 2. Hugh Grant is superb. I really hope people don't forget about him ...

February 13, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterRod
Member Account Required
You must have a member account to comment. It's free so register here.. IF YOU ARE ALREADY REGISTERED, JUST LOGIN.