What did you see over the weekend?
Monday, May 14, 2018 at 1:00PM by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office (May 11th-13th) |
|
| W I D E 800+ screens |
L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide |
 Life of the Party |
 RBG |
| 1. Avengers: Infinity War $61.8 (cum. $547.8) REVIEW |
1.🔺 RBG $1.1 on 180 screens (cum. $2.0) REVIEW |
| 2.🔺 Life of the Party $18.5 NEW | 2.🔺 Nothing to Lose $646k on 69 screens NEW |
| 3.🔺 Breaking In $ 16.5 NEW REVIEW |
3.🔺 Disobedience $437k on 101 screens (cum. $1.2) REVIEW |
| 4. Overboard $10.1 (cum. $29.5) |
4. 102 Not Out $275k on 102 screens (cum. $966k) |
| 5. A Quiet Place $6.4 (cum. $169.5) REVIEW, 2ND OPINION, SCREENPLAY |
5.🔺 The Rider $225k on 85 screens (cum. $852k) REVIEW |
The leaders of last weekend's box office in wide (Infinity War) and limited release (RBG) repeated this weekend. RBG is turning into a rather big player for indie distributor Magnolia. Magnolia releases lots of pictures but they usually don't crack two million as this new doc has in just two weekends. How big will it get? Only 11 of their releases have ever managed over $3 million theatrical (including TFE favorites Melancholia and I Am Love) but RBG looks likely to join them. Magnolia's all time biggest hit thus far was the Oscar nominated doc I Am Not Your Negro which managed $7 million theatrical last year...
At the multiplexes obviously Infinity War dominated again. It's already the top grossing Marvel movie of all time with $1.6 billion global to date. Only three movies have ever topped $2 billion mark worldwide (Avatar, Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Infinity War will probably make it four. Mother's Day helped both the Melissa McCarthy comedy Life of the Party and the Gabrielle Union thriller Breaking In to open at second and third place.
 I Feel Pretty |
 The Seagull |
| 6. I Feel Pretty $3.7 (cum. $43.8) | 6. The Death of Stalin $121k on 130 screens (cum. $7.6) REVIEW |
| 7. Rampage $3.3 (cum. $89.7) | 7.🔺 Let the Sunshine In $109k on 33 screens (cum. $253k) REVIEW |
| 8. Tully $2.2 (cum. $6.9) REVIEW, SCREENPLAY |
8.🔺 The Seagull $80k on 6 screens NEW REVIEW |
| 9. Black Panther $1.9 (cum. $696.1) PODCAST | 9. Lu Over the Wall $66k on 97 screens NEW |
| 10. Blockers $1.1 (cum. $58.1) | 10. Lean on Pete $64k on 129 screens (cum. $1.0) REVIEW |
| 🔺 = new or expanding its theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
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In other box office news, both the Jewish lesbian drama Disobedience and the rodeo drama The Rider have turned into mini-hits during expansion. They must be generating strong word of mouth to go with those rave reviews. Have you seen them yet?
If not, what did you see this week?
Reader Comments (19)
I saw "The Rider" last week and loved it. It's such a compelling film that has stayed with me since seeing it. Kudos to Chloe Zhao and star Brady Jandreau.
The Rider is the feel-bad movie of the year. And I mean that as a recommendation. A strong recommendation. It's not often that a movie makes you care that much about its characters and breaks your heart so thoroughly. This id the kind of excellence hundred of millions of dollars and limitless special effects just can't buy.
I'm surprised to see that this spring has had a lot of low-mid budget, female-led, non-franchise films to choose from; and disappointed in myself that I haven't gotten around to seeing any of them yet. Even if reviews have been tepid for the latest Schumer, Farris, Union, and McCarthy vehicles, it's still a good season for "they don't make them like this anymore" anomalies.
I saw Life of the Party and was SHOCKED by how much I enjoyed it. It's a pretty significant step up from her other non-Paul Feig films, even if it doesn't approach the highs of her work with Feig. The audience really ate it up, and there were some parts that really tickled me. God bless Maya Rudolph, who steals every single scene she's in. It's wholly inconsequential and fluffier than cotton candy, but it's a very nice way to spend two hours.
Saw Disobedience and was so swept up in its quiet storms. Takes a little bit to get fully immersed but I did and by the end I was a mess. Great performances all around.
Dan -- i also really enjoyed it. so funny and sweet.
I saw Life of the Party and thought it felt pretty lazy. MM is always a treasure but there was a lot of setup without follow-through and too many unrealistic/one-dimensional characters.
I haven't been to the movies in about a month, but I do want to see Life of the Party (I'd watch McCarthy in almost anything) and Breaking In (I constantly root for Union), which already has made nearly three times its budget at the box office. It's refreshing to see that many female-led projects in the top ten.
And they good female led projects too,have high hopes for the winter crop of movies starring leading ladies.
I watched The Seagull.
Movie was ok but it's forgettable. The acting was the best part of it. Elisabeth Moss was brilliant and stole the movie for me. Such a great actress. Bening and Ronan were solid as always too. And Stoll as well.
No movies, but I am watching Westworld, which I enjoy but then I have to read a summary of what happened the next day to understand it. That and Silicon Valley are very pleasurable viewing.
I see Streep is working with Soderbergh on a new project.
I saw "Avengers Infinity War" which was ok - it tried to be both a serious science fiction epic and a comedy comic book movie- the best parts for me was anything with Thor (Yes!) The villain was interesting for a change but I was not too crazy about the ending.
I love the first season of "West World" but they have lost me this time around- it make no sense and they chose to go in a direction that is kind of repetitious
A couple of films for my on-going Cannes marathon in Captain Fantastic and The Salesman.
Also saw "Life of the Party", and while it was light and fun, it had potential to be a lot more. So many dropped ideas and personality clicks.
But light, silly, MM and MR have fantastic chemistry, and there's were the best scenes.
I saw Tully, which I really liked. I saw it with my partner and a mutual friend, and I probably enjoyed it significantly more than either one of them, did.
I watched Wonderstruck and I like it a lot. Love is probably not the right word, but films that impress me are those that show mastery of the craft with emotional triggers that are non-pandering. I like how the film shows a Dziga-Vertov nod with the two kids running in the museum in 1977. There is a sense of wonder as both boys run around the maze, stopping occasionally to marvel at the collection, just as the 1927-era girl was doing the same but escaping from the guard. I both like the time periods portrayed in the film and when the two worlds collide in the last third of the film, it was beautiful and touching.
I like all of Todd Haynes's films ever since I watched his underground Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story -- back when you can only download it via the Deviant Art website. I read a few reviews that mentioned that Wonderstruck kept them at arm's length emotionally. That the heartbeat of the film did not feel authentic. The film had the opposite effect on me. I thought it was heartbreaking because Haynes painted subtler colors to show institutionalised violence as seen through the kids' eyes from both periods. Millicent Simmonds and Oakes Fegley do not need to scream their pain inorder to convey their experience of isolation and alienation from (mostly parental) love.
And that giant interactive map at the end was equally wonder-ful.
I watched Gillian Armstrong's wonderful Starstruck, and I don't understand why this film isn't better known. It's a new wave musical that features a number with men performing a water ballet in red maillots, for heaven's sake.
I feel like there's been so many movies this spring and I'm completely behind. In addition to all these woman-led movies now, there was that period not too long ago when Annihilation, Red Sparrow and Tomb Raider all opened one after another. I could go into why I actually think that revealed a cynicism on the side of the distributors, but the net gain probably outweighs that.
Suzanne - I LOVE "Starstruck"! It feels totally unknown in the US, but it's lovely stuff and ahead of its time. I keep hoping that some repertory theater or boutique DVD label rallies for a re-release...