by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office Estimates (June 8-10) |
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| W I D E 800+ screens |
L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide |
 Oceans 8 |
 Won't You Be My Neighbor? |
| 1. 🔺 OCEANS 8 $41.5 *NEW* CATE'S PROMO SUITS |
1. RBG $700K on 375 screens (cum. $9.1) REVIEW |
| 2. SOLO: $15.1 (cum. $176.1) REVIEW, BEHIND THE SCENES | 2. 🔺FIRST REFORMED $558k on 334 screens (cum. $1.7) REVIEW, ETHAN HAWKE |
| 3. DEADPOOL 2 $13.6 (cum. $278.6) |
3. 🔺WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? $470k on 29 screens *NEW* |
| 4.🔺HEREDITARY $13 *NEW* REVIEW |
4. 🔺AMERICAN ANIMALS $234k on 42 screens (cum. $422K) |
| 5. AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR $6.8 (cum. $654.7) REVIEW |
5.🔺BELIEVER $144k on 32 screens *NEW* |
 Adrift |
 On Chesil Beach |
| 6. ADRIFT $5 (cum. $21.7) REVIEW | 6. 🔺 ON CHESIL BEACH $121k on 203 screens (cum. $561k) |
| 7. BOOK CLUB $4.2 (cum. $56.8) REVIEW | 7. THE RIDER $120k on 188 screens (cum. $1.9) REVIEW |
| 8. HOTEL ARTEMIS $3.1 *NEW* |
8. 🔺 THE SEAGULL $100k on 89 screens (cum. $672k) REVIEW |
| 9. UPGRADE $2.2 (cum. $9.2) | 9. DISOBEDIENCE $92k on 101 screens (cum. $3.2) REVIEW |
| 10. LIFE OF THE PARTY $2.1 (cum. $50.2) | 10. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (rerelease) $91k on 5 screens (cum. $699k) |
| 🔺 = new or expanding its theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
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Oceans 8 delivered a good opening weekend for Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, though it was less successful (if adjusted for inflation) than the previous Oceans films. It's been a long movie absence for this particular group heist franchise -- 11 years since the last film (Oceans 13) arrived.
The horror flick Hereditary, predictably divided audiences (D+ CinemaScore) and critics (93% Rotten Tomatoes) as artful horror films usually do. A recent example of the same phenomenon is The Witch (C-/91%) and though I couldn't find CinemaScores for respected horror flicks like It Follows (97%) and The Babadook (98%) I imagine their scores were shockingly low, too. Mainstream audiences have a very narrow range of what they want/expect from horror and it usually amounts to traditional jump scares. But that's okay. Time is the ultimate arbiter of quality and horror films with brains do stand the test of time with far more ease than the more traditional efforts. The other problem might be that instantaneous reactions never take into account the fact that audiences of all kinds (yes even critics) can change their minds about a movie the next day if they find themselves still thinking about it.
The weekend's other new wide release Hotel Artemis struggled to find an audience despite a cast full of names (Jodie Foster, Sterling K Brown, Jeff Goldblum, Jenny Slate, Zachary Quinto, etcetera).
Brett Haley and Kiersey Clemons on the set of "Hearts Beat Loud"
In limited release the best per-screen average went to the latest film from writer/director Brett Haley. He is making quite a nice little career for himself forging tiny heartful indies starring great actors who don't usually get leading roles. First Blythe Danner (I'll See You In My Dreams), then Sam Elliott (Hero). Now it's Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons in Hearts Beat Loud playing a father/daughter music duo (Blythe Danner is in this one, too!). Hopefully that will expand since it's only on 4 screens.
The Mr Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor opened well, too. It's actually been quite a strong year for docs at the box office thus far.
DOCUMENTARY HITS OF THE YEAR (THUS FAR)
- RBG $9.1+ million
- Pandas $1.9+ million
- Pope Francis - A Man of His Word $1.7+ million
- Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story $820k+ (technically last year but it made most of its money this year so let's include it because we like it so much and you can watch it on Netflix now!)
- Itzhak $482k+
- Leaning Into the Wind $394k+
- Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami $342k+
What did you see this weekend? I was busy with birthday festivities and the Tony Awards but I WILL catch up this week. I will. I will.