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« Beauty vs Beast: Won't You Remember Me | Main | SXSW: "Sister Aimee" and an actress to watch »
Sunday
Mar172019

What did you see this weekend?

The top of the box office charts this weekend (and a few comments thereafter)

Weekend Box Office (Actuals)
(March 15th-17th)

W I D E
PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 Captain Marvel $69.3 (cum. $266.2) on 4310 screens REVIEW
1 🔺  No Manches Frida 2 $3.8 on 472 screens *NEW*  
2 🔺 Wonder Park $16 on 3838 screens *NEW*
2 🔺  Apollo 11 $1.2 on 588 screens (cum. $5.5)
3 🔺  Five Feet Apart $13.1on 2803 screens *NEW* 
3 🔺  Dominirriquenos 2 $558k on 53 screens *NEW*
4 How To Train Your Dragon 3 $9.3 (cum. $135.6) on 3727 screens 4 🔺 Badla $452k on 115 screens (cum. $1.3)
A Madea Family Funeral $8 (cum. $59) on 2350 screens
5 🔺 Gloria Bell $394k on 39 screens (cum. $584k) REVIEW

 

Outside of the top films Captive State, a sci-fi thriller with John Goodman and Vera Farmiga struggled with a $3.1 million debut, while The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part inched over the $100 million mark in its 6th weekend.  

Curiously Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born are still trying to top each other in the 2018 box office battles even though they've both been on DVD for a few weeks now. They've been neck and neck for months with Bohemian Rhapsody finally overtaking A Star is Born just before Oscar-time. Now, A Star is Born is catching back up. Look how close their domestic figures are now in their 24th and 20th weekends!

They're just 600,000 dollars apart (domestically) and they're making at least a little money in movie theaters still despite being on dvd and bluray for a few weeks. Perhaps they're both staying open to try to land in the 10th spot for the final domestic tally of 2018 releases. They're in a practical tie for 10th place right now. 

There were also a few arthouse debuts this weekend including The Mustang starring Matthias Schoenaerts which delivered $76k at 4 theaters, The Aftermath starring Keira Knightley which took in $57k from 5 theaters, and Ash is Purest White (interview / review) which rounded up $45k from 7 theaters.

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND? Next week sees the release of Jordan Peele's Us (reviewed from SXSW) This weekend I was personally wrapping up my time at the SLO Film Festival and taking the red eye back to Manhattan (back now and zombie like with the time differential). This week I shall attempt to get caught up on 2019 movies. You? 

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Reader Comments (26)

No movies for me. But I did manage to clear out a week's worth of TV from my DVR as well as binge the new season of QUEER EYE.

March 17, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRyan T.

Captain Marvel — it was really fun! But I was 15 in 1995, so all the throwbacks just made me melt. The soundtrack was great — and predominately female — and I LOVE that the “I’m gonna kick some ass now” power song was “Just a Girl.”

March 17, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJames from Ames

that screen shot made me quickly research no nanches frida 2; sigh, the storyline i had in my head would be a lot more entertaining

March 17, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterpar

Not much this weekend due to some personal events in my life at the moment as the only re-watches I saw were The Deer Hunter and Jodorowsky's Dune plus a first-timer in Ocean's 8.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterthevoid99

Climax. It was pretty great. No way to hate a movie with a soundtrack like that.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDrew

Watched Farhadi's 'Everybody Knows', which I thought was great. I wish Javier Bardem would get to do more roles like this in English language movies - no weird hair on strange villains, just a guy struggling through his relationships w/people.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRebecca

Par-literally the same.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJohn T

Gloria Bell—Julianne is magnificent and the filmmaking delights in so many ways. It's visually stunning, poignant, funny—and that soundtrack. I couldn't stop smiling for the last 15 minutes. Run, don't walk, as they say.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterHayden

Watched GIRL on Netflix.

I read that the real life person supports the film but the ending didn't happen and I"m still traumatized by it this morning.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJoseph

I saw Captain Marvel, which to my surprise was highly entertaining. MVP was Goose. Regarding Dominirriqueños 2, I saw the first one. Even though it is a co-production between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, I recommend to stay away. It is more like a sketch stretched out to a movie.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPedro

Captain Marvel.

Brie Larson was just right. I love her more all the time.

This is one of my favourite Samuel L. Jackson performances. (My favourite is The Long Kiss Goodnight).

I was relieved that the movie didn’t have the time suck of a boring irritating romantic subplot with some Chris equivalent.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered Commenteradri

What James from Ames said. Once it got past the hokey/creaky beginning, Captain Marvel totally hit my sweet spot as a tail-end Gen-Xer.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterLynn Lee

Started watching "Shrill" on Hulu and I like it, but wish I liked it more. I think it's a combination of the writing and a vague premise, because the cast is great. It also isn't helping itself by making some choices that are so similar to "Girls" - starting out with a clueless on again/off again boyfriend, casting John Cameron Mitchell as her editor, etc.

Also tried to watch "Mikey and Nicky" but couldn't finish it - it was intolerable spending time with those characters. The circular dialogue that works in May's comedies is really grating when there's not a punchline to break things up or land a point.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDave S.

I went to a Q&A screening of The Mustang and not only is the movie surprisingly good but Matthias Schoenaerts was pleasantly down-to-earth.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterBVR

Rebecca -- Amen

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterpeggy sue

Yesterday I watched the most recent Halloween movie, and I can say with total assurance that it's an absolute mess -- neither scary nor interesting and just plain dumb.

The hubby and I also traveled up to NYC on Saturday to see King Kong on Broadway, which is anchored mainly by the giant puppet, who is the most charismatic performer on the stage with the most affecting character arc. As Ann Darrow, Christiani Pitts has some moments (and a strong voice), but her overall choices could be more finely tuned to give her more clarity of character.

The score is largely bland and unmemorable yet pleasant enough to the ear, though the inconsistencies in style (early 1900s folksy in act one, 1990s/early 2000s power balladry in act two, techno for the chase scenes) are jarring. My biggest quibble is with the choreography, however, which does little in most cases to enhance or assist in the storytelling and seems to exist only because someone in authority said, "This thing needs to be dance-y!" For the record, what it needs instead is some creative musical staging outside of the performance numbers.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterTroy H.

Saw Captain Marvel, which I enjoyed but didn't linger very long. Larson was great, and Jackson hasn't looked like he's enjoyed himself this much in a LONG time. Goose is far and away the MVP, though, and that first act is really REALLY bad.

Also saw The Aftermath, which is fine. The script is disappointingly surface level, leaving a ton of blanks for the actors to fill in, Knightley is great, and Clarke and Skarsgard do what they can, but there just isn't enough THERE there, which is sad since there was a lot of potential in this story told in this time period. It's quite nice to look at, though, and really great to have Keira Knightley back. The movie is a C+/B-, but the sex scenes are A+.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterDancin' Dan

Burning - Brilliant! I've been waiting to see this since Cannes, and it did not disappoint. It's always a delight when you have no idea where a movie is taking you, and the ending comes as a suprise but totally fits the rest of the narrative. I'm motivated to see the Lee Chang-dong films I haven't seen now, as I've only seen the "big 3" - Burning, Poetry and Secret Sunshine.

Mary Queen of Scots - Fine, which is about what I expected. Saoirse and Margot were better than the material. I appreciated the director's matter-of-fact color-blind casting but ultimately that was the only thing about her direction that felt contemporary - otherwise it seemed very '90s. I also think Beau Willimon is kind of bad at writing about politics - his two major efforts at writing about American politics just seemed ridiculous and this one was confusing at times.

In Another Country - Charming, but slight. Happy birthday, Isabelle!

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterSuzanne

Saw "Ash is Purest White." The first movie in a couple of years I walked out on! "Auteur" in the worst way -- self indulgent, aimless, tedious. The male lead is a total dud/blank, and thus no audience investment in the central relationship.

Also saw 'Everybody Knows," which was B-movie fun, elevated by how invested the uniformly excellent cast was.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterdtsf

Gloria Bell - a beautiful film. Julianne Moore is remarkable. I was really impressed by how Moore was photographed in the film; she's never been more luminous. I left the theater wondering what it would take to get Pfeiffer in a movie directed by Lelio.
Giant Little Ones - I was pleasantly surprised by the film. Small in scale, but it had some interesting things to say about teens and sexuality.
Shoplifters - I was not prepared to be so emotionally moved. Everything about the movie is exquisite - the direction, the build, the flawless ensemble. I thought it was profound.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJordan

Captain Marvel - When she already has to define the role, silence the haters and be instantly iconic, combining an origin story with an amnesia story was not a smart move on Marvel's part, as they didn't give Brie Larson much to work with. She coasts by on her charm though and she is incredibly charming and fun in the role. Love her and I'm excited to see where they go with her now that this is out of the way. For the rest of the movie, it's aggressively fine, like every Marvel movie. Nothing really bad to say about it, but jeez, I wish they would start pushing themselves.

Climax - My first Noe! While I rolled my eyes occasionally at his attempts to be edgy and shocking, I do understand that's the territory with this filmmaker. For the most part, I thought this was pretty great. That first dance scene is worth the price of admission and the style throughout is breathtaking. Really visceral and immersive.

Gloria Bell - Kinda disappointed. I haven't seen the original, but I did see the trailer about a hundred times (no exaggeration) when I worked at a movie theatre, so this did seem overly familiar. Julianne Moore is fabulous as expected. The confused old yentas (where is he going? Is he dead? Wait. Whose wedding is this?) sitting near me were hysterical.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterchasm301

I love SciFi, Goodman + Farmiga. Yet I had no idea there was a movie coming out with all three. At least one reason its struggling!

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAnon

Nothing in the theater but on Bluray I saw Brian De Palma's "Sisters" (1972) with the super sexy Margo Kidder as twins. DePalma at his most deliriously cinematic. And Ken Russell's masterpiece " Women in Love" (1969) they don't make films like this any more both intellectually and erotic stimulating. Cinema as art

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJaragon

@Jordan — In a just world Gloria Bell would be a cinematography contender at year's end. It's amazing that they got Juli to look that luminous as a dirty blonde! Costumes were amazing, too.

March 18, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterHayden

This past weekend I didn't see anything new, but I did watch The Muppets Take Manhattan. It's not the best Muppets outing but it has Miss Piggy on roller skates chasing down a purse thief, a Joan Rivers cameo, and that adorable final musical number ("Somebody's getting MARRIED!"). It's pretty choppy overall, but sweet.

March 19, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJJM

I was in Vegas, so I got to see CHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 20, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterforever1267
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