Weak Sequels & Promising Platform Titles
Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 7:00PM | Weekend Box Office Estimates June 7th-9th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended |
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| W I D E |
PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES |
 Secret Life of Pets 2 |
 Last Black Man in San Francisco |
| 1 🔺 Secret Life of Pets 2 $47.1 on 4561 screens *NEW* REVIEW |
1🔺 Biggest Little Farm $347k on 285 screens (cum. $2.4) |
| 2 🔺 Dark Phoenix $33 on 3721 screens *NEW* REVIEW |
2 🔺 Late Night $249k on 4 screens *NEW* REVIEW ★ |
| 3 Aladdin $24.5 on 3805 screens (cum. $232.3) 1992 RETROSPECTIVE |
3 🔺 All is True $237k on 328 screens (cum. $752k) POSTERIZED: DAME JUDI |
| 4 Godzilla: King of Monsters $15.5 on 4108 screens (cum. $78.5) POSTERIZED |
4 🔺 Last Black Man in... $230k on 7 screens *NEW* REVIEW ★ |
| 5 Rocketman $14 on 3610 screens (cum. $50.4) REVIEW ★ |
5 🔺 Echo in Canyon $205k on 43 screens (cum. $501k) |
| 6 Ma $7.8 on 2816 screens (cum. $32.7) REVIEW |
6 🔺 The Souvenir $169k on 145 screens (cum. $696k) REVIEW ★ |
What did you see this week?
• Secret Life of Pets 2 and Dark Phoenix both had dismal openings when compared to their predecessors. Dark Phoenix is likely to become the first X-film not to gross $100 million domestically. But that's okay, since Disney acquired Fox and this franchise can now go dormant until the MCU has their way with it. (We don't really understand why Disney is still going to dump money into The New Mutants reshoot. Just release it on Disney+ and be done with the bad Fox X-Men titles!)
• Late Night had the weekend's best per screen average with $62k per theater and will go nationwide next weekend. The Last Black Man in San Francisco, also had a solid opening and the film will hopefully be able to capitalize on its strong reviews as it expands during the summer as counterprogramming for adult audiences. Late Night is hoping for a bigger box office splash than Booksmart and we assume they'll get it with more recognizable stars headlining.
• Other limited openings this week lower on the charts were the music doc Pavarotti (with $142k), stripper doc This One's for the Ladies ($16k), and the Matt Bomer starring Papi Chulo with $7k from 2 theaters.
• Rocketman crossed $50 million dollar in its 2nd weekend, holding the best of last week's wide releases down only 45% from its opening weekend (by contrast Ma was down 56% and Godzilla a steep drop of 67%)
ENJOY THE TONY AWARDS AND BIG LITTLE LIES TONIGHT. WE'LL HAVE COVERAGE OF BOTH ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY.
Reader Comments (14)
My screening of The Last Black Man in San Francisco wasn't filled Saturday afternoon. I loved it and was the lone audience member to clap when it was over.
I saw Rocketman and was shocked how awful it is. Taron was way out of his league. Richard Madden was good and a couple of bit actors. In hindsight, Rami pulled of a reamarkable feat. This movie is like a string of bad Carol Burnett skits. It makes Mamma Mia! look like a classic film, which frightens me. The Elton self-love at the end is weird.
"The Souvenir" for me. I liked the complex, self-reflective female perspective, but the movie is nearly oppressively airless. Wish I got a better feeling for why Julie was/is so drawn to the awful Anthony. I appreciate how personal it is as memoir/film-souvenir for Joanna Hogg, and in that way it's quite poignant
@Jonathan
Sometimes we're drawn to cruel people because we assume their toxicity will somehow prove ourselves worthier of their gentle affections.
I watched Election (1999) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
A re-watch of Atonement and a couple of first-timers in The Duchess and River of Grass (both amazing films).
Thevoid99-
I had been singing the praises of THE DUCHESS since its release. Amazing film!
So many franchises are posting really bad drops in their box office from predecessors. Could audiences finally be sending a message for movies that aren't Marvel/Disney remakes (although DUMBO certainly counts there!)/DC.
Godzilla, Secret Life of Pets, LEGO, A Dog's Journey, Solo, Fantastic Beasts, Jurassic World...
I watched Bharat, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, a sort of Bollywood Forrest Gump, or I should say Bollywood Ode to my father, since it’s based upon that Korean hit. Very entertaining in a quite traditional way, not flawless but worth the watch. Kaif shines in her role and there’s a cameo by the wonderful Tabu (The Namesake, Life of Pi) which moved me to tears.
I agree with Jonathan. The Souvenir is obviously the work of someone with talent, but the whole thing is so distanced and so opaque, especially the baffling central relationship that I felt nothing at all by the end. Also, it's hard to work up sympathy for someone, supposedly a struggling student, who is always dining at the finest restaurants in London. I also saw Booksmart, which is pure garbage, no matter what angle it's considered. All those great reviews! Are the critics all trying to pull a fast one?
The Souvenir - Jonathan's "airless" is a good way to describe it, though I'm sure parts of it will stay with me. Women (particularly young women) often stay with their unworthy partners due to fear of being alone or some desire, even subconsciously, to conform. There was an interesting profile of Joanna Hogg in The New Yorker a few weeks back in which she described her (and Tilda and Princess Diana's) boarding school experience as tailored toward preparing the female students to marry the great men of England.
Rocketman - The parts are greater than the whole. Some scenes (like the Crocodile Rock scene at the Troubadour) are so, so great, but I don't love the framing device and the confrontation with the family at the end is kind of corny. Still, I'll be really interested to see what Taron Edgerton and Dexter Fletcher do next.
Her Smell - This was the highlight of my weekend; easily the best movie I've seen so far this year. Elisabeth Moss is entirely credible as a grunge rock star, funny, sad, awful, and sympathetic. There won't be five better leading actress performances this year.
Finally watched THOR: DARK WORLD which was better than expected (due to the expansion of Rene Russo’s character) and THOR: RAGNAVOK which was a lot of fun. Also rewatched A GIY THING to see Julia Stiles’ comedic timing on display.
I don’t usually walk out of movies, but I walked out 3/4 of the way through the National Theatre UK’s filmed stage production of “All About Eve”. I just couldn’t bear watching it plod to its inevitable joyless conclusion.
The original movie “All About Eve” is known for its lively juicy zingy irresistible backstage story, and its great cast delivering indelible performances and unforgettable line readings.
Somebody (the director Ivo van Hove?) decided the way to make the play contemporary and meaningful was to suck all the fun out of it.
I kept thinking Gillian Anderson is awful. (But how can that be? She’s such a good actress! And yet... omg, she’s terrible here).
Anderson uses a very limited vocal tone and timbre, hitting the same notes over and over, in a consistently slow paced delivery. His physicality is generic poses rather than movement. She doesn’t really connect with the other actors.
I never believed for a moment that this Margot was a well loved stage star that had delivered decades of quick, witty, emotional, lively juicy performances.
The director’s theme seemed to be the tragedy of actresses aging and being replaced by a younger model. It was particularly annoying that he made the actresses Eve and Margot interchangeable, perfume ads of marketed actresses, neither of whom is very good. They are just the fashion, not a specific idiosyncratic wonderful artist in their own right.
The MVP was veteran stage and tv actress Sheila Reid, who played the Thelma Ritter part. Reid has done everything, from acting Shakespeare with Laurence Olivier to British sit coms. She proves the enduring value of certain theatrical skills: attentive listening, stillness, stage presence, easy purposeful movement, variety of line pace and delivery, warmth and wit.
I saw and liked "Rocketman" yes it's over the top at times but musical numbers were dazzling. The film is a lot gayer than "Bohemian Rhapsody" there is not doubt that Elto liked men and who can resist Richard Madden? The story became kind of repetitious towards the end more drugs more anything goes orgy! But I was surprisingly moved at the end- and yes so what is there is a bit of Elton self love at the end- but can you blame him?