Given the craziness of holiday weekends at the box office, we opted to wait until "actuals" were released rather than run with an "estimates" column yesterday. So herewith a complete picture of the Fourth of July weekend with all 12 pictures still in wide release and the corresponding top of the charts in platform or limited titles. What did you see this first week of July?
Weekend Box Office
July 5th-7th (Actuals)
🔺 = new or expanded theater counts / ★ = recommended |
W I D E
|
PLATFORM / LIMITED
|
 |
 |
1 🔺 Spider-Man Far From Home $92.5 (cum. $185) *NEW* TOM HOLLAND
|
1 Pavarotti [DOC] $458k on 250 screens (cum. $2.9) |
 |
 |
2 Toy Story 4 $33.8 on 4540 screens (cum. $306.1) PODCAST
|
2 🔺 Last Black Man... $431k on 188 screens (cum. $2.7) ★ REVIEW, PODCAST, BEST OF |
 |
 |
3 Yesterday $10 on 2614 screens (cum. $36.1)
|
3 🔺 Echo in the Canyon [DOC] $297k on 144 screens (cum. 1.9) |
 |
 |
4 Annabelle Comes Home $9.4 on 3613 screens (cum. $49.8)
|
4 🔺 Wild Rose $209k on 63 screens (cum. $377k) PODCAST |
 |
 |
6 🔺 MidSommar $6.3 on 2707 screens (cum. $10.9) *NEW* ★ REVIEW, PODCAST
|
6 The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith $177k on 179 screens (cum. $966k) |
 |
 |
7 Secret Life of Pets 2 $4.6 on 2846 screens (cum. $140.6) REVIEW
|
7 Biggest Little Farm [DOC] $132k on 107 screens (cum. $3.7) |
 |
 |
8 Men in Black Int'l $3.7 on 2716 screens (cum. $72.1) REVIEW
|
8 🔺 Maiden $130k on 24 screens (cum. $207k) ★ REVIEW |
 |
 |
9 🔺 Avengers: Endgame $3.1 on 1985 screens (cum. $847.8) ★ REVIEW
|
9 🔺 Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am [DOC] $81k on 48 screens (cum. $247k) |
 |
 |
10 Rocketman $2.6 on 1409 screens (cum. $89) ★ REVIEW, BEST OF, PODCAST
|
10 🔺 Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love [DOC] $44k on 4 screens *NEW*
|
 |
 |
11 John Wick 3 $2.1 on 1493 screens (cum. $165.1) REVIEW, KEANU
|
11 A Brother's Love $25k on 30 screens (cum. $412k)
|
 |
 |
12 Child's Play $1.4 on 1707 screens (cum. $26.7) REVIEW
|
10 The Souvenir $20k on 14 screens (cum. $997k) REVIEW ★
|
numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo
WIDE
The box office finally picked up this weekend with Spider-Man Far From Home delivering on expectations and MidSommar managing the largest opening weekend of an indie yet this year. Also adding to the good news for studios was Yesterday continuing to perform well and opening well in foreign markets too. Our question is can Rocketman make it to $100 million? It's held pretty well from week to week but the theater count is dwindling and next week it'll surely get shoved off the top ten for the first time.
LIMITED
For platforming titles Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, a documentary about the famous love affair between the Norwegian mother Marianne Ihlen and the composer Leonard Cohen, had the highest per screen average but it's only at 4 theaters thus far. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is still expanding but might not make it much further given that it had its first weekend where it stopped growing along with its expansions down -3.5% this week. So if you've been dragging your feet, hurry! Meanwhile one of A24's other critical darlings The Souvenir is inching slowly towards the $1 million mark and is almost there. So a premature congratulations to them.
The Chambermaid
One movie that hasn't been getting much press attention and is just outside this chart is the Mexican drama The Chambermaid which has earned $47k in its first two weeks in the US. It won Best First Work at Mexico's Ariel Awards for the director Lila Avilés and competed with Roma in most of the big categories. (We forgot to mention the winners so we've updated the nominations article -- Roma basically swept but for losing Best Actress. The winner there was Isle Salas of The Good Girls which has not yet come to US theaters.)
Monday, July 8, 2019 at 7:00PM 
Reader Comments (18)
I saw and was bored to death by "Anabelle Comes Home" which makes "Curse of La Llorona" look like a masterpiece- well at least that movie had better scares.
I finished Chernobyl on HBO, which is excellent. It's one of those series like Holocaust that serves an important role in public education. It's very well done.
Late to Schitt's Creek, but I really love it as a modern sitcom.
Ugh, I thought we were done with those Mormon movies. Oh well.
I ended up with an inadvertent double feature with themes that directly commented on each other. The fist movie was FREE SOLO which I admit I watched through my fingers a few times. It was definitely thrilling, but the cost of the adventure (mostly psychically but in other ways) kept nagging at me.
I followed it up with THE RIDER. I didn't really know what it was about, but as it unfolded it showed the true cost of a few seconds of thrillseeking. Sure, the climber in FREE SOLO didn't die...this time, but he could fall and die, or fall and be permanently injured. THE RIDER showed how high that cost could be. It's chilling just thinking about it really. It was a borderline documentary or better stated, a re-creation of traumatic events.
The cowboys didn't have the same resources as the climber, and no way to escape or improve their lives. Haunting.
Finally saw Rocketman. Very good/
Rewatched Bohemian Rhapsody on HBO the same day/
Too bad Rocketman did not come out first. BR was much weaker in most all areas.
I saw Midsommar and Toy Story 4 and enjoyed both. I found Midsommar creepy and interesting, if not exactly scary. Toy Story 4 wasn't quite as strong as the last few, but it was still delightful and I LOVED Forky.
I went to the beach with some friends and made this video just for you. Enjoy!
https://twitter.com/NotAgainBen/status/1147962521439133696
I saw Chicuarotes yesterday and i think is just OK but i really think that Gael García is a great actor's director because the ensemble is terrific, specially Benny Emmanuel in the leading role.
I'm glad you mention the Ariel winners, i was waiting for the article from Jorge specially after the (ridiculous) controversy online accusing the Academy of racism just because Yalitza didn't win. By the way, the correct name of the winner is Ilse Salas ;)
I had a Jessie Buckley double feature - watching BEAST at home on iTunes then catching WILD ROSE in cinemas. Neither film is perfect but what a range she has! I wouldn't be unhappy to see her and Julie Walters get remembered at awards time.
I also finally caught up with VOX LUX, which is pretty out there!
A first-timer of Super Troopers and a re-watch of Goldfinger.
I saw Midsommar and was glad I did. Here is my SPOILERS-galore impressions:
Where MidSommar gets it right:
1. The Build-up: Having Dani go through horrible trauma at the beginning, suffering from bi-polar disorder, being in a co-dependent relationship and later realizing she has no one in her life to embrace her are four elements that justify her wanting to be part of that community.
2. The fact that emotionally vulnerable people will convert to any given religion, despite its foundations and rules.
3. The dynamic in the co-dependent relationship felt real with the push and pull between Dani and her boyfriend.
4. The panic attacks from Dani's disorders felt real and made sense in the context of when they happened.
5. The visually rich camera movements and compositions in the commune scenes gave it a sense of unity, harmony and contrasted with the jerky American body language and ways of communicating.
Where it gets it wrong:
1. The acting of Dani's boyfriend. He was unable to emote much and when he did, it felt strained, not lived-in. His reactions didn't ring true - his body language more like Seth Rogen in some comedy. Acting opposite Pugh, who was so in it, made it even clearer his abilities were lacking.
2. The OCD friend role was totally unnecessary to the plot (there could have been 8 bodies burned in the end). The actor playing it overdid it and was in a different movie altogether. He didn't get the tone either (see above).
3. The British couple were totally unnecessary characters. Their only reason to exist was to react to the double suicide so the lady in the cult could explain why that was happening. (there could have been only 6 bodies burned in the end).
4. The whole plot point about the thesis. I thought it was silly when it was first introduced. Another trope... But then when the two friends were competing for the same thesis subject it became even sillier.
5. Their reaction to the suicide (especially the boyfriend) seemed badly directed, badly edited and the aftermath was just unbelievable. The fact Dani decided to stay after talking to the Swedish friend was too weak of a reason. And the fact her boyfriend and his friend never considered leaving is baffling (oh, right, their thesis....and the justification of the suicides...). Had they been perpetually on some kind of trance throughout the experience, being that not only their drinks, but also their food had been tampered, the whole movie would make more sense and their reactions would have been more acceptable.
6. Overall, too many unnecessary plot points (same with Hereditary) - it became more and more convoluted as it went on. The writers didn't know how to build the tension on the main situation alone: a broken person being taken in by a cult, and filled the story with all these silly plots to add to the chaos of it, but they just distracted from the story's core.
7. The fact that the boyfriend's betrayal (even though she knew he looked high on something and they were practically forcing him to mate) prompted her to choose him to be sacrificed was just a poor decision. At that point she had already realized the relationship had no future and frankly, she didn't seem to love him anymore.
8. Too expositional. I didn't know about every single detail about their cult. Sometimes I wished the movie had no dialog whatsoever and it could have had a much bigger impact.
Anyway, the movie is a mess in its writing, the very same problem with Hereditary. The dialog actually gets in the way of the storytelling. No editing here, which makes me think there should have been at least 3 more (shorter) versions of the script. However, they do present interesting ideas and the filmmaking is excellent by Ari. It's just that nowadays artists don't seem to have honest friends who will tell them about their excesses (does Tarantino or Malick or any successful writer/director have anyone in their lives like that?).
I saw A Land Imagined, by Yeo Siew Hua, first film from Singapore which received Golden Leopard in Locarno last year. It riminds quite a bit the Golden Bear winner Black Coal, Thin Ice, the cinematography is amazing but the plot is not completely satisfying. You can watch it on Netflix
YAssssssssssssss Peggy!
Watched UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (liked it), WOMAN AT WAR (loved it), MADONNA’S MADAME X documentary on Amazon, and BOOKSMART (loooooved it & still with a large audience).
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which I really liked (it keeps growing in my estimation).
Also finished Bodyguard, which was kind of dull. People only liked this because they thought Richard Madden was hot, right? I am glad Americans are catching on to the BBC, but there is so much better out there.
It's the saddest time in the world for movies in the theater. There's nothing worth going to the theaters for. Where, oh where, are you ... The Farewell?
I saw Midsommar and Spider Man. I was mixed on Midsommar but leaning towards liking it. I just don't think it added to a whole lot and works only if you think of it as a comedy. Great performance from Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor and gorgeous visuals but the ending didn't pack the same wallop as Hereditary. Spider Man I enjoyed very much but mostly for its teen movie trappings. The romance between Holland and Zendaya is sweet. I was less enthralled by the conflict with Mysterio, but I did like the ending. I love the reveal of the familiar character.
I saw Midsommar-- I thought it had some pacing issues, but Florence Pugh's performance was great. I also started a Mad Men rewatch.
I saw "Yesterday" which was sweet enough for what it is .. but not more. And rewatched "Gandhi" (it was raining!) - I forgot how magical Ben Kingsley was in this... and when he was young - oh my word - bit plain for my taste for all the Oscars Mr. Attenborough but still good! Aaaaand Hitchs "I Confess" ('53) - realised again how much I miss the brilliance of cinematic and emotional (and in this case simple) storytelling ! Gorgeous light & camera in the mind-boggling hands of Robert Burks - The brilliance of Monty set next to strangely overacting German actor O.E. Haase & Dolly Haas ... it's a little feast ! Just could finish it yet - because my partner woke up and when he sees B&W - he thinks something is wrong with the TV !