What did you see this week?
Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 6:38PM by Nathaniel R
Batman continues to be pop culture's second-most popular solo superhero. Matt Reeves' take on the dark knight, titled simply The Batman, grossed an impressive $128.5 million on its opening weekend and will likely make a lot more still since Hollywood is barely releasing any big movies these days. In fact there's no big wide release competition coming until Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum arrive in three weeks with the adventure comedy The Lost City and no comic book competition for a full month until Morbius opens...
| Weekend Box Office Estimates March 4th-6th 🔺 = new or expanding |
|
| OVER 800 SCREENS | UNDER 800 SCREENS |
 THE BATMAN |
 CYRANO |
| 1 🔺 THE BATMAN $128.5 NEW |
1 CYRANO $683k (cum. $2.5) |
| 2 UNCHARTED $11 (cum. $100.2) | 2 WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD $210k (cum. $2.2) |
| 3 DOG $6.0 (cum. $40) | 3 THE CURSED $201k (cum. $4.2) |
| 4 SPIDER-MAN NO WAY HOME $4.4 (cum. $786.4) | 4 BLACKLIGHT $175k (cum. $9.1) |
|
5 DEATH ON THE NILE $2.7 (cum. $37) |
5 LICORICE PIZZA $152k (cum. $16.4) |
| 6 SING 2 $1.5 (cum. $153.5) | 6. ENCANTO $89k (cum. $95.6) |
| 7 JACKASS FOREVER $1.3 (cum. $54.4) | 7 BELFAST $80k (cum. $1.9) |
| 8 SCREAM $570k (cum. $80.2) | 8 DRIVE MY CAR $75k (cum. $1.9) |
| 9 MARRY ME $530k (cum. $21.4) | 9 MOONFALL $67k (cum. $18.9) |
| 10 STUDIO 666 $340k (cum. $2.2) | 10 WEST SIDE STORY $51k (cum. $38.2) |
Though it's not reflected on the chart given tiny releases, the gay prison drama Great Freedom (Austria's sadly unnominated Oscar finalist) and the gorgeous meditative sci-fi drama After Yang starring Colin Farrell both opened. First time you get a chance to see them, take it! I almost opted to see After Yang a second time but ended up at The Batman; I do not think I made the right decision. On a whim we also watched Mad Max: Road Warrior (1981) last night, which was great fun.
Tonight the Spirit Awards are on. Are you watching? And what did you see this past week?
Reader Comments (20)
I haven't seen a movie in theatres since I saw "No Way Home" in December.
I did pretty well going in the fall, but I just haven't been able to summon the motivation to sit masked in a theatre. I think it's being masked all day at work that has sucked the life out of me.
I am desperate to see "Nightmare Alley" but it isn't streaming in Canada yet.
I wanted to watch "Licorice Pizza" but I am not willing to pay $25 to buy a digital copy of a movie I don't know if I like. I'd prefer to rent it, but there are no rental options!
So I settled for re-watching Regina King kick ass in Watchmen.
I saw Plaza Catedral, which I really liked a lot - sort of a combination of Central Station and Pixote. If I would have been nominating the International Films it would have been AHero, Plaza Catedral, Worst Person in the World, Flee, Prayers for the Stolen, with Drive My Car just missing the cut.
I also saw the Live Action Shorts, finishing up the third of the Short Subject Programs and my vote would be:
Documentary: When We Were Bullies
Animated: Bestia
Live Action: Hold Please
Great Freedom was outstanding. Everything about it. And I'd love it if Rogowski could get into awards consideration. And while I think I prefer Columbus, After Yang was lovely.
Also finally caught up with The Worst Person in the World which I didn't love as much as some do (although Lie is very good) and Being The Ricardos (the Sorkin of it all is pretty bad, but if Kidman won for it I'd be okay with that, although I'd vote for Colman).
Film: I watched Drive My Car and rewatched West Side Story (for HMWYBS), so now I've seen all the BP nominees, of which these two are my favorites by a wide margin.
TV: Also started The Tourist, getting a bit of a U Turn vibe, which is not a bad thing; more Severance, which so far is unsettlingly brilliant (Adam Scott in his third major workplace series, all completely different); and some other stuff.
Finally saw Drive My Car (on HBOMax). My favorite of the nominees I've seen (haven't seen WSS or Licorice Pizza). Unfolded so beautifully I couldn't believe the 3 hours were up!
I watched Parallel Mothers, Belfast and West Side Story (with Drive My Car currently in progress). Parallel Mothers was wonderful… was not very taken by either Belfast or WWS, although the later had some great moments.
Re-watches of WandaVision and the parody trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story as the latter is now becoming a reality as well as couple of short films on MUBI and earlier today, The Batman.
I'm not paying for another Batman in my lifetime. Sadly we're very few in La Résistance.
I completed watching my Oscar acting nominees and watched Parallel Mothers. Penelope Cruz is great (2nd place for me just behind Chastain) but I was really impressed with the score and especially Milena Smit. Where was her buzz? This was a competitive year, but still she should have walked away with a shelf full of nominations at least.
Parallel Mothers: Wow. And to think I hadn’t been particularly interested in this. I’m so glad Penelope Cruz got a Best Actress nomination.
It actually took me a couple of days before it clicked with me that the title Parallel Mothers isn’t just the two leads, but parallel time lines of families, devastated by war through generations, daughter, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, etc.
Dune: I wanted the luxury of seeing it again on the big screen. I had forgotten how visually stunning it is, just one arresting image after another. And so smoothly orchestrated with everyone involved working in top form. Denis Villeneuve deserved a Best Director nomination.
Cyrano: Gorgeously theatrical. Devastatingly sincere cast. Oh yeah, I cried at this one.
The company releasing this (as well as Jockey?) have done the worst job in getting this seen. There’s an audience for this, but it’s like they didn’t even try.
Nothing new but I rewatched Birth on HBO with its incredible performance from Nicole Kidman.
No way am I interested in seeing a three-hour version of Batman when the Tim Burton movies, which were perfect, managed to tell the story in two hours. That's ridiculous self-indulgence.
I saw The Worst Person in the World in the theater. I saw it last fall at the Chicago Film Festival, but that was virtual. I love it. I also saw West Side Story, my favorite movie of 2022, a second time since it's now on HBO Max. I love it as well.
On Thursday night I watched all three available episodes of The Dropout, which is excellent so far.
THE DROPOUT (Hulu) - 1st three episodes. Amanda Seyfried is SO good in this, and the show overall is much better than the other true crime adaptations out now, with the exception of DOPESICK, which is excellent.
THE AFTERPARTY - all caught up. Tiffany Haddish needs to be in everything. Good news is that she's on board for another season, as the detective investigating another crime.
WEST SIDE STORY - wanted to feel something beyond why are they doing this, but sorry, couldn't, didn't. Save for my girl, Ariana. A talented cast, but maybe it was just my mood. Turned back to a K-drama on Netflix, HOMETOWN CHA-CHA-CHA, and felt instantly buoyant.
I finally got to CYRANO - there's something really special here, but it feels frustratingly unrealized. With another go at the songs and some extra character shading (Christian is frustratingly underdeveloped), this could be very powerful. As it is, it feels too bound by the simplicity of the original text and the musical numbers never really soar. The cinematography is rather ugly, but the production design is stunning. Glad it was finally released - Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett are great and make this worth seeing.
THE BATMAN - felt too familiar and the screenplay is pretty mediocre. Loved Zoe Kravitz in this, but her character is so thinly written that it blunts her performance. The mood of this is so intoxicating that I want to go again, despite being disappointed overall.
McGill -- two different companies (MGM/UA and Sony Pictures Classics) but yeah they both screwed up royally with those two movies.
chasm -- agreed about cyrano. lovely but not quite there.
Jules & Pam -- thanks for the dropout recommendation. i've been debating so i'll give DROPOUT a shot.
Finally saw Belfast and really did not like it at all. Talk about over-direction--Branagh continually undercut my engagement due to his frustrating inability to go deeper into his character's lives. It's all barely skin-deep and I'm amazed it ever had any Best Picture buzz whatsoever. Also saw Drive My Car and def did like it, though I do think it's overlong (you could have easily cut 30 minutes out of it w/o any detriment at all, I feel). But it's my second favorite of the ten BP nominees, after POTD. Also started watching the nominees for Best Animated Short and Robin Robin (streaming on Netflix) is the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time. Def recommend it to animation fans.
Finally saw DRIVE MY CAR - it's really good, but it would have been ranked higher if they had finished on the penultimate scene rather than the one they chose.
Also saw Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH (version with narration and music) for the first time (and in a cinema too), and the documentary BLIND AMBITION (not particularly ground-breaking, but heart-warming enough to be good and worthwhile)
I am off on Mondays so I consider it my weekend. With that in mind I rewatched Postcards From the Edge - so so good. How was MacLaine not nominated for this performance?! She was glorious. Also went to the cinema to see the Live Action Shorts , of which Please Hold was my favorite by a fairly wide margin.
In regards to MacLaine I think category confusion was to blame. She's clearly Supporting but I remember there were rumblings of a Best Actress campaign at the time.
We saw The Worst Person in the World. A unique experience. The audience really responded. The three main actors were incredible. Now I have to see Drive My Car so I'm ready for Oscar night and that stacked International Feature category.