Weekend Box Office: "Fast X" Starts Slow

By Ben Miller

Surprising absolutely no one, the 10th entry in the Fast and the Furious series Fast X won the box office weekend.  What was surprising was the muted opening box office of only $67.5 million.  That's the lowest opening for that series since Tokyo Drift in 2006 (unless you count Hobbs and Shaw which opened with $60 million in 2019).  Comparatively, these films make the same amount of domestic money, so you can expect anywhere from $170-$200 million total.  Worldwide is where these films really make their paydays, so keep expecting these things to keep being made.  In fact, each film since Fast Five has made over $500 million outside of North America...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) May 19th-21st 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
FAST X	SANCTUARY
1 🔺 FAST X $67 *NEW* 4046 screens	1 BLACKBERRY $288k (cum. $1.0) 374 screens
2 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3 $32.4 (cum. $266.9) 4450 screens	2 🔺  MASTER GARDENER (US) $264k *NEW* 225 screens
3 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE $18.5 (cum. $518) 3540 screens	3  KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC  $165k (cum. $925k) 588 screens
4  BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER $3 (cum. $13.1) 3513 screens	4 IT AIN'T OVER [Doc] $97k (cum. $246k) 128 screens
5 EVIL DEAD RISE $2.4 (cum. $64.1) 2173 screens	5 🔺★ SANCTUARY $64k *NEW* 5 screens
6  JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4 $1.3 (cum. $185.3) 1312 screens	6 ★ MONICA $51k (cum. $84k) 93 screens
ARE YOU THERE GOD...	THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS
7 ★ ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET? $1.3 (cum. $18.6) 1668 screens	7 ★🔺 THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS (Italy)  $37k (cum. $145K) 51 screens
8  HYPNOTIC  $815k (cum. $4.0) 1733 screens	8 ★ SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS $36k (cum. $1.6) 46 screens
9 LOVE AGAIN  $410k (cum. $5.9) 1243 screens	9 ★🔺 THE STARLING GIRL $30k (cum. $63K) 27 screens
only 9 movies in wide release. yikes	10 🔺 L'IMMENSITA (Italy) $22K (cum. $37K)
	11 WILD LIFE [Doc] $17k (cum. $326k) 30 screens
	12 ★ CARMEN $17k (cum. $81K) 101 screens
	13 ★ JOYLAND (Pakistan) $13K (cum. $230k) 9 screens

Meanwhile, Marvel's best reviewed film in years Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 continues to chug along to solid weekend grosses.  Don't look now, but it should become the second-highest grossing film of the year behind Mario next week.  Speaking of Mario, it has made it's way up to 14th all-time domestically, where it probably will end up.  Sitting at $1.23 billion globally, it might end up in the top-20 all-time worldwide.

On the limited/platform side, Paul Schrader's Master Gardener opened quietly and on limited screens.  Schrader's films are never meant for box office gold.  The per-screen average winner was the S&M-themed Margaret Qualley/Christopher Abbott joint Sanctuary.  Despite opening on just five screens, it managed a $13k average.  I wouldn't hold out any hope for mainstream eyes, but you never know.

This Friday for the holiday weekend - Summer movie season ramps up with Disney's live-action retread of The Little Mermaid, the Robert De Niro comedy About My Father, the Bert Kreisher-starring comedy The Machine, and Gerard Butler keeps giving us what we expect from him with the action film Kandahar. In limited release the gay Portugueuse musical Will-O-the-Wisp opens as does the horror thriller The Wrath of Becky. 

What did you watch this weekend? I was in a 1979 mood, taking in the comedies Starting Over and La Cage aux Folles.  I also had a first-time watch of TFE favorite All That Jazz.  I'm going to go on a limb and say the 1979 Best Actor race might never be topped.

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

I think Al Pacino is the weak link in the 1979 Best Actor roster. His intense performance in And Justice for All crosses that fine line from spirited to hammy.

For me the exquisite quintet of choice acting is found in 1967. Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde, Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, Rod Steiger in In The Heat of The Night, and Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner are individually extraordinary. Each could have justifiably won Best Actor at the Oscars.

[Mr Ripley79]

I've never seen any F and F film so it's box office performance is of little interest.

It makes me sad to see films by great directors and stars like Shrader and Weaver are relegated to nicheness whilst corporate trash like Fast X and The LIttle Mermaid clog up cinemas offering nothing.

I see your 79 and agree it is strong but I give you 1959 1962 1967 1974 1982 1993 2005 2012 2014 and 2020.

I had a binge week

Providence 1977 Bogarde Burstyn Gielgud pretentious drama saved by it's ending

Carrie 76 horror classic I still dread that bucket everytime

The Pope's Exorcist silly fun but cliched with a Sean Bean voiced demon.

The New Kids a very blonde James Spader film,his debut,enjoyable in an 80's kind of way,films were more colourful back then.

Love Letters Jamie Lee Curtis 1983 drama she is very good in this,fans need to see it

Evil Dead Rise intense gory a well made horror can't wait for the next one

Silver Bullet Stephen King werewolf film that's good until it's lacklustre ending

11 minutes that changed America 3 part series on The Mandelay Bay shootings,sobering watch.

The Gamma People 1956 sci-fi absolutely awful

[Amy Camus]

I'd go back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and choose the 1941 lineup as the best of all time:

Cary Grant "Penny Serenade"
Walter Huston "All That Money Can Buy/The Devil and Daniel Webster"
Orson Welles "Citizen Kane"
Robert Montgomery "Here Comes Mr Jordan"
Gary Cooper "Sergeant York"

and it would have even been stronger if Cooper had been nominated for either "Ball of Fire" or "Meet John Doe"!

[jules]

I saw Master Gardener in the theater. It's no First Reformed, but what is? Still pretty riveting, and it was great to see Sigourney take on such a meaty role. I do kind of wish a more impressive actor than Joel Edgerton had been cast in the lead.

At home, I watched The Quiet Girl, which broke me. Wow, this really deserved more attention last year, just tremendous from start to finish. I look forward to see what that director will do next.

On tv, I've been rewatching Happy Valley so as to fully appreciate the third and final season. I am also watching the Bridgerton Queen Charlotte spin-off, which is my favorite Bridgerton season so far. I appreciate that it deals so directly with Bridgerton's racial integration; it kind of felt like a cheat that the series skipped over that originally. I'm also watching City on Fire on Apple TV Plus, and about all I can say about that is that it is very watchable.

I am looking forward to You Hurt My Feelings this weekend.

[Angelo]

I saw a matinee of Summer 1976 on Broadway and Return to Seoul.

[McGill]

I saw “Master Gardener”. I was worried that it wouldn’t last more than a week in theatres but was heartened that the theatre was over half full.

It made me think of the Writers Strike. A skilled original script is a lodestone: it attracts other artists. With a generic script, actors often have to elevate the script with the force of their personality. With a specific, idiosyncratic, well written script, actors can focus on artistry.

Nothing is too daunting or unusual for Sigourney Weaver. Her interpretation here has ambiguity, contradictions, rules of behaviour, and an unknown core, with surface gentility.

I like Joel Edgerton. I consider (perhaps mistakenly) that he and many other Australian actors have a wonderful lack of that self-aggrandizement that clouds up a story. I think this film makes a good companion piece to another film of his, “Loving” with Ruth Negga.

I didn’t realize until post-film discussion, that the garden of the film is set on an old plantation. That makes Weaver’s interpretation even more sinister. But then with every role she does, you see more on further viewing.

Afterwards I thought “Master Gardener” kind of reminded me of James Gray’s “Armageddon Time”, of how politics and history continue to play out in everyday life.