Box Office Three-Way and Dependable Dame Dench

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Sept 29th-October 1st)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. KINGSMAN 2  $16.9 (cum. $66.6)	1.🔺 TIL DEATH DO US PART $1.5 on 562 screens
2. IT $16.9 (cum. $290.7) REVIEW | 5 TAKEAWAYS	2.🔺 VICTORIA AND ABDUL $1 on 77 screens (cum. $1.3)
3. 🔺 AMERICAN MADE $16.7	3.🔺 A QUESTION OF FAITH $1 on 661 screens
4. LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE $11.6 (cum. $35.2)	4. 🔺 STRONGER $922k on 645 screens (cum. $3.1) REVIEW
5. 🔺  FLATLINERS $6.5	5. 🔺 JUDWAA 2 $638k on 192 screens
6. 🔺 BATTLE OF THE SEXES $3.4 (cum. $4)	6. BRAD'S STATUS $400k on 453 screens (cum. $1.7) REVIEW
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo

A bit late on the quickie box office chart this week but for a good reason. The race for #1 was so tight between three films that it took til Monday to clear it up with the Kingsman sequel topping and the new Tom Cruise actioner American Made on bottom....

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"Orient Express" Teaser Trailer Arrives!

Chris here. We've been obsessively tracking the developments of Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express here at The Film Experience, so of course we have to share the first trailer. 

One of the open questions for the film we've had about the film was tone - would this be a campy lighthearted romp full of famous faces or a more morbid serious-minded mystery true to Agatha Christie's text? From the look of this first teaser we'll be served something in between. And with plenty of attention paid to each star of this massive ensemble, even if our eyes naturally wander to Michelle Pfeiffer. 

In a nifty bit of character introduction, Branagh takes us through the train car and the various characters in one take before giving the big reveal to his Poirot. We're already sold on the film, so we won't do the full Yes No Maybe So. But TAG YOURSELF as one of the passengers in the comments based on your response to this teaser - I'm Daisy Ridley's mildly concerned Governess (that rock anthem coda has me a little worried, friends).

Thoughts I Had: First images from "Murder on the Orient Express"

To Entertainment Weekly the honor of introducing us, or re-introducing us rather, to the characters of Murder on the Orient Express. The Agatha Christie book was first published in 1934, got a very popular Oscar loved film adaptation forty years later and another forty-plus after that it'll be back in movie theaters again with a brand new cast. 

After the jump a mega post about this cover and the adjacent character photos that came with it... 

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Best Actress - April Foolish Oscar Predix

We always save the best category for last.

The April Foolish Oscar predictions are officially complete with the BEST ACTRESS chart which has just gone up. So many talent women. So much luscious actressing to come. We cannot wait to see these performances, wherever they happen to fall on the chart. Predictions are for fun and do not indicate who we're rooting for ever -- we try not to root for anything without actually seeing the films because "may the best performance win!" and we don't know what that will be yet, now do we? This year the April Foolish crystal ball says "all previous nominees" but that's largely because it does not appear to be a year where many women who aren't previous nominees have managed to land leading roles. But we shall see. 

Answer me these questions three:

1. Which actress's double feature are you most excited to see? The busy choices are: Jessica Chastain (A Woman Walks Ahead, Molly's Game), Kate Winslet (Wonder Wheel, The Mountain Between Us), Sally Hawkins (Maudie, The Shape of Water), and Charlize Theron (Tully, Atomic Blonde). Let's leave the very busy Nicole Kidman out of this survey since the size of her roles aren't totally obvious this year.

2. Do you think Annette Bening has momentum due to that near-miss last season (those sometimes build goodwill) or do you think 20th Century Women is irrelevant to this year's prediction equation?

3. Which performance are you convinced will be great sight unseen? ...and vice versa if you're feeling irritable today.

ICYMI 
Past articles on this new Oscar race
Last year's Oscars, the full index

Valentine's - A Room With a View

Team Experience is celebrating Valentines Day with favorite love scenes. Here's Lynn Lee on an 80s classic

Great Moments in Screen Kisses #20, Julian Sands and Helena Bonham CarterEveryone who loves this film remembers The Kiss.  It’s the moment proper Edwardian girl Lucy Honeychurch (a very young Helena Bonham-Carter), vacationing in Italy, discovers romantic passion for the first time.  She doesn’t know it yet, but the odd free-thinking young man she’s only recently met (Julian Sands) is her soulmate.  He knows it, though.

Besides being (literally) storybook-romantic—a sun-drenched poppy field in Italy! lush soprano aria in the background!—the kiss is also wreathed in comedy, as the film cuts back and forth between Lucy, wending her way uncertainly towards George, and her fussy chaperone Charlotte (Maggie Smith) bonding with another fellow tourist, a hacky romance novelist (Judi Dench), over scandalous love stories before she starts to worry about Lucy.  Meanwhile, the Italian driver who led Lucy to George looks on in amusement at what he has wrought.  He knows what’s up, his own public display of affection having been previously smacked down by these uptight Brits.  But the Kiss will not be denied.

It’s also the kiss that keeps on giving for the rest of the movie.  Its memory haunts Lucy during her utter failure of a first kiss with her fiancé, Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis, vying for comic MVP with Maggie Smith), in England.  It reappears again at a critical and exquisitely awkward moment as a passage in a terrible romance novel, penned by none other than Charlotte’s novelist friend, that the clueless Cecil just happens to read out loud to none other than Lucy and George.  The tension that was simmering since George’s reentry into Lucy’s life then comes to full boil, precipitating a chain of events that eventually forces out in the open what Lucy’s been denying for too long: she and George belong together. 

All thanks to one glorious kiss.

Our Valentine's Series
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Before Sunset (2004)
The Painted Veil (2006)
Love Songs (2007)
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Beyond the Lights (2014)