Weak Sequels & Promising Platform Titles

Weekend Box Office Estimates June 7th-9th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended
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.

Review: Dark and Tired Phoenix

This review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad...

Don't they have any healing and creative rejuvenation among the super-powered mutations at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children? If so they needed them to lay their hands on this franchise for a few years before making another bungled attempt at the beloved Dark Phoenix storyline (from the 1980 comic books) within this movie franchise's 19 movie years. But that's a rhetorical question. If Dark Phoenix (2019) is indication, mutations cannot save this franchise.

When we return to our characters, much has changed since our last visit. Which is fine since who wants to be reminded of X-Men Apocalypse? The X-Men are now no longer shunned by society but held up as heroes. Professor Xavier (James McAvoy, phoning this one in... but then who isn't?) has a direct phone to the White House, like a Batman / Commissioner Gordon sitch on steroids. Their first mission, which serves as kind of a second prologue to the over and underwritten film, is making Raven (Jessica Lawrence) nervous for some underwritten/performed reason...

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The Once and Future Link

• /Film Tom Hanks to play Elvis Presley's shady manager Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis biopic. Thankfully Baz is looking for a complete unknown for Elvis himself
• Towleroad this is awesome. Gay rights hero Harvey Milk is now on the tail fits of Norwegian Airlines. And to think he can't even get a national holiday in the US. We are so behind sometimes!
• Shadowplay some fun thoughts on John Boorman's Excalibur as "The Ridiculous"
• MNPP "do dump or marry" Matrix anniversary edition

More after the jump including the awesomeness of Eva Green, the fate of X-Men movies, an Alien high school production, and filmmaker interviews...

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Hugh Jackman at 50

by Eric Blume

Hugh Jackman celebrating his 50th birthday.

Let’s all take a moment to celebrate the half-century birthday of one of our most versatile and underrated actors, Hugh Jackman.

Underrated, you question?  Sure, Hugh has a Best Actor Tony for The Boy from Oz, an Emmy Award for hosting the Academy Awards, and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Les Miserables.  But if you asked folks to list ten of the best working actors, would most people remember to put him on their list?

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GLAAD Nominees, Iceman, and Professor Marston

by Nathaniel R

This just in. The GLAAD nominations for portrayals of the LGBT community are out. This is a different group than the critics group that I vote with (the one from lgbt entertainment journalists) and their focus is less on quality -- or it has been in the past -- than on battling homophobia and fighting for inclusion. Their full name gives you their raison d'etre history: the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. They've made significant blunders in their years (supporting I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry would still rankle if anyone still remembered the film) but let's not hold that against them since we love that their purview is so wide (music, comic books, everything) and their purpose admirable.

The film nominees go like so...

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