Box Office: Marvel Strikes Again
Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 4:20PM Amir here, with the weekend’s box office report.
Captain America defeated Noah to the top spot. There has to be a joke in there about America and freedom and jingoism and religion but I haven’t seen the former film yet, so I’ll hold my tongue. Captain America’s opening doesn’t meet the high bar set by any of the Iron Man films or The Avengers but it set a new record for Apil releases and the reviews are arguably the best ever for the Marvel franchise. With the recent announcement that this multiple phase, universe recreation charade is going to drag all the way until 2028 – by which time this youthful, cynical, belligerent writer will only be a cynical, belligerent writer – Marvel is going to need the good reviews to avoid fatigue. Or at least pretend like it’s avoiding fatigue, depending on whom you ask. Arguably, the bigger story of the weekend is the continued success of God's Not Dead. The film now has $32m in the bank and I have yet to come across a single person who's actually seen it. There's God's miracle right there.
Captain America and Black Widow, pondering the box office numbers
BOX OFFICE
01 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER $96.2 *new* Review / Marvel Posterized
02 NOAH $17 (cum. $72.3)
03 DIVERGENT $13 (cum. $114) Review / Jai Courtney
04 GOD'S NOT DEAD $7.7 (cum. $32.5)
05 THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL $6.3 (cum. $33.3)
The only other wide-ish release of the weekend was Frankie & Alice, the Halle Berry go-go dancing vehicle that finally came off the studio shelves after a four-year delay. Remember when some of us predicted Berry’s second nomination for this one? LOLZ. On the limited side of things, the biggest story was obviously Under the Skin, Jonatha Glazer’s long-delayed follow-up to Birth. Considering the festival hype and the irritatingly, reductively prominent coverage of Scarlett Johansson’s alien sexiness, the film didn’t do that well per screen average. It’d be interesting to see how the studio decides to expand the film. Unbelievably, up here in The Great White North, Skin doesn’t even have a distributor yet. I was lucky enough to watch it at TIFF though and I’d be happily lured back into darkness by Scarlett Johansson no matter the grotesque consequences.
The other releases this weekend didn’t really get audiences (or critics) all hot and bothered but by way of completism, we’ll list their names: The Unknown Known (Errol Morris working in a similar vein to Fog of War), Dom Hemingway (Jude Law with a few extra pounds and a dash of violence), Afflicted (for horror fans, of which I’m not one) and Watermark (an environmentalist documentary which I’ve actually seen; I wasn’t a big fan overall but it’s message is admirable and well-argued and the cinematography is GorgeouS with a capital G and also a capital S for emphasis.)
What have you watched this weekend?
Reader Comments (13)
I saw Noah yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised. I don't think it's Aronofsky's best work, but it's not nearly as far below his best work as I thought it would be. Emma Watson stunned me with how good she was. Russell Crowe was the perfect leading man. I thought it was a tremendously ambitious, morally complex film, which frankly is exactly what I want my Bible story films to be (if we must have them). I didn't love it unreservedly, but I did like it - and frankly, I didn't expect to.
I saw " Muppets Most Wanted" which was not as good as last Muppet movie. The use of the "stars" sometimes bordered on the bizarre (Ray Liotta) and others were barely used ( Russell Tovey as a delivery man?!) The Muppets can still be amusing but just like human stars they need better material.
It's iffy that Noah will make more than Black Swan did in North America ($106M) which would be kind of funny and kind of sad...
The only thing I managed to see this weekend was Any Which Way You Can, the second of the great Clint Eastwood orangutan movies. It is the 1980-est movie ever made, and I kind of loved it.
DIdn't make it out to the theater for the weekend, but I did see Enemy this past Thursday. Ace performance(s) from Gyllenhaal, wonderfully sinister score and cinematography, but I thought, minus the final five minutes (and the last two shots in particular), the movie overall was a case of gradually diminishing returns.
Will people get tired of Scarlett like they were around 2006-2009? At least her last projects were great pieces of cinema and it seems she'll have a break thanks to her pregnancy
Saw the good ol' Captain of course. As good as everyone has been saying.
I don't understand this situation with Frankie and Alice. It was a Golden Globe nominee! It must have some awards-qualifying run. How did it not got dump in January/February the following year but wait 4 years to get this release?
I saw Under the Skin (mesmerizing, a little slow toward the end), Nymphomaniac Part II (ludicrous), The Lunchbox (adorable), and Ilo Ilo (nice enough, but mostly a great advert for birth control).
Yeah, I went a little movie-happy this weekend.
It really was the weekend of Scarlett Johannson. UNDER THE SKIN is the best film of the year so far, she's rather good in the equally rather good CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, and the trailer for LUCY got a huge response from my crowd. You go, ScarJo!
Evan - I have the jealousy I saw no movies but then again I was in the Bahamas :) excited to get back to movies tomorrow
The Great Budapest Hotel. Loved it from first to last.
We'll be glad to have you back, Nathaniel. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Under the Skin.
Hope you had a great time in the Bahamas!
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