Ricki Rendazzo, Reed Richards, and Bubbles Bursting
Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 5:13PM Meryl Streep? Tom Cruise? Pac-Man? Vacation? It's like the 1980s all over again in movie theaters. It was a weak weekend overall with a ton of miniscule new releases and underperforming wide newbies. Meryl Streep had her worst opening weekend in a film sold on mostly on her presence since Prime (2005) before she regained her box office clout with The Devil Wears Prada. The only true success story this weekend was the word of mouth for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation which held on to #1 for another weak. It is definitely a fun summer picture but the "best in the series!" reviews feel like a bit of an overstatement. It's not quite as ambitiously staged and exciting as Ghost Protocol, but it's better than the other action films around it which makes it seem that much better. That opera scene with at least four simultaneous agendas in play and all the deadly assassins totally confused by each other sure is a kick, though, don't you think?
Meanwhile the superhero world's First Family, The Fantastic Four are now on their fifth onscreen iteration: first, a terrible one season 1978 animated series (wherein they inexplicably replaced The Human Torch - the best of the four! - with a tiny talking robot; second, another cheapie animated attempt in the mid 90s that lasted just two seasons; third, an infamous unreleased lowbudget live action version; fourth, that awful bad-looking two-film attempt in the Aughts with Jessica Alba, horribly miscast, and a Thing that looked more like mud than rocks; fifth, is the one we have now. If Hollywood can't get this right after five attempts, perhaps it's time to stop trying?
All that said, it's weird to see a film open to $26 million despite bad prelease buzz and the worst possible reviews and still be described as a total disaster at the box office. Many films would leap for joy at a $26 million opening so we're clearly living in an artificially-inflated bubble when it comes to superhero expectations. And that bubble may have finally just burst.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
August 7-9 estimates
01 Mission: Impossible 5 $29.4 (cum. $108.6) Review
02 Fantastic Four $26.2 NEW
03 The Gift $12 NEW
04 Vacation $9.1 (cum. $37.3)
05 Ant-Man $7.8 (cum. $147.4) Review, Podcast
06 Minions $7.3 (cum. $302.7) Tim on the Minions phenom
07 Ricki & The Flash $7 NEW Review
08 Trainwreck $6.2 (cum. $91) Podcast
09 Pixels $5.4 (cum. $57.6) Review
10 Southpaw $4.7 (cum. $40.7) Which Jake do you love most?, Podcast
11 Shaun the Sheep Movie $4 NEW (cum. $5.5) Aardman Films
12 Inside Out $2.6 (cum. $335.3) Podcast
I'm sad for Shaun the Sheep and for Meryl since Ricki and the Flash is moving and fun. Sure it's not perfect but it's better than a lot of the stuff out there that people are willing to put up with much less from. But though the first half of the year had some really great stuff, can we all agree that it's been kind of a weak summer season in terms of Must See mainstream releases? Would Jurassic World have become such a behemoth had it had more exciting competition?
We haven't checked in on limited releases in a while...
CHECKING IN WITH RANDOM SMALLER RELEASES
August 7-9 estimates
Mr Holmes 781 locations $1.3 (cum. $12.8)
Irrational Man 925 locations $.8 (cum. $2.2)
Amy 149 locations $.2 (cum. $6.9) Glenn's Review
The End of the Tour 36 locations $.2 (cum. $.4)
Phoenix 27 locations $.1 (cum. $.2) Nina Hoss Interview
Stanford Prison Experiment 66 locations $.08 (cum. $.4) Review
Diary of a Teenage Girl 4 locations $.05 NEW Review
Tangerine ??? locations TBA Review, Podcast
After a spike of popularity with a couple of Oscar players Woody Allen's box office is back down again to its normal miniscule domestic levels. The sad thing about Woody Allen's inconsistency is that every time he gets momentum again from a good picture, the next film tends to squander the goodwill. To Rome With Love performed far far better than it had any right to but it was sandwiched between his two best in decades. Ah well, they can't all be Blue Jasmines and Midnight in Parises.
Phoenix and Amy, buoyed by strong reviews have done well for themselves. It's too early to know about The End of the Tour and Diary of a Teenage Girl but neither are exploding so they will need some luck to stay in play. Mr. Holmes has arguably overperformed so can we please get more lead roles for Sir Ian?
There's no estimates on Sean Baker's Tangerine for the weekend but after three weeks of growth on great reviews and word of mouth, it lost a little steam last weekend. Still. it was recently nearing a $500,000 domestic gross which is pretty damn great for an adults only film with two trans actors and no stars and a non famous auteur that was shot on an iPhone! In short, it's already outgrossed the rest of Sean Baker's filmography combined (Starlet, Prince of Broadway, Take Out, and Four Letter Words)
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?
Reader Comments (33)
Rewatched Wild Tales. The wedding segment is undeniably brilliant.
Not a watch, but I did finally buy The Desiring-Image.
"Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" which I enjoyed - the opera sequence hommage to Hitchcock's " The Man Who Knew Too Much" was the highlight for me. And I hope that Rebecca Fergunson becomes a major star- she has that old Hollywood glamor quality - get this woman a good script pronto.
Saw "The End of the Tour," which is a wonderfully perceptive film and a showcase for a powerful performing duo. Both Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel are outstanding, but Segel truly deserves to be in the awards conversation later on in the year. The screenplay merits recognition, as well.
The human torch in the 1978 F4 was replaced due to rights issues.
EIGHTH onscreen iteration and TENTH rankable entity (if a show has two seasons, I'll rank each season individually as it's own entity). You're forgetting the 67-68 show and the 06-07 show.
Probable guess as to overall ranking if I see them all?
10. Fant4stic. (Grim AND Stupid. Could it be anywhere else.)
9. Fred and Barney Meet The Thing
8. Fantastic Four 1978 Show
7. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
6. 90s Show Season One
5. Fantastic Four (2005)
4. Roger Corman Fantastic Four
3. Fantastic Four 2006-2007 Show
2. Fantastic Four 1967-1968 Show
1. 90s Show Season Two (Even if none of these are great, at least check out the Worlds Within Worlds episode of this season. Because...WOW were the censors asleep at the wheel for that.)
And Nat: Yeah, there's a lot of films that would leap for joy at a $26 million opening. But they also cost $60 million or less.
Oh my god - Tangerine is by the same guy who made Starlet?!! Dying to see it even more now!
Meantime, I caught The Diary of a Teenage Girl and I want to talk to everyone I meet about Bel Powley. I haven't been this floored by an unknown (to me) face since Amy Adams in Junebug. I'm surprised there isn't even more buzz about her.
And of course Kristen Wiig is a godsend.
Ricki and the Flash cost about 18 million... And is opening in more theaters next weekend... Think it stands a good chance to make a profit.
FYI....I live for your mash-up image on the box office report postings. Look forward to it each weekend :)
I saw FF on Friday. It's definitely a dud but slightly less so then say... Jupiter Ascending. As for this summer movie season; I definitely agree that it has been weak. There's a lot of people that say this about every summer but I'm not one of those people as I thought last summer was pretty strong. While there's definitely films I liked, there were way too many high profile duds for my taste. Also, the film everyone raved about this summer - Mad Max: Fury Road - is one I found to be largely overrated.
Added Note: That 90s FF cartoon is what got me interested in the FF. Hell, all the 90s Marvel cartoons is how I got introduced to those characters.
I saw The Gift, which I really enjoyed up until it's really nasty conclusion that I wish I could talk more about without spoiling. I'm usually wary of reacting to things and calling them "problematic" but I'm astounded that the movie hasn't had more detractors because of what may have happened (it's left kind of ambiguous) in the movie.
I also watched Madame Bovary (a bit too restrained but some fine performances and beautiful cinematography/costumes) and Faults (a nifty little non-problematic thriller) at home.
STALKHER - directorial debut for John (WOLF CREEK) Jarratt. Went mainly to support independent Australian film-makers who takes distribution into their own hands. However, it was a disappointingly amateur two-hand thriller.
Finally saw JURASSIC WORLD (so as not to contribute to it's box office until it was on it's last legs!). Was pretty much as I expected - cliched, the acting has nothing to recommend, but had some fun sections.
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE - excellent fun. Minions fans say it is even better than MINIONS (which I haven't seen, on purpose).
THE GUNMAN - overly maligned IMO. The first 20 minutes are jumbled and badly paced, but the rest is a better-than-adequate thriller (you can't go too wrong if you cast Penn, Bardem AND Elba)..
THE CONFORMIST - Bertolucci's 1970 masterpiece. Whilst recognising his talent, I am not usually a fan of Bertolucci (one of those cases where I am just not on the same wavelength as the director) , but this is one I liked better than most of his others.
TheFilmJunkie - I am 100% with you and am in fact putting a piece together to wrestle with that ending. You're not alone in being, well, troubled by it.
"Ricki" was only on 1600 screens, so that's not *so* bad. I blame myself for being too lazy to get to the theater this weekend - I'm sure my $8 would have helped.
I've been watching 1954 movies in prep for the Smackdown. "Hobson's Choice" was strangely meandering, more pleasant than funny but I'm glad I saw it. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" was crying out for a proper third act, but I'm not going to complain about watching Howard Keel. And I didn't manage to finish "There's no Business like Show Business". The fourth reprise of "Alexander's Friggin' Ragtime Band" was the last straw.
@Brian: good to know I'm not alone. I'd love to read that piece when it's done.
Not sure if it's fair to compare Ricki to Prada, which had a built in fan base from a book. Ricki needed great reviews to succeed beyond estimates, which were only $7 million for an opening weekend. I love the soundtrack so I do see some money and potential interest there. No interest in supporting Tom Cruise, but it is intersting that he and Meryl, two of the 80's biggest stars, still get to headline movies in 2015.
@ The Film Junkie It's up now.
https://zitzelfilm.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/wrestling-with-darlings-the-end-of-the-tour-the-gift/
Devon -- but i'm not comparing them. I'm merely saying that Prada gave her back that box office queen power she hadn't had since the mid 80s. Since then her films have done very well. (And even if Prada had the initial advantage of being based on a book, it's word of mouth was insane -- her doing I think -- and had long legs at hte box office and gave her a whole new generation of fans)
Yeah, I think RICKI may have good word of mouth. Hopefully. Shame about SHAUN THE SHEEP since it's *so great*, but it's also very British and has no dialogue so, umm... not surprising America didn't respond to it.
I saw a bunch of films at the Melbourne International Film Festival including TANGERINE, which is fantastic. It's everything I wanted.
I finally saw 'Pride' and I loved it. It's so likable, it's a shame it didn't do better. I definitely see what y'all were saying on the podcast - that it's the kind of movie that would have been a sleeper hit in the late 90's.
Then I watched all the episodes of 'Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp', which I thought was hilarious.
I saw 'The End of The Tour' when it was playing at SIFF, I found it interesting and ultimately moving. I thought it was interesting how Eisenberg's character couldn't seem to even comprehend that DFW was being completely sincere in his life and wasn't constantly looking down on everyone and thinking he was better than them b/c he's a genius writer, but was trying to live his life as best he could. I have no idea if it's an accurate representation of the real DFW, but the movie version just seemed so genuine and gentle.
I saw it on Thursday, but it still counts: The Look of Silence,
The best movie I saw this year. The best direction, cinematography, editing, sound mixing. A pure and simple masterpiece. A completely different effort in pacing and vibe for Joshua Oppenheimer. I don't think there has ever been a director who demonstrated such range in their first two movies or anyone who had two masterpieces out of the gate like that. I'm completely in awe of Joshua's filmmaking skills.
One of the many qualities of the movie, its main subject delivers a cinematic performance (only it's not a performance, even though he is definitely acting when he is interviewing) of incredible beauty, restraint and subtext and so does his mother. A really powerful experience that is both cinematically and socially relevant.
Hey, I saw STARLET just yesterday! I didn't want Tangerine to be my first Baker film. Starlet is excellent, and I can't believe I'd never heard of it until Tangerine was blowing up.
I also saw FAULTS, which is completely riveting. Beautifully acted and written, shot and edited with such precision. I had no real expectations going in and was blown away. One of my favorite films of the year.
I also watched THE MAZE RUNNER (needed to be about a 1000% gayer), THE GUESTt (fun, but way too fetishy about its John Carpenter debts) and THE SWARM, a surprisingly good, hilariously disturbing (or disturbingly hilarious) killer bees movie with one of those bizarro 1970s all star casts - Michael Caine! Henry Fonda! Richard Widmark! Richard Chamberlain! Slim Pickens!
@Arkaan: That's awesome! Thank you!
Saw Ricki and Loved it! The critics did this film a major disservice. Diablo Cody's script was both acerbic and sincere, Demme's direction never hit a false note (ha), and what can really be said about Streep at this point? This would be her most deserved and best nomination since Prada, easy. I'd have no problems recommending seeing this film to one and all.
Aloha was the film I saw this weekend and absolutely adored it. That wordless scene in the end is solid gold. Trying to understand why it has become acceptable to malign films like this. Shame.
Tangerine was so good. Even better than Starlet, which I also really enjoyed. Sean Baker can be my husband if he wants.
Also saw Bridal Suite with Annabella and Robert Young. MGM must have been trying to capitalize on the whole Annabella-Tyrone Power thing because she got top billing over Young ... ? Ah, Annabella ... what a beautiful, but terrible actress who just wins you over for no good reason.
This was a great movie weekend. I saw Ricki, Diary of a Teenage and The Gift and enjoyed all 3.
Diary is fantastic, top 5 of year def... pity it didn't do better. And Meryl took me on such an emotional high that I'm still floating 3 days later.
Based almost entirely on this site's seemingly constant praise for it, I finally saw "Birth." While I can't say I enjoyed it as thoroughly as "Under the Skin," it still is a fascinating movie that I think might grow in my estimation over time.
I was loving the first third (beautiful, suspenseful, intriguing) but Cameron Bright's eerie, haunted presence became such a one-note performance and the score really starts to hammer home it repetitive themes that the middle started to drag. It picks up again by the end but I was really surprised at such tidy ending. Sure, it still leaves some questions unanswered but it at first felt like the filmmakers didn't have the courage of their convictions. There was something both brave and underwhelming about it.
But Kidman was, of course, fantastic. The opera scene is worthy of all the praise it gets but I also love how she cuts such a sharp, chilly figure but also exudes warmth at the same time.
And Anne Heche! Isn't she always a welcome jolt of energy?
@DJDeeJay: Welcome to the cult! Hope you enjoy the newsletters.
@Nick Davis - why thank you! Are there also monthly cosplay meetups where you can dress up as your favorite character? I'm assuming everyone could just get away with wearing black.
@DJDeeJay: Mostly we gather around in dark spaces for somber celebrations with many-candled cakes, and wait for someone to come knocking. Hasn't happened yet, but it will.
Saw Ant-Man and it was a fascinating disappointment, you can see the parts that were E Wrights (the humor and that brilliant end fight) and the parts that were Marvels (the boring, cloying family stuff). Damn Marvel, I keep watching their movies like it´s a soap that you don´t want to miss an episode of regardless of the quality.
As I posted in the review thread, I *loved* Ricki and the Flash. It's the most I have enjoyed Streep in some time.
While I haven't been watching it, I have been addicted to Karina Longworth's podcast, You Must Remember This, of late... I only started listening to it a few weeks ago but have been catching up on all of the old episodes of interest. Every episode has been really compelling. This morning I listened to Part 2 of her podcast on Mia Farrow in the '60s - it included so much about Dory Previn that I never knew.
@Brian: I read your piece, it sums up my (very conflicted) thoughts about the film perfectly.