Box Office: Panda Kicks, Jane Misfires
Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 3:00PM What did you see this weekend? Kung Fu Panda 3 had a strong debut on the typically slow final session of January. Without a vocal fanbase for the series, the sequel still performed well thanks to family audiences hungry for something for the whole family - like me and you they've exhausted their Star Wars repeats and have no idea what the hell Norm of the North is.
Did you take the whole family to Kung Fu Panda 3?
Jane Got a Gun, well-documented as a troubled production, has arrived with about the quietest thud you could imagine. Weinstein Co. has quietly snuck it into release after endless delays at its former distributor Relativity continually shuffled its debut. Over the weekend, there were plenty of "It opened??" responses with nary an actual reaction to the film - a sure sign of the bare bones publicity the film was was granted.
Elsewhere, ocean disaster The Finest Hours and spoof Fifty Shades of Black were more damp and cold than wet and wild. Hours is set aback while fighting for air on large format screens with The Revenant and Star Wars still getting the prime locations.
ROOM's box office has found its strong!Holdovers had another strong weekend, with even last week's genre entries The 5th Wave and The Boy having atypically modest drops. Room continues to receive the biggest boost from its nominations, and surpased Amy this weekend to become A24's third highest grosser yet.Other Oscar nominees Brooklyn, Anomalisa, and The Big Short barely dropped from last weekend as wider audiences cram them in before the ceremony.
BOX OFFICE WIDE
01 Kung Fu Panda 2 $41 new
02 The Revenant $12.4 (cum. $138.1) Costumes, Production Design
03 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $10.8 (cum. $895.4) Review, Podcast, BB-8
04 The Finest Hours $10.3 new
05 Ride Along 2 $8.3 (cum. $70.7)
BOX OFFICE LIMITED
01 2016 Oscar Nominated Short Films $.5 new 112 screens
02 Ip Man 3 $.5 (cum. $1.6) 115 screens
03 45 Years $.4 (cum. $1.3) 94 screens Capsule, Nathaniel's Best Actress Ballot
04 Carol $.4 (cum $11.4) 313 screens Oscar Snub, Adapting Highsmith, First Impressions, Nathaniel's Best Actress Ballot
05 Anomalisa $.3 (cum $1.9) 169 screens Podcast, Review, Festival Capsule
animated, box office
Reader Comments (26)
Where does Carol fall in the box office rankings of Todd Haynes films?
San Fran - Second. FFH did almost $16M
Natalie Portman is in a weird professional spot right now, but I'm open to a Cate Blanchett-style revival if she has it in her. I've always been a bit down on Portman but she's still young with every opportunity at her fingertips.
Her defining quality as a celebrity (intelligence) has never been properly explored or harnessed onscreen. That's why I feel like the RBG biopic might give her a strong reassessment.
San Fran - Far From Heaven made $30 Million world wide & I'm Not There -$11.6 - Carol has made $25 Mil so far. So it will probably tie with Far From Heaven.
Room has now made $11 Million world wide - but isn't as popular as Brooklyn which is almost at $40 Mil and still growing. Spotlight is at 35 Mill - but still expanding overseas,
The Big Short is up at 102 Mill - and still expanding.
But The Revenant at $275 mill - is still going strong, and obviously more popular than any of the others nominated for BP.
All TV: watched the season premieres of Agent Carter and The X-Files and binged Season 7 (final) of Nurse Jackie. I might watch What Maisie Knew tonight. Should I?
Portman has a number of interesting projects coming up, including Annihilation, Alex Garland's follow-up to Ex Machina, which will costar Gina Rodriguez and maybe Tessa Thompson, and the RBG biopic, which is going to be directed by Marielle Heller, who Portman sought out for the project. I'm excited to see where her career goes from here.
Mustang, from Turkey. Great little movie and deserves its nomination for best foreign language film.
Room's box office has, what, doubled since the nominations were announced? Small sums, ultimately, of course, but still, a positive sign. There was a piece in the Globe & Mail I read a few weeks ago talking about the film's marketing, where they said they initially hoped to get the film to $15 million in North America.
I saw Pride again and it has solidified its place as one of my top 5 queer flicks. So funny, so moving, such a glorious little gem.
Nothing of the Oscar ra ce this weekend.
LadyEdith, both The Martian and Mad Max have outpaced The Revenant worldwide, unless I misunderstood your comment.
I saw Obvious Child and It's Such a Beautiful Day this weekend. Hoping to top it off with a Herzog of some sort (got the BFI set and haven't touched it yet).
Arkaan, you doing okay there? It's Such a Beautiful Day is rough going.
Arkaan: I think she was trying to gauge how the films still in theatres were doing. The Martian and Mad Max have left and gone blu already. (She also didn't include Bridge of Spies, which is coming in a couple days.)
Yeah, it rather wrecked me. But it's my favourite animated film from 2012 now, displacing Paranorman, so it's all good
. Nathaniel posted a podcast, so I haven't started the Herzog "yet"
Volvagia, that makes sense. LadyEdith, I withdraw my comment. Except I'm super happy to see how well Brooklyn's doing. It's my easy favourite best picture nominee and I want to believe it can win.
Volvagia & Arkaan - thanks Volvagia for clarifying what I was trying to do, comparing films still in theatres and the potential to make more at the BO during the Oscar season.
Looking at the numbers I think it's safe that The Martian at $600 mill will be the winner over all,
of films nominated for BP.
Mad Max FR is at 360 Mill - so only The Revenant has a chance to catch up to it.
The Big Short is the one that has surprised me, that's a really good BO office take for that film.
@Aarkan -As you may have noticed I'm a BIG fan of "Brooklyn" too, it was my favourite film this year. So I'm really happy to see it building such a big BO return. It still hasn't hit most of Europe, Asia, or South America so it could get to 60 million or so.
Note: Begin Again did 63 million world wide, a small heartfelt film.
So Brooklyn may not win an Oscar but if it's well loved and a financial success- that's a big win for that type of filmmaking. (female protaganist)
@Paul Outlaw - I highly recommend What Maisie Knew; it made my top 10 the year it was released. Breakup/divorce dramas from the perspective of the child are incredibly rare, and the young actress - who can't be older than seven- really shines in a difficult role. The supporting cast does great work as well, especially Moore. A little heart wrenching in spots though; you've been warned.
Thanks, MDA. I'll let you know how it goes...
Dear Jacques Rivette (1928-2016):
When I see your films, I recognize my own interior dreamscape that I have somehow forgotten in my descent into wakefulness.
See you later, Jacques.
@adri: beautiful tribute to Jacques Rivette. RIP
@adri: That's nice. Celine and Julie Go Boating is a great "dreamscape" indeed.
I saw the Oscar-nominated live action shorts this weekend. They are, overall, incredibly depressing.
THE INTERN - ugh, no more to say, and GREASE LIVE- yay. Grease is nowhere near my top 10 list of musicals, but I think the "live" show was great--super fun, great dancing and singing. However, my teen daughter turned to me and said "Enjolas is WAY TOO OLD for this part." Ha. And Keke Palmer was great; I've been hoping for good things for her ever since Akeeyla and the Bee.
Also a strange, yet enjoyable film on HBO called FEAST OF LOVE. Missi Pyle was in it, so I have to look back on this blog to see if she mentioned it.
Paul and MDA- I really loved WHAT MAISIE KNEW. It was one of the movies that stuck with me long after viewing. It did not get the attention it deserved.
Pam -- i watched GREASE LIVE too. So impressed with the production. *way* more professional than any of the other live tv musicals. I was frankly kind of stunned -- looked incredibly expensive and professional (while all the others have seemed, frankly, chintzy) even though it doesn't have the emotional heft of something like The Wiz by the end.
What Pam and MDA said. What Maisie Knew was one of my favorite films of 2012, and I agree it was very, very underrated.
Finally saw "45 Years" (what a film!) and also caught "Phoenix" on Netflix streaming. The only reason I didn't adore the latter was the plot required just a wee bit too much suspension of disbelief, and I couldn't help getting impatient with Nelly/Esther's obsession, even though I understood why. But DAMN, that final scene...and damn, Nina Hoss. I have a feeling this one will only get better in my own mind the more time passes.
Watch Maisie last night and glad I did. It was, in fact, "wrenching" as MDA warned me, but not torturous. I did have a hard time imagining those versions of Moore and Coogan having a six-year-old daughter together—the story of their love affair would make a fascinating film all on its own, I guess.
Didn't see any movies this weekend, but I've started watching London Spy with Ben Wishaw, Jim Broadbent and the strangely, strikingly beautiful/handsome Edward Holcroft. Seriously, he's like some kind of Russian or Roman statue come to life (yes, I know he's English, but work with me here). I didn't see Kingsman or Wolf Hall so he's new to me.
The show itself is interesting and I'm definitely intrigued, but I can't tell yet if it's really smart or merely clever and somewhat pretentious. And I'm disappointed that Wishaw's character is so grungy because that means they can't do amazing things with his glorious hair that he's sported in other movies.
I saw "The Revenat" which is a good two hour movie buried under a lot of pretty but pretentious nature photography. Leo suffers a lot - but why ? Is he a symbol of the evil white man in search of redemption- or did he just wonder into out takes from "El Topo"? The script is over the top machismo- nobody seems to be having any fun- even the sex scene is ugly.