The Girl in the Box Office, Best Seller Nation
Sunday, October 9, 2016 at 1:39PM 
Best seller adaptations don't always equal big opening weekends (see Light Between Oceans) but The Girl on the Train was one of the lucky ones opening strong despite middling reviews. Was Emily Blunt the top draw or the book itself? Perhaps it was just excellent timing with few adult thrillers in the marketplace, most of the Oscar contenders waiting for November and December launches, and The Birth of a Nation struggling with a weak launch that's making Fox Searchlight's $17 million Sundance bet look like a losing hand.
What'cha think? And what did you see this weekend?
TOP TEN WIDE
01 The Girl on the Train $24.6 NEW Review
02 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $15 (cum. $51)
03 Deepwater Horizon $11.7 (cum. $38.5)
04 The Magnficent Seven $9.1 (cum. $75.9) Review
05 Storks $8.4 (cum. $50.1)
06 The Birth of a Nation $7.1 NEW More
07 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life $6.9 NEW
08 Sully $5.2 (cum. $113.4) Review
09 Masterminds $4.1 (cum. $12.7)
10 Queen of Katwe $1.6 (cum. $5.3) Review
Reader Comments (32)
Well, Jennifer Lawrence movies do well at the box office, and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN was definitely marketed in the trailers as a Jennifer Lawrence movie.
(And before you try to correct me, yes, I know.)
Ghostbusters the new one and Meryl in One True Thing.
Closet Monster. Terrific debut from Stephen Dunn with an excellent performance from Connor Jessup.
It's definitely the book connection that sold the tickets, there were a number of colleagues where I work (generally female and generally infrequent cinema goers) who were talking about seeing it last week. They had all been fans of the novel - most couldn't even name Emily Blunt.
Elle and The Salesman.
Glad Hosseini won actor at Cannes. How Huppert, Huller AND Braga all lost I'll never know.
I saw "Miss Pergegrine's Home for Peculiar Children" which I enjoyed for it's cinefantastique touches. I thought the plot was a bit convoluted. The HP Lovecraft worthy monsters were scary. and then of course there is Eva Green who should get into a timeloop and go to golden age Hollywood to get some scripts worthy of her star quality.
Well, I hated the book so If I'm going to go see the movie it'll be for the cast, not the story. I finally went to see The Dressmaker and I got it why it almost didn't get released. What a waste.
Saw The Birth of a Nation. It's certainly well-shot and has some interesting themes that I wish had been explored further. Flavors of Django and 12 YAS, but I'm not sure it adds much to the genre. Or rather, the expectations have been set too high.
Rewatched Take This Waltz. Can there be a Furniture post on this one?
A lot of stuff at the London Film Festival (La La Land - still swooning, definitely my favourite film of the year; A Monster Calls, Moonlight, Sully, Manchester by the Sea, Tower); and Girl on the Train and Miss Peregrine on my LFF breaks. Still surprised at how much I enjoyed Miss Peregrine.
Girl on the Train was a disappointment, I liked Emily's performance but felt it was a bit blah. I enjoyed the book and had higher expectations. I hated that they changed it from England to the US.
I finally saw Sing Street. Died of happiness a couple times. No one uses music like Carney.
The Girl on the Train - could the book have been this ludicrous? The movie is barely competent trash. Even Emily Blunt is good but nothing special C+
Queen of Katwe - Great cast almost saves this, but lawdy, lawdy, lawdy the dann thing is at least a half hour too long. An SAG nomination for Best Cast would be highly deserved. NO standouts really, but every single actor is wonderful. B-
And...
Birth of a Nation. Whether this is good or bad overall is a balancing act, weighing its undeniable virtues against its obvious flaws. Too much to go into here, just two objections. One is the role of the women. The slave women just seem to be there for white men to rape and black men to avenge. Slave women weren't just passive victims, I mean what man did Harriet Tubman need to help her out. Secondly, I hated the Hollywood cliche that Nat Turner needed a catalyst before he got mad, real mad, and just wasn't going to take it anymore. The real Nat Turner, like almost every slave, hated slavery his entire life. Still, a powerful film that will no doubt be a commercial "disappointment" for all the wrong reasons. Rating B and sinking as I read more history.
I passed on attending screenings of Sully and Denial, since I'll be seeing five other new movies next week. Instead I've been watching a lot of current TV, including the second episode of Westworld and High Maintenance.
Girl on the Train.
So slow.
Omg, so, so, slow.
Allison Janney and a brief Lisa Kudrow were the only bright points. Why couldn't the movie have been about them?
How did you see Closet Monster??? In theater, streaming....
I think Connor Jessup is a terrific actor... have only seen him on the series American Crime..
He was truly sensational...
Rick -- Closet Monster is out in a few cities.
Everyone -- i haven't been to the regular movies in so long. I miss it (it's like a month straight of festival stuff. which is wonderful but i always wish they were spread out more over the year instead of all jammed into 6 weeks.
Miss Peregrine. Interesting and odd. With Green giving a bonkers off-kilter perfect performance. The plot is loopy (pun!) but I prefer too complicated to hit-over-the-head simple. There is much more to be explored in that world, including the fact that Peregrine and her kind are sort of suspicious in their own right. Starting with the fact that children can never leave and need to stay children forever or die... We need a Kirsten Dunst cameo in the next one to explain it all to us. And speaking of cameos: how on earth did Judy Dench and Rupert Everett agree to do their nothing roles?! Was I t the promise of sequel money?! Or just the opportunity to work with Burton?
Thanks... it is not yet in our area... will be on the lookout for it...
* Whiplash - a masterpiece! it's amazing how it's probably not worth it in the end, I mean why go though all of that shit? just to prove something?
* Richard III (1995) - a very rewarding experience, no filler
* Celebrity - really enjoyed it! A bit shocked by the conservative Metacritic and IMDb scores!
* Vanilla Sky - almost awful, how many Wealthy Straight White Male movies can they produce? A wasted Tilda cameo!
* Deconstructing Harry - Judy Davis is a genius. She's just awe-inspiring! Also is this the Woody Allen film where the term "fuck" is used the most? Felt like it.
* Sleeper - one of Woody's best performances
* To Kill a Mockingbird - so wonderful and moving, transports you to another time. The kids were great!
I finally watched Everybody Wants Some!! which I liked but didn't love. I didn't recognise any of the cast members but they were all uniformly great...I wonder how many of them will go on to become households names a la Dazed and Confused.
I saw The Fits. Don't know what they were exactly but I know the film was an impressive feature debut. Also glad to hear people are seeing Closet Monster which I loved.
- The Birth of a Nation: Very powerful, good production, important subject. I see the flaws, particularly the female roles, but ultimately, it deserves a better showing, regardless of the events surrounding the movie.
Also had a Dustin Hoffman marathon during th week-end with my roommate, we watched 6 movies, including three I had never seen:
- All the President's Men (1976): fascinating, well-paced, great production design.
- Lenny (1974): Dustin Hoffman and Valeire Perrine are great, Bob Fosse's direction is really good, but I wish the film had been 10 minutes shorter (I know it's not a long movie, but it dragged toward the end)
- Marathon Man (1976): Really liked the whole mood and rhythm, but the movie took a turn to the ridiculous in the last 30 minutes! Completely ridiculous! I get that they had to find a somewhat climactic ending, but it was just plain stupid. It ruined the movie for me.
the three I already saw:
- Midnight Cowboy (1969): Second time. Less gritty and more weirdly joyful than I remembered. A great movie and I was really happy to rewatch fifteen years later.
- The Graduate (1967): Fourth time. So wonderfully awkward, funny, surreal at times. Great direction! Love it!
- Kramer vs. Kramer (1979): Fifth time. Still one of my favorite. So moving, so frustrating, but in a good way.
I watched the first two episodes of Westworld. VERY GOOD (especially episode# 1). Fingers crossed that the quality holds. Giving Jeffrey Wright and Evan Rachel Wood big juicy central roles certainly paid off.
I also watched a fun little horror moving called Splinter for the first time (on Prime)
And re-watched Alien (via AMC)
Overall, a good weekend!
"American Honey." I know you have that category in your annual awards where you name the best musical sequences in a non-musical. This movie could take up all five slots.
Altman's 3 Women
Denis's Beau travail
DuVernay's 13th
Girl On The Train. Emily Blunt was terrific and if it weren't for her, the film would probably be one of the worst of the year.
Queen of Katwe - It's a predictable "underdog sports movie" AND YET it's EXACTLY the kind of movie I think we all need more of especially after this year. The fact that the star is a young black girl makes it even more important. David Oyelowo is MVP.
Girl on the Train - Not great, but THAT cast tries to salvage it and I was easy-going enough for them to succeed a bit. Blunt is very good. For a film with "train" in the title, it lacked narrative propulsion. Also 1 minute of Lisa Kudrow is still better than nothing but hey Hollywood LISA KUDROW IS FUCKING AMAZING GIVE HER SOMETHING BETTER.
I have given up on movies in the theaters because they are all rehashes or total crap. So, I concentrated on fall TV this weekend:
Westworld - Great debut and second episodes. It looks like they spent approximately $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 on each episode. I am not an Evan Rachel Wood fan, but even she impressed me. And Jeffrey Wright isn't chewing the scenery, which is even better. I'm excited for the rest of the series.
Speechless - The premise is drivel-y. But the show is full of energy. Minnie Driver does over-the-top really well. But the small screen does not seem appropriate for her over-the-top abilities.
The Good Place - Kristin Bell is completely miscast. But Ted Danson is pretty solid, as usual. It is an interesting premise, and the budget is there to make it good.
Divorce - The jury is still out for me. But it isn't looking pretty.
I stayed home and caught up on docs. Watched and loved 13th, The Witness and Life, Animated. Might still see The Girl on the Train but not in a rush to do so.
Finally caught up on Kate Winslet's "Labor Day" (which I liked) and "Contagion" (interesting, but not sure if I liked it completely) after really loving her in "The Dressmaker" two weeks ago. I guess it's time I got around to "Steve Jobs" as well.
I saw "Girl on the Train" which was fine for a while and then just started to drag. They made some really weird choices in those last 30 minutes. But Blunt was great, it was well cast, and holy hell is Luke Evans attractive. I mean, I knew that, but this is the first time I've seen him in anything and I want more.
Also finally saw Double Indemnity and wow, does it live up to the hype. The actors, the characters, the plot, the dialogue, the cinematography - all top notch. Stanwyck was just so freakin' good and apparently not only the highest paid actress at the time but the highest paid WOMAN in the country!?! (According to wikipedia, so take that as you will)
Saw Closet Monster yesterday, arriving to the late night screening right on time instead of my customary 15-20 minutes early, which meant I had to sit in the front row of the tiny theater, which I HATE. Nevertheless, I loved every second of it. Best coming-of-gay-age film I've seen in YEARS. Loved the performances (Isabella Rossellini for Best Supporting Actress), cinematography, editing, and especially the score, which felt both modern and just slightly retro in an absolutely perfect way. Definitely one of my favorites of the year.