Box Office: Arrival Opens Well for Amy
Monday, November 14, 2016 at 3:07PM 
What did you see this weekend? Doctor Strange (reviewed) continued to be the top draw at the box office tower but Arrival had a strong debut for a thinking person's non-action oriented sci-fi epic. (It's Amy Adams best headline opening since Enchanted !) But will mainstream audiences like it or will we see a big drop next weekend after word gets out that it's, well, a thinking person's movie? Will Oscar come calling or will they prefer the less genre-oriented fare this year? What's your best guess? Meanwhile in limited release...
Oscar hopefuls Moonlight, Loving, and the documentary Eagle Huntress are all inspiring curiosity from moviegoers with good per screen averages. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Elle both put two toes in the water on the coasts but it's far too early to tell whether they can expand buzz as they widen.
TOP FIVE WIDE
800 screens +
01 Doctor Strange $43 (cum. $153) Review
02 Trolls $35 (cum. $94)
03 Arrival $24 NEW Review and NEW PODCAST
04 Almost Christmas $15.5 NEW
05 Hacksaw Ridge $10.7 (cum. $32.2) Review
TOP TEN LIMITED
under 800 screens excluding previously wide releases
01 Moonlight $1.3 (cum. $4.7) 176 screens Review and Podcast
02 Loving $532K (cum. $740K) 46 screens Review and NEW PODCAST
03 A Man Called Ove $377K (cum. $2.4) 190 screens
04 Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Denial $275K (cum. $4.1) 163 screens
05 The Handmaiden $218K (cum. $1.2) 123 screens Podcast
06 The Eagle Huntress $209K (cum. $297K) 31 screens Review
07 Denial $153K (cum. $3.8) 121 screens Review
08 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk $169K (cum. $724K) 135 screens Review
09 Certain Women $117K (cum. $937K) 117 screens Review
10 Elle $56K NEW 2 screens Review
Reader Comments (17)
Denial did ellin limited,Wiesz willprobably get a Globe nod,I was going to watch Love & Friendship but felt poorly,Is it any goodd,I know the revies in the UK singled out Tom Bennet and Kate..
Very busy moviegoing weekend for me due to AFI Fest.
The Ornithologist - Hypnotic and trippy but I can' say I understood it: Grade: B-
Doctor Strange - Fun, zippy, and Cumberbatch is terrific. The visuals are stunning, but the central conflict seemed incompletely fleshed out.Grade: B
Lion - Emotionally uplifting with terrific performances. I may be emotional from the election, but Lion gave my tear ducts a good cleanse. I single out the young actor who plays Saroo and Nicole Kidman who exuded so much maternal warmth. It was also great to see her as a redhead again: The second half pales against the first half, but the emotional payoff in the end is undeniably moving. Grade: A-
The Salesman - Asghar Farhadi does it again. This is a wrenching, slow-burn marital drama about misunderstandings and the frailty of human emotions. The conceit of having "Death of a Salesman" within the film seems like a gimmick at first, but I think Farhadi persuaded me that the world is indeed full of Willy Lomans. Farhadi lays on the symbolism a little thick in the beginning (a building with its foundation being undermined), but I'm still amazed at how he turns these small social dramas into the most harrowing, suspenseful films. Grade: A
Neruda - This is a poetic and lyrical depiction of a time in Pablo Neruda's life. It's funny and well-acted, but perhaps I just don't know enough about Neruda. The film didn't engage me. The photography looked a little garish at times too. A lot of lens flares for some reason: Grade: C+
The Commune - I had high expectations for this, and though it didn't live up to these expectations, it was still a good watch. Trine Dyrholm is terrific in this, but the rest of the commune are thinly sketched. The film is really more about marital strife than it is about the commune. It's a backdrop to the emotional upheavals that occur, but the insight into commune life is minimal. The film is too low-stakes and sketchy to really add up to something more substantial. Grade: B
Raul - wow you really were busy. I've seen all of these so it was interesting reading your thoughts on them.
I saw The Handmaiden yesterday and it was pretty much exactly what I needed - a ripe, deliciously over the top, gorgeously mounted thriller. Pure escapist joy, delivered from the hands of a master director working at the height of his powers. I went in with a pretty clear sense of what I thought the movie would be, and Park blew right past that in the first forty five minutes, which is always so wonderful. The rest was movie bliss.
Nat-I really wanted to like Neruda. Perhaps I was exhausted from a long day of watching movies, but I just couldn't engage with it. It had spectacular moments, but it didn't stir my heart.
I saw my top 2 films of the year so far over the weekend.
The Handmaiden is so great. Magnificent. Beautiful to look at with a new twist practically every scene.
At least a lot of people will have a chance to see The Handmaiden. Unfortunately, that isn't the case with Ixcanul, the only Guatemalan film I am aware of. It's brilliant and the last ten minutes broke my heart.
I'm sorry to say I found Moonlight somewhat disappointing. Too insubstantial in a mid-'80s-Afterschool-Special kind of way. The acting is good, but not great. It comes so close but wishing it were better can't make it better.Only the last sequence really succeeded for me.
Call me degenerate, but I preferred the sleazy King Cobra. Lots of dirty fun to be had and Christian Slater and James Franco were very funny.
Also saw Hacksaw Ridge (ok nothing special) and Gimme Danger - really for Stooges fans only, of which I'm one so I just took it all in. Those unfamiliar with their music will probably be bored, but for the rest of us a fun 2 hours.
I took in Arrival on Friday and really, REALLY liked it. The extended final sequence didn't land for me, but I suspect it's because I figured out what was happening a good while before the characters did, and that blunted the emotional impact a bit. But before that I found it incredibly smart and well-crafted at every level. Not one of my favorites of the year, but I am sure as hell glad it exists, particularly since it almost inadvertently speaks perfectly to the current moment - it feels like THE movie of 2016 right now.
And then on Sunday I saw Doctor Strange. It's always nice when a comic book movie embraces its comic book roots and really goes all in on color and fun - those special effects were great, trippy fun. If only the rest of the film didn't suffer from all of Marvel's worst impulses. Cumberbatch isn't remotely likeable as the arrogant protagonist who seemingly gets rewarded for his arrogance (and the scenes of his recovery from the car crash were the most "Rich White Guy Needs To GET THE FUCK OVER IT AND MAN UP" scenes that I have ever seen, to the point where I was practically laughing at the screen). Poor Rachel McAdams is trapped in a thankless love interest role. And any actors of color or relegated to roles in which they just support the arrogant white dude. But MAN do those visuals and Tilda make up for a lot. I really enjoyed it.
However, the best part of Doctor Strange - BY FAR - is that I had absolutely no problem at all believing that Tilda did all her own stunts. Including the magic.
The Founder: B-
I wrote about this in another comments thread.
Loving: B+
Ditto, but I will add that Negga and Terri Abney (who plays her sister) have great movie faces. Casting Nick Kroll in this was weird. He's tonally off, which may have been intentional (to lighten—no pun intended—things up), but it didn't work for me.
Manchester by the Sea: A-
1. Top 5 this year so far.
2. Michelle Williams said in the Q&A that she still has to fight for parts this good, even smaller ones like this, with phone calls, letter-writing etc., one of the reasons why she's been doing more theater recently. (And this after three Oscar nominations and she's only 36.) In years to come, some will say that Viola stole Williams' Oscar next year.
3. When did Gretchen Mol turn into Hope Lange? Dead ringer.
4. Casey Affleck. CASEY AFFLECK. That is all.
I skipped Nocturnal Animals, but I'm going to see Elle (and Huppert herself) tonight...
I saw Moonlight last week. It was instantly my favorite film of the year, dethroning Everybody Wants Some!!. The following day, I caught Arrival. And, again, everything took a step down on my list. Caught The Handmaiden yesterday and am still digesting it. Next up, Loving, and then, for some lighter fare, Fantastic Beasts.
And, suddenly, I'm insanely excited to see Miss Sloane. That and Live By Night will be sometime next week, thanks to SAG screenings.
I saw "Arrival" which is interesting but could have been shorter. The aliens are different but the story was in some ways predictable.
Pretty busy movie going weekend:
Moonlight- Best movie I've seen this year by far. Also, as a gay man, I have never seen a film that relates to me so closely as this one does. Chiron's initial uncertainty, the bullying by his classmates, how alone he feels, everything felt so real.
Arrival- A thoughtful piece of science fiction that amazingly captures the theme of unity and the power of positive communication.
Really
Ally enjoyed Arrival. Amy Adams was terrific.
I watched 'Lawless'. I went for Jessica Chastain and I stayed for Guy Pearce's crazy hairdo and wild suit game. I give it 3 Shia's out of 5.
@Roark: I saw The Handmaiden, appropriately enoough, in a 1920s movie palace a couple of weeks ago. Such a luscious, savory confection of a film thriller, each layer hitting the right sensory notes. Gorgeous production values, a compelling and clever plot that keeps you engaged (and guessing), wonderful acting and tight direction -- Chan-wook Park again proves that he is a master filmmaker.
I flew Sydney to London this weekend, so took the opportunity to catch up on a lot of lesser Marvel/Pixar fluff.
However, I caught Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and my god, I think this might be the most perfect film of the year, absolutely flawless. Both Sam Neill and Julian Dennison give the two strongest male performances of the year (give or take a Ralph Fiennes in A Bigger Splash), and in a just world would both be leading the best actor race. Grade, A*.
We saw Arrival.
Now THAT was interesting.
Packed theatre, but a quiet and attentive audience.
Saw and loved Arrival <3_<3 Villeneuve leaves me chronically underwhelmed but here I think he's put together something simultaneously more deep and more accessible than Interstellar. I hope it breaks the bank.