Box Office Before the Civil War
Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 7:00PM No, not that civil war. Movies weren't invented yet.
Next weekend Hollywood is steering completely clear of Captain America: Civil War on four trillion screens. Nobody's even trying to counterprogram but just conceding Disney/Marvel's complete dominion over pop culture. Unless of course you are talking arthouse where the sexiest quartet imaginable will be f***ing around in A Bigger Splash. So before Civil War destroys the box office whilst simultaneously ushering in summer movie season and embarrassing its weird thematic twin predecessor Dawn of Justice, here's a look at where the box office for the year stands in four categories along with links to reviews if we did them (though we've been doing a ton more reviews of late the biggest hits seem to have eluded us in most categories).
How many of these pictures have you seen and what did you take in this weekend? I went to Keanu which rustled up just 9 million this weekend. I was sad to feel shruggy about it since I love kittens and Key & Peele but you can only tell the same few jokes so many times...
TOP TEN OF 2016 THUS FAR
01 Deadpool $361+ Reviewish
02 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice $325+ Review
03 Zootopia $323+ Reviewish
04 The Jungle Book $252+
05 Kung Fu Panda 3 $142+
06 Ride Along 2 $90+
07 10 Cloverfield Lane $71+
08 Divergent Series: Allegiant $65+
09 London Has Fallen $65+
10 Miracles From Heaven $59+
TOP TEN (NON-FRANCHISE)
01 Zootopia $323+ Reviewish
02 Miracles From Heaven $59+
03 The Boss $56+ Review
04 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi $52+
05 How to Be Single $46+
06 Risen $36+
07 The Boy $35+
08 Dirty Grandpa $35+
09 Gods of Egypt $31+ Reviewish
10 Hail, Caesar! $30+ A Secret Musical?
TOP TEN FOREIGN FILMS
01 The Mermaid $3.2 (China)
02 Ip Man 3 $2.6 on (Hong Kong)
03 Kapoor & Sons - Since 1921 $2.6 (India)
04 Compadres $2.3 (Mexico)
05 Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer $1.7 (Mexico)
06 Fan $1.6 (India)
07 Neerja $1.5 (India)
08 Embrace of Serpent $1.2 (Colombia) Review | Interview
09 Wazir $1.1 (India)
10 Ki & Ka $.8 (India)
TOP TEN DOCUMENTARIES
01 Where to Invade Next $3.8 Glenn's Review, Manuel's Review
02 Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus $.9
03 City of Gold $.5
04 The First Monday in May $.3 Interview
05 Francophonia $.1
06 Vaxed: From Cover Up to Conspiracy $.1
07 Requiem for the American Dream $.1
08 Colliding Dreams $.06 (Colombia)
09 Trapped $.06 Review
10 Los Sures $.06
Reader Comments (19)
There's nothing in theatres grabbing my attention, but that's fine, because I could give all the time I want to Lemonade, as is my duty to the Queen (although I took a time out to watch Rust & Bone when I needed a Schoenaerts fix.)
As far as the charts go, I've been weirdly obsessed with tracking Zootopia's progress in overtaking the Batman movie. Should pass it next week, which I will consider a minor victory for some inexplicable reason.
Like Mike, I also saw LEMONADE this weekend. Write-in vote for HMWYBS? Would that be too obvious?
Also ended up seeing PURPLE RAIN at an AMC theater. First time seeing the movie actually. It was... fine. Actually, it was quite bad. But the song is amazing as always.
Tammy is a better movie than The Boss. The next time McCarthy wants to employ Kathy Bates make space for her in one of your movies directed by a real director and written by a real writer that means you and your husband are frauds in that department.
Here in the UK we were treated to Jake Gyllenhall shaving his pecs in Demolition.
The middle third aside I thought it was an interesting study of dealing with grief in a disconnected world - however that middle third was incredibly grating.
Can't say I recommend it, but not as dreadful as many reviewers have said.
Oh, and did I mention Jake shaves his pecs... repeatedly?
I saw "Sing Street", which is absolutely the most delightful film i've seen in a while. It hooked me right from the start, and the songs are stuck in my head. The film deserves to gross whatever Civil War will gross its opening weekend.
Went to see PURPLE RAIN at a sold out 1200-seat cinema that ended up like a rock concert. It was great. Cheering and dancing and whistling and it was wonderful.
At the movies I saw Cap America v Iron Man-and it was great fun with som actual brains! Already psyched for the next Spider-Man movie since he was among the best things in this movie.
At home: Grandma, I´ll see you in my dreams-two small gems-and finally James White, devastating but very good.
If Francophonia is the Sukorov film Francofonia, it's not a documentary.
IFFBoston happening. Man, I love short film and doc screenings at festivals--and if the filmmakers are in attendance, they seem SO HAPPY to be there! Also, saw a muscle-ly, half-naked Matthias Schoenaerts in an entertaining yet forgettable French thriller. TFE fav Melanie Lynskey has two films: seeing The Intervention on Wednesday but missed the screening of Folk Hero & Funny Guy, also with Wyatt Russell.
I saw Leonardo Da Vinci: Genius of Milan.
It was nice to finally see something that's okay to linger in my mind, since the last movies I've seen are Huntsman, Greek Wedding, Criminal, Miracles from Heaven (ugh, that one gave me nightmares).
It was also a nice reminder from the Da Vinci experts that really smart people have great enthusiasm and are interested in everything.
Just looking at these Top Ten lists, it's quite discouraging to see how far behind we already are this year in quality. Guess they'll be releasing 20 Oscar-bait films on New Year's Eve. Sigh.
This week I saw;
CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR I love LOVE the big battle scene. The Russos are great at balancing seriousness and comedy. I don't know how they did it but it's fun without feeling like a fake-out fight. MVP for me is definitely Ant-Man. Paul Rudd is friggin' hilarious. Spider-Man segment gives me so much hope for the reboot. Then I realize the director is Jon Watts who did nothing for me in Cop Car. Great ensemble.
HIGH-RISE Very stylish. I dig the first half hardcore only to be dissappointed by the wandering second half. Interesting allegory for Capitalism and its downfall. Definitely looking forward to new projects from Ben Wheatley.
THE WITCH Genuinely scary. Everytime the screen cuts to black, I'm like, do not stop pleaseeee. Like a kid who was scared of frightening ghost stories but couldn't get enough of them. So glad to see it in theatre.
Great week for me Cinematically.
Saw SING STREET, loved it. Such a sweet crowd-pleaser of a movie, but with darker notes that save it from being overly saccharine. And musically glorious - I've never been a fan of the '80s, but it's such a great tribute to the era I'm considering getting the soundtrack.
"Sing Street" lived up to the hype. Has an odd imbalance of underdeveloped characters, but only because the film invests so much in the primary relationships, to great effect. Low in plot but high in charm.
Watched "The Little Foxes" for the first time, and was underwhelmed during but like it more in retrospect. The craft and concept is stronger than the actual experience of watching it - the story is indifferent, but they certainly put in the effort to make a quality production out of it.
I saw Five Million Years to Earth, a British movie from 1968 about an alien invasion. It was interesting, better than I expected.
It was a music-and-movies week for me -- Under the Cherry Moon, Purple Rain, Lemonade (not quite a "movie" but visually so satisfying) and Sing Street, which is sort of slight in its story but really really fun to watch.
Steve Jobs and Straight Outta Comption, each about a subject that changed the cultural landscape but still very different films. I can't say which I enjoyed more, but there is much to appreciate about both. I haven't seen that much fire in a Winslet performance in ages, and the more I see of Giamatti, the less I want to see of him.
Jija: The best thing about Marvel Studios is that 1. They have a loose spine of where things have to be at the end of a certain movie and 2. They understand that diluting a director a little (say 70% strength instead of 100%) can pull out the best in them. (100% strength James Gunn gave us Super and Lollipop Chainsaw. 70% strength James Gunn gave us Guardians of the Galaxy.)
@Volvagia That's an interesting assessment. Let's hope 70% of Watts and Scott Derrickson give us something wonderful.