by Nathaniel R
| Weekend Box Office (Sept 29th-October 1st) |
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| W I D E 800+ screens |
L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide |
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| 1. KINGSMAN 2 $16.9 (cum. $66.6) | 1.🔺 TIL DEATH DO US PART $1.5 on 562 screens |
| 2. IT $16.9 (cum. $290.7) REVIEW | 5 TAKEAWAYS | 2.🔺 VICTORIA AND ABDUL $1 on 77 screens (cum. $1.3) |
| 3. 🔺 AMERICAN MADE $16.7 | 3.🔺 A QUESTION OF FAITH $1 on 661 screens |
| 4. LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE $11.6 (cum. $35.2) | 4. 🔺 STRONGER $922k on 645 screens (cum. $3.1) REVIEW |
| 5. 🔺 FLATLINERS $6.5 | 5. 🔺 JUDWAA 2 $638k on 192 screens |
| 6. 🔺 BATTLE OF THE SEXES $3.4 (cum. $4) | 6. BRAD'S STATUS $400k on 453 screens (cum. $1.7) REVIEW |
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
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A bit late on the quickie box office chart this week but for a good reason. The race for #1 was so tight between three films that it took til Monday to clear it up with the Kingsman sequel topping and the new Tom Cruise actioner American Made on bottom...
Less than $200,000 separate the top grossers -- a rare three-way squeaker). In the platform release world Battle of the Sexes expanded nicely into wide release (go see it!) and Victoria & Abdul continues to be a big draw at the arthouse because the elderly audience still actually goes to movie theaters even though Hollywood rarely thinks to cater directly to them. I know people think I've overestimated Judi Dench in the Best Actress race but I still think she's quite a formidable threat for a nomination. Stronger, which jerks tears with abandon, didn't hold as well as we thought it would in its second week but you should still expect Jake Gyllenhaal to be a force in the currently quiet Best Actor race. Tatiana Maslany (a lead though Oscar will never think so) and Miranda Richardson will both have a much harder time in the jam-packed Supporting Actress race (freshly updated chart!) but they're very good in the movie.
What did you see this weekend? I've been utterly swamped with the Smackdown, a new job (which maybe more about soon but something's gotta pay the bills when you don't donate a cup of coffee a month to TFE), various personal life stuff, and a farewell to one of my dearest four-legged friends [True story: my two best friends and I all got baby kittens within a year of each other shortly after college from 1997-1998 and they took turns leaving us in roughly the order of their birth/adoption in 2016-2017. Many pet-related tears this past year.]
The past handful of days have been so busy that I didn't manage to catch even one movie, play, or TV show (not even the Will & Grace return). Days on end without any movies, tv, or plays tend to throw my moods out of whack -- does that happen to any of you?. To quote nervous moving target Judy Davis in the seminal Husbands and Wives (1992)
Metabolically it's not my rhythm".