What did you see this weekend?
check out that monster-sized beard on KONG SKULL ISLAND director Jordan Vogt-Roberts!
After catching up on TV shows like Big Little Lies and Feud, I went to Kong: Skull Island with a friend. Afterwards I eagerly read Chris's review, nodding a long at most of it. It's an easy-sit with surprising charm (mostly by way of John C Reilly's ad libbing... he seriously saves the movie from its paint-by-numbers blockbuster strategy) but wow was it disposable. Will anyone remember anything about it in a year's time?
And this to build a whole franchise on? Not too many of my audience members stayed for the stinger after the credits but that it was an enjoyable visual tease of other iconic kaiju like Godzilla, Ghidra, and Mothra. While the film opened at #1 it seems likely that Warner Bros was looking for much bigger numbers to launch a whole franchise on. The last installment of Godzilla, for example, opened to over $90 million. Perhaps by pairing them in Kong vs Godzilla (due in 2020) they can get closer to $100? Box Office charts for the weekend and some related news items are after the jump...
My how John Wick has grown (as a franchise)TOP WIDE
01 Kong Skull Island $61 NEW Reviewed
02 Logan $37.8 (cum. $152.6) Reviewed
03 Get Out $21 (cum. $111) Reviewed
04 The Shack $10 (cum. $32.2)
05 Lego Batman Movie $7.8 (cum. $159)
06 Before I Fall $3.1 (cum. $9)
07 Hidden Figures $2.7 (cum. $162.8) Podcast
08 John Wick 2 $2.7 (cum. $87.4)
09 La La Land $1.7 (cum. $148.4) How Rare It Is!, on the Production Design, on the Costume Design
10 Fifty Shades Darker $1.6 (cum. $112.9)
11 Lion $1.3 (cum. $48.6) Review, Nicole, Cinematography Interview
12 Fist Fight $1.3 (cum. $30.5)
TOP LIMITED
01 Badrinath Ki Dulhania $850K NEW 152 theaters
02 A United Kingdom $500K (cum. $2.5) 317 theaters
03 Kedi $322K (cum. $1.0) 114 theaters Reviewed
04 The Ottoman Lieutenant $173K NEW 216 theaters
05 The Salesman $170K (cum. $2) 105 theaters Review, Interview
06 Personal Shopper $92K NEW 4 theaters Review, Poster
07 The Last Word $74K (cum. $114K) 25 theaters
08 Paterson $62K (cum. $1.8) 51 theaters Review and the Production Design
09 Land of Mine $60K (cum. $188K) 40 theaters
10 My Life as a Zucchini $55K (cum. $174K) 52 theaters Interview
11 The Sense of an Ending $42K NEW 4 theaters
12 Toni Erdmann $41K (cum. $1.3) 45 theaters Review, on the Screenplay
Notable box office news from the week:
• Kedi became the second documentary to pass the $1 million mark at the US box office this year (the first was the Oscar nominated I Am Not Your Negro). I actually tried to see that this weekend before settling on Kong Skull Island but was alarmed to find that it had already left NYC despite doing so well.
• Paterson inched past Jim Jarmusch's last arthouse hit Only Lovers Left Alive to get a smidgeon closer to 2 million than it did.
• Lion surpassed Manchester by the Sea in last year's Best Picture nominee grosses (it's now the 5th most popular globally and the 6th most popular of the 9 films here at home)
• Moonlight became A24's top grosser in the US (though it's still behind The Witch and Ex-Machina if you're counting their success globally)
• John Wick Chapter Two has now doubled the gross of its predecessor (in domestic box office)
• The Salesman crossed the $2 million mark and is still in over 100 theaters. So, if 2017 is anything like 2016 for foreign films at the box office, it'll end up as one of the top dozen or so foreign hits of this year when all is said and done.