by Nathaniel R
I'm eager to get back to regular moviegoing. I love festival season but being so far ahead of the game has drawbacks. Unlike most pundits/critics/bloggers whatever you want to call people, I don't especially like the system of the media seeing movies months before the public. Mostly because I like actually discussing them with you! So when it comes to regular releases you're probably ahead of me. Have you seen A Simple Favor or Predator or The Nun or Peppermint or White Boy Rick or Lizzie? It's easy for us at TFE to miss films that open in theaters during the heat of festival season.
And now the box office charts of the weekends with links to our reviews and such if they exist...
| Weekend Box Office Estimates (September 14-16th) |
|
| W I D E 800+ screens |
PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide |
 |
 |
| 1. THE PREDATOR $24 *NEW* |
1. 🔺 THE WIFE $1.2 on 541 screens (cum. $3.5) Review, Poster Blurb, Glenn's Oscar |
 |
 |
| 2. THE NUN $18.2 (cum. $85) Nun Movies |
2. JULIET, NAKED $288k on 265 screens (cum. $3) |
 |
 |
| 3. 🔺 A SIMPLE FAVOR $16 *NEW* |
3. YA VEREMOS $280k on 254 screens (cum. $3.8) |
Thrilled that The Wife is expanding with such ease and confidence. Go get that Oscar, Glenn! That said, it won't have much more time for itself as the most viable "adult-appeal counterprogramming" option since heavy-hitter Oscar bait stuff is about to open like First Man and A Star is Born. (I expect First Man will do well at the box office and that A Star is Born will be a blockbuster) it was an absurd year to think we needed a "popular movie" Oscar category since many of the Oscar hopefuls are going to make bank.
I'm very curious about A Simple Favor -- did you see it? -- what good timing for it that Henry Golding just made such a splash in Crazy Rich Asians. We're so proud of Crazy Rich Asians for taking less money than Netflix offerede and choosing theatrical distribution instead. There's no way it would have helped so much in changing the game for Asian actors if it had just been a streaming title.
 |
 |
| 4. 🔺 WHITE BOY RICK $8.8 *NEW* |
4. THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $106k on 95 screens (cum. $12) Review |
 |
 |
| 5. CRAZY RICH ASIANS $8.7 (cum. $149.5) Review, Yeoh, Podcast, Best of Summer Lists |
5. BLAZE $73k on 34 screens (cum. $349k) |
 |
 |
| 6.PEPPERMINT $6 (cum. $24.2) |
6. 🔺 WHERE HANDS TOUCH $70k on 103 screens *NEW* |
 |
 |
| 7. THE MEG $3.8 (cum. $137) Review |
7. 🔺 LIZZIE $49k on 4 screens *NEW* Review |
 |
 |
| 8. SEARCHING $3.2 (cum. $19.6) Review, John Cho |
8. PUZZLE $39k on 60 screens (cum. $1.8) |
 |
 |
| 9. 🔺 UNBROKEN: PATH TO REDEMPTION $2.3 *NEW* |
9. LEAVE NO TRACE $34k on 76 screens (cum. $6) |
 |
 |
| 10. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT $2.3 (cum. $216.1) Review, Podcast, Best of Summer Lists | 10. 🔺WE THE ANIMALS $28k on 48 screens (cum. $338k) Review, Interview, Best of Summer Lists |
| 🔺 = new or expanding theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo |
|
Sadly We the Animals (hanging on at the bottom of the indie top ten) never caught on. It's so good. I suspect this is its last expansion since the per screen average is now very low.
Three movies with stars were also released with very little, if any, promotion this weekend: Julianne Moore as an opera singer in Bel Canto on two screens (it made $14,000), Gael García Bernal as a thief in Museo on one screen (it made $17,500 and it's very good!), and Emma Thompson as a conflicted judge in The Children Act on 3 screens (it made $14,000).
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?