T'was a good weekend for Pedro, Joaquin, JLo, and Renée
Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 1:00PM | Weekend Box Office [Actuals] Oct 4th -6th 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| W I D E |
PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES |
 Joker |
 Pain & Glory |
| 1 🔺 Joker $96.2 *new* REVIEW |
1 🔺 War $1.6 on 305 screens *new* |
| 2 Abominable $11.9 (cum. $37.7) |
2 🔺 My People My Country $875k on 70 screens *new* |
| 3 Downton Abbey $7.9 (cum. $73.6) DAME MAGGIE |
3 Linda Ronstadt... $289k on 204 screens (cum. $2.7) REVIEW |
| 4 Hustlers $6.3 ($91.4) REVIEW, PODCAST, COSTUME DESIGN, SOUNDTRACKING ★ |
4 🔺 The Climbers $156k on 102 screens *new* |
| 5 It Chapter Two $5.3 (cum. $202.1) |
5 🔺 Pain and Glory $152k on 4 screens *new* REVIEW, PODCAST ★ |
| 6 Judy $4.5 (cum. $9) TELLURIDE PREMIERE, PODCAST |
6 🔺 Where's My Roy Cohn? $79k on 26 screens (cum. $222k) |
| 7 Ad Astra $4.1 (cum. $43.2) REVIEW ★ |
7 Promare $79k on 33 screens (cum. $1.2) |
numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo
The only thing predictable in the US these days, besides the president being idiotic / causing damage to the nation and world, is that superhero or superhero adjacent movies will open huge. If we were to attempt to explain their ever growing appeal -- the trend shows no signs of waning (if anything it's growing) -- we might conjecture that with the world falling apart around us everyone is feeling increasingly powerless to stop it. Thus the fantasy / popularity of the superpowered or super-powered adjacent. Who knows but Joker easily beat the previous October record set by Venom last year.
In other box office news, Judy went wide after just one week in moderate release. The biopic of the World's Greatest Entertainer is quite a showcase for the long lost Renée Zellweger so good on her for making the most of it. It expanded well with the second best per screen average among the wide releases this week (first place going to Joker, naturally).
In other actress/Oscar buzzy JLo is still filling movie theaters a month after Hustlers' release and the well reviewed stripper drama is looking good to cross the $100 million mark soon.
FINALLY... A PEDRO PARTY!
Pedro Almodóvar's latest, the Oscar buzzy Pain & Glory (reviewed) which is "auto-fiction" of his own life, opened on four screens with the weekend's best per screen average $40k per theater which is fairly typical for a Pedro opening. Pedro has been consistently popular in US arthouses since 1988's international breakthrough Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (only Matador and Law of Desire came to US theaters before it). None of his films since have ever collected less than a million in US theaters and they're generally about five to ten times more popular overseas. Pain and Glory is coming into its American release having already collected $28 million abroad (putting it just ahead of the global popularity of The Skin I Live In). Will it also score here? It's tough to say because with Almodóvar pictures, it's always about whether or not they grow legs.
Pedro's biggest hits in the US (adjusted for inflation)
- VOLVER (2006) $17.1
Oscar nomination Best Actress. This is easily his top grosser overseas as well, give or take Women on the Verge since that arrived before box office reporting was as thorough so we don't know. Regardless, Volver's Oscar snub in Foreign Film is still utterly mystifying all these years later given that its easily one of the great films of its decade and was very popular in the US, too. - WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988) $15.7
Oscar nomination Foreign Film - ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (1999) $13.9
Oscar win Foreign Film - TALK TO HER (2002) $13.9
Oscar win Original Screenplay - TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! (1990) $8.7
- BAD EDUCATION (2004) $7.3
Both of those two pictures are in the top six highest grossing NC-17 pictures of all time, both roughly about as popular as Ang Lee's Lust, Caustion (2007) - BROKEN EMBRACES (2009) $5.7
- KIKA (1994) $4.3
- HIGH HEELS (1991) $3.7
- THE SKIN I LIVE IN (2011) $3.6
His least popular post-Women picture in the US, whether or not you adjust for inflation, is Julieta (2016) --no, it's not I'm So Excited (2013) though that's what you were surely thinking -- but Julieta was a modest success overseas collecting $20 million.
WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?
Reader Comments (29)
Joker. It was unpleasant and disgusting.
Small point: Almodovar's DARK HABITS also opened in the US before WOMEN ON THE VERGE. I remember seeing it in the Spring of 88 while WotV came out at the end of that year. IMDb confirms my memory.
I was taken to a surprise showing of Miss Saigon at a theatre in Los Angeles. I was wondering if the movie version was ever going to happen? I heard they were trying to make one in 2016.
Tom G., my co-workers also saw "Miss Saigon". Probably coming soon, someday...?
Also saw "Joker". Ugly, pessimistic, disturbing. I never felt the film was empathetic to him. He has lots of setbacks and marks against him, but he also makes some of these choices. Definite contender in Actor, Score and Cinematography.
Today is either "Judy" or "Hustlers".
I gave second viewings of Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Anthony Adverse.Ran is such a masterpiece and is my favorite film of his. Anthony Adverse is .... a good film but very strange that this film recieved 7 Oscar nominations and 4 wins. I also watched The Last Black Man In San Francisco and it was jaw dropping. Its the most beautiful film I have seen this year. Jonathan Majors would be a wonderful surprise on Oscar nomination morning as
i loved every line and every mannerism of his performance. Nathaniel do you think Majors has any shot of a nomination?
Bacurau, a terrific westernish flick by the director of Aquarius that won the Prix du Jury in Cannes. It was unexpected, thrilling, daring, hilarious and very political. Highly recommended.
If Joaquin and Renee win Best Actor and Actress next year, both their films will have gone in wide release in the same weekend.
When was the last time Best Actor and Actress' films were released the same weekend (ignoring films where they won for the same film of course)?
Emma -- ooh that's a really good question.
Saw Judy last night. It was fairly well made though except for Renee, the acting was very underwhelming, could have something to do with the writing. Packed house, last time I saw so many Garland fanatics in one place, Rufus Wainwright was on stage.
Oh God, why would we want a Miss Saigon movie version in 2019. Can we just let that problematic property die please.
I saw "It Chapter 2" and the more I think about it the more I hated it. The first movie was well made and scary but this one is not scary at all. The opening scene features a brutal attack on a gay couple which has not pay off dramatically for the rest of the film. It was just nasty and much more disturbing than any of the scenes with Pennywise. The cast of both kids and adults are good but where is the suspense or terror. The creatures look cartoony and they rip off the spider head critter from Carpenter's "The Thing" - now that was a director that knew how to create fear in an audience. This one is just long and self indulgent like the Stephen King cameo
I saw Joker and thought it was striking and disturbing. I had avoided reading much about the film itself or the controversy surrounding it prior to seeing it. It's hard to say I *liked* it since it's a tough watch, but I thought it worked rather well as a character study and Phoenix was absolutely fantastic. Glad I saw it.
@Hepwa Saw Judy last Tuesday and I think Renee Zelwegger might win another Oscar. She did deliver an excellent performance and critics think that too.
Sorry, but don’t be a sheep. Just because you know Nat is a Renee hater doesn’t mean you should be too. We should be happy that we have another good actress back making movies and that a female led movie is making money.
Saw Downton Abbey last night and I was entertained.
Saw Joker. Better than I expected.
I saw Ad Astra for the second time.
It really repays repeat viewings. It’s so beautiful and well thought out.
Brad Pitt reminded me of Humphrey Bogart in some of his great roles. Pitt keeps all the movie star-ness, but also has layers of subtlety, sincerity, ambiguity, and deep feeling.
@goodbar : sorry, but dont be a sheep, just because you know Nat is a Renee hater doesnt mean you should be too ....i love this quote !!!!!!....you are soooooo true !!!!
I wonder what nathaniel gonna say when he write full review JUDY next.
I'll wait !!!!!!!
When most crtics praise zellwegger performance in Judy, almost all critics writes Renee so good in it, i wonder what haters gonna say about it ?
Relax, y'all. Nat isn't a Renée "hater," she just isn't his favorite actress. In fact, if you've been following TFE for the past two decades, you'll know that he actually championed her in Bridget Jones' Diary, Nurse Betty, etc. And Judy is his canon for him, so there's that, too.
I saw yesterday JOKER, i think Joaquin Phoenix will going to win best actor the next year. I felt very empathic with the character, he was a men that need to be loved, to be respect. i love seeing movies where you can understand the pain and that's what i felt with joker.
We were on our way to see Hustlers when a friend invited us to roller derby instead. So I got my lesbian card punched.
Deborah - LOL. Either way, really ;) but yay roller derby
Yesterday afternoon the husband and I took in Judy, which met my middling expectations as a film on the whole, but Renee Zellweger's commitment to the material indeed pulls it above where it would rest without her. The seems of her workmanship do show intermittently, but overall effect of her performance does come through.
Does anyone else think that subplot with the gay couple is pandering and unnecessary?
Judy really rewards low expectations. It’s not going to win a screenplay Oscar but it’s a charming and lively picture. I liked the way it was shot, particularly the musical sequences. Set your expectations wherever you want for Zellweger; I think she’ll exceed them.
Makes me wish people had just told me The Wife was a bad movie with a great performance in it. I would've had much less cognitive dissonance to resolve when I discovered how bad it was.
One key difference between those filmss is that Judy’s faults (like the contrived gay couple storyline) sneakily give Zellweger more to play, thus enhancing the performance. And the flashbacks don’t steal 30 percent of the movie as they seemed to in The Wife.
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I agree with the poster about It 2's opening scene,uncecessary,ott,made me hate the rest of the film.
@jJaragon & markgordonuk: Agree 100%. The brutal gay-bashing scene was in the book IT, but IT 2 drops it in with no context whatsoever, never circles back to it or mentions the scene again, so it comes across as this weird, kind of heartlessly recreated moment without purpose. The scene was in the book to help illustrate the malevolence that the IT creature created in the town, and how it would appear in scenes of violence and hate to feed. As I recall the gay bashers did not come to a good end in the book - they were at least arrested. The moviemakers could have done a minimal amount of work to give the scene have some meaning in the overall scheme of the film.
It was the single worst scene I have seen in a film for a long time,I wanted to leave the cinema.
The problem I have with the gay bashing scene it has nothing to do with the story- at first I thought the gay guy who survives was going to be one of the members of the looser club but no he simply vanishes. They did make one of the Looser Club kids gay- but it's one of those gay characters that does nothing gay in the film - he has no love interest at all- as least they could have him met the survivor from the opening bashing scene. The other problem I had with It 2 is that it's not scary at all unless you find over done CGI critters scary.
I hope it pops up on people's worst scenes this year.