The Film Experience

What did you see this weekend? Here are the charts...

Weekend Box Office (Esimates) (February 15th-17th )
W I D E	PLATFORM / LIMITED

1 🔺 Alita: Battle Angel $27.8 on 3790 screens *NEW*	1 They Shall Not Grow Old $985k on 626 screens (cum. $15.2) Review ★


2 The LEGO Movie Part 2 $21.2 on 4303 screens (cum. $62.6)	2 Cold War $404k on 247 screens (cum. $3.5) Review, Pod, 5th Biggest Foreign Hit ★


3 🔺 Isn't It Romantic $14.2 on 3444 screens *NEW*	3 Stan & Ollie $260k on 210 screens (cum. $4.7) Review ★


4 What Men Want $10.9 on 2912 screens (cum. $36.1)	4 🔺 Arctic $256k on 63 screens (cum. $445k)


5 🔺 Happy Death Day 2 U $9.8 on 3207 screens *NEW*	5 🔺 Capernaum $193k on 136 screens (cum. $993k) Interview, Pod, Foreign Nominee ★


6 Cold Pursuit $6.0 on 2630 screens (cum. $21.1) Liam Neeson in hot water	6 🔺 Everybody Knows $191k on 23 screens (cum. $286k) Cannes opener


7 The Upside $5.5 on 2781 screens (cum. $94.1)	7 Free Solo $180k on 108 screens (cum. $16.2) Review, 2nd Biggest Doc Hit, Doc Nominee ★


8 Glass $3.8 on 2449 screens (cum. $104.4) Review	8 🔺 Never Look Away $135k on 31 screens (cum. $259k) Review, Foreign Nominee


9 The Prodigy $3.1 on 2530 screens (cum. $11.0)	9 🔺 Fighting With My Family $131k on 4 screens *NEW* Review


10 Green Book $2.7 on 1618 screens (cum. $65.7) Review, Podcast, Best Pic Nominee	10 The Wife $69k on 77 screens (cum. $9.2) Interview, Best Actress

As it turns out this weekend was the worst President's Day Weekend at the box office in well over a decade, despite Alita: Battle Angel overperforming (versus expectations if not versus its own behemoth budget). 2019 has only produced two real hits so far (Glass & The Upside) though that's likely to change with How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World arriving next week and Captain Marvel arriving on March 8th.

All the Oscar titles are on their last legs except for the slow burns (aka the foreign films). In fact, every Oscar nominee (barring the shorts) that isn't already on streaming or DVD is scheduled to arrive between February 19th (A Star is Born) and April 9th (Mirai) with the exceptions of Vice, Mary Poppins Returns, and the foreign or doc titles Cold War, Hale County, Capernaum, and Never Look Away none of which have announced their video dates yet. But one assumes most of them will show up by late April if not sooner.

Though Pawel Pawlikowski's thrice-nominated romantic drama Cold War has begun to lose theaters, it will soon outgross his previous Oscar-winner Ida. In fact, Cold War is now the 5th biggest foreign language hit of 2018 and in the top twenty highest grossing foreign-nominated hits of this young century. By the end of its run we assume it will be the third highest grossing foreign film of 2018, behind only Bollywood titles (which rarely need media support to do well) and that's quite an accomplishment! One has to assume it would have been the Oscar frontrunner in its category in any year wherein Netflix hadn't poured bajillions of dollars into making sure Roma happened across the board.

Did any of you hit AMC's Best Picture showcase or other movies this weekend?