Lupita & Jordan Strike Gold
Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 6:52PM The huge launch of the new buzzy horror flick Us proved three things. First, that horror is the most reliable genre outside of superheroes for automatically high grosses. Second, that Get Out was no one hit wonder and Jordan Peele's name in the director's chair is something to remain excited about. Third, that Lupita Nyong'o has zero trouble carrying a big picture as its leading lady (which we knew the second we fell for her in 12 Years a Slave but it took six long years for it to actually become fact.) Please no more voice or mo-cap roles, are you listening Hollywood/Lupita's management? We want HER onscreen, not just her voice onscreen with her glamour on red carpets. More after the jump...
| Weekend Box Office (Estimates) (March 22nd-24th) / 🔺 = new or expanded theater counts |
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| W I D E |
PLATFORM / LIMITED |
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| 1 🔺 Us $70.2 on 3741 screens *NEW* SNEAK PEAK, REVIEW |
1 🔺 Gloria Bell $1.8 (cum. $2.4) on 654 screens REVIEW, JULI LEADS |
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| 2 Captain Marvel $35 (cum. $321.4) on 4278 screens REVIEW |
2 No Manches Frida 2 $1.7 (cum. $6.6) on 472 screens |
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| 3 Wonder Park $9 (cum. $29.4) on 3838 screens |
3 Apollo 11 $800k on 586 screens (cum. $6.8) |
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| 4 Five Feet Apart $8.7 (cum. $26.4)on 2866 screens |
4 Badla $237k (cum. $1.7) on 97 screens |
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| 5 How To Train Your Dragon 3 $6.5 (cum. $145.7) on 3347 screens | 5 🔺 The Mustang $228k on 38 screens (cum. $321k) |
What did you see this weekend? Films not making the top five but nevertheless which had good weekends were the haunting German drama Transit (review / interview) which picked up a couple dozen more theaters and is nearing $400,000 at arthouses, and Hotel Mumbai (review) which opened to $86k on 4 screens.
It's also worth noting that Oscar nominated Never Look Away inched past the magic $1 million mark in its 17th week of release, reminding us again how unusually popular this past season's Oscar nominees in the foreign film category were (it's extremely rare to have a year where all five are hits -- even four of the five crossing $1 million is unusual -- and this past season all five were if you count Roma, though we'll never know how much that one made since Netflix refused to report figures. For all we know it flopped in limited release while everyone waited to watch it on Netflix)
Reader Comments (24)
Movies headlined by Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Brie Larson, and Haley Lu Richardson? What a good weekend.
Us. Saw it twice already. And have not found my entry into how to properly review it.
Thanx for the Words to Lupitas Management! More LEADING or great supporting Roles for her please!!! She is pure Gold in everything!
I saw Us yesterday and man, it's fucking awesome. Lupita Nyong'o for Best Actress.
I saw Almodóvar's Dolor y gloria. Spanish critics are going bananas with this one, calling it his best movie ever. It improves Julieta (no biggie), but I don't think is better than Volver. It is very sad, almost crepuscular.
Five Feet Apart - saw it for Haley and she's expectedly wonderful. She's gonna be big. The rest is exactly what you'd expect
Shazam! - all the comparisons to Shoplifters are apt. The ensemble is so so wonderful. It's a lot of fun. But ugh I despise the third acts of superhero films. Can they please try something else now?
Transit - my favorite film of the year so far. Wonderful, haunting and possibly better than Phoenix, though it doesn't have a moment as exquisite as Speak Low. This is gonna stick with me for a while
Saw Us and then Captain Marvel a second time. I do love me a couple of Oscar-winning leading ladies--Brie and Lupita.
I was underwhelmed by "Us" but Lupita is wonderful. I want her in everything, ever.
I saw Us. The movie is great and I love Lupita in it, but not enough to grant another Oscar nom.
What Craver said.
Let's just not overhype performances once again.
Lupita deserves another Oscar nomination. F**k all that other noise.
Lupita is incredible in it but I happen to think US otherwise is actually a pretty significant step down from the brilliance of GET OUT.
It was an Us kind of weekend for me, and while I'm still ruminating on its broader themes, what I can say with certainty is that it thoroughly entertained me. Lupita already had the reviews to warrant another Oscar nod, but hopefully, that titanic box-office haul will help sustain her momentum throughout the rest of the year.
On a separate but related note, is Hollywood finally ready to accept black-female-led movies as something other than niche yet? When something as middling as last year's Breaking In with Gabrielle Union can make $51 million against a $6 million budget, the suits can't keep denying the market.
"Black movies don't make money"
"Movies focused on powerful women don't make money"
Hillarious
Gloria Bell - Really fun, and Julianne was stupendous; her fragility and warmth brought a lot to the film. She would have easily made my 2018 Oscar line-up.
Transit - Not sure I liked this better than Phoenix (which I thought was a masterpiece) but it is very worth seeing. Christian Petzold is one of the directors whose films I'll never miss.
The Inventor - Alex Gibney can be a great filmmaker when he behaves like an investigator (Going Clear, Maxima Mea Culpa, The Smartest Guys in the Room); he needs to stop making these disposable documentaries that basically summarize first-rate more in-depth material on his topic of choice. This was entertaining enough for me because I'd read Bad Blood and was interested in putting faces with the names, but this would be a really poor introduction to the Holmes/Theranos affair.
Saw US and loved it. I definitely want to see it again!
Where is the love for Climax? America keeps disappointing me.
Saw Us and loved a lot of it. Lupita is great and anyone who can work the magic she did with that incredibly challenging fireplace monologue is definitely worth of Oscar nom discussion.
The whole cast is fantastic, really. It's just the ending that let me down. I think there are some major holes but I could have just missed something. I'm going to watch a few videos explaining it to see if I missed some dialogue or something.
Also finally saw Three Identical Strangers and holy crap. I even knew about the plot twist, if you will, ahead of time, but still had no idea how big the big picture really was.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. This HBO documentary is fascinating, largely because I can't believe that so many people were duped by the vague and strangely acting Elizabeth Holmes.
RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars (Season 4). The best of the best. Highly entertaining.
@/3rtful I hope you do not mean you are writing a review on this site as your ramblings are the writings of a middle-schooler!!
Disappointed that no one's thirsted for the guys in No Manches Frida yet.
Also saw The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and one of the Lone Wolf and Cub films. If I get pumped I might write about them.
Anybody who’s in the UK or has access to UK television and is NOT watching Fleabag S2 is a complete idiot! Last week’s episode with Kristin Scott Thomas was fantastic.
Best comment overheard about US: “Not sure what the fuck I just watched, but that was awesome. And, Lupita, just, wow!”
Re The Inventor, agree that it’s not one of Gibney’s best, but the segments with the Fortune mag editor showed how difficult it can be when journalistic integrity is bashed to bits. That guy was actually crying. And Holmes is creepy AF. Are we sure she isn’t AI?
rdf - I think /3rtful is launching his own blog and is just hyping up to the release of the domain name in the comments. What can I say, I'd give it a curiosity click.
I rewatched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It may not be the greatest movie ever made, but that Ellen Burstyn really lays it all out there. And we all need more Diane Ladd in our lives.