Sunday
Apr212019
Easter Weekend Box Office
Sunday, April 21, 2019 at 6:34PM Happy Easter. It's the quiet before the Avengers: Endgame storm at the nation's theaters.
| Weekend Box Office Estimates April 19th-21st (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count / ★= Recommended |
|
| W I D E 800+ screens |
PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES excluding wide releases losing screens |
 Curse of La Llorona |
 Kalank |
| 1 🔺 Curse of La Llorona $26.5 *NEW* REVIEW |
1🔺 Kalank $1.2 on 320 screens *NEW* |
| 2 Shazam $17.3 (cum. $121.3) |
2 🔺 Amazing Grace $591k on 188 screens (cum. $1.3) |
| 3 🔺 Breakthrough $11.1 *NEW* |
3 🔺 High Life $292k on 146 screens (cum. $688k) ★ REVIEW, PODCAST |
| 4 Captain Marvel $9.1 (cum. $400) REVIEW, BIGGEST HITS 1ST QTR |
4 🔺 Teen Spirit $250k on 696 screens (cum. $305k) REVIEW |
| 5 Little $8.4 (cum. $29.3) |
5 🔺 The Chaperone $86k on 55 screens (cum. $222k) |
Kalank, a big-budget Bollywood spectacle opened in India and the US on the same day (!) and topped the box office in limited release while the Elle Fanning led Teen Spirit received a disastrous reception in its nearly wide expansion taking in just $360 per screen. Meanwhile at the multiplexes, The Curse of La Llorona which is "sort of" part of The Conjuring franchise (though not officially?) opened at #1 for wide releases and Captain Marvel inched over $400 million domestic in its 7th week of release, somehow returning to the top five despite a continued (if unusually slow) loss of screens. What did you see this weekend?
Reader Comments (14)
We had the first weekend of the Spanish Film Festival here in Australian cities, so I saw THE REALM and PETRA. The latter is amazing, and I hope it is considered (and ultimately nominated) as Spain's Oscar contender (it opened in October in Spain, so hopefully that means it is in the eligibility window).
And will see BURNING this afternoon (finally opened in Australia) - can't wait!
I saw "Shazam" and loved it. Zachary Levi is charming and funny as Captain Marvel- yes the original one- even though in the movie he is never called that. The kid actors were excellent too . I liked how the minority characters were organically integrated into the story. The movie like everything now was too long- but it was a lot of fun- and everything a light comic book movie should be
I saw Amazing Grace, and if you need a recommendation, you must be Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense. Starts at thrilling and just keeps going from there.
“Little” with Issa Rae. Amusing with a charming cast. Although I think I would have liked a movie just about Issa Rae better.
TEEN SPIRIT - which I loved, especially after the darker Pop star films last year (VOX LUX, A STAR IS BORN).
US - I enjoyed although expectations were pretty high. Lupita is a national treasure.
I saw "Paprika" at a Seattle Cinerama showing of Anime films this weekend. I really hits all the points that I didn't like about "Inception" - it makes no sense, and you don't know where you are in dream vs. reality at any moment (it predates "Inception"). Just really beautiful filmmaking.
Rebecca: So you mean that Inception makes too much sense and you always know you're in the dream. I mean, I don't necessarily think those are the only things or even the main things wrong with Inception (Persona 5, people. If you want "Inception, but it's not average forgettable junk", there ya go), but they're definitely part of the issue.
I saw High Life. I had to fight to stay awake. What a load of nothing.
"Inception" is one of Nolan's best movie - but it was not made for lazy viewers - you have to pay attention to know what is a dream and what is real- and the point of the movie is that sometimes is hard to tell the differece
High Life - I found it mostly to be arthouse schlock. The set design was terrible and the characters did not act naturally, I did not connect to any of them. The positive was Robert Pattinson and his ability to hold the screen.
Mary Magdalene - Interesting and generally a good film, but I thought the casting was off. Rooney was good, but I can picture other actresses fitting with the role better. Phoenix felt like a very strange choice as Jesus, just not right for the part.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote - I enjoyed that all the actors especially Driver and Pryce are all in with their performances. An overall enjoyable mess, the film is definitely a director pet project that hits more than misses.
Jaragon: First off, I didn't even say that mostly being able to delineate dreams and reality is Inception's main problem. The main problem is that the dreamscape on display is so boring to look at or think about. (Which, again, Persona 5 blows Inception out of the water there.) Secondly: Hi, Nightmare on Elm Street called. It does the "is this dream or is this real" atmosphere way better than Inception ever did, at least at the start of its scares.
Long Day's Journey Into Night - I prepared for it by watching the director's previous feature, Kaili Blues, on the Criterion Channel (which is a great service by the way), but although I enjoyed that movie, I was blow away by this one. It's stunning and hypnotic. I definitely see the influence of Wong Kar Wai and Andrei Tarkovsky in Bi Gan's filming, but he takes those influences and makes them into something very much his own. The way he utilizes long shots is remarkable from a technical level, but it's the mood he builds by allowing you to inhabit a real time space with his characters that is so impressive. It's fascinating how a lack of cutting creates a cumulative feeling that's thrilling. (Although if you're not into slow movies, you might end up like someone else in the theater who started snoring halfway through the movie.)
High Life had quite the opposite effect on me. It was uncomfortable to watch but I was never bored and it is really thought-provoking and for the most part emotionally engaging. I remembered a Claire Denis' interview where she said that she wants the film to be something movie-watchers will talk about afterwards and what aspects of the film failed to convince others as a reflection of how they view life in general (not an exact translation). I guess what I like about the film is the manipulation of time so that tonally similar events are somehow grouped together regardless of linearity to heighten the emotional crescendoes of Monte and the crew of 'miscreants' and how each reacted to their space mission. Also, very little is explained in the film which allowed me to connect the dots on my own -- love that ambiguity. Plus, Juliette Binoche is a brave actress. I actually love her participation here than any of her recent critical turns. My friend said he was never bored while watching it but he won't be seeing it again anytime soon even if we are both fans of Tindersticks and will watch anything with them in it, live or recorded.
I also saw Missing Link earlier in the week. Enjoyable and touching: especially the search for one's family based on bio-anthropological similarities and finding that that may not happen. So home may not be where you are ethnically rooted. Found the Adelina character fascinating -- my kind of girl!
Finally saw Three Identical Strangers -- I knew something disturbing will be revealed later when the opening scenes are happy and salubrious. How the film shifted emotionally during the course of the narrative made me reflect on the big debates such as nature vs nurture, to what extent is research ethical, and the nature of kinship and brotherhood in the spectacle-obsessed society. I will be thinking more about this documentary for a long time.
Also got around to seeing "US" and enjoyed it also. Expectations were too high, as it began to slog towards the end. Does have a <spoiler>SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Birds type ending so part 2? </spoiler?