What did you see over the long weekend? Yours truly had a visitor in town so we were doing the touristy things and Aladdin was the movie of choice (not ours!)
Four Day Holiday Weekend Box Office
May 24th-27th
🔺 = new or expanded theater counts / ★ = highly recommended |
W I D E
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PLATFORM / LIMITED
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1 🔺 Aladdin $116.8 on 4476 screens *new* 1992 RETRO
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1 🔺 Biggest Little Farm $679k on 181 screens (cum. $1.2) |
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2 John Wick Chapter 3 $30.9 on 3850 screens (cum. $107.6) REVIEW, KEANU REEVES
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2 🔺 The Church $475k on 252 screens *new* |
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3 Avengers Endgame $22 on 3810 screens (cum. $803.3)
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3 🔺 The White Crow $440k on 365 screens (cum. $1.2) PODCAST |
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4 Detective Pikachu $17.2 on 3824 screens (cum. $120) REVIEW
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4 Amazing Grace $228k on 152 screens (cum. $4) |
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5 🔺 Brightburn $9.6 on 2607 screens *new*
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5 🔺 The Souvenir $179k on 23 screens (cum. $291k) REVIEW, PODCAST |
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6 🔺 Booksmart $8.7 on 2505 screens *new* REVIEW ★
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6 🔺 All is True $176k on 64 screens (cum. $333k) JUDI DENCH |
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7 A Dog's Journey $5.4 on 3279 screens (cum. $16.2)
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7 🔺 Photograph $170k on 123 screens (cum. $219k) INTERVIEW |
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9 The Intruder $2.9 on 1612 screens (cum. $32.6)
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9 Red Joan $147k on 130 screens (cum. $1.4) JUDI DENCH |
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10 Longshot $1.9 on 1354 screens (cum. $29.1) REVIEW
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10 🔺 Echo in the Canyon $141k on 2 screens *new*
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11 The Sun is Also a Star $1 on 2073 screens (cum. $4.5)
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11 🔺 India's Most Wanted $118k on 110 screens *new* |
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12 Uglydolls $890k on 1090 screens (cum. $19.1)
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12 Shadow $51k on 32 screens (cum. $405k) REVIEW, ZHANG YIMOU ★ |
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13 Poms $885k on 911 screens (cum. $12.5) PODCAST
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13 Meeting Gorbachev $39k on 32 screens (cum. $156k) REVIEW |
numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo.
WIDE RELEASE Over the weekend Avengers Endgame became only the second movie to ever cross the $800 million mark at the US box office, after The Force Awakens. But it was Disney's Aladdin of course that was the weekend champ. The almighty power of brand recognition these days, you know. Critics were (justifiably) rough on it though with only 58% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That it wasn't a 0% just goes to show you how corporate-loyal a lot of movie reporters are these days because it's an unmagical mess from start to finish. The sad news of the weekend was a low turnout for the teen girl comedy Booksmart, the best reviewed movie currently in wide release. Among wide releases The Sun is Also a Star had a rough go of it in its second weekend down 58% in and with a dismal per screen average.
LIMITED RELEASE The biggest per screen average this weekend belonged to the Laurel Canyon music doc Echo in the Canyon but more surprising to us is the performance of The Church, which came in at #2 for the weekend in limited release. This despite no images /info to speak of on Indican's (the distributor) website, no images on moviefone.com, no images but a generic movie poster on IMDb. And no easy way to search for it online. I tried all sorts of things and it kept giving me articles and images from that Conjuring spin-off The Nun. In short, horror fans will go to anything even with minimal advertising. If only genres like "female leads" or "lgbt" or "critically beloved teen comedies about girls graduating from high school" had fans as unquestionably loyal no matter the movie in question.
Not charting in this top 13 were several debuts including Lumber Baron $26k, the fashion/celebrity documentary Halston $16k, John Lithgow starring The Tomorrow Man $24k, and a doc called The Proposal $11k
Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 9:15PM 
Reader Comments (17)
I saw ROCKETMAN and thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to the review here though, as it will help me understand what the LGBTQI community think (I, a heterosexual male, was a fan of BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY when I saw it, but then understood all the problems after reading this blog and others).
It is a different beast to BH though. It's a jukebox musical (and I am usually not a fan of those when they focus on one particular artist - hated both MAMMA MIA! and ACROSS THE UNIVERSE - but this one incorporated the songs well (unlike forced insertions like walking past strawberry fields or that awfully clumsy use of "When I Kissed The Teacher".)
(If, after Malek won, Egerton doesn't even get an Oscar nomination next year......AMPAS, please, don't go breaking my heart.)
Saw "Booksmart" and just didn't connect with it. I wish it well, the cast is charismatic, I understand its value to the genre... but I thought it was kind of frantic and didn't have that many jokes. Maybe I'm getting too old for teen movies, I don't know.
Also marathonned "What/If" which is pretty fun. Should be 10% nutsier and 15% shorter, but it more or less delivers as expected.
I saw The White Crow with a choreographer friend.
I liked it more than I had expected I would.
The lead actor playing Nureyev is a lovely dancer. I’m glad they went with real dancers for the movie. I don’t know where people get the idea that dancers can’t act. Especially when the plot is the intensity of the character’s commitment to dance.
The casting director did a great job. I especially liked Nureyev’s Russian family. Those faces, especially the father’s! The young boy playing Nureyev as a child had such an expressive, sensitive, wary face. His strange dance at the end was other worldly and other when.
Re-watches of One Crazy Summer and Brazil and a first-timer in my Blind Spot in This is Not a Film.
Saw Brightburn and was unimpressed.
Saw both Aladdin and Booksmart over the weekend. Liked Aladdin, loooooved Booksmart
Also enjoyed Aladdin. But if you went in to hate it, chances are you came out hating it.
Saw Aladdin. It was much better than the dismal previews showed.
I also went to watch Aladdin and liked it more than i thought i would. Very entertaining and my 3 nieces loved it!
I have to respectfully disagree with you on ALADDIN. I actually thought it was quite good (or at least way better than I expected) and certainly leaps and bounds better than BEAUTY & THE BEAST. I thought the chemistry between Massoud and Scott were sizzling and it was refreshing seeing Smith in this type of comedic role again (plus his scenes with Massoud were delightful). It also had great humor throughout and a couple of those numbers were breathtaking in the big screen (my theater erupted in applause after a few songs actually). I also loved the tinkering they did on Jafar's character.
As for BOOKSMART, I loved it. Instantly quotable with an insanely talented ensemble led by two very strong actresses. More people should see it.
I saw "Booksmart" and I loved it!! It is definitely one of my favorites of the year. It's too bad more people didn't turn out to see it but hopefully word-of-mouth will help propel it to the box-office success it deserves.
BOOKSMART. Clever in parts but in what privileged universe does that movie exist? I couldn’t get past that element.
ROCKETMAN was fairly enjoyable even if Taron Egerton looked and sounded nothing like Elton John. I wonder if he’ll get nominated simply for his already Trying Very Hard media campaign.
Gotta agree with the masses that Aladdin was pretty fun! Liked that they really incorporated more dancing and sort of a Bollywood energy to it all. Also saw Booksmart which I loved! Will definitely be one I revisit quite a bit at home.
Saw Book Smart. I am a lover of female-led teen movies and I despised this one. If I hadn't been with a group of friends, I would've left twenty minutes in. Didn't laugh once, but I did have fun keeping track of the inconsistencies and plot holes.
Chose to honor our veterans, so I watched Air Force (1943), The Green Berets (1968) and finally got around to popping in Letters from Iwo Jima (2005). Air Force is a great Warner’s WWII, John Garfield film which win Best Film Editing. As for Clint Eastwood’s ‘Letters,’ I liked Flags Of Our Fathers more.
I’m with Dave S. Booksmart let me down. It had its moments, sure, and I’d love to see more of Beanie Feldstein. But it’s being heralded as if it’s the new Bridesmaids or Eighth Grade or Superbad or whatever, and unlike any of those, it is frenetically paced and tonally all over the place. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more criticism for being so ‘1%’ given how charmed all the characters’ lives are. It reminded me a bit of “White People Problems: the Movie.”
Booksmart - Liked it, didn't love it. Billie Lourd steals the movie. I wanted more Gigi.
Shazam - I realize I'm at the tail end of seeing it, but it is probably my favorite superhero movie of all time. I can't believe I just typed that.
The Souvenir - I totally get that it was about showing the "in between" moments. And I get that it is painfully autobiographical for Hogg. But it just doesn't work because, in the end, you don't care about these people or this situation. There should have been more expose on the times. But please, give me more Honor Swinton Byrne.