A slow week at the box office. What did you see?
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 8:00AM What did you see this past week/weekend?
| Weekend Box Office December 3rd-5th 🔺 = new or expanding | ★ = recommended |
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| WIDE RELEASE | LIMITED RELEASE |
 HOUSE OF GUCCI |
 LICORICE PIZZA |
| 1 ENCANTO ★ $13.1 (cum. $58.3) Songs ranked |
1 C'MON C'MON ★🔺$565k on 565 screens (cum. $1.1) Jason's Review |
| 2 GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE $10.3 (cum. $102.2) | 2 LICORICE PIZZA ★ $241k on 4 screens (cum. $779k) |
| 3 HOUSE OF GUCCI $7 (cum. $33.8) Lady Gaga's Costumes, Capsule Review | 3 BENEDETTA ★🔺$136k on 201 screens (cum. $136k) Jason's Review |
| 4 ETERNALS $4 (cum. $156.6) Nathaniel's Review | 4 ALINE $90k on 72 screens (cum. $380k) |
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5 RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACOON CITY $2.6 (cum. $13.2) |
5 WOLF 🔺 $82k on 308 screens Jason's Review |
The box office was down for everything, which is typical for the weekend after a holiday weekend. But it's not all bad news for Hollywood. Ghostbusters and Dune both broke the $100 million domestic barrier, Licorice Pizza continues to pack theaters (albeit only 4 of them), and Encanto is a solid performer though Disney is barely giving it any time to earn money in theaters since it hits Disney+ on Christmas Eve.
This Friday Things really heat up. Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story opens in wide release (with high expectations). Sean Baker's latest fringe comedy Red Rocket opens in limited release. The new Sandra Bullock Unforgiveable begins streaming on Netflix. The new Riz Ahmed Encounter beings streaming on Amazon. And, on a last note, two more Best Picture Oscar hopefuls the political satire Don't Look Up and the showbiz drama Being the Ricardos get their theatrical qualifying releases before moving to their streaming platforms, Netflix and Amazon, in time for Christmas.
C'Mon C'Mon, Encanto, Licorice Pizza, box office
Reader Comments (14)
I watched two contenders for the Best Documentary Oscar.
Though the weather had a distinct December chill, The Rescue, which follows the two expert underground cave divers who led the effort to find and then save the adolescent Thai soccer team, triggered my claustrophobia leaving me sweating from emotional strain.
While the story is not atypical of the undocumented, I believe Flee is an artistic triumph of filmmaking. I so admire its thrilling innovation in storytelling.
I don’t have any idea which film will prevail in the Oscar race, but both films will likely land on my personal list of the top ten films for 2021.
Finally caught up with SHANG-CHI, which we quite enjoyed. Can't believe Destin Cretton also did SHORT TERM 12. How did I not know this? Then on Sunday, had to watch a young Tony Leung again for the hundredth time in one of my favorite films, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.
Rewatched UNFORGIVEN with Suranne Jones on youtube, the Sally Wainwright mini-series on which the new Sandra Bullock film is based. Based on early reviews of the latter, it's far superior. Suranne Jones is quite good.
Planning to see WSS in the theater this weekend. Yay!
I saw Bond which was the best one in a long time.
1992's Bad Leutenant still Keitel's best performance but the film is a tough sit.
Blood and Wine 1996 with an electic cast Judy Davis plus Nicholson Lopez and Caine.
The Card Counter is slow but enjoyable Isaac was solid Haddish was fine in an underwritten role.
Ohhhh hairy chested Stephen Dorff is so hot in Blood & Wine.
I watched The Power of the Dog on Sunday night and I've been thinking about it ever since. I have a feeling I'll be backing that one all the way to Oscar night. Everything about it was absolutely stunning.
I saw House of Gucci, Belfast, C’mon C’mon, and The Power of the Dog in theatres, and Passing and tick tick boom at home. I wanted to squeeze in as many theatre movies as I could, before stopping going to theatres so that I’m not being the careless participant in even tiny Christmas family gatherings (bringing the omicron home).
I really liked what one reviewer said, that this is a year of “films that defy easy genre classification”.
In some cases, like The Power of the Dog, its’ artistry, commitment, vision, and power, bop you on the head so you’re not worried what genre it might fit in. In others, like House of Gucci, there’s frustration trying to fit it into genres where it doesn’t fit. But oh, the much missed fun of seeing a movie where everyone has seemed to see a different movie and has something interesting to say about it!
The b&w movies were great.
C’mon C’mom was, moment by moment, so involving and felt so true.
I loved the ambiguity of Passing. The versatile and inventive Tessa Thompson is so under appreciated as an actress. Ruth Negga wonderfully provocative on many levels.
I appreciated Belfast’s focus on how groups of violent men make families and children suffer. Mentally I compare this to the romanticized male violence of West Side Story. These men aren’t tragic; they create tragedy for others. Belfast makes it clear that they are bullies revelling in a larger stage.
It was instructive to see clips of the real Jonathan Larson at the end of tick tick boom. He was so much bouncier, livelier, funnier, and smarter than the oleaginous Andrew Garfield moaning and whining his way through the movie. Sorry, this is the only one I really didn’t like.
I saw a fair amount in the last week.
Encanto - bland
The Power of the Dog - I am not one for westerns and I spent most of my first viewing bored, but then something started to click into place midway through chapter 3 and I was captivated until the end. Went back and saw it again and liked it a lot more - pretty similar to my experience with Phantom Thread (now one of my favourites) I wish the cinematography wasn't so flat and digital - I don't understand those raves.
C'mon C'mon - lovely lovely film and I'm afraid of how much I will relate to it in 5 years. Probably the weakest of Mike Mills' films, but I love the warm empathetic stories he tells.
The Tragedy of Macbeth - Curiously flat - the German expressionist stagebound setting is visually gorgeous, but distancing. It's occasionally breathtakingly cinematic, but often just feels like watching the actors read Shakespeare instead of inhabiting characters, especially a problem in the monologue heavy first half. The abbreviated adaptation of the text makes everything feel underdeveloped and uninvolving. BUT - Kathryn Hunter is as brilliant and terrifying as hyped. Loved her.
I saw Power of the Dog and really liked it. It was strange and somewhat confusing in the first half, but that was redeemed by the second half. Benedict was great, as were Jesse Plemons and Kirsten "Kiki" Dunst. Any of the 3 deserve an Oscar nom in my book, A friend repeated what someone else said, about it being a companion piece to Brokeback, and my retort to that now is "you must be kidding".
A couple of weeks ago, I saw the original 50's version of Nightmare Alley with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell. I'm very excited about the remake with Bradley Cooper et al. The older version was spooky and fun, and I had my 1st experience with Tyrone Power as a lead. My mom would often say she swooned over Tyrone, and it was easy to see why.
POWER OF THE DOG -- Pretty stunning; Cumberbatch's performance will stay with me a long time.
PASSING -- Professor Spouse loved it. I'm slightly in the B+/A- camp; it falls just a little short for me.
Also watched MAN WITHOUT A STAR from 1955, which started looking cliche and then really delivered. Love me a Western.
Watched 11 films last week. Six were remarkable. Three classics followed by three enthusiastic 2021 recommendations.
1. Grease
2. Lagaan
3. West Side Story (61)
4. Bad Luck Banging Or Looney Porn
5. Benedetta
6. C'mon C'mon
Did some Australian movies to ready myself for tonight's AACTA s - documentaries STRONG FEMALE LEAD and PLAYING WITH SHARKS, and wonderful lesbian coming-of-age indie MY FIRST SUMMER.
Got around to ZOLA - impressive first feature.
Never saw much of "The Sopranos" but still went to see THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK and thought it was good.
Took the nephew to see RON'S NOT WRONG - not bad, but not going to be a contender this year for Best Aniumated Feature.
And, in my regular support of Aussie indies that get cinema releases, I went to see SIT. STAY. LOVE.. It's a Christmas romcom with dogs, and they are three things I usually avoid in a movie (unless there are good reviews), and I should've gone with my instincts. It was going OK for a while (for what it was) but when it started to collapse into the "woman gives up spectacular international career for love" trope, I just couldn't.
Dune- Impressed but didn't love it. I hadn't read the book or seen any other versions, but I could follow the story and characters very well, so kudos to the screenwriters for making the story accessible. I agree with many others that Rebecca Ferguson is the MVP
The Swan- I'm close to completing my Grace Kelly filmography. The Swan is beautiful to look at but completely unengaging.
Nightmare Alley in a theatre and Annette on a home screen, which was a fiiting combination, actually. I liked Annette a lot more and a lot less than I expected, not enough Cotillard but a great opening sequence somehow unfulfilled by the rest of the film. Nightmare Alley is an ugly little beast, which is to say I loved it for the most part. Not enough Collette, though.
A re-watch of Heat which still holds up and remains this immense film that I doubt anyone could top and this past Sunday for my birthday. I rented Last Night in Soho on YouTube. That I thought was a great film and why is Diana Rigg not in the conversation for great performances this year? That is how you do a finale.
Sunday and Monday are my movie days but I haven't been feeling well so I stayed home. I rewatched TPOTD on Netflix and it was even better the second time around - so much so that I watched it a third. Really think Smit-McPhee can win Supporting Actor. It's the performance of the year in my book.