Been back to the movie theaters yet? We're so thrilled to be able to post a full top ten weekend box office report again. It's been ages since there were enough theaters open and movies in play. We've just barely gotten there of course. But the box office results to date (especially overseas) with the world starting to turn again suggest that Disney and Warner Bros have left a lot of money on the table by making things available to stream simultaneously or ONLY; they're betting their entire futures on streaming. Which might be wise but some decisions still feel foolhardy especially the decision to not release Pixar's Luca in theaters, given that it's already winning raves and might have been a perfect summertime bet in airconditioned theaters since it's a summertime tale and Pixar movies generally make hundreds of millions in movie theaters. Strange decision especially since they gave Raya the traditional release! When viewed in broader context of what gets a theatrical release versus what doesn't it's like pissing directly on Pixar when something like Dreamworks Spirit Untamed gets a theatrical release and Luca doesn't. Ugh.
Anyway. Here is the chart. What did you see this past week/weekend?
| Weekend Box Office June 4th-6th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended |
|
| WIDE RELEASE |
PLATFORM TITLES |
 The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It |
 Undine |
| 1 THE CONJURING 3 $24 *new* |
1 WITNESSES (US) $126k on 84 screens *new* |
| 2 A QUIET PLACE 2 $19.2 (cum. $88.3) *new* | 2 THE DRY (Australia) $29k on 58 screens (cum. $286k) |
| 3 CRUELLA $11 (cum. $43.4) CRUELLA'S WARDROBE | ARTIE AS GBF | MAKEUP ARTIST | 3 UNDINE (France) $27k on 56 *new* REVIEW |
| 4 SPIRIT UNTAMED $6.1 *new* | 4 THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Italy DOC) $18k (cum. $370k) |
| 5 RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON $1.2 (cum. $53.5) ANIMATED FILMS OF 2021 | 5 LA PISCINE (France) restoration $8k on 7 screens |
 Demon Slayer, the movie |
 All Light Everywhere |
| 6 WRATH OF MAN $1.2 (cum. $24.6) |
6 NEW ORDER (Mexico) $7k on 15 screens (cum. $300k) REVIEW |
| 7 SPIRAL $893k (cum. $21.8) | 7 RIDERS OF JUSTICE (Denmark) $7k on 15 screens (cum. $67k) |
| 8 DEMON SLAYER: MUGEN TRAIN $576k(cum. $47.7) | 8 FRENCH EXIT (Canada) $7k on 6 screens (cum. $728k) REVIEW |
| 9 GODZILLA VS KONG $463k (cum. $99.1) | 9 ALL LIGHT EVERYWHERE (US DOC) $5k on 2 screens *new* REVIEW |
| 10 DREAM HORSE $230k (cum. $2.3) REVIEW | 10 THE LADYKILLERS (UK) restoration $5k on 1 screen *new* |
Spirit Untamed had the worst wide opening ever for Dreamworks but was that ever going to do well. Even if we weren't on the way back from a pandemic?
We had to look up The Witnesses. Turns out it's one of those Mormon movies, a niche genre that had a brief moment of mainstream awareness in the early Aughts (a couple of them even played in NYC!) but they're still cranking them out out West apparently.