Weekend Watch: Lightyear is "soft" in theaters while Staircase still intrigues on HBO
Sunday, June 19, 2022 at 3:30PM by Nathaniel R
You didn't comment on the new format of listing both box office and tops in streaming from a few services but we're trying it again (Let us know what you think). There's a lot to discuss this week...
| Weekend Box Office June 17th-19th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
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| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | PLATFORM RELEASES |
 PIXAR'S LIGHTYEAR |
 BRIAN AND CHARLES |
| 1 JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION $58.6 (cum. $249.7) |
1 ★ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE $959k (cum. $64.9) |
| 2 🔺 PIXAR'S LIGHTYEAR $51 *NEW* |
2 🔺 BRIAN AND CHARLES $198k *NEW* |
| 3 ★ TOP GUN MAVERICK $44 (cum. $466.1) |
3 ★ CRIMES OF THE FUTURE $101k (cum. $2.3) |
| 4 DOCTOR STRANGE IN...$4.2 (cum. $405) | 4 WATCHER $95k (cum. $1.8) |
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5 ★ BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE $1.1 (cum. $29.7) |
5 🔺 PHANTOM OF THE OPEN $81k (cum. $168k) |
| 6 THE BAD GUYS $980k (cum. $94.2) ★ |
6 🔺 ABANDONED $60k *NEW* |
| 7 DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA $830k (cum. $42.1) |
7 DEEP IN THE HEART... $35k (cum. $360k) |
| 8 🔺★ MAD GOD $35k (cum. $50k) | |
| 9 🔺★ OFFICIAL COMPETITION $34k *NEW* | |
| 10 THE DUKE $22k (cum. $1.4) | |
| 11 BENEDICTION $16k (cum. $178k) | |
| 12 🔺 LOST ILLUSIONS $15K (cum. $41k) | |
Lightyear opened much lower than expectations so the thinkpieces are already abundant with people blaming different things depending on their analysis or agenda. Naturally the rightwing media is blaming yet another one of Disney's long line of ultra weak blink-and-you'll-miss-it LGBTQ inclusions. (No, we won't be linking to those idiots/bigots). On the other hand, and I know this is not a popular opinion, I kind of wish Disney wouldn't force inclusiveness if they didn't believe in it. What happens is everything feels half-assed and corporated mandated and easy to edit out rather than organic and authentic. This shouldn't be so hard for movie studios (not just Disney) and yet it still seems to be.
But we worry even though we had no personal interest in Lightyear . Pixar became one of the best studios in the world through their original stories, not sequels and spinoffs, to the point where audiences trusted them and turned off for new stories all the time with no "IP" pull. That's a rare accomplishment these days. Disney, in turn, has seriously devalued the Pixar brand over the past two years with the constant FREE ON DISNEY PLUS messaging so maybe audiences just decided that Pixar was for the lesser "B" titles (even though they regularly outgrossed Disney's own titles in the before times). The saddest part of the equation is that, based on reviews alone, Lightyear is the least worthy of the past four Pixar movies in terms of a big screen release and yet it's the only one that was treated as the real deal. It's also the only one of those four with a white protagonist and that's an IP title rather than an original. Whether or not that's all coincidental, it's a terrible terrible look for Disney.
Continuing the COVID era trend Hollywood is just not feeding the theaters enough to keep the movie landscape healthy. There are now only 7 wide releases which is the least we've seen since audiences started coming back to theaters in droves. As a result audiences are continuing to be trained to only show up for 'blockbuster' looking programming. In 10 years time will moviegoing only be an expensive niche event like Broadway shows? (Sigh X 1000)
In limited release Brian and Charles, a British comedy about man and robot, was the top grossing new film but the top per-screen average title was the hilarious Spanish comedy Official Competition with Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. We urge you all to see it as its directly pitched at cinema-obsessives and revolves around an awards hungry prestige production.
Everything Everywhere All At Once finally fell out of wide release (if just barely) so even though it's on its way down the charts after 3 incredible months in the top ten, it's had such great legs that we suspect $70-75 million domestic is still in reach. It just passed Hereditary ($80 million globally) to become A24's top GLOBAL grosser with around $86 million + in its coffers now. Pretty great for a $25 million budgeted movie in this day and age.
| NEW STREAMING imperfect reporting since streaming doesn't really have many systems for that yet. this list excludes older films or series that are still poplular like "friends" "big bang theory" etcetera. 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
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| AMAZON | HBO | HULU | NETFLIX |
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| movies |
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| THE TOMORROW WAR (2021) | FATHER OF THE BRIDE (2022) | A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN (2021) | SPIDERHEAD (2022) |
| NO TIME TO DIE (2021) | THE CARD COUNTER (2021) | THE REQUIN (2022) | HUSTLE (2022) |
| HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 4 (2022) | FANTASTIC BEASTS 3 (2022) | FIRE ISLAND (2022) | HALFTIME (2022) |
| ALL THE OLD KNIVES (2022) | THE JANES (2022) | FANTASTIC BEASTS 3 (2022) | CENTAURO (2022) |
| EMERGENCY (2022) | ROADRUNNER: ANTHONY BOURDAIN (2021) | GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE (2021) | COLLISION (2022) |
| series | |||
| THE BOYS S3 | BARRY S3 | P-VALLEY S2 | STRANGER THINGS S4 |
| NIGHT SKY S1 |
THE STAIRCASE (miniseries) | THE KARDASHIANS S1 | GODS FAVOURITE IDIOT S1 |
| THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY S1 |
IRMA VEP (miniseries) | I LOVE THAT FOR YOU S1 | FIRST KILL S1 |
| REACHER S1 |
TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE S1 | THE FIRST LADY | PEAKY BLINDERS S6 |
| OUTER RANGE S1 |
TOKYO VICE S1 | THE ORVILLE | LINCOLN LAWYER 1 |
What's popular at any moment online is a combo of whatever has just dropped, anything old that has some connection to the new stuff (Top Gun and all old Jurassic movies are benefitting from the new blockbusters in theaters). It also differs wildly from country to country. For example Fire Island is popular in the US but not on the international charts -- perhaps it's not available in other countrie. Anyway these are imperfect snapshots pieced together from multiple charts.
It's interesting to note that Amazon doesn't seem to compete (or just isn't winning) at the original movie game, while on HBO people watch hot former theatrical titles and docs - the Janes is popular as is last year's Anthony Bourdain picture). On Netflix people tend to watch whatever JUST premiered as if they're beholden to the every-changing "top ten" grid on the Netflix landing page. The churn!
We mentioned Staircase in the headline because we're trying to finish it -- how great is Toni Collette? But true story, HBOMax and Apple TV just aren't cooperating... at least on my boyfriends TV. We've now tried to watch the final episode 5 times over the past week and it just won't screen mirror even though the other episodes did or it will stop the show 10 minutes in. We've decided we'll have to watch it separately, he on his iPad and me at home with my own TV (which has no problem with HBO). Screen mirroring technology is so maddening... I've talked to so many critics who have trouble projecting their links to their tvs so they end up having to watch movies for review on their laptops, a lesser experience. You'd think the distributors would want people to have the best viewing experiences possible but all the 'proprietary software' and 'piracy' concerns get in the way even though critics and journalists are not the ones who are pirating as they get free access anyway!
What did you see over the weekend?
Reader Comments (18)
RE Lightyear maybe people are getting tired of cynical cash grabs with spin off characters.
Pixar has honestly been hit-or-miss for like the past 10+ years, and I think people are finally starting to approach them from that perspective. The days of “Pixar can do no wrong” are long gone.
"The First Lady" is sadly still a Showtime Series, which HULU has as an add on. You tricked me, Nathaniel! LOL
Surprised "Hacks" is already off the Top 5. "The Staircase" is very good, and a very, very strange case, but I suspect Firth is more likely to be nominated than Collette.
I am voting FOR having all of these lists! Thank you!
Saw the Bob's Burgers Movie, which was pretty disappointing, surprisingly. I didn't think that team could let me down.
And I'm about to settle in to watch M Butterfly, one of the few gaps left in my Cronenberg watch list.
A bunch of short films on MUBI in The Little Deputy, Fremiere a Montfaucon by Eric Rohmer, and Land of My Dreams by Yann Gonzalez and just now, Celine and Julie Go Boating. Great film.
Benediction: Superb. Lowden and cast are terrific and I'm disappointed it's not doing better.
Paddington: That's it? Some fun art direction and cheery performances. Is the sequel that much stronger?
The German Film Festival film this weekend was A STASI COMEDY, a film I was prepared to dislike thanks to its lacklustre trailer, but actually really enjoyed it (the comedy moments in the trailer were flat because they needed context - whoever cut that promotional material needs a strong course in successful trailer-making...)
Saw LAST SEEN ALIVE, which wasn't bad, but I never would have watched it if it wasn't essentially a free movie given it was a double feature with...
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, which finally came to one of my preferred cinemas (a one-screen old institution which seems like it may close any day now, but somehow keeps on going) and I managed to see it the way it needed to be seen - with a bunch of friends. And absolutely had a ball - everything that everyone has said all at once about this movie is absolutely true!
Saw Everything Everywhere All at Once for the second time ... I'm finally in a healthy space where I understand the Oscars do not actually mean all that much and plenty of incredible cinema has been ignored by the Academy, plenty of cringey cinema has been embraced, it's just an award, etc etc BUT - I really do hope this movie is embraced. Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Editing, Screenplay, Visual Effects etc etc
It's simply that good.
I also saw The Thing for the first time - it was playing for the 40th anniversary. Talk about incredible special effects.
Saw Everything Everywhere All at Once for the second time ... I'm finally in a healthy space where I understand the Oscars do not actually mean all that much and plenty of incredible cinema has been ignored by the Academy, plenty of cringey cinema has been embraced, it's just an award, etc etc BUT - I really do hope this movie is embraced. Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Editing, Screenplay, Visual Effects etc etc
It's simply that good.
I also saw The Thing for the first time - it was playing for the 40th anniversary. Talk about incredible special effects.
Okay, since you asked about how we feel about the Streaming stuff being added, here's my thoughts.
1) Maybe it's too much for one column? Maybe try doing the streaming wars as a separate entry each week? More content.
2) I am looking at your column on my desktop and the columns for streaming kind of all blend together. The boxoffice chart is easier to read because there are only two entries. Should there be two separate charts with only two entries each?
3) I am numbering my thoughts, because I wish the entries were numbered for streaming. I had to look it over a couple of times to figure out what I was seeing. The thumbnail on the top is just random, but at first I thought that was Number One, and everything else was numbered after that. Just a lot of info to take in with not a lot of context.
Phew, but generally, I watch streaming stuff MUCH more than in the movie theater so I would kind of find this helpful.
As for what I watched, I finished the final episode of the first season of The Gilded Age. I generally liked it, but something is missing and I can't figure it out.
The BF and I finished the third season of Love, Victor. I liked it well enough for what it is. And then we started a "Korean soap opera" which is the BF's favorite genre. I have seen so many I can barely remember the titles of what I'm watching at any given time.
I like highlighting the top titles on streaming as well as in theaters. I didn't comment last week, but I really enjoyed Hustle - it felt like an old-fashioned sports flick to me (though as an Adam Sandler and NBA fan, I am the target audience). But I also was sad to think that this sort of mid-budget enjoyable adult film without Oscar pretensions (even with a major star attached!) can't play in a theater anymore.
Interesting that Goodbye to You, Leo Grande is not on Hulu's top 5. Emma Thompson was fantastic, but I kind of expected more from this. It really felt like a filmed play and the development of the escort character was fairly weak and predictable.
Halftime was a pretty standard celebrity biopic, but the portions on award season were interesting (Jennifer Lopez really wanted that Oscar nomination - I hope she gets her chance eventually).
I've been watching all the Juzo Itami movies on the Criterion Channel. I really enjoy his comedic take on corruption in Japan, and his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, is so good in all of the films. My favorite so far has been Supermarket Woman (who would think a film about competition among supermarkets could be so engaging?) but I watched A Taxing Woman this weekend and really enjoyed it as well.
The Staircase is great, my second favorite limited series this year (after The Dropout). I'm impressed by how much they managed to add to the documentary by commenting on the nature of our true crime obsession itself.
Dave -- thank you for the feedback. I really understand these comments and will take your good advice. It is a lot for one article so two articles it will become!
I am jealous of those who have the chance to see The Thing in a theater again...
Saw it twice, in the 80s, and certainly I wish I could do it again, specially with an audience that never saw it, just to have the chills of hearing the "gasp" and the extreme tension in the theatre...
I've mostly been watching the Judy Garland films on Criterion. I can't believe how many I had never seen!!! THE CLOCK is an absolute wonder! Like a WWII-era cross between Before Sunrise and After Hours??? Incredible. Can't recommend it enough.
Also saw Everything Everywhere for the 2nd time---and teared up throughout. I even cried *in anticipation* of certain lines/scenes! If Ke Quan isn't nominated, I'm going to live in a different universe.
RE: streaming charts. Probably need to work on the format a bit, or make it into its own column. Hulu in particular feels off, since several of those are actually only available via "add-ons" like Showtime or Starz.
Corey -- ooh, i hope you enjoyed our Garland centennial then. I wish we could have done them all but at least we got the Clock in.
True crime is all the rage, isn't it? Can't really get in to The Staircase, but perhaps it's my annoyance with shifting time lines, which is also all the rage in film and television. GIVE ME LINEAR, FFS. Think only Colin Firth would be up for a nomination.
Still on a soapbox, but of all the true crime adaptations out there, DOPESICK is the crimey-est. And deserves ALL the awards.
First two episodes of a new BBC true-crime drama, with a who's who cast of British television (i.e., Morrissey, Manville, Glenister, Armstrong, Rushbrook, Akhtar, some folks from Downton), called SHERWOOD, written by James Graham, who wrote BREXIT and QUIZ. It is very good but also has shifting time lines, ugh.
THE JANES. I have a lot of thoughts on this, and still processing. As a woman and mother of daughters, panicked about Supreme Court decision that might happen today. Women may need The Janes again, which is fucking ridiculous.
@corey - I also watched The Clock recently for the first time - so stunning and moving!
Otherwise, I've been pretty busy recently so I only saw Lightyear this week and that was a slog. Looking forward to catching up on Cha Cha Real Smooth and Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.
Spiderhead is not great. Funny Hemsworth was the completely wrong choice for that, a story that is all about menace and insidiousness.