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?