by Nathaniel R
Hollywood is living dangerously. There's are very few potential sleepers and almost no blockbuster hopefuls coming for a few months (unless something really surprises) despite a fairly strong box office summer. (Why on earth are potential sleeper rom-coms Bros and Ticket to Paradise waiting the end of September/end of October when the landscape is so barren starting in Mid-August? ) As a result the movies that are already out are holding pretty well. Especially Top Gun: Maverick which continues to defy all reasonable expectations, climbing back up to #2 in its *gulp* 12th week in theaters. But talk about killing the Grand Return To Moviegoing by starving audiences! We'd like to think audiences would just start being more adventurous and seeing some limited releases but realistically that's not what they do (sigh)...
| Weekend Box Office August 12th-14th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
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| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | PLATFORM RELEASES |
 TOP GUN MAVERICK |
 INU-OH |
| 1 BULLET TRAIN $13.4 (cum. $54.4) |
1 🔺 LAAL SINGH CHADDHA (India) $1.4 (cum. $1.8) *NEW* |
| 2 ★ TOP GUN MAVERICK $7 (cum. $673.7) |
2 🔺★ E.T. (Re-release) $1.0 *NEW* |
| 3 DC SUPER PETS $7 (cum. $58.1) |
3 🔺 EMILY THE CRIMINAL $669k *NEW* |
| 4 ★ NOPE $5.3 (cum. $107.5) |
4 🔺★ INU-OH (Anime) $190k *NEW* |
| 5 THOR: LOVE & THUNDER $5.3 (cum. $325.4) |
5 MARCEL THE SHELL... $163k (cum. $5.3) |
| 6 MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU $5 (cum. $343.8) |
6 🔺 EMERGENCY DECLARATION (South Korea) $123k *NEW* |
 BODIES BODIES BODIES |
 HANSAN: RISING DRAGON |
| 7 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING $4 (cum. $72.1) | 7 HANSAN: RISING DRAGON (South Korea) $82k (cum. $605k) |
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8🔺 BODIES BODIES BODIES $3.2 (cum. $3.5) *WIDE EXPANSION* |
8 HALLELUJAH LEONARDO COHEN (Doc) $62k (cum. $650k) |
| 9 ★ ELVIS $2.5 (cum. $141.2) |
9 ★ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE $54k (cum. $650k) |
| 10 🔺 FALL $2.5 *NEW* |
10 ★ FIRE OF LOVE (Doc) $36k (cum. $815k) |
| 11 EASTER SUNDAY $2.4 (cum. $9.9) |
11 🔺 SUMMERING $32K *NEW* |
| 12 🔺 MACK & RITA $1 *NEW* |
12 ★ A LOVE SONG $25k (cum. $79k) |
| 13 THE BLACK PHONE $1 (cum. $87.7) |
13 🔺 FREE CHOI SOO LEE (Doc) $11k (cum. $21k) *NEW* |
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14 JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION $662k (cum. $373.1) There are 14 movies currently in wide release but a lot of these would be losing theaters quickly now (given the per screen averages)... IF any movies were there to replace them. |
14 CLAY DREAM (Doc) $10k (cum. $15k)
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WIDE RELEASE NOTES
Audiences didn't show for the new Diane Keaton comedy Mack & Rita but turned out in bigger numbers for the expansion of the Gen Z slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies. I personally was not remotely interested in the latter until I learned it was directed by Halina Reijn who made the Dutch erotic drama Instinct (2019), which as quite good and Oscar submitted in its year. Still not sure if I'll see it (slasher being my all time least favourite genre) but... maybe.
LIMITED RELEASE NOTES
Nothing made giant waves in the arthouses though the Bollywood dramedy Laal Singh Chaadha and the Korean action film Emergency Declaration found their audiences. The week's highest per screen average (wide or limited) went to the MUBI distributed documentary Free Choi Soo Lee playing on just one screen. Despite semi decent starts interest in the comedy I Love My Dad, the psychological horror film Resurrection and the docu-drama My Old School didn't seem to last in their second, third, and fourth weekends respectively and they fell off this chart.
NEXT WEEKEND
The only "big" movie next weekend is the Idris Elba vs a lion film called Beast (review forthcoming). But there's a few limited release titles including Orphan: First Kill as well as the very well-reviewed Brazilian doc The Territory.
GIRL PICTURE
What did you see these past few days?
We'd already seen the visual wonders of Inu-Oh so we took in the new Finnish picture Girl Picture (which didn't report numbers; not everything does anymore) because of Ben's interview with the director. So glad we took his advice! It's a great coming-of-age movie about three teenage girls in contemporary Finland. Go see it if it comes to your town. You won't regret it.