Weekend Box Office: Actual New Movies!
Monday, April 3, 2023 at 9:30PM By Ben Miller
Studios are finally starting to get with the program. For the sixth straight week, a new release was tops at the box office with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves comfortably winning the weekend behind very positive critical (91% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience (A- CinemaScore) notices. D&D was the first of the six films not to be a sequel, but you can only expect so much of the 2023 film landscape. Regardless, it's nice to have more films being regularly released on the schedule.
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) March 31st-April 2nd 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS |
 A GOOD PERSON |
|
1 ★🔺 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES $37.2 *NEW* 3,855 screeens |
1 🔺 A GOOD PERSON $537k (cum. $1.7) 687 screens |
|
2 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 $28.3 (cum. $123) 3,855 screens |
2 🔺 MALUM $221k *NEW* 242 screens |
|
3 🔺 HIS ONLY SON $5.5 *NEW* 1920 screens |
3 THE LOST KING $265k (cum. $931k) 265 screens |
| 4 SCREAM VI $5.3 (cum. $98.2) 3,016 screens |
4 ★ THE QUIET GIRL $86k (cum. $1.3) 129 screens |
|
5 CREED III $5.0 (cum. $148.5) 3,207 screens |
5 ENYS MEN $74k *NEW* 62 screens |
|
6 SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS $4.6 (cum. $53.4) 3,451 screens |
6 MOVING ON $67k (cum. $2.0) 132 screens |
 A THOUSAND AND ONE |
 MOVING ON |
|
7 ★🔺 A THOUSAND AND ONE $1.7 *NEW* 926 screens |
7 ★ RETURN TO SEOUL $62k (cum. $630k) 103 screens |
|
8 ★ 65 $1.5 (cum. $30.5) 2,113 screens |
8 TU JHOOTHI MAIN MAKKAAR $46k (cum. $2.5) 29 screens
|
|
9 ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTAMANIA $1.2 (cum. $212) 1440 screens |
9 QUE VIVA MEXICO $33k (cum. $146k) 62 screens |
|
10 JESUS REVOLUTION $1.0 (cum. $50.9) 1,415 screens |
10 🔺★ SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING $29k *NEW* 62 screens |
| 11 COCAINE BEAR $860k (cum. $63.7) 1,164 screens |
11 🔺★ IN VIAGGO: TRAVELS OF POPE FRANCIS $16k *NEW* 168 screens
|
|
12 CHAMPIONS $699k (cum. $14.9) 1121 screens |
12 🔺 THE FIVE DEVILS $13k (cum. $38k) 15 screens
|
Keanu Reeves' presumed final outing as John Wick has already surpased $100 million in its second week, and should probably end up around $400 million worldwide when all is said and done. Meanwhile, faith-based film His Only Son (which I didn't know existed until minutes ago) managed a solid number on less than 2,000 screens. You can never underestimate the box office pull of the churchgoing audiences.
On the limited/platform side, the well-regarded Sundance film A Thousand and One did solid numbers on just a bit under 1,000 screens. Elsewhere, the small-budget horror film Malum and the A24 release Enys Men went after the same business.
Next Weekend - Both Ben Affleck's Michael Jordan shoe drama Air and the animated The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens on Wednesday to get a head start on Easter weekend. Expect Mario to dominate the box office dollars.
What did you watch this weekend? I've been tearing through the films of 1973, including Cinderella Liberty, Bang the Drum Slowly, and The Way We Were. I also found time to take in John Wick: Chapter 4 as well as John Sayles awesome 1996 crime drama Lone Star.
Reader Comments (13)
The 1973 Best Actress race was a real head scratcher. Three prior winners (Glenda Jackson in Women in Love, Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve and Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl) were nominated alongside Marsha Mason and Ellen Burstyn. All five were considered to have substantial support and might win.
Joanne Woodward got early traction by being named by the New York Film Critics Circle in December. Woodward had some sympathy among AMPAS voters. Six years earlier she was the Oscar front runner for her acclaimed performance in Rachel, Rachel. When her director (and husband) Paul Newman was shockingly snubbed, Woodward erupted in an interview. She denounced the Academy and declared her intent to boycott the ceremony. Though cooler heads prevailed, she had fallen from favor. Now this new drama Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams was seen as an avenue for her to be rewarded. However, the film was a financial failure and became controversial because of its homophobic subplot.
Heads turned to the Golden Globes to identify a new frontrunner. Marsha Mason was the victor in a tight race. Mason played a hooker without a heart of gold. In addition, Mason was the darling of the media having just married new widower Neil Simon following a whirlwind six week romance. However, audiences failed to turn out for Cinderella Liberty, and Mason lost her edge.
Of course, The Exorcist with its $450 million dollar domestic box office made nominee Ellen Burstyn a strong contender. The actress has lost the supporting Oscar the previous Spring to her The Last Picture Show co-star Cloris Leachman. An Oscar for this horror flick would be a good consolation prize. Unfortunately director William Friedkin got caught in a very public lie. He vociferously claimed in interviews that adolescent actress Linda Blair was solely responsible for her performance. Actually Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge dubbed Miss Blair’s dialogue once her character was possessed. When McCambridge learned she had been purposefully omitted from the credits and Friedkin denied her participation, she sued and won. The credits were redone. And the front runner for Best Picture lost its appeal as an award contender. Burstyn was out.
Suddenly Streisand became a front runner. The Way We Were grossed $50 million. The theme saturated airwaves. And the final scene between Streisand and Redford in front of the Plaza Hotel was universally proclaimed an instant classic. Foolishly Streisand made two missteps just before the vote that hurt her chances. She announced that she would not sing on the Oscar telecast. She then gave an interview blaming her director Sydney Pollack if she lost. At the San Francisco preview, numbers were not tracking with the audience. Pollack, Streisand, and producer Ray Stark were crammed in the theater manager’s office debating the disappointing reaction. Pollack declared that a long scene at the end of the film where Streisand’s character reminisces and must choose between her love and her principles hurt the film. Taking some office scissors, he lopped out the scene and mended the film with Scotch tape. Streisand was livid, but the second preview had substantially higher ratings. Between the refusal to sing and the public criticism of her director, Streisand’s label as an arrogant diva stuck.
The final nominee was Jackson. Though her film A Touch of Class was a Best Picture nominee and broadly popular, it was a comedy about adultery. No actress had won an Oscar for a comedy in the past 23 years since Judy Holliday won for Born Yesterday in 1950. Even though Jackson had won three years earlier, she triumphed.
The audience in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was shocked. The cameras caught Ellen Burstyn saying, “What a surprise” after Jackson’s name was read. The applause was insufficient to cover her colleague’s quick stride to the stage to accept the honor. Burstyn would win her Best Actress prize the next year. Mason never did. Neither Streisand nor Woodward ever won a second Best Actress title.
I saw the late night show of Tori and Lokita at the IFC. The film was directed by the Dardennes and marked the first time they featured black protagonists. The young adult actors are both non-professionals and exhibited wonderful chemistry with each other. Unlike Nadine Labaki's Capernaum which has an unremittingly bleak narrative, the tale of Tori and Lokita showed tiny cracks of light from the darkened attic. The decision to rein in on providing background info of both characters make for an engaging watch as small bits of details help explain a much larger and more tragic terrain of horrors both of these young adults encountered and experienced. That both characters are very much in the present tense and move on after one debilitating setback after another may remind some of Lorna's Silence. There are moments of levity through singing, focaccia, and drawing, but this being the Dardenne brothers' world, things happen quietly even nonchalantly even if these things are epic in scale and implications. It may not dislodge my personal favorite -- La Promesse -- as the most emotionally engaging I've seen from the Dardenne frères but Tori and Lokita scores high anyway through economies of scale.
Didn't see it over the weekend, but got to see Mafia Mamma as part of Regal's mystery movie Monday special. No idea what was being seen until it was on the screen.
It was fairly enjoyable - always nice to see Collette get a lead role, and she was hilarious.
I saw John Wick 4. What an utterly amazing kinetic display! How is it possible that Keanu and Donnie Yen are in their late 50s? It didn’t feel long. It was so satisfying that every moment had been carefully thought out and executed. Film making of a high order.
And I did think, if the rationale for wanting to nominate Top Gun: Maverick for Oscars was that it was a well executed action movie, the lead did his own stunts, and it made a ton of money, well then, John Wick 4 needs some recognition. Certainly in production design and sound.
I also saw Dungeons and Dragons. That one did seem long and tedious. Is it only for D&D players? Maybe.
For non-players like myself, it seemed stale and dated. Chris Pine’s charm palls early on, and the comedy (sigh). It’s like the 2 middle aged white male director/writers are stuck in the past of their late teenage years, with no awareness of changing attitudes and ideas.
Spoiler:
The wife is fridged in the first 10 minutes, and it’s like, okay that’s a perfectly good plot point.
End spoiler.
But whoever is doing the promotion for this is great at their job.
A few re-watches of some 30 for 30 docs and some Disney shorts plus a couple of first-timers in a 30 for 30 and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris as I fucking love the latter.
I'm unwell with an incapacitated left arm so i've seen lots mostly 68 movies for my Oscar project.
Star! - quite liked it,Julie Andrews fine but miscast,glorious costumes,Massey Oscar nominated nothing like Coward though.
Faces - nothing worse than seeing good actors flailing around trying to make improv mean something,hated it on every level.
Pretty Posion - my favourite of the films watched Tuesday Weld is chilling,Perkins good but in her shadow
Legend of Lylah Clare and The Birthday Party both 1968 couldn't make it past 15 mins of these two.
Shame - Ullman and Sydow in gritty bleak b & w drama
Rachel Rachel I have to come to realise I don't like Joanne Woodward's acting,I never feel anything from her,Parsons all over the place.
For Love of Ivy Poitier engaging romantic comedy,Abbey Lincoln Golden Globe supporting nom when she's the films true lead.
Murder Mystery 1 and 2 the first fine not so much the second,awkward comedy and no chemistry between any actor.
The Chippendales Documentary fascinating stuff,never knew any of this behind the scenes murder plots,boyfriend liked it too.
Oscar ceremonies 85.87,88,89,90,91,93 and 97.
Finbar don't forget Woodward was snubbed the year before and Jackson did win the Globe.
D&D was the first of the six movies that wasn't a sequel, but there's only so much you can predict about the movie industry in 2023.
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Only watched the Olivier Awards on youtube this weekend. Wow, Hannah Waddingham can really sing, and oh my, she looks fab in green. Also--Jodie Comer's performance in Prima Facie (I saw it through NTLive in a movie theater) is off the charts incredible, and there was no question about who was going to win the Best Actress award. NY peeps should get a ticket ASAP cuz she's also gonna win a Tony for that performance.
-I finally got around to watching Minari.
-I also watched Disney’s Pollyanna (1960) with the dreadful feeling that those ‘family classics’ would be the next property franchise that the Woke Disney of today would decide to remake & destroy.
-Best Foreign Film winner Departures (Japan). I suspected the ending that was somewhat bound to happen and when it did…what a pleasure!
I watched Far From Heaven for the first time in several years. I’m just…stunned at how this didn’t win like 10 Oscars. It’s just perfect in every aspect. It only managed nominations for actress, screenplay, score & cinematography and it’s clearly #1 in all those races. Frustrating when brilliance is barely acknowledged!
D&D is a reboot...
I saw a special screening of AIR at my local AMC. It's a real crowd-pleaser with all the actors in fine form. It's a bit conventional, but it works. It's also just a ton of fun, and is the kind of fun, slick film-making that Adam McKay thinks he's making.
I thought Damon was in fine form, and that Affleck, in particular, gives a really fun and compelling performance. I'd love to see both of them Globe nominated along with Viola. I don't think Viola has quite enough to do to make a campaign, and the film works but feels a bit too slight to be a big Oscar contender. However, if this film was released in October and did solid numbers, it would easily score a few golden globe nominations and be just outside the conversation.
I liked Argo, The Town, and Gone Baby Gone, and I think Ben does a fine job here. I hope this film makes money and has long legs. I also just think it's my favorite performance from Ben Affleck ever...