By Nathaniel R
We live in strange box office times. Hollywood (and the media) got high on the supply of Marvel's Avengers 2010s run and thought the grosses and interest for each and every superhero film / franchise would grow forever. That hasnt been the case and genre is coming back down to earth... not crashing exactly but bumpy landings. Warner Bros/DC's The Flash was held for a long time due to numerous issues. Despite all the issues the buzz was fairly good on its quality. But now that it's finally here the reception is a bit of a shrug despite its easy #1 finish. After years of downplaying the importance of Pixar in their portfolio, Disney had trouble bringing Elemental in at previous numbers.
In limited release things were much brighter...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) June 16th-18th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 THE FLASH |
 ASTEROID CITY |
|
1 🔺 THE FLASH $55 *NEW* 4234 screens |
1 🔺 ASTEROID CITY $845k *NEW* 6 screens |
|
2 🔺 ELEMENTAL $29.6 *NEW* 4035 screens |
2 🔺 PAST LIVES $760k (cum. $1.9) 85 screens |
|
3★ SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE $27 (cum. $279.5) 3873 screens
|
3 THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT (South Korea) $92k (cum. $663k) 19 screens |
|
4 TRANSFORMERS RISE OF THE BEASTS $20.6 (cum. $101.3) 3,680 screens |
4 IT AIN'T OVER [doc] $70K (cum. $551k) 97 screens |
|
5 THE LITTLE MERMAID $11 (cum. $253) 3,480 screens |
5 MENDING THE LINE $24k (cum. $359k) 67 screens |
|
6🔺 THE BLACKENING $6 *NEW* 1775 screens |
6 CLOSE TO VERMEER $17k (cum. $70k) 21 screens |
|
7 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3 $5.2 (cum. $344.6) 2260 screens |
7★ THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS $16k (cum. $288k) 40 screens |
 THE LITTLE MERMAID |
 THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS |
|
8 THE BOOGEYMAN $3.6 (cum. $32.6) 2140 screens |
7 BLACKBERRY $14k (cum. $1.4) 24 screens |
|
9 FAST X $2.1 (cum. $142.4) 1550 screens |
8 CHILE '76 (Chile) $10k (cum. $135k) 18 screens |
|
10 SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE $662k (cum. $572.1) 896 screens |
9 THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER $9k (cum. $72k) 17 screens |
|
only 10 movies in wide release :( |
10★ SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS $8k (cum. $1.7) 19 screens |
|
|
11★ SANCTUARY $7k (cum. $528k) 36 screens |
|
|
12★ SCARLET $7k (cum. $36k) 7 screens |
Wes Anderson's all star comedy Asteroid City enjoying sold out houses and Past Lives continuing to perform well.
Which is not to say that the grosses for more adult oriented limited releases are anywhere as good as they used to be. It's tough out there for the movies with the past three years of habit-changing chaos -- some unavoidable and some very much avoidable that Hollywood brough on themselves -- wreaking havoc on all genres of movies big and small.
Next weekend - Jennifer Lawrence returns with the raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings, and both Past Lives and Asteroid City expand. At the arthouses Virginie Efira returns yet again (she's busy) in Revoir Paris and though American audiences dont seem to really know / appreciate the French goddess yet, she's always worth a watch.
What did you watch this past week? - I've been watching old films like Easy Living (1937 - funny!) and the perennial All About Eve (1950) which just never ever gets old. On a whim for something gay we also rewatched the 1999 comedy But I'm A Cheerleader - Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey were so young!