Box Office: 'Past Lives' Rising
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 11:14PM By Nathaniel R
The weekend looked, at first glance, exactly like the first weekend in June as Across the Spider-Verse and Past Lives topped the box office charts for wide and limited release. That shows both films excellent word of mouth and staying power. On the other hand, it's a horrible sign for what Hollywood is offering up each weekend that audiences aren't being distracted by the shiny newer films...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) June 23rd-25th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE |
 PAST LIVES |
|
1 ★ SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE $19 (cum. $316,7) 3785 screens |
1 🔺 PAST LIVES $1.1 (cum. $3.5) 296 screens |
|
2 ★ ELEMENTAL $18 (cum. $65,4) 4035 screens |
2 THE LAST RIDER [doc] $57k *NEW* 105 screens |
|
3 THE FLASH $15.1 (cum. $87.5) 4256 screens
|
3 THE ROUND UP: NO WAY OUT (South Korea) $56k (cum. $778k) 14 screens |
|
4 🔺 NO HARD FEELINGS $15 *NEW* 3,208 screens |
4 IT AIN'T OVER [doc] $26K (cum. $630k) 64 screens |
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5 TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS $11.7 (cum. $123.1) 3,523 screens |
5 ★ BLUE JEAN (UK) $16k (cum. $57k) 35 screens |
|
6 ★🔺 ASTEROID CITY $9 *EXPANDED* (cum. $10.2) 1675 screens |
6 ★ SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS $9k (cum. $1.7) 55 screens |
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7 THE LITTLE MERMAID $8.5 (cum. $270.1) 3275 screens |
7★ DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY, AND MIDNIGHT COWBOYS [doc] $8k *NEW* 3 screens |
 ASTEROID CITY |
 DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY... |
|
8 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 3 $3.4 (cum. $351) 2010 screens |
7 CLOSE TO VERMEER [doc] $8k (cum. $92k) 14 screens |
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9 THE BLACKENING $3 (cum. $12.2) 1775 screens |
8 LOREN & ROSE $10k (cum. $135k) 18 screens |
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10 THE BOOGEYMAN $2.5 (cum. $37.7) 1640 screens |
9 ★ REVOIR PARIS (France) $9k (cum. $72k) 17 screens |
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11 FAST X $1.0 (cum. $144.5) 1063 screens |
10★ SCARLET (Italy) $7k (cum. $48k) 9 screens |
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only 11 movies in wide release |
11 SQUARING THE CIRCLE [doc] $7k (cum. $67k) 21 screens |
|
|
12 BLACKBERRY $5k (cum. $1.4) 21 screens |
The Flash had a disastrous second weekend plummeting 72%. Meanwhile the new Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings opened to a solid 15 million while Wes Anderson's all star comedy Asteroid City expanded well earning the weekend's highest per screen average for wide or limited releases.
Next weekend - Indiana Jones returns Friday with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The other wide release is the animated film Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken.
What did you watch this past week? - I've been trying to cram in 2023 releases in time for some 'halfway mark' posts including Are You There God It's Me Margaret, Other People's Children, and Asteroid City (all excellent examples of their genres of coming of age, character study, and auteur comedy). I also caught Pixar's solid but far from top tier Elemental (solid).
box office
Reader Comments (9)
Not a lot seen but enjoyed most of what I did see even if most were repeat watches
Equus long drawn out Richard Burton drama
The Goodbye Girl sitcom style Marsha Mason Oscar Winner Richard Dreyfuss comedy
The Initiation Vera Miles 80's tame slasher thriller,good twist ending
I Bury The Living psycoholigical 50's Twlight Zone like thriller
Scarecrow excellent 70's road movie with top level Haclman and Pacino
Elton John at Glastonbury
Went to a big chain theater for the first time since John Wick 4 to see Asteroid City (I want to reward the chains for booking something that's not a dull blockbuster). Asteroid City was very good, although I can't quite decide if it's top-tier Anderson or mid-tier Anderson.
Also, I rewatched Antonioni's Blowup and The Brothers Bloom and remain a big, big fan of both of them.
I don't know if you're looking for movies to cram in - but I recommend The Eight Mountains. One of my favourites of the year so far.
I geared up for an upcoming trip to SF with The Birds and Vertigo, both endlessly watchable, with their own weirdo perfect endings.
@Mike in Canada
Enjoy your stay in SF. If you are unaware, do the homework to unveil Hitchcock’s originally planned ending for The Birds. It would have been a knockout.
I finally caught up with Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. I am floored to discover that it is as good as people claimed.
Not much except for all of The Bear S2 on Hulu. However, I have been tearing through entertainment journalist, Maureen Ryan's excellent new book, Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood.
Particularly relevant to this post is the explosive chapter on Scott Rudin. Maureen writes, "If you think anything I've written in this chapter means...I'll never check out the work of any people who worked with industry monsters in the past--you are wrong. I watched the latest Wes Anderson film during the terrible year I've dwelled on here, and it was fine. What's more relevant to me is that he has made seven movies with Rudin. That number, seven...it makes my soul ache."
I like Wes Anderson movies, and I will probably see Asteroid City this week, but I might not feel good about its origins. Same for Past Lives, which was brought to A24 by producer Scott Rudin. Sigh.
I went to a special screening of Amelie. I was expecting to be practically alone, and to my surprise the crowd was around 40-50 I was delightfully shocked that so many people in Columbus, Ohio, wanted to see a 20 year old French movie. Oh yes, it's still as magical as ever and a clear contender for my favorite film of all time.
I also saw Woodstock (Director's cut), it's too long but on tv that's ok, because the musical acts keep getting better as the film goes on - Sly & the Family Stone are the highlight for me - but if they wanted to add 45 minutes, why no CCR? and so much Jefferson Airplane?
Also watched Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, W.C. Fields' anarchic masterpiece. Even the dumb parts, especially Gloria Jean's trilling, play into its WTF-ness. Fields' nasty exchanges with the waitress are priceless.
And then I got a double dose of camp from TCM, The Big Cube and Legend of Lylah Clare- both unmissable, the former featuring a Whole Lotta Lana freaking out on bad acid, George Chakiris as the villain and a film full of young folks modelled on Dragnet hippies. A hoot. Lylah Clare is much better made, and therefore not quite as much fun, but as a slopbucket ripoff of Vertigo it has more than its share of moments that no doubt embarrassed everyone involved for the rest of their lives.
I watched Asteroid City this past Saturday which I liked a lot.
BTW, I'm not a business expert or anything but... given the fact that The Flash is pretty much a box office bomb and is going to lose more than $200 million for Warner Discovery. What was the fucking the point of cancelling Batgirl which was nearly finished that costed $90 million to make as opposed to the $215 million budget that The Flash got plus the additional $150 million for its marketing?
I saw PAST LIVES yesterday and my god what a beautiful, heartwrenching movie!
Before that I was on vacation, but managed to see the following movies on the plane:
Amsterdam - Good in parts, but the sum of it I've already forgotten about.
Marcel the Shell - Adorable. Funny. Made me cry.
EO - Really wished I saw this on the big screen. Narratively a little confusing, but what a beauty.
Blue Jean - I think this JUST came out here in the US? What a harrowing, powerful movie. Great lead performance too. Hope the gays see this and prop it up. EDITED: Oh I see Cláudio already reviewed it on this site a couple weeks ago. Nice!
I saw Asteroid City and loved it. I consider Wes one of my favorite directors (The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel are among my favorite movies of the century), but I am also often disappointed by his movies (I did not care for The French Dispatch), so I was really pleased. I actually may go again this weekend.
I also watched The Inspection, which was much more brutal than I expected, and Breach, which was such an interesting story, but could have been so much better with a different director and someone more capable than Ryan Phillippe in that part.