"Little" is a hit but "Shazam!" stays on top

What did you see over the weekend? We waited until Monday night to get the full receipts on the arthouse releases (which often report late). Both Shazam! and The Mustang (still expanding) stayed on top in their second and fifth weekend respectively. It was a crowded weekend... well, overcrowded actually, since only the new comedy Little managed to make much of a box office impression of the 17 (gulp) new releases. Sadly Laika, our current favourite animation studio, had trouble. Missing Link proved their weakest opening by far with only $5.8 million (they generally manage about $14 million on opening weekends).

Here's the top ten in both wide and platform titles...

Weekend Box Office (Actuals) April 12th-14th  🔺 = new or expanded theater counts
W I D E	PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 Shazam!  $24.4 on 4306 screens (cum. $94.2)	1 🔺 The Mustang $773k on 527 screens (cum. $3.1)

2 🔺 Little  $15.4 on 2667 screens *NEW*	2 🔺  Amazing Grace $349k on 58 screens (cum. $589k)

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New Podcast: High Life, Sauvage, and Mary Kay Place in Diane

by Murtada Elfadl and Nathaniel R

 

Index (50 minutes)
00:01 Claire Denis' High Life starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, and the Fuck Box
16:00 A gay hustler movie from France Sauvage/Wild
24:10 Mary Kay Place is Diane in Kent Jones' intimate narrative debut starring a slew of underutilized older actresses
34:50 What we've been seeing on Broadway as the Tony nominations approach
44:44 Coming Soon & miscellaneous silliness since Murtada wants to know if Cate Blanchett is in Avengers: Endgame)

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Sauvage Diane

Beauty vs Beast: Emma Times Two

Jason Adams of MNPP here with a brand new edition of our weekly "Beauty vs Beast" poll -- it is the 60th birthday of the great Emma Thompson today! And age thankfully hasn't slowed her down a bit -- she's got several projects in the works (I'm pretty excited about her upcoming series called Years and Years with Queer as Folk UK and Dr Who writer Russell T Davies) not to mention I just had a, "Wait, who is that talking...?" moment two days ago when she turned up as the voice of a queenly ape-person in Laika's Missing Link. But for her birthday let's look back at her two great great great Merchant Ivory roles of the early 90s, because who could I put against Dame Emma Thompson for a true contest other than but Dame Emma Thompson herself.

survey solutions

PREVIOUSLY It's not easy to beat down Divine but Kathleen Turner managed to do just that with last week's John Waters poll -- the Serial Mom herself, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend, took a full 75% of your vote. Said ?:

"Beverly/Kathleen Turner all the way. Personally I would have given her all the awards for "War of the Roses", but "Serial Mom" was a fun outing for this gifted actress. At least at TFE she is remembered and revered appropriately."

Would You Rather?

It's been awhile since we dove into Instagram. So it's time for a new poll this one starring the usual miscellaneous array of celebs plus a few Chilling Adventures of Sabrina cast members since it's that time again with Season 2 streaming. So...

Michelle pfinds her whip againWould you rather?

• practice self-love with Halle Berry?
• have a swim with Keirnan Shipka and her boyz?
• have a fruity drink oceanside with Jake Shears?
• see Network on Broadway with Keith & Nicole?
• play ping-pong with Gavin Leatherwood?
• boogie woogie down with Robert Downey Jr? 
• see Hamilton with Missi Pyle? 
• do a little whip-training with Michelle Pfeiffer? 
• cat-sit with Richard E Grant? 
• rock out with Selma Blair?
• get a White Walker makeover with Anderson Cooper? 
• experience the ecstacy of poutine with Chance Perdomo? 

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Links: Madame X, Shelley Winters, and Martha Again

Link roundup starting with NEWS articles...

• NYT The great Swedish actress Bibi Andersson, a Bergman regular (Persona, Wild Strawberries) dies at 83
• Cartoon Brew Rich Moore, who delivered the Wreck It Ralph movies for Disney leaves to run Sony Animation
• Deadline Gabriel Basso (The Kings of Summer, Super 8) nabs lead in Ron Howard's movie adaptation of bestseller Hillbilly Elegy. Amy Adams and Glenn Close co-star.
• The Wrap talks to Ryan O'Connell, the creator and star of the gay & disabled sitcom Special on Netflix

Lots more after the jump including In the Heights, Bond 25, the influence of Big, new albums, declining sex in the cinema, and two must-reads online this past week in case you missed them...

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