Halfway Mark Box Office (Part 2: Of Special Interest)

As part of our midway through the year report (previously: top fives from the team , favourite male performances , and mainstream box office hits) here's a look at the box office year thus far but getting very niche with queer cinema, documentaries, movies with rave reviews, and other specialty interests. We all know that superhero movies earn a lot of money at the box office so it's more fun to dig deeper. Figures here are actuals as of Sunday June 30th for films released in the first six months of the year. We'd love to know what you make of the following lists so don't be shy in the comments, please.

BOX OFFICE IN EIGHT NICHE CATEGORIES
🔺= the movie is still in a decent number of cinemas so its numbers will go up.

TOP GROSSING FILMS THAT NEVER WENT INTO WIDE RELEASE

The Mustang

01 No Manches Frida 2 (Pantelion) $9.2 March 15th (472 theaters at widest)
02 Apollo 11 (Neon) $8.9 March 1st (588 theaters at widest)
03 The Wandering Earth (CMC) $5.8 Feb 5th (129 theaters at widest)
04 Gully Boy (Viva Pictures) $5.5 Feb 14th (270 theaters at widest)
05 The Mustang (Focus) $5 March 15th (527 theaters at widest)
06 Amazing Grace (Neon) $4.4 April 5th (263 theaters at widest)...

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Halfway Mark Box Office (Pt 1: The Mainstream)

As part of our midway through the year report (we've already seen fun halfway top fives from the team and favourite male performances) here's a look at the box office year thus far. Tomorrow we'll get a bit more niche, okay? Figures here are estimates as of Sunday June 30th for films released in the first six months of the year.

BOX OFFICE TOP TENS IN SIX CATEGORIES
🔺= the movie is still in over 100 theaters.

1. TOP GROSSING FILMS WITH A FEMALE LEAD
(Excluding films where a male lead is just as prominent as his female co-star)

Captain Marvel

01 Captain Marvel (Disney/Marvel) $426.7 starring Brie Larson. March 8th
02 Us (Universal) $175 starring Lupita Nyong'o. March 22nd
03 Alita Battle Angel (Fox) $85.7 starring Rosa Salazar. Feb 14th...

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Linkgame

• IndieWire Avengers Endgame, which is still in wide release (985 theaters) at this writing will be "rereleased" on Friday. LOL. That just means it's adding more theaters again and this time it will have a deleted scene. It's fitting that the special poster for it is Thanos' fist since they're still trying to pummel Avatar's #1 status. 
• Variety on Wes Studi's landmark Honorary Oscar

After the jump news on Bond 25, The Irishman, a new take on Flash Gordon, animation awards, and a movie you probably forgot all about (I did!) finally getting released years after people wrote it off...

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What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Box Office Estimates June 21st-23rd (UPDATED WITH ACTUALS) 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Highly Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
Toy Story 4	Last Black Man in San Francisco
1 🔺 Toy Story 4  $120.9 *NEW* on 4575 screens	1🔺 The Dead Don't Die $1.1 (cum. $4.7) on 690 screens REVIEW
2 🔺 Child's Play $14 *NEW* on 3007 screens REVIEW	2 🔺  Pavarotti $431k (cum. $1) on 135 screens
3  Aladdin  $13.2 (cum. $288.5) on 3435 screens REVIEW, 1992 RETROSPECTIVE	3 🔺 The Last Black Man in San Francisco $410k (cum. $1.3) on 72 screens REVIEW ★
4 Men in Black International  $10.7 (cum. $52.6) on 4224 screens REVIEW	4 🔺  Echo in the Canyon $225k (cum. 1.1) on 81 screens
5 Secret Life of Pets 2 $10.2 (cum. $117.5) on 3804 screens REVIEW	5  Biggest Little Farm $164k (cum. $3.2) on 134 screens
6 Rocketman $5.6 (cum. $77.2) on 2414 screens  REVIEW ★	6 🔺 Wild Rose $52k *NEW* on 4 screens

What did you see this week? 

• True to the overstated but possibly real 'franchise fatigue' of summer 2019, Toy Story 4 opened lower than both studio and analyst's expectations though $118 million is still a hefty opening tally, and the third best of the year (Disney has the top four openings all to themselves). Meanwhile Child's Play also fell short of expectations continuing the trend. If only some original film would break out we could view it as people being tired of sequels and franchises, but it's probably not that as they're not seeking out anything new instead. Speaking of franchise fatigue, Godzilla: King of Monsters managed to inch over the $100 million mark this weekend. But with a budget of $170 million (not including P&A) that's still rough waters for the iconic kaiju to swim in.

• In platform releases, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and the music docs Echo in the Canyon and Pavarotti continued to do well all three crossing the $1 million mark this weekend. 

• The new titles not listed above included Anna, earning $3.6 million its opening weekend, the documentaries Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, A Bigger Splash (a rerelease of the art doc classic) and The Quiet One earning $48k, $18k, and $10k respectively.

Men in Black Don't Die in San Francisco

Since this weekend's box office was all over the place we have an expanded list today. We're taking all wide releases into account and the corresponding top 12 in limited release.

Weekend Box Office June 14th-16th (Actuals) 🔺 = new or expanded theater counts / ★ = recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 🔺 Men in Black Int'l $30 on 4224 screens *new*  REVIEW	1 🔺 The Dead Don't Die $2.5 on 613 screens *new*  REVIEW, JARMUSCH

2 Secret Life of Pets $24.4 on 4563 screens (cum. $92.6) REVIEW	2 🔺  Last Black Man in San Francisco $380k on 36 screens (cum. $733k) REVIEW  ★

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