What you saw this long holiday weekend. Survey says...

What did you see this weekend? I didn't hit theaters since I was travelling but I finished Jessica Jones (which really improved as it went along) and screeners gave me a second shot at Steve Jobs (Fassy & Kate are just as big a "wow" as they were the first time) and a first go at Straight Outta Compton. In the next 24 hours The Revenant and Joy hit my eyeballs. Here's hoping for the best.

BOX OFFICE
(Nov 27th-29th)
01 Hunger Games 4 (4,175 screens) $51.6 (cum. $198.3)  Hunger Games & Oscar
02 The Good Dinosaur (3,749 screens) $39.1 new (cum. $55.5)
03 Creed (3,404 screens) $30.1 new (cum. $42.6) Review
04 Spectre (2,940 screens) $12.8 (cum $176) Review
05 The Peanuts Movie (3,089 screens) $9.7 (cum. $116.7) 
06 The Night Before (2,960 screens) $8.2 (cum. $24.1) 
07 The Secret in Their Eyes (2,392 screens) $4.5 (cum. $14)
08 Spotlight (897 screens) $4.4 (cum. $12.3) First Impression
09 Brooklyn (845 screens) $3.8 (cum. $7.2) Review, Saoirse & Best Actress
10 The Martian (1,420 screens) $3.3 (cum. $218.6) Podcast 
11 Love the Coopers (1,867 screens) $3 (cum. $20.4)
12 Victor Frankenstein (2,797 screens) $2.3 new (cum. $3.4)

With the dismal opening of Victor Frankenstein (Fox) paired with the muted response to Crimson Peak (Universal) do you think Universal is getting worried about their classic movie monster multiverse plans? Today's audiences maybe don't have a yearning for the gothic flavors of more old school horror?

Apart from Frankenstein and his monster, it was a fairly happy weekend for distributors: Hunger Games 4 held stronger in its second weekend than Hunger Games 3 (I refuse to do this "part 1 and part 2" padding bullshit anymore);  Creed, which was smartly produced on a non gargantuan budget, supposedly made back its budget in its first (holiday) weekend; Spectre is holding well for a Bond film (anyone expecting a repeat of Skyfall's anomalous numbers was insane); even The Good Dinosaur, which opened weak as Pixar films go, shows promise since the audience reaction was very positive and it has no direct competition in the next few weeks.

As for the suspected Oscar contenders things are continuing to look very golden for both Spotlight and Brooklyn which are expanding very well and should be peaking at just the right time for Oscar love. With Carol and The Danish Girl, though, it's probably too early to tell since they're only on four screens each and competition is fierce and will continue to be (as it always is in November/December) for their target demographic.

Review: "Creed"

Our newest team member Chris Feil saw the latest in a long dormant franchise early. Here's his review - Editor

Making good on his mainstream sensibilities post-Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler returns with Rocky reboot/sequel/spin-off Creed. Born after his legendary father Apollo's death after an affair, Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) attempts to forge his own boxing path without the Creed namesake, recruiting his father's notorious opponent and comrade Rocky Balboa. Similarly, the film tries to have it both ways, attempting to be a sideways stand-alone film while borrowing heavily on the iconography of the original. It is a bit of a left turn for cinema's current trend of cut-and-paste nostalgia, giving Coogler's film a much needed edge for a tired genre, but cursing it with enormous shoes it falls short of filling.

If Fruitvale showed us anything about Ryan Coogler's potential, it was that he could both emotionally invest the audience with a charismatic subject and that he knew how to structure a film's most intense scenes for their maximum dramatic effect. These skills make him the perfect candidate for a mainstream actioner that pulls on the heartstrings, and Creed provides a solid larger platform for him to deliver those goods. Unfortunately still present is his diminished sense of confidence and clarity of vision in extended dialogue scenes, lending to an overall flabby structure. He knows what we want as audience and how to give it to us, but here he has a tricky time transitioning between story beats.

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YNMS: "Steve Jobs" & "Creed"

Films celebrating their over achieving male protagonist are par for the course come fall movie season each year as Oscar competition heats up. But Steve Jobs and Adonis Creed both got trailers in the same 24 hours or so and I couldn't resist conjoining them since they both also star actors named "Michael". They make both an odd couple and perfect pair: Mind and Body. Michael Fassbender plays real life computer genius Steve Jobs for Oscar winner Danny Boyle; And Michael B Jordan, reuniting with his Fruitvale director Ryan Coogler, plays fictional Adonis Creed, the son of dead boxer Adonis, in an attempt to reboot the stalled Rocky series.

Yes No Maybe So on both trailers after the jump...

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