Weekend Box Office - what have you been watching?

by Nathaniel R

The two most exciting platform releases of the moment are the French films Petite Maman (on 224 screens) and Venice Golden Lion winner Happening (opening on just 4). Go see them and support your local arthouses. Everyone was at Doctor Strange 2 which grossed a massive $187.4 in its first frame though CinemaScore grades suggest it will have a bigger drop than usual for Marvel films next week. The Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum rom-com-adventure The Lost City is hanging on pretty well in theaters but it just debuted on Paramount+ which will likely cut its theatrical run short preventing it from reaching the $100 million mark (pity since it was an original comedy and it almost got there). More after the jump...

Weekend Box Office May 6th-8th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS	PETITE MAMAN

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Once more into the Linkverse

• Cartoon Brew the animated features that will be competing at Annecy. Will any of these become eligible for the Oscar? There's usually several international contenders
• The New Yorker reviews the excellent French abortion drama Happpening which just opened in US theaters. 
• TFE... we also reviewed it here from Venice. Consider it a must see!
• AV Club Janelle Monae to play Josephine Baker in a tv series focusing on her role in World War II. Sounds fascinating.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Amazon makes an anti-queer decision on Shortbus (2006), Chicago on Broadway is still stunt-casting, and more after the jump...

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Review: 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

by Nathaniel R

In the recent What If? series on Disney+, which is based on the comic book series of the same name, Marvel's writers could fashion any kind of variation on traditional heroes (and villains) and storylines without any actual consequences for the large familiar canon. Zombie avengers? Sure! Peggy Carter as Captain America? Why not! The What If? series of the 1970s was not quite the beginning of the Multiverse in comics but it was close enough. These thought experiments were always pitched as alternate realities (as opposed to pure fiction) though it took awhile before the effects were felt. The multiverse essentially became a shortcut to any type of retconning any storyteller wanted to do; Contrary to all that dialogue in Loki, Marvel has no "sacred" timeline given all the reversals, resurrections, reboots, and switcheroos. The multiverse virus was even more of an epidemic in DC comics, Marvel's top competitor.

Unfortunately if What If is essentially fan-fiction without the fans, then Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is arguably stingers without a movie. The latest MCU movie is positively awash in cameos and teases for future installments, resulting in a film that feels very much like an incoherent feature-length mid-credits scene... 

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Yes No Maybe So: 'Nope', 'Deep Water', and 'Multiverse of Madness'

by Nathaniel R

No sooner did we get caught up on trailers with Jurassic World and such than the Superbowl hits which brings with it a new wave of teasers and trailers, not all of them airing during the game (that's expensive!) but here are the latest via our Yes No Maybe So™ habit. Join in the trifurcated breakdwon in the comments...

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Netflix in November: Doctor Strange, 16 Candles, Children of Men, etc...

Time to play Streaming Roulette. Each month, to survey new streaming titles we freeze frame the films at random places with the scroll bar and whatever comes up first, that's what we share!

Here's what's new on Netflix...

When you leave, you should forget me.

The English Patient (1996) won 9 Oscars. Nine! As much as that's a wonderful movie -- and my god it hurts to look at these two (Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in they're prime) they're so superhumanly gorgeous -- 9 is a lot. I'm glad Oscar has recently moved away from giving all the statues to one movie. It's been 10 years since we've had that kind of overkill (Slumdog Millionaire with 8)... and lately things have been winning closer to 3-5 which is more than enough for most movies, even the great ones...

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