Box Office: Johnny Depp gets Scorched

Tim here with the weekend box office estimates. After an exciting nailbiter last weekend, things got a lot more sedate. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials took the #1 slot without too much effort, continuing the dominance of YA adaptations about attractive 20something teenagers fighting their way through a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Let's not crack open a bottle of champagne for all those Chosen Ones just yet, though; The Scorch Trials came up just short of the first Maze Runner's debut weekend last September, suggesting that if the franchise isn't necessarily on death's door, it seems to have already hit its theoretical peak.

WEEKEND TOP 10, ESTIMATED
01 Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials $30.3 new
02 Black Mass $23.4 new
03 The Visit $11.4 (cum. $42.3)
04 The Perfect Guy $9.6 (cum. $41.4) Tim's Review
05 Everest $7.6 new
06 War Room $6.3 (cum. $49.1)
07 A Walk in the Woods $2.7 (cum. $24.8) Reviewed at Sundance
08 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation $2.3 (cum. $191.7) Tim's Review
09 Straight Outta Compton $2.0 (cum. $158.9) Podcast
10 Captive $1.4 new

The weekend's other major wide release, Black Mass, opened to a satisfactory number for what it is - a crime drama for adults, which means it's likely to hold on much longer than Scorch Trials - but it's not quite the triumphant return for Johnny Depp that some of us were quietly hoping for. Compared to his last couple of mega-bombs, it's already an unqualified success: by the end of Sunday, it will have already grossed more than three times as much as the notorious Mortdecai from last winter, and its opening weekend is about as much as the entire lifetime domestic gross of Transcendence. Still, aspiring thinkpiece writers can put away their "Depp is a major movie star again!" ledes for right now.

The most impressive performance in the top ten probably belongs to Everest: the star-packed thriller had a smallish platform opening, mostly limited to IMAX and other large format screens, that propelled it up to an impressive $13,872 per-screen average, by far the biggest of any film in the top ten. But even that pales next to the film that I suspect most of the Film Experience faithful want to hear about: Denis Villaneuve's Sicario, starring Emily Blunt, opened to $390,000 on 6 screens. If that doesn't sound like much, try this on for size: the film's $65,000 per-screen average is the highest of any 2015 release so far. Let's keep out fingers crossed that this means great things for the film as it starts to expand over the next two weeks.

How did you spend your moviegoing weekend?

Emily Watson is nobody's mother (this time)

Here's Murtada on a favorite actress we'd like to see more of.

Watson at the press confrence

The paparazzi might have been more interested in jurors Diane Kruger and Elizabeth Banks. The trades were into what jury head Alfonso Cuaron had to say. Most of the press coverage had more pictures of her co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin and Jason Clarke. But on the first day of the Venice Film Festival we had our eyes for Everest star Emily Watson.

It was nice to see her smiling and looking good. As the only woman from the film making the press rounds - seems Robin Wright, Keira Knightley and Elizabeth Debicki had other plans - naturally eyes gravitated towards her. This is a far cry from the frumpy mothers she has played recently in The Book Thief, Testament of Youth and especially The Theory of Everything. The latter was the nadir of that niche that was carved for her by casting directors. It was no more than a cameo and was hilariously lampooned by Nathaniel & company on the podcast. 

Watson was born same year as Nicole Kidman. She’s one year older than Naomi Watts, 2 years older than Cate Blanchett. Those actresses are still getting plum parts in major movies. It’s too soon for Watson to start competing with Julie Walters and Brenda Blethyn for parts. While she’s never been the glamorous star, her fantastic turns in Breaking the Waves, Hilary & Jackie and Gosford Park certainly make her the equal of the actresses mentioned. But perhaps the more apt comparison is with someone like Helena Bonham Carter - who coincidentally turned down Watson career-making role in Waves. Helena still manages a varied range of opportunities. (We acknowledge we might be blind to fantastic work Watson has done recently for TV in the UK.)

on the boat with her co-stars John Hawkes, Clarke and Brolin (courtesy of Brolin's instagram).

This is a long way of saying that we hope Everest is the beginning of a new exciting phase of Watson’s career. She plays the base camp co-ordinater who is the climbers' main contact to the world outside the mountain. The reviews have been mostly positive. Some singled out Watson as “heartrending’’, others expected more. We are just grateful she has more to do than be somebody’s mother.

What would you like to see Watson do next?

YNMS: From Mt. Everest to Jarden, Texas (Pop: 9,261)

We've been falling behind with current trailers. So here are a few key future favorites (or not) that we missed talking about. Do these promos sell you on their movies / seasons respectively?

YNMS notes and trailers follow after the jump for the all-star thriller Everest, the action spy comedy The Man From U.N.C.L.E., the potential Oscar player Bridge of Spies and HBO's The Leftovers Season 2.

But let's start on the mountaintops with...EVEREST

Click to read more ...

We Can't Wait ~ The 2015 Mini-Series

It's that time again. As one film year wraps up we get all antsy with excitement for the next. Team Experience voted on their most anticipated films of 2015 and the 15-strong daily movie countdown starts tomorrow morning. It goes without saying that there are far more enticing propositions than just 15. With the definition of 'arthouse cinema' expanding over the last 20 years to include just about every film starring a woman (Truth: something like Still Alice would have been considered mainstream in the 1980s), and just about any drama, even those with true stars, without genre affiliation and the companion visual fx budget it's safe to say that Team Experience leans heavily in that direction, taste wise.  

But, lo and behold, some of 2015's upcoming would-be blockbusters actually look enticing. After this rough winter, let us gorge on popcorn all summer long. Here's five would be blockbusters on the other side of Age of Ultron (just discussed) that might be great popcorn entertainments ... or hopelessly mediocre but we won't know until we get there. Keep your hopes up!

EVEREST (Sept 18th)
SOUTHPAW (July 31st)
Pick a Gyllenhaal, either Gyllenhaal. Post Nightcrawler we have to pray that he's on a legend making hot streak. Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur's name might not immediately make dibs on 'quality' given what he's made previously since going Hollywood but it's always possible that Everest, his mountain climbing adventure with a really terrific and terrifically manly all star cast (Jake, plus Borlin, Hawkes, Worthington, and Jason Clarke who we recently spoke with) will be thrilling. Especially in IMAX.

As for Southpaw... Though the cinema has been overrun by boxing pictures since, what, 1931?, if Antoine Fuqua can regain his Training Day mojo and Gyllenhaal's character is as dramatic as he sounds (alcholol, drugs, career immolation, child custody trouble) it'll be well worth checking out. 

MAGIC MIKE XXL (July 1st)
Now only 116 days away ! 

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (December 18th)
"Keeping hopeful" is a true hurdle with this one but let's include it anyway out of curious as to whether the TFE readership is excited to see it? (Let us know in the comments). The Star Wars franchise was horrifically marred by the last three films and J.J. Abrams, despite his skill with a camera, doesn't tend to make films with anything like emotional or pop culture staying power. His Star Trek pictures and Mission Impossible one-off made truckloads of money but, quick, name something about any of that that stayed with you and you think of regularly! They were just piggybacking on accumulated decades of glory. Just about his only film that might well have shown us any real "magic" as a storyteller was Super 8... and even that one was largely hit and miss and a self conscious Spielberg knockoff. So, not hopeful but curious. And then we'll get to see what Lupita Nyong'o has been up to apart from red carpets. Let's hope she's in it for more than 1 or 2 minutes. 

JURASSIC WORLD (June 12th)
Why we didn't ever discuss the trailer I do not know. Chris Pratt as a raptor trainer? Sure, why not. In!