Oscars vs. Blockbusters? No, It Isn't That Simple.

Jurassic World just beat The Avengers box office tally to become the third highest grosser of all time (when you don't adjust for inflation) which has Awards Daily wringing its hands over what the Academy should do to better honor the types of films people pay to see. As you may have guessed The Film Experience has strong feelings about this topic (including suggested new Oscar categories) all of which we will share with you right now...

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Box Office: Amy and the Ant (Man)

It was a good week to be Amy Schumer. Thursday saw her among the Best Actress nominees at the Emmys from a very competitive field and the very next day her first star vehicle movie (which she also wrote) opened to great numbers, even slightly higher than those for the more established female comic headlining a summer movie, Melissa McCarthy in Spy (which has had solid staying power and recently topped $100 million)

It was also a decent week to be Marvel Studios executives, too. Despite low grosses (comparatively for Marvel) a $57 million opening for Ant-Man has to be considered a big success given a) the characters microscopic profile in pop culture, b) a non bankable star -- Paul Rudd is well-loved but he has never been a box office draw c) a troubled production history and d) a release date in the summer in which people are just starting to be critical of Marvel Studios after ten years of drooling all over anything they did. 

And of course it continued to be great summer to be Jurassic World which has amassed a simply spectacular fortune despite being merely an OK retread. Every other movie that's grossed over $500 million has had a lot more going for it in terms of newness or critical raves. I'm not trying to be mean -- it's hardly the worst movie in the top ten of all time (that honor belongs to Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace or Shrek 2) -- but the distinct probability that it could threaten Titanic's (1997) domestic gross to become the second most popular movie of all time (if you don't adjust for inflation) is unthinkable and quite depressing. So let's not think about it and become depressed... 

Happy thoughts then: What was most wonderful about your weekend?

BOX OFFICE
Early Estimates. July 17th-19th Weekend
01 Ant-Man $57.5 NEW WIDE
02 Minions $47 (cum. $213.4) Tim on the Minions phenom
03 Trainwreck $30 NEW WIDE
04 Inside Out $11 (cum. $305) Inside Out Articles
05 Jurassic World $10.4 (cum. $610.1) Jurassic Articles 
06 Terminator Genisys $5 (cum. $80) Review 
07 Magic Mike XXL $4.4 (cum. $58.5) Review
08 The Gallows $3.8 (cum. $17.8) 
09 Ted 2 $2.3 (cum. $77)
10 Mr Holmes $2.2 NEW LIMITED

Halfway Menagerie: Ten Best Screen Animals 2015

½way mark - part 8 of 9 
Did you find yourself wishing that the Maloja Snake wasn't just the movement of the Clouds of Sils Maria but an actual snake? Did Channing Tatum still turn you on in dog-human hybrid form in Jupiter Ascending? Did you cringe when that cute double-headed mutant lizard met such an ignoble end in Mad Max Fury Road's first scene?

If you answered yes to any of those questions you might be an animal person and this list is for you!

TOP TEN ANIMALS FROM 2015 MOVIES
(THUS FAR)
Because Nathaniel R is a crazy cat lady

10 Paddington in Paddington
His fur may be too mangy (who needs photo realism?) but he sure is a polite amiable fellow and his movie is mostly a treat. 

 09 Cat Stevens in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
I get that this movie is probably making fun of me Greg's dad's love for his cat, Cat Stevens, but I don't care because screen time for cats always improves movies. And this one needed the help. Injustice: the cat actor playing Cat Stevens is not credited.  

8 more furry friends after the jump... 

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Box Office: Ted 2 No Match for Jurassic 4 & Inside Out 1

Weird. Despite a lot of love for Seth MacFarlane's Ted (2012) just three years ago its sequel significantly underperformed with a much weaker opening... like $21 whole million weaker. I say weird because nowadays audiences tend to run screaming with wallets wide open to anything sequelish that they liked before. Witness the explosive returns for Pitch Perfect 2 (which has tripled the gross of its predecessor... also three years old). Speaking of sequels... Jurassic World is now the biggest grosser of 2015 and its only in its 3rd weekend with a typically huge box office holiday fast approaching. The weird thing is that people don't seem to love it. They only seem to love being able to return to that park... which bodes really well for Jurassic Park-World 5,6,7, etcetera one supposes. 

Magic Mike XXL and Terminator 5 arrive Wednesday but neither are as family oriented as the current top two so the holiday week could well be huge for all four. Unless Terminator G goes the way of Ted 2 under the 'nah, been there' umbrella?

WIDE RELEASE BOX OFFICE
June 26th-28th Weekend
01 Jurassic World $54.2 (cum. $500) Jurassic Articles 
02 Inside Out $52.1 (cum. $184.9) Inside Out Articles
03 Ted 2 NEW $33
04 Max NEW $12.2
05 Spy $7.8 (cum. $88.3) Rose Byrne FYC
06 San Andreas $5.2 (cum. $141.8)
07 Dope $2.8 (cum. $11.7) Sundance capsule
08 Insidious Chapter 3 $2 (cum. $49.7)
09 Mad Max: Fury Road $1.7 (cum. $147)  Review & Podcast & Random Articles
10 Avengers: Age of Ultron  $1.6 (cum. $452.4) Review & Marathon & Podcast

Notes
Jurassic World is the first film to hit $500 million in US theaters since The Avengers (2012). The latter went on to gross $623.3 million but it took a week longer to hit the half billion mark. Jurassic World may well surpass The Avengers but I hope Avatar's $749 million US record is safe since Jurassic World would be a really lame #1 of all time since it's basically a remake. Finally, incredibly Cinderella is still in theaters, albeit only 235 of them, but in its 16th week it has now passed the $200 million mark and seems likely to end the year in the box office top ten (it's number #4 right this moment but will soon slip a rung). The fairy tale doesn't come to BluRay and DVD until September 15th.

What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Highs: Inside Emotions, Dinosaur Thrills, Prison Love

Two separate films earning over $90 million in a single weekend? Impressive. That didn't leave a ton to money to go round for other films, though. Spy is a solid performer at the box office but I'd actually expected it to be much bigger since it's the funniest film of the year. But all the action was at the dinosaur theme park and Pixar's return to form, the delightful Inside Out. The new film follows the emotions inside an 11 year old girl's head as she moves to a new city. I was resistant to the concept, which seemed too gimmicky and "Herman's Head" like, but resistance was futile: it's wonderful. Better still they didn't even remotely give the best stuff away in the trailer and that's such a surprise nowadways!

WIDE RELEASE BOX OFFICE
June 19th-21st Weekend
01 Jurassic World $102 (cum. $398.2) Jurassic Articles 
02 Inside Out NEW $91 Inside Out Articles
03 Spy $10.5 (cum. $74.3) Rose Byrne FYC
04 San Andreas $8.2 (cum. $132.2)
05 Dope NEW $6 Sundance capsule
06 Insididous Chapter 3 $4.1 (cum. $45.3)
07 Pitch Perfect 2 $3.3 (cum. $177.5) Review & Sequel
08 Mad Max: Fury Road $2.8 (cum. $143.6)  Review & Podcast & Random Articles
09 Avengers: Age of Ultron  $2.7 (cum. $451) Review & Marathon & Podcast
10 Tomorrowland $2 (cum. $87.6)  Review

The opening weekend for Dope was solid especially for a film with zero stars. It was one of the big sales at Sundance (7 million) and it nearly nabbed that back on opening weekend. Good word of mouth (which is likely - the film is very funny and likeable) could turn it into a minor hit. None of the miniscule limited releases caused a stir at the arthouse but The Overnight (also from Sundance -- why do they wait till all the heat dissipates to release those films?) took in $62,000 on 3 screens.

What did you see this weekend?
I'd already seen Inside Out so I started on the Smackdown movies -- Key Largo is so good. I hope y'all are watching along at home. I also went to a reunion concert for the original cast of Into the Woods . Let me just say that it was basically heaven on earth. I'm still high from it... and not just from the always sublime Bernadette Peters. I went in expecting more of a talk with a few musical numbers but they did several from each act. As it turns out the original Cinderella (whose voice is still ridiculously pretty) and the original Cinderella's Prince/Wolf got married in real life and they have kids now. Joanna Gleeson was still amazingly funny as the Baker's Wife,and so on.

And of course I took in a couple more episode of Orange is the New Black. I'm absolutely loving this newly low-key character-driven season. Gone are the distractions of the outside world that marred the otherwise brilliant Season 1, the absence of a focus pulling villain like season 2's Vee (Lorraine Toussaint's Emmy worthy work aside) means more focus on the complicated network of friendships and rivalries among the women in the prison and ways that they cope, or don't. I'm just loving it.

You?