Weekend Estimates by Klady: Creation
Annabelle: Creation is off about $2 million from the opening of the first Annabelle, which is almost exactly how much The Conjuring 2 was off of The Conjuring. Ahhh… consistency. Dunkirk holds strong and while summer is ending and September is loaded, there is no other major IMAX event coming for six weeks. Nut Job 2 is 3. The Glass Castle manages near $5 million on only 1,481 screens, which is good, because they are spending less on ads. Baby Driver crosses $100 million. And Ingrid Goes West and Good Time battle to be sexually undefined leader of the exclusive launch.
Charlottesville.
This discussion feels trivial today… especially since it’s not an interesting moment to discuss box office.
It’s time for a summer wrap-up, but that will wait for the middle of the week.
Be well, all.
Pretty easy to rank the majors’ summers this year with the exception of Disney/Universal
1. WB. The studio with probably the biggest bomb of the summer and the biggest comedic dud had the best summer in the end.
3. Disney. Close call with Uni, but with CARS 3 still rolling out, they probably didn’t lose money anywhere.
3. Universal. The most profitable movie, the highest profile bomb and the only big summer comedy.
4. Sony. Mixed Bag, but way better than recent years.
5. Fox. They had an underratedly bad season.
6. Paramount :'(
IMAX has Marvel’s Inhumans for a two week run starting Sept 1st. No sure why everyone thinks Dunkirk is there to stay.
Paramount, aren’t a studio anymore, because Viacom is run by idiots. It’s a shame, but those fuckers have no clue what to do. They should be making a bunch, a metric shit ton, of small movies. They should be the small movie studio, that’s a big movie studio, then they can transition back to being a normal studio. Seeing as they are too inept, to even think about this proposition. Here’s to the Bumblebee movie not being shit.
IMAX releases slotted for the rest of 2017 include:
“Inhumans” TV series: September 1
Kingsman sequel: September 24
Blade Runner 2049: October 6
This discussion is always trivial but I need some trivial at the moment to help calm myself as I don’t have any Nazis nearby to punch.
Paramount is an absolute dumpster fire right now, it’s incredible. You just know their worst case scenario for Transformers was in the $900 million range (the last two despite being garbage both made over $1.1 billion). Instead they are barely squeaking out $600 million?? That is utterly disastrous for this sort of film.
Yes there is Mission Impossible but even with stellar reviews that sits at $700 million tops (and dropped domestically). It’s fine, good, but cold comfort when shareholders are screaming for massive, sustainable franchises. Oh and I loved new Star Trek (well the 1st and 3rd) but I accept that it is all but dead….I say “all but” because they may actually be that desperate to do the time travel with Hemsworth as the Dad thing. Paramount needs a miracle…and I don’t think it’s frickin Bumblebee.
Been wanting to say this for a while. Now that Detroit will slowly sink into the sea without even disturbing the water (unless the Academy decides to honor one of their less-deserving alums), can we have a calm, honest discussion about Kathryn Bigelow? I honestly believe critics and fans boys like her work because it’s dark, hopeless, tough, masculine, visually abrasive, psychologically abusive, emotionally vicious and brimming with sadist, near pornographic violence. To me at least, none of her films, except for The Hurt Locker, have any real artistic merit. And even The Hurt Locker is a cold, unemotional snooze whose main themes seem to be “War Is Bad,” “Violence Is Addictive” and “Vets Are Badly Treated.” Which we all learned from other, better Hollywood war movies like All Quite On The Western Front, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter and Platoon. The Hurt Locker’s six Oscars, in retrospect, seem to have been a way for the Academy to make up for 80 years of ignoring women filmmakers. Then there’s the fact Bigelow’s films have never been commercially successful, except for Zero Dark Thirty. They’ve mostly been bombs. Like Detroit. Oh yeah, about Zero Dark Thirty. It’s an elegant, well-edited, well-acted, well-shot morally incoherent snuff film about whether torture is right or wrong. It would appear that it was a financial success mostly because Americans wanted to see a narrative film about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Only they had to sit through two hours of torture porn to get there. My point here is that Ms. Bigelow seems to have vacuumed up all the honors and distinctions of which so many other women directors are actually much more deserving – from an artistic and financial point of view. Just look at the humane and humanistic films of Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Nora Ephron, Elaine May, Allison Anders, Nancy Myers, Lone Scherfig, Amy Heckerling, Penny Marshall, Ida Lupino, Catherine Hardwicke, Sarah Polley, Patty Jenkins, Barbara Koepple, Lynn Ramsey, Ava DuVernay, Penelope Spheris, Gillian Armstrong, Kasi Lemmons, Kimberly Pierce, Susanne Bier, Claire Denis, Sofia Coppola, Mira Nair, Nicole Holofcener, Kelly Reichardt, Lisa Cholodenko, Agnieszka Holland and even Barbara Streisand, for crying out loud. These women have made all kinds of movies, with male and female lead characters, and plot lines. Very few of them make movies about guns, bombs, explosions, torturing people and endless, sickening violence. Except of course, for Ms. Bigelow. That’s my complaint, I guess. Ms. Bigelow makes films like most male film directors make them. So for some reason, she’s given endless opportunities, ceaseless praise and an Oscar, while all the other women are accused of making chick flicks and Lifetime movies for women. Every time a movie of Ms. Bigelow’s opens, critics scrape and bow as if they’re in the presence of some kind of filmdom royalty. Meanwhile, all of the other female filmmakers, living and dead, have given us hundreds of great films to appreciate and love. It just seems unfair and wrong, somehow. Rant over.
“The Hurt Locker” got its Academy Awards because the Hollywood old-boy network loves US militarism and US imperialism. And “Zero Dark Thirty” was accurately described by The Guardian as “a wet kiss to the CIA”.
In more enlightening news, “Baby Driver” is not only a certified smash, it’s getting a re-release at the end of this month.
I’m not going to argue over Bigelow. I’m dug in on her even though I haven’t seen DETROIT. But to say NEAR DARK has “no artistic value” is, to me, wrong. No offense Molly’s Dad, but I think that’s one of the most beautiful horror ever made.
But to each his own.
And for the record, Nazi punks can fuck off.
Chicago’s Music Box is getting a 35mm print of BABY DRIVER.
Interesting that GOOD TIME seems to have stalled a bit from its Friday number, while INGRID GOES WEST had a good multiple. I saw GOOD TIME and pretty much hated it. It was stress-inducing and just way too aggro.
The Oscars are ridiculous in so many ways that it’s hard to make any merit based arguments at all. But OK. I think Ms. Bigelow was a deserving winner for Hurt Locker…and I think that many many women on your list should have won by now too. There are far, FAR, more male directors who won undeservedly who can give back theirs before Bigelow. Oh and I’ll go to bat for Near Dark and Strange Days any day of the week. Yeah, I said it.
That said I do think that she needs to work with new writers. Zero Dark Thirty (which I admired many aspects of) and Detroit needed a thoughtfulness and nuance that Mark Boal could not provide. Time to change things up.
The release date and quick expansion of Detroit is utterly BAFFLING to me. I’ve heard people say it was the Straight Outta Compton date. Um, what? How are they similar? They both star Black people I guess? I liked Compton less than many as the last half did not live up to the first for me but at no time ever would I (or those who adored it) describe it as “really tough to sit through”…or “a difficult, uncomfortable watch but so important you should”! Things I heard proponents of Detroit say. If they were using Compton as their release template they are delusional! A baffling misreading of the public and the audience.
Add me to the list of Near Dark fans. One of the most underrated vampire films ever.
fascinating how k-big bears the cross for all female directors
NEAR DARK is praised and referenced quite a bit in this year’s “Moonlight-Vampire Mashup,” THE TRANSFIGURATION.
Molly’s Dad-I would say Bigelow’s point in “The Hurt Locker” is partly that the themes of “Vets are Treated Bad”, “Violence is Addictive” and “War is Bad” that you claim were learned from previous war movies (and presumably the wars they reflect) were never actually learned at all.
And if I have to get down to defending Bigelow, I’ll go to bat for Point Break all day long.
It’s not K-Big’s fault women directors are only given the table scraps of awards recognition. Yes, it’s true she got into the club with masculine subject matter, but as is often the case, change happens with incremental progress.
Go fucking watch the remake of Point Break, then watch the original. If you ever wanted to know what Kathryn Bigelow brings to these big male action movies… it’s another aspect of masculinity, that you never find in these movies… FUCKING SENSITIVITY! All of her male characters, are more emotionally in touch with themselves, then their counterparts in most male directed action movies. She’s one of my fave director, because she never shows masculinity, as just a show of strength. It’s multi-faceted to her, and that’s why she’s fucking incredible… to me at least.
Now, let’s remember that some of the best action shows on TV, are shot by women. Hopefully, some fucking studio will notice this fact, and the rest of this decade and the next… will feature a slew of female directors, directing the biggest films in the business. They can surely do a better job, than fucking Gareth Edwards and Colin Trevorrow.
In some sad news a stunt woman died on the set of Deadpool 2 a few blocks from where I work here in Vancouver. Tragic.
More details on the DEADPOOL 2 death on the front page.
Creepy Doll 2 Spoilers
Pretty perplexed by the mostly positive notices for Annabelle: Creation. I’m pretty well-versed in horror and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a horror movie that isn’t a movie at all but rather a collection of jump scares. It’s a 109-minute jump scare. There’s no narrative to speak of. Some of the scares are effective. As with Lights Out, Sandberg can craft a spooky sequence quite well. But that’s all there is here. A series of them, jumping back and forth between the girls. And while I appreciate that there’s an attempt to hint and suggest more than just show, it’s negated by the constant use of deafening music and sound effects. I also love that this couple is like hey the devil itself literally lives in our house so let’s invite a bunch of needy kids to live here. Great idea! I really hope It is good.
For some reason I’ve watched the Lights Out in my On Demand line up and wanted to watch but just never committed. One night I chose Don’t Breathe over it cause I was in the mood for some suspense, and Don’t Breathe really delivered. What were your thoughts on Lights Out Stella? It did also get decent reviews.
Lights Out is a solid little horror movie until the extremely problematic conclusion that has a terrible message about mental illness (which is odd because Sandberg says he has struggled with mental illness). But there are some great sequences in it and Sandberg really can craft a good scare. It’s a tight 80 minutes and worth a watch. I prefer it to Don’t Breathe.
^ Plus Teresa Palmer is very easy on the eyes.
I’ll give Light’s Out a go this weekend. Maybe watch with my fourteen year old daughter in the dark. Thanks.
I also like Palmer. Yeah give it a shot Bulldog, and if you get the chance let me know what you both think. I imagine it will definitely give your daughter some good jolts.
Palmer’s also good in Message from the King, a TIFF premiere that Netflix picked up and is currently streaming. She plays a single mom who moonlights as a prostitute, so deliberately less “easy on the eyes” in this one, but she’s a good actress. Chadwick Boseman stars and is great as usual. The story is pretty standard mystery/revenge stuff, but well done.
That’s quite a supporting cast surrounding Palmer and Boseman. Many familiar faces. Might have to check it out.
I’d love if some of the contributors here would post even brief movie reviews, maybe a one or two paragrapher. Would spark lots of debate. Especially that most of us have been chatting for some long.
I kinda agree with Stella’s Boy’s assessment of Annabelle 2, but my daughter and I still really enjoyed it. It hasn’t stuck with me really but it was a fun time.