The Weekend Report

Never underestimate a woman scorned. Boo! A Madea Halloween maintained the top spot in the marketplace for a second weekend with an estimated $16.8 million. It scared the sole weekend national newcomer (and once-presumed champ) Inferno that settled for poor seconds of $14.9 million.

Friday Box Office Estimates

..

The DVD Wrapup: Hunt for Wilderpeople, Skiptrace, Nerve, Vampire Ecstasy, Gored, Dark Water, The Id, Norman Lear and more

I’ve complained before about the lack of attention given to uniquely entertaining indie movies by distributors, even after being greeted with near-unanimous approval by audiences and critics at festivals. Indulge me while I endorse another film that has broad audience appeal but could easily get lost in the VOD-DVD shuffle. Set in a supremely scenic corner of Peter Jackson’s backyard (a.k.a., New Zealand), Taika Waititi’s coming-of-age Hunt for the Wilderpeople follows a state-raised Maori boy who’s nearly run out of options when it comes to being taken in by foster families and non-penal shelters for abandoned kids. Rotund, lazy and belligerent, Ricky (Julian Dennison) is handed over to a middle-age couple living on the edge of the “bush” – a term not at all representative of the environmentally diverse Tongariro National Park – at the center of the country’s North Island. If Waititi’s name sounds familiar, it’s for his peculiarly Kiwi entertainments as Eagle vs. Shark, “Flight of the Conchords” and What We Do in the Shadows. He’ll get his shot in the Major Leagues with – surprise! – the next chapter in the comic-book epic, “Thor: Ragnarok.” Let’s hope he doesn’t lose sight of the little picture.

The Weekend Report

It was scary stuff as Boo! A Medea Halloween had an edge over Jack Reacher: Never Go Back with the debuting films opening to respective estimates of $27.6 million and $23 million. The other two national openers included a chilling $14 million for Ouija: Origin of Evil and an even more chilly $5.5 million for the spy spoof Keeping Up with the Joneses.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Tyler Perry puts on the Madea face again, this time with numbers slightly behind the last two big hits but well above the most recent Madea, which was Santa soft. Look for a weekend number in the low 20s. The return of Jack Reacher was met by action yawns, though it was a 74% better start than the first in the series, which makes its profits internationally. Did we need a second Ouija? Apparently not. But it will still make money. And Keeping Up With The Joneses tanked. Not a great movie, but much better than that. Four terrific performers who can’t open a movie.

The DVD Wrapup: Through the Looking Glass, Café Society, Our Kind of Terror, Buying Democracy and more

If, as was the case in the 1970-80s, such writers and directors as Paul Mazursky, Michael Ritchie, Neil Simon, Herbert Ross, Elaine May, Nora Ephron, Mike Nichols, Francis Veber, and Larry Gelbart were still competing for the same adult audiences, Woody Allen wouldn’t stand so alone in the American filmmaking firmament. Neither would his detractors feel as if they have to make excuses for buying tickets to see his annual film.

DVD Geek: Medium Cool

In 1968, it was clear that something would happen on the streets of Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. With Medium Cool, Haskell Wexler and his collaborators assembled a viable romantic story, a Cinderella Liberty tale where a news cameraman (Robert Forster), chases after a kid who steals his bag then winds up falling for the kid’s hardworking but struggling mother (Verna Bloom). But, along with sending his character to pre-Convention events, Wexler also got Forster press credentials and into Chicago’s International Amphitheatre as rules votes and other events were unfolding at the Convention. Although it makes me wince, Wexler also put Bloom onto the streets as cops were attacking protesters.

The Weekend Report

There’s no Accountant for taste as the Ben Affleck thriller topped weekend viewing with a debut estimated at $24.5 million. The Kevin Hart concert film What Now? appeared to have a razor-thin lead to take second spot ahead of The Girl on the Train with a $12 million tally. And gamer adaptation Max Steel was lost in the ether with a dismal $2.1 million launch.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Accounting for taste, Ben Affleck’s latest (and unlikely to be last) super-genius fantasy, The Accountant tallies $9 million. Kevin Hart shouts his way to $4.7 million with What Now, while Girl on the Train tracks to a 58% dropoff, for $3.9 million and a $38.5 million cume.

The DVD Wrapup: Infiltrator, Blood Father, Violent Cop, Sherpa, Les Cowboys, Hills Have Eyes and more

If it weren’t for the likelihood that American audiences already know as much about Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel as they’ll ever care to learn, Brad Furman’s compelling drug-war drama, The Infiltrator, might have managed to break even at the box office. Instead, fine performances by Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) and Diane Kruger (“The Bridge”), as undercover U.S. Customs agents Robert Mazur and Kathy Ertz, will pretty much go for naught.

DVD Geek: Walking Dead Season Six

“The Walking Dead” zombies probably should be identified as “classic Romero zombies.” The drama is compelling because it uses a fantasy horror premise to magnify human conflicts and emotions that otherwise could not be so readily highlighted. And to this invigorating drama, there is the constant suspense of a zombie attack. You never know where or when it is going to happen

The Weekend Report

The Girl on the Train was first to arrive at the station with an estimated $24.6 million fare. The session featured two other national newcomers. The controversial historical drama The Birth of a Nation opened in sixth with $7 million. Teen comedy Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life was a jot behind at $6.8 million.

Friday Box Office Estimates

The train! The train!

Solid opening, but not overwhelming. About 30% off of Gone Girl… which still (projected out) makes GOTT a $100m domestic grosser. Birth of a Nation opens to a tepid number. Could get to a domestic gross total that matches the Sundance purchase price, which could cover marketing. Slightly better opening than Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, the worst performing wide opening of the week.

The DVD Wrapup: Innocents, Swiss Army Man, Purge: Election Year, Diary of a Chambermaid, The Wailing, Homestretch and more

The silence and shame that accompanies the infant’s birth would suggest that the nun had been impregnated by the devil – or, perhaps, the Holy Ghost — and no word of it should leave the convent’s walls.

DVD Geek: Johnny Guitar

Dispensing with archetypes that populated so many westerns, Nicholas Ray’s memorable 1954 Republic Pictures production, Johnny Guitar, released as an impressive Olive Signature Blu-ray is filled with vivid, unpredictable characters.

The Weekend Report

The debuts of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon topped the movie charts with respective estimated box office of $28.5 million and $20.5 million. The session’s other national opening, Relativity’s long-delayed Masterminds, bowed with $6.6 million.

DVD Geek: Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice Ultimate

The theatrical version runs 151 minutes, while the Ultimate Edition runs 183 minutes. The additional footage brings more to the story adding action (and violence—Ultimate Edition was changed from ‘PG-13’ to ‘R’), and creating a better balance for the film’s pace.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Tim Burton’s latest tops Peter Berg’s latest, neither world beaters, but not flops either. And the resurrected Relativity rolls out Masterminds a year later than pallned… and gets a classic Relativity weak reception, even with the promotion of Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones to star status (which they don’t have).