MCN Originals Archive for August, 2016

DVD Geek: A Taste of Honey, Miles Ahead, Love & Mercy, The Comeback, Miss Sadie Thompson 3D

Between the appeal of listening to the problems of a troubled friend, and creating a captivating replication of real dialogue and emotions in condensed dramatic form, The Taste Of Honey is consistently engrossing.

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Pride, Unprejudiced: Sunset Song, Weiner, The Invitation

A high point among so many, flawed only by a small, smoothing cut, is in the Weiner-Abedin kitchen one morning, when Abedin is asked how she’s doing. She pauses, there’s a cut, she says flatly, “It’s like living in a nightmare.” She smiles, all poise and resolve and red lipstick and white teeth and hightails it out of the frame. Second only to that is Weiner turning to his interrogators in the back of his car, “Isn’t the fly on the wall technique, doesn’t that have a little to do with the notion of not being seen or heard, you just kind of pick up what goes on around you?”

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The Weekend Report

Don’t Breathe became the air apparent as it scared up an opening estimate of $25.9 million. The session’s other new national debut was the actioner Mechanic: Resurrection that ranked fifth with a $7.3 million tally. Additionally two films got a limited wide launch. The pre-political romance Southside With You inaugurated with modest approval of $2.8 million while Hands of Stone — the fictionalized early years of boxing champion Roberto Duran — bowed to a low blow of $1.7 million. Greater, a fact-based college football drama, fumbled with $640,000 at 434 stadia.

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Friday Box Office Estimates

Don’t Breathe scares up almost $10 million since Thursday night showings, while Suicide Squad snags $3.33 million. Jason Statham kicks out $3.3 million with Mechanic: Resurrection.

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The DVD Wrapup: Jungle Book, Weiner, Dark Horse, Roots, Narcos and more

Comparing live-action apples to live-action apples, The Jungle Book has swamped Maleficent and Cinderella, but slightly trails Tim Burton’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland, which benefitted from huge 3D numbers. Of these, the only live-action title even close to Jon Favreau’s “reimagining” of the Kipling classic at the Metacritic site is Kenneth Branagh’s delightful Cinderella, starring Lily James.

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Gurus o’ Gold: Before The Festivals…

Before the Venice Film Festival kicks off the season next Wednesday, The Gurus are putting on their thinking hats and offering a mostly film-blind look toward the future. Each Guru has a different way of approaching this process, but historically, the accuracy of the group this early in the year is surprisingly good. And a film or two always eludes their glance in August. We humbly dip a toe in the water…

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DVD Geek: Only Angels Have Wings

A classic production from the greatest year of movies, 1939, the action scenes are terrific, not only because of realistic special effects, but because the editing is precise in its suspense, and the dramatic sequences are equally dazzling, with Hawks’ legendary overlapping dialog and complex yet organic character blocking.

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The Weekend Report

Suicide Squad made it a triple as it held top spot with an estimated $20.7 million. Three debuting national releases opened to middling results with fact-based seriocomedy War Dogs faring best with $14.2 million and the animated adventure Kubo and the Two Strings grossing $12.5 million. And definitely losing the chariot race was Ben-Hur with $11.2 million.

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Friday Box Office Estimates

A mediocre set of openings that fits perfectly with the time on the movie calendar. Suicide Squad continues to defy critics on its way to being the #3 all-time August release. And the arthouses aren’t looking very good, with only A Tale of Love and Darkness managing to crack the $10k per-screen bar for the weekend.

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27 Weeks To Oscar: The Shifting Award Show Cycle

The market will out. One of the little-discussed reactions to the new instant-information era is the downgrading of many of our favorite (for some, least favorite) parts of the movie year, festivals and award shows. Sundance is a true market festival in the United States and as such has become a consistent launchpad for awards…

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27 Weeks To Oscar: Ohhhhhhh

A lot of things are unfolding at once in the Nate Parker-The Birth Of A Nation story. Once emotions are stirred, it’s understandably hard to sort them out. Some would say that you shouldn’t have to sort them out. But for better or worse, that’s how my mind works.

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The DVD Wrapup: Sky, 11 Minutes, Raiders!, De Broca, Session 9, Dirty Country, Buckaroo Banzai and more

So much has been made lately about the immigrants attempting to cross our southern border to find work, we’ve forgotten about the many people who come here simply to discover something that’s been missing in their lives and think it might be hiding in Hollywood, Las Vegas, Graceland or New York. Fabienne Berthaud’s frequently compelling road picture, Sky, describes what happens when the marriage of French couple implodes in the Middle of Nowhere, USA, and she declares her independence in a most American way … violently.

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The Weekend Report

Suicide Squad took a sharp second weekend hit, but nonetheless led the current session with an estimated $43.9 million. Two national newcomers followed, the ribald frank Sausage Party with $33.4 million and family adventure Pete’s Dragon that didn’t breathe fire with its $21.5 million box office. Also bowing in medium-wide release was the upscale bio-oddity Florence Foster Jenkins with solid but not SRO results of $6.5 million.

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Friday Box Office Estimates

The heroic fight by a hot dog to get deep into a bun before being stuck in someone’s mouth, Sausage Party, starts well, slightly better than Superbad opened in 2007. This includes strong Thursday night numbers, which brings into question what the multiple over the weekend will look like. The Friday number is identical to Friday 2 of Suicide Squad. So which one will have the worse multiple? It’s a race. Disney, which has so many amazing openings, can’t seem to get liftoff on non-Big 4 titles, even their best one in years, Pete’s Dragon. And Florence Foster Jenkins arrives with a $1,300 per-screen on a very specific but semi-wide 1528 screens. Not a flat note… but no high C.

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Pride, Unprejudiced: LOUDER THAN BOMBS With Joachim Trier

“Gabriel Byrne gave him credit by saying that he had never worked with a cinematographer that was so involved, which means he’s there, he knows the blocking, he’s emoting, Jacob Ihre, I’ve seen in our collaboration both start laughing and start crying during scenes we shot, because he’s very engaged with what’s going on. Which I think he doesn’t laugh too loud or weep too loud But that matters. There is a tradition, you know, this tradition, this kind of close-up esthetic in Scandinavian cinema, from Dreyer through Bergman. On some level, I love being serious about that.”

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DVD Geek: Vacation

Only one test is necessary to judge a comedy—does it make you laugh?—and by the conditions of that test, the Warner Home Video release, Vacation, is a total success.

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The Gronvall Report: Simon Helberg on Meryl Streep And Florence Foster Jenkins

Helberg follows his costars’ leads; as the film progresses he matures, becoming warmer and more humane. As with “The Big Bang Theory,” in Florence Foster Jenkins the stage-trained (New York’s Atlantic Theater Company) Helberg again proves a very funny and sensitive supporting actor who helps up the game of everyone around him.

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Review: HELL OR HIGH WATER

Blistering honesty that needs no flash or pomposity.

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The DVD Wrapup: Hologram for the King, The Tiger, Women He’s Dressed, The Midnight After, Monster With 1,000 Heads, The Tunnel, Halt & Catch Fire and more

Clearly, Hanks was the natural choice to play Clay. He had worked with director Tom Tykwer previously, on Cloud Atlas, and hasn’t seemed to mind working in movies (Larry Crowne, The Terminal, Ithaca) that promised to return small profits, if any. He read the book and liked the character. More problematic was the likelihood that Eggers’ hipster readers might not anticipate adaptations of their favorite novels with the same passion as J.K. Rowling’s fans reserve for each new Harry Potter project.Indeed, Eggers’ name on the credits of Sam Mendes’ compelling 2009 Away We Go – alongside that of his wife and collaborator, Vendela Vida – did nothing for box-office.

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The Weekend Report

It was one for the books – record books – as Suicide Squad bowed to a muscle-flexing estimated $134.7 million. The session’s other freshman national release – Nine Lives – confirmed that cute cat videos are best seen on You Tube with a less than purrrr-fect $6.4 million gross.

Best of the exclusive bows was the coming of age Little Men (a non-Alcott) that opened to $28,300 from two engagements. Alternative expanders Indignation and Don’t Think Twice both experienced effective broadenings.

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MCN Originals

Leonard Klady's Friday Estimates
Friday Screens % Chg Cume
Title Gross Thtr % Chgn Cume
Venom 33 4250 NEW 33
A Star is Born 15.7 3686 NEW 15.7
Smallfoot 3.5 4131 -46% 31.3
Night School 3.5 3019 -63% 37.9
The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls 1.8 3463 -43% 49.5
A Simple Favor 1 2408 -50% 46.6
The Nun 0.75 2264 -52% 111.5
Hell Fest 0.6 2297 -70% 7.4
Crazy Rich Asians 0.6 1466 -51% 167.6
The Predator 0.25 1643 -77% 49.3
Also Debuting
The Hate U Give 0.17 36
Shine 85,600 609
Exes Baggage 75,900 62
NOTA 71,300 138
96 61,600 62
Andhadhun 55,000 54
Afsar 45,400 33
Project Gutenberg 36,000 17
Love Yatri 22,300 41
Hello, Mrs. Money 22,200 37
Studio 54 5,300 1
Loving Pablo 4,200 15
3-Day Estimates Weekend % Chg Cume
No Good Dead 24.4 (11,230) NEW 24.4
Dolphin Tale 2 16.6 (4,540) NEW 16.6
Guardians of the Galaxy 7.9 (2,550) -23% 305.8
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4.8 (1,630) -26% 181.1
The Drop 4.4 (5,480) NEW 4.4
Let's Be Cops 4.3 (1,570) -22% 73
If I Stay 4.0 (1,320) -28% 44.9
The November Man 2.8 (1,030) -36% 22.5
The Giver 2.5 (1,120) -26% 41.2
The Hundred-Foot Journey 2.5 (1,270) -21% 49.4