Each Thursday we look at what is going to be coming out in theaters this weekend, show you the trailers for the big releases, predict the box office winner and just generally give you enough of a carrot to pull you through the rest of the work week. June 10th brings three new heavyweights to the party guaranteeing that at least one of them will bomb and that the Turtles reign atop the box office will be very short. The Conjuring 2 has the reviews, though lower that the original, while Now You See Me: The Second Act and Warcraft…..do not. Still, it’s a diverse group if you have cabin fever and want to get out there.
I think I made abundantly clear in my review of The Witch (click here if you missed my dissection of it) that horror is not my genre, so despite the fact that the Conjuring series is far less annoying than some horror franchises and does apparently have a floating nun going for it, that’s not going to happen for me in a theater. I was so hoping that Duncan Jones, who has been a very solid director with films like Moon and The Source Code, would be able to make a great Warcraft film that would break the video game/movie curse. From what I hear, if you are a die hard WoW player, there’s a lot of stuff for you….and not much for anyone else. If Assassin’s Creed can’t bust the barrier with that source material, Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender…..jeez, maybe it can’t be done. I loved, loved, LOVED Now You See Me. I thought it was one of the best times I had at the movies that year, and the reviews on it weren’t much better than the ones on #2, so I will probably go with that. The original cast returns, with the exception of Isla Fisher who has been swapped out for Lizzy Caplan. Maybe they’ll saw Jesse Eisenberg in half and just leave it at that!!! Catharthis!
The Conjuring 2 (Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, PG-13, 2hr 13min)
Now You See Me: The Second Act (PG-13, 1hr 55min.)
Warcraft (Ben Foster, PG-13, 1hr 40 min)
HOW DID WE DO LAST WEEK?
KT picked TMNT 2 to knock an underwhelming X-Men: Apocalypse out of the top spot after just one week, and that’s exactly what it did. It wasn’t exactly a monstrous weekend at the box office, though. TMNT 2 earned $35.3 to X-Men’s $22.8 million. The good news for X-fans is that film is doing much better overseas, so I wouldn’t worry that this is going to stop the advance of mutantkind. (Lifetime record 11-3).
WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
The Conjuring was a surprise hit, and 2016 is due for a horror hit, so with the reviews on the other contenders tanking, I think The Conjuring 2 will repeat the box office success of its predecessor..
I never root for the failure of any person or film, but TMNT’s weak showing might portend good things on the larger canvas that is Hollywood. Because even though I was never into TMNT, this sequel looks like it captures the property, down to the last detail. TMNT fans don’t seem to care. One strike, and Michael Bay is out.
Maybe these properties will start to shine on their first outings. Because there is only so much that audiences can take, and I think the collective patience of america might be reaching the breaking point.
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I just saw that WOW is only at 23% on RT. Sorry, man. Maybe the problem is this: The nerdiest movie in the world needs to rope in a general audience to be successful. So if you’re trying to make a game into a movie, and you want to be faithful to the game, you have a huge problem, because video games are aimed a nerds, and no one else.
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It’s doing huge overseas. 95 million in China alone thus far
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Personally I think it looks cool. If I go to the movie this weekend, it’s going to be my choice.
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And think about how pervasive gaming is now, even at the cell phone app level. Way past nerds
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I hope you know me well enough to know that I don’t consider “nerd” to be a pejorative.
I’m aware that people are obsessed with Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga and all that, but I was under the impression that elaborate games like WOW were exclusively part of the province of diehard gamers.
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