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. This week has three minor wide releases and serves as a bit of an oasis between the chaos of May and the unrelenting release schedule of June and July.
Three smaller releases open wide this weekend. The best-reviewed of the bunch is the science fiction revenge film Upgrade (currently around 83% on Rotten Tomatoes). Adrift, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin as woebegone sailors is getting mixed to negative reviews. Action Point is not being screened for critics, but-let’s face it-if you’re willing to go see a Johnny Knoxville movie in the theater, you could care less what critics think about it.
Action Point (Johnny Knoxville, R, 1hr 25min)
Adrift (Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, PG-13, 2hrs)
Upgrade (Logan Marshall Green, R, 1hr 35min)
How Did We Do Last Week? KT picked Solo: A Star Wars Story to win the weekend, and it did so, but if ever a weekend win felt hollow it was this one. Solo only managed to take in 84.8 million for the three-day weekend. Deadpool 2 finished second with $48.5 million. Adjusted for inflation, Solo’s is the worst opening in Star Wars history. Unadjusted, you have to go back to 2002’s Episode II to find a film in the franchise it beat. As poorly as it did in the US, the news was even worse overseas (only opening to a little over $10 million in China), and Disney is scrambling. Solo cost over $250 million to make, and as it looks now, the film seems unlikely to break even. Disney has pledged no more than one Star Wars film in a 12-month period going forward, and it seems likely that future franchise releases will stay in December where Disney has had nothing but financial success.
After five weeks in theaters, Avengers: Infinity War’s totals stand at $629.627 million domestic and $1.916 billion global. Internationally, Avengers: Infinity War is 4th all-time, and domestically, Infinity War is #6 all-time. It’s looking to cross the $2 billion mark internationally this weekend, and #3 Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not out of reach. Domestically, the film may take another few weeks, but looks like it could get to #4 Titanic and #5 Jurassic World before its run is complete.
(2018 Prediction Record: 21-0; Lifetime prediction record 106 – 10).
WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
With anemic competition, even factoring in what will probably be a giant drop for Solo in its second week, the film will likely take its second weekend in a row. If it has anyone to worry about its Deadpool 2, but I don’t think its second weekend take will tank far enough to allow it to be overtaken.
Even if JW2 deserves its early praise, I will be irritated, because it’s going to overshadow Solo while also being an unofficial remake of The Lost World.
I’m seeing Solo tomorrow. I waited so I could beat the crowds. That was a joke just now, BTW. I waited to see the film for a very valid reason actually. First time in a long life of waiting in line to be the first person to see SW movies.
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Wow, those three trailers … Action Point – please tell me this is a nightmarish fabrication. Adrift – every plot point revealed in the trailer, don’t have to see the movie now, so yay. Upgrade – mindless fun. 😀
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Honestly it was a struggle to write this one. Feels like a September week.
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Solo is terrific fun, Dave. I disagree with everyone, I didn’t think it took time to get going at all. In fact I think I liked the earlier scenes better than the rest of the movie. There was a sense of possibility that the movie did not exactly deliver on. After all my talk about how the SW movies should embrace different genres, I wish this had not just been a heist movie.
I loved Dryden Vos. I loved the knives. I thought Bettany was creepy and effective. I loved his yacht too, easily one of the best and coolest vehicles in the franchise. Maul was great for fans like us, but a huge mistake for the movie. The person I was with did not know who the character was at first, then was greatly confused when I said “Darth Maul,” then started trying to retroactively work out the timeline of the movie. Then this person just kind of shrugged when I later explained why Maul was in there. I don’t know, but I suspect this kind of thing is not an isolated incident.
I loved the Fagan centipede, thought the creature work was superlative in general. I did not go for the little guy with the arms, otherwise this was the first one in a long time where I bought every character, believed they inhabited the same space as everyone else. Like the TFA, this film improves on the visuals of the OT. Blasphemy maybe, but it’s how I feel.
There were so many wonderful moments. You what they all were. Now we know why Han chose the words, “You lost her to me fair and square.”
The problem with this movie was that there were so many wonderful moments that explained things from the OT. This movie kind of felt like a string of scenes that referenced things that happened in the OT. Obviously stuff like Han’s first meeting with Chewie was surprising and exciting to watch. But oh, Lawrence Kasdan. I know the game today is nostalgia and referencing old properties, but with Solo, you came very close to writing some kind of meta-adaptation of your scripts from four decades ago. A viewer without SW in their blood is going to miss things like, “I hate you,” “I know,” and maybe the enjoyment of the movie is not dependent on those things. But it was to me.
You might say, enjoyment is enjoyment, but I find something horribly wrong with a work that would be utterly gutted if you took out all the references to a much better movie.
But there is something else. This film got the feel and cinematic style right. And yet, while I was not expecting it, I longed for the pacing of an older movie, and quieter scenes that developed characters and themes, like in the OT. It struck me as I watched Solo that the most influential film of the past forty years is not what anyone ever says. It’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know I venerate that film as a wonderful work of genius, but these big movies today…most of them operate at full blast at almost all moments, as they propel the characters from one action set piece to the next. And without Spielberg at the helm of all these movies, the art of storytelling is being lost.
My theater, in a major area, had about twenty people in it tonight, tops. The atmosphere within was like an old art house theater that had decided to screen “Lolita” or “Barry Lyndon” once, in the middle of the day. Three kids decided to get up and leave midway through, and their parents followed. One mother marched her kids out, and I’m pretty sure what elements persuaded her to do so. The drop from TFA to this is so precipitous and sad that I no longer think it’s just TLJ. We’ll see what the box office returns are at the end of the weekend, but I think Disney made a huge mistake.
I don’t think most people ever wanted this many SW movies, or anything close.
And I think SW is a thing of the past, and it was only a matter of time before today’s kids moved away from its archaic trappings. The world is changing around us, fast.
RIP Star Wars 1977-2018.
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Well that was a little depressing. I’m kind of hoping Disney realizes the pivot point they’re at is as big as the one before TFA and they put everything they have into making Episode IX as good a film in every way that they can. That is the single best thing they can do for the franchise. People need to be re-energized about SW and I don’t think kids are over it or past it. I think Disney opened strong with two films that interested a new generation and then lost them with these two, but it’s a fickle generation and they can get them back. They CAN do a film a year, but they need to keep their eyes on quality and make sure they have solid films before they go out the door. They have to stop alienating the fan base that drives repeat business, and that vision is so removed from Kathleen Kennedy’s agenda that I would can her and find someone as passionate about the core SW values as Kevin Feige is about Marvel’s. If Marvel didn’t lay down what will likely end up being the #3 and #4 films of all-time in the US back-to-back, Solo would be a much bigger deal to Disney’s bottom line. I knew you’d like it. I mentioned this to another poster but it feels more like Lucas than any film since his time. Both for good and for bad. Don’t RIP it yet. If Episode IX is botched (and don’t think I am an optimist about it or Abrams ability to close) then you can stick a fork in it.
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I think the plunging box office numbers and the oppressively dark and distressing atmosphere in the theater colored my opinion of the movie. Now that I have had some time to think about it, I believe that the sets, cinematography and design work were the best in the history of the franchise hands-down. The callbacks to past glories (while way overdone) were handled in a much cleverer way than in most other films, and great care was taken to actually integrate them into what was going on onscreen. The film actually played around in the galaxy, too, had fun with icons and tropes, but without disrespecting them. And they got in a sword fight without lightsabers.
It is a strange movie. I cannot put my finger on why it feels like that. It just does. I guess when you have a scene like the one with Lando dictating his autobiography, and it does not seem out of place, the film is weird.
It’s an excellent action adventure movie. Far from the best in the series, obviously, but then it was not trying to compete with the larger myth. I’m bummed out that there will not be more.
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