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 wide releases headlined by the biggest animated release of 2018.
Three wide releases this weekend spearheaded by Pixar’s big 2018 release: The Incredibles 2. Arriving 14 years after the original film, the movie has been very well received by critics (currently at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing). Counterprogramming releases range from a horribly reviewed remake of Superfly to the very enjoyable comedy Tag (advance review here).
The Incredibles 2 (Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, PG, 1hr 58min)
Superfly (Trevor Jackson, Lex Scott Davis, R, 1hr 56min)
Tag (Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, R, 1hr 40min)
How Did We Do Last Week? KT picked Ocean’s Eight to easily topple Solo and the film set a record for the Ocean’s franchise opening with $41.6 million. Solo: A Star Wars Story, facing its first real competition, fell to $15.8 million in its third week. The 10th live-action Star Wars film looks like it will be the lowest grossing in the franchise’s history by a wide margin.
After seven weeks in theaters, Avengers: Infinity War’s totals stand at $658.137 million domestic and $2.004 billion global. Internationally, Avengers: Infinity War is 4th all-time, and domestically, Infinity War is #5 all-time. This week, the film became the fourth member of the $2 billion club, and passed Jurassic World for #5 all-time domestically. The film should pass Titanic this weekend for #4. That makes the last two MCU releases the #3 and #4 films of all-time in the US. Those are likely the last milestones Infinity War has in its tank, so this will be our last box office update on the third Avengers film.
(2018 Prediction Record: 23-0; Lifetime prediction record 108 – 10).
WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
The Incredibles 2 should steamroll all competition before the dinos arrive next week.
If the Dinos turn out to be a juggernaut like the last time, I’ll eat my hat. I’ll eat it, I tell you! It’s going to be just like the Lost World, except it will be “bigger,” and Ian Malcom will be relegated to a cameo. They remade a shapeless, plotless film that no one remembers fondly. Good job all around!
On the other hand I have high hopes for Incredibles 2. I think the trailers were way off, and it’s going to be a blast.
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I think both films will do well. I seriously doubt Fallen Kingdom will duplicate JWs box office, but it will open huge and both films are pretty much on their own until Ant Man and the Wasp.
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I know, I know, I was not seriously suggesting that JW2 will be anything other than huge. Shapelessness and plotlessness matter not when a film has momentum behind it, and a marketing machine, and a brand like JP.
I just saw Incredibles 2, and it was almost worth the 15 year wait. It’s much, much funnier than the first one, much, much more sophisticated, and much, much more visually impressive. I had a blast, and never once felt like the “fan service” card was being played. This film is a genuine expansion of the Incredibles universe, not a cash grab.
And yet, the excitement of watching it is already fading… a little. I’m going to go see it in the theater a second time, that’s a no-brainer, but it’s a thinner movie than the first one, even though at first glance it has so much more on its mind.
One big problem is that it has a hard time holding itself together dramatically. The two strands of the plot, the domestic part and the action part, mostly feel like they are off in their own separate universes. The disconnect, the sense of switching back and forth between two movies, gets in the way of the film’s forward momentum, and the only thing that overcomes it is the fact that the individual scenes are so wonderfully played.
Also, even though this film is probably darker than the first one, it does not carry the same weight. I’m pretty sure this film has things to say, about how we are becoming a society of voyeurs, and how this tendency can be turned against us, just as easily as flipping a switch. There is actually a lot in the film that feels relevant, but none of it hangs together coherently like the message of the first film, embodied by Syndrome. And never for a moment did I believe that the entire family might really be murdered by a believable psychopath.
I loved the movie however, and it might just end up being the most entertaining film of the summer. All sequels should be this good. If they were, I would be happy.
As usual, the short film that comes before it is worth the price of the ticket alone.
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Seeing it tomorrow.
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It’s terrific Dave. Please don’t mind my criticisms. The audience laughed and applauded all the way. This is the way you make sequels. You trust in the world that’s been established, but you plant your feet in the CURRENT MOVIE and try to make it work on its own.
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Honestly…I really was disappointed by this on every level. Officially sick of sequels, probably not good when that’s 80% of the releases this year.
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What have I been saying about sequels?
But I have to say I really enjoyed this one, my reservations notwithstanding.
I actually was wrong about the messaging not holding together. Hear me out…
Evelyn thinks her parents died because her father put his faith in superheroes, instead of taking the initiative and saving himself. Right? Evelyn’s belief in the fickleness and fakeness of all codified heroes, and her conviction that you have to put your faith in yourself if you want to survive, is what motivates her evil mission. But of course the real cause of her parents’ death was not superheroes, but rather a society that had rendered superheroes impotent.
If Brad Bird is standing up for the heroes we look up to, and the traditions that define us, that is a pretty astonishing thing to do in a movie like this one. The trend these days is towards deconstruction, tearing down. At the beginning of the 21st century, our increasingly hollow lives are spent staring down at our own personal Screenslavers, our laptops and handheld devices, and it is Evelyn’s dogged self reliance that is to blame. A society without heroes to look up to is rudderless, and we have to cling to our Shiny Things. The impulse to trust only in the self is what is killing us. Because as individuals, while we have tremendous strengths, we also need a LOT of help. And without that help, from heroes in our actual flesh and blood lives, we are going to end up empty, in the darkness and despair our 24 hour plugged-in society causes when unchecked.
I think the film hangs together. I think that Bird was just too subtle in the way he drew his connections between his thoughts.
Or, I am giving him way too much credit. I hope I’m not. If I am, that’s a shame.
Now, from a distance, I can perceive the strange lack of emotion in this movie. The first one was so passionate, full of such insecurity and frustration and love and despair. I did not get that here.
Also, my worst fears were realized when it came to the villain not living up to Syndrome. What happened? Evelyn was like Liza Minelli. The whole Screenslaver reveal was unsettlingly like Trevor Slattery and the Mandarin.
I laughed a lot though, and had a great time, so I can’t say I was that disappointed. I can’t criticize a film THAT much when I was smiling so much throughout. I guess the film itself did a fair amount of Distracting With Shiny Things. It worked on me. I got lost in the world. Did you notice they were going to see Dementia 13 at the end? That probably places the film firmly in 1963.
Sorry you were so disappointed, man. Maybe my mind is reeling from finally learning George Lucas’s personal explanation of the Whills, and I am not focusing in on the problems with the film like I should be.
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I agree with your initial assessment without any entusiasm for the end result whatsoever. I barely laughed and I thought the fim was the kind of shiny hollow thing it was preaching against in one of its 29 messages. Probably my biggest letdown this year. Honestly liked Tag more. Blah. Don’t even want to review it but I found it so forgettable that I probably should before it disappears.
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If there really were 29 messages (you have to admit, I tried really hard to pull it all together) I don’t get what was going through Bird’s head. He was firmly in charge, right? Was he just trying to paint a picture of our times?
I don’t like what is happening. I don’t like that men I thought were great craftsman, like Lawrence Kasdan and Brad Bird, are making Shiny Things.
Let us pray that things turn around in Hollywood, that you and I do not turn into dinosaurs, trying to explain to the young ones about Being There and Lawrence of Arabia as they roll their eyes at the lame movies that used to get made. I enjoyed Solo, and yes, I enjoyed Incredibles 2, but it is all wearing thin.
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Who am I kidding. The only question about Being There is how soon it will be wiped from the cultural memory completely, to make room for more films about Jurassic Park. Sorry, Jurassic World.
All the prophecies in Being There have come to pass anyway. It would just depress everyone, to consider it was once a surreal comedy, and not a version of reality that’s more soothing than the actual thing, and easier to take.
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Jurassic World 2, Sicario 2, Ant-Man 2, and The Equalizer 2 all within the next month. Yes, Sicario and Ant-Man have a lot mor potential than most sequels this year, but that’s literally most of what’s on the release schedule. I’ve tried to fight off the franchise fatigue, but I’m feeling it.
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I liked Solo better than this. Bird had complete control over this. I think he’s lost it. Andrew Stanton managed to rehab himself with Finding Dory, which is still the best Pixar sequel outside the Toy Story franchise. Between this and Tomorrowland, I’m over him.
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If you haven’t read any of the Lucas articles that have popped up, do. Now we know exactly why Disney didn’t want to do the sequels his way.
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They sound truly awful.
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Dave, your friendly Reasonable Critic is finally, officially, at a total and complete loss. I cannot even being to try to explain what the hell is going through Lucas’s head.
The only positive is that now that I know what he was planning, I can stop wondering what might have been, and yearning for his version.
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It honestly sounds worse than TLJ.
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It proves that the current sequel thing is death. If the creator of SW himself was ready to perpetrate this madness, that means the path of the Good Sequel is narrower than most people will acknowledge. Really Good Things are rare enough in this world. Aiming for a second, identical Really Good thing, and succeeding, is near impossible.
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