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 brings three lukewarmly-reviewed wide releases and two highly-regarded limited releases to try to knock that stupid clown off the top of the box office.
Pennywise’s reign of personal and theatrical terror atop the box office is likely to end this weekend with three wide and two limited releases assaulting his clowny position at #1. The three wide releases are all getting middling to poor reviews. Kingsman: The Golden CIrcle, the sequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service is facing off against the third film in the Legoverse: The LEGO Ninjago Movie. Yes. LEGO ninjas are a thing. Why shouldn’t they be? Add to that the horror film Friend Request, which seems eerily similar to last year’s Unfriended in the “Facebook Horror FIlms That Don’t Involve Reading Facebook’s Privacy Policy” ….genre.
The two films getting stellar reviews are Battle of the Sexes and Stronger. They open in limited release this week and should expand over the next few weeks. Battle of the Sexes recounts one of the few times tennis became part of the cultural zeitgeist with Steve Carrell playing Bobby Riggs and Emma Stone playing Billie Jean King. Stronger is the true story of the survival of a double amputee survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany, the film is currently at a rock solid 96% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing.
Battle of the Sexes (Steve Carrell, Emma Stone, PG-13, 2hr 1min)
Friend Request (William Moseley, R, 1hr 32min)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Colin Firth, R, 2hr 21min)
The LEGO Ninjago Movie (Jackie Chan, Dave Franco, PG, 1hr 41min)
Stronger (Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, R, 1hr 59min)
How Did We Do Last Week?
KT picked It to easily repeat, and thus It did, continuing my vexation of having to deal with both clowns and writing around a film that has as a title that is one of the most common words in the English language. If a film named “The” goes big; I’m giving up. It’s second weekend would have still broken the record for the previous best opening for any movie in September, and It has already become the highest grossing film to ever open in the month of September. Finishing a distant second was American Assassin which opened with a much more Septemberish $14.9 million. Probably not enough to start a franchise.
(2017 Prediction Record: 34-4; Lifetime prediction record 72-9; 88.9% RIGHT!).
WHO WILL WIN THE WEEKEND?
I think it will be a close race between Kingsman and Ninjago, and I’m betting on the kids getting back into the movie theater over an R-Rated film winning for what would be the sixth straight weekend. It will still finish a strong third, and this one might cost me my winning streak, but I’m going with LEGO for the win.
Seeing Kingsman tonight and the LEGO Ninjago Movie tomorrow. Hopefully, both are good.
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Hopefully. I still need to review Wind River, but that’s been the best thing I’ve seen since the July run of excellence.
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I still haven’t seeing Wind River myself (need to review that as well).
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Its fricking outstanding
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Try capitalizing the entire word IT when you refer to the novel (and movie) in writing. That’s how the entity’s “name” is written in the novel whenever the Losers refer to it (or rather IT) and it’s acceptable. It makes the title read better in a sentence. Madeline L’engle capitalized the name IT in A Wrinkle in Time, too. They had to, or they would not have been able to begin sentences with the name of their respective entities.
How far the LEGO franchise has fallen in such a short span. The first one is actually one of my favorite movies, or at least one of my favorite animated movies. Too bad Lord and Miller went off to film two hours of footage about young Han Solo that we’ll never see. They should have stayed on to shepard along the LEGOs. I think that IT stands a good chance of hanging on, because it’s the definition of a crowd pleaser.
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Yeah, I’m dismayed by the decline of the LEGO movies so quickly. I don’t think IT can survive a third week, but I’m going to seek out Stronger rather than any of the week’s wide releases.
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Good for you! The studios need to start making all smaller films and arty films immediately available to the masses, in other venues than theaters. Times have changed.
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It’s coming. The level of film inbetween indie and blockbuster is disappearing and the quality on TV has taken the place of that middle ground.
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