(Photo by Focus Features)
Charlize Theron launched a career turning heads in 1996’s Two Days in the Valley as one of the quirky neo-noir’s femme fatales. The big breakthrough for the South African actress came but a year later, playing the satanic bait in The Devil’s Advocate. Thanks, Keanu! Theron suddenly became inescapable, working with some big name directors (Woody Allen, John Frankenheimer, Robert Redford) on their worst movies (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Reindeer Games, The Legend of Bagger Vance). Then 2003 brought her international recognition (The Italian Job) and a significant Oscar win (Monster). Ever since, she’s fluctuated between catnip for fanboys (AEon Flux, Hancock, Prometheus) and dramatic art (North Country and the Jason Reitman collaborations Young Adult and Tully), and sometimes she’s found that rarefied sweet spot in-between (Mad Max: Fury Road).
Recently, she launched another potential action franchise with The Old Guard, and continued apace in another (Fast X). And now we’re ranking all Charlize Theron movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
97%
97%
93%
87%
82%
81%
80%
80%
79%
74%
73%
73%
73%
72%
72%
70%
69%
67%
67%
64%
65%
60%
59%
56%
57%
55%
52%
50%
48%
46%
44%
43%
42%
42%
43%
40%
38%
38%
33%
32%
28%
25%
23%
20%
17%
17%
18%
15%
14%
11%
9%
8%
(Photo by Universal /Courtesy Everett Collection)
Emily Blunt‘s first two Rotten Tomatoes-rated movies were Certified Fresh: My Summer of Love, which you’ve never heard of, and The Devil Wears Prada, which you definitely have. The $124-million grossing and decidedly unromantic comedy paved a path for more female-led films and served as a launching vector for actresses like Anne Hathaway and Blunt. Her appearances in high-profile Charlie Wilson’s War, The Wolfman and The Muppets kept the momentum going, but it wasn’t until releasing Looper that Blunt got that most coveted of validations: internet fan cred. Following that up with Edge of Tomorrow and A Quiet Place has cemented her image of poise and natural radiant strength. She was Mary Poppins, y’all. She was even Tempest Shadow in My Little Pony: The Movie. That’s cross-generational.
She had her part in Barbenheimer (as Oppenheimer’s suffering scientist wife, Kitty), and the phenom got its spin-off with The Fall Guy, where Blunt co-led with Barbie‘s Ryan Gosling.
And now we’re raking all of Emily Blunt’s movies by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first!
96%
93%
93%
91%
91%
91%
90%
88%
85%
82%
82%
79%
75%
75%
74%
71%
70%
70%
68%
66%
65%
64%
62%
55%
48%
44%
44%
32%
32%
28%
25%
23%
19%
18%
20%
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings prequel series, which takes places thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s movies, making its debut to Amazon Prime Video’s streaming service in September. Also joining this month is the movie remake of Goodnight Mommy, which stars Naomi Watts, the movie adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s ’80s-themed horror novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism, led by Elsie Fisher, the premiere of Thursday Night Football and more. Read on to find out what is headed to Prime Video and sister service Freevee this month, with a few highlights noted at the top.
Description: Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. The prequel series will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
Premiere Date: Friday, Sept. 2.
Thursday Night Football
Description: This September, Prime Video will become the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football in what is the first year of a historic 11-year agreement with the NFL. The deal makes Prime Video the first streaming service to air a season-long exclusive national broadcast package from the NFL, and includes 15 regular-season games and one preseason game per year. Prime Video will also deliver new pregame, halftime, and postgame shows as well as fan-favorite interactive features like X-Ray and Next Gen Stats powered by AWS.
Premiere Date: Thursday, Sept. 15
Goodnight Mommy (2022)
37%
Description: When twin brothers arrive home to find their mother’s (Naomi Watts) demeanor altered and face covered in surgical bandages, they begin to suspect the woman beneath the gauze might not be their mother.
Premiere Date: Friday, Sept. 16
My Best Friend's Exorcism (2022)
50%
Description: The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries — and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?
Premiere Date: Friday, Sept. 30.
$ NEWLY AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY ON AMAZON VIDEO
* AMAZON ORIGINALS
Available 9/1
Movies
80%
21 Grams
(2003)
- -
23:59
(2011)
73%
A Family Thing
(1996)
71%
The Adjustment Bureau
(2011)
67%
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
(1984)
87%
American Beauty
(1999)
0%
American Ninja
(1985)
- -
American Ninja 2: The Confrontation
(1987)
- -
American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt
(1989)
- -
American Ninja 4: The Annihilation
(1991)
89%
An American Werewolf in London
(1981)
14%
Apartment 143
(2011)
20%
Autumn in New York
(2001)
65%
Bad Influence
(1990)
31%
Big Top Pee-wee
(1988)
76%
Black Sunday
(1977)
14%
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
(2000)
86%
The Blair Witch Project
(1999)
62%
Cabin Fever
(2002)
- -
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever
(2009)
85%
The Clan
(2015)
12%
Cold Creek Manor
(2003)
90%
Crazy Heart
(2009)
87%
The Descent
(2005)
24%
The Dilemma
(2011)
- -
Dust 2 Glory
(2017)
20%
Employee of the Month
(2006)
81%
Europa Report
(2013)
41%
The Expendables
(2010)
68%
The Expendables 2
(2012)
32%
The Expendables 3
(2014)
23%
Failure to Launch
(2006)
81%
Fight Club
(1999)
54%
Frontera
(2013)
51%
The Ghost and the Darkness
(1996)
78%
Gorky Park
(1983)
82%
Hard Eight
(1996)
82%
He Got Game
(1998)
46%
Heartburn
(1986)
46%
Here Comes the Devil
(2012)
99%
How to Train Your Dragon
(2010)
83%
I Saw the Devil
(2010)
53%
I'm Still Here
(2010)
36%
In Time
(2011)
63%
Instructions Not Included
(2013)
10%
Intersection
(1994)
58%
Jason's Lyric
(1994)
83%
Juan of the Dead
(2011)
72%
Legally Blonde
(2001)
35%
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
(2003)
98%
Let the Right One In
(2008)
16%
The Lifeguard
(2013)
63%
Love Story
(1970)
33%
Loving Pablo
(2017)
- -
Mandrill
(2009)
3%
The Mod Squad
(1999)
14%
Moonlight and Valentino
(1995)
68%
mother!
(2017)
83%
The Motorcycle Diaries
(2004)
12%
Mr. Baseball
(1992)
95%
My Beautiful Laundrette
(1985)
71%
Night Falls on Manhattan
(1996)
71%
Open Water
(2003)
28%
The Out-of-Towners
(1999)
68%
The Package
(1989)
11%
Pulse
(2006)
43%
The Recruit
(2003)
41%
Reign of Fire
(2002)
90%
Rescue Dawn
(2007)
8%
Rings
(2017)
77%
Role Models
(2008)
77%
Role Models
(2008)
Unrated
13%
Ronaldo
(2015)
41%
Rookie of the Year
(1993)
88%
Roxanne
(1987)
66%
The Sacrament
(2013)
54%
Save the Last Dance
(2001)
19%
Shattered
(2022)
95%
The Silence of the Lambs
(1991)
88%
Sin nombre
(2009)
92%
Skyfall
(2012)
3%
Staying Alive
(1983)
33%
Superstar
(1999)
80%
Support Your Local Sheriff!
(1969)
53%
The Transporter
(2002)
83%
Trollhunter
(2010)
60%
Uncommon Valor
(1983)
87%
The Usual Suspects
(1995)
- -
Van Wilder: Freshman Year
(2009)
80%
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
(2008)
71%
Wanted
(2008)
76%
War of the Worlds
(2005)
52%
Weekend at Bernie's
(1989)
- -
We're No Angels
(1955)
46%
Wild Bill
(1995)
75%
The Young Victoria
(2009)
6%
Yours, Mine & Ours
(2005)
88%
1917
(2019)
(Freevee)
98%
All About My Mother
(1999)
(Freevee)
28%
Annie
(2014)
(Freevee)
86%
As Good as It Gets
(1997)
(Freevee)
46%
Bad Teacher
(2011)
(Freevee)
82%
Broken Embraces
(2009)
(Freevee)
42%
Can't Hardly Wait
(1998)
(Freevee)
68%
Charlie's Angels
(2000)
(Freevee)
41%
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
(2003)
(Freevee)
44%
Cowboys & Aliens
(2011)
(Freevee)
30%
Criminal
(2016)
(Freevee)
21%
For Greater Glory
(2012)
(Freevee)
77%
Fried Green Tomatoes
(1991)
(Freevee)
13%
God's Not Dead
(2014)
(Freevee)
76%
Happy Feet
(2006)
(Freevee)
45%
Happy Feet Two
(2011)
(Freevee)
93%
Hidden Figures
(2016)
(Freevee)
29%
Kindergarten Cop 2
(2016)
(Freevee)
53%
Leatherheads
(2008)
(Freevee)
37%
Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family
(2011)
(Freevee)
26%
Madea's Family Reunion
(2006)
(Freevee)
93%
Matador
(1986)
(Freevee)
77%
Match Point
(2005)
(Freevee)
96%
Pain and Glory
(2019)
(Freevee)
83%
Silence
(2016)
(Freevee)
64%
Stop-Loss
(2008)
(Freevee)
30%
The Bone Collector
(1999)
(Freevee)
20%
The Huntsman: Winter's War
(2016)
(Freevee)
31%
The Longest Ride
(2015)
(Freevee)
84%
There's Something About Mary
(1998)
(Freevee)
91%
Volver
(2006)
(Freevee)
- -
Where's the Money
(2017)
(Freevee)
94%
Whiplash
(2014)
(Freevee)
Series
- -
American Ninja Warrior
: Seasons 12-13
97%
Friday Night Lights
: Seasons 1-5
- -
Texicanas
- -
WAGS: Miami
: Seasons 1-2
- -
Murder, She Wrote
(Freevee)
- -
Murder She Wrote: A Story to Die For
(2000)
(Freevee)
- -
Banacek
: Seasons Seasons 1-2 (Freevee)
- -
Models of the Runway
: Seasons Seasons 1-2 (Freevee)
- -
The Rockford Files
: Seasons Seasons 1-6 (Freevee)
He Is Psychometric (2019)
Prison Playbook (2017)
Reply 1988 (2015)
Reply 1994 (2013)
- -
Search WWW
- -
Signal
56%
Aline
(2021)
86%
Flight / Risk
(2022)
*
92%
How to Train Your Dragon 2
(2014)
(Freevee)
77%
Dog
(2022)
57%
Firebird
(2021)
86%
The Outfit
(2022)
- -
Heatwave
(2022)
Prisma (2022)*
10%
Firestarter
(2022)
29%
Memory
(2022)
- -
September Mornings
: Season 2 *
70%
Our Idiot Brother
(2011)
68%
Ambulance
(2022)
On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.
(Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection)
How many times now have we seen the fanfare of an “And Introducing…” in the credits of a movie, only to never hear of that person ever again? If you can’t think of any examples, that’s exactly the point.
But not so for Jessica Chastain. She would not fall casualty to this Madden cover curse of star billing, after her “And Introducing…” leading debut of 2008’s Jolene. The movie only got 48%, so it didn’t set the world on fire, but Chastain came back two years later with Stolen…which got 0%. Improbably, this only set the stage for a wild 5-movie Certified Fresh streak that would launch her career, featuring Coriolanus, The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, and Take Shelter.
Almost hard to believe Chastain has only been active on-screen for just over a decade, but she’s capitalized on her early Certified Fresh windfall. The Help got her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nom, and the next year she upgraded to competing in the Best Actress field for Zero Dark Thirty, which would go on to win Best Picture. Interstellar and The Martian made her synonymous with deep space hijinks (as if Tree of Life didn’t already), while Miss Sloane and Molly’s Game exhibits her style of high-level intensity.
Most recently, she was in HBO Max’s Scenes From a Marriage and notched an Oscar nom for Eyes of Tammy Faye. Now, we’re ranking Jessica Chastain’s movies and series by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
92%
92%
91%
91%
89%
86%
82%
83%
81%
80%
78%
77%
75%
76%
68%
73%
72%
67%
67%
64%
64%
63%
62%
59%
54%
48%
39%
24%
22%
20%
18%
5%
0%
The biggest movies this week — Don’t Breathe and Mechanic: Resurrection — are both rated R, but there are still a couple of smaller films you could potentially take your kids to, including the story of Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date and a dysfunctional family comedy. Read on for details.
NEW IN THEATERS
Rating: PG-13, for brief strong language, smoking, a violent image and a drug reference.
This walking-and-talking romance recreates the first date between Barack and Michelle Obama, back when they were in their mid-20s with dreams of changing the world. Parker Sawyers plays the future president when he was still just a charismatic law student, with Tika Sumpter co-starring as the future first lady, his superior at the Chicago law firm where he worked during the summer of 1989. The two spend the day together on the city’s South side – hence the title – visiting an art exhibit, attending a community meeting, seeing a movie (Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing) and finally sharing a climactic ice cream cone. There’s a bit of language. The young Obama smokes cigarettes pretty much non-stop and jokes about smoking too much pot in college. We also see a snippet of the riot scene in Do the Right Thing as the couple is watching it in a theater. But this is a really lovely, intimate, beautifully acted film. I’d say it’s fine for viewers around age 10 and older, especially if they have an interest in history or politics.
Rating: PG-13, for brief language and some thematic material.
It’s an entire subgenre unto itself: the indie comedy-drama about a guy in his 30s who goes back to his small town to deal with his wacky, dysfunctional family and learn some important life lessons. The Hollars hits all the notes you expect so frequently, it almost feels like a parody of this kind of Sundance standard. But no, John Krasinski actually means it as both director and star. Krasinski plays an aspiring graphic artist named John Hollar who gets a call that his mother (Margo Martindale) is ailing. Once he returns home, he reconnects with his father (Richard Jenkins), whose business is going bankrupt, as well as his divorced, ne’er-do-well brother (Sharlto Copley). John also has a pregnant girlfriend (Anna Kendrick), who eventually shows up, too, as well as a former girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who’s now married to his mother’s nurse (Charlie Day). Madcap antics abound. There’s some heavier stuff, too, involving the mother’s illness, her need for surgery and whether she can survive. There’s a bit of surreptitious, anxiety-induced smoking. And there’s some scattered language, including the one F-bomb you’re allowed with a PG-13 movie, which Copley gets the pleasure of screaming. This is OK for viewers around 10 or 11 and older.
NEW ON DVD
Rating: PG, for action and some rude humor.
Kids around ages 6 or 7 and older will be OK watching this animated family comedy. It’s based on the sci-fi video game of the same name about the adventures of a cat-like creature named Ratchet, who’s a mechanic, and Clank, his robot friend. The two team up with a group of Galactic Rangers to stop the villainous Chairman Drek (voiced by Paul Giamatti) from blowing up various planets for his own nefarious purposes. John Goodman, Rosario Dawson, Sylvester Stallone, and Bella Thorne are also among the starry voice cast. This movie is pretty harmless but it’s also not very good. The jokes are flat, the antics are noisy and the overall tone is annoyingly cheeky. As for whether it’s appropriate for your kids, though, there’s a bit of action violence but it’s never scary. There is some weaponry and we see a few explosions, but it’s cartoonish in every sense of the word. I brought my son (who was 6 ½ at the time) to a screening of the movie and nothing bothered him.
Rating: PG-13, for fantasy action violence and some sensuality.
Viewers around 9 or 10 and older should be fine with this sorta-prequel, sorta-sequel, sorta-spinoff to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Visually lush but narratively messy, it’s essentially a really angry version of Frozen, starring Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt as wicked royal sisters dueling for power. Blunt’s character, Freya, discovers she can shoot ice from her fingertips in a fit of rage and exiles herself to the snowy mountains where she builds her own kingdom and forms her own army. She rounds up and trains child soldiers for battle and explicitly instructs them not to fall in love. But two of them (Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain) — her two brightest, actually — grow up and do just that. (There are two brief love scenes — one in a hot tub, another in the forest — which suggest they have sex, but you don’t see anything.) Winter’s War also is about a quest to recover that famous mirror and, like the original film, features various strange forest creatures and digitally rendered dwarfs. Much of the combat is rather intense, and there’s a horned, roaring goblin who might seriously frighten younger kids. The special effects are quite dazzling but they also result in images that might be too scary, especially during the climactic showdown between the two sisters.
There are a lot of choices this week for the discerning consumer, from fantasy adventures to historical miniseries to horror TV shows, crime comedies, quirky indies, and foreign classics. Read the full list for details.
Based on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies, this Starz horror-comedy follows Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell, reprising his role) as he attempts to stomp out the demonic forces threatening humanity once again. The season one set comes with episode commentaries for every episode, an inside look at the series, and more.
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling star in Shane Black’s comedy about a private eye who teams up with an enforcer to find a missing woman. Special features include a profile of Black and a making-of featurette.
Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, and Julianne Moore star in Rebecca Miller’s comedy about a young woman who falls in love with a married man after deciding to become a single mother. Bonus features include a commentary track with Miller, a making-of doc, outtakes, and a Sundance Q&A.
This FX series from the mind of Guillermo Del Toro begins with four survivors of a mysterious plane crash in New York who develop an appetite for blood, setting off a vampiric epidemic whose roots stretch back to Nazi Germany. The season two set comes with one episode commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and more.
Wagner Moura stars in this Emmy-nominated Netflix original series about the rise of Pablo Escobar as a billionaire drug kingpin during the late 1970s. The season one set comes with three episode commentary tracks, a look at the origins of the series, an examination of the show’s authenticity, and more.
AMC’s wildly popular horror drama follows a group of weary survivors attempting to thrive amid a zombie apocalypse and discovering that the undead aren’t the only ones they need to worry about. The season six set comes with an extended episode, episode commentaries, deleted scenes, a look at the “walkers,” and more.
Greta Gerwig leads an ensemble cast in Todd Solondz’s comedy, which tells a series of stories about ordinary people whose lives are connected by the presence of the same dachshund. No information on special features is currently available.
This CW action drama, which exists in the same universe as Arrow and The Flash, centers on a time traveler who gathers a team of superpowered individuals to help bring down a ruthless dictator destined to destroy the world in the future. The season one set comes with the show’s 2015 Comic-Con panel, a look at the production design, gag reel, and more.
Based on the comic book of the same name, this cheeky Fox series stars Tom Ellis as the Devil himself, who abandons his kingdom in Hell, takes human form, and helps the LAPD catch bad guys… all because he’s bored. The season one set includes the show’s 2015 Comic-Con panel, a handful of character profiles, a look at Lucifer himself, deleted scenes, and more.
This Eli Roth-produced horror film follows an ordinary man who slowly transforms into a murderous clown after he dons a cursed clown costume for his son’s birthday and discovers it can’t be removed. Only a making-of featurette is included.
Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth reprise their roles from Snow White and the Huntsman for this sequel, which spins another revisionist twist into the story of the Ice Queen and Snow White’s evil stepmother. Extras include several making-of featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a commentary track, and it’s also available in a 4K version.
Based on the video game franchise of the same name, this animated feature centers on a cat-like alien and his sentient robot pal, who team up to save the galaxy. Special features include interviews with the cast and crew and a comparison between the movie and its source material.
And lastly, from Criterion, we have two selections, beginning with this Oscar-nominated Hiroshi Teshigahara classic about an entomologist stuck in the desert who is forced to seek shelter with a mysterious woman who lives there. The new Blu-ray comes with four short films from early in Teshigahara’s career, a documentary about Teshigahara’s collaboration with novelist Kobo Abe, and more.
The second Criterion Collection release this week is this film from the British New Wave of the 1960s about a love affair between two working-class teenagers that results in an unplanned pregnancy. Extras include new interviews with the film’s stars, a 1962 audio interview with director Tony Richardson, a 1998 interview with cinematographer Walter Lassally, and more.
The Marvel smackdown Captain America: Civil War was once again the most popular movie in the land grossing an estimated $72.6M in its second frame for a drop of 60% from its massive debut. The decline was just slightly bigger than what other super hero sequels with the same characters saw in their second weekends. Last May’s Avengers: Age of Ultron fell 59%, the previous year’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier dropped 57%, and 2013’s Iron Man 3 declined by 58%.
Civil War‘s fall was on the higher end, but generally in the same neighborhood. It had some of the best reviews and word-of-mouth of any of these hits, but super hero sequels tend to draw their pre-defined audiences upfront and so even well-liked installments can see large drops on the sophomore session.
The cume now sits at a sturdy $295.9M and the super soldier may cross the $300M mark on Monday night becoming the fifth such blockbuster of 2016, and third for Disney. And it’s only the middle of May. Civil War is currently running 4% ahead of Iron Man 3 and 6% behind Ultron. All three opened on the first weekend of May. At this trajectory, a domestic final in the neighborhood of $420M should result. That would mark a jump of more than 60% over the $259.8M of Winter Soldier.
Disney and Marvel saw wonderful results overseas for a third weekend. The new Captain America grossed an estimated $84.2M falling 62% from last weekend. The international cume rose to $645M (led by China’s $155.8M) lifting the global gross to a stellar $940.9M. $63.7M has come from 955 IMAX screens worldwide. It now stands as the sixth biggest super hero movie of all-time behind both Avengers films, Iron Man 3, and the last two Dark Knight pics. The billion dollar mark could get shattered this Friday. Direct competition will get hot soon as X-Men: Apocalypse opens in much of the world next weekend followed a week later by its North American launch for the Memorial Day holiday frame.
Audiences were still mesmerized by The Jungle Book which spent its fifth weekend among the top two spots. The VFX-heavy adventure dipped only 28% to an estimated $17.8M joining the triple-century club this weekend with a new cume of $311.8M. On Monday it will join the all-time Top 50 bumping off Iron Man 2 and a final of $350M or more looks likely. Overseas grosses rose to a stellar $516.3M led by China’s $151M putting the global tally at a superb $828.1M with Korea and Japan still to open.
George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and director Jodie Foster supplied the starpower for the hostage thriller Money Monster but were met with only a moderate debut with an estimated $15M. Sony averaged $4,832 from 3,104 locations for the R-rated action pic which tried to be the alternative choice for mature adults at a time when comic book heroes and Disney kidpics are the main options. Reviews were mixed.
Money Monster‘s opening was well below those of other adult-skewing crime thrillers from stars like Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson who often break $20M and even $30M on the first weekend playing to a similar audience. With a so-so B+ CinemaScore grade and direct competition for adults coming next weekend from The Nice Guys starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, the road ahead will not be easy. The production budget is reported to be only $27M (not including the marketing spend) and international prospects look good so Money Monster may end up being a moneymaker.
The Blumhouse horror film The Darkness opened on Friday the 13th with a moderate release and grossed an estimated $5.2M from 1,755 locations for a mild $2,952 average. Rated PG-13, the supernatural chiller was panned by those critics who chose to review it. Exit poll data showed that the audience was 53% female, 55% under 25, and 55% non-white.
Coming off of the titular holiday, and facing another Julia Roberts movie opening, Mother’s Day plunged 71% to an estimated $3.3M putting Open Road at $28.8M. Earth’s biggest blockbuster of 2016 – Zootopia – followed with an estimated $2.8M slipping a slim 12% for the smallest drop by far of any wide release this weekend. The cume rose to $331.8M putting the Disney toon at number 41 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters. Worldwide, Zootopia climbed to $969.8M powered by China’s $235.6M.
Universal’s big-budget adventure The Huntsman: Winter’s War grossed an estimated $2.6M, off 35%, for a new cume of $44.5M domestic. The worldwide run is slowing and struggling at $153.9M from all global markets except Japan.
Three comedies rounded out the top ten with under $2M a piece. Keanu took in an estimated $1.9M, down 42%, for a $18.6M total for Warner Bros. The studio also saw its Barbershop: The Next Cut slip 40% to an estimated $1.7M putting Ice Cube at $51.4M to date. It’s the 13th $50M+ hit in the star’s career and many of those films had relatively low budgets. Melissa McCarthy saw a 38% slide to an estimated $1.2M for The Boss which has banked $61.1M to date for Universal.
A24 scored the biggest opening weekend average of the year for an indie film with its platform release of the critics’ darling The Lobster in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The Colin Farrell-Rachel Weisz pic bowed to an estimated $188,000 for a sizzling $47,000 average. Winning the Cannes Jury Prize last year, Lobster is set in a world where people have 45 days to find true love or else they turn into an animal of their choosing. A24 expands next weekend before going nationwide on May 27.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $123.9M which was down 29% from last year when Pitch Perfect 2 opened at number one with $69.2M; and down 26% from 2014 when Godzilla debuted in the top spot with $93.2M.
Follow BoxOfficeGuru.com on twitter.
Disney’s The Jungle Book held on strong in its second weekend while The Huntsman: Winter’s War was met with middling results.
The Jungle Book remained in the top spot this weekend with an estimated $60.1M, a drop of 41% from last weekend’s $100M+ opening, bringing its total up to $191.5M. This will be the second of a possible six $300M+ plus grossers for the Mouse House this year after Zootopia accomplished that result last weekend. And looking ahead in 2016 there’s still Captain America: Civil War, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Finding Dory and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to look forward to, all of which should find massive audiences. Eventually, Disney will run out of theme park rides and old classics to remake, but until then this should be a banner year for them.
Second place belonged to the debuting The Huntsman: Winter’s War which captured $20.1M, according to estimates, from 3,791 theaters for a per screen average of $5,297. Critic reviews were very soft as it stands at only 17% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, but the CinemaScore was a B+, which is stronger than the B score the first film received back in the summer of 2012. That film opened to $56M on its way to a final total of $155M. will struggle to even reach the opening of the original. It’s unlikely they’ll make a third film unless they bring back Kristen Stewart for a trilogy ender since she clearly is the reason the first film was so successful. I’ll let you decide how sarcastic that last sentence may or may not have been.
Falling 46.5% in its second weekend was Ice Cube’s , cutting up an estimated $10.8M, bringing its total to $36M. The first two films in the series had similar opening weekend but smaller second weekend drops. Look for The Next Cut to finish in the $55M range which would be the lowest in the series.
Fourth place belonged to Disney’s Zootopia which fell only 19% in its eighth weekend to an estimated $6.6M, bringing its total up to a huge $316M. Is it possible this unheralded animated film could end up outgrossing the two biggest superheroes of all-time? Because in its fifth weekend, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice slipped 39% to an estimated $5.5M, bringing its total up to $319.5M. It’ll be interesting to see if Zootopia can catch and pass the leaders of the Justice League. And sandwiched in between the two behemoths was Universal’s The Boss which took in an estimated $6M this weekend, bringing its cume up to $49.5M.
In seventh place was Criminal, which made $3.1M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $10.9M with not much left in the tank. In eighth place was My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 which took in another $2.1M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its cume up to a solid $55.3M. A far cry from the original’s $241M total, but not horrible.
If you had to decide which movie would make more money based on the following descriptions, which would you choose: A) A bilingual Mexican/American buddy cop film with no recognizable American stars or B) A movie starring Tom Hanks? If you guessed A, good job! Despite opening on 69 fewer screens Compadres opened to $1.35M this weekend, according to estimates, from 368 playdates, for a per screen average of $3,668. Meanwhile, debuting outside the top 10 was Tom Hanks in the oddly named A Hologram for the King which opened to an estimated $1.2M from 401 theaters, for a per screen average of $3,010. And in the middle of those two debuts was the Bleecker Street thriller Eye in the Sky which picked up another $1.2M this weekend, according to estimates, bringing its total up to $15M. Bleecker Street was less successful with Elvis & Nixon which opened on 381 screens but only managed to earn an estimated $456,793 for a poor average of only $1,199.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $117.7M which was up 46.8% from last year when Furious 7 stayed at number one for a fourth time with $17.8M; and up 20.8% from 2014 when The Other Womano opened in the top spot with $24.7M. Compared to projections, The Huntsman: Winter’s War was dead on target with Gitesh’s $20M prediction.
The big movie this week is the prequel/sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, and Christy lets us know if there are any fantastical images in it that might frighten the wee ones. Also on video, she covers a poorly received animated film from earlier this year and an underseen gem from across the pond. Read on for details.
NEW IN THEATERS
Rating: PG-13, for fantasy action violence and some sensuality.
This sorta-prequel, sorta-sequel, sorta-spinoff to 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman is visually lush but the script is a mess. It’s essentially a really angry version of Frozen, starring Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt as wicked royal sisters dueling for power. Blunt’s character, Freya, discovers she can shoot ice from her fingertips in a fit of rage and exiles herself to the snowy mountains where she builds her own kingdom and forms her own army. She rounds up and trains child soldiers for battle and explicitly instructs them not to fall in love. But two of them (Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain) — her two brightest, actually — grow up and do just that. (There are two brief love scenes — one in a hot tub, another in the forest — which suggest they have sex, but you don’t see anything.) Winter’s War is also about a quest to recover that famous mirror and, like the original film, features various, strange forest creatures and digitally rendered dwarfs. Much of the combat is rather intense, and there’s a horned, roaring goblin who might be seriously frightening for younger kids. The special effects are quite dazzling but they also result in images that might be too scary, especially during the climactic showdown between the two sisters. Probably fine for kids around 9 or 10 and older.
NEW ON DVD
Rating: PG, for mild rude humor and action.
Critics weren’t kind to this animated family comedy when it came out earlier this year. It barely hovered above the ground at 8 percent on the Tomatometer and stayed there, despite its theoretically worthwhile ecological message. It’s about a chatty, wacky polar bear (voiced by Rob Schneider) who travels to New York City to stop a real estate developer from building luxury condos near his Arctic home. Along for the ride is a trio of adorable, Minion-esque lemmings. Madcap fish-out-of-water antics and fart jokes ensue. This is probably fine (and best-suited, really) for the youngest children in your house. Maybe if you’re desperate, you can put it on to occupy your kids while you’re folding laundry or making dinner — but there are a million other preferable options.
Rating: PG-13, for a brief unsettling image.
Maggie Smith is adorably cantankerous in this true story of a homeless woman who parked her van in the driveway of a playwright’s London home and didn’t leave for 15 years. The Lady in the Van is based on Alan Bennett’s play of the same name, inspired by his real-life experience with a mysterious woman who demanded that people address her exclusively as Miss Shepherd. Nicholas Hytner’s film has plenty of hard-earned lessons about tolerance, generosity and kindness. It features several characters who are repulsed by the sight and smell of Miss Shepherd but eventually find a soft spot in their hearts for her. But it also includes — spoiler alert — the discovery of her dead body inside the van toward the end; it’s a quiet, peaceful image, but it’s apparently the reason for the film’s PG-13 rating. The movie has a nice message, though, and should be fine for older kids and up.
This week at the movies, we’ve got just one wide release: the fantasy prequel/sequel The Huntsman: Winter’s War, starring Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, and Emily Blunt. What do the critics have to say?
Snow White and the Huntsman might not have set the world on fire, but it was a decent fantasy adventure with some sharp visuals and a feminist edge. Still, audiences weren’t necessarily clamoring for a sequel, much less this prequel/sequel, which critics say squanders its all-star cast on a plot that’s alternately predictable and incoherent. This time out, heartbroken Ice Queen Freya (Emily Blunt) exiles herself to a mountain, where she abolishes love and recruits an army of child soldiers. After her sister Ravenna (Charlize Theron) is defeated by Snow White, Freya searches for the magic mirror to resurrect her, while two of her former soldiers team up to stop her. The pundits say Huntsman sometimes feels like a grim retelling of Frozen, though at least a few action set pieces are reasonably stirring.
Orphan Black makes a 180-degree return to its roots with an experimental fourth season that delves deeper into the show’s strange, innovative premise.
Not letting up in season two, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is still odd in the best of ways, wonderfully building on its unique comedy stylings and brilliantly funny cast.
The Night Manager‘s smart writing and riveting story are elevated all the more by Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston‘s captivating performances.
Also Opening This Week In Limited Release
At 48% on the Tomatometer, Snow White and The Huntsman didn’t clear many critical benchmarks in the fantasy genre back in 2012. But The Huntsman: Winter’s War, its Kristen Stewart-less prequel, looks like it’ll fall even shorter, inspiring this week’s 24 Frames gallery: 24 worst fantasy movie sequels (or prequels, or sidequels, or spinoffs, or…) by Tomatometer!
