Let’s be honest. No one really cares about any movies this weekend because THE MOST IMPORTANT FILM IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA AND ALL MANKIND is opening next Friday. Of course I’m talking about the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy "Sisters."
No, of course I’m talking about "Star Wars" (By the way, is this supposed to be a sequel or a prequel? Help me out here). There are guesses as to what the film will open with next weekend, with some saying that it will have the biggest opening for any film domestically ever, which means it could hit $300 million in just three days..And don’t even ask what it will do overseas. The sky is the limit.
Some things for sure are, according to a New York Times article a few days ago, that hardcore fans have already been camping outside theaters since last Saturday to be first in line to see it, even though they already have tickets. Think about that. Right now, there are people who have been waiting outside movie theaters for almost two weeks to basically have the bragging rights to say they were the first ones to see it (And technically, they won’t be since there have already been industry screenings and advance screenings for the press and the media this week). But I have to ask just who are these losers? Don’t they have jobs or lives?
On top of that, some theater chains have announced that they are planning to show "Star Wars" 24 hours a day to accommodate what they expect will be a massive turnout for the film. So adding it all up, it just might be the biggest opening grosser ever. We’ll know for sure next week.
But in the meantime, it was pretty tepid weekend. The No 2. film was the Ron Howard seafaring adventure film, "In the Heart of the Sea," staring Chris Hemsworth, who, as I have said before, unless he’s swinging a big hammer, no one really cares about. The film opened with a so-so $11 million, which is not great, considering the film’s reported $100 million budget, which means, yet again, another box office bust for Warner Bros, who, with the exception of "Creed" and "The Intern," have not had much cheer at the box office this year.
But it’s not surprising for the Howard film; there were rumblings that it was in trouble after the film’s original scheduled release in March was pulled. According to Howard and the studio, December was decided to be a better slot for the film – a week before "Star Wars" opens (Yeah, right).
Also the trailers for the film didn’t help much at all, revealing the film to be a rather chinzy-looking, over-green-screened, CGI orgy. Like they can’t shoot on a real ship on a real ocean these days? They did that back in the 1930’s, but are seemingly incapable of doing it today?
It also should be pointed out that the announcement of the date change came in January, just days after the film "Blackhat" with Hemsworth came out, and completely tanked at the box office, and Warners, no doubt, wanted to create as much distance between that film and "Heart of the Sea." But despite that, Warners has had a truly abysmal year at the box office – too few hits, maybe a modest success here and there, but way too many flat out busts.
"The Hunger Games Etc." was again the No. 1 film this weekend, with $11.3 million and $244.5 million so far, while "Creed" took fourth place, still holding on strong, with nearly $80 million to date, and looking solid for at least $110 million domestically. And the movie is only just beginning to open internationally, looking good in Australia and New Zealand, with almost $3 million so far from that region.
As for Spike Lee’s "Chi-Raq," the film dropped 52% from last week, for a weekend gross of $573,600, and a total so far of $2.1 million on 285 screens.
But the biggest winner this week was the Paramount comedy, "The Big Short," with Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt, about the 2008 financial meltdown, which made $90, 000 per screen in a limited release of 8 screens, making it the second highest per-screen average for any film this year.
1) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 LGF $11,300,000 Total: $244,490,956
2) In the Heart of the Sea WB $11,005,000
3) The Good Dinosaur BV $10,497,000 Total: $89,660,791
4) Creed WB $10,120,000 Total: $79,321,018
5) Krampus Uni. $8,010,000 Total: $28,151,330
6) Spectre Sony $4,000,000 Total: $190,767,660
7) The Night Before Sony $3,900,000 Total: $38,205,656
8) The Peanuts Movie Fox $2,650,000 Total: $124,955,585
9) Spotlight ORF $2,508,853 -Total: $20,302,802
10) Brooklyn FoxS $1,975,000 Total: $14,330,423
11) The Martian Fox $1,400,000 Total: $222,800,035
12) Love the Coopers LGF $1,350,000 Total: $24,636,242
