So how bad is Tom Cruise’s “The Mummy”? I have yet to read a single positive review of the film; some critics have even called it the worst Tom Cruise film ever. On top of that, it is the first of Universal Pictures’ recently announced “Dark Universe” franchise of films.
Left out from all that Marvel and DC money that Disney and Warner Bros is making, Universal decided to dust off some old monster movie properties from the studio’s past, such as “Dracula”, “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “The Invisible Man” and “Frankenstein”, and will reboot them in a series of new movies starring Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp, in addition to Cruise in “The Mummy”.
Unfortunately, “The Mummy” was something of a disaster from the start of its marketing, getting poor scores at audience test preview screenings. And the trailers for the film revealed it to be a tired mish-mash of worn out cliches, unoriginal ideas and really second rate CGI effects. It all spelled doom, not only for the film, but also for the whole Dark Universe concept itself.
Also, Cruise’s box office prowess, with the exception of his “Mission Impossible” movies, has been waning for a while now and could use a boost. However, as I predicted last week, “The Mummy” was destined to be a huge flop – one of the biggest of the summer – with a much lower than expected $32.2 million domestic opening, which is ruinous for the reportedly $195 million film. The one saving grace though is, as usual, the overseas market where the film has grossed almost $142 million so far. The film will probably still wind up a box office loser for Universal, but not so much of one.
Yet Universal, to prove they’re right while everyone else says they’re wrong, is still going ahead with their next film in the Dark Universe franchise, a remake of the classic 1935 horror film “The Bride of Frankenstein” (Yet another really bad idea. Who is going to see that?), which will start shooting later this year for a Feb. 2019 release. Good luck.
Of course “Wonder Woman” was the No. 1 again this weekend with $57 million and over $205 million total domestic, making it the 45th film to gross $200 million or more domestically. And worldwide it’s made over $435 million as of today. From the ecstatic reaction the film has received, it’s clear that WW has inspired many women who were overjoyed to see a female superhero on screen at this level for the first time.
However, euphoria for WW momentarily took a back seat this weekend when the first trailer for Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” was released, making practically every black man, woman and child lose their natural minds. If that film doesn’t do “Wonder Woman” type b.o. numbers when it’s released next February, then something’s up.
The A24 acclaimed horror film “It Comes at Night” under-performed, coming in sixth place and grossing $6 million when it was expected to make $8- 10 million. Most likely, the generic title – which sounds too similar to other horror film titles – and the film’s basic premise (What? Zombies again?) looked too “been-there-done-that” to horror fan films. However, positive word of mouth could help it in the following weeks.
The remake of the old classic melodrama “My Cousin Rachel” with Rachel Weisz, didn’t do well in a limited release of just over 500 screens, though it will no doubt perform much better internationally. And “The Fate of the Furious”, which has grossed $1.2 billion worldwide to date, is now the 11th highest grossing globally released films ever. However, it was beat out for 10th place by Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”, although by just a measly $10,000.
This weekend’s top 12 grossing films follows:
1) Wonder Woman WB $57,180,000 Total: $205,002,503
2) The Mummy Uni. $32,246,120
3) Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Fox $12,300,000 Total: $44,562,512
4) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales BV $10,713,000 Total: $135,839,294
5) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 BV $6,242,000 Total: $366,361,172
6) It Comes At Night A24 $6,000,788
7) Baywatch Par. $4,600,000 Total: $51,065,135
8) Megan Leavey BST $3,767,722
9) Alien: Covenant Fox $1,800,000 Total: $71,212,212
10) Everything, Everything WB $1,620,000 Total: $31,731,952
11) My Cousin Rachel FoxS $954,000
12) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Fox $675,000 Total: $19,397,258
