The Weekend Report: Spy's #1 During a Slow Opening Weekend

In which I run down the big winners (and losers) at the box office this weekend.

So I may have spoken too soon when I said that has recovered from its Memorial Day lag.  While the numbers do seem to suggest a modest improvement, it wasn't anything to write home about.  Most families had graduation parties and vacations to worry about, not whether it was worth gambling that Spy was as good as people were saying.

I know that around here, 8 area schools were holding graduations this weekend.  Although there was something of the predicted turnout for Spy, the theater was absolutely dead otherwise.  There were several showings of Poltergeist that were completely empty and more than a few showings of Pitch Perfect 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Tomorrowland that were pretty near that point.

I will say, though, from the little that I've sat in on Spy and from the good word of mouth that I've been hearing about it, I'm officially reversing my position on seeing that movie.  All things considered, it looks pretty much exactly like Get Hard: a shockingly funny comedy with actors I don't especially care about that somehow manages to do everything right.

With Becky out of town for the weekend, I opted to wait on seeing Blumhouse Production's latest screamer.  You can expect a belated review of it on Filmquisition either later tonight or early tomorrow morning, but for now, suffice it to say that the word on the street is pretty strong going into it.

A friend of mine went to see the movie over the weekend and was evidently terrified by it: sleeping (little as she was able to manage) with the light on that night.  And since the last time I saw this kind of reaction to a horror movie was Sinister, I'm more than willing to take it as a promising sign.

Although it can only be called a modest success at best, I'm none-the-less impressed by Entourage's success at the box office this weekend.  Despite its narrowly drawn audience (of people who had access to HBO between 2004-2011 and cared for this kind of thing), they've proven to be extremely loyal over the years.  I was even shocked to see some theaters almost completely filled with groups of elderly women, who I never would have imagined would like this particular brand of comedy in the least.

Word on the movie's quality, however, is pretty strongly divided.  Some walked out calling it an extended episode from the series (which was absolutely what made The Simpsons Movie so good).  Others, however, called it dated, sexist and awkwardly structured: its feature length exacerbating the show's worst qualities while doing nothing to augment its better ones.

Box Office Standings:

1)  Spy - $29m
2)  San Andreas - $25.8m
3)  Insidious: Chapter 3 - $22.6m
4)  Entourage - $10.2
5)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $7.8
6)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $7.5
7)  Tomorrowland - $7.2
8)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $6.3
9)  Aloha - $3.2
10)  Poltergeist - $2.7

So what movie did you see in theaters this last weekend?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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