The Weekend Report: Inside Out Eeks Out a Win During the Slow Holiday Weekend

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

Despite shaping up to be a dynamite weekend at the box office, nothing much ultimately came of this weekend's two new releases: Terminator Genisys (a review of which will be up shortly) and Magic Mike XXL.  Both franchise's hoards of fans chose barbecues and fireworks over retreads of ultimately better movies (despite how impressive one of these two actually was to see).

Although easily the best of the two big releases this weekend, Terminator Genisys massively underperformed in a third place debut.  Don't let its disappointing numbers fool you, however: it's the best Terminator movie that we've seen since Judgment Day, and an easy pick for third best of the entire franchise.

Although the movie is obviously trying to undo its tangled, future-stranded continuity with a massive jolt to the time stream to allow for any number of future sequels Days of Future Past style, it refreshingly does so while remembering what made the original the classic that it is today.  Sure, time travel reboots might be a tired cliche by this point, but the concept is so deeply rooted in Terminator's narrative DNA that you can't help but give it a free pass on this one, especially when it pulls it off so incredibly well.

There are exceedingly few movies that I want to see fail.  Even if I don't like a movie, I generally want it to give its competition as much trouble as it can.  That's what makes these rankings exciting, after all.

Magic Mike XXL, however, is a rare exception.  Expect to see Becky's review this sequel to the 2012 hit later this week.  You can further expect to see my thoughts of it up shortly thereafter.  Let it suffice to say that whatever magic the first movie stumbled upon was lost when Warner Bros decided that what we really needed was a second Fifty Shades of Grey to hit theaters this year.

Although not the kind of movie that I'm generally interested in, the word of mouth for this rom-com about a reluctant friendship between a boy and his cancerous classmate is ultimately encouraging.  While it does strike me as a bit too similar to the saccharine The Fault in Our Stars, its relatively strong opening weekend will ensure a space for more "serious" teen-centered movies in the future.

What's really going to be interesting to see is if this weekend's numbers are so low purely because of the holiday weekend, or because Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL failed to resonate with movie-goers in general.  I wouldn't be all that surprised if both movies' numbers improve next weekend when the party-goers who missed it over the 4th decide to make up for lost time.

Box Office Rankings

1)  Inside Out - $29.7m

2) Jurassic World -  $29.2m

3) Terminator Genisys - $27m
4) Magic Mike XXL- $12.8m

5) Ted 2 - $11.1m
6) Max - $6.6m
7) Spy - $5.1m

8)  San Andreas - $2.8m
9)  Me, Earl and the Dying Girl - $1.2m
10)  Dope - $1.1m

So did you bother to see a movie in theaters this weekend?  If so, what did you go to see?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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The Weekend Report: Ted 2 Falls Short of Predictions

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

Although the box office rankings for this last weekend look exactly as they were expected to, the actual numbers attached to the movies in question were actually pretty off.  More accurately, the numbers attached to Ted 2, Seth MacFarlane's sequel to the Family Guy-esque movie about a child who wishes his teddy bear to life, were far lower than predicted.

This might just be that Ted 2 is retroactively a worse movie than we initially gave it credit for (it's not).  It might be that Seth MacFarlane doesn't have as many fans as everybody thought (again, it's not).  It might just be that more people were interested in seeing genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok and feelings run rampant in a little girl's head than an R-rated comedy about a foul-mouthed teddy bear (probably closer to the point).

Whatever the reason, Ted 2 under-performed in a very serious way.  While it can hardly have been said to have bombed, it likely isn't going to encourage Universal executives to greenlight Ted 3 any time soon, regardless of how gut-bustingly hilarious it actually turned out to be.

Despite its relatively narrow appeal, Max did a lot better than a lot of people were expecting it to.  My local theater kept selling out its showings throughout the weekend (even if it was being shown in some of the smaller theaters).  A combination of strong word of mouth, patriotic dressings so near the Fourth of July and a strong-looking coming of age story about a boy and his dog kept it on track for a solid opening weekend.

And from what I've heard, it's actually a really good movie.  Some have even gone so far as to say that it's one of the best movies about the post-9/11 military conflicts to date (and that coming from a guy who hated American Sniper).

Box Office Ranking:

1) Jurassic World -  $54.2m
2)  Inside Out - $52.1m

3) Ted 2 - $33m
4) Max - $12.2m
5) Spy - $7.8m
6)  San Andreas - $5.2m
7)  Dope - $2.8m
8)  Insidious: Chapter 3 - $2m
9)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $1.7m
10)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $1.6m

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

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The Weekend Report: Jurassic Park and Inside Out Exceed Expectations

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

It's been another weekend for the books.  The Box Office promise of Age of Ultron has carried through to the rest of the summer as well.

Unsurprisingly, Jurassic World was again King at the box office this weekend.  And although it came down to the wire, they succeeded at beating The Avengers' record for the largest second weekend gross, bringing in just over $106 million after its record-setting opening weekend.

While Inside Out did fall behind Jurassic World in its box office debut, it vastly exceeded everybody's expectations.  Industry predictions put it just short of $70 million for the weekend - in line with Brave and Up, both of which were released around the same time of their respective years.  When all was said and done, however, it raked in North of $90 million, making it the best debut of a completely original property in history (not a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot, adaptation, etc...).

What's more, the reviews for the movies are universally positive.  It's safe to say, then, that after what can only be described as a supremely disappointing stretch for the Disney-owned animation studio, Pixar is finally back on top of its game.  It gives me a lot of hope for upcoming Pixar films like The Good Dinosaur and even the cringe-worthy Finding Dory.

Even Dope did better than expected (or at least better than I expected.  Despite a fairly limited release and a debut alongside two box office titans, it still managed to pull off a repsectable $6+ million dollars.  Paired with its enthusiastic reviews, this is definitely one that I'm going to make every effort to see in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see anything new in the theaters this weekend, owing to a wedding that I only just got back from last night.  That is furthermore why I didn't get the chance to post this and other articles when they were initially scheduled to go up.

The plan is to take care of today's and yesterday's articles before I head off for work later tonight (and maybe when I get back from it later tonight).  Expect my reviews for Jurassic World and the non-new release that I watched this weekend to go up then, as well as some exciting news from the set of Black Panther, a belated Unreality Companion and a few other goodies as well.  Expect my review for Inside Out - and maybe Dope - within the next week.

Box Office Ranking:

1) Jurassic World -  $106.5m
2)  Inside Out - $90.4m
3) Spy - $11.2m
4)  San Andreas - $8.7m
5)  Dope - $6.1m
6)  Insidious: Chapter 3 - $4m
7)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $3.5m
8)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $3m
9)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $2.8m
10)  Tomorrowland - $2m

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

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The Weekend Report: Jurassic World's Recording-Breaking Weekend

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

Don't get me wrong.  I knew that Jurassic World was going to blow the rest of the box office out of the water.  I knew that it was going to be an absurdly one-sided weekend.  I just never imagined that it would have been so absolute.

At $82.8 million, Jurassic World now holds the third best opening day gross of any movie in history, only trailing behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ($91 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($84.4 million).  Seeing as how I had to sit in the second row of my showing Thursday night (which was already the third showing of the night), this doesn't come as any kind of a surprise to me.

While there seems to be some dispute over what the final numbers are, Box Office Mojo reports that Jurassic World scored more than $204 million dollars domestically over its opening weekend, putting it just behind The Avengers' $207 million opening in 2012.  Other sources, like Comicbook.com, put the belated sequel at just South of $209 million.

But it's worldwide gross is something else entirely.  Globally, Jurassic World raked in over $511 million.  This means that it handily crushed the previous record holder's $483 million gross.  That movie?  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.

Let that sink in for a minute.  Jurassic World absolutely destroyed Harry Potter's opening weekend.  It's potentially on track to be 2015's top grossing movie, in a year that includes Age of Ultron and The Force Awakens. 

Now, I knew that there was a considerable bit of life left in the franchise after more than twenty years and a string of increasingly bad sequels, but I never would have imagined that it would have been this dominating of a force with movie-goers.  The best part is that it's actually just that good of a movie: an astoundingly good sequel that understood exactly why the first one is as beloved as it is today.

You can expect my review of the astoundingly good Jurassic World later today.  Until then, suffice it to say that 's worth the price of admission: for you, your family, your friends and every last person you know.  It's worth watching repeatedly.  It's worth every last dollar it made over the weekend and well worth all of the hype that it's been receiving.  Jurassic World is simply worth it.

Box Office Ranking:

1) Jurassic World -  $204.6m
2) Spy - $16m
3)  San Andreas - $11m
4)  Insidious: Chapter 3 - $7.3m
5)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $6m
6)  Entourage - $4.3m
7)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $4.1m
8)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $3.6m
9)  Tomorrowland - $3.1m
10)  Love & Mercy - $1.7

So what movie did you see in theaters this last weekend (my guess: Jurassic World)?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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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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The Weekend Report: San Andreas Topples the Competition

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

So the Rock punching an earthquake for 90 minutes was enough to handily beat out every other movie this weekend.  None of last week's movies were able to recover from the hit that they took over the holiday weekend and Aloha was never playing on the same level as the typical summer fare.

As I will shortly elaborate upon in much greater detail, however, that's a perfectly fine way to spend your weekend.  As far as disaster movies go, San Andreas is one of the greats.  It's scientifically sound, emotionally resonant and as a likable cast of characters (one obvious douche bag aside).  The disaster scenes were riveting and there was just enough story to string them together with.  It's even obvious that the Rock is starting to get this whole acting thing down by now.

The weekend's other new offering, Aloha, turned out to be something more of an enigma than I would have ever guessed.  It's not a bad movie by any means, just not the one that it was being advertised as.  Despite all evidence to the contrary in the trailers, Bill Murray is the villain of the piece, and he's just a few henchmen away from being a supervillain.

For as much as the movie tries to be a romantic comedy, the plot proper is about Bill Murray trying to get a nuclear arsenal in space.  Seriously.  Bradley Cooper's job is to make it happen, Emma Stone is there as his military handler and Amy Adams is the one that got away.  It's basically what would have happened if The Cooler had starred James Bond.

For all of its... weirdness... it's really not that bad of a movie.  It's understandably better than most early-year movies, worse than most end-of-year movies and not as fun as most summertime movies.  It scratches a certain itch that most movies don't hit at this time of the year, just not especially well.

Other than that, everything mostly looks the same as it did last week.  Home REALLY does not want to let go of its #10 slot, though, which its clung to now for weeks.  Still, I think that this upcoming weekend is going to be its last on the top ten, as the latest Insidious, Spy and probably Entourage all look to shake up the box office standings.

Box Office Standings:
1)  San Andreas - $53.2m
2)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $14.3m
3)  Tomorrowland - $13.8m
4)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $13.6m
5)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $10.9m
6)  Aloha - $10m
7)  Poltergeist - $7.8
8)  Far from the Madding Crowd - $1.4m
9)  Hot Pursuit - $1.3m
10)  Home - $1.1m

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

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The Weekend Report: Pitch Perfect 2 Unseated Age of Ultron?

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

I would have thought it going into it, but Age of Ultron has finally been unseated as the uncontested king of the box office.  Hell, it was even beaten out for the #2 slot.  Both of those have been handily won by the weekend's newcomers: Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road.

That's not to say that Age of Ultron's been slacking on the job, however.  It did cross over the billion dollar mark globally and now has the biggest opening weekend that China's ever seen.  But three weeks into the summer is enough to topple even the best of movies, I suppose.

Audiences came out in droves to see the acapella comedy, even more than was initially expected.  Although expected to only do about $50 million in business in its debut weekend, Pitch Perfect 2 walked away with more than $70 million in the bag.

Reviews for it have been especially divided, however, despite its success.  About half of the people that I spoke with about it were about as happy with it as they'd expected to be.  The other half were decidedly disappointed.  At least two people that I spoke to fell asleep during the movie.  Nobody is claiming that it's as good as the first one was.

Fury Road, the belated sequel to the Mad Max series, did about as well as it was expected to, raking in a bit under $50 million.  While Pitch Perfect fans were a bit more divided in their assessment of their viewing selection this weekend, seemingly everybody who saw Mad Max left the theater jubilant.  I expect enthusiastic word of mouth will help what will doubtless prove to be the greatest action movie of the summer.

Box Office Standings:

1)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $70.3m
2)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $44.4m
3)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $38.8m
4)  Hot Pursuit - $5.7m
5)  Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 - $3.6m
6)  Furious 7 - $3.6m
7)  The Age of Adaline - $3.2m
8)  Home - $2.7m
9)  Ex Machina - $2.1m

10)  Far from the Madding Crowd - $1.3m

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

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The Weekend Report: The Avengers Assembled One Hell of a Debut

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

Was there ever any real question about what this weekend was going to look like?  Not only was Age of Ultron the only new movie to hit theaters this weekend, but its only possible competition was a month old and had taken a real box office hit in the last couple of weeks.  Marvel's Avengers sequel was always going to take the weekend and run with it.\

Avengers: Age of Ultron was predictably a sell-out success at the box office this weekend, raking in over $191 million dollars.  Not only does this absolutely destroy Furious 7's debut of $147-odd million, but gives it the second highest opening weekend ever: just behind - you guessed it - 2012's The Avengers.

And don't expect the movie to be a mere flash in the pan either.  There's nothing of note coming out for another couple of weeks: not until Mad Max: Fury Road, and I have some serious doubts about whether that will be able to unseat Age of Ultron for #1.  Positive word of mouth, coupled with non-existent competition, will keep people coming back to the theaters in droves to see it.

I'll have my review up for the movie later tonight, and let me tell you, it's going to be a doozey.  Let's just say that it's a pretty safe bet that I'll be checking this one out again for as long as it remains in theaters.

Box Office Standings:

1)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $191.2m

2)  Furious 7 - $6.6m

3)  The Age of Adaline - $6.2m

4)  Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 - $5.8m

5)  Home - $3.4m

6)  Cinderella - $2.7m

7)  Ex Machina - $2.2m

8)  Unfriended - $2.2m

9) The Longest Ride - $1.7m

10)  The Woman in Gold - $1.6m

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

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