News from the box office does not bode well for M Night Shyamalan or horror…
While BAD BOYS 4 is making money *very little of course when you compare to box offices of summers past* the WATCHERS is flailing like someone stuck in quicksand..
Warner Bros.’ thriller “The Watchers” earned a meager $2.9 million across Friday and preview screenings.. this continues a pattern of horror features underperforming at the box office this year.
It will struggle to match its projections for a $10 million bow.
Meanwhile the lazy cat keeps plugging away–and almost as good as THE WATCHERS! Sony’s “The Garfield Movie” earned $2.8 million on Friday, just 27% off from its $3.7 million gross a week ago. The animated feature will purr to $68 million total in North America through Sunday! The feel good sleeper of the summer keeps yawning but yet earning..
Sony and Columbia’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” got off to a solid start at the box office with $21.6 millionfrom 3,885 locations across Friday and preview screenings.. $53 mil is expected for the full weekend..
Let’s first start with this: There was something very calming about watching the horror flick LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL in a theater with a packed audience.. we highly recommend it if you can find a theater showing it.
Now that we have that out of the way…
The Shudder horror film LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL was getting rave reviews and even had a 100% rotten rating on ROTTEN TOMATOES.. While it is maintaining a decent rating with critics and an 83% with audiences, controversy marred the opening weekend.
At issue: The AI art..
Just a few images, really. But those images caused shockwaves of hostility across social media platforms..
When it was revealed this week that the film used some AI imagery, there were immediate calls for a boycott of the movie.
Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the Australian siblings who wrote and directed the film, released a statement to Variety clarifying the scope of AI art in the film. The statement reads:
“In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the 70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film. We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait for everyone to see it for themselves this weekend.”
But consider the fact that the film was made prior to 2024.. released originally in 2023 (long before the current AI debate really hit like it’s doing now) … Can we get some forgiveness?
Beyond the AI controversy, some truly despised this movie–others seemingly loved it. Perusing the former Twitterverse now Xsphere, we are greeted by a number of people who hated the film giving it a o out of 10.. others who loved it with a 9 out of 10. There seems to be little meeting in the middle among fans.
Seriously.. David Dastmalchian rocked this role.
The movie will be in some people’s top 10 of horror.. others will not think to include it.
At the point this is written, IFC’s LATE NIGHT is showing in 1,034 locations .. it posted a $1.1M Friday, 3-day heading to $2.9M. From reports, there are solid numbers in NYC, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Edmonton, Dallas, San Antonio and LA..
MORE.. ″The Marvels was shot during Covid,” he explained.
“There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.”
Bob, Bob.. the movie may have been shot then but all of the advertising was done after..
All of the big splashy product placements.. billboards. Trailers.
Not one bit sparked interest .. the fanbase seemingly gave up when all of the characters they were fans of were pushed to the side for a new universe that no one seems to understand or desire..
.. if you hear any rumblings online of the Goonies 2 film being created, just be cautious. The article that’s being shared from the ‘let’s talk movies’ page to us is from nine years ago. There is no realistic talk of Goonies 2 film at this point.
A friend of mine reminded me tonight about this great movie from the 1980s.. he said he was catching a viewing of it this Friday night. FRIGHT NIGHT was a special kind of horror–and his message reminded me of the spectacular VHS cover that always caught my eye in my local video store back in the day..
Were these times simpler as we all think they were? Or were we just blinded..
Those who read this post and say “the old man is talking about VHS movies again” just will not comprehend the time.. the idea of not scrolling through on a screen but checking to see if the little yellow card was still rubber banded to the back of the movie in the store…
Sure, modern times are great. Easy.. Any movie you want at your fingertips.
But that quest.. that hunt.. that time when a movie was not there.. when you had to wait until it was returned.. they were kind of.. simpler?
BARBIE AND OPPENHEIMER SAVED THE BOX OFFICE THIS SUMMER!
Without them, movies this season may have faced calamity..
“As a seemingly out of reach goal just a couple of months ago, the $4 billion domestic summer season box office has become a reality over Labor Day weekend, reflecting not only a strong lineup of films, but the desire by audiences to embrace the time-honored tradition of going to the movies in the hottest moviegoing season of the year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
“Barbie” is the highest grossing film of the summer (and the year) with $612 million in North America and $1.36 billion globally to date. “Oppenheimer” also wildly outperformed expectations with $311 at the domestic box office and $850 million worldwide.
Other top stateside earners this summer include Sony’s animated “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($381 million), Disney and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($358 million), “The Little Mermaid” remake ($298 million) and the Jim Caviezel-led action thriller “Sound of Freedom” ($181 million). Those blockbusters helped to make up for underperforming tentpoles like DC’s superhero adaptation “The Flash” and Disney’s remake of “Haunted Mansion.”
Sony’s late-summer event pic Gran Turismodeclared victory at the weekend box office race with a $17.3 million domestic opening, a somewhat muted start for a movie based on a popular video game. The hope now is that an A CinemaScore from audiences will provide a turbo boost in the days to come.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp, the racing pic had been set to launch nationwide Aug. 11 but switched gears because of the actors strike and the resulting prohibition on the cast — led by Orlando Bloom and David Harbour — doing any press. The studio instead hosted two weekends of sneaks and a handful of fan screenings to build buzz before opening the movie everywhere Aug. 25.
This is the biggest animated opening of all time globally, ahead of Frozen 2 and clearly best for this year so far as well as Illumination’s top debut ever passing Minions and Despicable Me 3 in like-for-like opening markets and Despicable Me 2, the previous biggest reported global weekend at $208M..
An animated movie also blowing away real life actors in Marvel movies..
You may not have asked for it, but they’re giving it to you anyway. Scream six, it’s coming in March 2023. And now you can see an official trailer showcasing the oddities of New York City subway travel mixed with a cycle serial killer.
https://youtu.be/77M4rUs58jY
This generation may not have experienced Friday the 13th. Part 8 Jason takes Manhattan in theaters. But, now you might be able to again anyway with this movie. Sure the plot will be different, but the kill sequences will be presumably bloody as promised. The aura around the film seems to have a good comparison to when Jason took that boat ride from camp Crystal Lake to the Big Apple in the late 80s.
And quite frankly, after watching this trailer, the appearance of Jenna Ortega reminded us more not of Scream movies, but of her amazing performance in the Addams family Netflix series. Perhaps we will go back and watch that again, and just leave our anticipation about this movie for another time.
