Tag Archives: Split

Box Office Report: As summer closes, box office reaches historic low with top earner merely making $10 million

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Box Office Report for the weekend of August 25 to August 27:

As the summer closes with its last weekend, the box office has reached the year’s lowest point and, as reported by Box Office Mojo, the worst weekend in about 16 years.

The Ryan Reynolds/Samuel L. Jackson-starring The Hitman’s Bodyguard took home the top spot with an estimated $10.05 million, bringing up its domestic total to approximately $39.61 million. The film’s reported budget is $30 million, meaning that, despite it’s mostly negative reception as it sits at 39% on RottenTomatoes after 143 reviews, it will almost certainly make its money back, and then some. The weekend gross of The Hitman’s Bodyguard, however, is the lowest earning top spot of the year. One would have to go all the way back to the weekend of February 3-5, when M. Night Shyamalan’s Split made $14.42 million, to come close to a worse #1 earner. Some say that the film’s finalized weekend number — its ‘actuals’ — will dip, meaning that it could even sink below $10 million.

Annabelle: Creation placed second with an estimated $7.35 million. Taking place within the Conjuring franchise, which itself has crossed $1 billion, the film should cross $100 million domestically within the coming weeks (it currently sits at $77.88 million). With a budget of $15 million, the horror prequel will be, relatively, one of the year’s most profitable films.

New releases, though, proved incredibly unappealing, with the animated film Leap! being one of only two to break the top ten. The Weinstein Company acquisition, which premiered internationally last year, made only $5.01 million domestically.

Wind River, which performed well during a limited release, expanded to over 2,000 theaters, and took home an estimated $4.41 million at the domestic box office. The indie, coming from Sicario and Hell or High Water screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, features what many critics are calling Jeremy Renner’s best performance.

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk stuck around in the top ten after its 6th weekend in theaters, raking in another $3.95 million to claim the 6th spot. At this point, the World War II epic has yet to fall more than 47% from weekend to weekend, and never more than 41% after its second weekend, showing that it has strong legs. With a domestic total currently sitting at $172 million, the film will soon beat The Boss Baby, Get Out and The LEGO Batman Movie to become the highest domestic grossing film that is not a sequel or a franchise vehicle — an accomplishment that Nolan is incredibly familiar with.

After Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Emoji Movie and new release Birth of the Dragon, Girls Trip, like Dunkirk, finds itself in the top ten after its 6th weekend, making an estimated $2.26 million domestically. The all-Black, all-female comedy recently crossed $100 million domestically.

Finally, in a bid for the 5th spot on the “highest domestic grossing superhero films” list, which is currently held by Iron Man 3 at $409.01 million, Wonder Woman added 1,407 theaters, expanding to a total of 2,210. The DC Extended Universe picture took home $1.68 million, bringing its domestic total to $406.2 million. It should claim that 5th spot in due time, putting it behind only The Dark Knight Rises, Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Dark Knight and Marvel’s The Avengers respectively.

The following weekend may be even more abysmal, with very few new releases that could make any notable dent. Unless Tulip Fever somehow strikes a chord with audiences, next weekend’s top earner may be well under $10 million.

The one after that, however, will see the release of It, which Variety reports could make about $50 million domestically its opening weekend, according to early box office tracking. With Jennifer Lawrence’s mother!, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The LEGO Ninjago Movie and Tom Cruise’s American Made coming in the weeks following, the fall season will hopefully reinvigorate the box office.

*All weekend numbers are domestic, meaning that they’re from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, and are also estimates, reported by Box Office Mojo, with actuals coming out in the next few days.*

‘Columbus’ Review: John Cho inhabits leading role in Kogonada’s artful directorial debut

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With Columbus, John Cho proves something that so many have known for so long: that he’s a hell of a leading man. In a role that requires a subtle range of emotion, he owns every minutiae, from the weight of his character Jin’s culture to Jin’s complex relationship with a much younger Casey (Haley Lu Richardson).

Richardson herself continues the committed work she showed off in The Edge of Seventeen and Split. Much of writer-director Kogonada’s dialogue is exposition, which could’ve gotten bogged down were in not for Richardson selling Casey’s motivations fully. And when the exposition falls away and there’s not much dialogue left, she employs a physicality that perfectly opposes the minimalism of Cho’s performance.

Yet, the true star of the film is the writer-director. Kogonada began as a video essayist, becoming notable for his composition and editing, sensibilities that expertly transfer to his feature film. The story centers heavily around architecture, and Kogonada and cinematographer Elisha Christian, craft still-frames — of which Columbus is mostly composed — that feel like pieces of architecture themselves due to the arrangement of the mise-en-scene. One can truly see emotional development, even if the scenes are free of dialogue, because Kogonada is able to portray so much through where the actors stand, what items lie where or even just the stunning aesthetics of a shot.

And while so much is composed, arranged and manufactured, it’s the naturalism of the film that elevates it above simply impressive. The performances do the leg work of this, injecting what could’ve been stale with humanity. But it’s precisely that choice of Kogonada’s to have the characters speak so much, but do most of their emoting without words. There’s a pivotal scene in which Casey is asked to describe why a building is her favorite. She recites a memorized monologue before Jin stops her and asks her to really think about why. Kogonada cuts to the interior of the building — we can’t hear Casey — because it’s her face that matters, not what she says.

For that reason, Columbus may be difficult to confront. But for those who turn themselves over, it has profound rewards.

Grade: A-