By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | April 22, 2018 |
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | April 22, 2018 |
Rampage may have reigned supreme last week, but this week, A Quiet Place was back on top, with $22m in this weekend’s gross, compared to the $21m of The Rock’s giant monkey bonanza. Having made close to 8 times its budget back, John Krasinski’s horror drama will have executives at Paramount breathing heavy sighs of relief. This is a word of mouth hit that keeps on giving, particularly since it prizes a cinematic experience. Well, that’s assuming you’re lucky enough to see it in a cinema not populated by crisp crunching, phone checking, unnecessarily loud chatting fuckwits.
Rampage saw its gross drop by 41%, but this was never a movie intended for domestic audiences. Sure, it’s nice that it’s made $66m in two weeks from American viewers, but internationally, it’s already soared past $215m, so with a $120m already doubled with change, Dwayne Johnson can add another notch to his bedpost of box office domination.
Opening at number 3 is I Feel Pretty, the latest Amy Schumer comedy that’s ahem… divided critics? With $16.2m in its opening weekend, it’s made back half its budget. Why the hell did this film cost $32m to make? Did Soul Cycle not cover enough of the budget with its ridiculous levels of product placement? I highly doubt this film will hold strong after this. I mean, Avengers, anyone? If Blockers couldn’t stick in there - it dropped to number 7 this week with $6.9m (nice) - then how could this film when it cost more to make and got a fraction of the good press?
The surprise of the weekend seems to be Super Troopers 2, which debuted at number 4 with $14.7m, from 1400 less theatres than I Feel Pretty. The cult fanbase stuck around, apparently. Shockingly, 64% of paying customers were dudes. They made their budget back so everything from here could be plain sailing, assuming those loyal fans stick around. If it doubles its $13.5m budget, I think we can call it a success for Fox Searchlight.
Black Panther brought in an extra $4.6m. That movie accounts for close to 20% of 2018’s overall box office revenue. It will be interesting to see if Infinity War further pushes it down or if fans are hyped to go back to the film once they’ve seen the new Avengers film. I assume some theatres are smart enough to schedule in a double bill or two.
Traffik, a thriller starring Paula Patton, opened at number 9 with $3.8m, which is decent enough for a film nobody seemed to be talking about that only got a 1k theatre release. Bharat Ane Nenu, a new release from India, debuted at number 11 with $2.8m, averaging about $9344 per theatre. When marketed well and released in the right territories, these kinds of international movies can do very well, which eschews a lot of expectations the industry has about non-English language movies.
Next week sees the release of Disobedience, a romantic drama starring Rachel Weisz, the latest film from French auteur Claire Denis, and Kings, a drama set during the L.A. riots, starring Halle Berry.
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Oh come on, as if you need me to remind you of the other big release coming soon.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.
What films did you watch this weekend? Do you feel pretty, oh so pretty? If not, would brain damage and an inspiring pitch for a cosmetics contract help? Can someone explain the appeal of this Super Troopers thing to me? Answers in the comments.