Each week Jacob recaps the weekend box office and the winners and losers in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League.
WEEK 09 BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
Well, foreign language film week is over, and the winner is probably not what you expected. Even a worldwide theater count of about 9,000 screens for Baahubali 2: The Conclusion couldn’t put it over the box office juggernaut that is… Eugenio Derbez? A man so unknown that he doesn’t even appear in Google’s cast for the film. Well at least to me, but that may be because I didn’t see 2013’s Instructions Not Included.
In any case, How To Be A Latin Lover more than doubled its projections and cruised to a Best Performer bonus runner-up. Wait, runner-up? Yes, the massive theater bump for Get Out places it as the Best Performer in what is sure to be its last week in FML. Let’s take a moment of silence as we say goodbye to the best movie of 2017. I predict it will stay that way, as long as an infant doesn’t hop behind the wheel of an automobile…
The strangest part of this week, however, is the fact that not one person played the Perfect Cineplex shown below. In fact, the best anybody could do was have Going in Style slated in where Get Out should be. This is the first time since the early days of FML that this has happened. Even me, your resident FML genius dunce, made the assumption that if the Jordan Peele flick was getting $2 million in bonus, it would need to be all over your cineplex. Goes to show, don’t always listen to the geniuses! struggling FML bloggers!
In the War Starts at Midnight league, we obviously didn’t have a Perfect Cineplex, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some moving and shaking. Madison Guardians Madness has overtaken the top spot with a strong Fate of the Furious / 5x Latin Lover / 2x Get Out combo that was the 6-way tie for first in our league. Billion Dollar Cineplex falls way out of contention down to 7th place after this week. Another thing to note is that our new season leader is ranked 9th overall. Everybody who landed more than 20 million back should start to make some bold moves if they want to catch up, because there are only 3 weeks left to this competitive spring season.
WEEK 10 PREDICTIONS
Well, there’s only one new release this week, and it’s a 3-day split, so let’s dive right into it.
- Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 ($546/$434/$333) – This is going to be one of the biggest releases of the year. with the pricing, you better anchor with it this week. As for the film itself, I’ve been underwhelmed by the trailers, but the reviews look solid so I’m excited. I won’t say much more since this will be the subject of our next review, so you can find out exactly what I think of the return of Kurt Russell.
So, we know you’re going to anchor with Guardians unless you’re really bold with an 8x Fate of the Furious (which I do not suggest). What do you pair it with? Well, I think How To Be A Latin Lover continues to over-perform. Some may make the case for a Cinco de Mayo bump, but that’s not a real thing. But, it is possible that Cinco hurts Guardians just a little bit on Friday. That could be your tiebreaker.
At this point in the season, though, I need a miracle. That means I’m putting all my eggs into the tiny Speedo basket.
What filler movie do you believe in? Tell me on Twitter @jakerg23.