Each week Jacob recaps the weekend box office and the winners and losers in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League.
WEEK 11 BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
I can’t remember if I said it here, in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League Chat (comment below to get a sweet invite to that), or just in passing, but I had no faith in John Wick: Chapter 2. First, I didn’t watch the original film, and didn’t know anybody who had. Well, that last part is not true. I didn’t know anybody who told me they actually loved that film. That means I was going to ride the small plastic caped crusader or the whips and chains of outrageous fortune to the PC promised land.
Then, as always, Thursday’s numbers dropped. It was hard to pass up Wick‘s $2.2 million dollar preview numbers, equaling almost exactly what The Lego Batman Movie brought in. It didn’t beat 50 Shades Darker, but with its much easier price tag, it was hard to deny that Keanu would be the best bet out of the top films.
I was smart enough to switch over to JW, and I was smart enough to play 2x Split, but I was dumb enough to screen the best film of the past x years (where x is the number of years since Mad Max: Fury Road, No Country for Old Men, or A Goofy Movie, depending on your preferences), aka La La Land. Then, I added in a very poorly performing screen of Sing. Maybe I thought Lego Batman would do so well that it would get some spillover dollars…. or maybe I just really wanted to play La La Land and it blinded me to the future BP, Lion.
In any case, that’s where the chips landed last week, and hopefully, you ended as one of the 128 perfect cineplexes from last week.
Sleight of Hand picks for Week 11 on Fantasy Movie League
As for the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League, top honors were shared between (of course) O PC, Where Art Thou? and (first-time winner) Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Cineplex! Congrats to both, but especially congrats to the one who doesn’t win a majority of weeks and every completed season so far. They were both only one screen from the PC, picking the greatest film since Full Metal Jacket instead of a second screen of Lion.
I need to point out that with 2 weeks left, this brings O PC to within $10 million of School of Rock. They’re two of the 4 cineplexes to have already eclipsed the billion dollar mark on the season. It’ll be tough for anybody to catch these two, but it’s going to be great to see their strategies in the coming weeks. Hopefully, they both still pursue the perfect cineplexes and don’t chicken out with some wimpy hedge plays. That’s for the weak-willed and cowardly.
Join War Starts at Midnight to compete against the 20 other Cineplexes in this league!
WEEK 12 PREDICTIONS
I highly suggest a hedge this week. No, don’t call me weak-willed and cowardly. This long President’s Day weekend just has too many options. Let’s run through the new ones first.
- Fist Fight – This probably will bomb but dammit if I don’t just want to get out and see it. I think the small stakes of this film make is what will give it it’s charm, but also what may keep audiences from clicking on their sweet Fandango app.
- A Cure for Wellness – A bomb in the making. Haven’t heard of it, haven’t seen a trailer, and too many horror films have come out lately. To me, it might as well be Space Bus 2: The Bomb is in the Space Bus
- The Great Wall – There has to be some wall pun to make here, let me think… In the meantime, unless we’re going to count international gross, I think this one is done for. The studio will make money, but this Last Samurai knockoff probably won’t appeal to American audiences, even with Matt Damon. OH! It’ll bomb so hard you can see it from space! No, I can do better. The studio won’t lose money because they’re going to make the Mongolians pay for The Great Wall! Booyah.
- Everybody Loves Somebody– I had to seek out the trailer for this one, but it looks like it’s aiming to be a Mexican Ae Hai Dil Mushkil: a cheap play that targets a specific demographic to hopefully take a stealth BP. The trailer didn’t make it look very good, so I have no faith here either.
With that being said, I’m taking the sophomore Fifty Shades Darker with 7 screens of Split. They both seem like good value plays for what you’re getting. I would make some joke about my cineplex being fully about having women chained up in your dungeon, but I don’t want the readers to go Psycho on me.
Think I have it all wrong this week? Throw all the shade on me via Twitter @jakerg23.