Each week Jacob recaps the weekend box office and the winners and losers in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League.
WEEK 05 BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
You would think that, with me being in Los Angeles, somehow just being so close to the epicenter of the movie world would give me some special insight into the Perfect Cineplex, and I would steal away a victory with a can’t miss lineup. But no, instead I found myself driving around Los Angeles, looking for parking, and trying to set a lineup at 9 AM! How do people out there have brains working that early every morning? It’s insanity.
That’s not the only thing insane that happened this week. Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife managed to sneakily collect $3.3 million in box office on only 541 screens, letting it coast in easily as this week’s BP bonus winner. It’s my personal opinion that this film’s heavy advertising before all the Oscar films helped out with building buzz, because its 60% fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating certainly wasn’t putting butts in the seats.
This week’s new animated film The Boss Baby did a very respectable $50.2 million this week. This makes a lot of sense when you think how long we have been without a new animated feature. The last was The Lego Batman Movie, which I think targets a different demographic than this cutesy family film. The last two slots are the “man movies” of the week, with Kong: Skull Island and Logan rounding out the perfect cineplex.
As for the War Starts at Midnight league, we had none of the 74 perfect cineplex pickers. The best we could muster was NuttBOlz97’s 2x Boss Baby / 2x Kong / 2x Zookeeper / 2x Hidden Figures. This was good for almost $129 million, but still leaving NuttBolz97 at 32nd in our league.
Up top we have Joe’s Discount Movies in first place, with about $626 million on the season, followed closely by Miyagi-Do Theaters and AaroCo. The best longtime listener this week is Определенно не русский Синеплекс, in a not-so-distant 10th place. In fact, she is still less than $5 million from first place, so this is anybody’s season at this point.
WEEK 06 PREDICTIONS
I’m thinking that this week will be a big moving week. There isn’t a big obvious choice this week, so expect varied cineplexes all around. If you want to make up some lost ground, this is definitely the week to make a go of it.
First, let’s go over the new releases this week.
- Smurfs: The Lost Village ($372) – This is my bet for the BP this week. An established franchise kid’s movie based on an old franchise. I’m not saying this will beat Boss Baby head to head, but in bang for your bux, you’re looking at a smurfing winner.
- Going In Style ($251) – Even if this has half the billboards and bus shelters in California bought up, it won’t propel this
sequel to The Bucket Listoriginal film to the best performer bonus. That being said, the trailer makes it look like it could actually be a fun ride. It has a shot to be the best old guy film since Space Cowboys. Can I play that this week? Talk about an underrated movie. - The Case for Christ ($71) – This is the real wild card this week. This is the true story of an Atheist reporter who finds Jesus, from the studio who brought you God’s Not Dead. At only $71 bux, you’re potentially looking at another The Shack, but this isn’t based on a currently popular book sitting on the first shelf in every Barnes & Noble. At 1,100 theaters, however, it may not matter.
My lineup this week is shown below. If you’re a firm believer in The Case for Christ, you’ll want to play it 7 times with one screen of The Boss Baby as an anchor. My math, however, shows it needing $4.6 million to make that dream come true. No matter what, you’re looking at a low scoring week based on the pricing, so good luck trying to crack this riddle.
If you have any good suggestions, follow me on Twitter @jakerg23.