Each week Jacob recaps the weekend box office and the winners and losers in the Midnight Warrior Fantasy Movie League.
WEEK 07 BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
Another week, another first for Fantasy Movie League. This time, we see “Best of the Rest” finally take a Best Performer bonus, as the billionth week of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 zombies its way from the depths into a $2 million bonus. I feel like this sort of performance would make Yondu very, very happy.
Despicable Me 3 showed only a 42% drop in its third week and powered through to a third place finish in the box office. This $19.4 million, however, was enough at its $201 bux price to make it the big anchor of the week. Rounding out the Perfect Cineplex was the action film of the summer: Baby Driver. Look at its 33% drop from last week, we can see that this highly reviewed film is going to have legs wheels for at least a few more weeks. But can it find a place in this week’s Perfect Cineplex?
Only 78 players landed on the Perfect Cineplex, and we had exactly 1 in our Midnight Warrior league. Current second place cineplex School of Rock brought in the $104 million gross, jumping almost $10 million dollars in the standings. He gained even more than that on reigning champion I Smell Cineplex and Candy, who stands at right under $795 million on the season.
Very few people played Cars 3 this week in our league, and only one cineplex pushed all their chips Hot Wheels to the center on the Pixar film, and that was… me. Needless to say, this put me about $20 million behind School of Rock, and keeping me in 6th place on the season. I’m making those big risky bets to try to gain ground. Some would argue that with 6 whole weeks ahead of us, a smart man would play safe cineplexes and wait for the leaders to falter. Well, that’s not how Tanking The Network is playing the game this year folks! The only question is what film will I bet big on this week.
WEEK 08 PREDICTIONS
Before we get into my lineup predictions, let’s run down all the new films for Week 08.
- Dunkirk ($667) – In 10 years this will be the classic we all remember from 2017 (except for Get Out), but can it draw audiences in its opening weekend? For 2/3 of your budget, you get a war film in only 3,720 theaters. Now, keep in mind that many of these are IMAX, which is apparently the way you should see it if at all possible. Relevant to this article, however, is that IMAX tickets increase gross. I think this film has a solid floor, and possibly a very large upside. Hop in your fishing boat and set sail for this film at the top of your cineplex.
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets ($219) – That’s a low price to find yourself in over 3,500 theaters. However, the reviews are… not great. Who exactly is this film targeting this week? The guys, who might be seeing Spiderman, War for the Planet of the Apes, or Dunkirk? Maybe families who aren’t going to see DM3, Cars 3, or, frankly, Spiderman? Any way you slice it, you’re getting competition, and you’re not getting strong word of mouth. I can’t jump on this one unless preview numbers are very strong, or we get to count this planet’s gross a thousand times in the box office.
- Girls Trip ($334) – The mystery play of the week! Will this capture the Boo! A Madea Halloween or Hidden Figures magic? Or will it have that Rough NIght fonk all over it? It’s hard to watch the trailer without thinking of that flop from a few weeks ago, but anecdotally people want to see it. Plus, it has an 86% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so reviews shouldn’t keep people away. However, it’s only in about 2,600 theaters so it may be hard to even find a screening for some potential viewers.
So, I’m obviously banking with the safer Dunkirk for now, but I’m open to change depending on preview numbers. I do have faith in The Big Sick this week, as the price was cut to about a third of where it was last week, and it is in the same exact number of theaters. I’m betting this coasts to a Best Picture bonus. You pick your favorite out of 47 Meters Down and The Beguiled, but you can see I’m going with the shark movie. It’s still summer after all, and we all know that’s when the Jawses are swimming the most.
Think you should bet your thousand bux on the City of a Thousand Planets? Tell me about that and how jet airplanes leave chemtrails to make us want to see Tom Cruise movies via Twitter @jakerg23.