Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: Movie theaters were really hoping that “Argylle” would ignite the box office this past weekend, unfortunately, it didn’t. Probably due to the really bad reviews (currently 34% on Rotten Tomatoes), it only made a meager $17.5 at the domestic box office. The overall domestic box office was up SLIGHTLY from last weekend (10%) but LOWER than the weekend before that which had NO wide releases. It looks like the entire month of Feb may continue to be low because the other major wide releases – the biographical drama “Bob Marley – One Love”, the superhero movie “Madame Web”, and the comedy/drama “Drive Away Dolls” – are not expected to do well at the box office. Everyone is now looking to “Dune – Part 2” on March 1 to ignite the box office.
The bad opening for “Argylle” (which supposedly has a production budget over $200 million) might make Apple rethink their theatrical releases like Amazon Studios/MGM seems to be doing – by laying some of the Amazon Studios and MGM staff – and Netflix DEFINITELY is doing. The head of Netflix film Scott Stuber is leaving the company soon and Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria said last week, “We’re the only real pure-play streamer and our members love films and they want to see films on Netflix. I think a lot of companies and business do theatrical and it’s a great business for them. It’s just not our business.”
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: The #1 movie worldwide was also “Argylle” with $17.3 in foreign countries and approx. $35 worldwide total. It did the best in the UK with $2.63 million but it still opened to #2 because this past weekend was the opening weekend for “Migration” in the UK which made $4.5 million (over two third more than “Argylle”). In other international news, “Wonka” opened in South Korea this past weekend and did an impressive $5.6 million which is the biggest opening of 2024 so far and the biggest opening for lead actor Timothée Chalamet (outperforming “Dune Part 1).
OTHER NEWS: My list of sequels/prequels/remakes/reboots/spinoffs/”part 2” movies coming out this year came out just a couple weeks ago but there are now EVEN MORE movies scheduled for this year. Netflix announced two during its teaser trailer of some of their upcoming movies and TV shows coming soon and a new trailer was released for another movie….
- “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” (part 2) – (probably will only play in a few movie theaters and then on Netflix) the second part of Zack Sniders epic story that started with “Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” at the end of 2023 is going to be released in April 2024.
- “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (sequel) – (probably will only play in a few movie theaters and then on Netflix) it’s been 30 years since we last saw Axel Foley in the 2nd sequel “Beverly Hills Cop 3” and 40 years since the original “Beverly Hills Cop” but he’ll be back along with a lot of the other people in the first 3 movies this July.
- “Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2” (sequel) – although the first “Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood & Honey” that came out last year got a few “Razzie Award” nominations (including worst picture) that doesn’t stop them for releasing the sequel this April.
- Not only are there more sequels/prequels/remakes/reboots/spinoffs/”part 2” coming out this year, there recently has been people talking about more coming in the future including…
- “Jurassic World/Jurassic Park” spinoff or reboot – David Letich is considering directing the movie which now has a 2025 release date.
- “Dune – Part 3” – director Denis Villeneuve mentioned it while promoting the upcoming “Dune – Part 2”
- “Romy and Michelle” sequel or reboot – Mira Sorvino (who starred in the first one mentioned they’re working on it recently.
- “Avatar 6” and “Avatar 7” – director James Cameron recently mentioned he has ideas for them but he won’t be directing them.
I was going to put this in my “little bit of humor” section but there’s already been so many jokes about it…
This is supposedly a REAL popcorn bucket that some theaters will be selling around the time “Dune Part 2” comes out in March. There’s already been jokes about having sex with it (on Saturday Night Live) and Jimmy Kimmel showed it to the “Dune Part 2” cast who couldn’t believe it was a real thing at first.
In movie theater news, it was just reported that a group of investors including director Jason Reitman just purchased a movie theater in Westwood Village next to the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The 1400 seat theater is the largest in the area and was originally called the “Fox Theater” (back when movie studios owned movie theaters) – it still says “Fox” at the top of it – but it has gone through several names and updates including installing THX and a digital projector. It is still a popular theater for movie premieres, and it has also appeared in a few movies including “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. However, the Westwood Village area has been in decline recently. When it was popular it had over a dozen movie theater screens at 10 locations in the area. Now there’s only 4 movie theaters still running. Regency Theaters currently runs two of them – that theater and the “Bruin Theater” across the street (named after the UCLA mascot). No word on if the Bruin theater was also sold or is up for sale. Hopefully, the new owners will help get more people into the area to see movies.
Little bit of humor:
They missed what could have been a really great cross-promotion for the “Barbie” movie (not that the movie needs to make more money). Maybe they can call the possible sequel movie “Barby’s”.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 