Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: Thanks to the Super Bowl – which I just read was the most watched television show EVER – and the lack of big studio releases – the only wide new release was Focus Features “Lisa Frankenstein” – the domestic weekend box office took a HUGE tumble. No movie made more than $7 million this past weekend and only the #1 movie made more than $4 million. The #1 movie was “Argylle” once again but it dropped almost 65% from its opening weekend to $6.25 million. The new movie release “Lisa Frankenstein” was 2nd with only $3.6 million. The total domestic box office was only $37 million which is the lower than ANY WEEKEND last year. The last time the total domestic box office was lower than that was the last weekend of January in 2022 ($35 million total domestic box office).
This week’s new movie releases, “Bob Marley: One Love” and “Madame Web” – which both open on Wednesday Feb 14 – aren’t expected to be blockbusters but they will hopefully raise the box office a little bit. The predictions are the Bob Marley biopic may make about $30 million and the Marvel/Sony movie will make about $20 million. That could boost the domestic box office a little bit until the end of February when “Dune – Part 2” opens – which is predicting to make $60+ million on its opening weekend (almost twice what the TOTAL box office was this past weekend).
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: I don’t think American football is that popular in other countries (although Taylor Swift may have gotten some international fans to watch the game) but the worldwide box office was also pretty low. The only highlight was in China where the Chinese New Year boosted their box office but the top movies in China were local movies “Pegasus 2” and “YOLO”. One good sign for American movies is that “Wonka” is still doing pretty well internationally and is approaching a worldwide total of $600 million which makes it the #7 movie of 2023 (including the money it made in 2024).
AWARD NEWS: Over the weekend, Christopher Nolan and “Oppenheimer” won the top award at the Directors Guild Awards. “Past Lives” won Best First Time Director. That movie is also nominated for Best Picture (but not Best Director) at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Speaking of the Academy Awards, last week they announced that there will be a new award given out starting with the 2025 movies. The first new award category since 2001 will be the “achievement in casting” award given out to casting directors starting with the award show in two years (which honors the movies of 2025). There’s no word on any other upcoming new categories like “stunt work” (which the SAG awards now includes but the Academy Awards still doesn’t).
The Producers Guild nominations were recently announced and are very similar to other award winners and nominees. Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture nominees are “American Fiction”, “Anatomy of a Fall”, “Barbie”, “The Holdovers”, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, “Maestro”, “Oppenheimer”, “Past Lives”, “Poor Things”, and “The Zone of Interest”
OTHER NEWS: Last week Disney announced YET ANOTHER sequel that will be released at the end of this year. “Moana 2” is now scheduled for the Thanksgiving weekend this year. Not sure if that will change the release date of the live action “Moana” remake that is currently scheduled for summer 2025.
If you didn’t watch the most watched television show EVER yesterday you can still watch the new movie previews that premiered during the show online including “Deadpool and Wolverine” (formerly “Deadpool 3”), “Inside Out 2”, “Twisters”, “A Quiet Place Day 1”, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”, “The Fall Guy”, “Despicable Me 4”, and “Wicked” which doesn’t come out until the end of this year.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
How am I funny? Like I’m a TOY? Do I amuse you??
I will admit that I am an adult that owns SEVERAL Funko Pop toys – mostly bands like U2 and Pearl Jam and movies like Indiana Jones and Star Wars – but I still find it sort of shocking that some Goodfellas Funko Pop figures were recently released. There are also some “Godfather” figures including a figure of a young Vito Corleone (played by Robert DeNiro) – where he wraps a towel around his hand to muffle the gunshot when he shoots another don.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 