Hello everyone,
BOX OFFICE: The new movie “Venom: The Last Dance” came out below expectations. It was expected to make $60-65 million but it ended up making approx. $51 million over this past weekend. Last weeks #1 movie “Smile 2” slipped down almost 60% to $9.5 million for the #2 spot this weekend. Last weekend’s biggest per screen average of the year so far – “Anora” – went down this weekend but the number of screens it was playing on went up. The number of screens is now 34 and the per screen average is now just under $27 thousand so that made its weekend domestic total just under $909 thousand putting it at #8 this past weekend.
The total domestic box office was up 37% from the previous weekend making almost $95 million. This is mostly thanks to “Venom: The Last Dance” which made approx. as much as the ENTIRE top 5 box office last weekend. However, the same weekend last year the movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s” opened to $80 million so the total weekend box office for the same weekend last year was approx. 25% higher at $126 million.
WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: However, “Venom: The Last Dance” was much stronger internationally. It BEAT estimated making $124 million in foreign countries for a worldwide total of $175 million. The foreign countries included China which had $46 million over 5 days. That’s the biggest Hollywood opening of the year (so far) in China and the biggest opening of a superhero movie since “Spider-Man: Far From Home” in 2019. In other worldwide box office news, “Joker: Folie à Deux”, which is approaching the end of it’s theatrical run just slipped past $200 million worldwide.
OTHER NEWS:
Clint Eastwoods new movie “Juror #2” – which premiered at this past weekends AFI Fest – is getting pretty good reviews (one review said “it’s the best since “American Sniper”) and, of course, the rumors about if this is Clint Eastwoods last film have started circulating. Especially since he didn’t attend the AFI screening this past weekend. About his last movie, his longtime producer Tim Moore said “Who knows? He’s been saying that for a long time” at the screening. If it is his last film, it looks like he’ll be going out with little fanfare because the movie opens its limited engagement in select cities next weekend – only approx. 50 screens – and DOES NOT have plans to open the movie wider. Some say Warner Bros is “burying it” because they’re very disappointed in Clint Eastwoods last movie “Cry Macho” which only made $16.5 million worldwide. I guess they forgot the DOZENS OF OTHER FILMS HE’S DIRECTED AND/OR STARRED IN INCLUDING ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS. Almost all the movies he’s directed have been at Warner Bros.
Marvel announced some upcoming release dates for mostly unnamed movies but one thing that isn’t on their release schedule anymore is “Blade”. The movie was removed from their lineup – previously scheduled about a year from now in early Nov 2025 – and not listed on another release date yet. Possibly because all the issues with the movie including losing 2 directors that were going to make the movie. After the announcement, Disney announced that the next “Predator” spinoff movie – “Predator – Badlands” will be released in its place. I think they’re hoping for the same box office success that the “Alien” spinoff movie did a couple months ago.
LITTLE BIT OF HUMOR:
This is supposedly how Colin Ferrell transforms into the Penguin. Wait!!! They shaved his head and then put on a wig??? They couldn’t just cut his hair to look like the Penguins hair???? Does Colin like sitting in the makeup chair for an hour or two every morning?????
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 