Tag Archives: happy death day 2u

Women Lead the Weekend Box Office Ruling the Top Five

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Alita Battle Angel

It was the worst President’s Day Weekend in 15 years but the top five films all starred women or had women taking the lead to save the day.

Alita: Battle Angel beat expectations with an estimated $27.8 million for the three-day weekend and is expected to earn a bit over $33 million for the four-day weekend. Over five days the film will have earned around $41 million which is well ahead the $30 million expectation. Still, the film has a $170 million price tag and would need somewhere around $500-$550 million worldwide to break even.

Internationally the film debuted in 11 markets last weekend and expanded to 86 markets this weekend. There it earned $56.1 million to bring its foreign earnings to $94.3 million. It’ll release in China and Japan on February 22.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part dropped from first to second earning an estimated $21.2 million to bring its domestic total to $62.7 million. Over the four days it’s expected to earn $27 million to bring its domestic earnings to around $70 million. Internationally it added $12 million from 69 markets to bring its global total to just shy of $98 million. It releases in France and Italy this coming week and in Australia on March 21.

Rebel Wilson’s Isn’t It Romantic opened in third place with an estimated $14.2 million over the three days and $16.5 million for the four days. That’ll but the film around $23 million over six days since it debuted on Wednesday.

In fourth place was What Men Want which earned an estimated $10.9 million over the three days and expected to earn about $12.5 million over four. That brings its domestic total shy of $38 million. The film also earned $2.2 million from six overseas markets for an international total of $2.5 million.

Rounding out the top five was Happy Death Day 2U which earned an estimated $9.8 million over three days and $11 million for the four. Since it opened on Wednesday the film should be just above $15 million over the six days. It was expected to earned a little over $20 million. Internationally the film earned $11.8 million in 41 markets. It opens in Ital and Russian on February 28 and Japan on July 12. With just a $9 million budget the film is quite fine.

In comic book films….

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dropped two spots from the previous weekend to come in at #11. It earned an estimated $2 million to bring its domestic total to $182.7 million after 10 weeks. With foreign earnings of $173.3 million the film has earned $356 million worldwide.

Aquaman has crossed $331 million domestically and is now the second highest grossing domestic release for a DC Extended Universe film only behind Wonder Woman’s $412.6 million. It came in at #12 for the weekend down from last weekend’s #8. The film earned $1.9 million to bring its domestic total to $331.4 million. Internationally the film has earned $799.4 million to bring its worldwide total to $1.131 billion.

We’ll be back in an hour for a deeper dive into this year’s and last year’s comic adaptations.

Movie Review: Happy Death Day 2U

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Happy Death Day 2U

Happy Death Day 2U is the sequel we didn’t need to the PG-13 slasher movie we didn’t think was going to be that great but was unexpectedly fun. In my review of the original, I compared it to grocery store birthday sheet cake in terms of its simplicity but also satisfying nature.

Unfortunately the sequel is not as good, as if the birthday cake, missing several large chunks decided to fill them in with extra frosting and sprinkles, turning it into an overly sugary mess rather than a satisfying treat. The original worked because it was in many ways just an homage to so many films before it: Groundhog Day, Vertigo, and too many slasher movies to name. But at its heart it was a mystery, and we were invested in the characters, especially our protagonist Tree (Jessica Rothe), her growth, and finding out who her killer was.

The original conceit of living the same day over and over again was fun, but the sequel takes a bit of the mystery and charm out of it by trying to explain it through science! in order to set up a literal deus ex machina ending to fix things at the end. It also sets up and inevitable third chapter, so stick around to midway through the credits for a stinger giving you an idea of what’s coming next.

Perhaps the best thing about the original was how we rooted for the protagonist tree. She started off as a horrible garbage person and bit by bit became better until we began rooting for her instead of rooting for her to be viciously murdered because we hated her. It was a story about redemption, and you just can’t put that genie back in the bottle.

Instead we get some interesting musings about what life might be like in alternative universes his choices were made differently and circumstances were different how our lives might turn out. It’s nice, but not as interesting as the first time around.

Also gone was some of the layers of social commentary that Blumhouse is often able to put in to their horror films. While the first Happy Death Day had some things to say about college life and rape culture, this film seems to care more about just going through the motions of the sequel.

While it loses most of the charm and novelty of the first film, Rothe is still incredibly fun and engaging to watch. The rest of the cast. . . are less so.

Still, you could do far worse with a horror sequel, especially in the PG-13 rating. Fans of the original will come back for a second helping even if it is diminishing returns on the first slice of birthday cake. Let’s hope they can bring us something better in a third installment.

2 out of 5 stars