Tag Archives: life of the party

Solo Stumbles Leading the Memorial Day Weekend

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Solo: A Star Wars Story topped the Memorial Day weekend box office but fell short of expectations and projections. The film earned an estimated $83.3 million over the three days and should be about $100 million once the four day weekend is over. Disney had projected the film would earned between $130-150 million for the four day weekend. With a $300 million budget before advertising, that’s a massive stumble for the Star Wars franchise. Internationally the film brought in about $65 million with only Japan as a major market yet to see its release as well as Croatia and Trinidad next weekend.

The weekend was generally up from the previous year where the three day weekend almost equaled the total from the four day weekend. So, we can eliminate individuals not going to the movies as to the issue.

The film’s issue absolutely had something to do with a crowded market that saw Deadpool 2 open the previous weekend and Avengers: Infinity War two weeks earlier. That latter film had its opening date moved up a week due to the crowded market. The one thing that may be in Solo‘s favor is that things are pretty clear until June 22nd when Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens. Still, the film will be lucky to cross the $200 million mark and will likely be one of the lowest grossing Star Wars films ever. The film also received a positive review from audiences with an “A-” CinemaScore but it was the first Disney Star Wars film to not get an “A.” The audience was 58% male and 64% over the age of 25.

In second place was Deadpool 2 which saw a 66% drop to earn $42.7 million and bring its domestic total to $207.4 million. The film almost beat Solo internationally with an estimated $57 million there. The film opens in Japan on June 1. Worldwide the film has brought in $487.1 million.

Avengers: Infinity War came in third place with an estimated $16.5 million. Domestically the film has earned $621.7 million and worldwide $1.905 billion. It remains as the fourth largest global release of all-time.

In fourth place was Book Club with an estimated $9.4 million which brought its total to $31.8 million.

Rounding out the top five was Life of the Party with an estimated $5.1 million to bring its total to $39.1 million domestically.

In other comic movie news….

Black Panther slipped just one spot to earn an estimated $453,000 after 15 weeks. The film’s domestic total is $689.6 million and $1.345 billion worldwide.

The Death of Stalin improved to come in at #32 with an estimated $38,742 to bring its domestic total to $7.9 million.

We’ll be back in an hour to do a deeper dive into this year’s comic adaptations.

Deadpool 2 Has Second Largest R-Rated Opening and Nets $301 Million Worldwide

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It was a solid weekend for Deadpool 2 though it didn’t deliver a record opening weekend domestically as expected. The film was the number one film for the weekend with $125 million domestically over three days. That’s the second largest R-rated opening ever behind the first film’s $132.4 million debut two years ago. It beat It which opened with $123.4 million last September.

The film opened in 81 markets internationally bringing in an estimated $176.3 million. That’s a record debut for Fox International beating X-Men: Days of Future Past. That film had $38.3 million from China. Deadpool didn’t play in China though did play last month at the Beijing International Film Festival. The sequel doesn’t have a release date currently.

Worldwide the film earned $301.3 million. It received an “A” CinemaScore with 62% 25 years or older (up from the previous film’s 53%). It was 61% male.

Avengers: Infinity War was bumped to second. It earned $28.7 million domestically in its fourth week and has earned $595 million after 24 days. It’s the eighth largest domestic release of all time.

Internationally the film added $84.4 million and its foreign total is $1.218 billion. Worldwide the film has earned $1.81 billion and is the fourth largest global release of all time and third largest international release of all time.

In third place was Book Club which debuted with an estimated $12.5 million. That beats some expectations.

Life of the Party took fourth place with an estimated $7.7 million to bring its domestic total to $31 million.

Rounding out the top five was Beaking In which brought in $6.5 million for a domestic total of $28.8 million. Even after a deep drop the film is doing quite well considering its budget was just $6 million.

In other comic movie news…

Black Panther dropped to #13 with $823,000. The film domestically has earned $697.8 million and worldwide the film has earned $1.344 billion.

The Death of Stalin dipped to #31 with an estimated $61,432 after 11 weeks. The film has earned $7.8 million domestically.

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

Avengers: Infinity War Wins the Weekend and Crosses $1 Billion at the International Box Office

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Avengers: Infinity War won the weekend with an estimated $61.8 million. That’s three weekends in a row. Domestically, the film has earned $547.8 million and it all might be even higher once the real higher numbers are revealed. It’s the eighth largest domestic release ever.

The film debuted in China where it earned an estimated $200 million, the second largest debut in the market ever based on local currency. That three day performance beat the lifetime runs of The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Man 3. It’s the ninth largest western release in China ever.

Infinity War is the highest grossing superhero release internationally of all-time. It has eanred $1.059 billion which beats Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s $946.4 million.

The film is the fifth largest global release of all time with $1.607 billion. It’s about $65 million behind Jurassic World and should easily pass that in the next two weeks if not sooner.

Next weekend Avengers: Infinity War faces tough competition with Deadpool 2 which should topple it from first place.

In second place was a debut, Life of the Party which opened with an estimated $18.5 million. The film opened in eight markets with an estimated $2.9 million.

Coming in third was another debut, Breaking In which earned an estimated $16.5 million and earned almost triple its $6 million budget in three days. In five international markets the will earned an estimated $1 million.

The Overboard remake dipped just 31% in its second weekend with an estimated $10.1 million which brings it domestic total to $29.5 million after ten days. The film debuted in Mexico where it earned $10.5 million.

Rounding out the top five was A Quiet Place with an estimated $6.4 million. Domestcally the film has earned $169.5 million and it passed the 100k mark international with $100.4 million total.

In other comic film news…

Black Panther brought in an estimated $1.9 million bringing the domestic total to $696.2 million. It needs less that $4 million and it’ll be the third domestic release ever to cross $700 million. Worlwide the film has earned $1.341 billion and has seen domestic earnings being the driver reversing a long running trend for Marvel films. 51.9% of the film has been brought in domestically.

The Death of Stalin was #25 for the weekend with an estimated $121,764. The film has earned $7.7 million domestically after 10 weeks of release.

We’ll be back in one hour where we’ll look deeper into comic film adaptations at the box office.

Movie Review: Life of the Party

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Life of the party posterMelissa McCarthy is one of the funniest people working today. But even a cast full of some of the best comedic talent assembled for any film in 2018 can’t save this movie from wearing a little thin on its premise.

McCarthy is Deanna, who, upon dropping her daughter off for her senior year of college, is hit with an ultimatum from her husband (Matt Walsh) for a divorce. He has fallen for the local realtor with her face on all the bus benches (Julie Bowen) and they’re already in the process of selling the house. With nowhere else to go, Deanna decides to re-enroll in college to finish the last year of her archaeology degree, and not enough wackiness ensues.

Maya Rudolph tries to steal the movie as McCarthy’s best friend, as do Stephen Root, Gillian Jacobs, and Heidi Gardner. But the film’s premise ultimately wears thin — it’s a middle aged mom going back to college!! — and it relies more on uncomfortable, cringe-worthy humor of a mom embarrassing herself in front of her daughter.

What is refreshing, however, is that this is exactly the same type of movie we would’ve seen in decades past with male leads — Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield in the 80’s, Billy Madison with Adam Sandler in the 90’s, 21 Jump Street with Channing Tatutm and Jonah Hill — but this presents a female-centric story with a really sweet heart.  Unfortunately, it also falls into some of the same traps and tropes of these older films, too — if the girl just lets down her hair and stops wearing glasses and frumpy sweaters, then suddenly she’s attractive? Ugh.

In fact, it’s the character-driven, more dramatic moments of growth that really work in this movie, such as Deanna hooking up with a much younger college guy who absolutely worships her. McCarthy shows off her dramatic chops a little, which should be no surprise to anyone who knows her from Gilmore Girls or saw her opposite Bill Murray in St. Vincent. There’s also an ongoing storyline about dealing with the campus mean girls and eventually winning them over that is nice. But the film threatens to lose a lot of that goodwill when, during the third act, the girls get high and then crash and ruin a wedding.

It also feels like the film might be holding back a little bit. Obviously going for a PG-13 rating, they never really get dangerous with their comedy.  With McCarthy and husband Ben Falcone getting writing credits (Falcone also directed and shows up in a brief, but perfect, cameo), it’s fairly obvious they wanted to work with a giant group of actors famed for their improv skills.  If there are R-rated outtakes from this movie, I want to see them.

Because otherwise the film is just sort of bland. While not a failure by any means, it just doesn’t go for the comedy jugular the way some other of McCarthy’s previous comedies have. But, at least it’s not as bad as Tammy, which remains the unequivocal nadir of McCarthy/Falcone’s collaborations.

This film gets a genteleman’s C — nay, make that a gentlewoman’s C. It passes, just barely, but it feels like it just sort of showed up despite amazing talent, it could’ve achieved great things if it had applied itself a bit more.

2.5 out of 5 stars