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In which we mourn the doldrums of summer and drown our sorrows by watching puppets doing naughty things, you do not want to know what i just saw the cookie monster doing to eeyore


Last week Kinda Rich Asians topped with charts with $25.6M and a $35M 5-day, which is good, but nothing crazy. The Meg swam down to second place with another $21M. Mile 22 opened with a measly $13M at #3. Fourth was Tom Cruise running and jumping and speeding and helicoptering to the tune of $10M. Last of all, the bait and switch Alpha opened at 5th with $10M as well and if you would take inflation into account, that's like a bazillion and something, so i'm sure they're happy about that.


In a little while, i'll cover this weeks limited releases,

in the meantime, who said this

"you wanna get back into that restroom and not rest"

and no it was not Elmo

undeadmonkey wrote: in the meantime, who said this

"you wanna get back into that restroom and not rest"

and no it was not Elmo

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids. One of the few of her movies I actually found amusing.

First Up The Happytime Murders (STX Entertainment)



Film Potential
The only film that's opening truly wide this weekend. It's also around the time of the year, that these random weird comedies seem to do well, did anyone think that Sausage Party would make $97M?

Game Potential
It has a shot at opening #1. With not much competition in the next few weeks it could definitely gather up a few Top5 points, but thats about the only category it could exceed it. IMDb is already at a measly 5.

Storyline
When the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show begin to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.

Crew
Director: Brian Henson
Writers: Todd Berger (screenplay by), Todd Berger (story by)
Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph


I’ll predict a $16M OW and $40M overall.

But also remember that IMDb hates Melissa McCarthy and any comedy she's in will get heavily downvoted.

Meanwhile, I'm going to wait for reviews before fully making my decision on how The Happytime Murders performs. I have a feeling critics are going to detest it.

Buscemi2 wrote:But also remember that IMDb hates Melissa McCarthy and any comedy she's in will get heavily downvoted.

Mid 5s are fairly standard for broad comedy, no? The Heat has a 6.6 and Spy has a 7.0 rating

Most wide releases get at least a 6. Scores below tend to be reserved for indie films (as IMDb users hate non-mainstream titles for some reason), more specialized (non-male aimed) titles, and films with a lot of pre-packaged hate (example: anything with Amy Schumer).

The Happytime Murders fit two of those three (independent, stars Melissa McCarthy) but it's also getting 3,000 theatres.

Boosh: While you're not entirely off base about the downvoting of certain titles featuring female comedians, Ghostbusters was the only Melissa McCarthy title that suffered from mass downvoting. These early troll votes for Happytime Murders aren't likely to be abundant enough to have much of an effect once it gets released.


six: Most straightforward, non-indie comedies over the past few years have ended up somewhere between the mid-5's and low-6's. Game Night, Tag and Popstar are the only ones I can think off the top of my head that scored higher than that.

All of her films directed by Ben Falcone had low IMDb scores. And before you say "but those films were terrible", remember that some Netflix films that had just as bad of critical reception have ratings above a 6 (Bright, The Outsider, When We First Met).

Next A.X.L.: Alpha 2: 22018 Years Later (Global Road)



Film Potential
To be completely honest, besides seeing the name on upcoming release lists on IMDb, i knew next to nothing about this movie. I wish it would have stayed that way. No wonder Global Road is in trouble, I thought Happytime Murders looked weird, but that's at least a comedy and not taking itself seriously.

Game Potential
Stay far away, there are limited releases with better potential than this.

Storyline
A.X.L. is a top-secret, like so secret that a dude finds it, robotic dog who develops a special friendship with Miles and will go to any length to protect his new companion, like even outrun the government and ramp off his new dog with his motorcycle.

Crew
Director: Oliver Daly
Writer: Oliver Daly
Stars: Thomas Jane, Becky G, Alex Neustaedter


I’ll predict a $2M OW and $3M overall.

You're actually being nice to this one. It's currently tracking at $1 million for the weekend (yes, it's actually expected to finish with a PTA under $1,000).

Anyway, I actually saw a trailer for A.X.L. with Incredibles 2. I'm surprised it didn't get sold to Netflix (of which I recently saw get called the new "straight-to-DVD", that might explain all of the Adam Devine and David Spade movies).

I'm sure there were some clowns that gave those titles blind 1's just to stick to it to McCarthy, but at the least IMDB scores are pretty consistent with the mixed audience reception all of those titles received.

They all made money though and McCarthy's still popular, so they are some people who liked those movies. They just won't speak up.

The first reviews are in for The Happytime Murders are in...and they're not good. I'm convinced it might not even hit $10 million for the weekend.

Theater Counts:

The Happytime Murders - 3,225
AXL - 1,695-1,710
Papillon - 520 (anyone who has this should probably drop it)
Searching - 9



Celebrity birthdays:

John Noble turned 70 on 8/20
David O. Russell turned 60 on 8/20
Kenny Rogers turned 80 on 8/21
James Corden turned 40 on 8/22
Steve Guttenbuerg turns 60 on 8/24
Tim Burton turns 60 on 8/25
Rupert Grint turns 30 on 8/25

On the limited front we have 3 films, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, Papillon (2018), and Searching. As Shryke mentioned, Papillon is opening too wide to get you any PTA and too low to be worth anything on the BoxOffice side. John McEnroe might get you some PTA though i'm not sure how many tennis fans there are out there. Searching is supposed to go wide next weekend, but i bet that it will depend on how well it does this week and again, i'm not sure how many john cho and debra messing fans there are that will rush out to go see them. Looks like a dud to me.




Final weekend predictions of August 24 - 26, 2018


1. Crazy Rich Asians $16M
2. The Happytime Murders $15M
3. The Meg $12M
4. MI - Fallout $7M
5. Christopher Robin $6M

PTA: I honestly have no idea
5. The Wife (lets go for a repeat)
4. John Mcenroe
3. We the Animals
2. Juliet, Naked
1. Crazy Rich Asians