Box Office Week: Good Boys takes #1 with good $21M, Angry Birds 2 flops at #4 with $10.5M, 47 Meters Down 2 underwhelms at #6 with $9M, Blinded by the Light tanks at #9 with $4.4M, and Where'd You Go Bernadette bombs at #11 with $3.4M. Toy Story 4 becomes 5th Disney film this year to surpass $1B.

Rank	Title	Domestic Gross (Weekend)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Week #	Percentage Change	Budget
1	Good Boys	$21,000,000	$23,100,000	1	N/A	$20M
2	Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw	$14,140,000	$437,041,600	3	-44.0%	$200M
3	The Lion King (2019)	$11,900,000	$1,435,207,985	5	-41.1%	$260M
4	The Angry Birds Movie 2	$10,500,000	$16,237,146	1	N/A	$65M
5	Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark	$10,050,000	$54,341,501	2	-51.9%	$25M

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Notable Box Office Stories

• Good Boys - When you hear the headline "Good Boys is first R-rated original comedy since 2016 to be #1 at the box office and the biggest original comedy debut of the year with $21M" you can take it one of two ways. On the good side you can see this as a great way to end a summer crowded with franchise fair, which many non-Disney fair failing. However like the earth and pornography, diversity is important for the overall health of the ecosystem, so the other way you can take this news is one of despair. Really? The first R-rated comedy to be #1 since 2016, the last one being The Boss which I believe is...a fake movie. I don't think that movie is real even though I wrote about it. The first comedy to be #1 since September of last year? And this is the best comedy opening of the year? $21M? That used to be consider a mediocre opening just a few years ago and now it's heralded just for opening slightly above the teens. What is going on?
• Good Boys (cont.) - Comedy is in a very weird place right now. Comedy itself is well...everywhere in all kinds of forms. The internet has nichefied comedy to such an insane degree that basically you can tailor make your comedy down to the littlest details. Memes, short comedy, long comedy, stand up, surreal, film, shows, old shows, weird indie new animated surreal short comedy shows based on memes. The amount out there is endless, so the idea of the broad comedy that everybody must watch is going away. But that's been true for a while now. I think the bigger thing is, streaming may be transitioning the broad comedy away from theaters. What are the two biggest comedy hits of the summer? Not Good Boys or Stuber or Booksmart (unfortunately). It's the film Murder Mystery on Netflix and the series The Boys on Amazon. Two projects with major movie stars in comedic riffs on current trends that are extremely watched by their audiences. These things are massive hits according to their parent companies and why not? Why spend $15 to take a risk on something when I can watch the first episode of The Boys for no extra cost and go "yeah this is great" or "no not for me" and never even have to put on my pants.
• Good Boys (cont.) - Sorry that this discussion of this film has barely touched on the film itself, but just seeing ecstatic praise for a $21M opening has me concerned or at least wary about the future. As for the film itself it's kinda what you expect. It's got solid if not stellar reviews and a B+ on Cinemascore. It will probably do just fine by the end of its run. But that's just it, that kind of film could have easily coast to $100M domestic on just fine a few years ago. As more people become accustomed to highly produced and expensive comedies on their TV delivered at a regular pace and as long as YouTube can algorithimize my comedy tastes then comedy will continue to be in trouble at the box office. It doesn't mean the idea of comedy is going away. However, if we lose comedy from the box office landscape it feels even more like what is there left to even compete with the big tentpoles that already dominate?
• The Angry Birds Movie 2 - Sooooo how annoyed is everyone that technically The Angry Birds Movie 2 is the first video game movie to get a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Here comes the "well actuallies" but for now despite the surprisingly solid reviews the audience of the now decade old (jesus) mobile game franchise have probably had enough of birds v pigs. The original film was something of a minor hit for Sony, grossing $100M domestic and $300M worldwide, but that film already felt waaaaay too late to the Angry Birds train and now 3 years later even more outdated. Then you have it dropped early in the week and right before school starts (or has started for some). The whole thing felt like Sony had a solid hit and fast tracked a sequel only to realize that by the time it finally was about to come out there was just no interest in the general public. It perfectly explains why the film opened to such a terrible number, the second worst in Sony Animation history. But oh boy they will have that Castle Clash movie coming out hot and relevant in 2027.
• 47 Meters Down: Uncaged - It's always so funny when a franchise that has a first film with a number in the title has to have a sequel. Did you know there's a Chinese series called "The Four" and the sequels are "The Four II" and "The Four III". They never made it to "The Four IV" but maybe one day. Anyways 47 Meters Down: Another One opened this week to a weak #6 with $9M. For most films that would be pretty damn disastrous but 47MD:U (ugh) is a rather cheap affair with a $12M budget. While that's an increase from the $5.5M budget of the first film (which was originally going to be released direct to VOD) which ended up grossing over $40M domestic, it's enough that the slightly lower opening will cause problems. It seems that the boringly named Entertainment Studios was hoping that this would se an exponential growth from the first film's opening, a la John Wick. That seems to not be the case so I doubt we'll be seeing 47 Meters Down: Parabellum but hey, people need their shark movies.
• Blinded by the Light - Seems either people didn't get the message about the film or The Boss is not as popular as he once was because the film that revels in Bruce Springsteen's music Blinded by the Light opened to a terrible #9 with $4.4M. The film is something of a strange option for the American audience as it feels like a British only release. The film is about a British-Pakistani man who loves Bruce and lives in Luton, a mid sized British city, and wants to leave. It's very reminiscent of films like Sunshine of Leith or Sing Street; films that have become their own mini musical genre in the country. So why did BBTL get a big push here in the states right after its British release if it feels so British? The only reason I can see is that Bruce Springsteen is a very American musician. It doesn't help that Warner Bros seemed to get extremely hyped about the movie to buy up 2,000+ theaters and then not promote it at all. In England the film is doing fine but not great. This is just a weird one culturally, a very British project about an American singer. It's maybe just a little in between all worlds to connect. It's too bad as audiences did seem to like it with an A- on Cienamscore so maybe eventually this film will find its crowd. Also, I know Blinded By the Light is a good song but you have to pick a more obvious Bruce song to get people's attention. I know calling it Born to Run is hack but hey sometimes hack sells.
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette - What is going on with Richard Linklater? Here's someone who made 4 fantastic films this decade (Bernie, Before Midnight, Boyhood, Everybody Wants Some) and now ends it with this, Where'd You Go Bernadette which opened to a truly awful #11 with $3.4M. Linklater has been in an interesting slump with this and Last Flag Flying, both star studded adaptations of acclaimed novels that are going for wide appeal and Oscar attention and getting neither. The film itself was not well regarded by critics who found it one of the director's weaker efforts. But even if this was a masterpiece it would likely not have gone far, what with its production/distribution company Annapurna on the verge of complete bankruptcy. It's kinda hard to promote even a Linklater film starring Cate Blanchette when you have no money (I know, I try all the time on my limited budget). But even still the film is just too mediocre and poorly reviewed to find purchase. The good news is Linklater having dips in his career only to come out with even more audacious projects is a time honored tradition. Plus we'll always have Before Dawn on the horizon.
• Toy Story 4 - Let's see the news of today: a comedy opening to #1 but with so little money it's concerning, a terrible performing animation sequel, a mediocre performing sequel to a VOD film, a poorly marketed British film, and a flop from an acclaimed director...well at least Toy Story 4 has passed over $1B...yay? Well for Pixar and Disney its certainly more good news in a fantastic year for the company. This is actually the fifth Disney film to cross $1B at the box office this year (the others being Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Aladdin, and Lion King) and would be the sixth if they owned total control of Spider-man: Far From Home. This is also the fourth Pixar movie to pass $1B at the global box office, all of which have been sequels (which is why I'm still very suspicious that Pixar is truly 'done' with sequels). TS4 actually didn't have a huge record breaking opening but in such a dull end of summer it's maintained as the best family friendly choice and in the hottest summer on record with nothing else to see. I don't see Pixar getting another $1B in the near future but don't be shocked if Disney racks up two more $1B earning films this year with Frozen II and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker on the horizon. CONSUME ALL MEDIA!

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Films Reddit Wants to Follow

This is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.

Title	Domestic Gross (Weekly)	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget	Week #
Avengers: Endgame	$321,878	$858,139,646	$2,795,695,939	$356M	17
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum	$198,391	$170,535,958	$321,162,659	$75M	14
Aladdin	$1,258,990	$353,537,257	$1,035,745,430	$183M	13
Toy Story 4	$7,083,939	$424,439,307	$1,016,639,307	$200M	9
Spider-man: Far From Home	$8,202,055	$376,629,545	$1,102,833,167	$160M	7

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Notable Film Closings

Title	Domestic Gross (Cume)	Worldwide Gross (Cume)	Budget
Pokémon Detective Pikachu	$144,105,346	$431,505,346	$150M
Dark Phoenix	$65,845,974	$252,442,974	$200M
Shaft (2019)	$21,360,215	$21,360,215	$35M

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As always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.

Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).

My Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Les_Vampires/

Submitted August 19, 2019 at 07:00PM by mi-16evil https://ift.tt/2TLzewS