Movie News

‘Fantastic Beasts’ Lands at #1 with $75 Million Weekend

Published

4 years ago

November 21, 2016

Fantastic Beasts Box Office MovieSpoon.com

[dropcap]J.[/dropcap]K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them scalded the competition over the weekend in U.S. theaters, earning a solid $75 million (right on the nose) in domestic theaters and raking in $143.3 million in international theaters. That gave the post-Harry Potter startup a healthy $218.3 million take Thursday through Sunday, allowing Warner Bros. to turn a profit in the film’s first weekend, given it cost $180 million to make the film.

Eddie Redmayne casts his spell as Newt Scamander in ‘Fantastic Beasts.’

With those kinds of numbers, who needs critical success? Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was given an insipid 76 percent score by Rotten Tomatoes, which averages out reviews to come up with an approval rating. In the main, 76 percent is a positive-enough score, but the average at RT tends to mean “likeable” rather than “interesting” or “insightful” or a few other options.

That means cartoons tend to get over the top scores, while everything else has to earn their ratings. Moana, for example, staring Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho, is a case in point. Just out, it currently has an RT score of 100 percent. Zootopia, when it was out, was given an 96 percent RT score. You’ think that meant these films had Academy Awards written all over them, but they’re just dopey feature length cartoons, scoring high on cute, mild and predictable.

‘Fantastic Beasts’ won the box office, but Moana won the critics.

The top 10 for the domestic market over the weekend included Disney’s Doctor Strange, which earned $17.6 million, riding on a RT score of 90 percent, Trolls with $17.5 million and a score of 74 percent, Arrival ($11.8 million, RT score: 93 percent), Almost Christmas ($7.1 million, 50 percent), Hacksaw Ridge ($6.8 million, 85 percent), The Edge of Seventeen ($4.9 million, 95 percent), Bleed for This ($2.4 million, 64 percent), The Accountant ($2.2 million, 51 percent) and Shut In ($1.6 million, 0 percent).

Of course, credit where credit is due. J.K. Rowling, five years after the last Harry Potter film (Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which $1.4 billion in theaters, making it the 8th highest grossing movie off all time), can still spin a fantastic tale that audiences love. This story takes place 70 years before the Harry Potter fictions begin and it takes place in New York City, giving Rowling a fresh start for her invigorating imagination.

1920s New York provided a fresh setting for ‘Fantastic Beasts.’

The numbers hardly make Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a sleeper, but it remains to be seen whether or not it has staying power in theaters beyond the influence of the critics. As of this weekend, it is No. 1 for the past four days and has already jumped to No. 27 for box office receipts world wide for 2016. It comes in at No. 34 for international receipts among 2016 releases and 33 among domestic releases.

Fantastic Beasts is currently No. 588 among the all time grossing movies worldwide and No. 498 on the all time grossing movies in international markets – 956 all time in the domestic market.
On the list of all time highest grossing movies in the domestic market, the film’s $75 million weekend puts it at No. 1,588, according to the Numbers website.

[author title=”About the Author” image=”http://popstermedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Jabba_the_Hutt-Anthony-Hall.png”]Movie guy Anthony Hall is an enigma. He’s never been photographed and only works late at night after everyone has left the office. Hall’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Miami Herald (and more). [/author]

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Izzy

Movie Magic: The De-Aging Technique of The Irishman

Published

11 months ago

November 20, 2019

Matt

Have you read Izzy yet? If so, you know that Izzy makes the apples that give the Gods their youth and immortality. It also seems Robert De Niro discovered one of Izzy’s apples too… In Martin Scorsese’s upcoming biographical film, he stars as Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a labor union leader and alleged hitman for the Bufalino crime family. The trailer for the movie, which will premieres NEXT WEEK (!), also features a “de-aged” De Niro. “We’re so used to watching them as the older faces,” Scorsese said in an interview on the A24 podcast. “Does it change the eyes at all? …If that’s the case, what was in the eyes that I liked? Was it intensity? Was it gravitas? Was it threat?…How do we get that? I don’t know.” Some might consider this magic and I for one can’t wait to see the impact of Izzy’s apples on screen for myself. ????

Movie News

“Captain Marvel” Retains Top Slot at the Box Office

Published

2 years ago

April 17, 2019

Mark McPherson

It’s no surprise that in its second weekend, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe of 2019 is still riding high. Captain Marvel, the latest in the MCU with Brie Larson starring as the lead, generated another $69 million over the weekend, placing its domestic total at $266 million. Tallying up the international box office, the film’s global total to date is $760 million. Despite the online controversy, the film is looking to be another strong box office smash for Disney and Marvel.

As for the premieres for the weekend, and there were plenty, they were all over the map. Just below Captain Marvel was the animated adventure Wonder Park, bringing in $16 million, another film with controversy when the director’s name was removed from the picture after sexual harassment charges. Five Feet Apart, the dying teen drama about a romance amid cystic fibrosis, only came in at #3 with a weekend gross of $13 million. And debuting the lowest in the top 10 for debuts was Captive State, a sci-fi dystopian tale, only making $3 million. The film debuted so low the little film No Manches Frida 2 was able to sneak about it at #6 with a gross of $3.8 million.

Drops were fairly low all around for the returning films, mostly because Captain Marvel was dominating the previous weekend. The only milestone worth noting is that The LEGO Movie 2, after six weeks at the box office, finally cracked $100 million. And the sun is now setting on Green Book’s post-Oscar run by coming in at #10 for the final weekend of its top 10 run over the past few weeks.

View the full top ten weekend box office results below:

Captain Marvel ($69,318,000)

Wonder Park ($16,000,000)

Five Feet Apart ($13,150,000)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ($9,345,000)

Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral ($8,085,000)

No Manches Frida 2 ($3,894,000)

Captive State ($3,163,000)

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part ($2,135,000)

Alita: Battle Angel ($1,900,000)

Green Book ($1,277,000)

Next weekend, Captain Marvel may very well have some competition when Jordan Peele’s new horror film Us hits over 3,600 theaters.

Movie News

“Dragon” Continues To Soar, “Funeral” Close Behind, “Green Book” Back

Published

2 years ago

March 11, 2019

Mark McPherson

With little competition for the weekend, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, the third in the animated fantasy saga, was able to secure the box office once more. In its second weekend, the animated epic made $30 million to push its domestic total to $97 million. So far the film has done about the same as the previous film and is on track to stay in the top 10 for a few more weeks in March.

Debuts this weekend were small with one big exception. Tyler Perry’s latest Madea film, A Madea Family Funeral, naturally made a relatively big splash with its dedicated audience. Starting at #2, the film made $27 million for its first weekend. No word on the budget yet but it’s most likely on a budget as most Tyler Perry productions are, so it’s safe to call this a success, especially for debuting with a box office so close to Dragon.

The rest of the premieres were not as strong at all. Greta, the new thriller starring Chloe Moretz, debuted all the way down at #8 with $4.5 million box office. To be fair, however, the film was in a constant battle for its spot as three other films also reported earnings around $4 million for the weekend. Of note, Green Book, fresh off winning the Academy Award for Best Picture one weekend ago, splashed back into more theaters to arise even higher in the top 10 with its domestic total now sitting at $73 million. Don’t count on it remaining there long as bigger blockbusters will be swooping as we plow through the last remnants of winter movies.

Check out the full listing of the top 10 box office weekend results below:

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ($30,046,000)

Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral ($27,050,000)

Alita: Battle Angel ($7,000,000)

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part ($6,615,000)

Green Book ($4,711,000)

Fighting With My Family ($4,691,284)

Isn’t it Romantic ($4,645,000)

Greta ($4,585,000)

What Men Want ($2,700,000)

Happy Death Day 2U ($2,516,000)

Next weekend is once again all about Marvel as their latest superhero solo film, Captain Marvel, will be appearing in 4,100 theaters.