So Secret Life of Pets went beyond everyone’s expectations and reeled in $104 Million last weekend. That is giant for any film, but I’m planning to write a separate post all about this film that made more in its opening weekend than any other original non-adapted property. Think about movies like Inside Out and Avatar. Yes, Secret Life of Pets just did something unprecedented. So what’s coming next? Do any of this weekend’s offerings have what it takes to dethrone the pets? Let’s find out.
Ghostbusters
Opening this weekend at theaters across the country is a remake that we have seen coming for months. I struggled to decide which trailer to put up. The first one that the studio released is among the most disliked videos in YouTube history nearing 1 million. I have a feeling that there are a lot of angry people hiding behind those thumbs in a campaign to wreck this film. The trailer itself is not bad drawing on some of the nostalgia of the original franchise. But I was glad that the 2nd trailer set itself apart and actually made me interested in the film.
I haven’t seen it yet, and I don’t even know if I will see it before it comes out on Blu-ray or video on demand. Ghostbusters is such an iconic film and I love its humor. I like the idea of a new team giving us a new world of busting fun, but I’m not sure how I feel about the cast. Before you berate me and call me a sexist, I have no problem with an all female ghostbusting team. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig sometimes go a little too far for me. They are funny, but I can only stand them in short bursts. In Bridesmaids I got too much Wiig but I loved McCarthy because she stayed in the background, However, when she got center stage in Tammy and Spy she was too much.
I think this remake can do well if it spreads the humor around the team. It made $3.4 million in Thursday previews which is right where it was expected to be. The studio is being conservative with its projections in the face of an IMDb scam dropping it’s rating to a 4.1 before the film had even been released. They are calling for around $40 million. I think that Ghostbusters will do better than projections and better than our most recent live action comedy Central Intelligence but will have trouble surpassing Secret Life of Pets on its second week.
The Infiltrator
I never thought I would say that it looks good for someone to get back into drugs, but I was very happy to see the trailer for The Infiltrator in which Bryan Cranston returns to form looking like Walter White reincarnate.
Based on the true story of Federal agent Bob Mazur, Bryan Cranston goes deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking scene plaguing the nation in 1986 by posing as slick, money-laundering businessman. Teamed with an impulsive and streetwise fellow agent played by John Leguizamo. He has to navigate a vicious criminal network in which the slightest slip-up could cost him his life, but history tells us that he built a case from the inside that leads to indictments of 85 drug lords and the corrupt bankers who cleaned their dirty money.
This is Broad Green’s second wide release ever. The Neon Demon was the first. They opened Infiltrator on Wednesday to try and get an early start. I don’t expect this to break any records, but it is getting respectable reviews and it provides some good counter programming from the standard summer fare. It will be somewhere in the bottom of the top 10 with around $4 million for the weekend.
There are two other limited releases that I’m excited about, and both of them somehow star Kristen Stewart. We have Woody Allen’s latest film, Cafe Society, as well as the dystopian Equals. I hope they get pushed out to wider releases soon or at least get picked up by some of the smaller theaters around Gainesville. What are you going to see this weekend? What do you think about the new Ghostbusters team?
- Ghostbusters – $56 million
- The Secret Life of Pets – $55 million
- Finding Dory – $12 M
- The Legend of Tarzan – $11 M
- Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates – $7 M