November 1st - 3rd-
On the flip side of things, the story is much more positive towards are second highest grossing new release of the weekend, which is the Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet. Considering how influential of a figure Tubman is in American history, it's a bit surprising that it took this long to get a movie made about her. "Harriet" is directed by Kasi Lemmons and stars Cynthia Erivo in the lead role. It was thought of to be a major awards season play heading into the season, but the narrative changed a bit when reaction was a bit underwhelming coming out of Toronto International Film Festival. Perhaps that convinced Focus Features to give it a more frontloaded release into 2,059 theaters instead of playing the slow roll-out game like "Jojo Rabbit" and "Parasite" currently are. That's a decision that has worked out quite well as it was projected to earn anywhere from $8-10 million heading into the weekend, but managed to jump higher with an $11.7 million opening weekend, good enough for fourth place. What's better is that general audiences are responding much stronger than festival goers and critics have been as it scored the coveted A+ Cinemascore. Awards season buzz or not, a Cinemascore like that is certain to drive strong word of mouth in the weeks to come.
There were two other wide releases this weekend, but they were both dead on arrival, so we'll blow through them real quick. Down in ninth place, Warner Bros. struck out with Motherless Brooklyn, a film that was written and directed by Edward Norton, who also stars in the film. This is Norton's second directorial effort after the 2000 film "Keeping the Faith." "Motherless Brooklyn is a crime drama that follows a private detective with Tourette's Syndrome who tries to solve the murder of his mentor and friend. It was thought to also be an awards season play, but mixed reaction also killed that buzz. It wasn't quite as lucky as "Harriet," though as audiences ignored it, causing it to only make $3.5 million, which is only a tad bit better than fellow Warner Bros. disappointing "The Goldfinch," which opened to $2.7 million in September. Following right behind "Motherless Brooklyn" in 10th place with $2.9 million was Arctic Dogs, an animated film with almost zero awareness. Entertainment Studios confidently released it in 2,844, but with no marketing push, the only thing that it managed to accomplish was score the worst weekend ever for a movie opening it at least 2,800 theaters. With "Frozen 2" right around the corner, this one is going to disappear quickly.
November 8th - 10th-
Looking to play the long haul for the holiday season will be the romantic comedy Last Christmas. This is a movie that teams up Henry Goulding from "Crazy Rich Asians" and Emilia Clarke from "Me Before You" for a Christmas themed romance film. On paper that seems like the perfect recipe for success. If its target audience responds well, not only should it be able to have a solid opening weekend that could, in theory, challenge "Doctor Sleep" for the opening spot, but it is also poised well to have a lengthy holiday run. The director here is Paul Feig. Even though Feig in the past has stuck with a very specific style of comedy with the likes of "Bridesmaids," "The Heat" and "Spy," last year he proved to be a little more versatile as he directed the comedic thriller "A Simple Favor." So stepping into the romance realm doesn't seem to be too far of a stretch here. Best case scenario would be for this movie to match the opening weekend of "Crazy Rich Asians," which earned $26.5 million. However, all comparisons seem to indicate an opening in the high teens instead as the aforementioned "Me Before You" ($18.7 million) as well as this summer's "Yesterday" ($17 million) and 2017's holiday themed comedy "A Bad Mom's Christmas" ($16.8 million) all opened in that realm.
While both "Doctor Sleep" and "Last Christmas" are trending positively at the moment, the movie going in the wrong direction is Roland Emmerich's war thriller Midway. This is the movie that tells the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the ensuing Battle of Midway during World Ward II. And while that sounds fine enough on paper, thus bringing to mind other movies set in the Pacific Theater like "Hacksaw Ridge," "Unbroken" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," lots of red flags on this one shoot up and they all go back to the director here, Roland Emmerich. Emmerich is a director that made one giant blockbuster in "Independence Day" back in 1996 that everyone loved, but nothing notable since, at least not in terms of quality cinema. His most recent films include "Independence Day: Resurgence," "White House Down," "2012" and "10,000 BC." So generic, mindless action thrillers are more of his thing, which is why him attempting a serious war epic is a bit concerning. Thus the perfect comparison might be to Michael Bay's 2001 film "Pearl Harbor," a movie about these exact same events from a director who also usually does mindless action rather than serious war films. And while all of these comparisons were actually financially successful, the comparison there in terms of quality seems to be resulting in the interest level in "Midway" not being particularly high.
Pulling up the rear will be the John Cena led family comedy Playing with Fire. Teaming up with John Cena is Keegan-Michael Key and John Leguizamo as the three of them play a trio of macho firefighters who meet their match when they have to deal with a trio of young kids. This is a more juvenile slapstick comedy aimed at younger audiences in the vein of something like "Daddy Day Care" or "The Pacifier," two other films featured manly men doing something they aren't as good at, dealing with kids. While this is probably not going to be the type of movie adults or critics care much about, that's also not the point here. If it can make the young kids giggle at all the silly things happening on screen, then the movie did its job. The problem is that it's the adults paying for the tickets and with the likes of "Frozen 2" right around the corner, that might be too big of an obstacle to overcome. Granted, there is a bit of a window of opportunity before "Frozen 2," but it's also worth noting that "The Addams Family" is still playing rather well as it became a sleeper hit in October. So "Playing with Fire" might be the odd movie out, being sandwiched between the other two major family films. However, this does seem like the type of movie that gets discovered later on.
November 15th - 17th-
Entering itself into the long list of remakes/sequels/reboots that no one asked for is the 2019 reboot of Charlie's Angels. This is a franchise that dates back to 1976 with original TV series of the same name that went for five seasons and 110 episodes. In initially starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith as the trio of crime-fighting ladies working for a private detective agency, led by the unseen Charlie Townsend, voiced by John Forsythe. It was adapted into a film in 2000, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. That movie, as well as it's 2003 sequel "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," was directed by McG. This 2019 reboot has Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinski as the new generation of angels. Elizabeth Banks, Djimon Hounsou and Patrick Stewart provide supporting roles in the film. Directing the film is also Elizabeth Banks, which brings up this movie's main difference. The two McG films were very much directed more at teenage boys, with the angels being used more as eye candy rather than actual characters with backstories and personalities. Elizabeth Banks seems to be directing this more towards a female audience, with her angels being empowering female characters rather than eye candy. While this is solid motivation for making the movie, the biggest obstacle here is getting people to care enough.
The third wide release of this weekend is Bill Condon's The Good Liar. This stars Ian McKellan as Roy Courtney, a career con artist who meets a widow named Betty McLeish, played by Helen Mirren. And, well, as a lot of con artist movies often go, Courtney finds himself in the awkward position of actually starting to care for this woman when he was initially going in for yet another con. This movie was thought to be a potential Oscar vehicle for Ian McKellan, who has only been nominated twice in his career for his acting, winning neither of those nominations. It would be a nice acknowledgement to one of the greatest actors in the business. However, this is Warner Bros. pushing this vehicle and they're on a losing streak at the moment with their potential awards contenders. In September, "The Goldfinch" bottomed out with just $2.7 million, while this past weekend "Motherless Brooklyn" also was dead on arrival with $3.5 million. Warner Bros. didn't even bother throwing "The Good Liar" through the festival circuits and haven't been giving it much of a push. Thus it being another Warner Bros. title that opens with less than $5 million seems like a strong possibility. On the other hand, this could also attract the senior audiences given its cast and premise.
I mentioned that there were three wide releases this weekend. However, I also mentioned that I've taken a lot of my information for this post from The Numbers instead of Box Office Mojo. The Numbers currently lists All Rise as a movie that's getting a wide release from Entertainment Studios this weekend. However, looking at Box Office Mojo as well as Box Office Pro (boxoffice.com), neither of those two sites have this movie even on the schedule, while IMDb's release date claims this as having come out in September, which certainly didn't happen. So I have no idea what's going on with this. What I do know is that this was released in the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, then being titled "Monster." It's about a 17-year-old honor student being charged with felony murder. Entertainment Studios purchased the rights to distribution, retitled it "All Rise," and plan to release it at some point. Whether it's this weekend or five years down the road, I have no idea. Entertainment Studios was also the studio that released "Arctic Dogs" to a record low opening for a movie opening in at least 2,800 theaters, so who knows what they're up to. The movie does star Jeffrey Wright, Tim Blake Nelson and John David Washington, so it would be beneficial for them to do something.
November 22nd - 24th-
Attempting to compete with the Disney machine this weekend is A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Being released the same weekend as "Frozen 2" is a daunting task and this could work as counter-programming. However, its subject matter, that being the famous Fred Rogers, was obviously someone who spent his career working with children, so it makes sense there would be at least some crossover here with family audiences, which is a battle that will be easily won by "Frozen 2," so Sony is probably hoping for some staying power here. If audiences take well to this and positive word of mouth ensues, this could have some long legs, especially if it grabs some awards attention. It's a bit of an interesting turn of events that Fred Rogers is getting this much attention as last year saw the release of the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," which did quite well for documentary standards. And now director Marielle Heller is taking his biopic here, with Tom Hanks playing the lead role. The movie did benefit from its release at the Toronto International Film Festival in September as it got solid reviews from there, currently standing at a fantastic 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with 86 reviews counted. But still, with the high level of competition, both with "Frozen 2" and other Oscar fare, it's not a guarantee that this becomes a runaway hit at the box office.
And finally for this weekend, we also see the release of 21 Bridges. When it comes to counter-programming, out of the two movies opening alongside "Frozen 2" this weekend, "21 Bridges" is the one that actually has potential to successfully counter-program. This is an action thriller starring Chadwick Boseman, J.K. Simmons, Sienna Miller and Taylor Kitsch. It's a movie about an NYPD detective, played by Boseman, who puts all of New York City on lockdown in order to stop a duo of cop killers. So those who aren't interested in seeing "Frozen 2" have the option to go see this cop thriller movie. In regards to the advertising, this movie has been heavily pushing the fact that it is from Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of "Avengers: Endgame." Smart advertising, I suppose. It's a bit deceiving, though. The Russo Brothers did NOT direct this movie, which is what the trailers make you think. They're just the producers. The actual director is Brian Kirk, who's mainly been in the TV realm, with a few episodes of "Game of Thrones" being his biggest resume piece. The biggest challenge that "21 Bridges" will face is getting people interested. At this current moment, interest level isn't super high, meaning strong reviews and good word of mouth will be key to its performance.
November 27th - December 1st-
Last, but probably not least for November, is the movie Queen & Slim. While this movie did not take the festival circuit, it's garnering a fair amount of buzz, which could lead to some awards nominations, especially for lead actors Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith. The movie stars those two as a couple going on a normal date when a police officer pulls them over for a minor traffic violation. The situation goes horribly wrong and, in a bit of a twisted turn of events, they end up killing the officer and become fugitives. Video of the situation also happens to go viral, making them a symbol of trauma, pain and grief across the country. While this specific story is a fictional one, it's the type of premise that could be seen as extremely relevant and thus garner high praise. That doesn't necessarily guarantee strong box office numbers out of the gate, though. Thus a similar comparison might be to last year's similarly-themed film "The Hate U Give," which opened to $7.6 million in its wide expansion at around this time. With the high level of competition, that range might be what "Queen & Slim" is looking at. But it's another one of those movies that is looking to play the long game. It will get its official premier on November 14 at the AFI Fest before opening wide.
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