Movie Preview: December 2022

Merry Christmas, one and all! We have entered the month of December, which means it’s time to look at what will be available for you to watch in theaters during the Christmas and holiday season.

Of note, I did not get around to making this post for last month. My deepest apologies for that. I did post an abbreviated version on my personal Facebook in the middle of the month, but not anything that gets saved in the archives of this blog. Nevertheless, November was a month wherein “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dominated, as expected. It may not have gone quite as high as I personally would’ve thought, but a $180 million domestic opening is nothing to sneeze at. It’s on track to cross the $500 million mark domestically before its run is over, which is always an impressive feat.

Outside “Wakanda Forever,” nothing really broke out. Disney experienced one of their worst flops with “Strange World.” Netflix left a lot of money on the table with “Glass Onion.” Sony’s “Devotion” failed to take flight. Meanwhile, “One Piece Film: Red” and “The Menu” wound up as decent mid-range options, while “She Said,” “The Fabelmans,” “Bones and All” and “The Inspection” all officially entered the theatrical market with hopes for awards love. Audiences haven’t yet flocked to any of those, but they’re all looking to play the long game with the awards season, so all is not lost as of yet. One big sleeper on the month was not even a movie at all, but the first two episodes of season 3 of “The Chosen” were released in theaters and wound up with an impressive $13 million so far.

So that’s your brief recap of what ended up happening in November. Looking ahead to December, after audiences visited Wakanda in November they’ll now finally get a return to Pandora, which should dominate most headlines this month. But there will be plenty of other options that will hopefully look to make at least more of an impact than some of the November releases, with plenty of final Oscar hopefuls at least getting their Oscar qualifying run in added into the mix, so with at least plenty to talk about, let’s dive in!

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of boxofficepro.com and the-numbers.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for theatrical release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change. 

December 2 – 4

Universal's "Violent Night"

Santa Claus is coming to town this Christmas season and, in this instance, he has a bit of a bone to pick with certain people as the movie Violent Night kicks off the holiday season. Yes, this is a movie with Santa as the lead character, but unlike your traditional Christmas affair, in order to save Christmas this Santa has to fight off a group of mercenaries who come attack the estate of a wealthy family. Thus we have a violent Christmas action film reminiscent of “Die Hard” or “John Wick,” but with Santa as the main action star. “Stranger Things” star David Harbour plays Santa in this movie, while David Leitch – co-director of “John Wick” and solo director of “Atomic Blonde,” “Deadpool 2,” “Hobbs & Shaw,” and “Bullet Train” – is on board as producer, bringing his action expertise to the table. The movie’s actual director is Tommy Wirkola, who directed the 2013 film “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” so you can say he’s used to outlandish premises based off of traditional fairy tales.

While “Wakanda Forever” is likely to take its fourth weekend at No. 1, “Violent Night” hopes to play like “Krampus,” another unconventional Christmas movie that opened on the first weekend of December in 2015. “Krampus” opened to $16.3 million and legged it out to $42.7 million domestically in its final run. Box Office Pro is officially projecting a $9.8 million opening weekend.

While “Violent Night” is the only new wide release of the weekend, two notable awards hopefuls will be hitting limited release. The first is the controversial return of Will Smith in Emancipation. This movie sees Will Smith play a runaway slave and is directed by Antoine Fuqua. Normally coming off of an Oscar win, this would be the perfect way to follow up for a potential back-to-back Oscar push. But as most of the world knows, Will’s win was overshadowed by what is now known as “the slap.” Some thought that “Emancipation” would be pushed into 2023 because of this, but Apple decided to go ahead with it this year, anyways. After its limited run this weekend, which may eventually see it expand to more theaters, the movie is scheduled to debut on Apple TV+ the following weekend on December 9.

The other limited release of this weekend is romantic comedy/drama Spoiler Alert. This tells the true story of Michael Ausellio, a TV journalist who was the founder and editor-in-chief of tvline.com, and his husband Kit Cowan, who suffered from a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer. The movie is based off of Ausellio’s 2017 memoir, “Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words,” which chronicled their love and relationship. Ausellio and Cowan in the movie are played by Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge, respectively, and the movie is directed by Michael Showalter, director of “The Big Sick.” After its limited release this weekend, it’s scheduled for a nationwide expansion the next week. 

December 9 – 11

A24's "The Whale"

The second weekend of December is poised to be a very light one. The calm before the storm, one might say, which should lead “Wakanda Forever” to get a fifth weekend at No. 1, barring a major over-performance of “Violent Night.” There’s only one new wide release this weekend and it’s not really a “new” release, but it’s Father Stu: Reborn. This is a PG-13 re-release of “Father Stu,” which initially opened in April of this year. After opening to just $5.4 million, it wound up having a fairly leggy run, finishing with $20.7 million domestically. It had an even leggier run in its post-theatrical run, both in PVOD and when it was added to Netflix in September. I suppose the goal of this re-release is to attract a younger, family audience over the Christmas season that did not see the movie due to its harsher R rating. It’s not expected to make a huge impact. It would be a surprise if it made more than its initial debut.

While it’ll be a quiet week on the national stage, two additional awards releases could make this a very noisy weekend on the limited front and that’s mostly due to the release of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which features the highly anticipated performance of Brendan Fraser in the lead role. The movie is based on a play that has been adapted to film by Aronofsky and has Brenda Fraser playing a 600-pound middle-aged man named Charlie, who is trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, played by Sadie Sink, also of “Strange Things” fame. The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September and also played at the Toronto Film Festival a week later. While the movie has had some mixed reaction, which Aronofsky is no stranger to – his previous movie “mother!” received a rare “F” score from CinemaScore – Fraser’s performance has been unanimously praised and he’s a strong contender to take home the best actor trophy this awards season. That potential alone has the possibility of driving audiences to the movie, whenever it actually hits wide release, given the popularity of Fraser as an actor.

While not nearly as buzzy as “The Whale,” the other major limited release is Empire of Light, from director Sam Mendes, who came awfully close to winning best picture with his previous film “1917” before “Parasite” ended up stealing the show that night. “Empire of Light” was never really expected to be as big of a hit as “1917.” It’s more or a less a smaller follow-up, but nevertheless it stars Oscar darling Olivia Colman as a cinema manager who is struggling with her mental health when she meets a new employee named Stephen, played by Michael Ward, and together they find a sense of belonging through the power of music, cinema, and community. Colman could very easily get her fourth acting nomination for this movie, although the mixed reaction from critics might limit its potential to get much more than that. 

December 16 – 18

20th Century Studios' "Avatar: The Way of Water"

And the major movie of the month finally arrives in the third weekend of December. That, of course, is the highly anticipated release of Avatar: The Way of Water. It’s kinda crazy to think that, since the release of “Titanic” in 1997 – 25 years ago, James Cameron has only directed one major, feature-length film. 2009’s “Avatar.” His second release is the sequel to that film. Sure, he’s done some smaller things between then as well as some writing and producing for other films, but for the most part he’s spent the last 25 years of his life just doing Avatar movies. And, sure, that most definitely paid off with the first movie as it revolutionized 3D technology on its way to becoming the highest grossing movie ever at both the domestic and worldwide box office – the latter of which it still holds (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took its domestic title). But can lightning strike twice for Cameron?

I think it’s safe to say at this point that “The Way of Water” is going to be a massive financial success. At this point, 13 years later, it has the nostalgia factor. And it does have plenty of fans, even though its legacy is a bit mixed at this point. But trying to determine exactly HOW successful it will be is a complete shot at the dark at this point. The first movie only opened to $77 million, which wound up being just 10 percent of its initial domestic run, which ended up being around $760 million. That type of run is definitely not happening again. Can it catch that $760 million mark? Possibly. I wouldn’t personally bet on that. But if it does, it means that it was a lot more frontloaded, with a much higher opening weekend. That part does seem guaranteed. I would easily mark down a $100 million opening weekend as the absolute floor. Anything lower would be a slight cause for concern. But can it double that and notch a $200 million opening weekend? Or will it fall somewhere in between with, say, $140-160 million?

How well it holds after that will be determined by what the reaction to the movie ends up being. If it’s widely praised, with word of mouth being that it’s a must-see cinematic event, that’s when the box office will soar through roof, even if it’s highly unlikely to make 10 times more than whatever its opening weekend is. Now even though all of this is a shot in the dark with little to compare to, perhaps other massive global phenomenons can provide some insight. “The Force Awakens” made $936 million. “The Last Jedi” made $620 million. “The Avengers” made $623 million. “Age of Ultron” made $459 million. “Black Panther” made $700 million. Last month’s opening of “Wakanda Forever” is still in theaters, but is tracking for around $500 million, give or take a bit. So somewhere in the $500-600 million range might be a realistic expectation for “The Way of Water.”

While it does have plenty going in its favor, it is worth noting that “Avatar” in 2009 was successful largely due to it being groundbreaking in 3D cinema. 13 years later, very few people care about 3D. Even if seeing it in 3D or in IMAX is what’s pushed, that is just not going to pull as much weight this time around in terms of it being the sole draw. A second thing worth noting that is the movie’s legacy hasn’t held up as much over time. Again, it has its fans. But it has a lot of people who also don’t care. I think if “The Way of Water” had opened in 2012, just three years after “Avatar,” maybe those two concerns would’ve been nonexistent, but 13 years later is simply a different story. Finally, the movie has a runtime of 3 hours 10 minutes. Sure, movies can be that long and still do quite well. But you mathematically just can’t have quite as many showtimes per day. Even if theaters make room by cancelling other screenings, it limits the likelihood of repeat viewings with that level of a time commitment 

So yes, this movie is going to do very well. How well is hard to pin down. In terms of the franchise’s legacy as a whole, that might be given more of a test with the third movie, which is on the schedule for December 2024. Whether or not the world is tired of Avatar at that point will determine if Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 even happen. But yes, those two movies are on the schedule as well, for December 2026 and December 2028, respectfully. I do think a movie of this magnitude warranted a deeper dive than normal, but yes, there are other movies to talk about. Just not this weekend. So let’s move onto the week of Christmas itself.

December 21 – 25

DreamWorks' "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish"

Christmas Day is on Sunday this year. Leading up to that, the releases are staggered throughout the week from Wednesday through Sunday. The movie getting the head start on the bunch by opening on Wednesday the 21st is Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It’s been a hot minute since DreamWorks has returned to the Shrek universe in one form or another. 11 years, to be exact, when the original “Puss in Boots” was released. And I’m not 100 percent sure a return to the franchise has been high on people’s Christmas wish lists, but perhaps sometimes the best gifts are the ones you weren’t expecting? Early screenings for “The Last Wish” have happened already and the reaction has been surprisingly high. As of this typing, it has a 93 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 98 percent audience score. If reaction remains that high, this is a contender for the surprise hit of the season if word of mouth continues to build. In this adventure, Puss has lost eight of his nine lives and is on a quest to get those restored to him. Antonio Banderas returns to voice the character and he’ll have Salma Hayek, Florence Pugh, and John Mulaney among those joining him. And in a market where the Disney’s “Strange World” completely flopped, this might be the main choice for family audiences over the holiday season and that’s a factor that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Two days after “Puss in Boots” opens, Friday the 23rd will see two additional wide releases and it’s Whitney Houston on center stage for the most notable of the two with the musical biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. This musical biopic genre is getting a lot of attention as of late. It seems like all the big musical stars of the past are getting their time back in the spotlight, so it makes sense to give Whitney Houston a go. Objectively speaking, a lot of these biopics have been doing quite well with many fans of the respective artists responding quite positively. “Bohemian Rhapsody” back in 2018 was a very notable example that helped this genre catch fire as it wound up with over $200 million at the domestic box office and many Oscar nominations. Just this year, “Elvis” wound up with over $150 million as a sleeper summer hit. So the way is paved for “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” to have a successful holiday run, with Naomi Ackie playing Whitney Houston to be a breakout star. It’s worth noting, though, that this genre hasn’t had a 100 percent hit rate. Last year’s “Respect,” a biopic about Jennifer Hudson, was a complete blip on the radar, making just $32 million worldwide. Or there’s been plenty in between, like “Rocketman” in 2019 opening to $25 million and making $96 million domestically. So there’s no guarantee here, but there’s still hit potential.

The final wide release of the Christmas week, also opening on Friday the 23rd, is Oscar-winner Damien Chazelle’s next film, Babylon. After finding massive success with “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” at least in terms of awards and reaction, and moderate success with “First Man,” Chazelle’s fourth feature is honestly going to be a bit of a tough sell. It’s a movie about movies, so that’s an instant plus for awards season as it is yet another film that tackles the transition from silent film to talkies, but this movie tackles the wild side of that era, reportedly riding the line between R and NC-17 in terms of content, perhaps with “The Wolf of Wall Street” being a comparison. Add to that, it’s another movie that’s over three hours long, clocking in at 3 hours 8 minutes. Early reaction has been quite divisive, naturally. Take what you saw in the trailers and have that happening for three hours and not everyone is going to be on board for it. Some might praise Chazelle for being extremely ambitious while others will say he went way overboard. How will that translate to general audiences? It probably won’t, but I can see it playing strongly for a niche group of people who are up for the challenge.

That’s it for the wide releases, but the end of the year always has a few limited releases throwing their name in the hate for awards contention, while actually expanding wide in January. Some of these I might touch on more come January with their wide expansions. But they’re worth giving brief mentions here. The biggest name is the theatrical release of Women Talking, which has been a buzzy title all of awards season following its release in the festivals. It’s from director Sarah Polley and tackles a heavy subject matter about an isolated Mennonite colony where it’s revealed that men from their community have been drugging and raping the community’s women at night for years, many of whom have done nothing. Some critics have confessed that the movie lives up to its title, a very dialogue-heavy with… women talking. Eight women debating on what they should do, with Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, and Jessie Buckley leading the way. That might mean this is more of a niche film that might not hit with audiences when it does hit wide release, but it’s nevertheless still expected to be a major awards contender.

A second notable limited release is the Bill Nighy led movie Living. This is a movie that was released way back in Sundance of this year, so January. It doesn’t necessarily have as much momentum as some of the other awards contenders that I’ve brought up, but nevertheless the movie is a British drama adapted from the 1952 Japanese film “Ikiru,” which in turn was inspired by the 1886 novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” by Leo Tolstoy. The story follows a man in 1950s London who takes time off work to have some introspective looks on life following a grim diagnosis. Even if the movie itself doesn’t have a ton of awards momentum and might not be a huge hit with audiences, one element of the film that does seem to have universal praise is the Bill Nighy performance, which does seem like is in position to give Bill Nighy an Oscar nomination. And if that happens, certain people are bound to actually check out the movie itself so they can judge said performance themselves.

And finally, opening on Christmas Day in select theaters is A Man Called Otto. This isn’t getting a ton of awards talk at the moment and could simply be a mainstream audience hit when it expands in January. Perhaps we’ll revisit it in January to dive in more. But anytime Tom Hanks is involved in a project, it’s at least worth a look. It’s also a movie that’s 100 percent guilty of the idea that us dumb Americans are sometimes allergic to subtitles and will never watch foreign films. In other words, oftentimes very popular foreign films get American, English-language adaptations and the hit rate with those is quite low in terms of audience reaction. “A Man Called Otto” is an adaptation of the 2015 Swedish film “A Man Called Ove,” which was nominated that year for the best foreign language film Oscar after receiving strong praise. That movie itself is based off of a 2012 novel of the same name, so this counts as the second adaptation of that. The general premise follows a grumpy old man who is kinda done with life who has to deal with some boisterous new neighbors that might end up changing his outlook. In which case, if an American adaptation of this has to happen, Tom Hanks is a solid choice for a popular movie about a grumpy old man. January 13 is the date that is currently set for its wide expansion, so we’ll bring this up again next month. And at that point we’ll have the reaction to the movie to help us with a better prognosis on how it might hit.

Movie Preview: October 2022

And we’re back. Here with the October movie preview not too long after the late September preview. And this one on time, given that I covered the weekend of September 30 – October 2, in which “Smile” dominated with a $22.6 million opening weekend, in the September preview. That opened made for a similarly identical weekend as the previous two weekends where “The Woman King” and “Don’t Worry Darling” opened to $19.1 million and $19.4 million respectively.

What that all added up to, though, was a historically low September. But that’s what happens when Hollywood forgets to schedule much. While those three movies did fine, there was no “IT” or “Shang-Chi” type of movie opening to boost the month’s numbers and thus we were left with the lowest accumulative September box office since 1996, not counting September 2020 when movies were just barely starting to come back. But if you’re a movie fan and you feel you are suffering from a lack of options, no need to worry. The holiday season is around the corner and that should leave the year off with a bang. October specifically is a bit light on quantity, but there are some major hits on schedule that should help prime the box office for said holiday season.

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for a wide theatrical release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

October 7 – 9

Sony Pictures' "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile"

The first weekend of October, the beginning of the final quarter of the year, begins with what might be a bit of a slow start. In fact, Box Office Pro suggests in their weekend preview that it’s a possibility that “Smile” repeats at No. 1.

As far as the two new wide releases, the one likely to open ahead is Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. This is based off of the 1965 children’s book of the same name, written by Bernard Waber, which was actually a sequel to the 1962 book, “The House on East 88th Street.” The general idea of the book series is that a family moves into a home where a performing crocodile is living in the bathtub and they eventually learn to love him and accept him as family. In 1987, it was adapted into an animated musical TV special for HBO and now we’re coming full circle, combining all of that in a live-action feature-length musical film starring Shawn Mendes as Lyle, with original music by Pasek and Paul, who did the music for “La La Land,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” Whether or not anyone asked for this is a different conversation, but the family audience it is intended for is the audience that is less critical, so any sort of reviews and reaction will probably be irrelevant. Last year the live-action “Clifford the Big Red Dog” opened to $16.6 million. Somewhere along those lines in the mid-teen millions is where “Lyle” will probably open. Depending on how good “Smile” holds, that could be good enough for No. 1.

The second movie opening this weekend is David O. Russell’s Amsterdam. David O. Russell is a filmmaker who has been a very strong awards darling over the years, achieving plenty of success with “The Fighter,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.” So his first film since “Joy” in 2015 has come with lots of anticipation. And as often is the case with David O. Russell films, it’s an acting party, with Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, and even Taylor Swift, amongst others, all joining said party. Unfortunately for this movie, though, is that critical reaction is in the dumpster, with a 30 percent Rotten Tomatoes score through nearly 100 reviews. In this case, that’s the audience that needs to be pleased if it’s going to achieve its ultimate goal of being a major awards contender. That reaction says that awards are out of the question, which puts this in a bit of an awkward spot. What is the movie? Yeah, that’s the question here. Advertising has it framed as a 1930s murder mystery, but much of the reaction so far has it pegged as a big, convoluted mess in terms of plot, tone, and pretty much overall movie identity. Unless general audience reaction is stronger than critical reaction, this could be forgotten in record time.

That’s it for the wide releases, but since we’re beginning awards season, with the major film festivals having happened this past month, a couple of notable releases on the limited release front. First is TÁR, which is directed by Todd Field and sees Cate Blanchett play a fictional character named Lydia Tár, who in the context of this movie’s universe is a world famous music composer and conductor of a German orchestra. Word is that Blanchett, who is in pretty much every scene of this film, is well on her way to a Oscar nomination for best actress and may be one of the early strong contenders to win.

The other limited release is Triangle of Sadness. While this might be a bit too heavy and/or unique for major Oscar contention – it’s about cruise ship full of super rich people that sinks and leaves the survivors trapped on an island – this is the winner of the Palme d’Or, the big prize coming out of the Cannes Film Festival. While not a great Oscar predictor by any means, the 2019 winner was “Parasite” and that did end up winning best picture. So this one is at least worth mentioning.

And finally, Fathom Events is having their Fright Fest event throughout October. As a part of that pertaining to this weekend, they will be playing Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film Poltergeist from October 6 – 12. On October 9th and 10th, they will be releasing Scream 2.  Later in the month with this event, they will be releasing Bram Stoker’s Dracula on October 23rd and 27th. And on October 29th they will have a one-day double feature of Creature from the Black Lagoon from 1954 and Phantom of the Opera from 1943.

October 14 – 16

Universal's "Halloween Ends"

The second weekend of October is where things start firing up at the box office. And that’s because this weekend sees the final entry in the Halloween franchise, Halloween Ends. Or that’s what they claim, anyways. Never believe Hollywood when they say something is the final chapter, especially with this franchise and its very complicated timeline that has probably seen the franchise “end” several times already. And Michael Myers gets “killed” in just about every movie. But nevertheless, that’s what they’re going with this particular premise, given the title and the marketing. The whole film is centered around the idea of a final battle between Michael and Laurie Strode. Even if they find a way to continue the franchise yet again, the idea of a final film in a popular franchise can often be a very strong selling point. It often puts the movie onto a more event-level status that boosts the box office.

In terms of that box office, the 2018 reboot of this planned trilogy performed very well, opening to $76.2 million and finishing with $159.4 million domestically. The middle chapter, “Halloween Kills,” fell off quite a bit in compared to that, but still opened to $49.4 million and finished with $92 million. So yeah, both films were extremely front-loaded, which is not surprising for a major horror franchise, but nevertheless those openings are still among the best ever for the horror genre. While middling reaction to “Kills” might lead to some fall-off with this third film, that idea of it being a final film should at least make this come close to that $49.4 million mark. “Halloween Ends” is also being released day-and-date on Peacock for subscribers, which doesn’t help its box office outlook, but “Kills” actually did the same thing, so the comparison still very much stands.

“Halloween Ends” is the only new wide release of the weekend, but again on the limited front with awards season heating up, this weekend will see the release of Till in select locations before its scheduled wide expansion on October 28. The subject matter here immediately puts it into the spotlight as this is a movie about Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black kid who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in the summer of 1955, and whose killers were acquitted in trial. This particular movie centers around Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, and her relentless pursuit justice for her son.

October 21 – 23

Warner Bros.' "Black Adam"

The biggest movie event of the month for October falls in this third weekend with DC’s release of Black Adam. Played by Dwayne Johnson in this film introduction of the character, Black Adam is an anti-hero in the DC universe and has often been one of the main archenemies of Shazam. In fact, there was a time in which it was planned on introducing him as a character in 2019’s “Shazam!,” before switching course and deciding to introduce him in his own solo film. While DC has certainly been in a constant, unstable whirlwind for much of the last decade or more, a “Shazam!” movie has been in talks since the 2000s and Dwayne Johnson has been a part of those talks for almost the whole time in one way or another. He was almost cast as Shazam before officially being cast as Black Adam in 2014. It was in 2017 when they decided to split the two projects and give Black Adam his own solo film. And while an official crossover hasn’t been announced between the characters of Black Adam and Shazam, that seems more of a matter of time than anything, especially since “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is next up for DC after “Black Adam,” currently scheduled for March 17, 2023.

Financially, Black Adam as a character isn’t as well-known as some of the others in the DC library. And as a whole, the reputation of DC as of late is still shaky at best. Audiences haven’t been nearly as willing to rush out to see the latest DC movie like they have been for most things Marvel. But still, there does seem to be plenty of positive anticipation for this, especially considering the star power of Dwayne Johnson. And although “Shazam!” in 2019 didn’t quite break the bank in compared to other comic book films, it did have a healthy $53.5 million opening at the time and has been mostly well-received, not only initially but also in the few years since as more people have discovered. That should lead “Black Adam” to an opening of at least $50 million, if not approaching a $70-80 million opening of various Marvel solo outings.

Opening alongside “Black Adam” as this weekend’s other wide release is Ticket to Paradise. This is a rom-com that stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a divorced couple that travel to Bali to attempt to sabotage their daughter’s wedding after learning she’s about to marry a man named Gede that she just met. Their motivation is to stop their daughter from making the same mistake they believe they made. As somewhat of a throwback to a cheesy 2000s rom-com, this very much could play as some good counterprogramming for those that either aren’t interested in superhero affair or horror films. And it certainly has the star power to work out and 32 million views on its YouTube trailer, which says that it has people’s attention. The counter against it is that the rom-com in 2022, or even in the last several years, hasn’t been as strong as it once was in regards to box office draw. “Marry Me” from earlier in this year had similarly everything going for it as well, but could only muster a $7.9 million opening. And that was around Valentine’s Day. So this is not a guaranteed hit, but rather stands as something with potential. And perhaps it might play better as a streaming option in the near future.

Again on the limited front, another major candidate for awards hitting this weekend will be The Banshees of Inisherin. This is a movie from Martin McDonagh, whose previous movie was “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” a double Oscar winner with seven total nominees. “Banshees” stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends on a remote Irish island who find themselves in an awkward situation when one of them decides they don’t want to be friends anymore. After a very successful festival run, “Banshees” currently has a perfect 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with 60 reviews counted to go along with a 90 score on Metacritic. What that translates to when it hits general audiences might present a different story, but its rewards prospects initially seem very high, especially since this is also one of Searchlight’s big awards contenders. For context, Searchlight has won best picture with one of their releases five times since 2009, so they have a good track record.

The other notable limited release is Aftersun, another popular festival hit that debuted in Cannes and has hit just about everything else along the way afterwards. This might have a slightly more difficult uphill battle than “Banshees,” which comes from a director with high Oscar prestige, whereas “Aftersun” is directed by Charlotte Wells in her feature-length directorial debut, but nevertheless it’s about a girl reflecting on the relationship she had with her father, which seems to come with plenty of positives and negatives. The release is handled by A24, which has had a very strong year. If not an awards contender, it might at least be in conversations of smaller movies worth seeing.

October 28 – 30

Lionsgate's "Prey for the Devil"

Halloween will be on a Monday this year, which means there’s a whole weekend of movie going possible leading up to the actual holiday. The could work to the advantage of some horror movies in the market, especially this final one of the month, Prey for the Devil. And yes, that is the correct spelling of the word “prey.” A bit of play on words there. But they’re hunting the devil. Preying. Not kneeling down and praying. By the looks of this trailer, it looks like it’s almost cut and paste from 1973’s “The Exorcist,” which is something that has been done a thousand times before, so that’s nothing shocking. In this exorcism movie spin, there’s a nun who is feeling the calling to become the first female exorcist, possibly to chase a demon that has been haunting her or has some connection to her past. Now despite the timely release date, there’s no guarantee that this movie hits. If reaction is poor, horror fans might just catch up on “Smile” or “Halloween Ends” instead. So a lot will be riding on what the reviews are like here.

Only one new wide release this week, which means it’s almost a sure thing that “Black Adam” will repeat as the box office champ, but another awards hopeful opening in limited release is Armageddon Time. This is the latest from director James Gray, who is a filmmaker that hasn’t quite yet broken out on the awards front, but has built up a strong enough reputation with movies like “Two Lovers,” “The Immigrant,” “The Lost City of Z,” and most recently “Ad Astra,” that a lot of awards pundits feel like his time is coming soon. Perhaps with this one? Word out of the festivals is a bit more lukewarm than maybe the team here would hope, but this still has a strong cast featuring Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Anthony Hopkins. The movie is a flashback to Gray’s childhood, set in New York in the 1980s and follows a young 11-year-old kid and his friend figuring out life, being essentially parallel to what “Belfast” was last year for director Kenneth Branagh. The title here is in reference to a Ronald Reagan speech wherein the former president said that this is the generation that might see Armageddon.

Movie Preview: September 2022

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get next. Like when things become super busy and you aren’t able to make time for your monthly movie preview and get it out before your personally set deadlines. But that’s OK. Life moves on. What that means is that this is another monthly preview that is part recap and part preview.

Luckily for me, there’s not a whole to recap in the first two weeks of September. While this summer brought quite the list of huge successes that made this feel like a normal, pre-COVID summer movie season, studios forgot to schedule things at the tail end of the summer. Of the past three weeks, two of those weeks saw the No. 1 movie at less than $10 million, while the other week was barely above $10 million. While this is fairly typical of late August and early September, “Shang-Chi” proved last year that movies CAN succeed at this time of year, so there’s no longer an excuse for studios to simply not try. But nevertheless, it is what it is. And that means we’re still in good shape on the preview front because the most interesting titles were in the end of September anyways, so let’s get going.

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for a wide theatrical release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

September 2 – 4

Focus Features' "Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul."

The story of Labor Day at the box office was one of familiar titles. Sony re-released “Spider-Man: No Way Home” into theaters with an extended edition of the movie subtitled “The More Fun Stuff Version.” This added 11 additional minutes of content. On top of that, Universal also re-released “Jaws” into IMAX theaters. This after “E.T.” got an IMAX re-release back in August and “Rogue One” made a return as Disney prepares for their new show “Andor,” which starts September 21. So library titles were the story of the week.

What actually won the weekend was “Top Gun: Maverick” in its 15th week of release. Sure, it only required $6 million to win the weekend, but it’s still an impressive feat considering the movie opened on Memorial Day weekend and managed to outlast everything that came after it to return to No. 1 on Labor Day weekend. Interestingly enough, the original “Top Gun” pulled off a nearly identical feat in its release in 1986 as it also opened in May then held well enough to go back to No. 1 in September. “Maverick” has also now passed the $700 million mark domestically, entering the top five of the highest grossing movies ever at the domestic box office.

As far as new releases this weekend, there was not much to write home about. The top new release was Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., which opened way down in 13th place with $1.4 million from 1,882 theaters. That’s a per theater average of $756 over the weekend, which is not particularly good. Lots of empty or mostly empty screens. For those who did see it, a bit of confusion seems to be the story. No, this is not an evangelical Christian movie. It’s actually a satire of organized religion that came out of Sundance. Critics were fairly nice with it, awarding it a 72 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were not kind, though, as they gave it a 26 percent to go along with a 5.3 on IMDb. One can imagine that a Christian satire might be naturally polarizing. It’s also possible that people just did not get what they expected from this or may have been confused as to what it was in the first place.

Amusingly, the other semi-wide release that opened two spots below “Honk for Jesus” was the exact opposite in terms of reaction. Gigi & Nate suffered a miserable 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but its audience score was sky high at 95 percent. Granted, the sample size here is not exactly very, but the critics who did write a review were generally not impressed, while the small number of audience who did see it were rather pleased. It opened with less than a million, $990,361 to be exact, from 1,184 theaters. It’s about a man named Nate who is left as a quadriplegic after a near-fatal illness and is helped through it all thanks to a service animal named Gigi, who is a capuchin monkey.

If you missed either of these two releases and are curious, you might have to wait for PVOD or streaming because, given the low totals, they’ll probably be gone from theaters before September concludes

September 9 – 11

20th Century Studios' "Barbarian"

The second weekend of September, while not much better financially compared to the first weekend, did see the winner hit $10 million as opposed to the single-digit million winner of the previous two weeks as Barbarian opened at the top with $10.5 million. This is a movie that has the chance to be a lot like last year’s “Malignant,” which seemingly has gained quite the online following despite opened to just $5.4 million on this same exact weekend. I say this because buzz on “Barbarian” has also been pretty high with its Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 93 percent to go along with decently high audience scores. “Barbarian” is a horror movie about a woman who rents a house via Airbnb, only to get there and realize there’s another guy there who is already renting it. They both end up staying and, of course in true horror fashion, there’s a bit of a house of horrors thing going on with this place, with plenty of surprises hiding around each corner of the movie.

Coming in right behind “Barbarian” in second place at the box office with $4.5 million was a movie out of India titled Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva. Indian cinema has actually been decently popular recently, so a movie like this coming seemingly out of nowhere to do very well is fairly common. That $4.5 million might seem a bit low, but with only 810 theaters, that count becomes more impressive. Although the report is that this is one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, so it’ll have to have much more help in other countries around the world, especially its home country of India. This movie is actually the first of a planned trilogy that has been in development since 2014. It’s a fantasy action-adventure film about a DJ named Shiva who learns he has a connection with the element of fire and holds the power of Brahmastra, a supernatural weapon that is able to destroy the universe.

Beyond the top two, the actual Christian movie Lifemark opened at No. 7 with $2.2 million from 1,531 theaters. “Lifemark” saw the Kendrick Brothers team up with Kirk Cameron to make a movie about a boy who was almost aborted, but whose mother chose adoption instead. This is a bit on the nose with recent events, but is also par for the course when you consider said filmmakers involved. And the other movie that hit wide release was Medieval down in 14th place from 1,311 theaters. Speaking of expensive international films, this is reportedly the most expensive Czech film ever made and is a historical drama about the life of Jan Zizka, a Czech military general who lived from 1360 to 1424 and never lost a single battle, despite being completely blind in his last stages of life.

September 16 – 18

Sony Pictures' "The Woman King"

If you’re reading this post on or around the weekend that I’m posting this, which is this weekend right here, this is where the fun begins as The Woman King looks to give a spark to the depleted September box office. This is a movie about the Agojie, an all-female warrior unit who protected the West African kingdom of Dahmey from the 1600s up until the very early 1900s. “The Woman King” stars Viola Davis in the lead role and is set specifically in the 1820s as she’s a general who’s training the next generation of warriors. This is a movie that seems like it’s hitting on multiple quadrants. To general audiences, it seems like a very relevant and fun action flick that can be very appealing to a wide audience. But also, on the festival and awards circuit, this is a movie that’s had a lot of awards buzz for months now as a potential major Oscar contender. Based on its 94 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, combined with its 99 percent audience score and a rare A+ CinemaScore, this looks like it’s hitting all the right notes. And even if that doesn’t translate into a monumental opening (it’s tracking for around $15-20 million) that should lead to a long and healthy run at the box office and beyond.

The other notable release on the weekend is the return of Kevin Smith with Clerks III. Now the fan base for Kevin Smith is a bit of a niche one, but for that audience, “Clerks III” is a big deal as “Clerks” is a 1994 film that gave Kevin Smith his start. He wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the movie. And it was his first time doing any of that on a feature length level. Since “Clerks,” he’s gone onto make movies such as “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Mallrats” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” while recently doing the likes of “Tusk” and “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.” But returning for a third Clerks movie after “Clerks II” in 2006 is a big deal. How it impacts the box office is almost irrelevant. Kevin Smith movies often have unique release patterns. “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” had a travelling tour sort of thing and “Clerks III” started a similar thing back on September 4 in Red Bank, New Jersey. And it’s also co-released by Lionsgate and Fathom Events. And any sort of Fathom Events thing can be a bit unpredictable. But nevertheless, Kevin Smith fans will find a way to see this at some point.

Opening on a slightly smaller scale, although looking at a top 5 debut given the current competition, is the horror movie Pearl. The unique thing about this movie is that it’s a prequel… to a movie that came out earlier this year, that being “X.”  While “X” only opened to $4.3 million and made just $11.8 million total, the A24 horror film had very strong reaction amongst the film community and many on Film Twitter especially have listed it among their top movies of the year. So it seems like it’s the type of horror movie that will develop a solid cult following as a fun throwback to classic slasher horror. “X” is set in 1979 rural Texas as a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film that obviously goes quite wrong. All that context is important because “Pearl” is a prequel to “X” about how the movie’s killer, named Pearl, played by Mia Goth, becomes the vicious killer that’s seen in “X.” Current tracking has the movie earning around a similar total to the $4.3 million that “X” opened to in March.

Opening just below “Pearl” in around the same number of theaters (about 2,500) is Disney releasing See How They Run via their Searchlight banner. Searchlight has had a very strong history with smaller to moderate releases as they’ve gotten into the best picture race pretty much every year and have won the award with “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman,” “The Shape of Water,” and “Nomadland.” This is not that awards movie. Searchlight’s big awards contenders this year will probably be either “The Banshees of Inisherin" or “Empire of Light,” but nevertheless, the studio’s history is still notable to point out. “See How They Run” is a throwback whodunit murder mystery comedy set in the 1950s with a sleazy Hollywood film director setting out to adapt a popular stage play when things come to a halt when the director is murdered. The movie stars Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, and David Oyelowo in various roles and has received mostly positive reviews as it currently sits in the low 70s range with both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Nope, we’re not quite done yet. The fifth and final wide release of the weekend is a Christian-themed baseball movie called Running the Bases. This comes from UP2U Films, whose YouTube channel and movie credits currently include… this movie. So they appear to be a new film company who don’t even have a Wikipedia page yet. But nevertheless they’ve built enough hype to get “Running the Bases” released into just over 1,000 theaters and hope to be fighting for a spot in the top 10, although they might fall just short of that. But the movie is about a small-town baseball coach who gets hired to coach at a larger 6A High School, but gets into a bit of hot water as the school’s superintendent doesn’t exactly like the way he’s mixing coaching baseball with religion, so he feels like he’s stuck between trying to choose what he’s being asked to do with what he feels God wants him to do. While there’s a lot of choices this weekend, “Running the Bases” does have the advantage of a PG rating, meaning there’s potential appeal to both family audiences and religious audiences.

September 23 – 25

Warner Bros.' "Don't Worry, Darling"

There’s only one new release in the fourth weekend of September, but it’s one that’s garnered a lot of attention as of late and that is Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry, Darling. Olivia Wilde has been on the acting scene since the mid-2000s, but has just recently joined the directing party and had quite the splash in 2019 with “Booksmart,” her feature-length directorial debut. And now she’s following that up with this mystery thriller in “Don’t Worry, Darling” that is about a 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian, experimental community who begins to worry that her husband’s company could be hiding disturbing secrets. The big red flag here is that early critical reviews are coming in very sour at the moment. The positive note is that a man named Harry Styles is in the lead role and he’s had the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks now, so negative critical reviews might not matter. At least not for opening weekend. They might hurt the movie’s staying power if audience reaction is similar. And obviously any awards talk is probably gone. Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Olivia Wilde herself also co-star and that star power alone is what’s going to lead this movie to success.

No other new wide releases this weekend, but it is worthy of pointing out that James Cameron is bringing back “Avatar” back to theaters in preparation for December’s release of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” No introduction needed on this. “Avatar” was released in 2009 and became the highest grossing movie ever both on the domestic and worldwide charts. It is currently fourth place now on the domestic chart, as it has been passed by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” on the domestic charts, putting it in fourth place. And it also briefly got passed by “Endgame” on the worldwide charts before a Chinese re-release in 2021 brought it back to No. 1. This current re-release probably won’t make a huge dent in the box office, but for the sake of comparison, “No Way Home” opened to $5.3 million on Labor Day with its re-release, so there’s your current bar that’s been set. While “Avatar” shouldn’t be underestimated, it would take $60 million for it to pass “No Way Home” on the domestic chart to re-take No. 3 and another $100 million for it to pass “Endgame” for No. 2. And it’s highly unlikely for it to get close to those numbers.

September 30 – October 2

Paramount Pictures' "Smile"

The final weekend of September poaches into October for both Saturday and Sunday, but if you’ve followed this long enough, you’ll know that Friday is what I count for which month this goes in, so that’s why this weekend is here.

But anyways, October means Halloween and that means horror films looking to cash in on the holiday. Before we get to the big one with “Halloween Ends” in mid-October, Smile will be looking to draw in that horror crowd. Paramount has been pushing this really hard for quite some time now. And they’ve had a good year so far, so it’s hard to bet against them right now. “Smile,” if you haven’t seen the trailers everywhere yet, is a movie where a woman starts seeing people smile in bizarrely weird ways. She is a doctor or a psychologist of some sort and sees this first with a patient of hers, who quickly dies. According to the trailers, this smiling is a bad omen wherein most people who’ve seen it also die within a week, giving it an “It Follows” or a “Truth or Dare” sort of feel, the latter of which might be a fairly apt comparison. “Truth or Dare” was a critically panned movie at 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but yet still opened to $18.7 million in April 2018. If reviews for “Smile” end up being positive, or at least some degree of lukewarm, then the narrative could be even better. It’ll get its first test prior to its wide release as it opens at Fantastic Fest on September 22.

For those not into horror or otherwise not interested in checking out “Smile,” the other option in terms of a new release is the romantic comedy Bros. This is directed by Nicholas Stoller, whose filmography varies from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” to “Neighbors” and “Storks.” So quite the variety there. The advertising is zeroing in on that “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” rom-com connection, which is smart. The obvious difference there is that this is a romantic comedy centering around two gay men, one being a more “traditional” gay man who is a museum curator who falls in love with a macho, “manly” gay man. So you have two guys on the opposite side of the gay spectrum in a trailer and movie that seems to be trying to be as gay as humanly possible. And I mean that in an objectively descriptive way, not in any sort of derogatory sense. Now LGBTQ romance movies are far from a new thing in Hollywood, but this movie still hopes to connect with that audience in a way to bring them out for this. And if “Smile” tanks and burns, there is definitely an avenue in which this over-performs and takes the weekend.

There is also an avenue in which both underperform and “Don’t Worry, Darling” ends up strong enough to take a second weekend at No. 1. But of course, all of that will come down to audience reaction to these movies that aren’t guaranteed for success. That before “Halloween Ends” and “Black Adam” destroy everything in October. But more on that in next month’s preview, which will hopefully come much earlier in the month.

Movie Preview: August 2022

There’s only one month left of the 2022 summer season. And so far it’s been a refreshingly healthy summer season, seeing a total of five different movies cross the $300 million mark at the domestic box office, with “Top Gun: Maverick” being the clear winner at $650 million and counting, good enough for one of the top 10 domestic performances of all time. A pair of Marvel behemoths, a Minions movie, and the theoretical conclusion of the Jurassic franchise filling out the rest of those five, with “Doctor Strange” being the lone of the final four to cross the $400 million mark at this point.

Not everything was a massive success. “Lightyear” and “DC League of Super Pets” failed to take flight, but “Elvis,” “The Black Phone” and “Nope” were among a decent crop of moderate successes to help stabilize things. Do we have at least one more success story waiting in the wings for August? Well, it’s a possibility. But the forecast seems to lean on the side of it being a quieter, cool down month, which is often par for the course when it comes to August. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at which movies will be vying for your time before fall season hits.

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The movies listed are the ones currently scheduled for a wide theatrical release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

August 5 – 7

Sony Pictures' "Bullet Train"

The biggest attempt at a late summer hit comes right in the first weekend with David Leitch’s Bullet Train. This is a movie that is officially based on the 2010 Japanese novel “MariaBeetle,” translated in English to “Bullet Train,” although it’s possible most seeing this won’t be aware they’re watching an adaptation. The movie will probably play out like an original action film starring Brad Pitt as an assassin fighting enemies while riding a Japanese bullet train. The movie has been fairly buzzy in the weeks and months since the trailer has been released and definitely has the potential of being a crowd-pleasing late summer action flick. Director David Leitch was one half of the directing duo of the original John Wick, who has gone on to direct the likes of “Atomic Blonde,” “Hobbs & Shaw,” and “Deadpool 2,” while his partner in crime, Chad Stahelski, has continued to direct the remaining John Wick movies.

Financially this is tracking to open around $30 million, which is about where I would’ve expected. That’s actually right about in line with last August’s “Free Guy,” which opened to $28.4 million, on its way to a very leggy $121.6 million. An easy comparison that I would’ve pointed to is Leitch’s last non-franchise film, “Atomic Blonde,” which opened to $18.3 million, finishing with $51.6 million domestically in summer 2017. Later that same summer, “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” opened to a similar $21.4 million, but was a bit more leggier, finishing with $75.5 million. If “Bullet Train” does hit the expected $30 million this week and has a similar multiplier as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” it has a chance to sneak past the $100 million mark, especially with almost no competition from the rest of the month. A mixed reaction from critics is a bit concerning (54% on Rotten Tomatoes), but the audiences seem to be a lot more forgiving (81 percent), which was also the exact case with “The Hitman’s Bodyguard.”

There is a movie competing in wide release with “Bullet Train” this weekend, although the early weekend numbers suggest it isn’t a very competitive competition. That movie is Easter Sunday. The movie is a comedy starring comedian Jo Koy and is described as a movie that’s based around a family gathering to celebrate Easter Sunday, based on Jo Koy’s life experiences and stand-up comedy. Jo Koy is a Filipino American, so in theory that might be able to attract a bit more of an international audience, especially with the movie’s Filipino supporting cast, but early tracking on the weekend suggest awareness just isn’t that high and it might struggle to land a spot in the top 10 with an opening of $5 million or less.  

August 12 – 14

Gravitas Ventures' "Mack & Rita"

The second weekend of August is about where things start to slow down. Although in terms of quantity, there’s a trio of movies throwing themselves in the market, hoping for a spot in the top 10. Whether or not any of them have breakout potential is a different story, but they’ll at least be options. The first of these is Mack & Rita, which is a body swap drama of sorts. Except instead of swapping bodies with someone else, a 30-year-old writer named Mack goes on a trip to Palm Springs and magically wakes up as her 70-year-old self. In the niche film community, this movie has a bit of a stacked cast. Outside four time Oscar nominee (and winner for “Annie Hall”) Diane Keaton, the movie also stars Taylour Paige from “Zola” and Simon Rex from “Red Rocket,” two highly praised movies from last year. Elizabeth Lail from Netflix’s “You” also plays as the younger version of Mack. So the movie has enough going for it on paper. The battle will be getting noticed by general audiences. Reviews will also be critical here.

Movie No. 2 of the weekend will go from the comedy side to the thriller side with Lionsgate’s Fall. Perhaps a bit of a basic and generic title, it’s fairly descriptive, too, as it’s about two friends who climb up the top of a 2,000 foot radio tower, but get stuck up there when the ladder down falls and leaves them stranded. The rather plot-detailed trailer depicts one of the friends having gone through heavy trauma when her partner fell to his death when they were on a climb. This climb up the radio tower has her friend finally convincing her to go climbing again. And of course this is what the result is. The challenge here is that both the director and the cast are fairly lesser known, comparatively, so it’s the premise itself that will be the draw. And again, awareness be the key there. The trailer does reference it being from the studio that did “47 Meters Down.” While connected by studio alone, that movie opened to $11 million in August 2017 and was leggy enough to warrant a sequel, which opened to $8 million. Matching either of those numbers might satisfy Lionsgate here, but that might not be a guarantee.

On the expansion from, perhaps the buzziest film of this weekend is the A24 horror Bodies Bodies Bodies. This is currently experiencing a limited run in theaters, opening on August 5. It also played at the South by Southwest Film Festival back in March, so it has buzz from there. A24 has it as a planned expansion on this weekend, although exactly how wide is a question. It might be more of a moderate wide release in 1,000 or so theaters. Or it could be like “Men,” A24’s latest horror from this May, which opened in 2,212 theaters, making $3.2 million. Either way, A24 is the brand here and they are a studio that has a history of releasing more unconventional indie horror films that hit well with critics and movie buffs, but confuse general horror audiences. With a 91 percent critics score, “Bodies Bodies Bodies” seems well poised to follow in that trend. The movie is actually more of a horror comedy, meant as a satire or a social commentary, surrounding a group of people in their 20s at a party at a remote family mansion that goes horribly wrong. Critics describe it as a smart and uncommonly well-written whodunit. What audiences say is to be determined, but at the very least this should attract those who are fans of the more unconventional, A24-style horror film.

And finally, the last movie hitting theaters is one of the most well-known and successful movies of all-time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Fun fact, “E.T.” has accumulated a domestic total of $435.1 million, $359 million of that coming in its initial run, which ran from June 1982 to June 1983. Yes, it last a whole year in theaters, opening to just $11.9 million. While that was still solid for 1982 dollars, its story was how long it lasted at the time. In that initial run, it was No. 1 at the box office for 16 non-consecutive weeks and was in the top 5 for its first 27 weeks. It was released again in 1985 and 2002, which added to its $435.1 million total. Because of that, adjusted for ticket price inflation, it is the fourth-highest grossing movie of all-time, according to Box Office Mojo’s tracking, behind only “Gone with the Wind,” “Star Wars” and “The Sound of Music.” Unadjusted it’s still the 25th highest grossing movie at the domestic box office. At some point in 1983, it became the highest grossing movie of all time, surpassing “Star Wars.” It held that record for 14 years… when “Star Wars” took it back after they released the Special Edition in 1997. “Star Wars” held that record for another year or so until “Titanic” passed it. Anyways, the 2022 release of “E.T.” will be in IMAX theaters, something that might become a bit of a trend as “Jaws” gets an IMAX release around Labor Day.

August 19 – 21

Universal's "Beast"

After a somewhat busy second weekend of August, at least in terms of the number of releases, the third weekend adds two new titles. And if nothing hits, it shouldn’t be too terribly hard for one of these two to actually hit No. 1. Unless “Bullet Train” does just well enough to cruise at the top for the whole month, which is a realistic possibility.

Anyways, of the two new titles, Beast seems most likely to perform the best. This is a lion-centric horror movie where a father played Idris Elba takes his family on a vacation to a game reserve, where they start getting hunted by a very angry, man-eating lion. Based on the trailers, I’m not sure if this is a demonically-possessed lion or if it’s even an extra-large male lion, but either way it’s not a very happy creature and Idris Elba and his family are in a lot of trouble. Outside the obvious comparison to the 10,000 killer shark movies out there, the 2019 film “Crawl” comes to mind. That was a movie about a man and his daughter getting hunted by alligators in their house during a hurricane. That opened to $12 million in July 2019. As referenced above, “47 Meters Down” opened to $11 million in August 2017. That’s about the predicted range for “Beast.” Based on the fact that the trailer has 30 million views and Universal seems to be pushing it pretty hard, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one over-perform, but $10-15 million seems to be at least where it’ll hit.  

If there’s a competitor for the top spot, I definitely wouldn’t count out Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Anime like this has actually had a growing audience of late and there’s been several instances where an anime film from a popular anime franchise comes almost out of nowhere to vastly over-perform at the domestic box office, not to mention many doing incredibly well overseas. And “Dragon Ball” is an anime franchise that’s been extremely popular dating way back to the 80s. The original manga was published in 1984 and has spawned several different anime series over the years, from “Dragon Ball” from 1986 to 1989, to “Dragon Ball Z” from 1989 to 1996, to “Dragon Ball GT” from 1996 to 1997, to “Dragon Ball Super” from 2015 to 2018. And maybe more that I’m missing. Anyways, after “Dragon Ball Super” ended, a sequel movie came out, “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” which opened to $9.8 million domestically in January 2019 from just 1,247 theaters. It would make sense for “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” to match that and possibly exceed, which puts it right in the range of where “Beast” is expected to open. And like “Beast,” I wouldn’t be surprised if this over-performs.

August 26 – 28

Sony Pictures' "The Invitation"

The final weekend of August almost always seems to be a black hole. That and Labor Day weekend have historically been very bad that Hollywood usually avoids. That trend was broken by “Shang-Chi” last year, which proved that this time of year can be lucrative, if some studio at Hollywood decides to take a rise. This Labor Day will be interesting as it sees the re-release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” specifically the extended “More Fun Stuff” version, but we’ll get to that next month.

This final weekend of August does not have any sort of superhero movie getting released, but rather one final late-August horror film, this one titled The Invitation. If you watch the trailer for this movie, it’ll seem like you’ve watched the whole movie. In which case you’ll learn that it’s about a girl who gets invited by some mysterious family she didn’t know of to a fancy wedding in England. And, because this is a horror film, this goes from Jane Austin feel to some sort of supernatural presence or cult of sorts where this whole mysterious new family is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs - and potentially all vampires - and our main girl has to fight them all off. This does give off a vibe of a “Ready or Not” from August 2019, which was a late August surprise in terms of audience reception. If “The Invitation” ends up with similar reception, it wouldn’t be too hard to match the $8 million of “Ready or Not” or even exceed that. On the flip side, if it’s a poor received horror, it might end up dead on arrival. That said, at this point it’ll probably only take $10 million to win the weekend, so that’s a pretty low bar that could be met.

That’s it for this weekend. Only one new wide release. Of note, the newest George Miller movie, “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” a movie about a woman who falls in love with a Genie she finds, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, does get released in August. The very final day – August 31, which is a Wednesday. But its official opening weekend will be a part of Labor Day weekend, so I’ll cover it more there, in next month’s preview.