New in Theaters June 16: Cars 3, Rough Night, All Eyez On Me, 47 Meters Down

By Chris Kavan - 06/15/17 at 07:40 AM CT

With Wonder Woman continuing to cut a swatch through the competition, is there any chance this week's new movies stand a chance? Pixar is going to try their best to dethrone the Amazonian hero with Cars 3 while Scarlett Johansson and some girlfriends will be out for a Rough Night. You also have the shark horror film 47 Meters Down - here's probably your one and only chance to watch Mandy Moore potentially get eaten by a great white, while the Tupac biopic All Eyez On Me opens in fewer theaters but still looks to make an impact. Wonder Woman has her work cut out, but even if she doesn't come out on top, she should still be a force to be reckoned with over the weekend.

CARS 3 I have never been a big fan of the Cars series from Pixar. I watched the first one and wasn't overly impressed, and pretty much skipped the next one. This third entry does seem to play things a bit more serious, and thus might be a bit better, but I'm still in no way rushing out to watch it. In this case our main player, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) finds himself being left in the dust by a new breed of racer, led by the arrogant Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer) but an accident nearly puts an end to him - and seems to put his career in the rear view mirror. But there are people who aren't going to give up on Lightning and with the help of an eager technician Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) and some old friends like Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), Luigi (Tony Shalhoub), Sally (Bonnie Hunt) and more, Lightning will prove he is still in the race and not just the brand name new Rust-Eze owner Sterling (Nathan Fillion) wants him to be. I admit, this story seems a bit more deep than the previous two films, but I'm not sold that it's going to be markedly better. I'm sure the kids will still love it, and it has a great chance of opening on top of the box office, but this is just not my favorite Pixar IP and I'm more than willing to let the kids enjoy this while I wait for different fare.


ROUGH NIGHT The first thing I thought about when I saw the premise for the new R-rated Scarlett Johansson ensemble comedy Rough Night was essentially a gender-swapped version of the black 1998 comedy Very Bad Things. The set-up is the same, instead of a bachelor party, it's a bachelorette party and, once again, a stripper winds up dead and the group rushes to cover things up before the impending nuptials. Johansson plays the would-be bride with her friends made up of Jillian Bell, Zoë Kravitz, Ilana Glazer and Kate McKinnon. That's a solid comedic cast right there, and is sure to appeal to female audiences. The film hasn't exactly gotten stellar reviews, and it should open to somewhat muted numbers (mid-teens is the best-case scenario it seems). I also doubt the film will end on such a down note that Very Bad Things did - in any case, it this probably doesn't have a huge budget so a middling result may be okay at this point.


ALL EYEZ ON ME Music biopics have always enjoyed success - from Walk the Line to Ray to Straight Outta Compton, if you have a compelling story and a good cast, you're probably going to turn out just fine. It's actually kind of surprising there hasn't been a biopic of Tupac Shakur yet. A rising rap star whose life was tragically cut short, with much blame put on the whole East Coast / West Coast rap scene that may have also resulted in the death of fellow rapper the Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls - Shakur was definitely a compelling figure. But All Eyez on Me doesn't just focus on the rap artist, but on Tupac's life as an activist, innovator and inspiration - even if all the decisions he made weren't always for the best. Pretty much new talent Demetrius Shipp Jr. landed the role of Shakur and I have to say from the trailers, he looks like a great choice. There really are no huge names here - Walking Dead alum Danai Gurira playsAfeni Shakur while fellow Walking Dead star Lauren Cohan portrays Leila Steinberg. Kat Graham is on hand as Jada Pinkett with Jamal Woolard and Dominic L. Santana landing roles as Biggie and Suge Knight. The only reason this might not break out as big is simply it isn't opening in nearly as many theaters as Cars 3 or Rough Night. Even with a smaller count, the fact that Shakur still resonates with so many people might easily drive this above Rough Night and 47 Meters Down.


47 METERS DOWN Normally I would say a stupid shark attack movie wouldn't stand a chance at the box office - especially when the main star is Mandy Moore. But that was before The Shallows managed to make over $55 million with essentially a single person (Blake Lively) driving the action. But this time there are two women in trouble as Mandy Moore is joined by Claire Holt (as her sister) and both are trapped... you guessed it... 47 Meters Down when their shark cage chain breaks and leaves them stranded on the ocean floor with an hour of oxygen to go around. Even though early reviews are actually pretty good, this isn't the kind of film that is going to attract a huge audience. This is no Jaws, heck, it's not even The Shallows (which I think was more of an outlier than a typical example) - it will certainly be the lowest grossing film among all the newcomers, but we'll see if summer crowds will give this shark tale a chance.


I'll be back on Sunday when we'll see if Cars 3 can cross the finish line first and how close Wonder Woman can come to defending her box office crown.

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