By Chris Kavan - 07/12/18 at 07:55 AM CT
In an increasingly crowded summer box office, is there room for dinosaurs, superheros, animated vampires and The Towering Inferno of Johnson? All signs points to yes - though it looks to be a tight race for first place between two major newcomers and Marvel's latest film. Meanwhile, a breakout limited release looks to make bigger waves in wide release, though the surreal nature may be a hard sell to general audiences. All told, it should be an interesting weekend.
SKYSCRAPER We're going to find out once again if Dwayne Johnson, the man, the myth, the former Rock, will be able to carry a film on his own. He does great in ensembles, The Fast and Furious, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle being prime examples. He has done decent on his own - the similarly-themed San Andreas managed over $155 million domestic and over $473 million worldwide. While San Andreas captures the whold apocalyptic vibe, Skycraper is more self-contained - lot's of action, but not as high of stakes. Johnson plays a ex-military vet and hostage negotiator who now works as a security consultant for skyscrapers. In Hong Kong, he works on accessing the tallest and supposedly safest building in the world - enough that he brings his family along. But when a fire breaks out, and he is framed for the blaze, he must not only clear his name but save his family as well. This is like The Towering Inferno meets Die Hard - terrorist, crazy stunts, action up the wazoo - all perfect for Johnson. Joining the action hero are Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, oah Taylor, McKenna Roberts, Kevin Rankin, Tzi Ma, Chin Han and Roland Møller. At least the cast might help it in China and abroad. We'll see just how big Johnson's star power is and whether he can cruise to a first-place opening.
Directly challenging Skycraper for the top spot will be the third entry in the popular Hotel Transylvania series. The first two films hit $358 million and $473 million worldwide respectively - on just an $80 million budget. The third film keeps the budget the same and looks to do as well, if not better, than the first two films. Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Gaffigan, Kathryn Hahn, Chris Parnell and Chrissy Teigen are all attached - some being frequent collaborators of Sandler's live-action films. Animation and summer go hand-in-hand and with The Incredibles 2 going on five weeks, it's prime time for another family-friendly title to enter the fray. I admit I haven't seen the previous two Hotel Transylvania films - but I don't see why this won't be just as popular and has a good chance at taking that top spot if Johnson doesn't appeal to the masses.
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU After a huge debut in limited release (have the best per-theater average last weekend), Boots Riley presents his surreal, absurdist yet sly and topical Sorry to Bother You to the general masses. Get Out scene-stealer Lakeith Stanfield player smooth-talking Cassius Green, who works as a telemarketer in an alternate-world version of Oakland. His life is in a bit of a rut. Sure, he has a great girlfriend in Detroit (Tessa Thompson) but lives in the garage of his cousin (Terry Crews). But a veteran telemarketer (Danny Glover) gives him the key to success - using his "white voice" to win over customers. Sure enough, Green sees immediate improvement in his job - and is soon one of the top sellers, catching the eye of Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), the man in charge of it all. But success also comes with a price as Green learns about the dark nature of his profession, leading down a macabre rabbit hole. Look, Sorry to Bother You is going to be a hard sell to the general masses, though it's going mini-wide (835 as opposed to the 3700 of Skyscraper), I just don't know if it can match its standout limited debut. I do want to check out - just to see how crazy things get, and, one thing is for certain, it's unique and deserves all the attention it gets.
Those are the three newcomers entering the arena. It looks to be close battle between holdover Ant-Man and the Wasp, Skyscraper and Hotel Transylvania 3. I'll be back on Sunday with the results.
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