By Chris Kavan - 07/10/19 at 07:41 PM CT
With Spider-Man: Far from Home web-slinging its way into the history books, it should have little problem holding the top spot for the second straight weekend. Only two films are opening this weekend and neither have the power to dethrone the all-new Avenger. Crawl is a horror film about being trapped with some alligators while Stuber is a buddy action/comedy with Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani. The comedy is likely to outpace the gators, despite opening in fewer theaters, but Spider-Man is going to easily take the top spot once again.
STUBER I do think the pairing in Stuber looks like quite a fun ride - Dave Bautista (best known for playing Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy films) is your typical grizzled, hot-headed LAPD detective Vic Manning and, thanks to recent Lasik surgery, is unable to drive. Enter mild-mannered Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), an Uber driver looking to keep up his star rating who just happens to be the driver assigned to our detective. The pair are are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but with Vic hot on the trail of a sadistic drug dealer (played by Iko Uwais) the driver gets much more than he bargained for as he finds himself in the middle of the high-octane action. Mira Sorvino, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Karen Gillan and Steve Howey help round out the cast. In order for this to do relatively well, it will have to find the right balance between comedy and action and, of course, the two leads need to play well off each other. I've enjoyed both Bautista and Nanjiani in a variety of roles, and if the deadpan Nanjiani can find a rhythm with Bautista's more physical delivery - well, this could be a winner. Still, it's not like I'm expecting this to go wild at the box office - mid-teens are expected and that's right where I would peg this landing as well.
Creature films on the horror side of things don't tend to be the most, let's say, intelligent of horror films. From Anaconda to Lake Placid to Snakes on a Plane - scary animals usually fall on the lower end of the spectrum. I have a feeling that Crawl is going to fit right in with that assessment. The film follows Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) who is hoping to help her father, Dave (Barry Pepper) when he becomes trapped during a massive hurricane. But this is not weather disaster film - no, the bigger threat is that the rising water flooding the house also holds a bevy of killer crocs - sorry, I mean killer alligators. Thus, Haley must fight for her life as the water rises, bringing the killer creatures ever closer. I'm guessing they're hoping for as much success as Blake Lively found in The Shallows (sharks instead of gators - but it did gross over $55 million) - but I'm going to say right now that with the summer competition, it's not going to be that impressive. If it opens above $10 million, I would call that a pretty good start but I'm not expecting this one to last that long and see this as a definite streaming option - and only because I think Scodelario is a nice fit for the role.
The weekend should once again be dominated by Spider-Man: Far from Home, which has enjoyed a strong run thus far. Rumor has it the film has to hit $1 billion world-wide for Disney to keep the rights from Sony - so I'm pulling for it, if only because the MCU needs Spider-Man and Tom Holland has proven a great addition to the ever-expanding cast. Both new films will likely wind up much lower, though both should hit the top five at least. I'll be back on Sunday with the full rundown.
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