By Chris Kavan - 10/28/20 at 12:18 PM CT
The box office continues to struggle mightily as Honest Thief topped for the second straight weekend with $2.4 million - the lowest "top" film since 1981 when The Rollover opened in 355 theaters with $2.26 million. Of note is that no film had a per-theater average greater than $1000 with Honest Thief topping out at $940 per-screen. After final numbers, The Empty Man, the week's lone new entry, managed to just top Tenet for third place with $1.31 million - and horror fans did not turn out to support the little-advertised feature. Tenet topped out with $1.3 million for a $52.5 million domestic total - and at least will pass The Prestige ($53.1 million) next week. Worldwide, Tenet has hit $341.6 million - which is not as good as it would have been under normal circumstances, but doing very well given current circumstances. Unfortunately, with no new wide release scheduled until November 6 (Kevin Costner's Let Him Go), it's going to be a very slow weekend.
As for this week's MPAA Bulletin - there is only a single film that even has a release date (in the U.S.) but it is a wide release (for now) so, Tom Holland, Mads Mikkelsen and Daisy Ridley are here to grant us a little Chaos Walking - how nice of them.
I will say this about Doug Liman's Chaos Walking, it is ambitious. But the man behind The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live.Die.Repeat) is a good choice for this type of film. Tom Holland plays Todd Hewitt, who lives on a dystopian world that was supposed to be a new paradise, but has turned into a waking nightmare. This New World was supposed to be humanity's new beginning, but now men are all that remain and they must deal with The Noise - a virus that turns everyone's thoughts into a chaotic stream of images, words, and sounds - driving many mad. But after leaving his family for his own safety, Todd discovers Viola Eade (Daisy Ridley) a woman that could very well hold the key to saving the future of this New World. Of course doing this require going on a grand adventure - one made more dangerous because their every thought is amplified and spread - making sneaking and planning a bit complicated. The film has a knockout cast - Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Ray McKinnon, Nick Jonas, Cynthia Erivo, Demián Bichir and Kurt Sutter are all on board. The film has had a bit of a bumpy road, however, as it was originally scheduled to be released in 2018 - but scored poorly in test screenings and Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead, Don't Breathe and The Girl in the Spider's Web) was brought in for reshoots which reportedly cost an additional $15 million. But because of scheduling with The Rise of Skywalker and Spider-Man: Far From Home, these reshoots bumped the film all the way to January of 2021. Usually extensive reshoots don't bode well for any film - and with the pandemic it's hard to say what the future hold, but color me intrigued anyway. Rated PG-13 for violence and language.
That is the lone film that even has a release date as of this date, so be prepared for a nice wall of text in the full MPAA Ratings Bulletin below:
CANVAS
Rated G
CHAOS WALKING
Rated PG-13 for violence and language.
CRACKHOUSE OF THE DEAD
Rated R for violence and gore, a rape, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language and drug content.
FEAR OF RAIN
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, violence/terror, disturbing images and some strong language.
MONSTER ZONE
Rated PG for some action and rude material.
STEALING CHAPLIN
Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, nudity and violence.
TRUE TO THE GAME 2
Rated R for violence, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and drug content.
YES DAY
Rated PG for some rude and suggestive material, and brief language.
