By Chris Kavan - 02/15/23 at 01:27 PM CT
With the weekend dominated by the Super Bowl, the box office was understandably muted with Magic Mike's Last Dance providing enough counter-programming to top the box office. A re-release of Titanic also made the top three while last week's number one film, A Knock at the Cabin, didn't even make the top five after a steep drop. On the MPAA side of things, there is bit more variety this time around and plenty to talk about.
Magic Mikes Last Dance has Channing Tatum return who finds his dreams dashed - but reignited when he becomes involved with a wealthy socialite Maxandra Mendoza (Salma Hayek) who flies him to London in order to parlay his dancing - and smoldering heat - into a hit stage show. Of course there is plenty of conflict before said show can get off the ground. Originally meant to be streaming only on HBO Max, this was released in 1500 theaters and scored an opening weekend of $8.3 million. One would suppose it could have done better if the studio decided to release it in more theaters - but, such as it is, that's what we got. The film only scored a 47% from critics and no data from audiences, but I'm guessing it was largely female-driven and probably scored a better average score. With Valentine's Day on Tuesday, it may have gotten a bump - so we'll see where it lands next weekend but I don't think this one was built for longevity. The $45 million film still has a lot of ground to cover in order to meet its budget and $10 million overseas is of minor help.
In second place, Avatar: The Way of Water dipped 36,3% to wind up with $7.2 million on its way to a new $647.2 million domestic total. Still, $650 million is obviously the next goal and it will reach that easily by next weekend and we'll see if it can reach any other milestones with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania likely to steal its remaining thunder. It stands at 10th place on the all-time domestic chart, just behind Jurassic World ($652.3 million) and, funnily enough, Titanic (see below for its new total). It has $2.214 billion worldwide and, again, remains just below Titanic on that all-time list as well - but looks to pull ahead of it in the end.
In third place is where we find Titanic, as the re-release pulled in $6.71 million on its 25th anniversary. That gives James Cameron two films in the top three - and I doubt we'll see such a feat anytime in the near future. Titanic raised its domestic total to $665 million with that showing and if it remains in theaters through next weekend we'll see where it ultimately lands, but $700 million seems a bridge too far.
In fourth place sports comedy 80 for Brady took a 54.3% beating but managed a $5.8 million weekend for a new $24.7 million total. Sure, it's football but something tells me most people were more interested in Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts rather than Tom Brady over the weekend. Still the numbers don't exactly bode well for its long-term prospects and it will struggle to hit $40 million or so when it needs about double to land a profit.
Rounding out the top five, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish stuck in its spot, dropping just over 29% for a $5.57 million weekend and a new $158.5 million total. That gives the animated sequel eight straight weekends in the top five. It has earned 394.5 million worldwide and should top $400 million by next weekend.
Outside the top five: After its first-place finish last week, M. Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin tumbled out of the top five after a steep 61.6% drop. That is among the biggest drops for a film opening in the $13-$14 million range, just behind Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (62.1%) and tied with, of all films, The Love Guru. With just $23.3 million thus far, it looks to be Shyamalan's lowest-grossing film since he started putting his own money down starting with The Visit back in 2015.
Horror film Consecration had a semi-limited release in 762 but barely made a whimper with just $329,951 and a laughtable $433 per-theater average. Critics savaged it with a 37% Rotten rating.
Next week the next MCU film drops with Ant-Man and Wasp: Quantumani which, despite it's decidedly mixed reviews (just 53% Rotten at the time of writing) is still expected to open in the $120 million or so range - the best among the Ant-Man films and the biggest of Paul Rudd's career. Also opening wide Wednesday is Marlowe, with Liam Neeson taking on the hard-boiled detective but I don't think that will have much of an impact.
The MPAA Ratings Board kept thing exciting this update with a trio of new wide release films including two with a religious angle (on completely opposite sides of the spectrum) and another team-up of director Guy Ritchie and action star Jason Statham.
Both Statham and Ritchie are no stranger to action - and both of them have already teamed up in the 2021 film Wrath of Man, so why not do it again with Operation Forture: Ruse de guerre? Orson Fortune (Statham) is, of course, your main character - agent extraordinaire, but who has a team as well including Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza) and Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes). Their latest target, however, is billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) and in order to have any chance of getting near him, they employ an actor, Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett - back again!) who just so happens to be Simmond's favorite. Of course, things don't go exactly according to plan leading to blown covers, car chases, plenty of bullets and lots of fighting. It also, oddly, kind of follows the same plot as the Nicolas Cage film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. For the action-starved masses this should be catnip, but I'm not expecting this to make a huge splash but it should at least cause a few ripples. Rated R for language and violence.
Our two religion-themed films starts off with Jesus Revolution, which is based on an actual story that takes place during the early 70s where counter-culture icon Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) and Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer) form an unlikely friendship and alliance that helps bring a spiritual awakening to the hippie masses. All seen through the eyes of Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) who is being raised by his single mother Charlene (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). The film co-stars Ally Ioannides, Julia Campbell, Nic Bishop, Nicholas Cirillo and Jolie Jenkins. While certainly a bit of Christian propoganda, at least it's not as blatantly pushing its message along the lines of the God's Not Dead series and its ilk. This looks like a much more polished film that preaches without getting too preachy. Still, not exactly what I'm looking for - but power to its hopes and dreams of a better world. Rated PG-13 for strong drug content involving teens and some thematic elements.
As I said, the other religious-themed film couldn't be much further away on the genre wheel as we get to meet The Pope's Exorcist. Like Jesus Revolution, The Pope's Exorcist is also based on a true story - that of Father Gabriele Amorth (portrayed by Russell Crowe) - who acted as chief exorcist for the Vatican in his long tenure - and performed over 100,000 exorcisms during his time. Director Julius Avery has tackled horror before in the war horror film Overlord. This time around demonic possession is on hand - that sounds like Ralph Ineson (because he voices the demon, get it?). Franco Nero plays the pope himself with Alex Essoe, Daniel Zovatto, Laurel Marsden and Cornell John helping round out the cast. When done right, religion and horror can make a potent combination but, in my experience, it's rarely done right but we can hope this one at least trends toward the better side of the line. Rated R for violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity.
There you have the big three for the week but you can check out the full MPAA Ratings Bulletin below:
THE BEST MAN
Rated R for violence, language and brief drug use.
FOE
Rated R for language, some sexual content and nudity.
FREELANCE
Rated R for violence and language.
JESUS REVOLUTION
Rated PG-13 for strong drug content involving teens and some thematic elements.
THE KILLER
Rated R for strong violence, language and brief sexuality.
MAXIMUM TRUTH
Rated R for language and some sexual content.
OPERATION FORTUNE: RUSE DE GUERRE
Rated R for language and violence.
THE POPE'S EXORCIST
Rated R for violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity.
SOUTHERN GOSPEL
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content, drug use, some violent content, suicide, and language.
