1. Coco– $18.3M/$135.5M
The couple of weeks before a superhuman movie like Star Wars: The Last Jedi are a good time for holdovers, and so Pixar’s rather terrific Coco has held #1 for three straight weeks. Kinda crazy to think that it wasn’t Justice League in command all of those weeks, but that’s a subject for further down. The Mexican-themed film now has $135M here but an impressive $389M worldwide.
2. Justice League– $9.5M/$212M
The good news, Justice League has surpassed the $600M mark. Yay! The bad news, it took four weeks to get there. That said, the film is actually coasting along pretty well, which is exactly why Warner Bros. slotted it where they did. They just thought it would do better domestically, and instead it’s overperforming everywhere else. I’d bet that if it didn’t cost so damn much because of the reshoots we’d be calling this quite a bit more of a success rather than a disappointment. Also on the bright side is news that changes are finally being made at the top of DC Films, and I think when films like Aquaman and Wonder Woman 2 hit we’re going to see things really take off. Fingers crossed, anyway.
3. Wonder– $8.4M/$100.3M
4. The Disaster Artist (review)- $6.4M/$8M
The big winner of the week and not a disaster at all was James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, his surprisingly great tribute to atrocious cult classic, The Room. With no major new releases this was the pinpoint time to expand by 821 theaters, giving Franco’s film a lot of extra elbow room in multiplexes. I literally just left a mainstream theater near me and it was playing there, and seemed to be doing pretty well. I think it’s only bound to get better, too, with legit Oscar buzz surrounding Franco’s performance as Tommy Wiseau, if only because the Academy HAS to want the oddball Wiseau to be in the house that night. Think of that image. I feel safe in asserting that Franco’s sudden credibility as a filmmaker also comes with his highest-grossing directorial effort. For the most part he’s been tackling literary adaptations or super-niche genre efforts, opening in so few venues they don’t rate at the box office at all. Did anybody (other than me and a few critics) even see The Institute or In Dubious Battle, the latter having earned a pitiful $119K?
5. Thor: Ragnarok– $6.2M/$301.1M
6. Daddy’s Home 2– $6M/$91.1M
7. Murder On the Orient Express– $5.1M/$92.7M
8. The Star– $3.6M/$32.2M
9. Lady Bird– $3.5M/$22.3M
10. Just Getting Started– $3.1M
If this were…let’s say, 1990, then a Ron Shelton-directed movie with Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Rene Russo might’ve killed it at the box office. But in 2017 it makes only $3.1M, isn’t screened for critics, and was basically thrown out there with little to no marketing. Just Getting Started features Freeman and Jones causing a ruckus at an assisted living facility, and from what I hear it’s God awful. But I will never know for sure, and apparently the same goes for most folks who didn’t bother with this one. This is probably the final theatrical film we’ll be seeing from Broad Green Pictures, which went defunct last summer after a series of expensive flops.
Doing big things in small release is the excellent I, Tonya (review), which stars Margot Robbie as controversial Olympic figure skater, Tonya Harding. Expect a much wider rollout soon because Robbie and co-star Allison Janney are shoe-ins for Oscar nominations. Plus it’s a legitmately great film that works as a crowd-pleaser and story of redemption. As a longtime Harding fan and apologist it certainly won me over, but I think it’ll do the same for those who are more skeptical.
