“Crazy Rich Asians” looks to finish the summer off with another stellar weekend. But will it really lose NO audience when compared to last weekend?
It’s entirely likely, says Box Office Mojo. That means another $25 million, $30 million when you add in the Labor Day holiday on Monday.
It’s not little in the line of real competition.
The midweek opening of “Operation Finale” didn’t set the world on fire, doing $1 million. It could collect as much as $10 million this weekend, over 4 days. But Oscar Isaac and Melanie Laurent will have to grow a lot more box office appeal for that to happen.
All you folks who don’t show up simply on hearing the news that Sir Ben Kingsley’s in a film are missing out. He’s fascinating almost every time out, and he gives us a vivid, studied take on Nazi fugitive Adolph Eichmann, kidnapped in Argentina by Israeli security forces. He plays Eichmann as smarter than your average Nazi (largely rednecks, racists, buffoons and oafs), but no Evil Genius — just an amoral thug with an education.
“Searching” goes into wider release this weekend, but that may prove to be a marketing blunder on Screen Gems’ part. It’s the best reviewed film that Sony studio has released…maybe ever. It’s not a horror film in the conventional sense, but a mystery thriller. It has little sense of ticking-clock urgency, but a father’s online search for his missing daughter, probing her online footprint, is fascinating. It may only earn $5 million, according to Mr. Mojo.
As it got ALL its attention last weekend, perhaps that’s when they should have opened it. It did piddling per screen numbers in its few markets then, and the buzz has died down a bit. Hype the hell out of it the last week of the month, release it on the wave of that hype and it does double what they’ll end up with this Labor Day. Screen Gems Fail.
As for “Kin,” nobody’s bothering with this violent, tone-deaf and ill-conceived “kid finds a futuristic gun and uses it” thriller, not even the NRA. Because the kid is black. The NRA makes its bread and butter off scaring people about “black folks with guns.” That’s kind of why the Russians are such big NRA donors, too.
Focus Features’ “The Little Stranger” won’t crack the top ten, and wouldn’t have even if the reviews hadn’t been indifferent.
“Mission: Impossible” should clear the $200 million mark by tonight (Friday), “BlackKklansman” will hit $40 by Sunday, Monday at the latest, the sleeper “Alpha” will near $30 million by Monday.
But the biggest news will be “Crazy Rich Asians” clearing $100 million by midnight Saturday.