The umpteenth — OK SEVENTH — “Street Fighter” video game film adaptation is opening #1 at the box office, as one might expect.
But it’s not doing summer “event” movie numbers, or making holiday weekend blockbuster bank. It’s doing good for late October numbers, adjusted for Trumpflation.
A $12 million+ Thursday night and all-day Friday “opening day” points to a $30 million, maybe $30 million+ opening weekend, per Deadline.com.
The novelty, I guess, is that there are real MMA fighters in the cast? Along with (checks notes) Jason Momoa, Eric Andre and um, (remember) 50 Cent? Reviews haven’t been awful, but they haven’t been kind. Selling under three million tickets, which is all a $30 million weekend suggests, isn’t to be sneezed at. But this is set to be a money-loser, all-in.
But with “Resident Evil” proving there’s still money to be made off aged game-turned-film franchises, so we’ll see how she fares.
“You Can See Everything” is that rare documentary that draws a crowd. America can’t get enough of seeing one rich, murderously callous evildoer going to prison. Theranos bloodsucking/poisoning/“testing” mastermind Elizabeth Holmes is followed by filmmakers as she and her partner prep for her to go to prison.
Does the point of this A24 release — which is opening in the $13 million range (2nd place) — include “We only lock up rich and evil women in America (Martha Stewart, etc)?” One wonders. And one will track it down. Eventually.
The pre-Halloween horror tale “Other Mommy” may take third place if it can earn over $7.4 million. That’s not far from putting it in the black as it crosses the $40 million mark at the box office.
It’ll need to clear $7 healthily to best the new I-broke-up-with-my-dad-and-got-swallowed-by-a-whale thriller “Whalefall.” There’s a lot that’s horrific and original in this one, which goes further south the more sentimental it gets. But hey, a nice role for Josh Brolin and it’s great seeing Elisabeth Shue (“Back to the Future”) for the first time in ages. Mixed reviews won’t kill it, but the ceiling appears to be $7-8, with $6 million distinctly possible heading into Saturday and Sunday.
It should and might edge the latest version of “Sense and Sensibility,” which won’t be a big enough hit to revive the Jane Austin Mania that gripped the cinema and cable TV (A & E’s “Pride & Prejudice”) of the ’90s.
Reviews have been respectful and generally positive.
I found it romantic enough and defensibly different enough in tone from the frothy version Emma Thompson won the Oscar for scripting and Ang Lee directed back in ’95. People are less classic lit literate in this era, one finds, unless Anya Taylor Joy is playing “Emma.” Nobody showed up to see Dakota Johnson butcher “Persuasion.”
It’s not certain where the latest weekend take of “Verity” will land, probably just outside of the top five, perhaps edging “Sense” and/or “Whalefall.”
The Indian thriller “Jailer 2” should crack the top ten.
“Resident Evil,” “Heart of the Beast,” “Forgotten Island,” “The Social Reckoning,” “Digger” and “Angel and the Badman” will mix it up — six films competing for the last three places in the Oct. 17 weekend top ten.
Check back here as the weekend progresses and I’ll update these figures as Sat. and Sunday data comes in.
