Halloween still #1 at box office

For the weekend of October 26-28, 2018, Halloween held on easily to the #1 spot for the second week. No other studios dared put a competing horror movie on the calendar.

The new releases are did predictably bad. Gerard Butler's long-delayed Hunter Killer finally got dumped in theaters. (How long has it been on the shelf? One of its co-stars, Michael Nyqvist, died in June 2017.) Other films were dumped into a few hundred theaters. Johnny English Strikes Back and Indivisible were ignored, but London Fields was reviled with a per-screen average of $275.

Opens November 2
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY with Rami Malek, Joe Mazzello, Ben Hardy and Mike Myers.
THE NUTCRACKER with Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.
NOBODY'S FOOL with Tiffany Haddish, Tika Sumpter and Whoopi Goldberg.
(wide) SUSPIRIA with Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Bad Times at the El Royale - Movie Review

Starring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman and Nick Offerman.
Written & Directed by Drew Goddard.

★★★

This is the second film from Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard, and he has as much fund playing with mystery thriller tropes here as he did with horror tropes there.

A few strangers descend on the El Royale hotel (its own character), a once-thriving resort that lies on the California-Nevada border. Now in 1969, it hasn't had guests in days. We meet the nervous bellboy (Lewis Pullman) while he greets a grizzled priest (Jeff Bridges), a chatty salesman (Jon Hamm), a forlorn singer (Cynthia Erivo), a hostile hippie (Dakota Johnson) and so on. The players each get their own room, and one by one we learn more of their stories, and that none of them are as they seem. All the while the hotel's jukebox plays just the right song for every occasion.

The cast is great, and each actor gets their own moment to shine. The way it unravels reminded me of Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, though I would say El Royale is a better movie. It may not have much substance, but it has style up the wazoo.

The Nun - Movie Review

Starring Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Ingrid Bisu, Charlotte Hope and Bonnie Aarons.
Written by Gary Dauberman & James Wan.
Directed by Corin Hardy.

★½

The Conjuring-verse is hit or miss. This is a miss.

The "Nun" in The Conjuring 2 was one of its more scary elements. Now she gets her own origin story. Unfortunately this movie doesn't have much imagination beyond keeping everything dark and having stuff jump out and go "ROWR!" every once in a while.

The trailer was very effective. The trailer also featured the best scare in the movie.

Venom still #1, First Man #3 at box office

For the weekend of October 12-14, 2018, Venom held on to the #1 spot, and A Star Is Born had a shallow drop in its second week to help it keep the #2 spot and stave off all newcomers.

First Man had a good resume, and it's getting good reviews, but it got lost opening between the 1-2 punch of Venom and A Star is Born last week, and Halloween next week. Goosebumps 2 did about as well as expected. Meanwhile, Fox could not figure out how to market Bad Times at the El Royale despite having Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm and Dakota Johnson in its cast and good reviews.

Gosnell is the directorial debut of Nick Searcy (Justified) and was aimed at the MAGA crowd.

In limited release, Beautiful Boy was the big winner. It stars Steve Carell as a dad trying to cope with his son's drug addiction. Jane & Emma and The Happy Prince did okay. The Oath, written by, directed by and starring Ike Barinholtz (Blockers) bombed.

It hasn't been a good season for limited release movies. The Sisters Brothers, a Western starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly, expanded to over 100 screens, but it's only getting $2000 per screen and will therefore not likely expand further. Colette, starring Keira Knightley, expanded to 593 screens, but couldn't even get $2000 per screen.

Opens October 19
HALLOWEEN with Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny McBride and Judy Greer.