Men in Black Intl. gets $30 million

For the weekend of June 14-16, 2019, Men in Black International won the weekend, but it continues the recent box-office trend of underperforming titles. I think part of it can be blamed on savvy audience members who do check what the critics say before they go, and MIB Intl. was eviscerated.

The other new wide release was Shaft, and while it was tracking for a $20 million opening weekend a couple weeks ago, it fell on its face. Late Night tried to build word of mouth by opening on a handful of screen the week before, but it didn’t pay off. Also, Jim Jarmusch’s wry zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die was dead on arrival.

In its second week, Dark Phoenix fell a staggering 71.5%. The only studio finding consistent success is Disney. Avengers Endgame should pass Avatar next week as the highest-grossing worldwide movie ever. (It will fall short of breaking The Force Awakens’ domestic record.) Aladdin continues to stay in the top three in its fourth week, and next week, Toy Story 4 should open to over $100 million. AND they still have Spider-Man Far From Home and The Lion King coming this summer.

Opens June 21

TOY STORY 4 with the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack.

CHILD'S PLAY with Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry and Mark Hamill.

ANNA with Helen Mirren, Sasha Luss, Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy.

Dark Phoenix - Movie Review

Starring James McAvoy, Sophie Turner, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Written & Directed by Simon Kinberg.

★★½ 

We’ve had three X-Men movies, three Wolverine movies, and this is the fourth X-Men First Class movie. Between this and Apocalypse, it’s a good argument for the franchise to hibernate for a few years and come back rebooted in the MCU.

Why is this movie retreading the plot from X-Men: The Last Stand? For one, I’d argue it was the worst movie of all of them so they wanted to retell this story right. For another, the events of Days of Future Past screwed up the timeline, so the events of the Patrick Stewart trilogy wouldn’t have happened that way in this timeline.

I did find it strange this movie takes place in 1992. That means it’s been 29 years since McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, etc. were in X-Men: First Class, and there’s no effort to age them accordingly. Oh well.

So how is it? Well, for starters, maybe the producers thought Sophie Turner’s big from Game of Thrones so it’d pay off to make her the star of the show. But this means other, more famous actors take a back seat to her in the action. Jennifer Lawrence seems like she’d rather be anywhere else than doing another one of these movies. Michael Fassbender doesn’t show up until a good 45 minutes in (but when he does show up, the movie is better for it.)

I liked it a little more than X-Men: Apocalypse. The third act final battles are more satisfying, especially the part on the train. But ultimately I’m glad this was the last outing.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - Movie Review

Starring Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Sally Hawkins, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, David Strathairn, Charles Dance, Aisha Hinds and O’Shea Jackson Jr.

Written by Michael Dougherty & Zach Shields.

Directed by Michael Dougherty.

★★

The Godzilla movies can’t ever seem to get the human characters right. The last movie didn’t do much for me because I didn’t think Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s central soldier character was very compelling, and it was almost halfway through the movie before Godzilla showed up. This time around, we get monsters galore right away, but we keep having to cut to pesky humans with their bad dialogue and overwrought reactions. (This director really loves starting with the actor’s back to us so they can turn around dramatically.)

After the last movie, Godzilla has disappeared, and the company that monitored him - Monarch - is looking for him and other potential titans. Truth is, Monarch knows where several titans are; it’s just that most of them are laying dormant. Ah, but one terrorist gets a hold of Monarch’s technology that will awaken them. More baddies for Godzilla to fight.

If you swapped this cast out with the cast from The Meg, it wouldn’t be much different.

I will give a movie the logic it establishes within its own universe. I will give it the titans. I will give them the origins of all the creatures. Now, the plot has to make sense after that, and it rarely does. From the opening scene that rips off Batman v. Superman to the convoluted motivations of most of the characters to the murky, smoke-filled battles where it's hard to invest in what's transpiring, you have to go dumpster-diving to find the pleasures.

How are the titans? Pretty cool. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah are all here, plus others. I wish the movie had lived up to their potential.

P.S. The three stars from Straight Outta Compton were O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell. Jackson was in this. Hawkins and Mitchell were in Kong Skull Island. All three of their characters are still alive, and Godzilla v. Kong is due in 2021. Don't squander this reunion, Warner Bros!

Secret Life of Pets #1 at Box Office; Dark Phoenix Fizzles

For the weekend of June 7-9, 2019, The Secret Life of Pets 2 managed to win the weekend. The sequel opened far below the $104 million the original opened to, so maybe this is not going to be the next Ice Age level franchise, but it’ll still ultimately be profitable.

Dark Phoenix, meanwhile, is the lowest opening ever for an X-Men movie, including the different Wolverine spin-offs. It’s also the worst reviewed of them all. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken the plot from X-Men: The Last Stand and made Sophie Turner the star while making James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, etc., take backseat roles. Perhaps it’s a good thing this will be the final outing for this cast. Expect the X-Men to lie dormant for a few years, then circa 2023, they’ll be introduced into the MCU.

Late Night opted to open on only 4 screens before going wide next week, and with a $62,000 per-screen average, it’s poised to do well in expansion, albeit against a couple other comedic offerings in Men in Black International and Shaft.

Of the holdovers, Godzilla’s dropping like a stone. Godzilla v. Kong is still the plan for 2021, but WB has to be wondering if they’ll be able to break even on the project. Rocketman hasn’t really caught fire the way Bohemian Rhapsody did. Perhaps the R-rating can be blamed, although A Star Is Born seemed to manage with one.

Many films seem to be underperforming what studios had expected, but the real overperformer has been Aladdin. And Disney still has Toy Story 4, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and The Lion King on the way.

Opens June 14

MEN IN BLACK INTL. with Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson and Liam Neeson.

SHAFT with Samuel L. Jackson, Jesse T. Usher, Regina Hall and Richard Roundtree.