Second weekend of July 2019

As I mentioned about a month ago, we’ve got two weekends this summer that are Exhibitiongeddon, and this is the 2nd of those weekends. Unfortunately, we’re going to be off maybe as much as 50% from last year, so the deficit when comparing this year to last is going to grow again this weekend. The 80’s are in right now, and the business is doing a tribute to the 80’s this weekend with two films that feel straight out of the 80’s and each one will turn a gross that would have been decent in the 80’s, but for today not so good. So, with accuracy normally associated with the thermostat at the AMC Garden State #14, here’s my best take on the weekend box-office.

#1 Spider-Man Far from Home - Looking really good today with very little to challenge it, the screen average is running a little ahead of where Homecoming was two years ago on the 2nd Friday, and that finished the weekend at $44.2 for the weekend. So figure mid/high 40’s for the weekend.

#2 Toy Story 4 - Because a lot of people had last Friday off is was a quasi-Black Friday business wise, so this is way down right now. Figure it rights itself tomorrow and finishes the weekend in the high teens.

#3 *Crawl *- This throwback to the shlockfests of the 80’s did schlockingly well with the critics; but these days the decent RT score probably has more to do with the critics fellating producer Sam Raimi (as they are known to do). The exit polls suggest the audiences don’t love the film, but since the exits are done on electronic devices and these producers have a history of dismissing anything done on an electronic devices because ‘people only use electronic devices to say negative things’, I’m sure they’ll insist Paramount redo the exits using the 80’s technology they’re much more comfortable with. It started strong today but it’s gone pretty flat since, figure it ends up at 9 or 10 for the weekend.

#4 Stuber - Another 80’s flashback to the PG13 buddy comedies that Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures and WB used to make, so it makes sense that this started in Century City but ended up finding its way home to Burbank through the buyout. And of course like most comedies today, this is fucking R, even though the tone screams PG13 because well…that’s what we’re doing now. Although the two leads are showing promise as actors, neither one has developed enough of a fan base to open a film with this thin of a premise, so figure this ends up at 7 or 8 for the weekend.