Box Office: Star Wars rises on Christmas Day with $32 million

The last time Christmas fell on a Wednesday was back on 2013 when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hit theaters in the middle of Frozen’s crowning or being a pop culture icon. It then grew the day after Christmas. If history repeats itself by the end of business today, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will earn around $34 million-$37 million tonight after a boffo $32 million Christmas Day gross. It’s the second biggest Christmas Day gross ever behind (You guessed it!) the $49 million Christmas Day gross of The Force Awakens but that was on that film’s second Friday and it was during a weekend that time. Oh sure! Say it’s the biggest Christmas Day gross that happened on a weekday ever all you want but that’s a minor record. Yes, the critics didn’t care for the J.J. Abrams helmed series finale but many many people that I talk to (Alongside myself) seem to either like it or absolutely adore it. If it doesn’t collapse then it’ll enter the weekend with $600 million+ globally. If all goes well and holds on better than The Last Jedi, then it’ll end the weekend with $800 million+ globally which would absolutely put it on pace to pass the $1.3 billion gross of The Last Jedi before it hits iTunes. As for its second week gross, look for $85 million-$97 million.

Sony’s (so good that it’s On par with the last film) Jumanji: The Next Level was no chump either earning $12 million for an insane $42 million-$48 million third week gross. It could surely end its theater run just over $300 million if it can continue its momentum. Oh! And look for Jumanji: The Rise of Bravestone (Where Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Robin go into the game and they have to beat it to get out.) in 2-3 years. I will gladly have Sony pay me $150 million for using that title.

Little Women proved that men don’t have to go to the movies to make it a hit as the drama earned $6 million for a possible over $12 million debut and $23 million five day debut. It’s reviews are great however, I don’t have the CinemaScore results yet. So it’s hard to tell if audiences like it as much as the critics.

We had a surprise entry in the top five as Adam Sandler’s well received Uncut Gems earned a boffo (for an A24 film) $5 million yesterday for a possible $11 million-$15 million debut. I don’t have CinemaScore results yet for this film either but I’m pretty sure it got an A-.

Spies in Disguise proved once again that Blue Sky will never be as popular as Pixar. That said, it earned an okay $4 million for a possible $10 million debut (Making it the lowest debut ever for the house that Scrat built). It’s reviews are decent but… And I hate to sound like a broken record… but… I don’t have the CinemaScore results yet. The only film that has CinemaScore results is Just Mercy (Which it along with 1917 (Which I will be surprised if it pulls an American Sniper on us and debuts to $75 million+ next month did amazing in limited release) which earned an A+.

Frozen 2 slid to sixth place with $4 million but it won’t stay there throughout the rest of the weekend. It will reach $400 million (And pass the original Frozen) by the end of business tonight. And if it doesn’t pass the original Frozen globally, then blame Japan!

Can 2020 see studios other than Disney produce monster hits? (A movie news post)

It looks like 2019 will end with about $11 billion. The good news is that’s huge. The bad news is most of that money came from pretty much every Disney movie that either did really good or hilariously overperformed (Captain Marvel (Which was without a doubt Marvel’s weakest film ever made), Avengers: Endgame (Which was the best movie of the year), Aladdin (Which was the best movie of the summer as Avengers: Endgame was technically a late spring release), Toy Story 4 (Which was the best animated film this year), The Lion King (Which was the biggest disappointment of the whole year), Frozen 2 (Which was even better than the original), and (eventually in the next few days) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Which was actually the best installment in the sequel trilogy (and the 3,425th film I liked or loved from this decade that the critics got 100% wrong) even if The Mandalorian is (so far) the best thing to ever exist in the Star Wars continuity. But that conversation about The Mandalorian is for another post once I finish the first season). Most of that money also comes from overperforming films not from Disney like It: Chapter 2, Joker, John Wick 3(!), Spider-Man Far from Home (Okay so that one is part of the MCU but it’s still amazing regardless), Hobbs and Shaw (Which is entertaining in its own way), Us (The only outright live action original to vastly outperform expectations this year), and (So far) Jumanji: The Next Level (Which was on par with Welcome to the Jungle, natch). Everything else either did “good” or outright disappointed. Yes, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World did better than we thought but I would have to argue that Alita: Battle Angel’s $400 million+ global gross was enough to be qualified as a hit. Ditto the $489 million global gross of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Which I liked a lot more than I thought I Would). Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (Which is the best video game adaptation ever and I feel far more optimistic about Sonic the Hedgehog after seeing the newest trailer a couple of times) wasn’t really the monster we wanted it to be but it was still a pretty big hit. Shazam! (which is the second best DCEU film behind (You guessed it!) Wonder Woman) did fine on a $90 million budget but it got clobbered by Endgame in week 4. If Jumanji: The Next Level and (Possibly if it recovers from its rather disappointing debut like Phantom Menace) The Rise of Skywalker get to $1 billion then the entire top ten biggest grossers of 2019 list will be filled with $1 billion+ grossers which would be insane. We also got box office disappointments like The LEGO Movie 2 (Which was as good as the already amazing original), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Which is arguably the best Godzilla movie ever made depending on if you A. Only watched the American made films or B. Decided if you watched every Godzilla movie from America, Japan or both.), The Secret Life of Pets 2 (Which is even better than the original) etc… We also got only one original comedy that overperformed, Good Boys (which works on so many levels). Everything else that came out this year was an outright flop that nobody wanted to see. If I can name only one Fox film that was a big hit this year, it’s gotta be Ford V Ferrari (Which I heard was the opposite of Ad Astra and I need to check it out alongside A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood). And that’s barring a miracle from Spies In Disguise (Which actually got decent reviews). Now the biggest question is will 2020 see studios other than Disney deliver big hits? Yes Black Widow might be the biggest movie of 2020 and gross more than Captain Marvel. Yes Onward and Soul will be lucky to gross more than Inside Out’s $856 million global gross. Yes Raya and the Last Dragon might gross almost as much as Big Hero 6. Yes Mulan might not gross $1 billion or more. Yes Eternals might be lucky to gross more than Doctor Strange. However there’s a good chance that Wonder Woman: 1984 might battle Black Widow for biggest film of the summer (And year), No Time to Die will earn the biggest April opening for a film that isn’t related to Fast and the Furious or isn’t part of the MCU (The Jungle Book has that record currently), Sonic the Hedgehog might reap in big bucks (restore my faith in Viacom) after millions are recognized that Sonic looks more like Sonic and less like a human cosplaying as sonic, and Fast and Furious 9 (Which we still haven’t gotten a trailer for yet) will be an overseas monster and possible reach $1 billion without making $200 million domestically. So hopefully, 2020 will see more than just Disney movies reaping in monster amounts of cash. If Wonder Woman 1984 and No time to Die kick butt, then it’ll be because they saved the biggest non Disney hits for 2020. Let’s hope the 2020 battle for the summer and yearly crown Involves two good looking women played by two good looking girls saving the world and saving our lives from Brie Larson/Captain Marvel. Oh yeah, I saw The rise of Skywalker again and I gotta say Free Guy out of all the 20 previews I got with showing #2 looks super intriguing.

Captain Marvel, The Lion King and the worst movies of 2019

Alright then. Since my movie viewing experience for 2019 is done, time for my best and worst of 2019 lists. As always, I’m doing the worst for first and the best for last followed by my top ten best of the year. But yeah. In this list I’m going to discuss the movies I hated or was disappointed with throughout the year. No, I’m not putting in the movies I never saw that are bad ideas to begin with like I did for the last two years because that would be cheating. Anyway, here are the year’s biggest duds.

Captain Marvel: Black Widow is better. Period. The only redeeming qualities of the film were Samuel L. Jackson and Goose. Rating: 1/10 and an F for Brie Larson.

Dumbo: Never wait so darn long to remake a movie that came out a super long time ago. Dumbo isn’t that popular of a movie. So why remake it? It is ironically bad. How? It came out at a perfect time where Disney bought Fox. And it’s a scary good portrayal of that. Also the humans weren’t very good (Nothing against Danny DeVito who was in a better movie at the end of the year but more on that in another post). Tim Burton has officially lost his charm. Had uh….. Someone not named Tim Burton directed it, then maybe it would have been better. Rating: 1/10 and an F.

The Lion King: I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. Mostly because I adored Jon Feaveru’s The Jungle Book. However, a live action movie with no humans just all talking animals with zero soul turned out to be a really bad idea. It’s arguably the most disappointing movie I’ve seen pretty much all year. I expected it to be really good. For the first time since A Wrinkle in Time, Disney has failed me with 2 out of 3 of this year’s remakes. The only redeeming quality of the film was Timon and Pumbaa are funny and Seth Rogan was a good choice for Pumbaa. Other than that, stick with the Original. Rating: 2/10 and a D.

Friday box office results: Star Wars finishes it’s Story with $90 million, catches Joker-Titus

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker earned a whopping $90 million last night for a possible $191 million debut. That’s better than original predictions but a bit weaker than revised predictions. That still counts as a big win. On one hand, it’s reviews were nothing special while its B+ CinemaScore was very disappointing. On the other hand, both results don’t matter because it’s user rating is 86% making it the 27th movie from 2019 that the critics got 100% wrong that got a user rating of 80% or higher. Joker was the same thing. It did better than expected but it’s reviews were divisive and it earned a B+ score also but guess what? That didn’t matter either cause it’s user score was higher than 90%! Sometimes, CinemaScore doesn’t align with your reactions. For example, Frozen 2 got an A- but it’s user score is above 90% and Baywatch got a B+ but it’s user score was above 80%. So yeah, you can’t always go with critic reviews or CinemaScore all the time because guess what? It’s your opinion! So yeah I’m seeing it tonight and hopefully my thoughts on the movie are closer to the user score than the reviews and CinemaScore ranking. Like I noted yesterday, an opinion is an opinion, no matter how it affects your point of view. Anyway, look for $191 million over the weekend but longer legs than The Last Jedi in the long run.

Jumanji: The Next Level fell a concerning 64% from last Friday to $7 million. I’m super hoping the movie bounces back over the weekend and earns $30 million+ because let me tell you, the movie itself is on par with Welcome to the Jungle. That will still pull it above $100 million after just 10 days.

Frozen 2 continued its march to $400 million with $3 million for a possible $11 million fifth week gross. It collapsed in week 3 but even with the might of Jumanji and Star Wars, it is really making up some serious ground.

Cats went to hades with $2 million yesterday for a possible $6 million debut. It’s reviews are awful and it got a C+ score to go with it. Ouch. That means the critics and audience reactions are matching the negative internet buzz. But yeah, we all can’t be The Greatest Showman. I guess maybe Universal should have stuck with releasing Wicked this weekend instead.

Bombshell earned $1 million for a possible $5 million debut.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker continues an ongoing theme for 2019 (A movie news post)

I think it’s safe to say this. Throughout pretty much the entire year of 2019, we have been experiencing an interesting trend with most of this year’s films. What’s that trend you may ask? That trend is “Bad or Average Critic reviews, Good Audience feedbacks”. We have seen this happen a bunch of times during the whole year. Almost every time a movie doesn’t get a good rating (around 30%-48%) or gets an average rating (around 50%-70%), the audience tends to disagree with the critics. The most recent film to wear the “Bad or Average Critic Reviews, Good Audience Feedbacks” badge was (Believe it or not) the latest Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker (Which (If you missed it) earned $40 million in Thursday previews for a possible $175 million-$219 million debut). The J.J. Abrams helmed series finale may have earned 58% rotten from the snobby critics, but it’s user score currently registers at a stellar 86%. We’ve seen this happen to a bunch of other movies this year that came out before it. Those other movies being (Deep breath) The Upside, Alita: Battle Angel, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Yesterday, The Lion King, Hobbs and Shaw, Angel has Fallen, It: Chapter 2, Joker, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Midway, and Jumanji: The Next Level. So yeah. This has been happening a lot this year. There is a major difference between The critics giving Toy Story 4 rave reviews and audiences agreeing with them about it and Moviegoers disagreeing about the fact that critics are being Anti-Aladdin or Anti-Secret Life of Pets 2. But there’s also audiences agreeing that stuff like Dumbo or Playing with Fire deserve to be smacked by critics and there’s also people disagreeing with the fact that critics are being pro-Ad Astra or pro-Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. So yeah, all this stuff is what makes the world go round. An Opinion is an opinion. No matter how it affects another person’s point of view. So yeah, if you want to agree with the critics that a movie they like is a movie you like like Avengers: Endgame or A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, that’s good. If you want to disagree that a movie critics think is average is actually amazing like Joker or Jumanji: The Next Level, that’s good also. If you want to strongly disagree with the critics that a movie they dislike is actually really good like Midway or Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, that is completely okay. If you agree with the critics that a movie they hate is a movie you hate also like Playmobil or Miss Bala, good for you. If you disagree with the critics about a movie they like and it doesn’t live up to that film’s reviews like Captain Marvel or Hustlers, I don’t care. Just don’t start an argument on the internet about your opinion and say the other person’s opinion is garbage. You’ll not have a wonderful future. Anyway, 2019 will indeed be remembered as the year of bad or average reviewed movies that are actually good or amazing. Yes you can hate on rotten Tomatoes for despising a movie you like or liking a movie you hate but that doesn’t mean they’re gonna shut down anytime soon.

Box Office: Star Wars Rises above Avengers with $40 million in Thursday previews

Turns out, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might get to $200 million after a huge $40 million Thursday previews gross. That positions the movie for a debut of $156 million-$219 million depending on its legs. It’s tomatometer score may stand at a disappointing 58%, but the holidays and the fact that audiences want to experience the Skywalker saga one more time may or may not push the movie past the $220 million opening of The Last Jedi. What’s worth noting is that that $40 million previews gross is the fifth largest every behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Last two Star Wars episodes, and Avengers: Endgame and is just one million above the $39 million earned by Avengers: Infinity War. It’s also important to know that it’s only $5 million below The Last Jedi’s $45 million (Not bad at all actually). Oh! In case you were curious, it’s audience score is actually 86% which is a really good sign. So yeah with the holidays coming up and strong word of mouth from audiences, I’m upping my prediction from $182 million to $202 million. I might have to higher up predictions once Friday’s number comes in though.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and the underrated gems of the 2010s

It’s official, I will not do my best and worst of 2019 until January 2020 because we’re nearing the end of the 2010s and I want to focus on that because of how special I feel like making them are. Today’s list showcases all the movies from this decade that is either enjoyed better by me than 99% of the planet or overlooked. Here are the most under appreciated movies of the decade

2010:

Shrek Forever After: Yes the best installments in the Shrek franchise still remain 1 and 2 but I really think this movie is the most overlooked of the whole franchise. It’s better than the third movie, funnier than the third movie and written better than the third movie. You got a goofy villain, a creative plot, and a satisfying finale. Just don’t make Shrek 5 real!

MegaMind: Yes of the two “Bad guys gone good” animated originals, Despicable Me was more compelling but that’s for another list. However, MegaMind was the most overlooked of the two. It’s about a supervillain who after killing off a superhero decides he doesn’t want to be evil anymore. He then decides to make a new superhero that he can fight off. But when that hero turns bad, things go awry. Has any other studio used that plot before? Not really! It puts Will Farrell in one of his more funnier performances. And yes, it still remains the best movie Brad Pitt has ever done! It’s a shame a sequel has never been exposed to the world.

TRON: Legacy: Why do people hate this movie? The effects are great, the acting is pretty good and it looks gorgeous. This movie (like many said) is Speed Racer with glow sticks. And since Speed Racer too was underrated, it’s not a bad thing to say at all. It’s a shame another movie never saw the light of day.

2011:

Nothing here unfortunately as Hop, Rio and Cars 2 all aged poorly.

2012:

The Lorax: I don’t get the hate for this one at all. It’s funny, it gives the kid a story, and it’s a thousand times better and far more kid friendly than The Cat in the Hat. Danny DeVito gives out a superb performance as the title character (His only other superb performance from this decade is on a different list but I’m not giving anything away.) as does Ed Helms as The Onceler. In fact, I liked this film almost as much As Horton Hears a Who.

2013:

The Croods: Another Dreamworks movie that made the cut on this list. A family of cavemen become the first modern day family in history after learning about modern day stuff. It gives Nicholas Cage his best performance in years (Perhaps as good as his performances in Face Off and his best one since the National Treasure films), and it gave Ryan Reynolds his only good pre-Deadpool performance.

Pacific Rim: It’s Transformers, Power Rangers, and Godzilla all mashed into one film and it’s better than most people say it is.

2014:

Mr. Peabody and Sherman: Yet another Dreamworks movie that squeezed into the list. It’s not seen by many but it’s a heartwarming story about a dog whose son is a human boy and they both go back in time to impress a girl as a friend after the boy screws up and uses the time machine. It deserves to be watched and it’s funny and it’s arguably better than the likes of Muppets Most Wanted and Oz the Great and Powerful.

Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day: I put this Steve Carrell starring comedy in this list because nobody talks about it. It’s funny, smart and original. It’s a good movie based off a good book. Only instead of Alexander having a bad day, it’s the rest of the family that does it.

Penguins of Madagascar: The only other Dreamworks movie for 2014 to be on this list. Yes I prefer the Madagascar Adventures but the Penguins are awesome characters.

Into the Woods: It’s a good movie period.

2015:

Home: Pretty much the only Dreamworks film this year and the 12th time I listed one in this post. Yes, Pixar’s Inside Out was more compelling but this film I really do not understand the hate for at all. It’s about an alien that gets sent to earth and makes it his home with the help of a little girl. It’s a sweet movie that doesn’t deserve to be trashed.

The Good Dinosaur: it’s Pixar’s first box office flop but while it is forgettable, it’s still a pretty good film. Yes, Inside Out was more memorable but this movie needs some loving sometimes.

2016:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows: The sequel to one of the biggest surprises of 2014 is the most underrated film this year. It’s a great sequel to a movie not a lot of people wanted to give a second viewing and it’s basically a live action version of the Saturday morning cartoon from the 80s. It’s way better than any of the transformers sequels (That aren’t Bumblebee of course) and it’s the best TMNT movie ever made (Suck it, TMNT 2007!).

The BFG: All I can say for this is Steven Spielberg made another great film and people need to give it a watch.

2017:

Smurfs: The Lost Village: What can I say? It’s a Smurfs movie that’s fully animated and doesn’t take place in our world and doesn’t have Neil Patrick Harris that people need to give a chance!

2018:

Solo: A Star Wars Story: Yes it bombed but as a Star Wars movie and a movie on its own, it’s pretty entertaining for what it is. Sure it’s not as good as the original trilogy (Or The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi Or (possibly) The Rise of Skywalker for that matter) but it’s still better than Attack of the Clones (Phantom Menace is just okay and Revenge of the Sith is fine).

Smallfoot: It’s better and more compelling than Storks.

2019:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: Arguably the best Godzilla movie ever made. Normally, I look for compelling stories in movies but It’s got more monster carnage than the 2014 movie and more monsters alongside more screentime from Mr. Godzilla himself. And if I get a chance to Watch Alita: Battle Angel, I’m not remaking this entire post for that one film!

The Addams Family: Uh… yeah why do people hate this? It’s funny and it’s got a great cast (Finn Wolfhard FTW).

Before Hollywood drank nostalgia juice, Avatar was the last original live action film to be a gigantic $1 billion+ monster

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of James Cameron’s (Still amazing) Avatar. For those who are unfamiliar with the movie, it took from 1999-2009 (Right after Cameron’s last film, Titanic became an unexpected monster) for the Terminator Director to make sure Avatar was going to change the film industry forever. It took so long for it to be made that it wasn’t until August of 2009 (When the first trailer surfaced) for people to start discussing about it. All we said was “It looks like Dances with Wolves but with Smurf cat thingys. What should I call it… oh yeah! Dances with Smurfs! I don’t know about this film.” Nobody was sure about its box office chances because it cost $240 million to produce. Heck, only the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel were destined to be monster hits after A. Sherlock Holmes looked like one on paper and B. The first Chipmunks film was a surprise monster hit with $217 million domestically off a then stupefying $44 million debut under the shadow of I Am Legend’s then record $77 million. Speaking of Chipmunks 2, it was dated 5 days after Avatar came out in case the James Cameron epic flopped harder than the likes of Waterworld and Sahara. On December 10th 2009, the film was screened to critics one week before its actual release. The word was overwhelmingly positive. “So ****ing amazing that it’ll make you **** your pants with your mouths wide open” was the best way to react to the film. As for the movie itself, it’s a visual marvel and a masterpiece that will make you want to actually be in the film. Its still the best movie to watch in 3D (Suck it, G-Force!). Frothing at the mouth buzz made Fox and friends breathe another sigh of relief (Especially since the likes of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs both overtook the likes of Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and despite the brutal snowstorm, it tied the December record with a monster $77 million. Nobody was sure where it was gonna go from there. That was until the film fell just 3% in week 2 with $75 million against the staggering $62 million debut of Sherlock Holmes and the boffo $48 million debut of Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 (Still a record for biggest debut for a film that opened in bronze position). It then fell 9% to $68 million in week 3 (The same week it reached $1 billion worldwide) it then surpassed Titanic on day 38 to be the biggest movie of all time. It had that record for a decade until a little movie called Avengers: Endgame crushed all corners and overtook it. It was considered the Energizer bunny of box office record breakers. It was also the first and last film to reach $2 billion in overseas revenue. Despite being a profitable monster, the merchandising never sold all that well (Sorry, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys!). A lot has changed since Endgame grosses more than Avatar. When Avatar was the biggest movie ever, we still played the likes of the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Now when Endgame overtook it, we play the likes of the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and oddly enough our smartphones. Back then we had more originals than sequels and remakes, now it’s the other way around. Back then we watched stuff like The Simpsons, The Office, South Park, Family Guy, Phineas and Ferb, Big Bang Theory, SpongeBob, and possibly any other show that was popular enough for us to watch on physical television back then. Now we just go on our streaming services to watch the likes of Stranger Things, Atypical, and The Mandalorian because regular television is dead and shows that have been on for long turned rotten. Back then we bought action figures. Now we buy POP figures (Which I think look sick in a good way). Back then we had flip phones. Now we have smartphones. So yeah, the world has changed over the full decade. Also Hollywood has been and still is focusing on giving us live action franchises we grew up with and countless superhero adventures that grossed more than $800 million worldwide. The Marvel universe was growing, Star Wars roared back into theaters, people grew tired of stuff like Terminator, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Alien, we got new refurbished franchises like Jumanji (Which became a refurbished franchise after The Next Level grossed a whopping $59 million this past weekend), Twilight died, and Comic book films were the number one go-to films for going to the movies with sci-fi Being number two and horror being number three (animation was number four and live action comedies were number five.). So it was safe to say that after Avatar overtook titanic, we got no other original live action film surpassing $900 million let alone $1 billion in global revenue. We don’t know if any of the sequels are going to work or replicate the success of the first film. 10 years later, I still find Avatar’s theater run to be another diamond in the rough.

Rise of Skywalker doesn’t need to open bigger than The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi to be a monster hit (A movie news post)

We are three days away (or two if your going to the Thursday night screening) from the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. No. I won’t be making a what to expect from post for this movie because of what happened with me overestimating Toy Story 4’s debut. But you will be able to see what might happen to this film’s debut after Thursday preview numbers trickle in. I’m pretty sure it’s reviews will be overwhelmingly positive as The Force Awakens and the Last Jedi which earned 93% fresh and 91% fresh respectively. I’m also sure that the movie will earn the same exact A CinemaScore as those two films too. Internet reactions will hopefully be irrelevant (Monsters!). If you say stuff like “The sequel trilogy is awesome and is on par with the original trilogy! Rey is the best character ever and I want to date Daisy Ridley!” Then it shows that you actually saw these movies at a theater and you liked what you saw. If you say stuff like “Disney ruined this franchise! The end is nigh!!!” Then you are a terrible person who loves to sit on a chair with a keyboard in front of you. And no! I will not take a trip to the Internet to read stuff about who Rey’s parents are (They’re Porgs!), what Rey’s last name is (It’s Vespa!), who suffered a Brutal death (R.I.P. Baby Yoda), and who is the real surprise mastermind who started the First Order (How could you, Porg?! We trusted you!) or discuss that stuff in a random pre-viewing post until after i see the film. As for its box office chances, there’s a possibility that (barring a miracle) it could open lower than The Last Jedi (Around $207 million), but have much better legs than that still terrific Rian Johnson sequel if not better legs than The Force Awakens (The previous Star Wars film JJ Abrams helmed). Of course it could be leggier Than Endgame and possibly challenge it for the yearly domestic crown. It’s not getting anywhere near it’s worldwide crown. Yes the fact that it’s opening a week after Jumanji: The Next Level (Which debuted to a jaw dropping $59 million this past weekend) and right when Christmas break starts is going to boost its chances at being one of the biggest films of all time in America. If it opens closer to The Avengers than Avengers: Infinity War, nothing bad will happen to the mouse house. Even if it debuts closer to Captain America: Civil War Or Incredibles 2, then there’s no reason for Disney to re-enact Event Horizon. But yeah. It’s better to trade a record breaking debut for long legs.

Weekend estimates: Merry early Christmas!

Wow. Just wow. On Thursday, I predicted Jumanji: The Next Level to “only” earn $38 million. However, when it earned $4.7 million in Thursday previews, I was already aware that my weekend prediction was way too low. Then i saw that it earned a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sized $19 million on Friday and said that It would earn $52 million for the full weekend only to see that it actually played like an animated kids film throughout the rest of the weekend. Over the weekend, the film earned a stupefying $60 million debut. This just shows that kid powered matinees and strong word of mouth both played a major role here. After earning $19 million on Friday, it grew to $23 million on Saturday and earned an estimated $17 million on Sunday for a $60 million opening. It’s hard to imagine that number not remaining flat or going up by the time the Monday afternoon actuals come in. With good reviews and an A- CinemaScore, it will have good legs even with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hitting multiplexes on Thursday night. Even legs like The Hobbit trilogy still gets it past $200 million. However, a total of almost $300 million or over $300 million seems like the more appropriate goal. No it’s not getting anywhere near the last film domestically but almost $300 million or more than $300 million is still going to let Sony justify one more movie (Which I’m hoping they like this movie do not make a rehash). After this result, Sony is about to give us another blockbuster franchise. And the first one in a while that doesn’t A. Involve superheroes or B. Doesn’t have to deal with Mickey Mouse.

Frozen 2 was well back in second place with $19 million for a total of $366 million. It will get to $400 million and over take the original but it might have to wait till Christmas for that to happen. That being said the movie already has $666 million overseas (Welcome to hades!) and it (unsurprisingly) reached $1 billion worldwide making the 8th(!) film this year to get there. If Jumanji: The Next Level (Which I don’t have overseas numbers for yet) continues its impressive performance, it will get there also. I’ll have some chopped liver if Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t get there. By February or March of 2020, 2019 might see the entire top ten list of biggest movies of the year filled with $1 billion+ grossers. That would be absolutely insane.

Back on the domestic front, Knives Out earned $9 million for a $78 million cume. It could get to $100 million but there are a few Christmas releases that could push it out of major theaters.

Next is a duo of Christmas coals. Richard Jewell earned $5 million over the weekend. That’s pretty bad. It’s reviews are fine I guess but it earned an A CinemaScore. However that’s the film’s only good news.

Black Christmas got an even bigger lump of coal earning just $4 million. It’s reviews are eh and it’s D+ CinemaScore is even worse. It’s universal’s second Christmas bomb this year. Geez. We can’t all be like The Grinch.