Well we are finally out of the winter doldrums of the movie world. Weather-wise is another story. We now leave the dumping grounds of the film industry and dig into the fresh meat and hits we all wait for. Where the dumping grounds used to extend from January thru April, we are now getting great movies in February! This weekend represents the first week of fresh blood. The thing is, it wasn’t the awakening most hoped for.
#1 The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – While this was the easy choice for number one this weekend, it was also the biggest disappointment of the weekend. Lego 2 brought in $34.4 million. A nice solid number except that predictions were pushing this release into the $50 million range. $34 million also puts it behind the original Lego movie ($69 mil) and even Lego Batman ($53).
Is this Lego fatigue already, or are families still trying to recover from that heart-stopping Superbowl weekend last weekend? Either way it calls into question future installments of the franchise. It would help if it could have some legs. The problem there is in two weeks it hits a major buzz-saw in the form of the last How To Train Your Dragon movie.
#2 What Men Want – In second place What Men Want brought in $19 million, right about expectations. The issue here is that scores are not looking so good. Rotten Tomatoes is giving it a 47 and 45% from critics and fans alike. Even Metacritic has it at 51%. Look for this movie to drop hard and fast in the weeks ahead.
#3 Cold Pursuit – The Liam Neeson driven film brought in $10.8 million for third place. This landed right about expectations. RTomatoes has it scoring a 75% with critics and 63% with audiences, but over at Metacritic it is only scoring a 58%.
#4 The Upside – At #4 we have the first of two movies from the previous weeks in The Upside. In its fifth week in managed to pull in $7.2 million, a drop of only 16%. The $37 million film has now managed to gross $85.8 million domestically. Another strong showing for Cranston and Hart.
#5 Glass – Our other repeat film is M. Knight Shamalan’s latest, bringing in $6.4 million in its fourth week. This $20 million movie will cross $100 million this week domestically and has already crossed $221 globally.
The other new film of the week, The Prodigy, came in at sixth with $6 million. This past weekend also represents the first time in eight weeks that Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse is no longer in the top 5. Despite being a Marvel/Spidey film, it definitely overachieved and broke every expectation it had. It should complete its performance in a couple weeks with some Oscar Gold for Best Animated.
NEXT WEEKEND
Next weekend we get a real smorgasbord of films with three new releases. First off we have the sequel to the hit horror film, Happy Death Day, entitled Happy Death Day 2 U. It is one thing to die over and over again until you solve your own murder, but what happens when you keep repeating the same day until you save your friends?
Second we have the comedy Isn’t It Romantic, starring Liam Hemsworth and Rebel Wilson. Rebel is a person who suddenly finds herself trapped in a romantic comedy.
Finally we have the visually amazing Alita: Battle Angel. This sci-fi visual extravaganza is about a female cyborg that must rediscover her past and who she is. Actress Rosa Salazar is getting praise for her performance-capture performance in the main role.
