Post by MagdaFR on Jan 13, 2024 18:30:15 GMT
Not good. I don't understand why Sony released the movie in January. They could have campaigned at least for Lakeith.
Sony released The Book of Clarence on Friday as well, and it’s sadly playing like a “movie we say we want but ignore when we get it” theatrical offering. The biblical dramedy, starring LaKeith Stanfield as a down-on-his-luck grifter trying to sell himself as a messiah right alongside Jesus, comes courtesy of writer/director Jeymes Samuel. Samuel’s star-studded western The Harder They Fall is my pick for Netflix’s very best original studio programmer/genre flick, and it’s very encouraging to see Samuel make the jump from streaming originals to big-studio theatrical features.
This $40 million flick plays a similar trick as the western, offering a genre usually represented by white folks and filling the screen with Black actors while A) using the demographic difference for storytelling nuance and B) having a grand old, unapologetically pulpy time with it. Honestly, Samuel’s current vibe of “super-duper important representational milestone... but also a grand old time at the movies that don’t put importance over showmanship” makes him one of the more promising “new” filmmakers around.
Despite solid reviews, the $40 million production earned just $1 million on Friday, pointing toward a $2.6 million Fri-Sun/$3.2 million Fri-Mon debut. Look, I’ve been whining about this at least since Drew Barrymore’s Whip It bombed in late 2009, and it’s only gotten worse as general/casual audiences shifted some of their non-event moviegoing to streaming over theaters. At least, since it’s a Sony flick, it’ll eventually become momentarily popular on Netflix, and the perpetually online will claim that nobody told them that this movie even existed. All I’ll say is that if you have the time, it looks really good on a very big screen.
This $40 million flick plays a similar trick as the western, offering a genre usually represented by white folks and filling the screen with Black actors while A) using the demographic difference for storytelling nuance and B) having a grand old, unapologetically pulpy time with it. Honestly, Samuel’s current vibe of “super-duper important representational milestone... but also a grand old time at the movies that don’t put importance over showmanship” makes him one of the more promising “new” filmmakers around.
Despite solid reviews, the $40 million production earned just $1 million on Friday, pointing toward a $2.6 million Fri-Sun/$3.2 million Fri-Mon debut. Look, I’ve been whining about this at least since Drew Barrymore’s Whip It bombed in late 2009, and it’s only gotten worse as general/casual audiences shifted some of their non-event moviegoing to streaming over theaters. At least, since it’s a Sony flick, it’ll eventually become momentarily popular on Netflix, and the perpetually online will claim that nobody told them that this movie even existed. All I’ll say is that if you have the time, it looks really good on a very big screen.
scottmendelson.substack.com/p/box-office-mean-girls-tops-friday