Remember last week when we pointed out the decided lack of Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival? Well, at the midway point, our Steve Pond has assessed that things are… pretty lackluster.
There are a few films that have created buzz — Jordan Firstman, of “I Love LA” fame, struck the first (and thus far only) bidding war with his LGBTQ+ dramedy “Club Kid” (A24 won it for $17 million). James Gray’s crime drama “Paper Tiger,” which Neon will release later this year, seems poised to be in the awards conversation. And on Sunday night, Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi creature feature “Hope” debuted to a strongly divisive response.
But there’s a decided lack of, as the French would say, “joie de vivre” so far. Pond doesn’t put the blame squarely on the lack of Hollywood films, noting that even the international-heavy lineup is somewhat lacking. Perhaps the latter portion of the fest will pick up, but so far it’s all very ho-hum.
Even Scarlett Johansson didn’t show up for the premiere of “Paper Tiger,” leaving Gray trying to FaceTime her during the film’s standing ovation to no avail. She’s busy filming “The Exorcist,” then she’ll move right into “The Batman: Part II.”
Hollywood, you know?
Now, on to the rest of this week’s column.
Box Office: ‘Michael’ Passes $700 Million Worldwide at Box Office as ‘Obsession’ Opens to $16 Million
Lionsgate/Universal’s “Michael” has retaken the top spot at the box office and remains on course to break the all-time biopic record as it crosses $700 million in global grosses.
The King of Pop’s global fanbase is still showing up for Antoine Fuqua’s biopic after four weekends of theatrical play, as the film added $26 million this weekend with the help of 1,100 Imax and premium format screens, some of which “Michael” didn’t have the previous two weekends as they exclusively went to “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
The film’s totals now stand at $282.8 million domestic and $703.9 million worldwide. Even with most if not all PLF support going to “The Mandalorian & Grogu” for Memorial Day weekend, “Michael” should get another holiday boost that will bring it closer and closer to passing the $975 million biopic record held by “Oppenheimer” and becoming the first $1 billion-grossing biopic in box office history.
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” took a much steeper 57% drop in its third weekend, but Disney and 20th Century still have a lot to smile about as the film added $18 million domestic and $68 million worldwide to bring its total to $175 million domestic and $546 million worldwide. The film is set to pass $600 million worldwide by Memorial Day, having already exceeded the global totals of the Marvel Studios releases “Thunderbolts*,” “Captain America: Brave New World” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Just behind “Prada 2” is the standout newcomer of the weekend: Focus Features’ “Obsession,” a vicious and disturbing horror film from director Curry Barker that got rave reviews from critics and audiences at TIFF and has kept that going into its wide release this weekend with a $16.1 million opening.
“Obsession” had a reported budget of just $1 million and was acquired by Focus out of Toronto for a reported $15 million. Standing with a rare-for-horror A- on CinemaScore and a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film has everything it needs to be a strong return on investment for Focus as it carries this excellent word-of-mouth into Memorial Day weekend.
With audience demographics of 59% male and 75% 18-35, the strong turnout for “Obsession” likely played a factor in the 66% second weekend drop for Warner Bros./New Line’s “Mortal Kombat II,” which grossed $13.4 million this weekend and now stands at $62.2 million domestic and $101.2 million worldwide. – Jeremy Fuster
The Spotlight
If you’ve been reading this column weekly, 1. Bless you and 2. You know Netflix has been killing it with original action-thriller movies over the last couple of months. The kinds of mid-budget films that used to light up the box office in the ’90s and early 2000s, but which Hollywood has kind of shied away from. That’s precisely what motivated Netflix to greenlight movies like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s crime thriller “The Rip,” Alan Ritchson’s sci-fi actioner “War Machine,” the shark actioner “Thrash” and the Charlize Theron vs. Taron Egerton action movie “Apex,” all of which have done gangbusters on the streamer.
Our Drew Taylor spoke with Netflix and the filmmakers behind these breakout movies to find out how the megastreamer resurrected the R-rated blockbuster and filled a hole left by theatrically focused studios. Read the full story here.
New Releases
Cannes So Far: Steve Pond runs down the breakout films and vibes of the Cannes Film Festival at the midpoint.
Warming Up to AI?: Sharon Waxman, meanwhile, reports from Cannes that many filmmakers are now embracing AI as a tool in the filmmaking process.
Cannes Cover: More Cannes! Check out our cover story with Renate Reinsve and Director’s Portfolio as part of our magazine issue.
Coming Up Curry: 26-year-old Curry Barker went from YouTube comedy guy to having a breakout horror film, “Obsession,” in theaters and signing on to remake “Texas Chainsaw.” Casey Loving spoke to him about his journey so far.
Box Office Cooldown: The box office has been red hot over the last couple of months, but Jeremy Fuster writes on why there’s no reason to panic about the coming cooldown.
‘Afterworld’ Lives: “Amphibia” creator Matt Brawly had a film scrapped at Sony, only for it to be resurrected by Thai backers after fans embraced early concept art online. Drew Taylor has the exclusive on the new life for this animated feature.
Because We Cannes Cannes Cannes: We have so much Cannes coverage — including a bevy of reviews — for you to thumb through. Catch up here.
Concession Stand
James Bond casting has officially begun. Place your bets!
Speaking of casting, “The Batman: Part II” added Sebastian Koch and Bryan Tyree Henry.
Cinematographer Linus Sandgren reveals all about shooting “Wuthering Heights” now that the film’s on 4K Blu-ray.
Sam Raimi is going to remake the Anthony Hopkins ventriloquist horror movie “Magic” for Lionsgate.
Barry Levinson is still annoyed about the controversy surrounding “Sleepers.”
Will Smith is teaming with Amazon MGM Studios and director David Gordon Green for the prison action thriller “Supermax.”
Streaming Corner
There were questions surrounding how “The Rip,” an Artists Equity production, would keep the Ben Affleck/Matt Damon studio’s model of paying cast and crew bonuses based on a film’s performance. Well, they struck a deal with Netflix to honor that system, and this week the bonus paid out thanks to the film hitting the viewership threshold on the streamer.
What I’m Watching
With “The Batman: Part II” finally starting production, I decided to revisit Matt Reeves’ 2022 film “The Batman” for the first time in a long time, and damn, that movie holds up. The handle on tone is what was most striking to me on rewatch — it’s so methodically paced but never loses interest, and Robert Pattinson is tremendously watchable with his fresh take on the Caped Crusader. And Greig Fraser’s cinematography is simply stunning. Very curious to see what “Part II” DP Erik Messerschmidt puts together.
The post Reel to Real: A Ho-Hum Cannes So Far appeared first on TheWrap.
