1. The Fate of the Furious- $19.3M/$192.7M
In what turned out to be a very odd week, The Fate of the Furious was rock steady with $19.3M. It's nearing the $200M mark domestically and has now joined Furious 7 as the second movie in the franchise to go over $1B worldwide.
2. How to be a Latin Lover- $12M
So back to that odd week, the top new release of the week was How to be a Latin Lover, which overcame the powerhouse cast of The Circle easily. Perhaps this shouldn't be considered so weird since Lionsgate and Pantelion have done well with films targeting the Latino audience. They previously worked with Mexican star Eugenio Derbez on 2013's Instructions Not Included, which became the fourth highest-grossing foreign film in U.S. history. Derbez has been showing up in American films more often lately as a result. He can be seen right now in Adam Sandler's Sandy Wexler, and starred opposite Jennifer Garner in the faith-based hit, Miracles from Heaven.
3. Baahuball 2: The Conclusion- $10.1M
Hey, I don't know what Baahuball 2: The Conclusion is either, since I utterly ignored the Bollywood film's 2015 predecessor which was a huge $100M smash worldwide. Perhaps the biggest point to be gained by the success of Baahuball and How to Be a Latin Lover is that when Hollywood targets audiences that have been forgotten about by the mainstream system, viewers turn out in droves. And to be honest that goes for people like me, too. It's my responsibility as someone who covers movies to seek out films like these and to stop pretending they don't matter because clearly they do.
4. The Circle (review)- $9.3M
Damn, what happened here? The Circle boasts an incredible lineup of talent, from director James Ponsoldt to stars Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, and Karen Gillan. Wait...that's somebody from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and a certified screen legend, and all they could muster was $9M? How does that happen? Well, first thing, The Circle is a bad movie. The Dave Eggers adaptation is a tech thriller about how giving up our privacy to Google and other tech firms is a terrible idea. Okay, fine, I saw that movie like twenty times already over the last few years. Even so, the cast should be enough to carry it, right? Not when the script, which was actually co-written by Eggers himself, undercuts its message at every turn and fails to raise the stakes in any noticeable way. In most cases the critical reviews are considerably more negative than the audience's, but not in this case as it has a D+ from Cinemascore. Oof. What makes this worse is the other new releases combined only had 1500 theaters, while The Circle had over 3000. At least Watson can say she has Beauty and the Beast in the top 10, and that one is well over $1B.
5. The Boss Baby- $9M/$148.4M
6. Beauty and the Beast- $6.4M/$480.1M
7. Going in Style- $3.5M/$37.3M
8. Smurfs: The Lost Village- $3.31M/$37.7M
9. Gifted- $3.3M/$15.8M
10. Unforgettable- $2.3M/$8.8M
Already forgotten.
Meanwhile, one film that won't be forgotten anytime soon is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. While it doesn't open here until next week, the overseas markets have already checked it out to the tune of $101M. It's a shame that we seem to be setting a $1B benchmark for the Marvel sequel already, as if a lower number would equal failure.
