Box Office: 'Godzilla 2' Underwhelms With $49M, 'Rocketman' Takes Off With $25M

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (review)- $49M
Warner Bros.' Godzilla: King of the Monsters stomped its way to the top with $49M domestic and $179M worldwide. That's...well, okay. That number is roughly half the start of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla just five years ago, and that at least made it up to $200M stateside and $529M worldwide on $160M budget. On a budget upped to $170M the sequel looks like it may do a fraction of the business. Even semi-prequel Kong: Skull Island, which Godzilla will (may??) crossover with next year, opened with $61M. So this isn't great. Hardly a disaster, and who knows what it means for Godzilla vs. Kong, but clearly WB and Legendary have some evaluating to do.
2. Aladdin- $42.3M/$185M
Disney's Aladdin slipped 53% in its second weekend for $42M and $185M domestic. Worldwide the live-action remake continues to do extremely well with $445M. This has to come as a relief to Disney, because I think there were legit concerns about how well this would do. Sure, Aladdin is a beloved animated classic but that's also part of the problem. Would audiences want to see a childhood favorite remade in this way? At the same time, it's not quite on the same level as The Lion King which is already on pace to break $200M in a single weekend.
3. Rocketman (review)- $25M
The Elton John biopic Rocketman, which is really a straight-up musical, opened with $25M domestic. The $40M film stars Taron Egerton as the rock superstar, singing and dancing his way through the first half of the singer's life. There's a good chance this will be sticking around for a long time. I'm not quite sure it'll have the same interest level as Bohemian Rhapsody, mainly because Elton John is still around, but personally I found Rocketman to be a better movie with a more impressive by the multi-talented Taron Egerton. If what he does here catches on, don't be surprised if this movie hangs around throughout the summer.
4. Ma (review)- $18.2M
Blumhouse has another small-budgeted hit on their hands with Ma, and I think this was destined to do well. The $5M thriller boasts more star power than the typical Blumhouse film, giving Oscar winner Octavia Spencer the chance to go nuts as a woman who grows obsessed with a group of hard-partying teens. Reunited with The Help director Tate Taylor, this had a special blend of acting talent and B-movie campiness that was appealing for horror fans.
5. John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum- $11.1M/$125.7M
6. Avengers: Endgame- $7.8M/$815.5M
7. Pokemon Detective Pikachu- $6.6M/$130.6MB
8. Booksmart- $3.3M/$14.3M
9. Brightburn- $2.3M/$14.2M
10. The Hustle- $1.3M/$33.1M

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Review: ‘Ma’, Octavia Spencer Chomps Scenery Awesomely In Blumhouse's High School Horror

It doesn’t take much to be sold on the idea of Ma.  Blumhouse movie…check.  Dumb teenagers literally going to the monster’s house…check.  A crazy person with loneliness issues that can turn homicidal in a second… check.  On the surface, this seems just like any B-movie grindhouse horror from years ago.  But Ma actually surprises and proves to be a big deal of fun.

Borrowing heavily from Single White Female, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and even A Nightmare on Elm Street in an interesting way, Ma takes us to small-town America where Maggie (Diana Silvers) is moving from the West Coast with her mother (Juliette Lewis) back to her mother’s hometown after a divorce.  New to town, Maggie doesn’t have any friends besides her mother, but that quickly changes when she makes some new friends Haley, Andy, Chaz, and  Darrell (McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, and Dante Brown) who pretty much just want to hang out, drink, and do drugs.  After trying to get an of age person to help them buy liquor (and failing), they run into Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer), on a break from her job as an assistant veterinarian.  Sue Ann at first, refuses them, but then she decides to play ball and help the kids score some booze.  All seems well, right?

Turns out Sue Ann has a Facebook stalking problem, to the point where her boss (Allison Janney also having a bit of fun) has to constantly remind her to get back to work.  Showing why you should always make your profile private, Sue Ann quickly tracks the kids down and gives them a fun offer: come by her house in the middle of nowhere, where they can party in her basement worry-free.  Sue Ann, nicknamed “Ma” has only two rules, no taking the Lord’s name in vain, and never go upstairs to her main house.  Seems fun, right?

Like kids do, they share with friends about all the fun stuff happening at Ma’s, and her home becomes party central for the high school.  Slowly but surely, Ma’s attachment to the core group of kids is turning creepy, especially after a few of them venture upstairs to learn more of her.  This allows us to see a little in Ma’s dark and twisted psyche.  She’s not so much a monster in the sense of being born bad via a Jason, but instead made one through a very unfortunate thing that happened to her in her past a la Francis Dolarhyde.  Even when the kids try and break free from Ma, Ma’s just not ready to let them go.

The story written by director Tate Taylor and Scotty Landes, is somewhat simplistic and you can easily see where everything’s going halfway through the movie leading up to the big reveal.  However, Octavia Spencer elevates the film from just being a standard VOD quality plot to something enticing and compelling through her sheer presence and ability to flip from regular to motherly, to scorned and in pain, to psychotic, to straight up murderous seamlessly with almost no effort.  While the kids in the film go through the motions of a teen horror movie, it’s the adults who play a big role as well as Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, and Juliette Lewis are connected both to the young kids as well as to Ma which helps explain how she is the way she is.  Part of the problem with the film is not deciding if Ma is crazy because of her past, or the rejection of her new teenage friends.  It could probably be both, but the film keeps going back and forth between it being Ma’s past trauma or her present loneliness.

While having black woman lead of color can somewhat remind of 2017’s Blumhouse hit Get Out, race doesn’t really factor in this film except in very minor ways.  It’s almost as though the role of Sue Anne was colorblind and Spencer got it because everyone knew she was perfect for this role.  The real horror is high school and the lasting damage it can have on you.  Either way, Octavia shines as she carries out every emotion available in her surplus of skills.  Director Tate Taylor (who worked with Spencer on The Help ) continues to delve deeper in the thriller territory after The Girl on the Train with Ma shows he can play in this territory, and not just cheap jump scares (although there are a few).  Thanks to some good performances (and one exceptional), Ma is one fun thrill ride that rises above its script and gives you your fill.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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DC Readers: Win Passes To A Free Screening Of 'Ma' Starring Octavia Spencer

We're happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Ma, the new Blumhouse horror film starring Octavia Spencer and directed by Tate Taylor.

SYNOPSIS: The story follows Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer), a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie (Diana Silvers), a new teenager in town, to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own. She offers the kids the chance to avoid drinking and driving by hanging out in the basement of her own, relatively large house. But there are some house rules: One of the kids has to stay sober. Don't curse. Never go upstairs. And call her "Ma." But as Ma's hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorizing nightmare, and Ma's place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.

The screening takes place on Tuesday, May 28th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic. If you'd like to attend, simply complete the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected and notified by email. Good luck!

Ma opens in theaters on May 31st.



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'Ma' Trailer: Octavia Spencer Strikes Fear In Blumhouse's Latest Horror

Octavia Spencer and director Tate Taylor are childhood friends, and that friendship has extended into their Hollywood careers, partnering up on both The Help and Get On Up. But who would've predicted their next collaboration would be in Ma, a new horror film from Blumhouse that casts Spencer as a domineering with rules you better not break.

In Ma, Spener plays a lonely woman who invites a group of underage teens into her home so they can drink, but she's got rules for when under her roof. Heaven forbid you break any of them. Looks like Ma enjoys some of the ol' drink herself, and she starts getting way deep into these kids' personal lives. Suddenly, "Welcome to Ma's" doesn't sound so inviting, especially when she starts going all Kathy Bates on her young guests.

I think with any other cast this would be just another movie to see and forget, but we could be talking about Spencer's performance the way people still talk about Toni Collette in Hereditary.

Also in the cast Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Missi Pyle, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, and supposedly Allison Janney is in here somewhere. Ma lets you into her home on May 31st.

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Blumhouse Horror 'Ma' Will Reunite Octavia Spencer And Tate Taylor

Old friends Octavia Spencer and Tate Taylor have made sure to keep that friendship going strong through their Hollywood careers. They've worked together on two features already, their breakout film The Help, and then again on Taylor's James Brown biopic Get On Up. Now they're going for a third, and this time they're drastically switching up gears. Spencer and Taylor will team up for the Blumhouse horror pic, Ma.

Details are super thin right now, with Taylor describing the "dark material" as “definitely the most complex character she’s ever played, if I may be so bold as to say that.” Taylor says he wouldn't call Spencer's character a villain, though, but it sure sounds like she might be. Deadline says the script by Scotty Landes follows “a lonely woman who befriends a group of teenagers with torturous consequences.”  Juliette Lewis, Luke Evans, Diana Silvers, Corey Fogelmanis, McKaley Miller, Dante Brown, and Gianni Paolo will co-star.

Shooting begins this month in Mississippi on Taylor's own property. I'm guessing Blumhouse digs that because it'll help keep costs down, but also because Taylor and Spencer probably know where all the creepy crawlspaces are.

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