After a solid $10.3 million haul in Thursday previews, it looks like Disney’s live action remake/ re-imagining/ re-whatever is going to land at around $105 million for the 3-day weekend with the full 4-day holiday haul likely to exceed $125 million, falling nearly in-line with our predictions. A pretty decent opening weekend, although far from the highs of a Lion King ($191.7 million opening) or Beauty and the Beast ($174.7 million) but higher than the $91.5 million taken in by 2019’s live action Aladdin and far better than the straight to streaming Pinocchio from last year that starred Tom Hanks, was directed by Robert Zemeckis and still managed to be incredibly disappointing (to me at least).
This new version of The Little Mermaid was actually pretty good. It took the original and made it feel more epic which is basically all I want from these live action updates, of course that isn’t to say that I liked it better than the original classic, I didn’t, or that it wasn’t without its faults, as a lot of the added bits just felt completely unneeded. But overall, I enjoyed my time watching the film, even if it wasn’t a 100% faithful adaptation (where was that infamous priest scene?!) Halle Bailey was perfectly cast as Ariel. I know her casting has gotten a lot of chatter on the internet, but with the exception of us here at Joblo and of course our loyal readers, the internet is full of a bunch of… well anyway! Bailey’s voice was absolutely phenomenal, belting out the classic songs while her entire performance and demeanor in the film conveyed the innocence that was needed for the literal fish out of water tale. Critical reception for the film is mixed right now with most echoing what I said about it being an enjoyable film with great performances but a bit overlong with the added material (check out our own Chris Bumbray’s 6/10 review here).
Second place belongs to Family as Fast X is looking to take a pretty noticeable drop in its second week with what, as of right now, is looking like a near 70% decline from its already soft opening with just under $22 million. For what its worth, these movies are absolutely ridiculous, but I have been along for the ride since day one and will be until they stop making them. They are Ludacris (misspelling and pun intended) but entertaining as hell. To go from boosting DVD players to being international spies with superhuman level strength who are essentially immortal, that’s pretty impressive. Jason Momoa is definitely the best villain the series has seen by far because he just seems to be chewing every inch of scenery there is, and having a blast while doing it. I know you aren’t supposed to love the bad guy, but Momoa is just so damn good that it’s hard not to hope one day he can say grace at the family barbecue (and the way these films go, that is a very real possibility).
Third and fourth place are going to the Chris Pratt double bill of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with just over $20 million and The Super Mario Bros. Movie with just over $6 million while fifth place looks to be the Bert Kreischer led film The Machine opposite Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill with just over $6 million (you can check out our own Alex Maidy’s 8/10 review here). That is actually a flip from what I thought would happen as I felt the Sebastian Maniscalco film About My Father opposite Robert DeNiro would play better, but that one is faltering with just under $4 million for the 3-day weekend. I actually saw About My Father yesterday and found it to be a perfectly fine, if nothing overly special, way to kill an hour and a half. It played in the vein of a Meet The Parents or Wedding Crashers but just wasn’t on that same level of those classic films (you can check out Alex Maidy’s 6/10 review here).
Seventh and eighth place go to another pair of new releases as the Gerard Butler starring Kandahar will open around $2 million while the Julia Louis-Dreyfus film You Hurt My Feelings, which was a solid hit at this years Sundance Film Festival, is looking at around $1 million. The difference being that Kandahar was a wide release at over 2100 screens while You Hurt my Feelings was limited to just over 900, so in tickets sold, You Hurt My Feelings is actually the winner.
Have you made it to theaters yet this weekend or is it still on your list of things to do? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full run down of this weekend’s box office numbers.