‘Bad Guys’, ‘The Northman’ & ‘Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ Look To Provide Breadth At Weekend Box Office

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinema box office in China fell back to the lower depths over the weekend, with just $8.9 million of revenue across a country of 1.3 billion inhabitants.Business continues to be badly hit by COVID-related closures as the disease shows signs of spread around the country, while slowly diminishing in Shanghai where there was a full lockdown that lasted many weeks.Business appeared to spike upwards a week earlier, driven by the May Day holiday. But Chinese state media reports that the Sunday to Wednesday May day period was down 82% compared with last year.The latest weekend box office total (Friday to Sunday) was the second lowest this year.

It’s official: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is massive.

despite poor reviews.The star-studded flick, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange, is now projected to top $200 million in US sales through Sunday, well ahead of the $160 million to $180 million previously expected, according to Variety.“Dr.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the latest timeline-bending installment in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, looks to start the summer movie season with a sizzle.The comic book movie — the second standalone superhero adventure to spotlight Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange — is projected to collect a mighty $160 million to $180 million when it opens in 4,400 North American theaters over the weekend. Some box office experts believe that excitement for all things Marvel could propel the film’s three-day tally closer to $200 million.

Naman Ramachandran The latest in the Downton saga, Universal’s “Downton Abbey: A New Era” topped the U.K. and Ireland box office with £3.07 million ($3.8 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

Refresh for latest…: On a weekend we could term “the calm before the Strange,” there was nevertheless sustained holdover business at the international box office, and a new entry in the form of Universal/Focus’ Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Of the three non-franchise films that came out last weekend, “The Bad Guys” had the strongest hold with just a 33% drop from its $23.9 million opening weekend, putting the film on its way to crossing $100 million at the worldwide box office. Such a hold indicates that “The Bad Guys” is getting traction among families as they continue to return to theaters this spring, and that could allow it to leg out through May as counterprogramming to “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is in second with $11.4 million in its fourth weekend, passing the first “Sonic” to become the highest grossing video game adaptation in domestic box office history with $160.9 million grossed and over $300 million grossed worldwide.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterAnother weekend, another new Liam Neeson action-thriller in theaters.“Memory,” the actor’s nth COVID-era caper to play on the big screen, debuted over the weekend to $3.1 million from 2,555 North American cinemas. Its eighth-place finish is a weak result, but one that’s close to Neeson’s recent theatrical releases like “Blacklight” ($3.6 million debut), “Honest Thief” ($3.6 million debut) and “The Marksman” ($3.1 million debut).Since Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment’s “Memory” is the only new nationwide release, last weekend’s champion “The Bad Guys” topped the box office again.

SUNDAY AM Writethru after Saturday AM Update, refresh for chart and more analysis After all the hallelujahs about the return of theatrical at CinemaCon this past week, the major studios skipped out on programming any new wide releases this weekend. All of this is resulting in a marketplace which is seeing an estimated $68M in total ticket sales, down 28% from last weekend. Ugh. In regards to when the majors will sit on the sidelines again this year, there’s June 3, and possibly Aug. 12 (Searchlight is holding the date for an untitled wide entry).

Carson Burton The VFX team on “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” is no stranger to the intensive process of de-aging a known figure such as Nicolas Cage. For the film, the team was tasked to make Cage, who is 58 years old, appear about 20-25 years younger for the character of Nicky Cage. Nicky, Cage’s imagined younger self in the film, aims to keep the character of Nick Cage (with a K) on the road of being an uber-popular celebrity.

J. Kim Murphy With Marvel’s crimefighters still a week away, “The Bad Guys” should continue its reign as the domestic box office leader.

Refresh for chart and more analysis After all the hallelujahs about the return of theatrical at CinemaCon this past week, the major studios skipped out on programming any new wide releases this weekend. All of this is resulting in a marketplace which is seeing an estimated $64M in total ticket sales, down 33% from last weekend. Ugh. In regards to when the majors will sit on the sidelines again this year, it’s set to happen on June 3 and possibly Aug. 12 (Searchlight is holding the date for an untitled wide entry).

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent have revealed that Daniel Day-Lewis was once in line to play Nicolas Cage in the new film.The movie sees Cage play a fictionalised version of himself alongside the likes of Pedro Pascal and Tiffany Haddish, who portray different characters to their actual selves.Writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten have opened up about early struggles getting the film made, with Cage initially hesitant to take on the role of playing himself.“We were told that Nick has done these projects before and he’s not wild about Nick as Nick,” Etten recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. “And we weren’t two guys who had a huge body of work that you could point to and be like, ‘No, trust us.’“We knew that we needed to have a real offer to go along with the script.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCinemas in South Korea received the good news last week that anti-COVID measures, including reduced seating capacity and bans on consumption of food and drink, were to end. But audiences reacted gingerly.“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” led the box office for a second weekend with $1.63 million, a drop of 44% from its opening weekend, and a 12-day cumulative of $6.55 million.

Clayton Davis With “The Northman,” “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and the continued success of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” this month has been about action-forward movies that are entertaining and worthy, but might fail to be taken seriously as real “achievements” in Hollywood. Timing has also proven to be an essential factor, and not just for releases, but for when a movie or performance starts gaining momentum.Studios are only beginning to map out how to roll out their most promising contenders in the second half of the year.

extraordinary off-screen persona that have transformed Cage into an unwitting walking, talking (and sometimes yelling) meme.The memeification of Cage has in and of itself spurred a Cage-ification of pop culture, and that’s the foundation for Lionsgate’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” which stars Cage as his greatest character yet — himself. Rather, a fictionalized, off-the-wall and sometimes CGI-produced young version of himself. The action-comedy spoof, from director-writer Tom Gormican and executive producer Kevin Etten (who previously collaborated on the short-lived Fox sitcom “Ghosted”), sees Cage — on the edge of bankruptcy — accept a $1 million offer to attend an über-wealthy super-fan’s (Pedro Pascal) birthday party at his agent’s behest (Neil Patrick Harris).

Universal had the most to boast last night at the box office, hitting the 18-34 arthouse demo with Robert Eggers’ Focus Features Viking epic, The Northman, which drew $1.35M last night in previews, and families with Dreamworks Animation’s The Bad Guys, which made $1.15M.