Pixels disappoints, Ant-Man still leading the box office

In one of the lowest weekend movie attendance of recent memory (the Louisiana theater shooting can be the cause), Ant-Man prevailed in its second week with an even lower than expected gross of $24.8 million which is not good for the Marvel Studios film whose makers were hoping the word of mouth would have maintained a healthy box office track. The superhero film has a current domestic gross of $106.2 million, not the kind of gross that can warrant a sequel. It barely beat the much maligned, critically bashed Adam Sandler comedy Pixels which took $24 million showcasing again the diminishing box office returns of Sandler (no wonder he signed with Netflix for a three pictures deal; that way no one can say his films are box office flops anymore). Sandler had originally requested the studio a $200 million budget for 'Pixels', but the suits wisely rejected that proposal and instead gave the film an $88 million budget. It still will lose money, but if the overseas returns are healthy it might recoup its investment.


M​inions is still doing solid business with $22.1 million for a current domestic total of $261.6 million. Amy Schumer's runaway hit Trainwreck took $17.3 million in the fourth spot and has grossed $61.5 million in 10 days.

Debuting in the fifth spot Jake Gyllenhall's boxing drama Southpaw grossed $16.5 million which is very good for this $25 million budget production. The film attracted mostly minorities: 24% Latino, 21% African-American 60% under the age of 35. It is interesting to note that while the film opened in like 300 fewer screens than the highly anticipated teen melodrama Paper Towns it did better business than that teen movie which opened to a disappointing $12.5 million (the studio was eyeing at least a $20 million debut as it is directly related to last year's box office hit The Fault in Our Stars which debuted with $48 million and finished its run with $307 million globally on a $12 million budget). 'Paper Towns' will make a modest hit due to its $12 million budget, but its so-so opening has the studio honchos baffled at why its target audience ignored it.

Final actual numbers will be released on Monday afternoon.

 

I knew Pixels would bomb. Looks dumb as shit and you can tell there's no way they can wrap a decent movie around it.

 

Yup.

 

Pixels is a rip off of a Futurama episode...i'm glad it will lose money

 

Saw Southpaw on Saturday. Mehhhhh, mediocre IMO. Gylenhaall, as ALWAYS, did a very good acting job, so its not his fault. Just many aspects of the movie could have been better, Forrest Whitaker was underwhelming, and 50 mumbled the entire fucking movie.

5/10

 

Just like every Antoine Fuqua movie, the trailer looked great, probably got a few good performances, but the movie just ended up being "Mehhhh". Even "Training Day" is over-rated IMO. His movies look pretty, they just always seem to lack something...like a heart, or coherence.

 

Training Day is a great movie. By FAR his best.

 

It is his best, but still, something about it just rubs me the wrong way. I can watch bits and pieces of it and it's entertaining, but when I try to sit through the whole thing, it's just ludicrous.

 

I don't mean the premise is ludicrous, I mean the way the movie presented the premise is ludicrous.

I like plenty of ludicrous movies to. I love all the Mad Max films (well, except the first, which was probably the least ludicrous of the bunch), some of the DieHard films, plenty of Science Fiction and Fantasy bullshit. The way he makes movies, just seems.............."detached". Like I said, it's hard to put my finger on. They all just seem to have something missing in them to make me care.

"Tears of the Sun" could have been a great story. Movie just had the life sucked out of it. Guy picks great cinematographers, but I think he's a sub-par storyteller, even on the pulpy fiction level.

 

Agree

It's very good, and the performers are all top notch but I don't find it to be a great movie either

 

You're more of a Frenchy Fuqua type of guy

 

Before I just looked it up, I didn't realize Frenchy played a year for the Giants before the Steelers picked him up. The more you know.............

 

Same here.