Now don’t get mad me, but I have a confession to me.
I haven’t seen Girls Trip yet and I wasn’t planning to either.
But I’ll admit that I’m going to have to go see Girls Trip after a phone call I got last week from one of my closest friends. First off, I have to tell you that my friend is somewhat, but not always, conservative in her movie tastes. She hates violence and she turns up her nose at offensive rude humor. I’ve tried several times to get her to watch some raunchy R-rated comedy and she’s wouldn’t do it. She’s not crazy either about seeing sex or nudity on the screen unless it’s done in an “artistic” ways, and she’s not really that hip on movies in general either. For example, she told me that she heard that there was some Wonder Woman movie coming out and did I know when that would be.
But a just few days ago, she called me doubled over laughing telling me that she and some friends went out to see that new comedy Girls Vacation or Girls Night Out or Girls Gone Wild or something like that (she’s never been able to remember movie titles) and that it was “funniest movie she’s seen since I’m Gonna Get You Sucka!” (and that was back in 1988). She told me, “I wish they gave out an Oscar for Best Comedy of the Year because this film would win hands down!”
But to tell the truth I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying because she was still laughing so hard, and that was from a film she saw the night before. In all the many years I’ve known her I have never heard her laugh so hard and so loud in my life. Immediately, I thought to myself first off — “Damn! I need to give in and check out Girls Trip for myself” and secondly, if my friend who usually doesn’t go for that type of film or humor thinks this is the funniest movie of the past century then it’s going to make $1 billion.
But even before the phone call, the signs are obvious. Movies aimed at black women is practically a sure deal at the box office. You can’t lose. So now that I’ve bored you with my extremely long introduction, I did so to make the point that Girls Trip still held up very well against the competition and came in third, dropping only 35 percent from its second place last weekend with $20 million with $65.5 million to-date. It is well on its way to $100 million domestically at a minimum and it will go beyond that as well.
The film has also grossed $2 million so far overseas, but some have raised the questions on how well the film will play overseas. Hidden Figures, for example, grossed $61 million internationally but that was a family-friendly movie based on real historical events, while Girls Trip some have argued to me (just today) may be too culturally restrictive for even black filmgoers overseas. I’m not sure about that and how the film will perform depends more on how Universal releases the film overseas. Will they give it a wide international release as Fox did with Hidden Figures, or will they say “Nah forget it black women will like it”? We’ll have to see.
Warner Bros.’ Dunkirk was the No. 1 film again this weekend and has crossed the $100 million mark domestically in just less than two weeks and has grossed over $231 million worldwide to date. But the real surprise it has to be said is Sony’s animated, critically-panned film The Emoji Movie — a film so bad that Sony refused to even screen the screen in advance to the media until the very last minute, late at night and only in New York City and Los Angeles. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what an emoji was until I had to look it up, and yet, the film came in second with $25.6 million beating out all expectations. However, look for that film to drop big by next weekend.
Speaking of big drop offs, Valarian and the City of 1000 Planets dropped over 60 percent from its dismal opening last weekend continuing its status as not only one of the biggest flops the summer but of the year. The action film Atomic Blonde, a female John Wick which was directed by one of the directors of the first John Wick film, pulled people in despite the tough competition and had a decent opening of $18 million for the $30 million movie.
Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit, which has gotten mixed reviews, about the infamous and bloody Algiers Motel police killing during the 1967 Detroit riots as a solid opening in limited release grossing $365,455 on just 20 screens. The film breaks out wider this Friday.
Here’s the list of the Top 12 movies this weekend:
1) Dunkirk WB $28,130,000 Total: $102,836,220
2) The Emoji Movie Sony $25,650,000
3) Girls Trip Uni. $20,085,540 Total $65,524,760
4) Atomic Blonde Focus $18,554,000
5) Spider-Man: Homecoming Sony $13,450,000 Total $278,356,805
6) War for the Planet of the Apes Fox $10,375,000 Total $118,687,629
7) Despicable Me 3 Uni. $7,725,895 Total $230,425,800
8) Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets STX $6,800,000 Total $30,626,147
9) Baby Driver TriS $4,050,000 Total $92,046,188
10) Wonder Woman WB $3,540,000 Total $395,443,706
11) The Big Sick LGF $3,375,000 Total $30,419,654
12) Cars 3 BV $1,014,000 Total $146,442,093
