Regarding Sony picking up discarded Josh Brolin-starring Black Label Media flicks from Lionsgate, the second time was the charm. While Only the Brave, one of last year’s best movies, the true-life firefighter tragedy earned just $24.6 million worldwide. However, the… less good Sicario 2: Say of the Soldado opened this weekend with a rock-solid $19m domestic launch. As proof that adult-skewing action dramas that survive alongside the conventional summer tentpoles, it’s pretty good news.
The $35 million-budgeted actioner, starring Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin as rule breaking “war on drugs” warriors who end up in a moral quagmire, is a loose sequel to Sicario. Emily Blunt’s lead character wasn’t written into this sequel, and (for better or worse) it plays like an anti-Clear and Present Danger whereby we’re supposed to root for the off-the-books drug war warriors as they rampage across foreign soil. Critical qualms with the movie notwithstanding, this is excellent news for Sony.
They have a bunch of old-school, R-rated thrillers and action dramas on tap over the next several months. If they can pull relatively approximate debuts for the likes of Equalizer 2, The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Miss Bala, they might not be so reliant on Spider-Man spin-offs and Jumanji sequels. A studio that can sell adult-skewing thrillers and overtly kid-friendly fantasies alongside a few tentpoles would be a healthy studio indeed.
The original, Oscar-nominated Sicario went wide in its third weekend of release with a $12.1 million launch (for a $15.1m 17-day total) before legging it to $46.9m domestic (and $84.8m worldwide) on a $30m budget. If you count the end of its wide release weekend as its “start,” it earned a 3.1x multiplier. I don’t expect similar legs for Day of the Soldado (The First Purge and Equalizer 2 are right behind it), but even a 2.75x gets the flick to $53m domestic.
It’s no Baby Driver, but legs like The Shallows (3.2x $16.8 million in this same general frame two years ago) gets to $63m domestic, which would be a solid win amid the standard summer biggies. That’s arguably a fantastical best-case-scenario, but anything close to the original film’s $46.9m domestic finish counts as a win, especially if it powers up overseas too.
The only major release this weekend is Lionsgate’s Uncle Drew, a basketball comedy based on a Pepsi commercial. The comedy, starring Kyle Irving, Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish among others, earned $15.5 million over its debut weekend. That’s a terrific launch, under Game Night ($17m) but above Tag ($14.9m). It is impressive considering that studio comedies have been less of a sure thing over the last couple of years.
The over/under $17 million-budgeted film, penned by Jay Longino and directed by Charles Stone III, has received mostly mixed-positive reviews along with an A from Cinemascore. It played 59% male and 58% 25-and-older. If the kids weren’t sick, I would have checked it out on Friday. No, I haven’t seen the commercials from 2012 that inspired this movie, because I’m an old man who is out of touch with pop culture. However, provided my schedule allows it this week, I’m assuming I won’t need to do much research to enjoy this one.
Debra Granik’s first fictional feature since Winter’s Bone back in 2010 launched in nine theaters this weekend. Bleecker Street’s Leave No Trace, a grim survivalist thriller starring Thomasin McKenzie and Ben Foster, earned $216,161 this weekend for a $24k per-theater average. I don’t know how wide this one will go (even Winter’s Bone, with rave reviews and a deluge of “Who is this Jennifer Lawrence person?” media coverage, didn’t crack $7 million), but it has 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 91 reviews thus far.
Finally, Neon released Three Identical Strangers into five theaters this weekend. The documentary concerns three young siblings separated at birth and then reunited 19 years later completely unaware that they were identical triplets. The well-reviewed flick earned $163,023 this weekend for a solid $32.6k per-theater average. I have a digital screener in my email for this one. And now that everyone in my house has recovered from various illnesses (nothing perilous, just time-consuming), I will watch it as soon as possible.
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