Finally, a movie that (slightly) exceeded expectations at the box office! I won’t pretend that I wasn’t big-time skeptical about Black Phone 2, considering the first one:
1. Pretty definitively killed off its child-killing villain, The Grabber (Ethan Hawke)
2. Was bad
Those elements contributed to a $5 price tag for the sequel, which looks like a bargain after the movie pulled in more than $26 million over its opening weekend. Between the box-office numbers (26 points, one for every million earned), the ten-point bonus for clearing $25 million, and the 20-point bonus for getting No. 1 at the box office, Black Phone 2 has already dialed up 56 points for the 1,773 teams who drafted it. Considering that the first film opened to $23 million en route to topping $85 million as a summer release in 2022, anyone who went with this year’s edition should be feeling good.
As for Tron: Ares, last weekend’s disappointing $33 million opening was followed by an even more disappointing 67 percent drop-off in its second week, good for only $11.1 million. Even so, at $54 million cumulative after a fortnight, Ares has hit enough box-office milestones to sit at 99 points total, good for second-most in the league to date. But for the 896 of you who placed your faith in those sleek, futuristic cityscapes, the box office is plummeting fast — and an air of failure within the industry won’t help the film pick up the craft nominations you’ll want during awards season.
On the flip side, our overall points leader after four weeks, One Battle After Another, sits at 106 points, only 7 ahead of Tron: Ares. But the trajectory for Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie couldn’t be higher. It picked up another $4 million at the box office, bringing it to $61 million on its way to the next bonus-point threshold of $75 million. And after that, awards season awaits.
The Aziz Ansari–directed Good Fortune was the only film in theaters this weekend to feature Keanu Reeves as a guardian angel, and still it only managed $6.2 million. For a $2 purchase, it’s not like you wasted much money, but if you’re one of the 1,459 people who considered this movie a lotto ticket, your ship decidedly did not come in.
Still worth keeping an eye on: Roofman is up to $15 million after two weeks. That’s hardly paying off on the $10 you paid to draft it, but as we said last week: Perception is key. If this movie can maintain the air of a modest cinema-for-grown-ups movie that found an audience, there’s a chance that could pay off with a few award nominations down the line.
In other news:
Gabby’s Dollhouse sits at just $29 million after four weeks. If you selected that film based on extensive research into what Gabby’s Dollhouse is and why they made a movie about it, I’m sorry to say that time was wasted.
At just over $5 million in two weeks, you can toss Soul on Fire into the bucket marked “faith-based movie that did NOT find a surprisingly large audience despite its limited pop-culture footprint.”
Both Kiss of the Spider Woman and After the Hunt limped into the realm of MFL point earners: Each crossed the $1 million box-office threshold. Either American audiences are failing Jennifer Lopez and Julia Roberts or their filmmakers are.
You can visit the MFL landing page to scope out the full leaderboard with information on mini-leagues — and join us on Discord for expanded stats and discussions.
Release calendar
Hedda: October 22
A House of Dynamite: October 24
Bugonia: October 24
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: October 24
Shelby Oaks: October 24
Last Days: October 24
Ballad of a Small Player: October 29
Nouvelle Vague: October 31
Predator: Badlands: November 7
Christy: November 7
Die My Love: November 7
Nuremberg: November 7
Peter Hujar’s Day: November 7
Sentimental Value: November 7
Train Dreams: November 7
Upcoming awards
Gotham Awards nominations: October 28
Gotham Awards: December 1
New York Film Critics Circle announcement: December 2
Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations: December 3
Critics Choice Awards nominations: December 5
Golden Globe nominations: December 8
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