RankTitleDomestic Gross (Weekend)Worldwide Gross (Cume)Week #Percentage ChangeBudget1The Upside$19,590,000$19,590,0001N/A$37.5M2Aquaman$17,265,000$1,020,261,7814-44.3%$200M3A Dog's Way Home$11,300,000$11,300,0001N/A$18M4Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse$9,000,000$302,375,4453-31.4%$90M5Escape Room$8,900,000$$34,932,9312-51.2%$9MNotable Box Office StoriesThe Upside - The road to get The Upside, a remake of the massively successful French film The Intouchables, made has been a rocky one to say the least. Now it's finally out and the results are...okay but could lead to much better as it opened at #1 to $19.5M. The film was first announced to much disdain by fans of the original all the way back when the French film premiered in 2011 but languished in development hell for years, going through dozens of stars and at least 4 directors. Finally the film locked with Neil Burger in the director's chair and Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston in the lead roles. And with a January 2017 shoot it was all ready for The Weinstein Company to release late that year unless some insane seismic shift could happen but what could possibly (you get the idea). MeToo destroyed the company and Upside was sold off to venerable STX. If that wasn't enough the press tour has been hell for both stars. Hart notably gained and then very quick lost the job of Oscar host due to old homophobic jokes while Cranston has faced criticism for playing a quadriplegic person and then going around showing off his fancy working legs like a real rich boy.The Upside - So where is the...good news? Well the box office isn't a stellar opening for the $37.5M budgeted film which has had an extensive marketing push. But it did dethrone the Aquatic Man himself and more importantly carries an A rating on Cinemascore. And let's face it, poor critics reviews aren't really a factor in a film like this that's going more for overall charm and general audience appeal. This is coming at a pretty good time for audiences who may want to just watch a relaxing adult dramedy and it could subvert all the tainted crap that came with its release. It's a matter of time and especially how it does next weekend, but with Glass tracking lower than previously expected (reasoning: crummy reviews) and no other major competition it could stick around in the rather dull month.Aquaman - My Billion Dollar Man! The swexy™ (that's wet and sexy) boy just crossed a milestone for a DCEU film, becoming the first one ever to cross $1B worldwide. That also makes it the only DC film to pass $1B worldwide that does not star The Batting Man. In fact it's now grossed more than The Dark Knight and is just $65M less than The Dark Knight Rises, which it could easily pass to become the highest grossing DC film ever worldwide. This is also puts director James Wan into the rare club of just 8 director/director teams with two $1B grossing films. He's also only the second to have his two $1B hits be from two different properties (the other club member being James Cameron). However, as noted all of this is owed to overseas sales. Note that the film is only the 7th highest grossing DC film domestically and $245M shy of the current domestic champion, the previously mentioned TDK. This was a film pitched right at a global audience who sunk it out of the park and into the stratosphere, with 70%+ of its gross overseas. This will all look like chump change though when in 2028 Aquaman 3: The Revenge of Orm grosses $5B in China alone.A Dog's Way Home - It's nice when there's a dog movie that comes out that doesn't have videos of possible dog drownings or pedophilia implications. More dog movies about nice dogs where everything is nice please. Well unfortunately the box office was not as nice as the film opened to a pretty weak $11.3M at #3. With a budget of $18M that is not a huge hurdle to overcome but as a big family pitched release in January it's not going to necessarily break the...dog...bank either. The explanation for the underperformance could just be an overabundance of these kind of dog movies or the very spoilery trailer which basically showed the entire plot. Whatever the reasoning the film did connect with the audiences who did see it where it scored an A- on Cinemascore, so likely this will hold long enough just to make a profit. Hey at least I don't have to write about some insane controversy this time....what's that? Oh apparently the lead dog actor tweeted some really racist stuff in 2012. FUCK!On the Basis of Sex - It was a good week for Old Ruth Bader G., as she was declared cancer free, her documentary was shortlisted for the Oscars, and a biopic about her landmark sexual discrimination case On the Basis of Sex jumped up to 1,923 theaters to come in at #8 with $6.2M. Certainly the news of RGB's healthy diagnosis was welcome news to many but also great accidental marketing for the film which has had very good expansions through the Oscar season, despite itself not having much of an Oscar stronghold. The film's one potential win for Best Actress has now been swallowed up by the locust swarm that is Glenn Close who has emerged from her lack of win for her incredible run in the 1980s to demolish all in her wake with tears and great speeches. So this box office victory is one almost solely for RGB herself. And as political tensions only seem to get spicier expect this one to have a good run, especially with an A rating on Cinemascore. Of course once more people know about the secret end of the film, where she brings a landmark civil rights case against Thanos which leads into the plot of Avengers: Endgame, expect it to become the first film in 2019 to cross $1B.Replicas - Did you know there was a sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves that came out this week called Replicas? Wait, you guys are /r/movies users, of course you knew that. Well in the real world, normal people did not as the film bombed horrifically, opening at #12 with $2.5M. That makes it the 28th worst debut ever for a film opening in over 2,000 theaters and the worst wide release opening ever for Reeves. The film about Reeves trying his hardest to act with a goofy visor on his head had a budget of $30M so don't expect this to recoup any money unless it becomes the biggest film ever in Romania or whatever. And don't expect cult status either as when reviews finally came out (as it wan't screened for critics) it got a terrible 10% on RT and a C on Cinemascore. It's not a great moment for the studio, the brilliantly named Entertainment Studios, who have now made 4 films in a row that debuted less than $6M in wide release. Well at least one thing will be entertaining, their bankruptcy hearings!Oscar Movie Round-Up - Well it's the weekend after the Golden Globes so let's first see how the big winners from that night are doing, especially after a week of controversy for both. Bohemian Rhapsody not only received its fair share of anger for its win but also notably allowed legendary not good dude Bryan Singer to take credit for the win despite getting fired from the film early on. Classy. However that made little waves in the box office as the film had another great week where it added 254 theaters and made $3.2M for the weekend. It should pass $200M domestic by the end of the week. Meanwhile Green Book had even worse backlash when it was revealed that writer of the film Nick Vallelonga tweeted some insanely islamaphobic shit to Donald Trump back in 2015...oh and star of the film Mahershala Ali is a devout Mulsim. That also didn't seem to affect the already insanely embattled film which this weekend added 176 theater to make $2M for the weekend. A solid haul but no where near the kind of massive domestic gross (it still sits under $40M domestic) that usually comes with such a meh received movie getting such awards love.Oscar Movie Round-Up (cont.) - Meanwhile, If Beale Street Could Talk continues its good gradual expansion as its theater count passed 1,000 ending the weekend with $2.3M. The film seems to be finding a really good core audience and has not had the kind of drop-off usually associated with a challenging film like it expanding wide. What value that will have at all for Oscars will be seen. In the doc world Free Solo, one of the frontrunners for Best Documentary, had a limited IMAX run in 154 theaters this weekend which earned $812K. The film about the first ever attempt to free solo (aka without a rope) climb El Capitan has been pushed as a must see theatrical experience for inducing heart attacks in your enemies. This expansion could help Solo standout from the crowd but I still think people gonna vote for that Notorious RBG. Finally, speaking of Hurricane Glenn, the The Wife was rereleased in 156 theaters this weekend to try to capitalize on Glenn Close's emotional Golden Globes speech. However it seems while we all want Close to finally get her Oscar, people don't really care what the film is that gives it to her because the rerelease only scored $115K this weekend.Films Reddit Wants to FollowThis is a segment where we keep a weekly tally of currently showing films that aren't in the Top 5 that fellow redditors want updates on. If you'd like me to add a film to this chart, make a comment in this thread.TitleDomestic Gross (Weekly)Domestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetWeek #Venom$78,851$213,449,854$855,689,766$100M15A Star is Born (2018)$980,282$203,588,149$403,588,149$36M15Bohemian Rhapsody$4,019,481$198,496,306$751,885,454$52M11Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald$830,416$158,238,989$644,638,989$200M9Holmes and Watson$4,459,231$30,025,153$37,085,114$42M4Notable Film ClosingsTitleDomestic Gross (Cume)Worldwide Gross (Cume)BudgetRobin Hood$30,824,628$79,842,416$100MAs always r/boxoffice is a great place to share links and other conversations about box office news.Also you can see the archive of all Box Office Week posts at r/moviesboxoffice (which have recently been updated).My Letterboxd: http://bit.ly/2rSmMyn via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2ClCoyV
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