Look, it’s one of the two or three worst weekends anyway for box office. The movies are weird, people are away, or they’re getting kids off to school.
And so it was this weekend with a bunch of dead on arrival offerings.
Start with Sydney Sweeney. That jeans/genes commercial didn’t help her movie “Americana,” which had a 67% critics rating. This the second weekend for “Americana,” which already died last weekend.
“Americana” debuted with $500,000 and had a 30 day theater guarantee. Alas, Lions Gate pulled it from almost every theater this weekend. It’s gone, gone, gone. It was a bad movie that no one liked, with an actress at the center of a controversy.
How things change! Sweeney was the IT girl just 18 months ago as her romantic comedy, “Anyone But You,” was such a hit with Glenn Powell. But this weekend she also opened in “Eden,” sadly one of Ron Howard’s lesser works. “Eden” was cajoled into 664 theaters and didn’t make red cent. Last September, it opened the Toronto Film Festival and was panned, so I’m not surprised.
Sweeney really needs the third and final season of “Euphoria” to be a smash hit.
Also on the skids this weekend: Ethan Coen’s “Honey Don’t” didn’t, with just $3 million. Pretty much panned, “Honey Don’t” is supposed to be the middle of a trilogy that began with the equally unappreciated “Drive Away Dolls.” You know, you don’t have to make the third movie. You can let it go.
Bleecker Street had something called “Replay,” which I didn’t know existed until I saw it on the box office list. I guess they were keeping it quiet. The result is $1.9 million. Bleecker next has the “Spinal Tap” sequel, which opens September 12th. No one knows anything about it beyond the trailer. No screenings, no responses. Uh oh. But it sounds like it will be popular on streaming.
