“Rogue One” has launched with wild success. The new “Star Wars” movie took in $71 million on Friday including Thursday previews of $29 million.
LucasFilm and Disney are now looking at a $150-$160 million opening weekend. It’s the second best December opening ever. The first best was last year’s “The Force Awakens” chapter of “Star Wars.”
Number 3 on the list– the final “Hobbit” movie– is far back in the pack at $85 million.
Meanwhile, Will Smith’s god awful “Collateral Beauty” made $2.4 million last night and might hit $7 million for the weekend. That will be Will’s lowest opening since 1993 and “Six Degrees of Separation.” This includes recent flops such as Focus, Concussion and Winter’s Tale.
I saw “Collateral Beauty” a few weeks ago and loathed it so much I couldn’t speak. But there was a review embargo until the last minute for obvious reasons. Manipulative and contrived, “CB” is the fake version of “Manchester by the Sea.” It feels like it’s written by a 7th grader. It’s so phony, such a studio concoction, and artless it’s hard to imagine how it happened.
“Collateral Beauty” should have been called “Payday.” So many fine actors and Oscar winners/nominees– Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Smith himself, Ann Dowd, not to mention Scientologist Michael Pena, and they’re all wasted. Mirren comes off the best, Winslet the worst. And everything else is just ridiculous. Avoid this movie. You have Lion, Manchester, La La Land, Moonlight for starters. Why waste your money on this?
Why does Will Smith take these roles? Ever since “The Pursuit of Happyness” he’s felt like he’s a savior of some kind, self-righteous, earnestly phony, humorless and pushy. He went from being Mr. Fun to Gag Inducing. Remember “Seven Pounds”? But this one is the worst. “Suicide Squad” was a step forward and this is three steps back. He’s got to stop it. Carlton would be horrified.
