Mindy Kaling’s “Late Night” was a big hit in Sundance this past winter. Emma Thompson’s turn as a late night talk show host, written by Kaling, was snapped by Amazon Studios immediately for millions of dollars.
And now? I have no idea.
Maybe “Late Night” opened this weekend. It’s playing at two theaters in Los Angeles and one in New York. On Fandango, an ad says it opened June 7th. But when you click on the ad, you can’t see it until June 13th.
This morning, of course, Amazon posted no box office numbers from last night. So “Late Night” doesn’t exist. It’s also not on the Amazon prime page, so it’s not like the online company is excited about it coming to that platform.
I haven’t seen it. There was no opportunity in New York. My colleague saw it in Los Angeles. I didn’t get a strong reaction.
Will “Late Night” become “Booksmart 2”? or “The Hustle 2”? or “Poms 2”? It has that feeling about it. These were all movies written and directed and starring women. They’ve all been DOA. Is there a theme here? It sure feels like one.
“Booksmart,” by the way, also poorly marketed, from Annapurna, will top out at less than $19 million. It had a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
