On today’s episode of the Daily Variety podcast, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin explains why Sony Pictures’ family film GOAT became a top box office hit and how Elvis on Imax is still able to pack it. Also, TV critic Aramide Tinubu discusses some of the overlooked gems on his list of the best black-led TV series of the past decade.
“GOAT” and “Wuthering Heights” battled for the No. 1 spot for most of the weekend, but in the end, the animated film from Sony Pictures and Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media pulled away and topped the box office in its second weekend with about $17 million, compared to about $14 million for the Warner Bros. romance.
“The fact that GOAT, an original animated movie (the kind of movie that has been struggling since the pandemic), rose to No. 1 is a testament to the fact that family audiences are really, really hungry for new movies,” Rubin says.
This frame received a limited release of four new titles. Standouts were “I Can Only Imagine 2,” a faith-based film distributed by Lionsgate, and Neon’s “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” a 2022 concert film put together by “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann.
“This weekend’s biggest new release was Lionsgate’s faith-based film ‘I Can Only Imagine 2,’ which grossed $8 million in its opening weekend, well below its 2018 predecessor, ‘I Can Only Imagine.’ The film grossed $17 million, which is a huge result for a film of its size,” Rubin says. “I don’t think[the sequel]will be as big of a success as its predecessor, which grossed $86 million worldwide, but it will probably be a pretty small win for Lionsgate.”
Meanwhile, “EPiC” earned $3.2 million from just 325 Imax screens. “This is the only film that was able to make it into the top 10 that was playing on less than 1,000 screens and has received very enthusiastic reviews from critics,” says Rubin.
Tinubu looked back and detailed the past decade of Black-led television shows, at a time when many critically-loved series are facing the ax amid a major cutback in Hollywood’s original content.
“It was important to me to have a wide range of programming, so of course we have series that are set in slavery and series that are set in the antebellum period, but we also have contemporary series like Queenie, which is set in England, and Damascus, which is set in some kind of alternate universe. Boots Riley’s I’m a Things like ‘Virgo’ are set in alternate worlds that are similar to our world but not completely ours,” Tinubu said. Say. “I just wanted to get people talking about this series. Representation has always been important to me and is why I got into this business. And I know that for a lot of Black people and people of color, representation continues to be very important, especially in this situation.”
(Photo: “Goat”)
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