by Conan Simmons – July 19, 2021 – 8:55 pm
Pepe Le Pew, the Oscar winning Looney Toon, was cut from ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ reportedly due to his inappropriate behavior that is seen by many to promote rape culture. So, why do the Droogs from ‘A Clockwork Orange’, a gang that enjoys horrorshow ultraviolence including rape from a movie that was rated X in 1971, make an appearance in the new animated/live-action family film ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’?
Apparently because Warner Bros. owns the film ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and wants to advertise it along with practically everything else the studio owns in a blatant effort to encourage people to sign up for their streaming service HBO Max. ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ is a day-and-date release for the streamer.
Putting Warner Bros. mixed moral messaging aside, the animated sequel to 1996’s Michael Jordan starring film may not feature an extremely popular song like the original film’s “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly (who is currently in jail awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges), but that didn’t stop the Lebron James starring sequel from winning the top spot at the box office over the weekend.
Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’ really fumbled in its second weekend of release. When it comes to the MCU, Thanos may have snapped away half of the universe but ‘Black Widow’ saw that and raised losing nearly 3/4 of revenue in its sophomore weekend. Now that the Marvel fans who would normally return to theaters weekend after weekend to support their superheroes can now repeatedly watch them at home streaming on Disney+, it is unlikely that ‘Black Widow’ will have much staying power at the box office.
Subscriber growth may be good for streaming platforms but it’s bad for movies looking to release in theaters day-and-date. Unless the movie is on a streamer that isn’t among the streaming majors.
As is the case for ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’, a day-and-date release streaming on Peacock. Keeping in line with other family friendly animated films, ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’ was able to hold on in fifth place at the box office.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (July 16-18, 2021)
- ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ – $31.1 million – animated (debut)
- ‘Black Widow’ – $25.8 million – action (drop $54.2 million, 68% down)
- ‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’ – $8.8 million – horror (debut)
- ‘F9: The Fast Saga’ – $7.7 million – action (drop $3.2 million, 29% down)
- ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’ – $4.7 million – animated (drop $4 million, 46% down)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $78.1 million. This is a drop of 29%, or $31.2 million down from last weekends total of $109.3 million.
Don’t expect the box office to pop up too much next weekend as audiences arrive to find out what the twist ending is for M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Old’ and, if ‘Black Widow is any indicator, audiences may not be too excited to see ‘Snake Eyes’ the action movie based on the popular character from the G.I. Joe line of toys from Hasbro. The G.I. Joe films to date haven’t been that big at the box office, nowhere near the success of Marvel movies.
Are movie audiences finally tired of being sold advertisements masquerading as cinema?
