‘I Feel Pretty.’
The Amy Schumer haters started to attack her comedy I Feel Pretty when the trailer came out, before anyone had the chance to see the movie about a woman with low self-esteem who sees herself as a supermodel after bumping her head.
Schumer’s fans in Australia were not bothered by the fuss as the movie opened at No. 1 last weekend, pro-rata a better showing than in the US where it was third behind the third go-round of A Quiet Place and the second of Rampage.
However the top 20’s takings in Oz dropped by 9 per cent to $15.5 million, according to Numero, despite the arrivals of I Feel Pretty, British post-WW2 romance/mystery The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Fox’s Super Troopers 2.
The directing debut of screenwriters Abby Cohn and Marc Silverstein (whose credits include Valentine’s Day and He’s Not that Into You), Schumer’s comedy mustered $2.5 million at 255 locations and $3 million with previews for eOne.
The US debut of $US16 million was ahead of the pre-release predictions but below her previous efforts Snatched, which opened with $19.5 million and ended up with $45.9 million, and Trainwreck, which launched with $30.1 million and went on to earn $110 million.
Schumer lamented the misconceptions in the US, telling Vulture, “I heard a lot of, ‘She doesn’t have a right to feel bad about herself because she looks however she looks.’
“But first off, it’s not about an ugly troll becoming beautiful, it’s about a woman who has low self-esteem finding some. Everyone’s got a right to feel that feeling, regardless of their appearance.”
Cinema Nova’s general manager Kristian Connelly observed that the attacks on the actress and the film’s reportedly confusing gender politics reported in the US media were less apparent here, adding, “Conceivably, Schumer’s outspoken opposition to the NRA has seen her and the film drawn into the US’s culture wars.”
Dwayne Johnson fans appear to be enjoying Rampage as the action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy inspired by the videogame rustled up nearly $2 million, down 35 per cent, ascending to $6.3 million.
Directed by Brad Peyton, the Warner Bros. release which co-stars Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy and Joe Manganiello has raked in a ho-hum $66 million in the US and a far more impressive $216.4 million in the rest of the world, led by China’s $106.6 million.
The near-silent horror movie A Quiet Place is breaking out of the usual confines of the genre, scoring $8.6 million after fetching $1.7 million in its third weekend, easing by 27 per cent. Directed by and co-starring John Krasinski, the Paramount movie has generated $207.1 million worldwide, with France, Japan and China ahead, a handsome return for a $17 million budget.
Showing terrific legs, Sony/Animal Logic Entertainment’s Peter Rabbit scampered along to $22.9 million after earning $1.8 million in its fifth frame, slipping by 27 per cent. The live-action/CGI animated family film directed by Will Gluck has amassed $310 million worldwide, with more upside ahead from Japan and Korea.
Directed by Mike Newell and based on a posthumously published 2008 bestseller by US author Mary Ann Shaffer and co-writer Annie Barrows, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society booked $1.2 million at 228 cinemas for StudioCanal with previews. It was the top title at Wallis Cinemas’ upmarket locations, according to Wallis’ Bob Parr.
Netflix snapped up the rights for the movie starring Lily Collins, fellow Downton Abbey colleagues Matthew Goode and Jessica Brown Findlay as well as Katherine Parkinson, Tom Courtenay and Penelope Wilton in North America, Italy and a bunch of other markets.
Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One topped $13 million after making $956,000 in its fourth lap, a solid result but not the blockbuster which Roadshow was hoping for. The sci-fi action adventure starring Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Simon Pegg and Mark Rylance has grossed $521.6 million worldwide.
In the battle of the animated titles, Paramount’s Sherlock Gnomes is hanging in better than its opening might have suggested, taking $738,000 in its third weekend, off just 13 per cent, and $4.7 million to date.
Playing to a more niche audience, Wes Anderson’s futuristic Isle of Dogs drew $531,000 in its second outing on 120 screens, making $1.8 million for
Fox.
Director Kay Cannon’s raunchy comedy Blockers reached $9.7 million after collecting $641,000 million in its fourth frame for Universal.
Universal/Blumhouse Productions’ supernatural thriller Truth of Dare plunged by 41 per cent to $626,000 in its second weekend. Directed by Jeff Wadlow, the film budgeted at a mere $3.5 million, which features Lucy Hale. Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Nolan Gerard Funk and Hayden Szeto, has pocketed $2.1 million here and a tidy $30.3 million in the US.
Director Jay Chandrasekhar’s Super Troopers 2, a sequel to the 2002 cult comedy, brought in a fair $443,000 on 93 screens but over-performed in the US, drumming up $14.7 million. So that looms as a profitable exercise for Fox given the production budget of $5 million, most of it raised through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign by the film’s comedy group Broken Lizard.
Bharat Ane Nenu (I, Bharat), an Indian political thriller directed by Koratala Siva featuring Mahesh Babu and Kiara Advani, registered the weekend’s second biggest per-screen average in its debut, grabbing $339,000 on 38 screens.