Animated ‘Bad Guys,’ Viking Epic ‘Northman,’ & Nic Cage Satire ‘Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ Join Crowded Box Office
After four weeks in a row of big ticket releases opening above $30 million, the momentum is keeping up with three new wide releases that, though they are smaller in scope than the past month’s big releases, all have solid mid-range box office potential. It may not be enough to make April beat March as the biggest month yet this year (or to give us another $100+ million weekend), but the new releases should keep the seats in the theaters warm as we await the arrival of the summer blockbuster season in two weeks with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The holdovers Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 may hold onto the top spots (and the two have been neck and neck in the weekday grosses), but the expected winner of the newcomers is Universal’s The Bad Guys, which could hit number one if it overperforms. The latest DreamWorks Animation (DWA) toon is based on a children’s book series of the same name and portrays an animal gang that pulls off Ocean's 11/Reservoir Dogs style heists until the leader Mr. Wolf has a change of heart about their lifestyle. Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh, and Alex Borstein lent their voices to the family-friendly animated comedy.
The critical response is positive (88% on Rotten Tomatoes), and like Sonic 2 it should benefit by being one of the year’s only films that parents can take their kids to. The last wide release animated film was Sing 2 back in December, and The Bad Guys is the first film for DWA since 2019 to have a theatrical-exclusive release without a drastically shortened window (it will hit Peacock after 45 days, compared to a streaming/VOD availability after 22 days for The Croods: A New Age and Spirit Untamed and the same day for Trolls 2: World Tour and The Boss Baby 2). It already grossed $52 million overseas, having begun its rollout in mid-March.
Fourth place should go to the viking revenge epic The Northman from writer-director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse). The film, which is getting a stateside release from Focus, is based on the Scandinavian myth of Amleth and stars Alexander Skarsgård as Prince Amleth who seeks vengeance on his uncle (Claes Bang) who killed his father (Ethan Hawke) and kidnapped his mother (Nicole Kidman). Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, and Willem Dafoe round out the cast. At 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews suggest it lives up to the high bar set by Eggers’ earlier works.
Eggers’ previous films, both art house period horror films from A24, have performed well considering their low costs and offbeat nature. The Witch opened wide and earned $25.1 million domestic and $40.4 million globally off a $4 million budget, while The Lighthouse, which was a limited release and had a budget of $11 million, made $10.9 million domestic and $18.1 million worldwide, and it may have earned more had its early 2020 release dates in many countries not come so close to the start of the pandemic. The Northman has a much higher ladder to climb before it can break even, with its budget pegged in the $70-90 million range.
Next up is Lionsgate’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which stars Nicolas Cage as the one and only Nicolas Cage in a meta-action-comedy that is being viewed as something of a comeback film. Excluding his voice roles, it is the first wide release for the actor since Snowden in 2016 and his first studio film since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2012, and it will hopefully at least be his best grossing film since then as well. Ghost Rider 2 grossed $51.8 million, and Snowden, which he only had a small part in, grossed $21.6 million, making it his only live action film in the past decade to even cross $15 million.
None of this was because Cage was keeping a low profile. The one-time box office draw made dozens of films in the past decade, the majority of them poorly reviewed, low-budget films that went straight to video, and the handful of critically acclaimed titles in that stretch failed to break out of the limited-release, specialty box-office confines. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent may mark the start of a new era for the actor, and he currently has a role lined up as Count Dracula in Universal’s upcoming Renfield, which will be his first major studio film in over a decade. Critics are loving Cage’s self-aware comeback film, which premiered at SXSW and is at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film will test whether Cage’s internet popularity can translate to box office success. Pedro Pascal, Ike Barinholtz, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tiffany Haddish co-star.
In the specialty box office, Sony Pictures Classics is launching The Duke in New York and Los Angeles. The final film from director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Venus) stars Jim Broadbent as a real life Robin Hood figure Kempton Bunton, who in 1961 stole a Goya portrait of The Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery and ransomed it in exchange for pensioners to receive free television licenses. The film, which co-stars Helen Mirren, has a $10 million global cume thus far, around two-thirds of that coming from the U.K. The Duke premiered in Venice back in 2020 and critics have fallen for its charms, with 96% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
The holdovers Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 may hold onto the top spots (and the two have been neck and neck in the weekday grosses), but the expected winner of the newcomers is Universal’s The Bad Guys, which could hit number one if it overperforms. The latest DreamWorks Animation (DWA) toon is based on a children’s book series of the same name and portrays an animal gang that pulls off Ocean's 11/Reservoir Dogs style heists until the leader Mr. Wolf has a change of heart about their lifestyle. Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson, Awkwafina, Richard Ayoade, Zazie Beetz, Lilly Singh, and Alex Borstein lent their voices to the family-friendly animated comedy.
The critical response is positive (88% on Rotten Tomatoes), and like Sonic 2 it should benefit by being one of the year’s only films that parents can take their kids to. The last wide release animated film was Sing 2 back in December, and The Bad Guys is the first film for DWA since 2019 to have a theatrical-exclusive release without a drastically shortened window (it will hit Peacock after 45 days, compared to a streaming/VOD availability after 22 days for The Croods: A New Age and Spirit Untamed and the same day for Trolls 2: World Tour and The Boss Baby 2). It already grossed $52 million overseas, having begun its rollout in mid-March.
Fourth place should go to the viking revenge epic The Northman from writer-director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse). The film, which is getting a stateside release from Focus, is based on the Scandinavian myth of Amleth and stars Alexander Skarsgård as Prince Amleth who seeks vengeance on his uncle (Claes Bang) who killed his father (Ethan Hawke) and kidnapped his mother (Nicole Kidman). Anya Taylor-Joy, Björk, and Willem Dafoe round out the cast. At 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews suggest it lives up to the high bar set by Eggers’ earlier works.
Eggers’ previous films, both art house period horror films from A24, have performed well considering their low costs and offbeat nature. The Witch opened wide and earned $25.1 million domestic and $40.4 million globally off a $4 million budget, while The Lighthouse, which was a limited release and had a budget of $11 million, made $10.9 million domestic and $18.1 million worldwide, and it may have earned more had its early 2020 release dates in many countries not come so close to the start of the pandemic. The Northman has a much higher ladder to climb before it can break even, with its budget pegged in the $70-90 million range.
Next up is Lionsgate’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which stars Nicolas Cage as the one and only Nicolas Cage in a meta-action-comedy that is being viewed as something of a comeback film. Excluding his voice roles, it is the first wide release for the actor since Snowden in 2016 and his first studio film since Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2012, and it will hopefully at least be his best grossing film since then as well. Ghost Rider 2 grossed $51.8 million, and Snowden, which he only had a small part in, grossed $21.6 million, making it his only live action film in the past decade to even cross $15 million.
None of this was because Cage was keeping a low profile. The one-time box office draw made dozens of films in the past decade, the majority of them poorly reviewed, low-budget films that went straight to video, and the handful of critically acclaimed titles in that stretch failed to break out of the limited-release, specialty box-office confines. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent may mark the start of a new era for the actor, and he currently has a role lined up as Count Dracula in Universal’s upcoming Renfield, which will be his first major studio film in over a decade. Critics are loving Cage’s self-aware comeback film, which premiered at SXSW and is at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film will test whether Cage’s internet popularity can translate to box office success. Pedro Pascal, Ike Barinholtz, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tiffany Haddish co-star.
In the specialty box office, Sony Pictures Classics is launching The Duke in New York and Los Angeles. The final film from director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Venus) stars Jim Broadbent as a real life Robin Hood figure Kempton Bunton, who in 1961 stole a Goya portrait of The Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery and ransomed it in exchange for pensioners to receive free television licenses. The film, which co-stars Helen Mirren, has a $10 million global cume thus far, around two-thirds of that coming from the U.K. The Duke premiered in Venice back in 2020 and critics have fallen for its charms, with 96% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
