While we are coming to the end of September it couldn't have felt more like the summer movie season at the theater this weekend as we had both a gigantic studio movie with big movie stars as well as a colorful, star-studded, animated film looking to capitalize on its target audience. Unfortunately, the box office returns for both of these films felt eerily similar to those of the 2016 summer movie season as well. While the re-make of The Magnificent Seven starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt seemed poised to do big business this weekend (I was thinking somewhere in the $40-$50 million range) it ended the Friday to Sunday frame with $35 million which is about what Sully ended at just a couple of weeks back. While this may bode well for the likes of the remaining movie star status' of Washington and Tom Hanks The Magnificent Seven cost $30 million more to make than that Clint Eastwood film. The Magnificent Seven also cost a hefty $35 million more than the last team-up between director Antoine Fuqua and star Washington in 2014's The Equalizer which also had an opening weekend just a few thousand short of $35 million. How this might play out for Sony and MGM who released this re-make of the classic 1960 film is uncertain. As far as westerns play in this day and age there really isn't much to compare it to other than recent Quentin Tarantino efforts, but even those were both winter prestige pictures that somewhat operate on their own terms. The good new is that The Magnificent Seven delivered an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences and currently sits at a 63% "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes. These positive reviews coupled with its PG-13 rating should easily get the film past the $100 million mark, but how far it goes over that is anyone's guess. It doesn't help that next weekend the film will lose many of its IMAX screens to the Mark Wahlberg thriller Deepwater Horizon while facing competition in Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculair Children, the PG-13 rated comedy Masterminds as well as the expansion of Disney's Queen of Katwe. As for Storks, the Nicolas Stoller directed/Andy Samberg starring animated film finished the weekend with an estimated $21.8 million on a $70 million budget. In short, it will largely be up to international audiences to save this one. That's it for now, but as always be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as we have a new review (or reviews) up each week!
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