Tavern Talk: Video Review - A QUIET PLACE PART II & CRUELLA

The box office is back, baby! Memorial Day 2021 will seemingly go down as the weekend the masses decided to return to the movies after many long months of theater closings, sporadic releases, and hesitant movie-goers it finally felt like the time had come to take a major step back to normalcy and apparently that step was seeing a movie on a big screen. With the C.D.C lifting mask mandates for those that are fully vaccinated last month and case numbers in the United States continuing to plummet with the fewest number of new infections being identified in nearly a year it would seem the Memorial Day weekend was bound to be seen as something of a celebration. Typically, the last weekend in May comes after a few weeks of summer kick-off releases and fun genre flicks primed for big audiences, but this year Memorial Day weekend served as THE summer kick-off with two major releases opening in theaters alongside one another for the first time in over a year. Also for the first time in over a year, the total box office take surpassed $100 million with A Quiet Place Part II and Cruella leading the way. While Cruella premiered in both theaters and on Disney+ with Premiere Access (which just means you had to pay an extra $30 on top of your monthly subscription price) John Krasinski's sequel to his 2018 hit arrived exclusively in theaters fourteen months after being one of the first movies delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems the wait was worth it though, as A Quiet Place Part II scared up $48.4 million in its first three-days with a four-day domestic take totaling $57 million and another $22 million internationally for a worldwide total just shy of $80 million. For the sake of comparison, Krasinski's sequel nearly matched his original film’s $50.2 million opening back in 2018. The follow-up opened with a $12,985 per-screen average in 3,726 theaters easily making it the biggest domestic earner of the pandemic era. As for Cruella, an origin story about the 101 Dalmatians villain starring Emma Stone, it also pulled in solid numbers despite that Premiere Access caveat. Opening with $21.3 million over its first three days while earning $26.5 million over the holiday period, the live-action Disney tale also earned $16 million internationally for a $42.6 million worldwide haul on a rumored budget of anywhere from $100 to $200 million. With the majority of the upcoming major releases falling into either the horror or action categories though, Cruella has the opportunity to leg it out alongside that Disney+ revenue. As always, be sure to follow the official TAVERN TALK by Initial Reaction YouTube channel as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where you can find a new review (or reviews) each week!