THE WEEKEND WARRIOR 5/30/25
KARATE KID: LEGENDS, BRING HER BACK, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, IT'S ALL GONNA BREAK, RON DELSENER PRESENTS, TORNADO
While it was great to have such a fantastic Memorial Day weekend at the box office, it was also a little bittersweet, because it’s becoming obvious to me that no one cares enough about my box office writing to subscribe to my Substack, and I’m wondering if I should even bother wasting so much time each week writing stuff for no pay if no one wants to read it. This Substack really isn’t that tenable under current circumstances, and while I’ll keep using it to post reviews, doing a weekly column might be coming to an end very soon. I hate being blunt and honest for the two people who actually read this, but that’s where my head is at these days.
Either way, I’m going to write a column this week, since there are enough movies to cover, but yeah, I’m going to have to start taking a very serious look at the financials vs. the amount of time it takes to write this column each week, essentially for free.
Anyway, enough griping, and let’s get to the next weekend of summer where we have a legacy sequel (of sorts) against a horror follow-up to a pretty big 2023 hit.
KARATE KID: LEGENDS (Sony)
It’s been 15 years since Sony last tried to revive the popular 1984 movie The Karate Kid into a new China-set version starring Jackie Chan and Nepo baby poster child, Jaden Smith, which seems like a very long time ago, but over the past seven years, there have been six seasons of the Cobra Kai series that brought Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRuso and William Zabka’s Johnny Laurence back from the original movie. Because I’ve never watched that show, I have no effin’ idea how they managed to milk this concept into (is this right?) 65 episodes of television!??
Anyway, the new movie, directed by Jonathan Entwistle (not the bassist from the Who), brings back Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han from the 2010 movie, but it also brings back Ralph Macchio’s Daniel, and in the trailer, it mentions Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi, too, so… um… what? This is essentially a new story involving a young trainee named Li Fong, played by Ben Wang, who turns to Han and Daniel for help training him in kung fu… or karate… or something. I don’t know, ‘cause I haven’t seen the movie as I write this. I’m actually a little more excited that Ming Na-Wen from The Joy Luck Club and the voice of the original Mulan (and part of the sitcom The Single Guy!) has a role in the movie as Li Fong’s mother, though we don’t really see her much in the trailers.
Presumably, the combo of Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio will be a major draw, although Macchio really doesn’t have any recent box office history to work from as far as draw, and Chan isn’t much better, since he’s mainly been doing Chinese films (and mostly VOD stuff) in recent years. Chan’s last wide release was a voice role in the animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and you’d have to go back to 2017 for his last two wide releases, the animated The Lego Ninjago Movie and the action movie The Foreigner, which did far better overseas. Chan didn’t even return for 2024’s Kung Fu Panda 4, so he seemingly had turned his back on Hollywood… until now.
I’ll freely admit that I never really hankered to the original Karate Kid or its ‘80s/’90s sequels, maybe because I was into other things by the time they were released, and karate just wasn’t my thing. I did love the 2010 movie and thought that was very well done, plus it did very well with a $55.7 million opening and $176.6 million domestic take, which is great, compared to its $40 million budget. It makes you wonder why it took so long for Sony to return to the well for another movie, other than the success of Cobra Kai on Netflix.
In some ways, this new movie might look like something suited for kids than the Cobra Kai show, and even though this is PG-13, I can totally see parents who were fans of the original movies or the Netflix show might bring their kids to see this as their entry into the martial arts world.
This will probably be written before I get to see the movie on Tuesday night, though I hope to have at least one written review and a video review posted later this week, so we’ll see how well this movie does among critics, especially knowing how reticent they are to praising anything resembling a remake, even a legacy one like this. So far, it seems like reviews are mixed at best, and that will not help a movie that might have a lot of people wondering about it.
The success of the previous movie 15 years ago as well as the popularity of Cobra Kai would make one think that Karate Kid: Legends would do huge business, but coming off the success of last weekend’s two big movies might make it harder to have a huge opening. I think this will end up in the
ANOTHER REVIEW AT CINEMA DAILY US (Coming Soon!)
BRING HER BACK (A24)
Australian filmmaking brothers Danny and Michael Philippou are back with another horror film after their breakout 2023 hit, Talk to Me, this one starring Sally Hawkins as Laura, a foster mother who takes in a young girl (Sora Wong) and her older step-brother (Blly Barrat), although she’s already caring for a disturbed kid named Ollie (Jonah Wren Phillips), and there’s other weirdness going on at the house that involves witchcraft or possession or a mix of the two.
Talk to Me opened in 2,340 theaters in July 28, 2023 to a decent opening of $10.4 million, and it held up better than most horror movies over the weeks that followed, eventually making $48.2 million domestic. It made slightly less than that overseas, but still, $91.9 million for a movie that cost just $4.2 million is absolutely amazing. Obviously, A24 wanted to remain in business with the Philippous, similar to Neon with Osgood Perkins, and so, Bring Her Back is coming out relatively quickly.
Casting Sally Hawkins is also quite a coup for the brothers as the two-time Oscar nominee is quite respected in the industry from her work with Mike Leigh and appearing in Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning The Shape of Water. She’s also appeared in a number of bigger studio movies like the musical Wonka, the first two Paddington films, and oddly, both the 2014 remake of Godzilla and its sequel, but she’s also done smaller British films. It’s hard to determine whether having a well-known British actress like Ms. Hawkins can help Bring Her Back, since horror often will do well without bigger name actors, and even having Hugh Grant in last year’s Heretic kept that movie opening in the same general ~$10 million range as Talk to Me.
A24 released the review embargo early for the movie, and it paid off, with it currently holding a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 94% for Talk to Me. The movie also played as part of various Mystery Movie Monday programs, so it will already have some advance money added to its previews. Clearly, film critics love the brothers, and audiences gave that movie a “B+” CinemaScore, which is also good for horror. Bring Her Back is a different kind of movie, which mixes together a number of different horror sub-genres, which makes it harder to categorize, but A24’s marketing has done a good job making it look quite scary and disturbing (which it is).
Bring Her Back will probably open very close to $10 million, maybe slightly higher, but it could do better since it had far less competition than Talk to Me had when it opened, and fans of that movie will definitely be checking it out, especially with positive reactions from the previews.
You can also watch my interview with Danny and Michael over at Cinema Daily US… hopefully soon.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Focus)
Although Wes Anderson’s latest film, fresh off its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, is only opening limited this weekend, his movies often do so well in limited release, opening with a million or more in six or fewer theaters. That’s the power of Anderson in cities like New York and L.A. and others, and Focus Features is taking a similar tact with his latest.
Set in 1950, The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio del Toro (who appeared in Anderson’s The French Dispatch) as Zsa-zsa Korda, a billionaire industrialist who has the proclivity for surviving plane crashes, but he has decided to reconnect with his daughter Yiesl (Mia Threapleton) and make her his sole heir, getting her into the family business. Yiesl is a nun, but she tentatively agrees to her father’s deal as the two of them journey across Modern Greater
Independent Phoenicia to close the “Gap,” a rapidly declining financial situation, along with her tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera) Although Anderson’s latest focuses on those three particular characters, other Anderson collaborators like Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray, and others make small appearances throughout the film.
The movie was received well out of Cannes with 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is slightly better than Anderson’s Asteroid City and The French Dispatch, but not as good as the 92% on Rotten Tomatoes for The Grand Budapest Hotel, which received a lot of Oscar love. 2014’s Grand Budapest is still Anderson’s highest-grossing movie with $59 million domestic (and $103.9 million overseas), followed by 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums with $52.3 million. Asteroid City topped out at $28 million, but it’s still impressive that Anderson released three feature films and a bunch of shorts (including one that won him the Oscar) since the pandemic.
At this point, Wes Anderson fans go to see movies just because they’re written and directed by Anderson, though the promise of some of the bigger names might help convince them to see this one. As we’ve seen in the past, Anderson’s movies do particularly well in New York and L.A., which is why Focus Features will open it in those two areas, probably in just 6 or 7 theaters, where the per-theater average will be insane. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets to a million just this weekend, but we’ll have to see if that’s enough to get into the top 10.
JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (Sony Pictures Classics)
After opening in limited release last weekend and grossing $340,000 in 61 theaters, Laura Piani’s French-English rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will expand into 500 theaters nationwide, and I’m not sure I have much more to say about it, mainly because I couldn’t even make it through the whole movie. It stars Camille Rutherford as a single bookseller looking to be a writer who ends up at a Jane Austen writers residency where her love life is put to the test. It made around $320,000 in 61 theaters over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, and I think it can probably double that amount in 500 theaters but I doubt it will get into the top 10 this weekend.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
1. Lilo & Stitch (Disney) - $65 million -56%
2. Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) - $33.7 million N/A
3. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (Paramount) - $28 million -56%
4. Bring Her Back (A24) - $9.8 million N/A
5. Final Destination Bloodlines (New Line/WB) - $9.4 million -53%
6. Sinners (Warner Bros) - $4.7 million -46%
7. The New Avengers (Marvel/Disney) - $4.5 million -54%
8. The Last Rodeo (Angel Studios) - $3 million -45%
9. Friendship (A24) - $2.3 million -50%
10. The Phoenician Scheme (Focus Features) - $1 million N/A
Unfortunately, I ran out of time to write reviews for some of the limited releases but there are three good ones that I’m recommending this week.
IT’S ALL GONNA BREAK (Fathom/Cargo Film)
Stephen Chung’s documentary looks at Toronto’s own Broken Social Scene, a band who broke out big in 2000 and who I probably got into due to their connection to Emily Haines of Metric, though I honestly can’t remember which group I got into first. This movie opens at the IFC Center in New York this weekend, and Chung will be there Kevin Drew from the band for a QnA on Friday night. It’s actually a really good doc, mainly because Chung was there in the early days of the musical collective, filming their early shambolic shows and being there when they were in the recording studio coming up with their sound, as well as when they started to break big with their second album in 2002, “You Forgot It in People,” a Juno-winning record that helped bring the band to major festivals around the world, thanks to the advent of the internet and a glowing review from the nascent Pitchfork. Unfortunately, the band completely nixed the first cut Chung put together for the movie in 2006, and it sat dormant for nearly two decades as Chung moved on with his life, raised a family, etc. Thankfully, the band finally reconsidered and allowed the movie to be completed, and the results are somewhat Meta, since it also allows Chung to explore his own feeling about all his hard work being refused by the band who he lovingly followed around filming for years. And that footage is absolutely insane, stuff that maybe no one would have ever seen since so few people were aware of the band in those early days and Chung gets a lot of the people involved talking about those days, including Haines. This is a great film, not only for fans of Broken Social Scene but also those who are interested in learning more about why they are so beloved among a certain level of hipster music enthusiast.
RON DELSENER PRESENTS (Abramorama)
Jake Sumner’s documentary takes a comprehensive look at New York concert promoter Ron Delsner is an amazing film that gets into how Delsner rose to fame promoting concerts in New York at places like Forest Hills, Carnegie Hall, and eventually, Madison Square Garden, championing bands who would become huge in the ‘70s and ‘80s like Bruce Springsteen, Kiss, and Bon Jovi. Two years after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, this great rock/music doc will open at the Quad Cinema on Friday as well as other cities. If you’re interested in learning about the New York concert scene in the early days of rock, this doc is a must-see.
You can watch my interview with Jake Sumner over at Cinema Daily US.
TORNADO (Independent Film Company)
Slow West filmmaker John Maclean is back with another Western of sorts, this one set in the British Isles in 1790 where a Japanese samurai/puppeteer (Takehiro Hira from Shogun) and his daughter (Kôki) are performing when they get mixed up with a band of ruthless criminals who believe they’ve stolen their loot from a recent bank robbery. I really enjoyed Slow West and John Maclean is two-for-two with this movie that combines Western tropes with samurai, two things that I genuinely love. Look for my interview with John Maclean over at CinemaDaily US sometime this week.
Other movies out this weekend…
GHOST TRAIL (Music Box Films)
ZENITHAL (Dark Star Pictures)
REPERTORY
I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to the Repertory Roundup last week because the column was behind the paywall, which means no one read it anyway, but it’s back… and feel to upgrade to paid if you enjoy this feature, since it’s not something you can get many places.
On Saturday, get over to the Metrograph for Tommy Stathes’ latest “Saturday Morning Cartoons” series with this month’s theme being “Watch Us Move.” Speaking of which, animator Bill Plympton will be at the Metrograph on Sunday to introduce some of his features and shorts as part of “Plympton’s Twisted Toons.”
“ACE Presents” continues its long-running series as part of “Filmcraft: American Cinema Editors” and the series “Charlotte Zwerin: Vérité Pioneer,” which will feature the Maysles’ Salesman (1969) followed by a panel discussion talking about Zwerin’s contribution to documentary, as well as screenings of Gimme Shelter and Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1998), the latter which Zwerin directed without the Maysles. This has been a great monthly series, and if you’re interested in making films than listening and learning from editors is a great way to know the craft.
Starting this weekend is “The Show Must Go On,” a new series looking at the move from stage to screen (I think) with Toshio Matsumoto’s 1969 film Funeral Parade of Roses screening this weekend, and lots more throughout June.
Also starting this weekend is “Volver A Carmen,” a retrospective on Pedro Almodovar’s earlier and lesser-screened films from the ‘80s with this weekend showing 1983’s Dark Habits and 1986’s Matador, plus more to come. (I would actually like to see both of those but I have night plans all weekend.)
“Glauber Rocha: of hunger and dreams
Miyazaki’s animated My Neighbor Totoro continues as part of “Guided by Animals,” joined by Pepe, Nelson Carlos De los Santos Arias’ hybrid film about a hippopotamus.
“The Time That Remains” continues to show Wim Wenders’ The American Friend (1977), Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), and PT Anderson’s Magnolia (1999).
Edward Yang’s Mahjong (1996) runs through the weekend as part of “Scenes from the ‘End of History’,” as well as Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together (1997), Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999), and starting on Friday, the Wachowki’s The Matrix (1999), and on the weekend, Želimir Žilnik’s Marble Ass (1995).
Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017) runs one more time on Friday as part of “Syd Mead: Illustrating the Future.” “Louise Giovanelli: Still Moving” concludes this week with one more screening of Grey Gardens (1975) on Thursday night and Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66 (1998) on Wednesday night.
The first part of “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us” comes to a close on Sunday at Japan Society before shifting over to the Metrograph in June with screenings this weekend of A Wife’s Heart, Wife, Husband and Wife, Lightning, and Yearning, all on imported 35mm prints.
The retrospective “Jack Lemmon 100” comes to a close on Thursday, as does René Clément’s Forbidden Games and Fellini’s 8 ½ AND Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman. With all of that repertory stuff ending, there must be some new stuff, and sure enough, Masayuki Suo’s 1996 rom-com Shall We Dance? (the basis for the Richard Gere-Jlo movie) gets a U.S. premiere of the director’s cut, and on Tuesday, they’re also screening Suo’s 1992 film Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t (groan, what a terrible pun). Oddly, the 1937 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie Shall We Dance will screen as part of Film Forum Jr. on Sunday. Not too confusing.
Big news is that Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy will be playing at the IFC Center over the next few weeks, beginning on Friday with a 30th Anniversary run of 1995’s Before Sunrise, followed each week by the next installment in the series. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) continues to run through the weekend, but only one screening per day. This weekend’s midnight offerings include Takashi Miike’s Audition, Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage (1989) as part of “Waverly Midnights: Ecstasy in Polychrome,” and Shane Black’s brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) as part of the “Staff Picks” series.
Besides a Thursday night screening of Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), other movies screening this weekend include 1969’s Lions Love (...and Lies) from Agnès Varda on Friday, as well as a 35mm screening of Howard Hawks’ 1962 epic Hatari! Presented by my pals at the Film Stage, and that will also screen on Sunday. A 35mm print of The Grapes of Wrath screens on Saturday, as well as a screening of 2019’s I’m No Longer Here, followed by a QnA. On Sunday, you can catch a 35mm screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan from 1982, thought to be the best in the series. Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher from 1999 screens on Monday
Sadly, I haven’t been able to get up to the Paris for its comprehensive 59-film Hitchcock series, “Hitch! The Original Cinema Influencer,” but it continues this week and weekend with screenings of Lifeboat (Thursday afternoon), Strangers on a Train and Rope (three screenings of each this weekend), Stage Fright (on Friday afternoon), Rear Window and Notorious (on Friday and Saturday), and on Saturday, the rarer-seen The Paradine Case (1947) and I Confess (1953). On Sunday afternoon, the Academy’s Short Films Branch presents “An Afternoon of Music-Themed Shorts”, and on Monday night, Filmmaker Magazine presents Tom Kalin’s 1992 film Swoon with the filmmaker and producer Christine Vachon on-hand for a QnA
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
This Thursday night’s “Ridiculous Sublime” at Prospect Park is 1984’s Gwendolyn, and the film’s star Brent Huff will Zoom in for a QnA after the movie. Staying in 1984, Lawrence Dane’s Heavenly Bodies will screen on Saturday and Sunday at brunch time… and yes, it’s part of the “Dance, Girl, Dance” series and Dane’s name is just missing a “C.” On Monday, one of my all-time favorite movies, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s 1995 film The City of Lost Children plays as part of “Strange Amuseuments,” and on Tuesday, Cecile B. Demile’s 1933 This Day and Age plays as part of Prospect Park’s “Pre-Code Parade” in 35mm.
Over at Williamsburg, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy (2014) plays as part of “All About Their Mothers” on Thursday night. On Tuesday night, there begins a series called “Fix Your Hearts or Die: A Trans Cinema Celebration” in conjunction with Pride Month, beginning with Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda (1953). As part of the Nitehawk’s 10th Anniversary (and timed with the new Karate Kid movie?) they’re showing the 1985 film The Last Dragon on Friday and Saturday near midnight, and if that’s too late for you, you can catch M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable on Saturday and Sunday at a more reasonable hour.
“See It Big: Stunts!” continues for the next few weeks with this weekend playing Harrison Ford’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tony Jaa in Ong Bak: Muy Thai Warrior, and Hal Needham’s Hooper, starring the late, great Burt Reynolds. John Casevetes’ 1980 dramatic thriller Gloria, starring Gena Rowlands, will screen on Saturday and Sunday as part of “Queens on Screen,” while Disreputable Cinema will screen Ben Johnson’s Troma’s Curse of the Weredeer on Sunday, which is just a few years old.
Next week, we’re going to be thrust fully into the Tribeca Film Festival, but there’s also new movies like From The World of John Wick: Ballerina – no seriously, do I have to write out that full title every time I mention the film? – and Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme expands nationwide. We’ll see how much I decide to write about as I might just review Ballerina.