THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Early Edition March 7, 2025
MICKEY 17, RULE BREAKERS, NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE, IN THE LOST LANDS
What an ugly month this is looking to be with multiple weekends with four or more wide releases, and nothing that really jumps out, at least until Disney’s Snow White, and even that is tracking so poorly right now that we may not get a single $100 million opener until the summer.
This weekend, we finally get Oscar-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to his Best Picture-winning Parasite, after many delays, and then the rest of the lot? There are a few bigger names in there, but as far as the studios releasing movies? Angel Studios and IFC Films are probably the biggest, with the rest being smaller indies, and few that will get their movies into more than 1,000 theaters. In other words, it’s a different week but still the same old crap.
Also, note that I’m starting my training for a potential new gig this week, so I’m not sure how many movies I’ll be able to watch for review, because, as you’ll note, there are a LOT of new movies. I do plan on writing standalone reviews of the first two, at least. Everything else is time-permitting at this point.
MICKEY 17 (Warner Bros.)
Clearly, the biggest movie of the week and the one getting the widest release from a major studio is this sci-fi comedy from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho that teams the South Korean auteur with Robert Pattinson, best known from the “Twilight” movies and more recently, being cast as The Batman.
This is a movie that’s been quite anticipated from fans of Bong Joon-ho’s work that ranges from earlier genre films in South Korea to more prominent English language releases like his adaptation of the graphic novel, Snowpiercer, which famously ran into problems with studio interference from Harvey Weinstein, who was literally put into producer’s jail (but not for his heavy hand in editing, oddly). Director Bong also made the movie Okja for Netflix, which only had a minimal international theatrical release. Director Bong had made waves internationally going back to his 2007 film, The Host (aka Gwoemul), which grossed $92.6 million worldwide, but only $2.2 million domestically. Similarly, Snowpiercer made $78.3 million internationally compared to $4.5 million in North America.
Parasite was a huge breakout after winning the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2019, paving the way for it to win multiple Oscars including Best Picture almost exactly five years ago. The $53.8 million it made in North America, making it an early hit for Neon, was matched by it making almost $200 million internationally, its critical and commercial success putting Bong well in-demand and at a place where he could adapt an odd sci-fi novel by Edward Ashton as his follow-up to Parasite.
Director Bong has always been impressive in terms of his casting, and that includes getting the popular Pattinson to star as the title character, a guy who agrees to become an “expendable,” essentially being cloned for dangerous operations. The rest of the cast includes Oscar nominee (and Emmy and Golden Globe winner) Steven Yeun, as well as Mark Ruffalo, Toni Colette, and Naomi Ackie.
It’s definitely a strange premise, and that might account for how Warner Bros has been shifting this around the release schedule, delaying the movie for nearly a year at one point, although it did premiere at Berlinale and so far, reviews have been great, so who knows why the studio seemed so concerned? I’ll tell you why, because I saw the movie and thought it was not good, a low point for once one of my favorite filmmakers. MY REVIEW
And then, of course, the movie has Robert Pattinson, who could be considered A-List from the success of the “Twilight” movies, but he also did quite well as The Batman, a movie which grossed $369.6 million domestically and $402.9 million overseas. What’s crazy is that was three years ago, and the only other major studio release he’s been in was Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, released during the pandemic. Other than that, Pattinson has been doing a lot of smaller indies and working with auteurs like Robert Eggers and Claire Denis, so starring in a Bong Joon-ho studio movie totally tracks.
Mickey 17’s sci-fi premise seems interesting with a fun trailer that’s been playing for a few months, but it also doesn’t seem like something that would necessarily appeal to a mainstream audience. In some ways, it seems even weirder than Snowpiercer and on par with Luc Besson’s 2017 sci-film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (also based on a comic book), but that topped out at $40 million, though without a bigger star like Pattinson.
With so few other strong movies in theaters and Warner Bros. opening Mickey 17 into over 3,400 theaters, I could totally see Mickey 17 opening upwards of $20 million, though considering how poorly high-profile genre movies have been doing this year, including Wolf Man, we could see this one taking first place with less than that.
RULE BREAKERS (Angel Studios)
Angel Studios continues to release many different kinds of films and not necessarily the faith-based films that many have been expecting due to the name of the distributor, and this film, directed by two-time Oscar winning documentarian Bill Guttentag, is very different from their last few releases. It tells the story of Roya Mahboob, as played by Nikohl Boosheri, a young woman from Afghanistan who teaches young girls there to use computers, eventually setting up a team of four teen girls to build and compete with robots at competitions in other countries. The film includes a role for Phoebe Waller-Bridge from “Fleabag” and the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, as well as Indian actor Ali Fazal, who has starred in a mix of Indian and Western films, like Death on the Nile and Gerard Butler’s Kandahar.
From what I’ve gathered, Rule Breakers may not be released into more than 1,000 theaters, which might limit its box office potential, but it’s a perfectly timed film for International Women’s Day this Saturday, and it could still get into the top five, even if it doesn’t open with more than $3 million this weekend. I’ve already reviewed the movie, and you can read that here.
NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE (Viva Entertainment)
The latest animated feature from Viva Entertainment features the voices of David Harbour, Paul Sun Hyung Lee from “The Mandalorian,” and even “The Kids in the Hall” star Scott Thompson, and it involves a meteor hitting a zoo and transforming the animals into zombies. It follows a wolf named Gracie (Gabbi Kosmidis) who teams with Harbour’s mountain lion Dan to get back to her pack.
This strange talking animal horror movie for kids is directed by Ricardo Curtis and Rodrigo Perez-Castro, who have worked as animators and story artists on many popular animated films, and this is the first animated movie since DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man, which had to be seen as a disappointment. Even so, there have been plenty of live action movies for families like Paddington in Peru and Mufasa, the latter shooting for its 11th weekend in the top 10 this weekend. This also has some PG competition in Rule Breakers this weekend.
Last year, Viva released Hitpig ($1.1 million opening) and Dragonkeeper ($426.7k), and it had more success with its earlier release, The Amazing Maurice ($4.3 million domestic) in 2022, but none of those movies made many waves, and that probably is just because Viva doesn’t have the same clout as the studios when it comes to marketing its movies. And yet, it did get Hitpig into over 2,000 theaters nationwide, and with so few other animated movies in theaters, there’s no reason why Viva can’t sneak this into 1,200 or so theaters, which would be enough for an opening on par with Hitpig, which would get it into the low-end of the Top 10.
IN THE LOST LANDS (Vertical)
Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson returns with his latest action-adventure fantasy movie, this one based on a story by “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, starring his wife, Milla Jovovich, and Dave Bautista. It’s an apocalyptic fantasy in which Jovovich plays the sorceress Gray Alys who travels across the “Lost Lands” with Bautista’s drifter named Boyce.
Anderson has built his career around his Resident Evil movies – I believe he directed six, with 2010’s Afterlife opening the best with $26.6 million – as well as other video game movies (like 2020’s Monster Hunter) and odds and ends like movies based on Pompeii, and remakes of Death Race and The Three Musketeers. He’s definitely an action director who has his share of fans, though I don’t expect reviews of this one to be very good, and honestly, there really hasn’t been much marketing for this. I’m not sure how many of Anderson and Jovovich’s fans are even aware that this movie exists, and that’s a problem as is the movie getting enough theaters to make an impact, but it might be able to break into the top 10 if it gets more than 700 theaters. Vertical did release the Anthony Mackie sci-fi movie Elevation into 1,416 theaters back in November, and that opened with $1.2 million, so that’s the benchmark for this one.
The above movies are all expected to get wide releases into at least 600 theaters, the movies below? Who knows? A lot of these smaller distributors are not reporting estimated theater counts in advance.
QUEEN OF THE RING (Sumerian)
This new sports drama from Ash Avildsen stars Emily Bett Rickards as professional wrestling pioneer Mildred Burke, who wrestled over 200 men during the 1930s but only lost one match to one of them, eventually becoming the first million dollar female athlete in history. This is a great movie to kick off International Womens Month with International Womans Day being celebrated on Saturday, though I wonder whether this lower profile release can get people into theaters, even with actors like Walton Goggins (currently on “The White Lotus”), Josh Lucas, and Deborah Ann Woll being some of the more recognizable names and faces. Still, this seems like a movie that will end up outside the top10, being given a moderately wide release without much promotion.
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN (IFC Films)
John Lithgow and Jeffrey Rush star in James Ashcroft’s psychological thriller in which Rush plays a retired judge in a rest home partially paralyzed due to a near-fatal stroke, who clashes with another resident (Lithgow) playing a sadistic game using his “dementia doll” to torment the others at the home. This movie which debuted at Fantastic Fest last September and played a few other festivals is getting a moderately-wide theatrical release, but it doesn’t seem like something that can break into the top 10 with its mixed reviews from that festival play.
SEVEN VEILS (Variance Films)
Toronto auteur Atom Egoyan reunites with Amanda Seyfried from 2009’s Chloe for this dramatic thriller, in which she plays Jeanine, a theater director staging a production of the opera “Salome” while trying to pay homage to her former mentor and dealing with all sorts of issues, both personal and with the production. The movie should be getting a moderate release, but it probably won’t be enough to get into the top 10 or even make a million this weekend. Regardless, I’ll have an interview with Mr. Egoyan over at Cinema Daily US later this week.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
This week’s “fun” will be trying to see how many of the movies mentioned above actually get into the top 10, because honestly? I’m not sure that many will, and that’s even considering that a movie would only have to make $1 million this weekend in order to get into the Top 10.
1. Mickey 17 (Warner Bros.) - $20.2 million N/A
2. Captain America: Brave New World (Marvel/Disney) - $8.2 million -45%
3. Last Breath (Focus Features) - $4.1 million -47%
4. The Monkey (Neon) - $3.2 million -50%
5. Paddington in Peru (Sony) - $3 million -31%
6. Rule Breakers (Angel Studios) - $2.8 million N/A
7. Dog Man (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) - $2.6 million -38%
8. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) - $1.3 million -35%
9. Night of the Zoopocalypse (Viva Entertainment) - $1.2 million N/A
10. In the Lost Lands (Vertical) - $1.1 million N/A
Other movies making under $1 million this weekend include…
–The Rule of Jenny Pen (IFC Films)
–Queen of the Ring (Sumerian)
– Seven Veils (Variance Films)
No idea whether I’ll have time to write a review and repertory roundup this week due to other obligations. I’ll do the best I can, but no promises right now.