THE WEEKEND WARRIOR July 18, 2025
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SMURFS, EDDINGTON
After two nice weekends with just a single wide release, we’re back into the usual of having three wide releases, and this weekend is gonna seem like a joy once we get to August, because I see a few weeks with four or five wide releases!
As I write this over the weekend, I haven’t seen any of the three wide releases, and I won’t see two of them until Tuesday night – not a great way to have a weekly column include reviews of the main releases. But I also wouldn’t want to be any of the movies that got scheduled in the weekend between Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, because it seems to be something that would lead to almost inevitable doom… and not the Robert Downey Jr. one either.
A bit of housekeeping before we get to this week’s new movies, I’m thinking seriously of taking August off from writing this column because it’s just taking up too much time for too little money, and from the lack of paid subscribers, it’s obvious that people don’t care to read my box office analysis vs. my reviews. So I’m going to try to figure out a middle ground over the next couple weeks, and see how that goes.
In the meantime… new movies!
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (Sony)
We’re midway through a summer where horror has been quite spotty with huge hit sequels like Final Destination Bloodlines and 28 Years Later… and M3gan 2.0, which most people will have to watch on Peacock since it’s gone from most theaters after just two weeks. Into that environment comes this “legacy sequel” (as the kids call it).
In 1997, when the original movie opened, Wes Craven’s original Scream had been a huge box office hit, and it led to this period of late ‘90s teen horror that delivered many slasher copycats, and I Know What You Did Last Summer may have been seen as one of the first. Written by Kevin Williamson (of Scream), the movie appealed to the younger fans of Scream and some of the others that would come, like Final Destination, which led to one of the bigger franchises outside of Scream. The original movie starred Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., who were all big on television in the earlier ‘90s, but it ended up making $72.2 million in North America compared to its $17 million budget. That led to the 1998 sequel, I STILL Know What You Did Last Summer, which also continued the trend of horror sequels being rolled out quickly, similar to Scream, similar to Saw, etc. etc.
Of course, the model for the movie is the hit Scream reboot and its sequel from 2022 and 2023, two movies that did as well or better than the second and third sequels directed by the late Wes Craven in 2000 and 2011. The fact that Scream 4 was released just 11 years earlier than the reboot might be major, since it was a reboot that came a lot closer to the previous installment rather than the 27 years that this reboot has to the previous sequel. (There was a movie called I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer released in 2006, but that was straight-to-DVD with none of the original cast, and not many people might even be aware of it.)
The new movie is co-written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who wrote Thor: Love and Thunder and wrote and directed movies like Do Revenge and Someone Great, neither of which I’ve seen. She’s cast Madelyn Cline, best known from the Netflix series Outer Banks, which I’ve never seen, but she also appeared in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion and Stranger Things, all on Netflix. She’s joined by Chase Sui Wonders, who at least appeared on Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s The Studio and in Bodies Bodies Bodies.
I’m not sure any of those names will do much to get people into theaters, so in true “legacy sequel” form, returning for the movie will be Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt, having also appeared in the 1998 sequel, probably giving away which actors’ characters died in the first movie. (Hint: They went on to make Cruel Intentions together, but one of them would spend a lot of time with Prinze Jr. after making the first I Know What You Did movie.)
Other than 28 Years Later, Sony has not been doing great with horror in recent years, as seen by how poorly the video game adaptation Until Dawn did in April. Even 28 Years Later did well opening weekend but didn’t sustain that business due to rave reviews, and at least that one was following up a movie from 20 years ago. The large gap since the original movies means that only people over 30 will have seen those earlier movies, which are not readily available on streaming. Even with the R-rating, this movie is still targeting much younger moviegoers who might just be into seeing this movie as its own horror thing, rather than as something based on “their parents’ favorite horror movie.” (Though I’m not sure the original movies are anyone’s “favorites” compared to the Scream movies.)
One warning sign for IKWYDLS is that it’s barely opening in 3,000 theaters, which is on the lower side for major studio wide release. For a comparison, 28 Years Later opened in 3,444 theaters, which shows there’s more support for that movie from Sony but also more interest from exhibitors, reflecting that fewer moviegoers might be interested in this requel. Even so, this one is likely to push $20 million for its opening, putting it up against Jurassic World Rebirth for second place.
Mini-Review: I doubt I would be anywhere near the biggest fan of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer or its quickly rushed-out sequel in the late ‘90s, because I was already in my 30s when they came out. I more than likely saw them on DVD rented from Netflix in the ‘00s, but it wasn’t bad as an obvious attempt to capitalize on the success of the Scream movies. 28 years later, we now have a legacy sequel (or requel)
Once again, a group of young people from Southport – these ones well out of high school – are involved in a horrible accident that kills a young man. Once again, they reunite a year later and start receiving threatening notes that lead to those around them getting killed. Madelyn Cline’s Danica is due to get married to Tyriq Withers’ Teddy Spencer soon, but they go on a joyride with Danica’s best friend Ava (Chase Sui Wonders) and her former boyfriend Milo (Jonah Hauer-King). Along for the ride is Sarah Pidgeon’s Stevie, who has a direct connection to someone who was plagued by the killer in the earlier movies, but was friends with the group in high school before she ended up with problems that put her into rehab.
Essentially, it’s the exact same story with only a few minor twists to be more updated for modern audiences (like quoting Nicole Kidman from her AMC promos). While this isn’t necessarily a horror-comedy, there is stuff that’s funny and entertaining, like the hot podcaster Tyler (a very funny Gabbriette) that Ava meets on a plane who is travelling to Southport to do an episode on the 1997 murders.
I hadn’t seen any of Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s previous films (Heard good things about Go Murder), but she does a great job directing this, although the screenplay is on the weaker side, with the plot getting so convoluted with the number of characters who could potentially be the killer. She also made the odd decision of killing just about every single man in the movie, which quickly narrows things down. Still, there’s plenty of scares and tension throughout, which is what most people going to see this movie will want.
She has put together a decent cast of young actors, although being 28 years older, I find young people even more annoying than I with some of the other ‘90s teen comedies. Chase Sui Wonders is the clear standout, really delivering a great performance. Jennifer Love Hewitt’s role is fairly small, essentially just two scenes, while Freddie Prinze Jr.’s return as Ray Bronson is significantly bigger since he’s still in Southport and is Stevie’s boss. Fans of the original movies should generally be happy with some of the callbacks. (If I’d had a chance to rewatch, there maybe other cameos I didn’t realize.)
Even so, I feel like the movie really squanders its R-rating, since horror movie, especially slashers, have gotten significantly gory, and these kills are all relatively tame by comparison. Once we finally get the reveal of the killer, that’s another moment when viewers either will appreciate it and be onboard, or they’ll just be annoyed, because it does something that we’ve seen in just about every Scream movie to date. I wasn’t crazy about it, but also didn’t absolutely hate it.
Like a cross between Scream and Scooby Doo – midway through the movie I realized that two of the original cast of IKWYDLS appeared in that latter 2002 movie – this seems like a slasher that might work better for young people who have never seen the original movie, because it’s essentially the same movie without making much of an effort to reinvent the wheel.
Rating: 6.5/10
SMURFS (Paramount)
There are already three strong family films in theaters that continue to bring in business with all three this past weekend just dropping 30-32%, yet it still seems like a good time for another family film with Pixar’s Elio not doing as well as expected, which might pay off for the first Smurfs animated movie from Paramount. Based on the Belgian comics by Peyo introduced in the late ‘50s, there have been many incarnations of the blue fantasy characters, including comics, Saturday morning television cartoons, and of course, movies.
The movie side of things really picked up in 2011 with Sony Animation’s The Smurfs live-action hybrid movie, which opened with a whopping $35.6 million and made $142.6 million domestic and $563.7 million worldwide. Two years later, The Smurfs 2 opened with about half the opening of the previous movie, half the original film’s domestic total and a little better than that amount overseas, which is pretty regular for family films. Even so, Sony Animation made the fully animated Smurfs: The Lost Village in 2017, which just didn’t connect at all, opening with $13.2 million domestic and $45 million total domestic, making up for things by making almost $150 million worldwide, which still isn’t great.
Eight years later, we’re getting another animated movie, this time from Chris Miller, who directed Shrek the Third and Puss in Boots for DreamWorks Animation and generally has been affiliated with that animation house, often providing his voice for characters. Presumably, any interest in this movie will be just as much about his voice cast, which includes James Corden, Rihanna, Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Octavia Spencer and other actors, some that have done press and the talk show rounds.
This Smurfs movie comes from Paramount Animation, who has had some success with Sonic the Hedgehog and some of the animated SpongeBob SquarePants movies, as well as 2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. More importantly, Paramount has access to Nickelodeon to advertise this movie, though one wonders whether today’s kids really care about these characters in the same way they care about something like Minecraft.
I would guess not, and because of that, I think this will probably end up in the same range as the last two sequels i.e. $14 to $17 million, which would put it in a fourth place opening, not doing well enough domestically to warrant another movie.
(I decided not to review Smurfs, because I was so bored by it that I didn’t stay for the whole movie, and I somehow doubt reviews will be good, but it probably won’t matter.)
EDDINGTON (A24)
Ari Aster is back with his fourth movie, as well as his fourth movie released by A24, and I might be more excited about it if I hadn’t hated Beau is Afraid so much. He doubles down by reuniting with that movie’s star, Joaquin Phoenix, and pairing him with an actor who had already overstayed his welcome earlier this year before this and having another movie next weekend. Of course, I’m talking about Pedro Pascal, who the ladies love, and people generally seem to like, but to me, he’s just been in too many movies this year and in my book, he’s wearing out his welcome. As least, Aster also cast the great Emma Stone, who I love (although her last movie with Yorgos Lanthimos wasn’t great), and I’m always happy to see her. Austin Butler also shows up for the tiniest of roles.
At the time of this writing, I won’t be seeing the movie until later tonight, so I have to just go by the trailer and IMDB for the plot, which involves the town of Eddington in New Mexico amidst the COVID pandemic where the sheriff (Phoenix) and mayor (Pascal) end up in a stand-off, when the former runs against the latter for mayor. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and reviews were middling at best. Like with Materialists a few months back, this is relying heavily on Aster doing a movie with a number of big name actors.
So many filmmakers have avoided making movies about COVID, maybe because they would feel dated… even now, and that’s definitely a danger for Eddington in that many people just want to forget the pandemic ever happened. It’s also questionable that people will understand that this is Aster’s version of a “truly modern Western”… or maybe a Coen Brothers movie*, because it’s reminiscent of the Russo Brothers’ 2002 feature, Welcome to Collinwood, which bombed with just $4.1 million worldwide, and that included George Clooney, FFS! The other problem is that there’s so much politics in the world and this country in particular, that many moviegoers might not be interested in a fictitious mayor’s race either in the big cities where a movie like this might thrive in limited release, or the flyover states, where it essentially takes place.
Eddington will be opening in over 2,000 theaters, but other than Aster’s name and his cast of actors, there just doesn’t seem very much about this that can appeal to wider audiences, and because of that, this feels like another dud for A24. I don’t think this will open anywhere close to Celine Song’s Materialists (a much easier movie to market), and because of that, Eddington might open more in the $5 to $7 million range but not much higher than that.
MY REVIEW (*I should note that I wrote most of the above before actually seeing the movie, including that Coen/Russo Brothers comparison… boy, I was so right.)
JUJUTSU KAISEN: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death (GKIDS)
Another movie getting a wide release this week is this popular award-winning anime series, of which the previous theatrical installment, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, opened with $18 million in March 2022, ultimately making $33.9 million domestic and $140 million overseas, which is astounding.
While that was a prequel film for the anime series, this one is another compilation film, essentially putting together a remastered version of a couple episodes from Season 2 rather than the new or original content. GKIDS is taking a different approach with this one vs. how Funimation just gave the prequel movie a wide release into 2,286 theaters. This one is just playing on Wednesday and Thursday nights with a fairly wide release through Fathom Events, but because of that choice, it just has no chance of getting into the top 10 this weekend. Also, anime fans are becoming savvy to this whole “compilation movie” thing and probably realize they’ve already watched these episodes or will be able to watch them on streaming soon.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART
1. Superman (DC Studios/WB) - $53.8 million -57%
2. Jurassic World Rebirth (Universal) - $21.3 million -47%
3. I Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony) - $19.8 million N/A
4. Smurfs (Paramount) - $15.8 million N/A
5. F1: The Movie (Apple/Warner Bros.) - $7.2 million -45%
6. Eddington (A24) - $6.3 million N/A
7. How to Train Your Dragon (Universal) - $4.6 million -42%
8. Elio (Disney/Pixar) - $2.6 million -35%
9. Lilo & Stitch (Disney) - $1.8 million -35%
10. 28 Years Later (Sony) - $1.4 million -49%
Welp, as I’m starting to get very busy, and I’ve already been toying with taking August off, but I think I’ll start by skipping out on all the smaller indie releases that will barely get a New York release, and we’ll see how things go moving forward.
REPERTORY
The great music series “Come As You Are: ‘90s Music on Screen” continues with screenings of Lance Bang’s Slow Century over the weekend (with Bangs doing a QnA on Friday night), as well as Parker Posey’s breakout indie, Party Girl, through the weekend and into next week.
Some great stuff this weekend as part of “In ‘Scope and Color!,” including Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959), Jacques Demy’s 1967 The Young Girls of Rochefort, his follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman (1961).
I still don’t get what “High Voltage” is about but it’ll screen Gaspar Noé’s Climax (2018) which does have someone get electrocuted.
“Florida Is A Feeling” will show MIchael Bay’s Pain & Gain (2013) starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson over the weekend, as well as Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, and the worst movie to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars, Barry Jenkins’ Schmoonlight (2016).
“Chang Cheng: A Silent Storm” will screen Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (Part 1) as well as John Woo’s 2 ½ hour 2008 film Red Cliff.
“Not a Film: The Films of Jafar Panahi” will screen two excellent films from the Iranian filmmaker, Offside and Crimson Gold, as well as 2015’s Taxi Tehran, which is a strange mix of doc and narrative.
On Friday, Film Forum dedicates another series to their favorite filmmaker of all-time, Akira Kurosawa, with “Kurosawa in 4K,” which is actually what it sounds like with a lot of the usual movies like Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, HIgh and Low, etc. etc. This series runs through July 31. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse continues July 24 as does Masayuki Suo’s Shall We Dance?
This week’s “Staff Picks” Include Ken Russell’s Crimes of Passion (1984) and Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi from 1982, both playing late night on Friday and Saturday. This weekend’s “Late Night Favorite” is Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (also from 1982). Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (1997) is also playing Friday and Saturday night as his new movie Cloud opens.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
On Thursday night, you can catch Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America at Prospect Park as part of “Smart Funny and Black at the Movies.” The “Summer in the City” continues at Prospect Park with William Wyler’s 1953 movie Roman Holiday on Saturday and Sunday at brunch time. Williamsburg will be screening Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats as part of the same series. Back at Prospect Park, the 1989 buddy comedy Tango & Cash will screen on Monday night and Wednesday night’s “Anime After Dark” Is Gunsmith Cats from 1995. On Thursday night, you can see the 1988 film Robo Vampire as part of “Visual Vengeance” at Williamsburg, and this weekend’s Midnight Movie on Friday and Saturday night is Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers from 1997. Fans of cartoons might want to check out the “Spoons Toons and Booze” series at Williamsburg on Saturday and Sunday morning.
“Tom Cruise, Above and Beyond” continues this weekend with Eyes Wide Shut on Friday and Sunday evenings, and Magnolia on Saturday and Sunday. This weekend’s “Summer Saturdays with Dolby Atmos” is the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, which will also be shown in 3D. Bring the kids! Saturday evening as part of “Disreputable Cinema” is a Doris Wishman double feature of Indecent Desires and Another Day, Another Man. DON’T bring the kids!
Not a lot going on this weekend although on Sunday, it’s the tenth installment of “Peculiar Puppets” in 16mm, and later that night, Cinema Tehran presents Abbas Kiarostami’s And Life Goes On… from 1992. Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage, screens on Monday night followed by another screening of the great Body Double. Oh, and on Friday night, there’s another screening of the new 4k restoration of Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos (1971) with another screening of Franco’s She Killed in Ecstasy next Tuesday. The 1983 Richard Gere film Breathless will screen in 35mm on Wednesday night.
I guess I must have “forgotten” to include the Paris last week but this weekend is Week 2 of “The Laughs Keep on Coming” which will include the likes of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, City Slickers, Clue, Coming to America, So I Married An Axe Murderer, Superbad, Tommy Boy, The Wedding Singer, and more. Presumably, this is tied into the release of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison 2 next week.
Next week, it’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, one of my more anticipated movies of the summer!
Cool