THE WEEKEND WARRIOR June 6, 2025 - Box Office
BALLERINA, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, DANGEROUS ANIMALS, THE RITUAL, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE, THE LIFE OF CHUCK, I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU, SLUMLORD MILLIONAIRE
Because this week is a bit crazier than usual with the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival starting up, and me juggling a number of other freelance projects at the same time, we’re going to handle this week’s Weekend Warrior a little different, possibly more like my weekly Gold Derby column, which I miss greatly.
Before getting to box office stuff, I just want to give a quick shout-out and word of thanks to Tom O’Brien, who very kindly sent me an Email of support after last week’s mopey rant about not being able to get any paid subscribers. I don’t think Tom lives in New York, but I know he and I have been in the location for the New York Film Festival, and, because the New York movie crowd doesn’t get the concept of “introductions,” I never was formally introduced to Tom, but hopefully he’ll be back, and I can thank him for his kind words in person. His Email helped my mood considerably, and sometimes, that’s all it takes.
If you haven’t been able to tell, I have not been in a great place, even though I’ve worked hard to set that aside to get my writing done. Clearly, the Weekend Warrior has been suffering, and being that I just started writing this on Tuesday afternoon, we’ll see what I can get done and posted by Wednesday.
The big movie this weekend is clearly Lionsgate’s FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK: BALLERINA (Lionsgate), which puts Ana de Armas into the role of a female assassin… get this… from the world of John Wick. Okay, now that we know she’s related to John Wick, can we maybe just ditch that ridiculously long title? Holy shit, Lionsgate. How stupid do you think people are? I mean, that trailer has only been in front of EVERY SINGLE MOVIE I’VE SEEN IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS! YOU PUT KEANU REEVES IN THE TRAILER! WE GET IT!
I guess I didn’t completely get Ed Doom out of my system before writing this week’s column, huh?
Anyway, I’m not exactly sure what to say about this movie since I’m writing this ahead of my screening in an hour or two, but essentially, it’s the first spin-off from Lionsgate’s massively successful “John Wick” franchise, which has racked up a billion worldwide. It’s pretty amazing when you realize that the very first movie in 2014 was made independently, and it opened with just $14.4 million and grossed $43 million domestically and about the same overseas. It immediately reminded people why they loved Keanu doing action (remember The Matrix and its sequels?) The 2017 sequel opened bigger with $30.4 million, and it ended up making $171.5 million globally, showing that people liked Keanu as this character, and this put it into the same realm as other massive Lionsgate franchise like “The Hunger Games.” 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (another annoying title) was even bigger, making domestically what Chapter 2 did worldwide, and then, 2023’s Chapter 4, presumably delayed due to COVID, opened with $73.8 million and hit $447.3 million worldwide.
With Reeves appearing prominently in the trailers, that would presumably get a similar audience interested, but there are other issues, one of them being the film being delayed by a year and rumors that the film’s director Len Wiseman (the Underworld movies) was not replaced persé but John Wick director Chad Stahelski may have used that extra year to do some reshoots himself.
Other than her well-regarded appearance in the most recent Bond movie, No Time to Die, which proved de Armas was ready to do more action, but other than that film, she has mainly been making movies for streaming, including Ghosted with Chris Evans; Andrew Dominik’s biopic Blonde, for which she got an Oscar nomination; the thriller Deep Water with ex-boyfriend Ben Affleck; and the Russo Brothers’ The Gray Man, with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans (also in Ghosted). The point is that much of de Armas’ box office history is pre-COVID with Knives Out, Blade Runner 2049, and Danny Boyle’s Yesterday, all which did quite well.
She does have some back-up with the likes of Ian McShane returning as his popular John Wick character Winston, and even the late Lance Reddick managed to film a few scenes as Charon before dying two years ago. (This movie takes place before John Wick Chapter 4, in which Charon dies.) Anjelica Huston also returns as her character from the franchise, while there are new characters played by Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reedus, and even a fellow Oscar nominee, Catalina Sandino Moreno from Maria, Full of Grace.
It all sounds promising, and by the time you read this, reviews should have started to drop, but the one thing that keeps me from thinking this will be a huge hit this weekend is due to two very specific movies: the 2020 Birds of Prey movie that were supposed to branch Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn off into her own superteam franchise after the success of Suicide Squad, and last summer’s Furiosa, George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road that acted as a prequel starring Charlize Theron. Birds of Prey opened to $33 million and tapped out at $84.1 million domestic (to be fair, theaters shut down due to COVID a month into its run) and Furiosa did even worse, opening with $26.3 million and only making $67.6 million. What they have in common with Ballerina is that they’re spin-offs of popular action franchises… but starring women. (I won’t even bring up Elektra or Catwoman, but they’re in the same boat, and those both bombed.)
So far, the reviews are at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t bad, all things considered, and you can read my own review below.
That’s a shame that we live in this sort of reality, but there is a certain faction of dudes that won’t even bother seeing this movie, knowing that other John Wick characters show up in it, and that’s a true shame. That also might keep the movie from even opening over $30 million, although for the longest time, I thought it might open more in the $40 million range. Unfortunately, Ballerina won’t be saving Lionsgate’s year or the summer box office, as it opens in second place behind Lilo & Stitch.
Expanding nationwide into roughly 1,600 theaters after a year’s best per-theater average in 6 theaters is Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (Focus Features), which I reviewed last week. Again, not a ton to say about this, other than the fact that this is getting a typical release for Anderson – platforming in New York and L.A. and then expanding fairly wide across the nation – and it will be another test of whether Anderson’s fanbase outside major cities will give this a look, mostly based on some of the bigger names in his cast – Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, and Scarlett Johansson, in particular – who all have fairly miniscule roles.
Reviews have generally been decent since the movie premiered at Cannes, but they’re also exactly on par with his last two features, Asteroid City (2023) and The French Dispatch (2021). His animated film Isle of Dogs (2018) and Oscar-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel had better reviews, but so far, the latter is still Anderson’s highest-grossing hit domestically and globally with $59 million and $163 million, respectively, and no other movie has come close to that latter number. Asteroid City (also released by Focus Features) did better than French Dispatch, but it also had a better platform release with $850k to Phoenician’s $603k in six theaters last weekend. I’m sure that the title of Anderson’s latest did not help, nor did the film’s bigger stars having smaller roles, and therefore, not doing as much press.
Although I personally was mixed on the movie, I did like Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera’s characters, while Mia Threapleton, who is Kate Winslet’s daughter?!? Is quite the breakout star. The good thing going for The Phoenician Scheme is that it is quite different from everything else in theaters, and while it’s hard to imagine it can open bigger than Asteroid City’s $9 million, it should come pretty darn close. Expect it to open in fifth place behind other bigger returning summer movies.
And then, we get to a string of “wide releases” that just don’t have the marketing budgets of the two movies above, so who knows how many people will
I wasn’t able to get a theater count for this Australian shark-meets-serial-killer horror-thriller DANGEROUS ANIMALS (Independent Film Company/Shudder) from Sean Byrne, who is best known for The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy, both which are popular among true horror fans. It stars Hassie Harrison as surfer and wanderer Zephyr, who after meeting a nice guy and having a one-night stand, gets kidnapped by a serial killer known as Tucker (played by Jai Courtney), who has been kidnapping young women to feed them to the sharks.
IFC and Shudder wisely gave this a preview as part of a number of “Mystery Movie Monday” programs, and it’s a solid enough horror film that word-of-mouth should help the movie’s opening weekend bring in around $3 million, though, again, without that theater count, it’s silly to try to predict a number. Either way, other than the two movies above, this one is the most likely to break into the top 10 continuing IFC/Shudder’s theatrical presence beyond streaming/VOD.
Opening in over 1,000 theaters on Friday is THE RITUAL (XYZ Films), an exorcism movie with possibly the most generic title since The Exorcism. Listen, I enjoy exorcism movies as much as the next non-Catholic, but aren’t things starting to get a little crazy with these? From David Midell, whoever that is, this one stars no less than Al Pacino and Dan Stevens as two priests, “one in crisis with his faith and the other confronting a turbulent past” (of course) who “must overcome their differences to perform a risky exorcism.”
Last year’s The Exorcism starring The Pope’s Exorcist Russell Crowe, didn’t do so badly, opening with $2.5 million in 2,240 theaters, released by Vertical, and ended up grossing $4.5 million domestically and about the same overseas.
As I write this, there are exactly eight reviews for The Ritual on Rotten Tomatoes, and they’re ALL BAD! Yikes. Apparently, this movie is absolute garbage, and now, I’m wondering whether I should try to find time to see it, because there are just so many mediocre movies out there, and sometimes you have to see something horrible to balance things out. And if I had more time to watch bad movies, I might do so.
Either way, I could still totally see this bringing in a million dollars this weekend with such a wide release and since exorcism movies are so popular, although it really has too much competition in terms of R-rated fare this weekend, so it won’t get into the top 10.
Opening in roughly 850 theaters across the country on Friday is the latest Anime release, DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (GKIDS), but one thing that makes this one quite different is that it’s Rated R, but it’s based on a popular manga series, involving ghosts and aliens, and like most of these theatrical anime releases, it’s actually three upcoming episodes of the series. It follows up last year’s DAN D DAN: FIRST ENCOUNTER, which opened in 610 theaters but only opened with $925.5k and barely grossed a million domestic. I’m not sure Evil Eye can do much better than that, but if it makes a million this weekend, it won’t get into the top 10. As always, anime remains fairly niche, and with most of these series ending up on streaming eventually, theatrical is just doing as well as it has done in the past.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART June 6, 2025
For the longest time, right up until last week, I was sure that Ballerina would win this weekend with ease with more than $40 million, but clearly, I started to have my doubts as I wrote this and after I saw it, and now it’s going to join Karate Kid: Legends in the “this movie probably should have done better” category this summer.
1. Lilo & Stitch (Disney) - $34 million -45%
2. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (Lionsgate) - $29.2 million N/A
3. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (Paramount) - $14.5 million -47%
4. Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) - $9.8 million -52%
5. The Phoenician Scheme (Focus Features) - $7 million +1298%
6. Final Destination Bloodlines (New Line/WB) - $5.8 million -46%
7. Bring Her Back (A24) - $3.4 million -50%
8. Dangerous Animals (IFC/Shudder) - $3.3 million N/A
9. Sinners (Warner Bros) - $3.1 million -40%
10. The New Avengers (Marvel/Disney) - $2.9 million -39%
- The Ritual (XYZ Films) - $1.2 million N/A
- Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye (GKIDS) - $1 million N/A
- I Don’t Understand You (Vertical) - $500k N/A
I’m going to get into a few limited releases now, or as many as I can get to before having to wrap things up, which is soon.
One movie not getting a wide release, at least this weekend, is the Mike Flanagan-directed THE LIFE OF CHUCK (Neon), based on a fairly recent short story by Stephen King, starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and others. If all has gone well, I have finished my review, and you can read that here, but I’ll have to hold off on talking about its box office until next week when it expands nationwide. For those who don’t want to read the review, I’ll say that this is a fascinating counterpoint to Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey from earlier this year. That was also based on a King short story, but one from 40 years ago, whereas “The Life of Chuck” appeared in the far-more recent collection If It Bleeds. It’s a far more mature and philosophical story and not quite horror as such
I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU (Vertical)
I really wished I could find time to watch Brian Crano and David Joseph Craig’s horror-comedy since it looks like a fun premise, and while I didn’t have time to watch/review, keep an eye on my Letterboxd. The movie stars Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells (from the recent Another Simple Favor) as a gay American couple on an Italian vacation ahead of adopting a baby, when they get lost on their way to dinner and they’re left stranded in the middle of nowhere during a downpour. With no celphone service or knowledge of the Italian language, things get scarier and scarier for the couple. This is produced by Joel and Nash Edgerton, which makes me think the filmmakers are also Australian, but I could be wrong. Apparently, Amanda Seyfried has a role in this, and because I’m such a fan of Kroll as a comedic actor, I’ll definitely want to check this out sooner rather than later. It opens limited in roughly 250 theaters this weekend.
I’m also super excited that Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez’s doc SLUMLORD MILLIONAIRE will be opening at New York’s DCTV Firehouse after premiering at DOC-NYC last November, when I wrote more about it in this very column. This is such an important doc about the way that billionaire developers are buying properties and driving out the locals, and it hit quite close to home since one of the studies is about a series of high-rise skyscrapers being built in my neighborhood, one of them that replaced my local Pathmark (closed due to being flooded during Hurricane Sandy) where lower income households did all their shopping. It’s a timely follow-up to Emergent City, which played at DCTV back in April, covering the very specific situation in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Industry City, but this is so important right now as New York heads into the primaries for a bitter mayoral race with 20 candidates running… and most of them running based on the platform of “affordable housing.”
Another doc I’m interested in but didn’t have a chance to watch was GARLAND JEFFREYS: THE KING OF INBETWEEN, made by the performer’s wife, Claire Jeffreys. I’ve often heard Jeffreys’ name mentioned over the course of my life as a rock enthusiast, without really knowing much about him. Apparently, he’s still alive at 81 years old but has been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and is in the late stages of that disease. Regardless, this open at the IFC Center this weekend, following its own debut at DOC-NYC last year. Mrs. Jeffreys will be doing QnAs this weekend on Friday and Saturday with some special guests.
ECHO VALLEY (Apple Original Films)
Also opening at the IFC Center ahead of its due on Apple TV+ on June 13 is this film written by Brad Ingelsby (“Mare of Easttown,” The Way Back) and directed by Michael Pearse (Beast, Encounter). It stars Julianne Moore as Kate, a horse trainer in Echo Valley dealing with personal tragedy where her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney) shows up at her doorstep covered in someone else’s blood. Also starring Domhnall Gleason (his second Apple movie in a row) and Fiona Shaw, I was curious to see this one but absolutely failed at getting a screener in time to watch/review.
PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS (Hulu/Disney+)
Hitting Hulu on Friday is this triptych of animated shorts that explore the predators from the 1997 Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a series of sequels and remakes that never really took off, throughout historic periods with one segment set in Viking times, another involving samurai and ninja, and the third segment, set in WWII times, I think. I only watched the first two, and this is under embargo until Thursday night, an hour before it hits Hulu, so I won’t be reviewing.
Other movies out this weekend…
BARRON’S COVE (Well Go USA)
RESURRECTION ROAD (Saban Films)
REPERTORY
Because at the time of this writing, I’m already falling way behind on finishing this column – to be fair, I started it way too late – this will have to be a stripped-down Repertory Roundup this week.
After playing most of May at the Japan Society, “Mikio Naruse: The World Betrays Us” shifts downtown for another month from the underrated Japanese master, who I’m only just discovering myself. I have to thank Mr. Gavin Smith (former EIC of Film Comment) for recommending a few of Naruse’s films. This weekend alone we get When a Woman Ascends the Stairs from 1960, The Whole Family Works (1939), 1955’s Floating Clouds, and Sound of the Mountain from 1954. Most of these will be shown on imported 35mm prints, and this is another one of those great Metrograph discovery series for people to learn more about this legendary Japanese auteur who hasn’t quite made waves in the States as the likes of Kurosawa and others.
Starting this weekend is “The Show Must Go On,” a series exploring the “stagecraft of everyday life,” and if you don’t know what that means, the selection might not help much, although there are many great movies in the series, including some of my all-time faves. This weekend, they’re screening Toshio Matsumoto’s 1969 film Funeral Parade of Roses, Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 schlock classic Showgirls, and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine (1998), starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christian Bale, and Ewan McGregor. Click on that title of the series to see some of the other great films coming up.
The Pedro Almodovar semi-retrospective “Volver A Carmen” focuses on his collaboration with actress Carmen Maura, and this weekend, you can see Almodovar’s very first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom from 1980. On Tuesday night, they’re reshowing Matador from 1986, one of his earliest collaborations with Antonio Banderas.
“Guided by Animals” offers some interesting selections this weekend, including Pietro Marcello’s 2015 film, Lost and Beautiful, and “Scenes from the ‘End of History’” continues but more next week. Vincent Gallo’s Buffalo ‘66 shows two more times next week as part of “Louise Giovanelli: Still Moving,” as well. Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear remake from 1991 screens on Thursday night, and then a few times next week as part of “Freddie Francis, Cameraman.” The Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep-Jeremy Irons drama, The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981) screens one final time on Tuesday.
Masayuki Suo’s Shall We Dance? Continues its anniversary run while Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning 1960 film The Apartment continues for a little bit longer, as does Federico Fellini’s 8 ½. Oddly, the Film Forum is only saying those latter two “end soon” with no date, but they’ll play through the weekend at least. The Abbott and Costello comedy, Who Done It?, from 1942, is this Sunday’s “Film Forum Jr.” and a great opportunity to get the kids into these two hilarious comic actors.
Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, continues through the weekend, joined by its sequel Before Sunset. Midnight offerings on Friday and Saturday include Takashi Miike’s Audition, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A., oh and the 4k restoration of Todd Solonz’s Happiness and Kurosawa’s Ran – two very different movies – will continue to run through the weekend.
“Hitch! The Original Cinema Influencer” continues through the weekend with The Man Who Knew Too Much, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, The Trouble with Harry, North by Northwest, and more.
NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK & WILLIAMSBURG
Sadly, I’m going to miss this weekend’s “Sundays on Fire” at Prospect Park due to Tribeca, but it’s a fun way to see some rare Hong Kong cinema from the ‘80s and ‘90s on 35mm. Robert J. Kaplan’s 1972 film Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers will play brunch time at Prospect Park on Saturday and Sunday, as part of “Fix Your Hearts or Die: A Trans Cinema Celebration.” Williamsburg will play Kim Christy’s XXX-rated 1984 film Sulka’s Daughter on Friday and Saturday near to midnight as part of that series, and then on the weekend, you can probably bring the kids to Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers (2003) on Saturday and Sunday morning. The great Isabel Sandoval’s 2011 film Señorita will play in Williamsburg on Monday night, and I highly recommend it. Alejandro Jodorowksy’s 1989 film Santa Sangre (which is rated NC-17) will play at Prospect Park on Monday night.
Playing this weekend as part of “See It Big: Stunts!” are District 13 and The Raid: Redemption on Friday night, Jackass 3D on Saturday, and the Western Stagecoach on Sunday. One of my all-time favorite movies of all time, Ridley Scott’s classic Alien from 1979 will play on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and honestly, if I lived closer, I would go see it since this is a great movie to see on the big screen.
Next weekend, it’s Universal’s “live action” remake of How to Train Your Dragon and Past Lives filmmaker Celine Song returns with her new movie Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal.