Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

May 4, 2018

Bad Samaritan

Premise: From IMDb: “A pair of burglars stumble upon a woman being held captive in a home they intended to rob.”
Box Office Prospects: $1.5 M
Expectations: Weak. I don’t see there being a huge audience for this film, except perhaps when it comes to home viewing.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Overboard

Premise: From IMDb: “A spoiled, wealthy yacht owner is thrown overboard and becomes the target of revenge from his mistreated employee. A remake of the 1987 comedy.”
Box Office Prospects: $55 M
Expectations: Uncertain. The 31-year-old film that this film is a remake of, would have made about $60 million 2018 dollars. I suspect the sequel will underperform that since neither star is as popular as Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn were at that time.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Tully

Premise: From IMDb: “The film is about Marlo, a mother of three including a newborn, who is gifted a night nanny by her brother. Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the thoughtful, surprising and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully.”
Box Office Prospects: $30 M
Expectations: Uncertain. Jason Reitman’s last few films weren’t box offits hits and this number doubles two of them. However, the trailer has a certain charm and with strong reviews, it could do well on the specialty side of the box office.
Oscar Prospects: Uncertain. If Jason Reitman’s film can manage to win over critics, he could be on his way back to the Oscars, where he hasn’t been in almost a decade.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

May 11, 2018

Breaking In

Premise: From IMDb: “A woman fights to protect her family during a home invasion.”
Box Office Prospects: $45 M
Expectations: Uncertain. The target audience will show up, but perhaps not in the numbers the studio is hoping.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Life of the Party

Premise: From IMDb: “When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into re-set by going back to college – landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who’s not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna — now Dee Rock — embraces freedom, fun, and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.”
Box Office Prospects: $65 M
Expectations: Uncertain. I suspect this will be one of Melissa McCarthy’s weaker box office performers.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Revenge (Limited)

Premise: From IMDb: “Never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting – a violent lesson for three wealthy married men.”
Box Office Prospects: $10 M
Expectations: Uncertan. The film is likely to do decently well at the specialty box office.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

The Seagull (Limited)

Premise: From IMDb: “An aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings Trigorin, a successful novelist, with her. Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, falls in love with Boris Trigorin. As Trigorin lightly consumes and rejects Nina, so the actress all her life has consumed and rejected her son, who loves Nina. The victims are destroyed while the sophisticates continue on their way.”
Box Office Prospects: $1 M
Expectations: Weak. The film’s prospects are limited. Although Saoirse Ronan is a terrific actress, the film looks to be a very minor effort for her, which will mean a minor box office perofrmance.
Oscar Prospects: Weak. Finding Oscar potential in a period drama like this would have been appropriate twenty years ago, but today, it’s just one of a dozen inconsequential efforts.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

May 18, 2018

Book Club

Premise: From IMDb: “Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.”
Box Office Prospects: $75 M
Expectations: Good. With these stars in this type of effort, it’s sure to be a decent hit with its target audience and possibly those outside the target.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Deadpool 2

Premise: From IMDb: “After surviving a near fatal bovine attack, a disfigured cafeteria chef (Wade Wilson) struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming Mayberry’s hottest bartender while also learning to cope with his lost sense of taste. Searching to regain his spice for life, as well as a flux capacitor, Wade must battle ninjas, the yakuza, and a pack of sexually aggressive canines, as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and flavor – finding a new taste for adventure and earning the coveted coffee mug title of World’s Best Lover.”
Box Office Prospects: $250 M
Expectations: Good. The first film was a surprise success taking in more than $360 million at the box office. Can lightning strike twice? It’s unlikely. There’s already rumor that the film is inferior to the original and doesn’t have the same spark. That won’t stop it from being popular, but I doubt it will approach its prior highs.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Show Dogs

Premise: From IMDb: “Max, a macho, solitary Rottweiler police dog is ordered to go undercover as a primped show dog in a prestigious Dog Show, along with his human partner, to avert a disaster from happening.”
Box Office Prospects: $60 M
Expectations: Uncertian. Looking back at how much Beverly Hills Chihuahua made has given me concern because that film was hugely successful even if it wasn’t a hit with critics. This film could do solid numbers, but I suspect that it’s probably not going to be as popular.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

On Chesil Beach (Limited)

Premise: From IMDb: “Based on Ian McEwan’s novel. In 1962 England, a young couple find their idyllic romance colliding with issues of sexual freedom and societal pressure, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night.”
Box Office Prospects: $2 M
Expectations: Weak. This indie drama has potential, but even the specialty circuit is a tough nut to crack and I expect that this period romance might not be enough for those cinemagoers.
Oscar Prospects: Weak. The film has Saoirse Ronan in it, so it’s impossible to totally count it out, but I suspect that we will need to.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

May 25, 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Premise: From IMDb: “During an adventure into a dark criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.”
Box Office Prospects: $550 M
Expectations: Excellent. The Star Wars franchise always produces hits. We only have one non-trilogy outing to look at for comparison. Rogue One pulled in $532 million and that was with characters that weren’t beloved. Solo has one of the most beloved of the original trilogy’s characters. That’s one of the reasons I suspect that this film won’t perform as well as we think. However, looking over the inflation-adjusted numbers, no Star Wars film has made less than $477 million. So, I suspect the $500 million range would be expected, but if early reports of a terrible production schedule mean a bad movie, it might underperform.
Oscar Prospects: Good. All of the current crop of Star Wars films have been Oscar nominees. Rogue One picked up two. The Last Jedi picked up four. The Force Awakens nabbed five. So, you can probably expect two at the least, both tech categories.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.