HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHT: Dragon Ball Super wins

8-22-22

This weekend the top spot at the box office does not belong to Idris Elba punching a lion in BEAST or Brad Pitt punching everyone on a train in BULLET TRAIN, . Crunchyroll’s Dragon Ball Super: SuperHero won the box office take in with the company’s largest release strategy to date in 3,130 theaters.

The Red Ribbon Army was once destroyed by Son Goku. Individuals, who carry on its spirit, have created the ultimate Androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. These two Androids call themselves "Super Heroes". They start attacking Piccolo and Gohan... What is the New Red Ribbon Army's objective? In the face of approaching danger, it is time to awaken, Super Hero!

According to LA Times Film critic Tracy Brown, "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” is a must see for fans that salutes one of the series’ best relationships, but newcomers interested in more than the fun of an action-packed visual spectacle might want to check out some of the TV series first."

The summer movie season has been a good one but August isn't one of the best months for theatrical success. July was the best thus far. July 2022 generated $1.133 billion in domestic gross — the best month’s gross in the Covid era, and it represents 88 percent of the take in July 2019. The majority came from two $300 million+ grossing releases with “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (Universal) edging out “Thor: Love and Thunder” (Disney) as the biggest film. “Minions” opened a week earlier, but it should edge out the Marvel film that many believed could be the summer’s biggest grosser.

BEAST GRABS THE SPOTLIGHT

Universal’s Beast stars Idris Elba (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, The Suicide Squad) who leads a pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator. Elba is one of the hottest actors in the world and he has a global audience following that could classify him as a solid superstar. He literally carries this movie and fans will enjoy watching him protect his children while facing off with a badass Lion.

As of August 21, 2022, Beast has grossed $11.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $10.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $22.2 million. Beast was released in the United States on August 19, 2022, by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of Elba and Copley and criticism for being unmemorable and predictable. That sounds like a script thing right? Well we suggest you go see it just the same. Stories about fathers protecting their kids in the wild can certainly be edgy.

Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley, Russian Doll series, Maleficent), an old family friend and wildlife biologist. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

Bullet Train is still one of the top films in theaters with a dynamic cast of characters and lots of action (bloody at that) as well as perfectly placed humor. Driving home that humor is an unlikely hit man played by the one and only Brad Pitt who is in perfect form.

The month’s results are worth celebrating, but they also reinforce the impending disappointment of August. It’s not often a strong month — almost always down from July, by about a third. On those terms the August projection would be $750 million, but the total is more likely to be closer to $550 million.

We encourage you to enjoy more films in the theaters. The experience of watching a movie at a theater is a one of a kind experience that cannot be substituted with streaming services. The visual storytelling, community experience and unlimited popcorn makes the movie watching experience much more enjoyable in the theaters.