This is the scoring recap for Week Three of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League. If you want to compete for pride and prizes against more than 18,000 other film buffs, there’s still time to join: Visit the league hub for information on how to play, and/or click the button below to submit an entry.
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Well, that’s not what we wanted out of Tron: Ares. The decidedly third-tier Tron franchise hasn’t had a new movie in 15 years, which made it tricky to project just how well the latest installment would do. Tracking had placed the expectations somewhere in the $40 million–to–$50 million range. The actual weekend total? $33 million — a definite letdown. Tron was a $15 movie in the MFL, so the 896 of you who drafted it are really hoping the film will demonstrate surprise staying power next weekend. Tron’s flop comes one week after The Smashing Machine underdelivered to the tune of a $6 million opening; condolences to the 133 of you who splurged on both.
One Battle After Another, on the other hand, stayed in the box-office top three for the third straight week. With another $6 million picked up over the weekend, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film sits at $54 million cumulative — and it continues to drop less than 50 percent week to week.
Roofman ($10), which hit theaters without as much hype as you might expect for a Channing Tatum–Kirsten Dunst crime-romance dramedy, managed to rack up an $8 million opening weekend. All this on a relatively low budget ($19 million, reportedly), which will make the movie easier to position as a success, plus good word of mouth (a B-plus CinemaScore from audiences exiting the picture), all adds up to one thing: Let’s get Channing Tatum his first Golden Globe nomination, you guys!
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The faith-based Soul on Fire opened on 1,720 screens to $2.8 million — better than Lionsgate’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, which didn’t even crack $1 million despite opening on 1,300 screens. (Jennifer Lopez’s Golden Globe chances remain in doubt.)
Elsewhere on the charts, Eleanor the Great cleared the $2 million mark, while Ronan Day-Lewis’s Anemone topped $1 million. If your plan is to win the MFL one point at a time, those two movies are contributing to that cause.
You can head on over to the MFL landing page to scope out the full leaderboard with information on mini-leagues — and join us on Discord for expanded stats and discussions.
Release Calendar
It Was Just an Accident: October 15
Ballad of a Small Player: October 15
Blue Moon: October 17
Frankenstein: October 17
Good Fortune: October 17
Pets on a Train: October 17
Black Phone 2: October 17
The Mastermind: October 17
The Twits: October 17
The Perfect Neighbor: October 17
Hedda: October 22
A House of Dynamite: October 24
Bugonia: October 24
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: October 24
Shelby Oaks: October 24
Last Days: October 24
Upcoming Awards
Gotham Awards nominations: October 28
Gotham Awards: December 1
New York Film Critics Circle announcement: December 2
Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations: December 3
Critics Choice Awards nominations: December 5
Golden Globe nominations: December 8
