It Chapter Two dominated an otherwise weak box office with $91 million in sales over its first three days of release. The movie, directed by Andrews Muschietti, stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Bill Skarsgård, and Finn Wolfhard. What an excellent, diverse cast of talents.

This movie doesn’t really appeal to me (I made it maybe 30 minutes into the first one before I turned it off), but it seems to be satisfying a lot of moviegoers. Critics, however, are not in love with It: Chapter 2, the film scoring just 58/100 on Metacritic so far. Oof. I wonder how many of these It films we’ll end up with? I’ll guess four.

Also at the Box

The weak back-to-school box offices continue, with last weekend’s No. 2 film, Angel Has Fallen, bringing in just $6 million over its third weekend of release, upping the flick’s 17-day total to $53 million. Looks bad to me.

R-rated kiddie comedy Good Boys just keeps on selling, taking the No. 3 spot at last weekend’s box office with another $5.4 million in sales, bringing the film’s four-week total to just under $69 million domestically and $83 million worldwide.

The Lion King took the No. 4 spot with $4.2 million in sales, bringing the flick’s eight-week worldwide sales total to $1.6 billion, making The Lion King the seventh highest grossing movie of all-time.

Overcomer rounded out last weekend’s Top 5 with $3.75 million in sales, bringing the $5 million film’s 17-day sales total to just under $25 million.

Also of note

Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood continues to fill seats, recently crossing the $310 million mark in worldwide sales. So far, Hollywood is QT’s third best-selling film of all-time after 2012’s Django Unchained and 2009’s Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino’s signature work, 1994’s Pulp Fiction (one of my personal Top 10 films ever) made only $214 million during its run.

Last night I was at a bar talking about Hollywood with a guy called Inky. Inky asked me what Oscars nominations I think Hollywood will get. I wasn’t sure. If I had to guess, I think both Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio will get Actor nominations. Quentin Tarantino will get both Best Director and Best Screenplay nominations. I also think the movie will get Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing nominations. Maybe Best Original Score, too. So that’s what, maybe eight nominations?

New this Week

Two very worthwhile films will see a wide release this weekend, starting with Oscar favorite The Goldfinch, starring Ansel Elgort, Sarah Paulson, Nicole Kidman, Luke Wilson, Finn Wolfhard, and ScreenTime favorite Jeffrey Wright. The film is directed by John Crowley with a script by Peter Straughan based on Donna Tartt’s novel of the same name. With a running time of 149 minutes and cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins, Crowley (Intermission, Brooklyn, True Detective and a whole lot of theater) and Amazon Studios are really going for it with this one. Like the Tarantino flick, I think The Goldfinch is going to be a big part of the coming Oscar conversation.

Also out everywhere is Lorene Scafaria’s new dramedy, Hustlers, a high-energy, high-style ensemble film starring Constance Qu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, and Cardi B about a group of strippers who begin to embezzle money from rich clients who visit their club. The movie recently premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, where it was one of the most talked about films of the festival. Look for it to land in the Top 3 at next weekend’s box office behind It 2 and The Goldfinch.

A number of smaller indie films are also beginning to screen in major markets, including The Sound of Silence, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones. I would like to see this one. But, really, we’re at that time of the year where all the cinephile flicks start to come out. Too many to keep up with, usually. Can’t wait!

Screen Rant

Speaking of cinephile-friendly films, have you seen the new trailer for Todd Phillips’ new film, Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix? The movie, which is being characterized as a very adult, very dark psychological thriller, recently won the Golden Lion award, which has historically been one of the great predictors of the Best Picture Oscar. Can you imagine a Todd Phillips movie winning Best Picture? I will, however, predict that Joaquin Phoenix finally wins a Best Actor statue. He looks so, so, so good in this movie.