The latest Fast & Furious film, spinoff Hobbs & Shaw, took the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office for the second consecutive week, selling another $25 million domestically. So far, in just 10 days, the movie has sold $333 million worldwide.

I have to think that, going forward, Hobbs director David Leitch (who also directed Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, and John Wick) is going to be a big figure in the action market. I hope he goes away from these franchise movies and uses his clout to do some interesting work. He’s clearly an extraordinarily talented craftsman.

Also at the Box

Tween-friendly horror flick Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark took the No. 2 spot at the U.S. box over its first three days of release, selling a decent $21 million. This one looks really fun.

Next up at No. 3 is the live-action remake of The Lion King, which sold another $20 million bringing the film’s worldwide sales total to a whopping $1.334 billion, making it the 12th best-selling film of all time. Look for The Lion King to likely end up at the all-time No. 9 spot, just behind Furious Seven with $1.516 billion in sales. Wowzers.

Newbie Dora and the Lost City of Gold opened strong despite a lot of competition, selling $17 million over its first three days of release. This is a pretty big film for Paramount. It’s not quite a summer blockbuster but if Paramount has their way, it’s the end-of-the-summer movie the kids, tweens, and teens needed (and the parents also enjoyed). Looks very fun, considering it’s not really my type of flick.

Quentin Tarantino’s new classic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, took the No. 5 spot at the box office with another $11.6 million in sales, upping the flick’s 17-day U.S. sales total to just over $100 million. The film hasn’t really started to screen overseas just yet, but look for it to make bank all over the world. I think I’ll probably look back on the summer of 2019 as the summer Quentin Tarantino and David Berman both gave us all-time masterpieces.

Also, The Art of Racing in the Rain sold $8.1 million over its first weekend of release. Not great numbers but not an all-together failure, either.

And newbie football flick Brian Banks totally flopped, selling just $2.1 million while playing on over 1,200 screens. Splat!

New this Week

Here they come, all the major studios releasing their last big summer film. But really, these are all mid-level releases, except for maybe our first pick, animated sequel The Angry Birds Movie 2. It’s hard to believe this exists, isn’t it? But it does. And it’s going to sell some tickets.

Next up is 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, a really horrible looking sequel to director Johannes Roberts’ 2017 thriller hit, 47 Meters Down. Eww.

Next up is dramedy Blinded by the Light, a film about a British teenager who “learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.” Sounds cheesy but count me in.

Also out everywhere is the Seth Rogen-produced, Gene Stupnitsky-directed R-rated comedy Good Boys, which is being described as “Superbad for 12-year-olds.” Once again, count me in. What a great movie weekend!

And finally we have the wide release of Richard Linklater’s new film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greeg, Billy Crudup, and Laurence Fishburne.

This one is the one I’m anticipating most. To be honest, it may be the movie I had been anticipating most so far this year. Richard Linklater is a hero of mine and Cate Blanchett is, for my money, probably the best working actor/actress right now. I have high hopes for this one.

Maybe I’ll remember 2019 as the summer Tarantino, Berman, and Linklater all released masterpieces.