Space Jam: A New Legacy took the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office over the weekend despite terrible reviews and word of mouth, selling a solid $31 million over its first three days of release.

The sci-fi basketball cartoon that essentially celebrates Warner Bros. intellectual property sold $56 million worldwide in three days. It’s not exactly what Warner Bros. was hoping for, but also not a total failure.

I was going to go check out this flick on the big screen, but I realized that there are much, much, much better options than spending two of my hours watching a silly novelty film.

Sorry, LeBron.

I just can’t get behind this, and I think it will likely drop off quickly and not have much of a legacy at all.

And yes, if you were wondering, this settles the debate: MJ is the GOAT. Duh.

Also at the Box

Marvel flick Black Widow continued to roll, taking the No. 2 spot at the U.S. box office with another $26 million in sales, bringing the film’s 10-day sales total to $132 million domestically and $232 million worldwide.

As much as I adore Scarlett Johansson, I just can’t bring myself to care about this film at all, but I’m glad that y’all Marvel stans are still out there, enjoying your superhero trope cycles.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions surprised by taking the No. 3 spot at last weekend’s box office, bringing in $8.8 million over its first weekend of release while F9: The Fast Saga took the No. 4 spot with $7.6 million in sales. So far, F9 has brought in $155 million domestically and just under $600 million worldwide. Sounds about right.

Kiddo flick The Boss Baby: Family Business rounded out last weekend’s Top 5 with $4.7 million in sales, bringing the film to just under $45 million over its first 17 days of release. As noted last week, this is one that will probably make most of its money on streaming services over the next couple of years. Will we get a third Boss Baby film? Who cares!

Also of Note

Roadrunner, the new documentary about Anthony Bourdain, did pretty well over its first three days of release, bringing in just under $2 million in the U.S. while playing on just 917 screens. Not bad at all for a Covid-era documentary about a cult figure.

I’ve not seen this one yet but I hear it’s really, really good. I’ll be going to see it as soon as I have the time and I think regular ScreenTime readers who haven’t already seen it should probably do the same.

New This Week

This weekend will see the release of four noteworthy films, starting with M. Night Syamalan’s Old.

Looks good, not gonna lie.

M. Night has a bumpy record at this point, but it seems as if he’s back on his game.

Also out everywhere is action flick Snake Eyes, starring Henry Golding. Why did they call it Snake Eyes when Brian DePalma already made a major cult classic with that title. Do some research, guys!

Also out on a smaller scale is biopic Joe Bell, starring Mark Wahlberg and Connie Britton. Looks meh to me.

And, finally, the one I’m excited about: All the Streets are Silent: The Convergence of Hip-Hop and Skateboarding. Watch the trailer. Just do it. It looks like a great new NYC movie, set from 1987-1997. Sign me up!

Screen Rant

The 2021 Cannes Film Festival concluded last weekend with the Spike Lee-led jury announcing their winners on the big, beautiful Cannes stage.

Since there was no Cannes in 2020, this year’s lineup was super stacked, and so there was a whole lot of speculation about what movies would win what award.

A lot of pundits, including myself, thought that Wes Anderson’s long-anticipated The French Dispatch would win the year’s top award, the Palme d’Or. Some thought Leos Carax’s long awaited follow-up to the brilliant Holy Motors, Annette, would steal the whole festival.

Neither of those things happened. Joining Lee on the jury were Mati Diop, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent, Song Kang-ho, my guy Tahar Rahim, and a few others. Melanie Thierry headed up the Camera d’Or award and Andrea Arnold led the Un Certain Regard jury.

Julia Ducournau’s Titane won the grand prize, the Palme d’Or, against the odds. The trailer reminds me of Nic Refn, Martin Scorsese, and David Cronenberg. Is it a film that people will think is as good/important as the Wes Anderson and Leos Carax films? I’d put my money on no, but I haven’t seen another of these movies yet, so we’ll have to see.

Asghar Farhadi and Juno Kuosmanen shared the Grand Prix prize while Nadav Lapid and Apichatpong Weerasethakul shared the Jury Prize. Leos Carax won the Best Director award while Renate Reinsve won Best Actress for her work in The Worst Person in the World. Ryusuke Hamaguchi won Best Screenplay for Drive My Car and my guy Caleb Landry Jones won Best Actor for his work in Nitram.

And, finally, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Murina won the Camera d’Or.

So many household names submitted films this year, and yet almost none of them won. I kind of like that!

Send your thoughts on 2021’s Cannes Film Festival my way at gregwlocke@gmail.com.