The second feature film by Little Woods director Nia DaCosta took the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office over the weekend. Candyman sold $22.4 million over its first three days of release.

The film, which was produced by and co-written by Jordan Peele, features the great Tony Todd reprising his role at Candyman as well as a talented cast of upcoming actors who, aside from Vanessa Williams, might not be familiar faces to most American audiences.

Candyman (2021) currently has a score of 72/100. Looks good to me.

The original Candyman (1992) film was my favorite horror film as a kid, prompting me and my friends to often do “the Candyman Challenge” during sleepovers.

I recently rewatched the original film and loved it as much as ever. I highly recommended if you’ve somehow never seen it, but I can’t say the same about the original sequels.

Also at the Box

Ryan Reynolds’ flick Free Guy continued to roll, taking the No. 2 spot at the box. It sold another $13.5 million, upping the film’s domestic total to $79 million and its worldwide total to just under $180 million. Those are huge numbers for the COVID-19 era.

I’m not saying Free Guy is a movie I care about, but it is new IP and at least somewhat imaginative, so I’m actually kind of happy about this one.

PAW Patrol: The Movie took the No. 3 spot at the box over its second weekend of release. It sold $6.6 million, bringing the film’s 10-day sales total to $24 million in the U.S. and $66 million worldwide. A hit? Kind of.

As discussed in past columns, films aimed at kids have always done well and will probably always be made.

Why? Because mom and dad need to get the kids out of the house for a couple of quiet hours every once in a while. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

Disney’s Jungle Cruise continued to fill seats. It sold another $5 million, pushing the movie over the $100 million mark domestically and $187 million worldwide.

Finally, in the No. 5 spot we have Don’t Breathe 2. It sold another $2.8 million, bringing the flick’s 17-day sales total to $24 million in the U.S. and $35 million worldwide. Same as children’s flicks, horror will probably always sell well.

Also of note, the Aretha Franklin biopic, which was expected to be a big Oscar contender this year, has been struggling. It sold just $2 million this past weekend and not even $20 million so far in the U.S.

I haven’t seen the flick, but I hear, as far as biopics go, it’s pretty good.

New This Week

Marvel’s new superhero flick, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is the big release this week. Directed by Short Term 12 creator Destin Daniel Cretton, and starring Simu Lio, Awkwafina, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, and Tony Leung, Shang-Chi will be an interesting experiment.

Launching a lesser-known franchise with lesser-known actors during a pandemic could be rough, and, as any ScreenTime reader knows, I don’t like superhero films. I think they’ve created a whole lot of issues in the world of cinema.

Also of note, lots of new indies are getting dumped here and there. Do any of them seem like something you should leave the house for?

Maybe this new flick called We Need to Do Something, which is about a family trapped in a bathroom during a tornado.

It’s a classic chamber piece shot during lockdown. Reviews for this one are ho-hum, but if you like psychological horror it very well might be your thing.

Screen Rant

I can’t help but tell you how excited I am for P.T. Anderson’s next film, Soggy Bottom. It’s a $40 million film about a high school student, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, who is trying to become an actor in the 1970s.

P.T. Anderson making a 1970s-set film about the film industry? I can’t imagine anything more promising in the world of cinema.

So, in celebration of the greatest working filmmaker having a new film out on Nov. 26, I figured I’d rank and grade PTA’s ouvere according to how much I like them. Here we go:

1. The Master (A++)

2. Boogie Nights (A+)

3. There Will Be Blood (A+)

4. Magnolia (A+)

5. Punch-Drunk Love (A+)

6. Inherent Vice (A-)

7. Phantom Thread (B+)

8. Hard Eight (B+)

9. Junun (B)

Five masterpieces and he’s only 51. Wow. Fingers crossed Soggy Bottom is a return to form after the second-tier run of film’s PTA made since his masterpiece, The Master.