Welcome to Week 4 of the Knock on Wood Movie Fantasy League dispatch. Every week (more or less), we’ll bring you a recap of the past weekend’s box office, alongside an overview of the new release films and an updated leaderboard, complete with full teams and points!
The domestic box office was up over sixty percent this week, and that is almost entirely thanks to Michael, the problematic musical biopic that moonwalked to almost $100 million in its first few days alone. It finally unseated The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from its Number One spot, bumping last week’s top five down exactly one spot, evenly down the line. Mario didn’t do badly for itself, though – $20 million in its fourth week is not exactly nothing – but it’s a welcome change to see a new top dog (even if it’s something as deeply subpar as Michael) in the first shakeup of what promises to be a very exciting summer season.
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael, which has already garnered quite an undesirable reputation for its hasty reshoots and troubled production process, is a smash hit. It’s undeniable. In fact, the box office virtually guarantees a sequel, which will be hard to do effectively, given the controversies surrounding MJ’s legacy that would be hard to avoid in a story that presumably charts Jackson’s life through the 1990s. The film itself plays like a two-hour music video, which sometimes plays to its advantage (the songs are so damn good, which is a big part of the movie’s only magic trick), but when every scene is purely in service of getting to the next musical sequence, it makes you wonder exactly why you’re watching it. It’s a pure lionization – here, Michael is an untouchable pop figure, without any character flaws or personal shortcomings. He’s also a victim, not just of the overwhelming fame but also of a cycle of familial abuse, which the film is also completely uninterested in interrogating in any meaningful way. Still, who can argue with the whims of the public? It’s a hit.
Also new this week is Over Your Dead Body, a comedy-thriller from the Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone that pushes the envelope but always remains an incredibly fun, twisty journey through the constantly evolving psychology of an actively disintegrating marriage. It’s a crowd-pleasing blast, and though it only netted 6 points this week, it’s sure to keep on trucking for weeks to come. There’s also Desert Warrior, a historical action film starring Anthony Mackie, and Omaha, an intimate drama about a father (John Magaro) who takes his children on a road trip following a family tragedy. The latter is only playing in one theater in New York City, but it will begin to widen its release next week with some Los Angeles theaters.
The addition of critical scores this week proved to equalize Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and Normal, which are both up to exactly 48 points. Mother Mary, which added almost 1100 theaters this weekend, is now up to 26 points – a modest value, but one that could prove gamechanging when it comes down to final scores this fall.
We are still working on displaying the Leaderboard on this page, but you can always find it here. For the first time, a clear frontrunner has emerged, and after this week’s swath of new releases, almost 20 new players are on the board with points. Remember, for the most up-to-date scoring on each movie, check out this spreadsheet. Additionally, I’ve made a Letterboxd list of every film chosen by our players for the Fantasy League. You can view that anytime here.
Next week, a quartet of Oscar nominees (including two winners) will grace the big screen in the long-awaited The Devil Wears Prada 2, which is sure to be a smash hit – but whether or not it will knock the King of Pop from his top spot remains to be seen. Additionally, Andy Serkis’ animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm swoops into cinemas, a group of plane crash survivors navigate the shark-infested ocean in Renny Harlin’s Deep Water, and an ex-con finds small-town trouble in RZA’s fourth directorial effort, One Spoon of Chocolate.
Finally, Irish director Damian McCarthy enters the mainstream horror scene with Hokum, starring Adam Scott as a writer whose countryside sojourn turns into a nightmare. It’s littered with jump scares (most of them incredibly effective), and is an exciting new entry into the folk horror subgenre, which has, over the last few years, become one of my favorite aspects of the horror canon. I’m looking forward to seeing the public reception next week.
As a reminder, submissions for the MFL close at the end of April, so there are just a few more days left to submit a team if you haven’t already! Please let us know if you have any feedback, and don’t forget to come back here next week for a recap and the updated leaderboard!
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