I’ve seen box office projections for this weekend that feel skewed high. I know Backrooms and Obsession might be clouding judgment, but something makes me think that it’ll be hard for Scary Movie to hit 70M while MAsters Of The Universe rakes in 50. I think the brands on those are overclocking.Backroooms and Obsession will still have gas, and with Obsession climbing the past two weekends, predicting it is near impossible, and Backrooms might also have a strong hold. Can all four films perform above 20M? Absolutely. But even if Kane Parsons horror film had a modest 50% drop that would still put it in at 40M, with the impossible to track Obsession making 27M last weekend. Will it finally drop? And by how much? It could slide slightly to like 24-25M. Everyone will still only be writing about how fast The latest Star Wars film is getting beaten at the box office, despite the fact that it was reasonably budgeted, and is about 20M shy of surpassing its budget domestically. With an International crime that will continue to climb, because Star Wars plays more broadly worldwide than Obsession or Backrooms will (Obsession is at 45M international, and Backrooms is at 37M, while Star Wars has already cracked 100M internationallyy). Both indie horror films need to get the approval of China’s film board to boost their International earnings in the largest available market, and China doesn’t approve of every title. Star Wars is already in release in China. And that, is your box office analysis for the weekend.
If I was a betting man, I’d cut Scary Movie down to 55M, Masters at 40M, while Backrooms likely edges it out at 42-45M, with Obsession finally dipping to 20-22M, and Mando rounding out the top 5 with a sad 13-14M in its third frame. That’s close to the 15M Solo: A Star Wars Story made in its third weekend, and Mando has been clocking in just a little behind it.
TV Shows Watched: Witch Hat Atelier: S1E10 (CrunchyRoll) with audio description, Playing Gracie Darling: S1E1 (Netflix) without audio description because Netflix is a liar, Unconditional: S1E1 (Apple) with audio description, Berlin and The Lady With The Erman: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Gold Land: S1E3 (Hulu) with audio description, Virgin River: S7E? (Netflix) with audio description, The Four Seasons: S2E2 (Netflix) with audio description
Witch Hat Atelier- Wonderful writing. Brilliant. This episode, which focuses on the color blind alchemist apprentice, who once was trying to be a witch, had some lovely conversation about the world being made for the sighted, as his frustration with things not being labeled, and sighted people relying on color, bothers him. The AD is not human, but the writer is exceptional. One of the best written shows I’m watching.
Playing Gracie Darling- Netflix, look, I can tolerate your shit. When you have a multi-season show that has audio description on later seasons, like Grey’s anatomy, and you slap the AD sticker on it, I’m OK with that, because it is an ongoing programming where AD starts when ABC realized blind people existed. But, when you have a six episode Australian limited series, and the first episode can’t be bothered to have audio description, you can promptly take that fucking label off. What is the point? There are only six episodes, and neither you, or the Aussie studio providing you the SIX episodes could be bothered to do the first episode? It would at least make more sense if the first one was narrated, but the next five weren’t. What a weird take. With long running series that pick up AD halfway, sure. But this six episode thing was shot and released as a complete season, and the only season, and still no one thought perhaps we should start at the beginning with a current series we absolutely have the ability to describe? No. nope. kill it with fire.
Unconditional- This is amazing. Apple is using human AD, a great dub track, and Unconditional has a great hook in the pilot. A mom and daughter are traveling in Russia (they aren’t American, so I guess they assumed they’d be fine), when the daughter is arrested for drug trafficking, and her mom is left to navigate her defense with no ability to talk to her child. How well do you know your kids? One of the best things I’ve watched recently.
Berlin- Basically, this is a new season of Berlin, the spinoff of Money Heist. The AD is Vito De Phillipo. I didn’t love the first season of Berlin, but I like this more. The pickpocket character is a fun addition, so I’ll give it a chance. The writing for the description was actually decent, so it is one of the better things Vito has narrated, thus far.The bar is low, but this is above it.
Gold Land- If you like crime dramas, with ensembles, and the mystery is about who do you trust, who can you trust, when a coffin full of money is involved, this is fine. It also has real true human audio description, on Hulu/Dinsey Plus. I had to choose a new Avatar this morning, and I chose Wall-E. They had a lot of options, including a bunch of Hulu and ABC shows.
Virgin River- Will someone give Doc his license back, so Muriel can get some screentime? Doc’s storyline is exhausting this season.
The Four Seasons- They wrap up the season they are in, as the crazed killer is caught, and they can finally do what they can there to do. Kerrry Kinney is really doing most of the heavy lifting in the first two episodes.The AD here is lovely. It matches the comedic tone of the show, like when Will Forte pops up with “I’ve Got Nachos”, and looks insane.
