Two nostalgia-fueled franchises made a comeback this weekend, but alas, one of them had more power than the other. And unfortunately, it wasn’t He-Man.
Our number one movie isn’t the long-awaited big screen return for Masters of the Universe–which has been in and out of various stages of production for decades–and is instead Scary Movie 6 Scary Movie, the first entry in the franchise since 2013, and you’d be forgiven for not knowing there even was a Scary Movie 5. You could say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but really, this one was boosted by a treasure trove of new material to spoof. Parodies of Sinners and Weapons pretty much sell themselves, and the fact that so many young people are going to this makes it evident the series brought in some fresh audiences. With $55 million in the scream bank (and really, the release of Scream 7 earlier this year was essentially free marketing for this), that tops the $49 million Scary Movie 3 (aka the one with the hat joke) made back in 2003.
Was the “secret sauce” heavily focusing on the culture wars humor? Nah. For one thing, this franchise has always been as politically incorrect as it can get away with–there’s a reason critics have turned their noses up at every single installment–but really, you either laugh at the juvenile humor on display here or you don’t. Last year, The Naked Gun reboot was a miracle of the genre returning to its true potential of being a smartly stupid movie (look, it makes sense, okay?), but it sadly only did “okay” business. Scary Movie, for better or worse, is throwing everything it can at the wall and seeing what sticks. For my money, the jokes are hit and miss for this sort of thing, but if I get some laughs out of it I won’t completely hate myself in the morning (besides, I already hate myself anyway). Scary Movie has a “C+” CinemaScore, which is par for the course for this series.
Moving on to what should have been the star of the weekend (I’m not bitter!), Masters of the Universe had to settle for second place with a could’ve-been-better $29 million. That’s…not as powerful as anyone was hoping. Was this a Birds of Prey situation where the title character should’ve been in the actual title? Should it have waited until later in the summer? Obviously, I’m disappointed. Obviously, I was rooting for this to do well. But the writing was on the wall the instant Scary Movie pushed itself up a week to avoid directly competing with Spielberg’s Disclosure Day. He-Man’s “HEYYYY-YAAA!” didn’t stand a chance against Ghostface’s “WHASSAP???!” The one “bright spot” is that Masters of the Universe was an Amazon MGM release, and the rules are different for them. At the end of the day, they send these movies to theaters to promote them coming to Prime Video (see also Red One). Does that mean there’s still a chance of more He-Man? I’m going to cross my fingers, because I don’t want to completely break my own heart today.
The real “winner” this weekend, though, is arguably The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, which brought in a whopping $21 million over its first four days, since Fathom doesn’t count Thursdays as “preview screenings” like everyone else does. Also, since this was a Fathom Event, all ticket pricing was premium, but really, that’s as far as I’m going to go with the “disclaimers” here. This was Fathom’s best opening ever, and despite some news sources calling the web series a “cult hit”–it isn’t. The pilot alone has more than 400 million views on YouTube. It’s okay to just admit that some shows on the internet are actually popular, guys. The final episode of Digital Circus will arrive online on June 19th, so keep up the good fight if you’re waiting it out until then while trying desperately to avoid spoilers.
Anyway, the top ten, via The Numbers
