Tag: Sanaa Lathan

Would The Supremes Have Gotten Oscar Love?

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat hopes to find love from home viewers in its Hulu debut this weekend. The fact that it’s not in theaters came as an unexpected announcement from Searchlight Pictures (under the Disney umbrella) a few weeks back. Based on a 2013 novel from Edward Kelsey Moore, the decades spanning drama features Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, and Uzo Aduba as lifelong friends. Costars include Mekhi Phifer, Julian McMahon, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Russell Hornsby. Tina Mabry directs.

On paper, The Supremes looks like the type of crowdpleaser that might have appealed to awards voters. However, Searchlight went the streaming route. The strategy makes more sense as of the past few days. Earl’s sports a so-so 68% Rotten Tomatoes score at press time. Critics are kind to the performances of Ellis-Taylor (a Supporting Actress nominee for King Richard in 2021), Lathan, and Aduba (Emmy winner for Orange is the New Black).

Yet the reviews likely would have prevented this from generating much Oscar chatter. Searchlight also has other contenders that they’ll focus on. This includes the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown with Timothée Chalamet, Nightbitch with a potential Academy bait turn from Amy Adams, and A Real Pain which has already received Supporting Actor talk for Kieran Culkin.

If anyone had a shot from Supremes, it would be Ellis-Taylor. She would appear to have another bite at the apple with the upcoming Nickel Boys (also based on a bestseller) in the supporting field. As I always say, my Oscar Prediction posts will continue. They will not continue with this picture, per Searchlight.

American Assassin Box Office Prediction

Lionsgate Films is hoping American Assassin successfully targets action fans when it debuts next weekend. The pic features Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien as a CIA recruit teamed with a Cold War vet played by Michael Keaton. Sanaa Lathan and Taylor Kitsch costar in this effort from director Michael Cuesta (who last made the Jeremy Renner thriller Kill the Messenger).

The biggest draw here should be Keaton, who’s experienced a genuine career resurgence that began with back to back Best Picture winners Birdman and Spotlight in 2014 and 2015 and continued this summer with his well-received villainous turn in Spider-Man: Homecoming. 

Assassin also has the benefit of being the only straight up action pic geared towards a male audience. That said, there is still competition with It‘s second weekend and mother!‘s first.

Reviews (not out at press time) could cause a revision here, but I’ll project Assassin ends up hitting low to possibly mid teens.

American Assassin opening weekend prediction: $13.3 million

For my mother! prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2017/09/06/mother-box-office-prediction/

 

The Perfect Guy Box Office Prediction

This coming Friday, the romantic thriller The Perfect Guy hits theaters and it could make a legitimate play for the #1 spot. Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy, and Morris Chestnut headline the Screen Gems release and it should be quite successful in bringing in its intended African American audience.

For comparison sake, one only needs to look to last September. The similarly themed No Good Deed with Taraji P. Henson and Idris Elba opened on the same weekend to the tune of $24.5 million with an eventual $54 million domestic gross. Another similar genre, 2009’s Obsessed with Beyonce and Elba, made $28 million out of the gate. Those titles had a little more star power than The Perfect Guy and it may not quite reach the numbers they accomplished. Still, it seems like a fairly solid bet to cross the $20M mark.

The Perfect Guy opening weekend prediction: $21.9 million

For my prediction on The Visit, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2015/09/04/the-visit-box-office-prediction/

For my 90 Minutes in Heaven prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2015/09/04/90-minutes-in-heaven-box-office-prediction/

The Best Man Holiday Box Office Prediction

This coming weekend was supposed to see the debut of Martin Scorsese’s eagerly awaited The Wolf of Wall Street, but the title ended up getting pushed back to Christmas Day to allow the director more time to tinker. It surely would have opened in the number two spot.

Therefore, we have only one new picture opening and it’s The Best Man Holiday, a sequel to 1999’s The Best Man. The original pic grossed a solid $34 million fourteen years ago (it only had a $9M budget). Starring Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall, and Sanaa Lathan, the holiday themed comedy/drama will attempt to bring in a large contingent of African-American audiences to the multiplex.

Its prospects look pretty decent. The stars of the film are certainly more well-known today than they were several years ago and there’s really no direct competition for its demographic. If something like Baggage Claim can make $9 million in its debut, The Best Man Holiday should easily surpass that. I could envision this getting as high as low 20s, as several of Tyler Perry’s recent productions have. It could also be somewhere in the mid-teens. With that range stated, I’ll go in the middle of it and say it earns high teens for a solid second place debut after weekend #2 for Thor.

The Best Man Holiday opening weekend prediction: $18.7 million