To See Or Not To See: June 17th – Finding Dory, Central Intelligence & Clown

Another week, another sequel. Pixar looks to dominate the box office with the follow up to Finding Nemo. There is nothing standing in it’s way but Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart will attempt to slow it down. They are joined by an Eli Roth produced platform release. Here are MHT’s recommendations for what to see and not see for the June 17th weekend:

Finding Dory
Theater Count: 4,305
Starring: The voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ty Burrell, Ed O’Neill, Idris Elba, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Dominic West, Bill Hader

Buzz:

The most anticipated non-superhero film of the summer, Finding Dory is expected to set the record for the biggest opening weekend for an animated film. Currently, Shrek the Third which opened at $121.5 million holds the record. The follow up to Finding Nemo has extremely high expectations and anything south of breaking the record would be considered a disappointment. No pressure. Just keep swimming.

See the Trailer:

MHT Hot Take:

See it! It’s been 13 years since Nemo and the sequel is unlikely to come close to the magic of the first but these are characters we love and are familiar with and Pixar almost always delivers.

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Central Intelligence
Theater Count: 3,508
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Aaron Paul

Buzz:

With a tagline of “A little Hart and a big Johnson,” how can Central Intelligence fail? Of all of the trailers for the summer, only Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates received bigger laughs. Central Intelligence is many people’s favorites to crack the summer top 10. Unfortunately, it would probably have to outdo The Conjuring 2‘s $40 million opening to have a chance at that spot in the top 10 for the entire summer.

See the Trailer:

MHT Hot Take:

See it! The trailer is funny and Johnson and Hart are both funny. The movie won’t win any awards but that’s good because it won’t win a Razzie, either.

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Clown
Theater Count: 100
Starring: Laura Allen, Andy Powers, Eli Roth

Buzz:

Many are considering this a sleeper to end up in wider expansion as the low budget horror film produced by Eli Roth and directed by Jon Watts (Cop Car) has been doing okay critically. Just what we need, another clown to torment my nightmares.

See the Trailer:

MHT Hot Take:

If you’re a horror buff, see it. If horror isn’t your thing, you might not even want to be in the same building as Clown.

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Box Office Recap (June 10th Weekend)

1. The Conjuring 2 ($40,406,314) MHT #1 Forecast at $34.7 million
2. Warcraft ($24,166,110) MHT #3 Forecast at $20.8 million
3. Now You See Me 2 ($22,383,146) MHT #2 Forecast at $26.1 million
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows ($14,386,565) MHT #4 Forecast at $15.9 million
5. X-Men: Apocalypse ($9,915,017) MHT Forecast #6 at $9.9 million
6. Me Before You ($9,038,263) MHT Forecast #5 at $10.9 million
7. The Angry Birds Movie ($6,650,445) MHT Forecast #7 at $5.5 million
8. Alice Through the Looking Glass ($5,646,012) MHT Forecast #8 at $4.1 million
9. Captain America: Civil War ($4,314,343) MHT Forecast #9 at $3.1 million
10. The Jungle Book ($2,761,034) MHT Forecast #10 at $2.7 million

Last week’s forecast was a little too down on Warcraft and a little too excited for Now You See Me 2 and while we had The Conjuring 2 at #1, we didn’t expect it to break $40 million. Not the best week of the year for the MHT Forecast.

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Box Office Predictions for June 17th Weekend

1. Finding Dory ($127,000,000)
2. Central Intelligence ($36,000,000)
3. The Conjuring 2 ($21,200,000)
4. Now You See Me 2 ($12,400,000)
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows ($8,000,000)
6. Warcraft ($7,600,000)
7. Me Before You ($6,000,000)
8. X-Men: Apocalypse ($5,000,000)
9. The Angry Birds Movie ($3,200,000)
10. Alice Through the Looking Glass ($2,600,000)

Captain America: Civil War ($2.3m), The Jungle Book ($1.4m), The Nice Guys ($700k), Love & Friendship ($600k), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ($500k)

Dory takes the record and Central Intelligence has a solid opening while The Conjuring 2 and Now You See Me 2 have a decent hold and Warcraft does not.