Friday offered a slightly surprising and heartening reminder that the box office is a global affair, not pulled simply by what’s popular domestically. Indeed, the triumph of Indian smash hitBaahubali: The ConclusionandHow to Be a Latin Lover, which starsEugenio Derbez, overThe Circle, an adaptation of a celebratedDavid Eggersnovel from celebrated directorJames Ponsoldtand starring America’s favorite actor, says quite a bit about the power of targeted, selective demos. Or, to take the cynical side, it all says quite a bit about how poorly the marketing campaign forThe Circlewas rolled out.
Of course, they all ended up bowing toThe Fate of the Furious, which looks primed to take its third weekend in a row; it’s also creeping toward its billion-dollar marker at the worldwide box office. The eighthFast & Furiousfilm grabbed a little over $5 million on Friday and is up to $972 million globally, and whileGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2is already tearing up the box office in Australia and other international territories, there’s still one more week forF. Gary Gray’s loud fiasco to hold the reins domestically.Baahubali: The Conclusionarrived in second with an impressive $4.7 million on Friday, whileHow to Be a Latin Loverbeat outThe Circlefor third place with $3.9 million.
The Circle’s $3.2 million take, which secured the film’s fourth-place standing, is more reflective of the subject matter’s calcified urgency than of the star wattage of Hanks,Emma Watson, or Ponsoldt, who has done some sublime work onMaster of Nonelately. The whole internet paranoia subject is problematic on a variety of levels but its most crippling in its nostalgia. Nearly every movie like this essentially argues that whatever the innumerable positive effects the internet and computers have given us over the years, the dangers are too high and we should just “disconnect.” To its credit,The Circlehandles this better than most but its message is nevertheless one of potent future fear rather than of hesitation or regulation. The fact that the new release is slotted right aboveThe Boss Baby, a thinly disguised, wildly insipid polemic centered on the fear that not every single millennial will have children, which made $2 million at the opening of its fourth frame, is telling.
