Based on initial reaction to previews, predictions for Joker might be excessively optimistic. Critical and audience reaction has been negative, and the film cost $200m. The first made over $1bn from a budget a third that size, and this will need to make $500m just to break even.
My Hero Academia: You're Next is the fourth anime film based on the manga series created by Kōhei Horikoshi. The first three all opened in the top 5.
Saturday Night is a loose dramatisation of the chaotic first broadcast of long-running US variety show Saturday Night Live. Directed by Jason Reitman and produced by SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels, it stars Cory Michael Smith, Dylan O'Brien, Lamorne Morris and Nicholas Braun.
Piece by Piece is a biopic of musician Pharell Williams - animated entirely using Lego. Directed by Morgan Neville, it features the voices of Williams, Neville, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Daft Punk.
Averages of the weekend's box office forecast: 1 (N) Joker: Folie à Deux $54.6m 2 (1) The Wild Robot $19.4m 3 (2) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice $11.1m 4 (3) Transformers One $4.8m 5 (5) Speak No Evil $3.2m White Bird 6th/$2.2m Next week, Piece by Piece. Saturday Night and My Hero Academia: You're Next.
First Takes - Megalopolis (2024) Jeremy watches the experimental speculative drama written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne. youtu.be/ZB5QjyupyTs
YouTube video by Cinema Limbo
Monster Summer stars unrepentant bigot Mel Gibson.
White Bird is a WWII-set sequel/prequel/spin-off from 2017 melodrama Wonder, as that film's school bully discovers his grandmother's coming-of-age during the Holocaust. Directed by Marc Forster, it stars Ariella Glaser, Orlando Schwerdt, Gillian Anderson and Helen Mirren.
Joker: Folie à Deux is a musical psychodrama sequel, following Arthur Fleck as he bonds in prison with another inmate. Co-written and directed by Todd Phillips, it stars Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz and Steve Coogan.
Averages of the weekend's box office movie forecast: 1 (N) The Wild Robot $32.6m 2 (1) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice $14.4m 3 (2) Transformers One $11.3m 4 (N) Devara: Part 1 $6.7m 5 (N) Megalopolis $5.3m Next week, Joker: Folie à Deux, White Bird and Monster Summer.