Friday box office news:
Improbably, “Super Mario Brothers” will cross the $400 million line today. It made $14 million last night, so another $28 million tonight and tomorrow puts the animated video game movie on its way to $500 million. I hear Luigi is looking for a bigger slice of the streaming pie coming up, while Mario has just bought a house in Beverly Hills for $46 million.
There was reason “Beau” was afraid of posting box office numbers all week. Increasing to 965 theaters on Friday after being just 4 all week, “Beau is Afraid” took in just over $1.1 million. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is just 71%, and the critics rating has dropped to 68%. That’s not too promising for this three hour fever dream of a man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who’s scared of his mother.
Meanwhile, Guy Ritchie’s “The Covenant,” not to be confused with a half dozen other movies with that name, made $2.5 million last night for a probably $7.5 million weekend. The battle action film has a decent 81 on Rotten Tomatoes, but it may be too intense or violent to cross over into a real hit.
