IN THE SPOTLIGHT
hotter attraction at the movies, but for one weekend at least, horror and comedy switched roles. Lionsgate’s Halloweenthemed “Hell Fest” debuted meekly with $5.1 million.
“Over the last few years, comedy has just taken a real roller coaster ride with audiences either not locking into the premise or not vibing with the stars,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst or comScore. “The quality, or at least the perceived quality of many of the movies, especially the R-rated comedies, has been so bad that time after time people got disenchanted by the genre.”
“Night School,” in which Hart plays a man who returns to his high school to get his GED certificate (Haddish plays his teacher), fared poorly with critics, earning a 30 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the draw of Hart and Haddish was enough to supersede bad reviews. This is Hart’s 11th No. 1 film.
It also helped that “Night School” reteamed Haddish with director Malcolm D. Lee. Their “Girls’ Trip” was 2017’s biggest comedy hit, making $140.4 million globally. “Night School” drew a diverse audience: 37 percent white, 30 percent African-American and 24 percent Hispanic.
David Lowery’s “The Old Man & the Gun,” which Robert Redford has said will be his final film as an actor (though he’s wavered on that), opened in five theaters, scoring a strong per-screen average of $30,000. Redford plays an aged bank robber in the heist film co-starring Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck.