‘The Upside’ ousts ‘Aquaman’
Kevin Hart dramedy is the new box-office king.
NEW YORK – Kevin Hart isn’t hosting the Oscars, but he’s got a No. 1 movie.
“The Upside,” starring Hart and Bryan Cranston, surpassed expectations to open with $19.6 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The strong performance of “The Upside” pushed Jason Momoa’s “Aquaman” to second place after the aquatic superhero’s three-week reign on top of the box office.
Still, “Aquaman” passed $1 billion worldwide over the weekend, the first DC Comics release to reach that mark since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”
“The Upside” opened on the heels of weeks of Oscar drama surrounding Hart. The comedian withdrew from hosting the Academy Awards last month just days after being named emcee, when he initially refused to apolo- gize for years-old homophobic tweets.
Making the promotional rounds for “The Upside,” Hart repeatedly dismissed the Oscar controversy, saying he was “over it,” while flirting with the possibility of returning as Oscar host – which talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, in particular, advocated.
Whether all that attention helped raise the profile of “The Upside,” a remake of the 2012 French comedy “The Intouchables,” was difficult to know, though it didn’t hurt. The film received poor reviews (40 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes).
The film stars Hart as an ex-con who becomes a caretaker for a physically disabled author (Cranston). It was originally to be distributed by The Weinstein Company. Harvey Weinstein unveiled the film at Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, just weeks before allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against the movie mogul.
Early January often is a dumping ground in movie theaters, and the weekend featured a number of duds.
Keanu Reeves’ sci-fi thriller “Replicas” made its debut with just $2.5 million – a career low for Reeves. Opening more solidly, in third place, was canine adventure “A Dog’s Way Home” with $11.3 million.
Rounding out the top five: “SpiderMan: Into the Spider-Verse” held in fourth place with $9 million (and $147.8 million to date), and “Escape Room” dropped to fifth with $8.9 million.
The two biggest winners at last Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards – “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book” – saw a bump. The Freddie Mercury biopic, which increased its theater count with hundreds of sing-along screenings, was up 35 percent with $3.2 million. “Green Book” rose 16 percent with $2 million in its ninth week of release.
A couple of awards contenders also expanded. Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s tale “On the Basis of Sex” grossed $6.2 million. Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk” took in $2.3 million.
Final numbers are expected Monday.