THB #163: Long Weekend Ahoy!

It’s Memorial Day Weekend Eve. Top Gun Maverick is open nationwide, as we continue to pretend movies open on Fridays.

The mass murder in Uvalde could actually put a damper on the box office for the rah-rah, let’s go blow stuff up movie. Probably not too bad. And of course, it could help at the box office, as people seek emotional relief. Fortunately, Johnny and Amber’s jury won’t be working this weekend, so that won’t keep people from leaving the house. Combine this question mark with what we know about Memorial Day Weekend (Cruise’s box office history means nothing… truly) and que sera sera… no one will really be able to measure any of this accurately. We will all be guessing.

It’s an odd thing. The 2 summer holidays do get in the way of the box office. Attendance goes up all summer… but the holiday weekends (Memorial Day and July 4) are not the strongest slots. That said, the reason summer is so important is that there is more weekday and weekend attendance.

Meanwhile… on your streamers, there is a load of stuff landing late in the Emmy window to check out…

NETFLIX
Love on the Spectrum, US Season 3
Love, Death & Robots: Volume 3
Ricky Gervais: SuperNature
Somebody Feed Phil, Season 5
Stranger Things 4: Volume 1

HBO MAX
Hacks, Season 2
Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Know, Documentary Premiere
Navalny, Documentary
George Carlin’s American Dream, Documentary
That Damn Michael Che, Season 2

AMAZON
The Kids in the Hall: S1 (2022)
Outer Range

Interestingly, June is a motherlode kind of month for Amazon, post-Emmy qualifiers. In the first 17 days, they release 2 Season 2s, a new series, and 2 Amazon original "movies.”

HULU
Conversations With Friends

Hulu’s 2nd season of Only Murders in the Building lands in June, supporting an Emmy effort for Season 1.

DISNEY+
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 27… but won’t qualify for Emmys, releasing only 2 episodes in May. On June 8, I believe the first overlapping Disney IP series (Ms. Marvel, ep 1 and Obi-Wan, ep 4) launch same day… which probably won’t end all live on the planet, but seems like an interesting experiment.

PEACOCK
Angelyne
Girls5eva, Season 2

And of course, the weekend kicks off with 4 hours of closing arguments in the Depp/Heard trial on Friday. The jurors get to go home and see Top Gun or watch TV or sleep on the floor with the tip of their finger cut off, watching the available episodes of The Staircase even though they aren’t supposed to be doing independent research.

I will be looking to write, actually… since obviously I wasn’t really prepared to do that at full speed today.

Until tomorrow…