When we last checked in on the Max viewership theater, the insurgency duo of The Garfield Movie and The Watchers had begun a pincer attack on Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which originally fell at the hands of the former in the theatrical box office bout. Elsewhere, Beetlejuice was chosen as the champion to thwart resurfaced villain Madame Web; a task it has made marginal progress on since then.
One week later, The Watchers has proved successful in ousting Furiosa from its place atop the Max rankings; a proxy victory for The Garfield Movie, despite being ultimately shut out from the top three by an overly-tenacious Beetlejuice. The real story, however, is the emergence of heroes and villains old and new as Madame Web and Tarot keep the blood of evil coursing through this battleground’s veins.
Per FlixPatrol, this day of Sept. 10 has seen The Holdovers and Lisa Frankenstein both establish themselves as the next paragons of the Max Top 10 film rankings, with Alexander Payne’s Academy Award darling taking up 10th place, and Zelda Williams’ directorial debut coming in at sixth. Sandwiched between them are perennial villains Madame Web and Tarot, as well as Minions: The Rise of Gru; the latest recruit to the forces of darkness.
Lisa Frankenstein in particular is supremely curious as a recruit for the good guys. The Diablo Cody-penned horror comedy didn’t earn much in the way of love from either critics or the box office, but for its many flaws, it nevertheless remains as a disciple of singular creativity; a distinction embraced by the heroes’ leader Furiosa (albeit a much more dusty and trigger-happy one than the neon-tinted suburban gothness of Lisa Frankenstein). Partnering with a film like The Holdovers, whose prestige can quite easily cover Lisa Frankenstein‘s weaknesses, was a wise move.
It’s about as curious a case as The Rise of Gru, which, despite faring better in most every gradation department than Lisa Frankenstein, is nevertheless a capital-V Villain, and not because it involves Gru. No, these little yellow irritants have been the insufferable bane of nutritious children’s media for quite some time now, and with Despicable Me 4 having nabbed close to one billion dollars at the box office at the time of writing, we’ve got quite some time before we escape them. Thus, The Rise of Gru — coming in at ninth place in the rankings below an eighth-place Tarot and seventh-place Madame Web — stands quite appropriately with Sony’s hogwash for its crimes against humanity.
However, it must be repeated that the Max viewership rankings are now beholden to the third party of the Shyamalan Empire, with The Watchers having transformed The Garfield Movie‘s personal vendetta against Furiosa into its own enterprise. What does this mean for the never-ending struggle of good and evil?
Indeed, the podium may still belong to the good guys thanks to Furiosa‘s second place and Beetlejuice‘s third place, but The Watchers‘ alignment defies categorization. It may be a weak film overall, but it simultaneously establishes Ishana Night Shyamalan as a thoroughly capable director. What could this mysterious new Max overlord prophesize for the future? Might it have something to do with Netflix double agent The Killer occupying fifth place in the rankings? Whatever the case, the battle rages on.
Published: Sep 10, 2024 01:05 pm