‘Marty Supreme’ Almost Slithers Past ‘Anaconda’

A second batch of holiday movies is opening nationwide on Christmas Day in North America, including A24’s high-profile period pic Marty Supreme — starring Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis champion who will do whatever it takes — and Sony’s Jack Black-Paul Rudd campy monster reboot Anaconda.

Marty Supreme made headlines last weekend with a record-breaking per-location average of $145,913 across six locations in New York City and L.A., the best in A24’s history and the best of any film since 2016’s La La Land. Sporting a pricey budget of $60 million to $70 million, it is reportedly the most expensive movie ever made by the esteemed indie studio.

Both films launched in previews on Christmas Eve before expanding everywhere on Thursday, with Anaconda earning an estimated $2.1 million, versus $2.01 million for Marty Supreme. Anaconda is arguably the more commercial offering and is projecting a four-day Christmas weekend north of $20 million. However, the reboot has been skewered by critics. Its ranking on Rotten Tomatoes is presently a rotten 44 percent, compared to a 95 percent fresh rating for Chalamet film (audience scores won’t be posted until tonight or tomorrow.

In his review for THR, chief critic David Rooney says Marty Supreme reinvents the sports comedy. “Marking the first time since his 2008 solo debut that Josh Safdie has directed a feature without his brother and longtime collaborator Benny, Marty Supreme turns out, paradoxically, to be his most Safdian movie to date. Propelled by a hot-wired Timothée Chalamet as a cocky operator aiming for global table tennis glory, this genre-defying original is an exhilarating sports comedy, a scrappy character study, a thrumming evocation of early ‘50s New York City — plus a reimagining of all those things. Think of it as Uncut Gems meets Catch Me If You Can and maybe you’re halfway there.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion and Tyler, the Creator also star in this tale of an aspiring table tennis champion angling to ping pong his way out of 1950s Lower East Side Manhattan

Chalamet has stopped at nothing to help market the movie — culminating with becoming the first person to stand atop The Sphere in Las Vegas on Dec. 22 — and it appears to be paying off. In the weeks leading up to the film’s release, he wrote and directed a staged Zoom call with A24’s marketing team in which he presented increasingly ridiculous ideas to promote Marty Supreme. One of the ideas presented actually became reality: fly a bright orange rented blimp with the movie’s title imprinted on each side. While there was talk of a cross-country tour, the blimp is based in the Los Angeles area. And the idea for Safdie and the cast to light the Empire State Building orange ahead of the New York premiere also emerged from something said in the staged Zoom call.

The big question facing Marty Supreme is whether it can break out and play to mainstream audiences, versus the more traditional specialty crowd.

And, according to Angie Han’s Anaconda review for THR, “An action-comedy starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd and a giant CG snake should be way more fun. Director Tom Gormican’s meta-take on the previous Anaconda films follows a director (Black) and his crew as they travel to the Amazon to make the defining movie about the storied monster. Thandiwe Newton and Steve Zahn co-star.

Of course, the overall winner of the holiday box office contest will be Avatar 3, which is crossing the $500 million mark on Christmas Day after topping Wednesday’s domestic chart with another $10.7 million for a North American tally of $129.2 million. Overseas, it added $11 million for a foreign tally of $353.6 million — including $71 million from China— for a worldwide haul of $483.3 million through Wednesday. And Disney Animation’s Zootopia 2 is still going strong after opening at Thanksgiving, helping to propel the studio past the $6 billion mark in global ticket sales for the first time since 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Elsewhere on Wednesday’s domestic chart, Angel Studio’s faith-based David placed third with $2.6 million, followed by Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants ($1.8 million) and Sony’s femme-skewing thriller The Housemaid ($1.8 million), starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. All three films opened opposite Avatar on the 19th, followed by the Dec. 25 entries.

Christmas Day falling on a Thursday is a dream scenario for theater owners, since the long holiday weekend will be free and clear. And the final two weeks of the year are the most lucrative for moviegoing, considering that schools and colleges are closed, with many adults off from work as well.

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