December 14th, 2013
SAG handed out nominations over the week, and like with the Independent Spirit Awards, 12 Years a Slave led the way and earned four nominations. It wasn't the only film that was singled out.
More...
December 10th, 2013
It's a good week / bad week when it comes to new releases. On the positive side, there are a couple big first run releases, a couple big TV on DVD releases, and even a classic film hitting Blu-ray for the first time. On the other hand, the depth is really bad. If you look at Amazon.com's list of best selling new releases, you will find filler on the second page. That's not to say there are no contenders for Pick of the Week. Despicable Me 2 is the best selling release and the Blu-ray Combo Pack or 3D Combo Pack are also among the best, as is Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray. There are also a few more contenders where I'm waiting for a screener (Berberian Sound Studio, The Hunt, etc.). and it is a busy week for top notch releases. In the end, I went with Despicable Me 2 for that honor, but it was a real coin toss.
More...
December 10th, 2013
As a franchise, Fast and the Furious appeared burnt out in 2009. Tokyo Drift bombed failing to match its production budget domestically and likely losing a ton worldwide. Fast and Furious saw the return of the original cast, which helped it return to previous heights in terms of box office dollars, but critics eviscerated it. Then, defying logic, Fast Five became the biggest hit in the franchise and earned the most critical praise. Can Fast and Furious 6 maintain this momentum? Or was Fast Five just a fluke?
More...
August 8th, 2013
Pacific Rim earned first place over the weekend with $53.0 million in 58 markets for a total of $200.4 million internationally and $293.3 million worldwide. It has made more internationally than it cost to make, but it will still need a lot of help to break even. The film's biggest market over the weekend was China, where it debuted in first place with $45 million. Unfortunately for the film, while studios take about 60% of the box office numbers in the United States (it varies per film) they only get about 20% of the box office in China. Or to be more accurate, they will only get about 20% of the box office, once the sales tax dispute is settled. Right now, they are getting nothing.
More...
June 17th, 2013
It was a very good week at the box office with Man of Steel breaking the record for biggest June weekend topping Toy Story 3 by more than $6 million. Nearly every film in the top five matched or beat expectations, which helped the overall box office reach $204 million. This was 37% higher than last weekend and 57% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2013 is still behind 2012, but is has closed the gap to $150 million, or 3.1%, at $4.56 billion to $4.71 billion.
More...
June 13th, 2013
This week one of the biggest movies of the summer is coming out. Man of Steel is the latest film in the longest running super hero franchises of all time. Granted, Superman hasn't always been overly popular with moviegoers or critics, but it should still sell lots of tickets. This is the End is the counter-programming for the week, and it has a lot of popular actors and the reviews are strong, but it opened on Wednesday, so its weekend numbers will be softer as a result. Last year the box office was led by Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus, both of which were in their second weekend of release. The new releases were Rock of Ages and That's My Boy, both of which bombed. I foresee a victory in the year-over-year comparison.
More...
June 10th, 2013
We have a good news / bad news situation. The good news is The Purge crushed expectations and dominated the box office over the weekend. Additionally, nearly every film in the top ten held on better than expected. The bad new is... it still wasn't enough. The overall box office fell 9% from last weekend to $149 million. Worse still, this was 18% lower than the same weekend last year. This is terrible, but fortunately things should turn around next weekend.
More...
June 9th, 2013
Coming into this weekend, Universal was already celebrating above-expectations performances this year for their releases Fast and Furious 6, Identity Thief and Mama, but those three successes have been eclipsed by a big surprise in the opening weekend for The Purge. The home invasion movie, made for just $3 million, will top the chart this weekend with an estimated $36.4 million, blowing past all expectations, and putting it on par with big budget movies like Oblivion. Doing so from a modest 2,536 theaters (and with a correspondingly low marketing budget) makes the victory even sweeter for the studio, which now boasts a 15% market share for the year. If it keeps going at this pace, Universal will have its best year since we started keeping records in 1995.
More...
June 6th, 2013
The first weekend in June is also the slowest weekend in June as far as wide releases go. Neither The Internship nor The Purge are likely to become more than midlevel hits. Even so, one of them should finish in first place, ending Fast and Furious 6's two-week run on top. Last year there were two major releases, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus earned more than $50 million during their opening weekend. Neither new release will match that figure. They won't make that much combined over the weekend.
More...
June 4th, 2013
As per usual, the post-holiday weekend suffers a slump, but it was worse than expected with nearly every film failing to live up to predictions. Fast and Furious 6 fell very far, but it still came out on top. Meanwhile, Now You See Me topped expectations and topped After Earth over the weekend. Now You See Me was the one lone bright spot on an otherwise soft weekend, and the overall box office fell 35% to $164 million. On the other hand, this was still 15% higher than the same weekend last year. 2013 was able to pull out the win thanks to a much deeper box office. Six films earned more than $10 million this weekend compared to just three earning more than $10 million last year.
More...
May 31st, 2013
Post-holiday weekends tend to feature weak releases and this time is no exception. After Earth is a film that should be a massive summer blockbuster, given its genre and its star, but the buzz is terrible. Now You See Me is the counter-programming release, but it should have a better opening than After Earth, relative to expectations and production budget. That said, Fast and Furious 6 will very likely remain on top of the box office chart. This weekend last year was the weekend Snow White and the Huntsman debuted and it earned $56 million. There's pretty much no chance any film will earn that much during this weekend. In fact, the two wide releases might not make that much combined.
More...
May 30th, 2013
The winners of our Epic Win contest were determined and they are...
More...
May 29th, 2013
As expected, Before Midnight led the way on the per theater chart with an average $49,383. This is the third best per theater average so far this year, behind just The Place Beyond the Pines and Spring Breakers. The overall box office leader, Fast and Furious 6, was next with an average of $26,620. Fill the Void was relatively close behind with an average of $19,721 in three theaters. The final film in the $10,000 club was The Hangover 3 with an average of $11,722.
More...
May 29th, 2013
Memorial Day long weekend has come and gone and it was a boon to the box office numbers. Not only did Fast and Furious 6 reach the high end of predictions, as did Epic. On the other hand, The Hangover III struggled. The positives overrode the negatives by a large margin and the overall box office rose to $254.37 million, which is a new record for a three-day Memorial Day weekend. Adding in Monday, and the box office made $313.18 million. The three-day portion of the weekend rose 65% compared to last weekend and 67% compared to last year. This weekend earned more than $100 million more than the same weekend in 2012. That is something that usually only happens when there's a misalignment in holiday weekends. If you add in Monday, 2013's Memorial Day long weekend earned 63% more than the Memorial Day long weekend from 2012. Granted, 2013 is still far behind 2012, but this is great news. Hopefully it will keep up for a while.
More...
May 26th, 2013
Memorial Day weekend will be one for the record books, thanks to a gigantic opening for Fast and Furious 6 and a gaggle of good results for a trailing pack of three films. The Hangover III will pick up $42.4 million (the worst opening weekend for the franchise, but still a solid performance by any measure); Star Trek Into Darkness is looking at a good hold with around $38 million Friday-Sunday and $121 million so far; and Epic gets off to a good start with $34.2 million, which is comfortably the most ever earned by a 4th-place finisher, besting Madea's Witness Protection's opening last year. But the real accolades must be reserved for Fast and Furious.
More...
May 24th, 2013
It's the Memorial Day long weekend and there are three new films looking to take advantage of the holiday, plus a number of holdovers that will likely still bring in a lot of money. Fast and Furious 6 is leading the way in terms of box office potential and many think it will crack $100 million over four days; some think it will crack $100 million over three days. The Hangover III debuted on Thursday, which will give it a jump on the competition, but soften its weekend numbers. Finally, there's Epic, a family film that seems like a sure hit, except there is a lot of competition this weekend. Star Trek into Darkness, Iron Man 3, and The Great Gatsby are all still doing well and should provide some competition for the three new releases. All combined, those six films should make as much as the entire box office did last year and 2013 will start to close the gap with 2012.
More...
May 17th, 2013
Next weekend, there are three films coming out in saturation level theater counts: Epic, Fast and Furious 6, and The Hangover 3. The Hangover 3 opens on Thursday, which makes it unsuitable for the Box Office Prediction contest. Epic is opening in more theaters and does work better when coming up with a name for the contest, but Fast and Furious 6 will easily have the bigger opening. As a result, it is the clear choice for the target movie for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Fast and Furious 6.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Dexter: Season Seven on Blu-ray.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Laverne and Shirley: Season Six on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
More...
May 1st, 2013
As April ends and summer begins, we see the 2013 box office on a losing streak. There is some good news, as May should be much, much, much better than April was. Much better. During the five weekends in May, there are nine films opening wide. Of those film, there are seven that at least have a shot at $100 million. And of those seven films, four at least have a shot at $200 million, two have a shot at $300 million, and we might even have a $400 million hit this month. Iron Man 3 should turn out to be the biggest hit of the month, while there are some who think Star Trek: Into Darkness could be a close competitor for that honor. There's also some bad news. The Avengers opened last May and earned more than $600 million. No film opening this month will come close to that figure. There's a chance the top two films opening this month won't match that combined. On the other hand, last year there was a huge drop-off from the biggest hit of the month to the second biggest hit of the month. There were so many high-profile failures last year, that 2013 might actually start winning some weekends in the year-over-year comparison.
More...
