December 18th, 2018
It’s an odd week on the home market, as there are four major first run releases coming out this week, but almost nothing else. Fun fact, I got screeners for all four of these films, although one of them arrived too late to review. Of these four, A Simple Favor is clearly the best and the DVD / Blu-ray / 4K is a contender for Pick of the Week. Its only competition is the 4K release for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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October 10th, 2018
The overall box office leader, Venom, was also the top film on the theater average chart earning an average of $18,884. Studio 54 was yet another documentary success story opening with $14,909 in its lone theater. The only holdover in the $10,000 club was Free Solo with an average of $13,726 in 41 theaters and by the end of Sunday, it was nearly at $1 million. The Hate U Give was close behind with an average of $13,336 in 36 theaters. Finally, A Star is Born was the last film in the $10,000 club, earning an average of $12,373 in wide release.
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October 3rd, 2018
Free Solo didn’t quite live up to weekend estimates, but it still overtook Eighth Grade for the best theater average of the year with $72,551. It also surpassed An Inconvenient Truth as the documentary with the best theater average of all time. The Old Man and the Gun was in a distant second place with an average of $28,426 in five theaters, while Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. was close behind with an average of $21,787 in two. The only holdover in the $10,000 club was Colette with an average of $10,172 in 38 theaters. It will continue to expand.
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September 27th, 2018
Robert Redford’s swan song, The Old Man and the Gun, leads a group of limited releases this week. It should be the biggest hit on this week’s list and could even become an Awards Season contender. Bad Reputation could also open really well, for a documentary.
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September 1st, 2018
Overall, August was a little better than expected. Granted, there were no monster hits, but Warner Bros. had two $100 million hits in The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians. Meanwhile, Christopher Robin will come close enough to that milestone to be a hit. This allowed 2018 to stretch its lead over 2017 by over $700 million. Will that lead grow in September? Nope. Not even close. There are three major problems that will hurt September’s box office. Firstly, there are a lot of films that may or may not open wide. Secondly, there are no films opening this month that have a better than 50/50 chance of hitting $100 million. Finally... It. It destroyed records last September, earning more during its opening weekend than any film opening this month will earn in total. Fortunately, 2018 has such an enormous lead that even with It, 2018 should remain ahead of 2107 by $500 million at the end of the month.
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