November 25th, 2015
Awards Season begins with the Independent Spirit Awards nominations. There were definitely some surprise nominees this year, but that also meant there were some unfortunate snubs as well. The overall leader was Carol, which just opened this past weekend. This is great timing and should help its box office numbers, as well as its chances throughout Awards Season. Its six nominations were one ahead of Beasts of No Nation and Spotlight. (One of Spotlight's was the Robert Altman Award, which has no nominations, just one winner.)
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September 16th, 2015
This week's home market releases are insane, so I'm going to have to be a lot more judicious in pruning the list. If I were to include all releases that are big enough to include, if they were released during a slow week, there would be more than 100 releases on this week's list (including secondary Blu-rays, but not VOD releases). I have to pare that back to a more reasonable number. Why are there so many releases? Firstly, it is the beginning of the Christmas Shopping season and we have two monster hits on this week's list. Secondly, it is the last week before the fall season begins in earnest, so it is the last week for a lot of shows to come out on DVD before they are running into competition from the new season. It should come as no surprise that the best releases on this week's list are in the TV on DVD categories, including Marvel's Agent Carter: Season 1 and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 2. Both of which are co-winners of the Pick of the Week.
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July 26th, 2015
Three new wide releases and three returning movies that are still pulling in good crowds will produce a box office chart with no knock-out winner this weekend. That’s in large part thanks to a disappointing debut from Pixels. The Adam Sandler/Kevin James-comedy/adventure-Ghostbusters/wannabe will earn about $24 million this weekend, according to Sony’s Sunday estimate. That puts it in danger of not even earning back its marketing budget domestically, let alone starting to recover the $88 million production budget. It also means that Ant-Man will top the charts for a second weekend.
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July 14th, 2015
The $10,000 club was busier that it was last week with four films earning a per theater average of more than $10,000. This includes the overall number one film, Minions, which earned an average of $26,905 in over 4,000 theaters. The best limited release was Tangerine with an average $15,171 in four theaters. I thought this might be a little too niche to find a large audience, but perhaps I was wrong. Up next is Baahubali: The Beginning, which was also a surprise hit with an average of $13,559 in 236 theaters. It is very rare for a Bollywood film to do that well. The final film in the $10,000 club was Do I Sound Gay? with $11,000 in its lone theater.
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July 8th, 2015
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Only one film was in the $10,000 club this week. Amy earned an average of $37,083 in six theaters. That's amazing for a documentary, but this genre rarely expands truly wide. Let's see what happens next weekend and maybe I will be proven wrong.
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July 6th, 2015
It was not a good weekend for new releases, as the top two spots went to holdovers. Fortunately, Inside Out earned first place over Jurassic World, because I had no idea what I was going to do for an image this time around. (That's not true. I was going to look for pictures of corgis dressed as dinosaurs.) Neither Terminator: Genisys or Magic Mike XXL matched expectations. At least Terminator: Genisys came close. Overall, the box office plummeted 26% from last weekend to just $135 million. Granted, that's still 2.2% higher than the same weekend last year, but boy have we come down from the highs we saw just a few weeks ago. Year-to-date, 2015 has earned $5.62 billion, which is 6.0% above 2014's pace of $5.31 million. 2015 would really need to sink for a number of weeks before that lead was in trouble, but after this week, that scenario is a little more likely.
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July 3rd, 2015
If one of the new releases doesn't earn top spot this weekend, then the box office is in trouble. Jurassic World has been in first place for three weeks in a row and even last week it only won because the new release, Ted 2, missed expectations. If it or Inside Out win this weekend, it will be because Terminator: Genisys and Magic Mike XXL are both struggling. Fortunately, the two films topped the chart on Wednesday during their opening day, but not by enough to ensure they come out on top over the full weekend. It could be a very close race for first place. This weekend last year was led by Transformers: Age of Extinction with $37 million, while Tammy was second with an opening of $21.58 million over the three-day weekend and $33.51 million over five days. The overall box office take was just $133 million last year, while the top five could top that this year. 2015 should have no trouble coming out on top in the year-over-year competition.
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July 2nd, 2015
There were only two films in the $10,000 club and they were the wide releases that earned the top two spots on the overall box office chart. Jurassic World earned an average of $12,990, while Inside Out was very close behind with an average of $12,663. The best limited release was Runoff, which earned $9,515 in one theater.
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June 18th, 2015
It's a strange week on the theater averages chart. The number one film was Jurassic World with an average of $48,855. This is the best average for a wide release in 2015 and the third best average for a film released in 2015 and the fifth best average during 2015. Second place went to The Wolfpack with an average of $21,960 in two theaters. This is amazing for a documentary. The only other film in the $10,000 club was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which debuted in 15 theaters, a lot for a limited release, and earned an average of $13,100. This suggests room to expand over the coming weeks.
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June 12th, 2015
While there are a number of films on this week's list, only one of them is earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl's Tomatometer Score is 85% positive and it is playing in 15 theaters, so it is the clear choice for fans of limited releases. In fact, it might do well enough to earn some measure of mainstream success.
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