December 11th, 2018
There isn’t a huge number of releases on this week’s list home market release report. The Equalizer 2 is the biggest, but it is far from the best. As for the best, there are some Pick of the Week contenders, including Colette, My Neighbor Totoro and A Simple Favor. My Neighbor Totoro is worth owning, but it is a triple-dip at this point, maybe more. A Simple Favor is coming out on VOD this week. This leaves Colette’s DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack as the Pick of the Week.
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April 16th, 2018
Rampage was widely expected to earn first place over the weekend, and it did. However, A Quiet Place gave it a real run for its money and after Friday’s estimates, it looked like the horror film would repeat on top. Meanwhile, Truth or Dare was also a pleasant surprise at the box office earning close to $19 million on a $3.5 million production budget. Overall, the box office fell 9.8% from last weekend to $147 million. This is also 13% lower than the same weekend last year. That said, The Fate of the Furious opened this weekend last year and earned almost $100 million, so it could have been worse. Year-to-date, 2018 is still behind behind 2017 by $70 million or 2.0% or $3.27 billion to $3.33 billion.
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April 14th, 2018
Rampage earned first place on Friday, barely, with $11.5 million. Its reviews slipped down to exactly 50%, but that’s still the best ever for a wide release based on a video game, and it earned an impressive A minus from CinemaScore. This adds up to a $32 million opening weekend. Unfortunately, the film cost $120 million to make and even more for its global P&A. And as we will see shortly, A Quiet Place was right on its tail on Friday. Fortunately, the film is doing better in some international markets. For example, it earned $15.6 million in China alone, with an early estimate of $21.2 million for Saturday.
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April 13th, 2018
Rampage started its box office run with $2.4 million during its Thursday night previews. This is almost $2 million lower than A Quiet Place managed last weekend, but last weekend was also Easter weekend, so a lot of the target audience had Friday off. Even so, this isn’t quite where I was hoping it would land when I made my prediction yesterday. $35 million is still possible, but it would take strong legs to get there. Fortunately, its reviews have continued to improve and the film’s Tomatometer Score is now 53% positive. According to this metric, it is the best wide release based on a video game of all time. This actually makes some sense. The original video game was based on movies like King Kong or Godzilla, so it should be able to inspire at least a passable version of those films.
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April 12th, 2018
Rampage is the biggest new release of the week and at one time it was widely assumed it would be the biggest hit of the month. Granted, this changed the second Infinity War moved up to an April release. However, now the film likely won’t even be the second biggest hit of the month, as A Quiet Place dominated last weekend. Truth or Dare has to deal with direct competition and that’s going to kill it. Finally, Isle of Dogs is expanding semi-wide. It likely won’t reach the top five, but it is already doing well for a limited release. This weekend last year, The Fate of the Furious opened with nearly $100 million. That’s about what the top four will earn this year. I can’t imagine 2018 coming ahead in the year-over-year comparison.
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April 1st, 2018
Well, March has ended and it was a very disappointing month. Black Panther made more than any of the new releases did. The only potential big hit that didn’t miss expectations was Ready Player One. Because of this, 2018 lost its lead over 2017 and is now over $100 million behind last year’s pace. April is usually a terrible month, because it is a dumping ground, especially late in the month. No studio wants to compete with the first monster hit of the Summer. This year, the first monster hit of the summer, Avengers: Infinity War, opens in April. It will make more during its opening weekend than any other April release will make in total. It might make more opening day than any other April release will make in total. The only film that has a real chance to earn more than $100 million is Rampage, a video game adaptation. Last April, The Fate of the Furious earned more than $1.2 billion worldwide, but “only” earned $225.76 million of that domestically. Infinity War should earn more than that opening weekend. The second biggest hit of last April was Smurfs: The Lost Village and Going in Style, both of which earned $45.02 million. If 2018 doesn’t retake the lead by the end of the month, then 2018 is in trouble at the box office.
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