September 9th, 2014
The Christmas shopping season has begun in full force. Even if Captain America: The Winter Soldier were the only new release this week, it would be a great release, as the Combo Packs are clearly pick of the week contenders. It's not the only Pick of the Week contender. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 1 is also a prime contender, although I'm still waiting for the screener for that release. At the moment, I'm giving the win to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but when I get a chance to review the screener, that might change.
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September 7th, 2014
Star Trek fans are never at a loss for things to buy. The studio seems to know the fans will buy everything they put out, so they put out a lot of otherwise questionable releases. Is this one of those questionable releases? Or is there real value here?
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January 16th, 2014
The Oscar nominations were announced this morning and there are some surprises mixed in with the predictable results. Gravity and American Hustle led the way with ten nominations each while 12 Years a Slave was right behind with nine. The fact that 12 Years a Slave wasn't the leader is the first of the surprises.
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November 24th, 2013
Thanksgiving is less than a week away and that means Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and a ton of shopping. It also means the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. Over the next month, we will talk about TV on DVD releases, independent releases, foreign language releases, classics, etc. but this week we start with Major Movie Releases. These are first run releases, franchise box sets, etc. However, this year seems weaker than years past. Last year the biggest new release was The Avengers, which was also one of the best reviewed wide releases of the year. This year the biggest release is Iron Man 3, which earned good reviews, but not great reviews. Last year there were a ton of franchise box sets. This year has been pretty barren. In fact, I think the only franchise box set that's truly new and really worth picking up is...
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September 10th, 2013
The home market is looking to be a whole lot brighter this week with Star Trek into Darkness leading the way. It's not the only first-run release to come out this week, but it is by far the biggest. On the other hand, there are tons of TV on DVD releases, tons and tons of them. This includes Homeland: Season Two, which is a contender for Pick of the Week. However, the screener is on its way, so I'm going to hold off on that declaration. Instead, that honor goes to Castle: Season Five. Meanwhile, War Witch's DVD release earns the Puck of the Week for the best Canadian release.
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September 9th, 2013
Star Trek: The Original Series began nearly 50 years ago and created a TV and movie franchise that is still going on. The franchise has had its share of low points, but the 2009 reboot, Star Trek, revitalized the franchise at the box office. Star Trek into Darkness did even better at the box office. But did it deserve this box office success? Does it live up to franchise as a whole?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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May 23rd, 2013
The winner of our Seeing in the Dark contest was determined and it is...
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May 23rd, 2013
Star Trek into Darkness had a fantastic domestic start on IMAX with $13.6 million on 336 screens. Worldwide, the film has made roughly $20 million on IMAX so far.
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May 23rd, 2013
Frances Ha earned first place on the per theater chart with an average of $34,350 in four theaters. This is strong enough to suggest serious potential to expand. The overall number one film, Star Trek into Darkness, placed second with an average of $18,140. That's a fantastic start, but lower than expected.
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May 21st, 2013
There was some bad news this weekend, mostly at the top. Star Trek into Darkness did open in first place with a very healthy 4-day total, but it opened below its predecessor and not a lot of people were predicting that. The overall box office fell 2.8% from last weekend to $154 million. On the other hand, this was 7.8% higher than the same weekend last year, which is great news, as 2013 has really struggled in the year-over-year comparison. It's going to take a lot more than one good weekend to turn things around.
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May 19th, 2013
Paramount downplayed talk of a $100 million opening weekend for Star Trek Into Darkness, and the results for the weekend show that they were right to do so. The film is predicted to earn $70.5 million over the three-day weekend for a total of $84.1 million after four days. That compares to a three-day opening of $79.2 million for the previous Star Trek outing, which means the franchise is essentially treading water in spite of generally good reviews and enthusiasm among its core audience. This clearly won't be the breakout into super-blockbuster territory that some were hoping for, although it should set a franchise record thanks to improved international numbers.
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May 16th, 2013
The second big summer release comes out this week, Star Trek into Darkness. The film has already opened internationally and has proven to be a bigger hit than its predecessor was, which is good news for its opening weekend. Iron Man 3 will likely take a pretty big hit due to the direct competition, while The Great Gatsby is a bit of a wild card. This weekend last year there were three wide releases, but the best of them was Battleship, which only made $25.53 million during its opening weekend, while all three new releases made a total of $53 million. Star Trek into Darkness should easily make more than that combined. However, The Avengers still dominated the chart last year and it will be that film that will be the biggest challenge in the year-over-year competition.
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May 15th, 2013
Iron Man 3 earned first place for the third weekend in a row, this time pulling in $89.3 million on 9,921 screens in 55 markets for totals of $664.4 million internationally and $949.3 million worldwide. At this pace, the film will have no trouble getting to $1 billion this coming weekend, while it should enter the top ten of all time by the end of the weekend. The film's single best market of the weekend was China, where it added $32.7 million over the week to its running tally, which now sits at $97.2 million.
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May 10th, 2013
Next weekend, we have a potential monster hit. Star Trek into Darkness is the only wide release next week and it could be a $100 million hit right out of the weekend, so it is the only choice for the target movie for this weeks' box office prediction contest. To celebrate, we have signed CDs from Allie Goertz, a.k.a. Cossbysweater. She describes her music as, "Nerdy love songs." so it is great fit. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Star Trek into Darkness.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a signed copy of Cossbysweater on CD. (The link to Amazon.com is for the MP3 download, but you can buy the physical CD here).
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a signed copy of Cossbysweater on CD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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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.
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February 13th, 2013
While it appears studios are dropping the wide 3D re-release strategy, Top Gun showed that opening in IMAX might be more lucrative. The film placed 11th overall with $1.97 million on 300 for an average of $6,552. This should give the 3D Blu-ray a boost in sales. (On a related note, I'm still waiting for the screener for this release, but hopefully it will arrive this week.)
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