October 21st, 2016
Several films coming out this week are earning nearly unanimously positive reviews. This includes a few documentaries, but also a couple of narrative films that have a shot at some box office success. Moonlight is clearly aiming to win awards and it might do so. The Handmaiden should help grow Chan-wook Park’s fanbase here.
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August 1st, 2015
It is still a little too soon to tell how July will finish, as we don't have any numbers for the final weekend at the time of writing. We know Minions was a monster hit and that Ant-man will be a financial success. However, until we see how Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation does, it will be impossible to call the month a true success. If Rogue Nation bombed this weekend, then the month is only a partial success. It would also mean the summer of 2015 could be coming to an abrupt end. As for August, only Fantastic Four has a better than 50/50 chance of reaching $100 million; although some people think Straight Outta Compton also has a shot at that milestone. Besides those two, only a couple of other films even have a realistic shot at becoming midlevel hits. Worse still, last August was amazing with Guardians of the Galaxy breaking records. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also did better than expected with a domestic haul of nearly $200 million. No release this August is going to match that figure. There's a good chance the top two releases combined won't do so. Fortunately, 2015 has a sizable lead over 2014, so even a soft month will keep 2015 ahead in the year-over-year comparison.
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July 10th, 2015
Very few movies on this week's list have a real shot at box office success. Stations of the Cross and Tangerine are both earning amazing reviews, but both are niche market releases. Many movies are also earning good reviews, like What We Did on Our Holiday, but are playing on VOD, so they likely won't find audiences in theaters.
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February 19th, 2013
Sinister is a horror film that opened early in October. Its early reviews were incredible, but by the time it opened its Tomatometer Score fell to just over the overall positive level. This suggests the studio was able to show the film to genre critics, who were more likely to give the film a positive review, before the overall community saw it. I don't begrudge them for doing this. After all, it makes total sense for the studio to want the early good reviews and the genre critics are the ones mostly likely to jump at the chance to review a horror film. And in the end, it still earned good reviews. But does this mean it will be seen as a classic by fans of the genre and only okay by others? And is an okay horror film still worth picking up for casual fans of the genre.
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