June 20th, 2016
There are two wide releases coming out this week, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and The Divergent Series: Allegiant, although the latter is only coming out on Video on Demand. Neither of these are big releases and it only gets much worse from there. There wasn't a lot of competition for Pick of the Week, but I went with Fantastic Planet: Criterion Collection. It's a classic, but it is also a French Surrealist animated film, so that will limit its target audience.
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June 8th, 2016
The list of new home market releases isn't particularly long, but it includes Zootopia the best movie of the year, so it feels like an amazing week. It isn't the only contender for Pick of the Week this week, as Anomalisa, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Director's Cut, and others are also worth considering. The Martian: Extended Edition is also a must have, if you don't own it yet.
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May 10th, 2016
Captain America: Civil War not only had the best theater average of the weekend, but it also had the best theater average for any film released in 2016. Its average of $42,390 was just ahead of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, while Midnight Special remains the best average for a limited release this year. Other films in the $10,000 club this week include A Bigger Splash, which earned an average of $22,884 in five theaters over the weekend for an average of $27,697 from Wednesday through Sunday. Eva Hesse saw its average rise 8% to $13,816, but it did open on a Wednesday last week, so that likely depressed its weekend numbers last week. Dheepan just made it into the $10,000 club with an average of $10,125 in two theaters.
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April 3rd, 2016
Last weekend, Batman v Superman posted the 7th-biggest opening weekend of all time. This weekend, if Sunday’s estimate proves to be accurate, it will record the 27th-biggest 2nd weekend. That stat tells you most of what you need to know about the film’s box office performance: it hit big at the beginning, but is proving to have very little staying power. Warner Bros.’ Sunday morning projection for the weekend is $52.385 million, down 68% from last weekend, for a total of $261.5 million to date. With $419.8 million overseas so far, the film is well on its way to $700 million worldwide, and should make about $900 million in total. That’s certainly short of what the studio was hoping for—the consensus was that the film needed $1 billion globally to make a profit—but surely enough to keep their plans for the franchise on track for now.
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March 30th, 2016
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earned first place on the theater average chart for the weekend and for 2016 with $39,134. The previous record was $38,002 held by Midnight Special and was set last weekend. This week, Midnight Special had to settle for second place on the chart with an average of $20,003. Born to be Blue was the best new limited release earning an average of $15,395 in three theaters. The only other film in the $10,000 club was April and the Extraordinary World, which earned $11,413 in its lone theater.
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March 27th, 2016
Batman and Superman not only had to fight each other this weekend, but also mediocre reviews. They have come through in some style, however, posting a record for March of $170.1 million, according to Warner Bros.’ Sunday morning estimate. Our model has the film coming a little below that mark, at $165 million or so, which might mean it won’t quite top Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II’s $169 million, which is currently the studio’s best ever weekend. But the fact that we’re comparing the movie to the Harry Potter franchise is nothing but good news for them.
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March 22nd, 2016
Midnight Special had the best theater average for a film that opened in 2016 earning $190,000 in five theaters for an average of $38,002. The only other film in the $10,000 club was A Space Program with $10,247 in its lone theater.
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March 20th, 2016
Zootopia is set to win a third straight race and pass $200 million at the domestic box office in the process, but the real story of this weekend is the weak debut by The Divergent Series: Allegiant.
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March 18th, 2016
Of the seven films on this week's list, five of them are earning excellent reviews and one of the other two is a Bollywood film with no reviews. Midnight Special was supposed to open wide, but that's not happening now. It could still find an audience in theaters. Additionally, Krisha is being released by A24 and that distributor has a very good track record.
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March 1st, 2016
It's March 1st, which is not only the beginning of the month, but also Super Tuesday. If you are not American and don't pay attention to American politics, Super Tuesday is sort of like the Oscar night of the primary season. I was going to write about my predictions, but it looks like the race is about to be over. On the Republicans side, if Trump gets more than 50% of the delegates, then he has won. It will be too late to stop him. If he gets less than 40%, then it becomes a real race again. If the polling is correct, then he will get closer to 50% than 40%. On the Democratic side, Sanders needs at least 45% of the delegates, or it is over for him. Anything less than that and Hillary Clinton will have too big a lead to overcome. If the South Carolina result is an indicator, Hillary Clinton could get two-thirds of the delegates awarded tonight.
As for the box office, February was amazing, thanks to Deadpool's record-breaking opening and better than expected legs. The month ended with 2016 being nearly 4% higher than 2015's pace. Additionally, there are some big releases coming out this month with both Zootopia and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice looking to get more than $200 million, while Allegiant should hit $100 million. Last March, there were also three films that earned more than $100 million, but only one $200 million hit, Cinderella. It should be a really close race between 2016 and 2015.
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