July 22nd, 2021
Black Widow once again leads our theater count list this week despite taking a backseat at the box office to Space Jam: A New Legacy last weekend. The former enters its third week with a domestic total of over $140M and a worldwide total of $272M. The latest Marvel film drops from 4,275 to 4,250 locations beginning Friday. While we don’t have an official theater count for Space Jam: A New Legacy, we are estimating the sophomore feature to be in 4,000 theaters. The live action/animated hybrid sequel starring LeBron James and Bugs Bunny scored a better-than-expected $31M during its opening weekend, positioning itself as the number one movie of the week.
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December 16th, 2017
Both the first installment First-run Releases and the second installment, TV on DVD releases, were shorter than I would have liked, as this hasn’t been a great year for either wide releases or TV on DVD releases. That said, the third installment of our Holiday Gift Guide deals with limited releases, classics, and foreign imports and this list can get out of hand rather quickly. There will more releases on this list than the previous two, starting with...
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September 11th, 2017
Beatriz at Dinner came out in limited release this past summer earning reviews that are good, but not great. Its box office results were very good for a limited release earning just over $7 million, but it never quite cracked the top ten. Does the film’s quality match this result? Is it good, but not great? Or did it deserve breakout success?
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November 23rd, 2015
American Ultra was released in late August, which is a terrible time of the year to release a movie. Additionally, American Ultra is a Black Comedy, which is one of the hardest genres to pull off. It is very hard to balance the darker elements and the comedy and the tonal shifts that are not perfect will irritate critics. Even black comedies that do earn good reviews rarely connect with moviegoers, because it is a niche market. This film earned mixed reviews and bombed at the box office. Did it deserve better? Will it at least satisfy fans of the genre?
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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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December 7th, 2013
The first full weekend of December and less than three weeks till Christmas. The second installment of our Holiday Gift Guide is where we talks about TV on DVD releases. We limit ourselves to the first season of new shows or the Megasets for complete shows. We do this, because generally speaking, you don't need our advice whether or not to give someone the sixth season of Murdoch Mysteries as a gift. Did they buy and enjoy the first five? Then yes, but the sixth season as a gift. If not, I wouldn't bother. Like with Part I, this year's selection doesn't seem very strong. There were very few new shows that were truly great. According to Metacritic, the best new show of the season was Nashville, which is a bit of a surprise. The second best show was Call the Midwife, but season two has already come out on DVD and Blu-ray, so it is not really a new show. Meanwhile, the third best show was canceled before its first season was completed. It wasn't a good year for high quality TV. There are also not a lot of Megasets for shows that recently ended that are obviously worth picking up, but the best of the group is...
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October 3rd, 2013
Nashville started last season and for most of the year it was "on the bubble" as far as ratings went. I was always fairly sure the show would be renewed, because it was not only selling ad time for the network, but also selling CD soundtrack. Has it done enough to warrant more people checking out the second season?
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December 19th, 2012
There are only a few days left till Christmas and we are officially in the panic zone for gift shopping. This week we have our final installment of our annual Holiday Gift Guide. Part I dealt with first run releases, Part II dealt with TV on DVD releases, Part III dealt with limited releases, foreign titles, and classics. This week, we deal with some music, books, games, as well as releases from the first three parts that I forgot the first time around. As always, there are quite a few in that last category. (I also use this time to burn off some releases that arrived late. This way I can get through all of the late reviews quicker than normal and actually have enough time to celebrate Christmas.)
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