April 6th, 2015
It is a slow week on the home market, because it is the Tuesday after Easter. Easter tends to be a busy weekend for DVDs and Blu-rays, mostly family-friendly films. It is also post-Christmas on the home market. The final big releases from the holiday season have mostly come out and there are only a few limited release stragglers to deal with, but for the most part we are entering the summer dead zone on the home market. That doesn't mean there are no releases worth picking up. In fact, there are a few contenders for Pick of the Week, led by A Most Violent Year (Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack). Meanwhile, we have a Puck of the Week, The Book of Negroes on DVD, for the best Canadian release of the week.
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April 5th, 2015
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is the third film, and likely final film, in the Night at the Museum franchise. The previous two films were very profitable, but the films have never really won over critics. This film had the weakest run at the box office, but is it also the weakest in terms of quality?
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February 19th, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey dominated the international box office with an opening weekend of $158 million in 58 markets over the weekend for a total opening of $173.56 million. Worldwide, the film took $258.73 million during its opening weekend, which puts it just behind Taken 3 for the year. It became the biggest hit shortly after the weekend ended. The film's biggest market was in the U.K., where it made $20.90 million in 586 theaters. This is better than it opened with here, relative to the size of the two markets, so we can blame the U.K. for the success of this film. It also did incredibly well in Germany ($15.2 million on 741 screens); France ($12 million on 785); and Russia ($10.68 million on 1,105). Obviously the film is going to be turned into a franchise.
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January 5th, 2015
2015 box office started off on a strong note with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies leading the way with $21.73 million. More impressive, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death earned fourth place with $15.03 million, which is significantly more than what most people were predicting. The overall box office was $155 million, which is 2% lower than last weekend. More importantly, it is 10% higher than the same weekend last year. Obviously it is far, far too early to judge 2015, but after what happened last year, I'll take any win and I'll be happy about it.
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January 2nd, 2015
The new year starts with just one new release, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death. It's a horror film, which is a genre that is becoming common for early year releases. This is probably because these films are relatively cheap to produce, so they don't need a strong box office to break even. For example, this weekend last year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, a horror film that cost $5 million to make, was the only wide release. I don't think Angel of Death will top The Marked Ones, but last weekend was strong in the year-over-year comparison, so perhaps the holdovers can help 2015 start on a winning note.
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December 30th, 2014
We are still dealing with studio estimates for the weekend numbers, but we can at least tell you what film won, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and roughly how much it earned, $41.42 million. The new releases were much closer than expected with Into the Woods and Unbroken both earning just over $30 million over the weekend. Because we don't have enough final numbers, we really can't compare the overall box office to last weekend or last year. So far, the final weekend of 2014 pulled in $200 million and that number should grow a little bit as box office numbers filter in. This is 52% more than last weekend and 2.3% more than the same weekend last year. I'm a little more bullish about January's box office chances after this result.
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December 21st, 2014
After thirteen years (with a lengthy break in the middle), Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth Saga finally comes to an end this weekend with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Tolkein/Jackson fans are giving the franchise a rousing farewell, with $50 million expected this weekend and $90 million in total after five days. Comparisons are a little difficult, because the previous Hobbit installments opened on Fridays, but Desolation of Smaug racked up $86 million in its first five days and An Unexpected Journey hit $100 million on its fifth day in release. So this outing seems set to perform similarly overall, with $250 million – $300 million domestically and around $1 billion worldwide. That will solidify the franchise as the fourth-most successful in history, and if it can top $1.079 billion in this outing, it will be the only franchise ever to average more than $1 billion globally per film.
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December 18th, 2014
For most, this weekend represents the beginning of the Christmas break, so it comes as no surprise that there are three potentially big hits coming out this week. I'm a little surprised none of them are getting overwhelmingly positive reviews. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is earning the best reviews of the week, but its Tomatometer Score is barely above 60%. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb has been floating around 50% positive all week, while Annie is being destroyed by critics. This weekend last year, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug earned first place for the second weekend in a row. Meanwhile, the new releases were less impressive, as Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues earned second place with $26.23 million and Walking with Dinosaurs landed in the lower half of the top ten. The depth this year won't be as strong, but I still think 2014 will finally end its slump and win in the year-over-year comparison.
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December 1st, 2014
November is over and there are not a lot of positive things to say about what happened during the month. There were a couple of films that matched expectations, but there were no breakout hits and a few that missed expectations by wide margins. Granted, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will top $300 million with relative ease, but that's still nearly $100 million lower than some people were predicting. The month ends with 2014 about $300 million behind 2013's pace and there's really no chance to catch up in December. That doesn't mean there are no films that will be worth watching in December. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies should at least earn $200 million, while $300 million is not out of the question. Additionally, there are several films that at least have a shot at $100 million at the box office, but not all will get there. At least this December and last December are on par with each other. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug topped $250 million while there were three others that topped $100 million. I think we will get the same result this month. Last year there were a lot more wide releases, but many of them bombed. I think this year the lack of competition will help more films reach their potential.
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