December 19th, 2017
By this time next week, Christmas will be over. This resulted in a short list, but not a bad week. Dunkirk is the biggest new release of the week and it is award-worthy and a contender for Pick of the Week. It isn’t the only contender, The Amicus Collection, Stronger, A Town Called Panic: The Collection, and others are too. As for the best of the best, I went with The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration on DVD or Blu-ray.
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December 5th, 2017
The week is deceptively strong. At first glance, Despicable Me 3 appears to have scared off all of the competition, but when you look deeper, there are a lot of contenders for Pick of the Week. These include Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, Better Watch Out, Princess Cyd, and others. In the end, I went with Long Time Running, which came out on DVD and Blu-ray last Friday.
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October 18th, 2017
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Human Flow earned first place on the theater average chart with an average of $15,226 in three theaters. The only other film in the $10,000 club was last week’s winner, The Florida Project, with an average of $11,156 in 33 theaters.
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October 4th, 2017
Victoria and Abdul did something very few films manage to do, it repeated on top of the theater average chart. This past weekend, the film earned just over $1 million in 77 theaters for an average of $14,184. The only other film in the $10,000 club was Pearl Jam: Let’s Play Two, which earned an average of $10,635 in five theaters.
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September 27th, 2017
Victoria and Abdul earned first place on the theater average chart with an average of $39,711 in four theaters. This is an excellent start and the movie has a lot of room to grow. Battle of the Sexes was playing in 21 theaters and earned an average of $24,545. It too has room to expand. It might even expand enough to get some Awards Season buzz. Unrest just managed a spot in the $10,000 club with $10,607 in one theater. That’s great for a documentary.
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September 26th, 2017
The weekend box office was good, for a September weekend, but disappointing compared to expectations. Kingsman: The Golden Circle did earn first place, but with only $39.02 million. Granted, this is great for September, but $10 million less than our prediction, and our prediction wasn’t even on the high end of expectations. The Lego Ninjago Movie struggled in third place with $20.43 million. The shine has come off the Lego franchise. Fortunately, It continues to be strong and that helped the overall box office. We saw 5.6% growth from last weekend reaching $117 million. This is also 13% higher than the same weekend last year, so there’s clearly reason to celebrate. 2017 is still behind 2016 in the year-to-date comparison, but it closed the gap to 4.7% or $390 million at $7.94 billion to $8.33 billion.
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September 24th, 2017
The fine line between mere popularity and capturing the zeitgeist (or going viral, to use a slightly more up-to-date term) is shown in this weekend’s box office results. Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a decently-reviewed sequel to a very popular franchise-starter, will pick up a very respectable $39 million this weekend. That’s a shade better than the original film made on its opening weekend, and a pretty satisfying result for all concerned. With good business expected overseas (we don’t have an official estimate yet), the film should cruise to profitability overall, and will most likely top $100 million domestically. It would also have counted as the fourth-best opening weekend in September, were it not for the behemoth zeitgeist-capturer, It.
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September 23rd, 2017
Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened on the low end of expectations with $15.33 million on Friday. This puts it on pace for just under $40 million over the full weekend. This is a little more than the $36.21 million the original managed back in 2015. This film has earned weaker reviews, but both films earned a B plus from CinemaScore. Still sequels tend to have shorter legs, so getting much past $100 million domestically will be difficult. This is not good news for a film that cost $104 million to make. I don’t think there will be a third film in the franchise, not unless it shows some growth internationally.
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September 22nd, 2017
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There are a trio of films on this week’s list that are Awards Season adjacent: Battle of the Sexes, Stronger, and Victoria and Abdul. All three earned some pre-release Awards Season buzz, but I’m not sure any of them will be serious contenders. Hopefully at least one of them will be a box office success.
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September 1st, 2017
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As bad as July was, August actually managed to be worse. 2017 was over $300 million behind 2016’s pace during August alone. That’s worse than the rest of the summer combined. The only film that was an unqualified hit was Annabelle: Creation, although there were a couple of other films that are doing well enough to be considered financial hits. There’s some good news and some bad news for this September. The month gets off to a slow start with no wide releases the first weekend, but there are three films opening during the rest of the month that are expected to top $100 million and all three should be better than the best August had to offer. It is expected to be the biggest hit of the month and is tracking to break the record for the biggest September weekend. Both Kingsman: The Golden Circle and The Lego Ninjago Movie are expected to cross $100 million, although they are opening the same weekend, so that could hurt both of their chances. Meanwhile last September, Sully was the biggest release of the month earning $125.07 million. It should top that, while Kingsman: The Golden Circle and The Lego Ninjago Movie won’t be too far behind. 2017 should cut the gap with 2016, but sadly only by a little bit.
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June 23rd, 2017
Real-life drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany opens September 22 ... Full Movie Details.
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