December 7th, 2018
-(2018)-1-News.jpg)
It’s a strange week for limited releases. There is not an overwhelming number of releases on this week’s list, but three of them were widely expected to be Awards Season players: Ben is Back, Mary Queen of Scots, and Vox Lux. However, of these three, none of them of earning award-worthy reviews. In fact, none of them are earning reviews that suggest they will truly thrive in limited release. Worse still, the competition between the three of them could result in none of them doing particularly well over the weekend. Hopefully that’s not the case.
More...
January 4th, 2018
-1-News.jpg)
It’s a bad weekend to release a limited release, as the Golden Globes are given out on Sunday. There are still some good films that are trying to find an audience, including Blame, Bob le flambeur, and In Between. I doubt any will have breakout success, but all three deserve to find an audience, either in theaters or on the home market.
More...
July 1st, 2015
June was a much better month than expected due to two films, Jurassic World and Inside Out. Had those two films merely matched expectations, then 2015 would have likely fallen behind 2014. As for this coming month, there are five weekends in July and each week there is at least one film with the potential to reach $100 million. Most weeks there are two films that at least have a shot at getting to the century mark. The biggest hit of the month will likely be Minions, which has already opened in several international markets and it's ahead of Despicable Me 2 at the same point. That film made more than $300 million and nearly $1 billion worldwide, so any growth would be fantastic. There are also a number of potential $200 million films, led by Ant-man. Ant-man is the latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that has averaged $300 million domestically over eleven films and all of the past six films have reached at least $200 million. I'm not saying this one is guaranteed to do the same, but you can't dismiss that possibility. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Pixels have smaller chances to get to $200 million, but you have to at least entertain the possibility. Additionally, last July was a lot weaker than this July looks to be, so 2015 should win in the year-over-year comparison most weeks. Or I might have let the box office success of June cloud my judgment. We will soon find out.
More...
January 31st, 2014
After a weak start, January rebounded and a couple of films on last month's preview cracked $100 million at the box office. Granted, Lone Survivor is technically a December release, but Ride Along will become one of the rare January releases to reach the century mark. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be too many February releases that have a real shot at $100 million. It is very likely that The Lego Movie will reach that milestone, but most of the rest of the movies will be lucky if they reach $50 million. Last February was very similar. We had one surprise $100 million hit, Identity Thief, plus a couple of solid midlevel hits, Warm Bodies, for instance. However, for the most part, the month was one miss after another. This means 2014 could continue its winning ways, or at the very least, shouldn't fall behind 2013's pace.
More...
