This graph shows Andrea Riseborough’s score on our annual analysis of leading stars at the box office. The Star Score represents points assigned to each of the leading stars of the top 100 movies (based on box office) in the current year and two preceding years. For appearing in the number one movie in a year a star gets 100 points, the number two movie 99 points and so on..
Latest Ranking on Selected Box Office Record Lists
To no great surprise, Black Adam will once again be the week’s widest release in North America as the superhero feature will retain all of the 4,402 theaters from its debut weekend in its second outing. The Dwayne Johnson movie snagged a very respectable $67 million over its first three days and has settled in with just over $80 million in domestic earnings and a global take of nearly $156 million so far. This week sees two new films opening in wide release: the pre-Halloween horror flick Prey for the Devil and Call Jane.
More...
It’s the year 2020, the year where we find out how many times you can say, “Well, hindsight is 20/20.” before you get punched. On the positive side, while December wasn’t a great month, it was good enough to help 2019 end on a positive note, a positive note that should continue into January. There are no real potential monster hits coming out this month, but there are three films that have a real shot at $100 million domestically. These are, in alphabetical order, 1917, which will rely on Awards Season to get to the century mark. Bad Boys for Life will have a much, much easier time getting to $100 million, assuming people still care about the franchise 17 years later. Finally, Dolittle is looking like a disaster with a really troubled production; however, a $100 million run isn’t out of the question and if it can get there, it will at least save face. As for last January, Glass was the biggest hit of the month in terms of raw dollars, but The Upside was more impressive, as it is one the biggest hits in STX Entertainment’s history. We need two of the three potential $100 million hits to reach that mark to keep pace with last year, but we also have one more weekend to get there.
More...
The first instalment of our Holiday Gift Guide dealt with First-run Releases and the second instalment with, TV on DVD releases. 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, so I will try and keep it to a dozen items or so, starting with...
More...
There is a disproportionate number of documentaries on this week’s list, including several earning amazing reviews. Of these, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? has the best shot at mainstream success. However, it isn’t the only film with good reviews and I think Hearts Beat Loud could also do well in limited release.
More...
Birdman was the big winner at the Oscars this year. It won four times, sharing top spot with The Grand Budapest Hotel; however, it won more prestigious awards, including Best Picture. Did it deserve to win? Or was it carried by hype?
More...
The home market is rather slow this week with Epic the only first run release of note. (Scary Movie 5 is very unnoteworthy. Fortunately, there are some good TV on DVD releases worth checking out, like Revenge: The Complete Second Season and NCIS: Season Ten. In the end, I went with Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray Combo Pack for Pick of the Week.
More...
Oblivion was a spring release, which isn't a great time to release a film, but it is far from a terrible time either. It opened in first place at the box office, but quickly faded away after that. It is hard to get excited by its box office numbers, but it wasn't a real bomb either. It will need help on the home market to recoup its $120 million production budget. Does it deserve to be seen by more on the home market? And is the DVD and / or Blu-ray worth picking up?
More...
There are a few new releases that could do well in limited release, including The East, which has an excellent pedigree, but its reviews are only good and not great. Hannah Arendt has perfect reviews and it is a subject that is just made for the art house circuit. However, I'm most interested in seeing The History of Future Folk, which is too bizarre to really describe. There are also four Canadian films coming out this week, including one, American Mary, that is playing in Canada and the States.
More...