Home Market Releases for December 12th, 2017

December 12th, 2017

Christmas is rapidly approaching, so most of the big releases have already hit the home market. The biggest box office release on this week’s list is Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but its reviews were only mixed. The biggest release overall is Game of Thrones: Season Seven, while the only other competition for Pick of the Week is Election: The Criterion Collection. I’m going to award the title to Game of Thrones, even though the screener didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon. More...

Home Market Releases for November 21st, 2017

November 20th, 2017

It is a slow week on the home market for two reasons. Technically it is one reason, but it is having two effects. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, which means the schedule is really busy and I need to keep this list short in order to save time. Also, while Thanksgiving means Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest shopping days of the year, you don’t want to release something new into that storm of chaos. The biggest release of the week, not counting VOD releases is The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which I reviewed. As for the best release on this week’s list, I’m torn between Good Time, NEW GAME: The Complete First Season, and The Villainess. It was down to a roll of the dice, but The Villainess on Blu-ray Combo Pack is the Pick of the Week. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: It Eats the Competition

September 19th, 2017

It beat expectations again, earning $60.10 million over the weekend, which would have been an amazing opening weekend for a film that cost $35 million to make. American Assassin did okay, given its budget, while mother! struggled. Overall, the box office fell from last weekend, which is not surprising, given It’s monster opening last weekend. A decline of 32% is stark, but a weekend haul of $111 million is still great for this time of year. Compared to this weekend last year, 2017 won by a 24%, which is fantastic. Year-to-date, 2017 is still way behind by $410 million or 5.0% at $7.79 billion to $8.20 billion. However, 2017 has cut into 2016’s lead by $90 million in just two weeks, so you can’t complain about that. More...

Friday Estimates: It still has it with $19.2 million on Friday

September 16th, 2017

As expected, It dominated Friday with $19.2 million. Its running tally is $177.91 million after just 8 days of release, putting it in top spot on the all-time September chart. It looks to be on pace for $57 million over the full weekend, which is even better than expected, giving it a running tally of over $210 million. A 55% decline is excellent in this day and age, especially for a horror film, as the genre tends to have shorter legs. This will make it the 8th film released in 2017 to get to $200 million. It will also become only the fourth horror film to get to $200 million and just the 16th R-Rated film to reach that milestone. Furthermore, while next week’s competition is stronger, it is currently on pace to reach $300 million domestically, which is more than most people originally predicted it would earn worldwide. Perhaps this means we will be getting a big-budget At the Mountains of Madness adaptation after all. Previously, no studios wanted to make a big-budget R-rated horror movie, but this film proves they can be profitable. More...

Weekend Predictions: Will the New Releases Assassinate It? No.

September 15th, 2017

There are two wide releases debuting this week: American Assassin and mother! Neither is expected to match It at the box office. In fact, both combined won’t match It’s sophomore stint. Neither will earn as much in total as It does over just this weekend. This weekend last year, Sully led the way with $21.65 million, while the three new releases earned about $26 million combined. It should earn more than those four films earned combined, giving 2017 its second massive win in a row. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: It Jump Starts Box Office with $123 million

September 11th, 2017

Historically, the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend is one of the worst weekends of the year. That is not the case this year. In fact, this year, this weekend was historic in a much more positive sense of the word. It broke tons of records, some of which were more esoteric. It demolished the records for biggest September weekend box office, biggest horror weekend, Biggest R-rated day, biggest opening weekend for a Stephen King, etc. All of this led to the weekend box office more than doubling last weekend’s total earning $163 million. This is also 62% higher than the same weekend last year. A change this severe usually only happens when there is a misalignment in holidays. I’ve been saying that a lot over the past few weeks; however, this has been due to a massive decline, so it is nice to be unabashedly positive for once. Year-to-date, 2017 is still well behind 2016 at $7.63 billion to $8.08 billion. 2017 did close the gap and it is now 5.6% or $450 million behind last year’s pace. If the movie industry can close the gap by this much each week, then it will take till Halloween before it has caught up in terms of dollars and would take until nearly Christmas to catch up in terms of ticket sales. More...

Weekend Estimates: It Smashes September Record with $117 Million Weekend

September 10th, 2017

Not for the first time, reports of the death of North American film-going have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, if it’s possible for one film to change the perception of the entire market, It is pretty much, well, it. With an opening expected to be around $120 million—Warner Bros. is saying $117.15 million, although that’s due in part to caution around the effects of Hurricane Irma; the actual figure could be closer to $125 million, depending on how the storm plays out—the film breaks all sorts of records by a huge margin. More...

Friday Estimates: It is Already Rewriting the Record Book with $51 million Friday

September 9th, 2017

It was widely expected to earn the biggest September weekend box office of all time. In fact, many were expecting it to crush the old record. However, almost no one expected this. The film earned an estimated $51 million on Friday, which is more than the previous record holder, Hotel Transylvania 2, earned during its entire opening weekend. September is traditionally a weak time to open a movie, but this is in the top 30 biggest opening Fridays of all-time. There is some bad news here, as the film isn’t expected to have long legs. While the reviews remain stunning, the film only managed a B plus from CinemaScore. This is better than most horror movies earn, but it suggests average legs, at best. There is a small chance the film will earn less over the rest of the weekend than it earned on Friday, but I think that’s being a bit too pessimistic. I would put its range at between $100 million and $125 million. There’s a large margin of error, because we are in unprecedented territory here. It goes without saying that the sequel is already in the works. Box office watchers will get to play amateur casting agents for a little while, but I suspect some big names will be cast as the adults for part two. More...

Thursday Night Previews: It Scares the Pants of Deadpool with $13.5 million

September 8th, 2017

I was worried the extended box office slump would hurt It’s box office numbers, but it appears the opposite is true and moviegoers were just waiting for a big release. (On a side note, while “It’s” is grammatically correct, I’m so used to being paranoid about “its” vs. “it’s” that it looks wrong.) Anyhoo, It pulled in $13.5 million in previews, setting the record for best previews for an R-rated film, overtaking Deadpool’s previous best of $12.7 million. Where does it go from here? I don’t know is the only accurate answer. Previews haven’t been standard for long enough to be an accurate gauge, especially when they are on the extremes like this. It could become the first September release to earn $100 million during its opening weekend. Anything less than $75 million will be seen as a disappointment after this result. It all depends on its legs and that depends on whether or not its reviews will be a bigger factor than pre-release hype. I’m choosing to be cautiously optimistic. I’m not betting on $100 million, but $90 million is a reasonable goal at the moment. More...

Weekend Predictions: Does It Have What it Takes to Rescue the Box Office?

September 7th, 2017

The weekend after the Labor Day long weekend is usually one of the worst weekends of the year. However, that’s not the case this year. In fact, this could be the best weekend in about two months. It is widely expected to dominate the box office. In fact, there are some who think it will earn much more than the rest of the box office combined. That would be great news for the overall box office numbers. On the other hand, Home Again is only expected to earn around $10 million; however, it reportedly only cost $15 million to make, so that’s not a bad opening. This weekend last year, the biggest new release was Sully with just over $35 million, while When the Bough Breaks did okay in a counter-programming role pulling in $14 million. Overall, the box office earned $101 million and if It lives up to the hype, it will help 2017 win in the year-over-year competition by a significant degree. More...

2017 Preview: September

September 1st, 2017

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. More...

Home Again Trailer

July 14th, 2017

Romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer opens September 8 ... Full Movie Details. More...