February 7th, 2018
There are not a lot of big titles on this week’s list of home market releases and there won’t be for at least a couple more weeks. That’s not to say there is nothing worth picking up. Both Blame (DVD) and Only the Brave (Blu-ray) are Pick of the Week contenders. In the end, Duckman: The Compete Series is the Pick of the Week winner and worth picking up, unless you own the previous DVD releases.
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January 22nd, 2018
It’s a really slow week on the home market. There are only a few releases that went anywhere at the box office, led by Jigsaw, which is a bad movie. Meanwhile, Geostorm is so bad it’s good. It’s fun, if you are into B movies, but it’s not Pick of the Week material. The only real contenders are Jane, which is only coming out on Video on Demand, and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, which is getting a Two-Disc Special Edition. In the end, I went with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, mainly because Jane doesn’t come out on DVD / Blu-ray until next month.
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October 31st, 2017
It was a terrible weekend at the box office with only two films cracking $10 million, Jigsaw and Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween. Geostorm earned third place with just $5.90 million. Overall, the box office fell 21% from last weekend to just $75 million. More importantly, this is 15% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2017 continues to struggle with a running tally of $8.57 billion. This is $470 million or $5.2% below last year’s pace, meaning we fell behind last year’s pace by a further 0.2 percentage points. The box office really needed to be eating into the deficit during the month of October, but that hasn’t been the case.
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October 27th, 2017
Jigsaw earned $1.6 million during its midnight previews last night. Happy Death Day earned an even $1 million during its previews on its way to a $26 million opening. However, there are many factors that will result in shorter legs. For instance, Happy Death Day earned better reviews, while Jigsaw is the latest installment in a long-running franchise. Finally, Happy Death Day’s target audience skewed female, while Jigsaw skews male and men are more likely to rush out to see a movie than women are. That said, this is a great start and the film should easily top our prediction with at least $20 million during its opening weekend.
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October 26th, 2017
There are three wide releases coming out this week, although only Jigsaw is expected to make any real impact at the box office. The other two, Suburbicon and Thank You for Your Service, are opening in barely more than 2,000 theaters and neither of them are expected to do well at the box office. Meanwhile, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween, has an actual shot at repeating in first place, mostly because of the weak competition. This is terrible news for the overall box office, as it means we are going to have a hard time matching last year’s box office, even though last year there was only one wide release, Inferno.
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October 24th, 2017
The weekend box office was weaker than expected with only one of the new releases topping predictions. Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween wasn’t that one film, but it still led the way with $21.23 million. The only other film to top $10 million was Geostorm with $13.71 million, but it lived up to its disaster genre due to its $100 million production budget. Overall, the box office fell 6.5% from last week to $95 million. That decline is positively glowing compared to the year-over-year comparison. Compared to this weekend last year, 2017 was down 25%. Year-to-date, 2017 is now behind last year’s pace by 5.0% or $440 million at $8.46 billion to $8.90 billion. Unless November and December are stellar, there’s no way 2017 is going to catch up to 2017.
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October 22nd, 2017
Boo! 2 is arguably slightly under-performing this weekend, with Lionsgate projecting a weekend total of $21.6 million as of Sunday morning, a figure that is down about $7 million from the debut of Boo! A Madea Halloween. But, in the bigger picture, it represents the continuation of a remarkable run for the Madea franchise that stretches now to eight films, all but one of which have opened with more than $20 million, and which have all topped $50 million, so far. Boo! 2 will be helped by Halloween, which should be just enough to take it over $50 million, and put the franchise close to $500 million at the box office. The only other comedy franchises with close to this longevity at the box office are The Pink Panther, and The Muppets, although neither of those have relied on a single actor (take a bow, Tyler Perry) for the entirety of their run.
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October 21st, 2017
As expected, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween led the way on Friday with $7.37 million. Granted, its reviews are terrible, as its Tomatometer Score has fallen into the single-digit range. On the other hand, it earned a A minus from CinemaScore, which is the same score its predecessor earned. If this film has the same legs as the original did, then it will earn $22.4 million during the opening weekend. However, it is a sequel, so it will likely miss that mark with about $22 million. That’s approximately 10% below our prediction, so I’m happy with that result. It is also likely more than the film cost to make, so Lionsgate should also be happy.
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October 20th, 2017
Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween earned $760,000 during its previews last night, which is lower than the $855,000 the first Boo! managed last year. Its early reviews are lower than the original’s reviews were, so that will also likely mean lower legs. This will make it difficult to match our $25 million prediction, but it should come relatively close.
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October 20th, 2017
There are five films opening wide or semi-wide this week, but only one of them, Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween, has a real shot at top spot. The best-reviewed new release of the week is Only the Brave, while the Geostorm is the widest release. Then there are the two semi-wide releases, The Snowman and Same Kind of Different as Me. Because there are so many new releases coming out this week, one or two of them are practically guaranteed to slip between the cracks. This weekend last year, the box office was led by the original Boo! with $28.50 million, while the new releases made just over $70 million combined. That seems out of reach for this year’s crop, so 2017 will likely lose in the year-over-year comparison.
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October 1st, 2017
September destroyed the previous September monthly record for total box office take, with $800 million or so (we won’t know the exact figure until after the weekend), which tops 2016’s record of $616 million. Granted, this is almost entirely due to It’s record breaking run, and the rest of the month was merely average. Kingsman: The Golden Circle was the only other film to come close to $100 million. October doesn’t look any better, as far as depth is concerned. Blade Runner 2049 is widely expected to be the biggest hit of the month, but it is the only film expected to reach $100 million domestically. Boo 2 should be the second biggest hit of the month, while there are only a couple of other films that have a shot at $50 million. Part of the problem is the level of competition, as there are 16 films opening during the four October weekends. (Needless to say, some of the predictions below will be a little short, as there’s not much to say about a film that will barely open in the top ten and disappear two weeks later.) That’s way too many and most will be buried by the competition. Last October was a flop, as no film earned more than $100 million at the box office. There were a few films that came close, including the original Boo! movie. As long as Blade Runner 2049 matches expectations, 2017 should win the year-over-year comparison by a small margin. If we get one surprise hit, then 2017 has a real shot at closing the gap with 2016 by a significant margin. I choose to be cautiously optimistic.
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September 13th, 2017
Action movie starring Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, and Jeff Bridges opens October 20 ... Full Movie Details.
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