This graph shows Abigail Breslin’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
Black Widow once again leads our theater count list this week despite taking a backseat at the box office to Space Jam: A New Legacy last weekend. The former enters its third week with a domestic total of over $140M and a worldwide total of $272M. The latest Marvel film drops from 4,275 to 4,250 locations beginning Friday. While we don’t have an official theater count for Space Jam: A New Legacy, we are estimating the sophomore feature to be in 4,000 theaters. The live action/animated hybrid sequel starring LeBron James and Bugs Bunny scored a better-than-expected $31M during its opening weekend, positioning itself as the number one movie of the week.
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I think it’s a great week on the home market for a few reasons, one of which is selfish. Amazon finally got its act together and upcoming releases are appearing on the site so I can pre-plan weeks, which makes my job easier. It also is making my wallet very scared, because there are a number of amazing releases coming out soon. This includes several new releases this week that are worth picking up like Buffaloed, Emma., Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, etc. and those aren’t even the contenders for Pick of the Week. That list is limited to The Good Place: The Complete Series Blu-ray and The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1. In the end I went with The Good Place, which I think will have a wider appeal.
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After a fight between Columbus and Wichita creates a deep rift in the make-shift family that causes Little Rock to leave with a strange man, the group must band together to find Little Rock and mend the family ties. Facing new kinds of zombies along the way, the group are forced to adjust their strategies until they find an incredible new zombie hunter known only as Nevada.
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It's a strange week on the home market, as there are no first-run releases and very few other releases to make up the difference. There are some contenders for Pick of the Week, but all of them are foreign-language films, which is again odd. In fact, two of them, Only Yesterday and The Boy and the World, are animated. However, in the end, I went with The Mermaid, which deserves to be seen by more and Blu-ray is a great way to see it.
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The home market release report is a little late this week, because in our ongoing attempt to improve our site, we are looking at the format of this column and it will change shortly. (Also, this week both Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes were acting up. I had to download a script blocker and block all scripts on Rotten Tomatoes. Certain things no longer work, but at least it doesn't cause Firefox to freeze every ten minutes.) The biggest release of the week is The Avengers: The Age of Ultron, sort of. It came out last Friday, not this Tuesday. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive so I can do a full review. Meanwhile, the best new release of the week is When Marnie Was There in Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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It is both a very busy week with nearly a dozen releases on this week's list and a disappointing one. The slate of new releases is really weak, with only Mistress America having a decent shot at box office success. There are a couple of other releases that have the reviews to do well, but are playing on VOD. Of these, People Places Things is my choice for Video on Demand Pick of the Week, although I'm hoping Final Girl is better than its early reviews would indicate.
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Maggie is a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who hasn't had a massive hit since his return to acting post-politics. In fact, most of the films he's starred in have struggled mightily. Maggie was given an early VOD release, which might be a sign that the studio gave up on the movie. Or it might be a sign that VOD is becoming more lucrative, so much so that VOD can cover this film's modest production budget.
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This week's list of limited releases isn't exactly short, but it is short on potential hits. Maggie and 5 Flights Up both have strong casts, but are playing in potentially too many theaters and also on Video on Demand. Noble is earning some of the best reviews, but its high theater count and lack of star power could hurt it. I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story is also earning great reviews, but it is one of the rare documentaries that is taking the Video on Demand route.
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This week's list of new DVD and Blu-rays includes a couple of first run releases, but neither are really must haves. Of all of the theatrical releases coming out this week, Alan Partridge on DVD or Blu-ray is the one I'm most interested in seeing, but the screener is still late. I'm also waiting for the screener for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, but I saw every episode on TV and the DVD or Blu-ray is clearly a contender for Pick of the Week. So is True Detective: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray. It was a bit of a coin toss, but in the end I went with Cosmos.
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This weekend is almost as busy for limited releases as last week, and on the plus side, there are a handful of films that are worth checking out. Only Lovers Left Alive and Joe are both earning great reviews. On the other hand, Only Lovers Left Alive is probably too "Art House" to thrive, while Joe is opening too wide and on Video on Demand, so its box office chances are also limited. Dancing in Jaffa is earning perfect reviews, but documentaries rarely have breakout success. Finally, Disco Singh could be a surprise hit, as it could be on track to break records in its native India.
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Haunter might have come out on the 18th of October of last year. That's what the official site says, but there's precious little else that backs that up. There are no box office numbers I can find anywhere. On the other hand, it was also a Video on Demand premiere through IFC, so it might have only gotten a token midnight release, in which case, no box office numbers were released. It's a low-budget horror film, which immediately lowers expectations, but is that fair? Just because it is low-budget doesn't mean it must be bad. Then again, most high-budget movies are pretty bad. (Sturgeon's Revelation states 90% of everything is crud. (Yes, that's Sturgeon's Revelation. Sturgeon's Law is, "Nothing is always absolutely so.")) So going in with neutral expectations, how is Haunter?
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October ended on a winning note, but it was the only time the entire month that 2013 topped 2012 in the year-over-year comparison. This is quite shocking, as Gravity crushed expectations with more than $200 million and counting. Even with that surprise monster hit, the month still couldn't keep pace with last year. Compared to October, November looks a lot better with three films that could be monster hits: Frozen, Thor: The Dark World, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. On the other hand, those are the only three movies with a 50/50 chance or better to top $100 million compared, while there were seven films that reached that milestone last November. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire should make more than last year's number one film, Skyfall, but the depth last year could prove too much to deal with. 2013 might dip below last year's pace sometime during the month, but hopefully it won't stay there too long.
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February is over, and for the most part, we should be very happy it is done and buried. The biggest hit of the month turned out to be Identity Thief, which will cross $100 million shortly. There were also a couple of impressive midlevel hits, like Warm Bodies and Escape from Planet Earth, but for the most part, it was miss after miss. This is bad news for March, which is not only dealing with a slumping 2013 box office, but will be compared with a strong March of 2012. Last March started with The Lorax, which earned more than $200 million. There's a good chance no March release this year will reach this milestone. Last March was also the month The Hunger Games opened, which earned more than $400 million. There's a chance the top three films opening this month won't earn that much combined. 2013 is going to take a beating in the year-over-year comparison and it is already $100 million behind last year's pace.
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