This graph shows Zoë Kravitz’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
Although the market as a whole is winding down at the end of Summer, box office watchers will have a lot to look for this weekend. The three films that have dominated at the box office over the past four weeks are in a tight race to claim the weekend crown while three new releases will be battling it out for fourth place.
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A new contender took the top spot at the weekend box office last weekend, as Alien: Romulus debuted to just over $42 million from 3,885 theaters in its opening foray. The latest in the Alien franchise, Romulus overtook its studio kinsman, as Deadpool & Wolverine slipped to second after a stint of three weekends topping the chart. This weekend not only sees a trio of wide releases arrive in theaters, but could witness a return to number one at the box office for Deadpool & Wolverine. We’ll have our full prediction tomorrow, but the theater counts released today give us some pointers.
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When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun soaked days and everyone's having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.
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It’s no surprise, but welcome news nonetheless, that this week’s arrival of The Batman in 4,417 locations puts the film not only as the widest release of the week, but puts it in 13th place among the widest releases of all time, nestled between two animated sequels—Frozen II and Incredibles 2—which debuted in 4,440 and 4,410 theaters respectively. As the only wide release to debut this week, the latest in the Batman franchise also eclipses last year’s No Time to Die (4,407 theaters), and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s 4,336 locations to become the widest release of the (post-)pandemic era.
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Situated between the blockbuster releases of Uncharted and The Batman, this week’s newest wide releases are aiming at more targeted demographics, and they couldn’t be more different. Romantic musical Cyrano and horror comedy Studio 666 arrive in theaters this week. Uncharted stays this week’s widest release, keeping its opening count of 4,275 locations.
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October continued 2018’s phenomenal box office run, for the most part. There were a couple of films that missed expectations by $10 million or more, but on the other hand, Vemon and Halloween were smash hits and are now the first and second biggest October debuts of all time. Furthermore, 2018’s lead over 2017 is, as I’m writing this, just shy of $1 billion and if 2018 can maintain this lead, it will be one of the biggest year-over-year increases of all time. It won’t. The fun times end now. Why is that? Last November was amazing. There were only eight wide releases, but six of them earned more than $100 million. Three of those hit $200 million, including Thor: Ragnarok, which earned over $300 million. This year, there are a lot more movies opening in November, but it is a case of quantity over quality. No movie is expected to come close to $300 million and it would take a bit of luck just to have five $100 million hits. The film I’m looking forward to the most is Ralph Breaks the Internet, while it, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald are all aiming for $200 million this month. Fortunately, even if 2018 is behind 2017’s pace by around $300 million, 2018 has built up such a large lead that it should still go into December with an insurmountable lead at the box office.
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Many of the films on this week’s list are good, but not great. Some are like After Louie, good enough to rent on VOD, but not worth a trip to the theaters. Fortunately, there are some that are worth a trip to the theaters, including Love After Love and Outside In.
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May was a really soft month with only one unqualified hit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, which is climbing towards $375 million domestically. The second biggest hit of the month will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and I would be surprised if it tops $150 million by any serious margin. June looks a lot more profitable. There are five weeks and every week there is at least one film with a great shot at $100 million or more. In fact, there are four films with at least a decent shot at $200 million and we could double the number of $300 million hits released so far this year. Wonder Woman is widely expected to start the month with an explosive debut and pulling in more than $100 million during its opening weekend is more and more likely. That said, Despicable Me 3 will probably end up being the biggest hit overall with over $300 million. Meanwhile, Cars 3 and Transformers: The Last Knight are both aiming for $200 million. Last June was not particularly strong, outside of one hit. Finding Dory earned nearly $500 million domestically, while the second best film, Central Intelligence, barely earned a quarter of that. I don’t think any film will come close to Finding Dory, but there’s a lot more depth this time around and I have high hopes 2017 will extend its lead.
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Divergent is one of the latest Young Adult adaptations to hit theaters. These films usually fall under one of two sub-genres: Dystopian Future and Fantasy Romance. (There are also a growing number of Dying Girl movies, like The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay.) This film is part of the Dystopian Future genre and will inevitably be compared to Hunger Games. How is it compared that franchise? Does it work on its own?
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