Home Market Releases for May 3rd, 2016

May 2nd, 2016

This week the biggest releases are busted Oscar-bait, Joy; a post-apocalyptic young adult adaptation, The 5th Wave; and the latest from Nicholas Sparks, The Choice. Joy is worth at least a rental. The other two are not. There are no major releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week, so that title will go to a smaller release, East Side Sushi on DVD. It has earned unanimously positive reviews, but no buzz. More...

International Box Office: Force Awakens Drops Out of Top Five, but Cracks $2 Billion Worldwide

February 10th, 2016

The Revenant returned to first place with $24.0 million in 67 markets over the weekend for totals of $176.4 million internationally and $325.9 million worldwide. By this time next week, the film will very likely be above $200 million internationally, while $400 million worldwide is within reach. More...

Thursday Night Previews: Hail Storms into Theaters

February 5th, 2016

Hail, Caesar! got off to a relatively good start on Thursday earning $543,000 at 1,815 theaters. This puts it in between the previews for Dirty Grandpa and The 5th Wave, meaning it is on pace for close to $11 million over the weekend. Its positive reviews could help it over $11 million, which would match predictions perfectly. More...

International Box Office: Panda Tops Chinese Box Office earning $75.7 million Internationally

February 4th, 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 opened in first place on the international chart with $75.7 million in six markets over the weekend. This includes a first place, $50.77 million over the weekend in China for a total opening of $57.47 million. The film also earned first place in South Korea with $9.14 million on 1,364 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $10.54 million. Its other major market opening was in Russia, where it topped the chart with $4.71 million on 1,190 screens. The film will clearly do better internationally than it will domestically. It is too soon to tell how well it will do worldwide when compared to the other films in the franchise. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Kung Fu Wins with $41.28 million lifting Box Office Along the Way

February 2nd, 2016

Kung Fu Panda 3 led the way during the weekend with $41.28 million over the weekend. This was below admittedly optimistic predictions, but still great for this time of year. The rest of the new releases were not as strong and it is likely all three will lose money in the end. Fortunately, Kung Fu Panda 3 was strong enough to help the overall box office grow. The overall box office rose 22% to $139 million. More impressively, and more importantly, the box office was 38% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2016 has pulled in $1.01 billion, reaching the $1 billion mark faster than last year. It wasn't the fastest year to get there, as 2010 holds that record thanks to Avatar. 2016 has regained the lead over 2015 at 1.9% or $19 million. Obviously the usually caveats apply here: It is far too early and that lead is far too small to be of real significance. That said, it is always better to be ahead than to be behind, no matter how small that lead it. More...

International Box Office: The Revenant Rises to First with $33.8 Million

January 28th, 2016

The Revenant rose to first place with $33.8 million in 48 markets for totals of $104.5 million internationally and $223.7 million worldwide. This includes a first place opening in Mexico with $5.3 million, but its biggest market was the U.K. with $5.51 million in 623 theaters for a two-week total of $17.16 million. The film will need to reach at least $300 million to break even any time soon, but that seems likely at this pace. More...

Contest: Do the Wave: Winning Announcement

January 27th, 2016

The winners of our Do the Wave contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for The 5th Wave opening weekend were... More...

Weekend Estimates: The Revenant wins chilly weekend with $16 million

January 24th, 2016

With the weekend jam-packed with new releases and Oscar hopefuls, and thrown off course by Winter Storm Jonas, it’s perhaps fitting that a tale of battles against the elements will come out on top. The Revenant will be down 50% from last weekend’s MLK Holiday-inflated number to $16 million, but that will be enough to leapfrog over Ride Along 2 and into first place. The Leonardo DiCaprio film, which remains a good bet for a fistful of Oscars, although perhaps not the major prize, has $119 million to date. Also overtaking Ride Along 2 to move back to second place is Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $14.26 million for a weekend and $879.3 million in total to date. With $1.06 billion internationally, the film is drawing close to becoming the third film to earn over $2 billion worldwide. More...

Friday Estimates: New Releases Struggle as Revenant Hangs Tough

January 23rd, 2016

While some are blaming the storm for hurting Friday night box office numbers, I think it is wiser to point the finger at the reviews instead. So far, The Boy has earned the best reviews, but with a Tomatometer Score of just 23% positive, that's damning it with faint praise. At the box office, Dirty Grandpa did the best of the new releases, earning second place with $4.2 million. It's early in the year, but it is safe to say its 7% positive reviews will be among the worst of any 2016 release when the year is over. Its CinemaScore was just a B, which is bad. Remember, CinemaScore is based on ratings given to a movie by people who were interested enough to see it on opening day. Anything less than a B+ suggests poor word-of-mouth. It did earn about about 10% more than That Awkward Moment's opening day. Additionally, That Awkward Moment had to deal with The Super Bowl on Sunday, so Dirty Grandpa should have better legs and should pull in $11 million. More...

Thursday Night Previews: Fifth Wave Fails to Find Audience

January 22nd, 2016

The 5th Wave started off on a soft note with $475,000 in previews last night. To put this into perspective, The Giver, another Young Adult Novel Adaptation, earned $750,000 during its previews back in 2014. That film only managed an opening of $12.31 million and a domestic total of $45.09 million. At this point, it looks like The 5th Wave will open with less than $10 million. More...

Weekend Predictions: Will Fifth Wave Open in the Top Five?

January 21st, 2016

Three wide releases are coming out this week, all of which are expected to earn similar openings. None of which are expected to compete for the top five. The 5th Wave is the latest Young Adult Adaptation and as I'm writing this at about 10 am on Thursday, it is still the only new release with any reviews. Dirty Grandpa is the widest release of the week, but with no reviews, it is hard to judge how well it will do. Finally there's The Boy. If it can match The Forest, I'm sure STX Entertainment will be happy. The weakness in the new releases doesn't mean we won't have a new number one film, as The Revenant seems poised to climb to first place over the weekend. This weekend last year, American Sniper remained dominant with nearly $65 million. It's a near certainty that all three new releases won't make that much this year. There's a chance the top five combined won't make that much this year. 2016 is going to lose in the year-over-year comparison. More...

International Box Office: The Force Awakens Likely Finishes its First Place run with $47.3 Million

January 21st, 2016

Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned first place on the international chart with $47.3 million over the weekend for totals of $1.012 billion internationally for a worldwide total of $1.865 billion. It became the third film released in 2015 to hit $1 billion internationally and the fifth film of All-Time to do so. However, without any more market lefts to open in, there is a good chance the film will fade away before catching up to Furious 7, meaning there will be no "undisputed" box office champion this year. This won't affect the bottom-line, but it will be a bragging point for Furious 7. As for individual markets, the film earned $44.04 million in China, for the full week, for a nine-day total of $97.46 million. More...

Contest: Free Ride: Winning Announcement

January 21st, 2016

The winners of our Free Ride contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for Ride Along 2 opening weekend were... More...

Contest: Do The Wave

January 15th, 2016

Next weekend, there are three wide releases coming out. None of these look to be huge hits, but it doesn't look like any of them will be bombs either. The 5th Wave and Dirty Grandpa are both expected to open in 2,800 theaters and they will likely be a coin-toss as to which one tops the week's list of new releases. Speaking of which, The 5th Wave won the coin-toss and it will be the target film in this week's Box Office Prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The 5th Wave.

Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Frankenprize consisting of either two movies, one full-season TV on DVD release, or three single-disc kids shows. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a Frankenprize consisting of either two movies, one full-season TV on DVD release, or three single-disc kids shows. Finally, we will be choosing an entrant from the group of people who haven't won, or haven't won recently, and they will also win a Frankenprize consisting of either two movies, one full-season TV on DVD release, or three single-disc kids shows. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

2016 Preview: January

January 1st, 2016

2016 will begin the same way 2015 ended, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on top. In fact, three of the five films that have the best shot at box office success in January are The Force Awakens, The Hateful Eight, and The Revenant, all of which opened in December. There are two true January releases that could also do really well, for this time of year: Ride Along 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3. The rest of the releases are just hoping to become midlevel hits. Last January, American Sniper dominated earning more than $300 million. Its success could prevent 2016 from being ahead in the year-over-year comparison by the end of the month, but this year does have better depth. More...