May 20th, 2020
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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March 3rd, 2020
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It has not been a good year for horror films so far, but The Invisible Man broke the slump by earning first place over the weekend with $28.21 million. It is already the biggest horror hit of the year after just three days of release. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough, as the overall box office fell 4.2% from last weekend to $98 million. Worse still, this was 14% lower than the same weekend last year. Granted, 2020 is still ahead of 2019, so there is no reason to panic. In fact, thanks to weekday numbers, the lead has grown to $116 million / 8.1% at $1.55 billion to $1.43 billion.
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February 25th, 2020
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It was a mixed weekend, but at least there was a relatively close race for top spot. This close race happened in part because The Call of the Wild beat expectations by a huge margin, but also because Sonic the Hedgehog fell faster than anticipated. This left the overall box office down 34% from last weekend to just $102 million, but drop-offs like this are normal for post-holiday weekend. Unfortunately, this was also 19% lower than the same weekend last year and this isn’t normal. Year-to-date, 2020 still has a lead over 2019, but it has shrunk to 6.2% or $82 million at $1.41 billion to $1.33 billion. Hopefully this recent weakness is only temporary.
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February 23rd, 2020
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Sonic the Hedgehog will remain in first place over the full weekend, albeit with a weaker-than-predicted sophomore stint of $26.3 million. That said, the film already has $106.6 million after just two weeks of release, which is likely more than Paramount thought it would earn in total. It is still too early to tell where the film will finish internationally, but there is also reasons to be optimistic there, as it has nearly $100 million in just two weeks of release, including $38.3 million in 56 markets this weekend. This includes a first place opening in Russia with $6.3 million on 1,800 screens, which is an impressive debut for that market and this time of year.
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February 22nd, 2020
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The Call of the Wild really bounced back from Thursday’s previews to earn $8.05 million on Friday. The film is projected to earn $24 million to $25 million over the weekend, which is much better than predicted and puts it in a virtual tie with Sonic the Hedgehog for top spot. It is likely to have better legs than most new releases, because of its target audiences, which is a mix of families and older moviegoers who would be fans of the original novel. Additionally, its reviews are good, but not great, and it earned an A minus from CinemaScore, which is also good, but not great, for a family film. Unfortunately, it still has that $125 million production budget to deal with, so breaking even is very unlikely. Maybe it can save face though.
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February 21st, 2020
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The Call of the Wild earned $1 million on Thursday, which is better than expected. Granted, it is nowhere near the $3 million Sonic the Hedgehog earned last Thursday, but if The Call of the Wild can open with a third as much as Sonic the Hedgehog did last weekend, then it will beat expectations, but won’t come close to what it needs to earn to break even. Its reviews are about the same as Sonic’s reviews, but this film has a much smaller Fanboy Effect, so it should have better legs. We will have to wait till tomorrow to tell if that is true.
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February 20th, 2020
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It’s a post-holiday weekend, so we are not expecting much at the box office. The Call of the Wild is earning good reviews, but not great reviews, while its buzz is far too quiet for its massive production budget. On the other hand, Brahms: The Boy II is a low-budget horror movie earning terrible reviews and frankly I’m sick of talking about these movies. Seriously. We are less than two months into the year and we’ve already at least four other low-budget horror movies to come out. I don’t want to hear anyone complain about too many super hero movies ever again. … Moving on. Neither of these two films are expected to challenge Sonic the Hedgehog for top spot on the box office chart. In fact, I’m not convinced Brahms will open in the top five. This weekend last year, the final installment of the How to Train Your Dragon opened with just over $55 million. There’s no way the box office will match that this year and 2020 is going to lose in the year-over-year competition unless the holdovers hold on a lot better than anticipated.
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February 1st, 2020
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We had a great start to the year, sort of. Most films that opened / expanded wide in January are going to miss expectations; however, Bad Boys for Life and 1917 are so much stronger than anticipated that they alone will more than make up the difference. Looking forward, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is almost guaranteed to be the biggest hit of the month. There are two questions. Firstly, is it going to top Bad Boys for Life and become the biggest hit of the year so far? Secondly, is it going to be the only $100 million hit of month? Hopefully the answers to those questions are yes and no respectively, but no to both is would still be good news overall. Sonic the Hedgehog is looking better than before and frankly Paramount needs a hit after a very troubling 2019. Meanwhile, there are several midlevel hits that could help the overall box office. Last February was a mixed month with some hits, like How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, but some disappointing results as well, like from The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. I think it will be a close race in the year-over-year competition with 2020 winning some weeks and losing others.
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January 9th, 2020
Horror movie starring Katie Holmes opens February 21 ... Full Movie Details.
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