Home Market Releases for May 2nd, 2017

May 2nd, 2017

We are officially in the worst time of year on the home market. The last of the major Awards Season players have already come out, but it is still too early for the Spring hits to be released. The competition from May Sweeps and the start of the Summer Blockbuster Season means there’s not a lot here that’s going to do well in DVD / Blu-ray sales. Ironically, the lack of a major release means there are a lot of smaller releases that are competing for Pick of the Week, many of which would be lost in the crowd during a busier time of year. This includes I Am Not Your Negro, The Salesman, Real Genius, and Seven Days in May. In the end, I went with The Red Turtle on DVD or Blu-ray as the Pick of the Week. In the meanwhile, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone on Blu-ray gets the Puck of the Week honor, as the “best” Canadian release of the week. I just wish it were coming out in 3D. More...

Home Market Releases for April 18th, 2017

April 18th, 2017

We are entering the worst time of the year on the home market. There’s only a trickle of last year’s Awards Season contenders left to deal with, while it is way too early for the major spring releases to come out on DVD / Blu-ray. There are some classic titles that are on this list, like Donnie Darko: 15th Anniversary Limited Edition or Ocean Waves Blu-ray Combo Pack. However, the Pick of the Week isn’t either of these titles, but MST3K: Season 11, which you can watch on Netflix right now. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Split Scores Another Touchdown with $14.42 million

February 7th, 2017

As expected, Split earned first place over the weekend with $14.42 million. That’s not bad for Super Bowl weekend. In fact, the overall depth was better than expected, not that you could tell from the week-over-week decline. The overall box office fell 31% to just $98 million. However, this was still 2.5% better than the same weekend last year. That’s a surprise victory. Granted, 2017 is still behind 2016 by 5.1% at $1.06 billion to $1.12 billion, but every little victory helps. More...

Thursday Night Previews: Rings has a Hollow Start with $800,000

February 3rd, 2017

Rings had the best start in previews last night, but here “best” is a relative term. It only managed $800,000, 20% lower than Resident Evil: The Final Chapter previews last weekend. Worse still, its reviews are 0% positive with 17 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so far. This could result in an opening weekend of less than $10 million, but I think that’s a little pessimistic. $11 million is more likely. That’s not a good start, even for a film that cost $33 million to make, and it will need help internationally to break even. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Split Outnumbers the Competition with $25.66 million

January 31st, 2017

It was a surprisingly strong weekend at the box office, no thanks to the new releases. Split easily won with $25.66 million over the weekend, well ahead of A Dog’s Purpose, which earned second place with $18.22 million. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter got off to a fast start, but collapsed over the rest of the weekend. Finally, the less said about Gold the better. Overall, the box office was really strong with $141 million. Granted, this was 2.5% lower than last week, but it was 1.3% better than the same weekend last year. This growth is entirely due to Split’s hold plus the Oscar bounce a number of films got. Year-to-date, 2017 has earned $929 million, which is 4.7% lower than last year’s pace of $975 million. It is still too soon to make any real predictions for 2017’s long term success. That said, 2017 did cut into 2016’s lead and it is now down by $46 million or 4.7%. More...

Weekend Estimates: Split Retains Box Office Crown with Big Second Weekend

January 29th, 2017

An impressive decline of 34% in its second weekend and a crop of middling to poor performances by new releases will be enough to keep Split safely at the top of the box office chart this weekend. With Universal projecting $26.3 million for the weekend as of Sunday morning, Split is well ahead of the studio’s new release, A Dog’s Purpose, which will come in with around $18.4 million. Split will finish the weekend with around $78 million in total. More...

Friday Estimates: Dog Doesn’t Have Universal Appeal

January 28th, 2017

Friday was the beginning of a good weekend for Universal, but it wasn’t a good day for the box office as a whole, as two of the three new wide releases struggled. Split was down just 46% when compared to last Friday and earned $7.9 million. Assuming it acts like, well, practically every film ever made, it will have an even better Saturday and that puts it on pace to earn about $25 million over the weekend. It will top $100 million during the first weekend of February and will still be in wide release over Presidents’ Day long weekend. This is fantastic news for the studio. More...

Thursday Night Previews: Resident Moves into Theaters with $1 million in Previews - Update

January 27th, 2017

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opened with $1 million in previews on Thursday, easily topping the competition. It was only half as much as Split managed last weekend, but if The Final Chapter earned half as much during its opening weekend, the studio would be very happy. That seems unlikely, as this is the latest installment in a franchise, so it should be more front-loaded as a result. Additionally, its reviews are much weaker than Split’s are, so the word of mouth won’t be as strong. That said, we predicted just over $17 million and we’re sticking with that for now. More...

Weekend Predictions: Will Final Come in First? Or will Dog Find a Purpose?

January 26th, 2017

It is not a good week at the box office. There are two films opening at saturation level theaters counts, 3,000 or more theaters, and both have a shot at first place. A Dog’s Purpose was expected to win with relative ease, but recent controversy, and weak reviews, have put that in doubt. This leaves an opening for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter to squeak out a win. However, it will be dealing with direct competition and that’s going to hurt. Finally there’s Gold, which is barely opening truly wide and is just hoping for a spot in the top ten. This weekend last year, Kung Fu Panda 3 opened with just over $40 million. This could be more than all three wide releases open with this weekend. 2017 does have better depth, but it won’t be enough to win in the year-over-year comparison. More...

2017 Preview: January

January 1st, 2017

December box office numbers helped 2016 end on ... a note. The good news and the bad news almost exactly balance out. On the one hand, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will finish the year with more than $400 million after just 16 days of release. That’s a stunning amount of money that helped 2016 earn a record box office at the domestic market. However, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earned $650 million during December of 2015, so the month lost a lot of its lead over 2015, so much so that ticket sales fell behind last year’s total. The weakness at the end of the year will spill over into 2017, which is terrible news. A slow start could result in the dominant box office story being 2017 struggles compared to 2016. Bad news like this can sometimes become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sadly, 2017 is also going to get off to a slow start when it comes to wide releases / expansions. There are 16 films scheduled to open or expand wide this month and none of them are expected to get to $100 million. It is likely none of them will even get very close. xXx: Return of Xander Cage is expected to be the best of a weak bunch, but I could see it getting beat by one of the five Oscar contenders opening wide this month, if it gets off to a slow start and one of the Oscar contenders starts picking up steam. Hidden Figures got off to a great start on Christmas Day and should it continue to earn Awards Season recognition, including some Oscar nominations, it could be in wide release well into February. Last January wasn’t as busy with 13 films opening or expanding wide over five weeks. Of these, two of them, The Revenant and Kung Fu Panda 3, topped $100 million domestically, while another, Ride Along 2, came close. 2017 is going to get destroyed in the year-over-year comparison. More...

2016 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Nominations

December 12th, 2016

The Golden Globes nominations were announced and we are starting to see a few names pop up over and over again. La La Land led the way with seven nominations, but Moonlight was right behind with six and Manchester by the Sea earned five. You will be hearing those three names over and over and over again this Awards Season. More...

Gold Trailer

October 20th, 2016

Drama based on real-life events, starring Matthew McConaughey opens Christmas Day ... Full Movie Details. More...