2018 Awards Season: Oscars: And the Winner is... Green Book for Best Picture

February 24th, 2019

It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. We will announce the winners and have our reactions as they happen, while keeping track of how our readers did in predicting the outcomes. More...

2018 Awards Season: Oscars Nominations: Final Look

February 24th, 2019

It’s Oscar Day, and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. in Italics are those that have received the most votes from our readers so far in our Oscar contest (which is open to new entries until noon, Pacific, today—enter now!). Bold films are those films I think will win. Meanwhile, those that are Underlined are those I want to win. Not all categories have underlined nominees, because not all categories have someone I’m cheering for, or because there are two nominees I couldn’t pick between. For example, I would be happy with half of the Best Picture nominees winning. More...

Theater Averages: Fighting for First Place

February 20th, 2019

Not only did we set a new yearly high market for theater average this past weekend, but two of the top three results from 2019 were from this weekend. Fighting With My Family led the way with an average of $34,695 in four theaters over the three-day weekend. The film earned just under $200,000 during its five-day debut, which is great news for its wide expansion this weekend. The re-release of War and Peace managed $22,976 in its one theater. That’s amazing, because the film is six hours long and they could only fit in 2 screenings a day. Then again, the movie is six hours long, they probably charged double to see it. Birds of Paradise was next with an average of $11,541 in two theaters. This is more impressive than it looks at first, because the film debuted on Wednesday, which undoubtedly tempered some of its weekend box office. The final film in the $10,000 club was CatVideoFest with $11,269. At first I was confused by this result, but then I found out it is a charity event, so good job everyone involved. More...

Home Market Releases for February 12th, 2019

February 13th, 2019

It’s a shallow week on the home market. That said, Bohemian Rhapsody was a monster hit, especially internationally. It isn’t a Pick of the Week contender, but we do have a trio of contenders: At Eternity’s Gate, Audition, and Shoplifters. It’s a close race, but Shoplifters came out on top. More...

Theater Averages: History is Being Written

January 24th, 2019

Who Will Write Our History topped the theater average chart with $13,390 in its lone theater. One could also argue Dragon Ball Super: Broly was the true leader on this chart. Because the film played in a different number of theaters each day over the weekend, it is hard to come up with a real theater average for the weekend. Taking the average of the daily averages gets us $13,643, which would be number one of the weekend. Using the maximum theater count still gets us an average of $7,870, which is still amazing. The only other film in the $10,000 club was the overall box office leader, Glass, with an average of $10,500. More...

2018 Awards Season: Oscar Nominations

January 23rd, 2019

The Oscar nominations were announced yesterday starting at just after 5 am Pacific time. They do this every year for reasons no one has been able to adequately explain to me. Because it was the day after a long weekend, it took a bit of time to get all the normal work done and digest the results. And there were some interesting results to digest. No one film led the way with total nominations, as two films, The Favourite and Roma tied with 10 nominations each. More...

2018 - Awards Season: BAFTA - Nominations

January 12th, 2019

The BAFTA nominations were announced and The Favorite led the way with 12 nominations. Sometimes the BAFTAs are a really good indicator for who will do well on Oscar night. Other times their bias to British films is too much. I think this year will be an example of the latter and I don't think The Favourite is suddenly an Oscar favorite. That said, there’s still some things you can learn here. More...

Theater Averages: This Week’s Chart is Feeling Sexy

January 2nd, 2019

It was a busy week on the theater average chart, as there were three new releases and three holdovers in the $10,000 club. On the Basis of Sex led the way with an average of $20,799 in 33 theaters. That’s an excellent start for a limited release playing in that many theaters. Second place went to Destroyer with an average of $18,449 in three theaters. The final new release in the $10,000 club was Stan and Ollie, which earn an average of $15,935 in five theaters. Cold War held on really well earning an average of $14,777 in three theaters. The overall box office leader, Aquaman, was next with an average of $12,634. If Beale Street Could Talk rounded out the $10,000 with an average of $11,788, and it managed this despite expanding its theater count to 65. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Nominations

December 6th, 2018

The Golden Globes nominations are the second major Awards Season set to come out. It is still very early in the year and the predictive value of the Golden Globes is a little suspect, but there are still some things to learn here. For example Vice led the way with six nominations, so its Oscar chances have gone up, but don’t expect it to lead the way when the Oscars nominations are announced. More...

Theater Averages: The Favourite Lives Up to Its Name

November 29th, 2018

The Favourite had the best theater average, not only of the weekend, but of the year. It pulled in $422,000 in 4 theaters for an average of $105,603, putting it ahead of the previous leader for 2018, Suspiria. It is a lot more mainstream and shouldn’t have a problem expanding significantly beyond this point. Shoplifters was well back with an average of $17,853 in five theaters. The overall box office leader, Ralph Breaks The Internet, was next with an average of $14,000. The World Before Your Feet was the latest documentary to open in the $10,000 club earning an average of $11,241 in two theaters. The final film in the $10,000 club was also a wide release, Creed II, which earned an average of $10,338. More...

Weekend Estimates: Ralph Wrecks Predictions, Technically Sets Record

November 25th, 2018

While Thanksgiving long weekend wasn’t as lucrative as earlier figures suggested, estimates are still better than our predictions. For example, Ralph Breaks the Internet should open with $55.67 million over the three-day weekend for a five-day opening of $84.47 million. This is technically the record for biggest Thanksgiving opening, as Frozen had a prestige opening the weekend before and only expanded wide on Thanksgiving. Internationally, the film reportedly made $41.5 million during its opening weekend. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is only playing in about a third of international markets, and only three major markets. It opened with an estimated $19.5 million in China, while it was also dominant in Mexico ($6.3 million) and Russia ($5.7 million). Overall, the film nearly tripled Wreck-it Ralph’s openings in the same markets. The film won’t have the same legs, as sequels almost never do, but this is still an amazing start and it is clearly on pace for $600 million worldwide. More...

Limited and VOD Releases: Limited Releases are Asking for a Favor

November 22nd, 2018

Thanksgiving is a great weekend for wide releases, but a terrible one for limited releases. That said, while there are almost no films on this week’s list, two of them are earning Award-worthy reviews: The Favourite and Roma. However, Roma is playing on Netflix, so its box office chances are nearly zero. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Nominations

November 17th, 2018

The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced on Friday and thus the 2018 Awards Season begins. We The Animals topped the list with five nominations, while A24 earned 12 as a studio. More...