Home Market Numbers: Pixels Can't Take on Indominus Rex

December 3rd, 2015

There were five new releases for the week of October 20th that reached the top 30 on the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for November 1st. This includes three in the top five. However, none of them were able to top Jurassic World. The film remained in first place selling 867,000 units / $15.52 million for the week giving it running tallies of 3.17 million units / $69.97 million after two weeks of release. It was able to jump ahead of The Avengers: Age of Ultron and into fourth place on the yearly chart. More...

Home Market Releases for October 27th, 2015

October 26th, 2015

It's the week of double-dips, as there are five double-dips for films that would normally be Pick of the Week contenders, but only if you don't have them already. Army Of Darkness has been released so many times, it is hard to keep track of them all. Same with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you don't own either of these movies, you need to buy them. However, most fans will already have them. Because of this, I'm giving the Pick of the Week to Mad Men. I reviewed Season Seven, Part Two, but the Complete Series Megaset is the better deal. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: New Releases are on the Outside

July 6th, 2015

It was not a good weekend for new releases, as the top two spots went to holdovers. Fortunately, Inside Out earned first place over Jurassic World, because I had no idea what I was going to do for an image this time around. (That's not true. I was going to look for pictures of corgis dressed as dinosaurs.) Neither Terminator: Genisys or Magic Mike XXL matched expectations. At least Terminator: Genisys came close. Overall, the box office plummeted 26% from last weekend to just $135 million. Granted, that's still 2.2% higher than the same weekend last year, but boy have we come down from the highs we saw just a few weeks ago. Year-to-date, 2015 has earned $5.62 billion, which is 6.0% above 2014's pace of $5.31 million. 2015 would really need to sink for a number of weeks before that lead was in trouble, but after this week, that scenario is a little more likely. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Jurassic Still Roaring

June 30th, 2015

As expected, there was a race for the top spot on the box office chart over the weekend; however, it was only a two-way race. Jurassic World and Inside Out both earned more than $50 million over the weekend and were in a relatively tight race for first place. On the other hand, Ted 2 struggled somewhat in third. To be fair, it still made enough to become a hit, but not enough to justify a third installment in the franchise. Meanwhile, Max did fine, assuming it didn't cost more than reported. Overall, the box office fell 25% from last weekend, but it still earned $184 million, which is 2.2% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2015 is ahead of 2014 by 5.1% at $5.37 billion to $5.11 billion. This is a great turnaround for a year that looked like it was going to drop below last year's pace. More...

Weekend Estimates: Jurassic World Storms to $500 Million

June 28th, 2015

After losing for the second Friday running on the daily chart to Inside Out, Jurassic World is projected to cling on to top spot for the weekend as a whole, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning. The official projections are $54.2 million for Jurassic World and $52.1 million for Inside Out, although the numbers we’re seeing suggest it will be even closer. Inside Out has a shot at top spot, although Jurassic World is running the favorite at this point. Either way, it’s a great weekend for both films, and a disappointing one for Ted 2, which will finish third with about $33 million. More...

Friday Estimates: Holdovers Keep Ted 2 on the Outside

June 27th, 2015

Inside Out led the way on Friday with $14.99 million. This was 56% lower than the film’s opening Friday, but that’s a better decline than most movies deal with during this point in their run. By comparison, Monsters University fell 53% on Friday on its way to a 45% weekend-to-weekend decline, while Brave fell 58% Friday-over-Friday on its way to a 49% decline. If we use these two films as guides, Inside Out will drop about 47% to $48 million. I think its superior reviews will help it reach $50 million, but it could be close.

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Weekend Predictions: Will Ted 2 Take the Box Office to the Max?

June 26th, 2015

It’s the final weekend of June and there are two wide releases hoping to grab some cash before Independence Day Long Weekend. Ted 2 is a sequel to an amazingly popular R-rated comedy. Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many times that sequels to comedies rarely live up to to their predecessors. The other wide release is Max, which is being called “earnest,” which is both a compliment and an insult. Regardless, it likely won’t be a significant player at the box office this weekend. On the other hand, both Jurassic World and Inside Out have a legitimate shot at first place over the weekend. This weekend last year, the box office was led by Transformers: Age of Extinction, which earned just over $100 million. No film will match that figure this weekend. On the other hand, the second place film last year was 22 Jump Street, which earned $15.84 million. 2015 won’t lead the way at the top of the chart, but it certainly has better depth than 2014 had and should come out on top of the year-over-year competition. More...

Contest: Lather Up

June 19th, 2015

Next weekend, Ted 2 will top Max, the only other wide release of the week. Because of that, Ted 2 is the only real choice target film for this week's Box Office Prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Ted 2.

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 featuring a soap opera TV on DVD release: La Gata on DVD. 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 also featuring a TV on DVD release. 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 featuring a TV on DVD release. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay! More...

2015 Preview: June

June 1st, 2015

May turned out to be softer than anticipated with The Avengers: Age of Ultron missing expectations by about $100 million. Additionally, only Pitch Perfect 2 really topped expectations. May 2015 kept pace with May of 2014, more or less. June doesn't have any films as strong as Age of Ultron, but there are two films that should have no trouble getting to $200 million. Those two films are Jurassic World and Inside Out and I'm not sure which one will turn out to be the biggest hit of the month. Last June, the biggest hit was Transformers: Age of Extinction, but both Jurassic World and Inside Out should top that film, albeit by small margins. On the other hand, last June had four other films that reached $100 million, while this time around only Spy! and Ted 2 have a real shot at that milestone. 2015 is stronger at the top, but has weaker depth. It will be interesting to see if 2015 will keep pace with 2014 over the course of the full month. More...