Home Market Releases for August 6th, 2019

August 7th, 2019

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is the biggest release of the week and it is also one of the best. Amazing Grace and Penguin Highway and better movies, but Pikachu is the only one of the three Pick of the Week contenders with significant extras on its DVD / Blu-ray release. More...

Home Market Releases for July 23rd, 2019

July 24th, 2019

We are still in the summer doldrums on the home market. The biggest first run release of the week is Alita: Battle Angel, which is much better than its box office numbers and one of the best releases on this week’s list. Other contenders for Pick of the Week include Do the Right Thing and Nichijou: My Ordinary Life: The Complete Series. In the end, I went with Nichijou: My Ordinary Life: The Complete Series. In part because it is an amazing series, but also in part in solidarity with the victims of the Kyoto Animation arson attack. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: John Wick Wins Weekend, Can’t Stop Deadpool from Killing 2019

May 21st, 2019

The overall weekend was about as good as anyone could hope for with John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum topping expectations with $56.82 million. This mostly made up for A Dog’s Journey and The Sun is Also A Star, both of which missed low expectations. However, the overall weekend still fell 12% when compared to last weekend at $147 million and this is 30% lower than the same weekend last year. To be fair, almost no one was expecting this year to match last year, because last year Deadpool 2 opened. Year-to-date, 2019 is still behind 2018 by a 9.2% or $410 million margin at $4.03 billion to $4.44 billion. Fortunately, if Aladdin does as well next weekend as many are expecting, then this losing streak will end after just one week. More...

Weekend Wrap-Up: Endgame Barely Tops Infinity War, Pickachu Solves Video Game Adaptations

May 14th, 2019

The two biggest hits of the weekend were not as potent as predicted, but Avengers: Endgame and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu both have reasons to celebrate. Endgame became only the fourth film to reach $700 million domestically, while Detective Pikachu nearly entered the top ten video game adaptations of all time after just its opening weekend. As for the other wide releases, The Hustle did fine and the less said about Poms and Tolkien the better. The overall box office 16% from last weekend hitting $168 million. However, this was 21% higher than the same weekend last year, which is clearly the more important figure, as 2019 continues to try and climb out of the hole it dug for itself. It is now behind last year by 8.7% or $370 million at $3.83 billion to $4.20 billion. More...

Weekend Estimates: Endgame Continues to Fall, while Pikachu has Solid Start

May 12th, 2019

If projections hold, then Avengers: Endgame will fall almost as much this weekend as it did during its second weekend, with a 57% decline taking it to $63.1 million time around, and a three-week total of $723.5 million. It is very unusual for a film to not rebound significantly during in third weekend of release. One sign of how quickly the film is dropping after its enormous opening is that it will have “only” the fourth-biggest third weekend, slipping behind Black Panther at this point in its run. More...

Friday Estimates: Pikachu Overtakes Endgame During Opening Day

May 11th, 2019

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu earned first place on Friday with $20.6 million. This is a little weaker than we predicted and this suggests its a little more of a Fanboy film than a Family Film. That said, while this will result in marginally shorter legs, the film will still have a potent opening of about $57 million, thanks in part to Mother’s Day. This is slightly higher than its pre-release tracking, so it is worth celebrating. Additionally, it earned an A minus from CinemaScore, which is better than its reviews and that will further help its chances in the long run. Internationally, the film pulled in $23.1 million on 36,300 screens in 62 markets on Friday for an early total of $43.4 million. By the end of the film’s “opening” weekend, it could have more globally than its $150 million production budget. (We have “opening” in quotation marks, because it did technically debut in Japan last weekend.) More...

Thursday Night Previews: Pikachu Has a Super Start

May 10th, 2019

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu pulled in $5.7 million during its previews on Thursday. This is a strong start, but how strong depends on if the film is pulling in more families than Fanboys. If it is weighted heavily to the Fanboys, then it will have legs similar to Shazam!, for example, which would still be enough to match the tracking at just over $50 million for the weekend. If it is more heavily weighted to families, then it has a real shot at topping our $65 million prediction. If it has similar legs to How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, then it will beat that figure by a substantial margin. Legs will also depend on the film’s word-of-mouth and whether or not moviegoers liked the movie more than critics did. As always, we will know more this time tomorrow when Friday’s estimates come out. More...

Weekend Predictions: Can Pikachu Solve Endgame at the Box Office?

May 9th, 2019

There are four wide releases opening this weekend, but Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is the only one expected to have any impact at the box office. Even then, it would be a shock if it really challenged Avengers: Endgame for top spot. It will take a bit of luck for The Hustle and Poms to earn more than $10 million at the box office. Meanwhile, I would be a little surprised if Tolkien opened in the top five. Detective Pikachu and Endgame will be leading the way and trying to keep 2019’s winning streak going. In order to do that, they will need to top last year’s group of box office hits, which include Infinity War and ... Life of the Party. Seems doable. In fact, 2019 should have another stellar result in the year-over-year competition. More...

Tolkien Trailer

April 11th, 2019

Biographical drama starring Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins opens May 10 ... Full Movie Details.

An exploration of the formative years of the renowned author’s life as he finds friendship, courage and inspiration among a fellow group of writers and artists at school. Their brotherhood strengthens as they grow up and weather love and loss together, including Tolkien’s tumultuous courtship of his beloved Edith Bratt, until the outbreak of the First World War which threatens to tear their fellowship apart. All of these experiences would later inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-earth novels. More...