Weekend estimates: Croods still rule

December 13th, 2020

The Croods: A New Age continues to dominate at the box office (relatively speaking) this weekend, with Universal projecting a weekend box office of $3.01 million for a total of $24.26 million to date. Half Brothers is outperforming expectations in second place with a projected $490,000 sophomore weekend, down just 30% from its last outing. More...

Weekend estimates: Croods leads another dismal weekend

December 6th, 2020

The Croods: A New Age will remain top at the box office this weekend, with Universal projecting a $4.4-million weekend as of Sunday morning. That will take the animated adventure past $20 million in total by the end of the day today. That fact pales in comparison to bad news regarding the continued decline in box office receipts. Returning films are falling 12% to 25% short of our model’s pre-weekend predictions. Part of that is down to the post-Thanksgiving decline that’s to be expected, but the continued toll of the pandemic is further dragging on spending. Perhaps the glimmer of good news is that more people are heeding experts’ advice and watching their movies at home. More...

Weekend estimates: Freaky top at the box office in an ailing theatrical market

November 22nd, 2020

Freaky will remain top at the domestic box office this weekend in spite of a steep 66% decline from its opening weekend. Its win at the box office was practically guaranteed going into the weekend, with Vanguard, the only new wide release, playing in a more modest 1,375 theaters for indie distributor Gravitas Ventures (it is now projected to open with $400,000). Freaky’s steep decline was also expected, with our model predicting a $1.56 million weekend and a decline of 57%. The fact that it fell 20% short of that low figure is a measure of how audience attitudes are changing towards the theatrical experience as COVID-19 cases rise steeply across the United States. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: The Silencing Tops New Releases

August 27th, 2020

The top five of this week’s DEG Watched at Home chart is identical to last week, right down to the order. This means The Tax Collector remains in first place for the third week in a row. There are quite a few new releases making appearances lower down the chart though. More...

International Round Up: The Eight Hundred Lights Up Chinese Theaters

August 27th, 2020

The international markets were dominated at the weekend by The Eight Hundred’s blockbuster release in China. It was expected to do well, but a a seven-day opening “weekend” of $113.4 million ($115.4 million including previews) is beyond expectations, given the 50% capacity restrictions in Chinese theaters. It is actually more than Hobbs & Shaw earned this time last year, and helped the box office more than triple compared to last week. Granted, Hobbs & Shaw only had four days at the box office and not seven, but this is still a spectacular opening.

Performance around the rest of the world was more mixed, but there are some hopeful signs as Tenet starts its long-anticipated rollout. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Home Market is Working for the Tax Man

August 13th, 2020

The Tax Collector pulled off a double-win last week by earning first place on the weekend box office chart and the DEG Watched at Home chart. Hopefully this will never happen again, because the pandemic will not last long enough for another film to get the chance. More...

International Round Up: Deliver Us from Box Office Doldrums

August 13th, 2020

South Korea had an explosive weekend with Deliver Us From Evil earning the best opening in that market since January. The film pulled in $10.59 million on 1,997 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $15.03 million. There is still some bad news in the market though. For instance, Steel Rain 2: Summit fell 70% from last weekend to $1.49 million on 1,016 screens for a total of $10.74 million so far. Peninsula fell a further 67% to $748,000 on 639 screens for a total of $27.08 million after four weeks of release. These are sharp declines, even for South Korea, which isn’t known for long legs. That said, they are not a disaster. Additionally, while the overall box office is only about half of what it was this weekend last year, there are still restrictions in seating capacity in theaters and the lack of depth are still factors, so it appears the box office is in shape to truly bounce back once the situation has returned to normal. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Something New to Report

August 6th, 2020

Most of the top five on the DEG Watched at Home chart this week are the same as they were last week. Most, but not all. Trolls World Tour did remain in first place for what seems like forever. But a new Universal release was next: the Kevin Bacon / Amanda Seyfried thriller, You Should Have Left. Given its mixed critical reception, it probably won’t stay there long. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Scoob! Shakes Up the Chart

July 30th, 2020

The DEG Watched at Home chart remains mostly static this week, with four of the five films in last week’s top five also reaching the top five this week. This includes Trolls World Tour, which has been top for four weeks now. The arrival of Scoob! on disc does shake things up a bit though. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Trolls can’t be Toppled, but Bruce Lee Fights His Way onto the Chart

July 23rd, 2020

There was a major shake-up on the DEG Watched at Home chart this week when compared to last week. Just kidding. The same five releases remained in the top five, just in a slightly different order. This means Trolls World Tour remained locked in first place on the chart and will likely remain there until Scoob! comes out. Universal also led the way with four releases in the top twenty, but unlike last week, it was in a three-way tie with Paramount and Sony. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Trolls Tower over the Rest

July 16th, 2020

The pandemic continues to impact the DEG Watched at Home chart, which is little changed from last week. Trolls World Tour remains in first place on the chart and Universal is the top studio, this time with six entries in the top 20, up from five last week. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Trolls Take Over Top Spot

July 9th, 2020

It is clear we are in the pandemic era of the DEG Watched at Home chart, and not just because Trolls World Tour climbed into first place during its first full week on Video on Demand. This also helped Universal lead the way with five entries in the top twenty. The real sign we are in the pandemic era is lower on the chart though. More...

New on Disc: Trolls Tower Above the Competition

July 7th, 2020

Trolls World Tour is coming out on physical media this week, on all four major formats: DVD, Blu-ray, 3D, and 4K Ultra HD. However, while it is easily the biggest release of the week, it isn’t the best. There are two contenders for Pick of the Week, Murdoch Mysteries: Season 13 and The War of the Worlds: Criterion Collection. The War of the Worlds is the Pick of the Week, but Murdoch Mysteries does get the rarely-awarded Puck of the Week, for Best Canadian Release. More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Yellowstone is Far from Mellow

July 2nd, 2020

Yellowstone led the way on the DEG Watched at Home chart last week. In fact, the show had three of the top five spots, with season three earning first spot and seasons one and two in third and fourth places respectively. More...

VOD Releases: Trolls Begin a New Tour on VOD

June 24th, 2020

Trolls World Tour is easily the biggest release on this week’s list. In fact, it is bigger than the rest of the films combined. That said, while it should entertain kids, it isn’t the best release. The best is a two-way tie between The Ghost of Peter Sellers and Tokyo Olympiad—two documentaries that are worth checking out. More...

New on Disc: Portrait of a Lady on Fire gets a Picture Perfect Release

June 23rd, 2020

This could be the worst week for DVD / Blu-ray releases I’ve seen, outside of when a Tuesday falls on January 1st. The reason for this is simple, Trolls World Tour is hitting VOD. Or to be more precise, it is transitioning from premium VOD to electronic sale through VOD. You can now buy it for the same price you could rent it before. This film is easily the biggest release of the lockdown and it will easily be the biggest DVD / Blu-ray release of the summer. Unless there’s a monster TV-on-DVD release this fall, it will be the biggest release until the pandemic fully subsides. And, since there are parts of the world that are hitting daily records for new cases, including many parts of the United States, that could be a few more months at the very least. Fortunately, while there are only three releases on the highlights list this week, two of them are Pick-of-the-Week contenders. Murder by Decree and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are both absolutely worth picking up, but the latter wins out for Pick of the Week thanks to its Criterion Collection Blu-ray release. More...

VOD Releases: Are Audiences Hungry for a Family Film on VOD?

May 14th, 2020

We only have a short list of VOD releases this week, but one of them is Scoob!, which Warner Bros. originally planned to release theatrically. Perhaps we’ll have another VOD hit on our hands this weekend? More...

DEG Watched At Home Chart: Skywalker Rides High

April 16th, 2020

With Covid-19 still running high, and the industry’s focus shifted to what people are watching at home, we’re please to announce the launch of a new chart here at The Numbers. The DEG Watched at Home Top 20 chart, produced by our friends at the Digital Entertainment Group, looks at the most popular films being watched at home each week. This includes traditional DVD and Blu-ray sales, digital sales (“EST”), and digital rentals (“tVOD”), with rankings based on the total consumer spending for a given title across those four categories. Note that it does not currently include PVOD releases, like the recent debut of Trolls: World Tour. The weekly chart will be published each Thursday for the week ending the previous Saturday.

This week, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker led the way, as it did last week. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, because even though the film earned the weakest reviews of the live-action Star Wars films, it is still a Star Wars film. More...

Digital Chart: Trolls on Top in Record Debut

April 13th, 2020

Trolls: World Tour got off to a start that is sure to make movie studios happy, even if it will make theater owners very nervous. The film is playing in some drive-in theaters, which can remain open during the Covid-19 outbreak, but it is the film’s digital delivery numbers that are exciting, as Universal touted the film’s digital opening was approximately ten times the previous record for the studio. Granted, we knew the film would be a hit compared to other digital releases, because this is the first time a major theatrical release basically skipped theaters, but this still topped expectations, according to the studio.

This may be enough for studios to begin work to release more films direct-to-digital, at least while theaters are closed. It might even be enough for some studios to experiment with direct-to-digital releases with theatrical-level budgets even after Covid-19 subsides and theaters start to open again. I don’t know what this means for the future of the theatrical box office, but it is interesting, to put it mildly.

Universal comments, “We will wait for a clearer picture of results that will emerge in the coming weeks before sharing additional statistics.” More...

VOD Releases: Go on a World Tour from Your Own Home

April 9th, 2020

This could turn out to be the most important weekend for the movie industry in decades. It’s the weekend Trolls: World Tour comes out on the home market. This is the first major motion picture with a planned saturation level release that is not being pushed back due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but is instead coming out on Video on Demand. In a few years, we might look back at this week as the week the movie industry changed fundamentally, if this film is a big enough hit to convince studios that theatrical releases are unnecessary. More...

Trolls: World Tour Trailer

January 30th, 2020

Animated adventure opens April 17 ... Full Movie Details.

A member of hard-rock royalty, Queen Barb, aided by her father King Thrash, wants to destroy all other kinds of music to let rock reign supreme. With the fate of the world at stake, Poppy and Branch, along with their friends—Biggie, Chenille, Satin, Cooper and Guy Diamond—set out to visit all the other lands to unify the Trolls in harmony against Barb, who’s looking to upstage them all. More...