February 10th, 2020
The Oscars were handed out last night and unlike most years, I wasn’t able to live-blog the awards. This is a real shame, because it was one of the best Oscar nights I can remember and there were very few awards that made me legitimately angry, unlike many years in the past. There was even a surprise winner for the full night, as Parasite earned the most wins with four Oscars. It is incredibly rare for a foreign-language film to pull off that feat.
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February 5th, 2020
Our annual Oscar Prediction contest is underway so now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. We are continuing our shortened schedule with Best Leading Actress. In this category, there is an absolute favorite and I will be so pissed if she doesn’t finally win.
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January 13th, 2020
The Oscar nominations were announced on Monday, and the results were... well, there were some puzzling results. Joker led the way with eleven nominations. ... A film with 69% positive reviews earned the most nominations. It’s not the worst-reviewed movie to earn a Best Picture Nomination—after all, Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated just last year. However, this film is arguably the worst-reviewed movie to ever earn the most nominations in a single year.
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January 6th, 2020
The Golden Globes winners were announced on Sunday and we have some interesting developments for the rest of Awards Season. 1917 wasn’t considered a front-runner with five films earning more nominations. However, after this result, it might be the front-runner to become the big winner on Oscar night.
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December 26th, 2019
This year, Christmas Eve landed on a Tuesday. Christmas Eve is the busiest shopping day of the year, but that’s most people buying last minute groceries and the rest of the retail sector suffers as a result. This is true this year and there are so few releases to talk about that there will only be two sections in this week’s report: the main section and VOD releases. Judy is the only release on this week’s list that a majority will have heard of. It is also the best new release of the week.
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December 23rd, 2019
Judy started out well during a nationwide release and while it was never able to expand truly wide, it still finished with more than $20 million during its theatrical run. Likewise, the film hasn’t become a major player during Awards Season, but Renée Zellweger has already earned a trio of major nominations. Is the film better than its box office numbers? Or is Renée Zellweger’s performance its sole saving grace?
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December 16th, 2019
The first two installments of our Holiday Gift Guide had plenty of first-run releases and several TV on DVD releases. This installment includes limited releases and foreign imports. The list of classics isn’t up to the usual standards for the same reasons the TV on DVD list was rather short. Streaming is taking over that part of the market. Did you know The Criterion Collection has their own streaming service? So does Magnolia Pictures. On the one hand, that’s a lot of amazing movies for one price. On the other hand, as a fan of physical media, I’m not happy streaming is becoming so popular. There are still some great smaller titles worthy of the season.
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December 12th, 2019
The Screen Actors Guild announced their nominations this week and we are starting to see some patterns with similar names appearing over and over again. This time Bombshell led the way, earning four nominations, but four other films earned two or more nominations.
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December 11th, 2019
As Christmas rapidly approaches, the number of home market releases shrinks. That said, we do have three $100 million hits on this week’s list, Hustlers, It: Chapter Two, and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. All three are worth picking up, but Hustlers and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice are Pick of the Week contenders, with the former winning out.
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December 11th, 2019
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. (This is especially true on the TV end, as there’s talk about how strange the nominations are this year.) Marriage Story led the way with six nominations, just ahead of The Irishman and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, both of which picked up five nods.
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November 21st, 2019
The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced and thus the 2020 Awards Season begins. There are two changes to this year’s coverage of Awards Season. Firstly, we’re going back to using the year the awards are handed out and not the year the movie came out, even though the latter makes so much more sense. We are doing this, because every one else does this and being accurate takes a back seat to being easily understood. Secondly, since the Independent Spirit Awards are not particularly good indicators of Oscar success, we are just going to do summaries and not a full list of nominees.
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October 31st, 2019
There was only one new release in the $10,000 club, No Safe Spaces, which earned $45,548 in its lone theater. While this is a great start, its reviews suggest it won’t stick around long, as the film is preaching to the choir. Jojo Rabbit expanded from five to 55 theaters, but still managed an impressive average of $18,983. Parasite was next with an average $14,158 in 129 theaters during its third weekend of release. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot expanded to 17 theaters, and earned an average of $12,774. It will likely continue to expand, as a lot of shows on its road tour were sold out weeks in advance.
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October 24th, 2019
It was an amazing week on the theater average chart with five films in the $10,000 club, incluing three new releases that earned averages of more than $50,000. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot opened with two days of special engagements where the film earned just over $1 million, before having a roadshow performance in one theater over the weekend earning $93,520. However, this wasn’t a usual run and tickets range from about $50 to over $200 for the VIP packages at some shows. That said, even with normal ticket prices, it would still have earned a spot in the $10,000 club. Second place went to Jojo Rabbit with an impressive opening of average $69,911 in five theaters. This is more than enough to expand significantly, perhaps even enough to justify a wide expansion. The Lighthouse also opened well enough to justify significant expansions earning an average of $53,475 in eight theaters. Parasite was the only holdover in the $10,000 club earning an average of $37,616 in 33 theaters. The film topped $1 million over the weekend and it has plenty of room to grow. The final film in the $10,000 club was The Cave, which earned an average of $10,593 in two theaters.
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October 18th, 2019
Parasite was the only new release in the $10,000 club, but it not only led the way over the weekend, its average of $128,072 in three theaters is the best average this year. In fact, this is not only the best average of the year, its the best average since La La Land’s debut in 2016. While Parasite was the only new release in the $10,000 club, it wasn’t the only member. Joker was in a distant second place, a very, very distant second place with an average of $12,771. Meanwhile, Célébration was very close behind with $12,678 in its lone theater. Pain and Glory remained in the $10,0000 club with an average of $11,819 and it managed this feat despite expanding its theater count to 23 theaters.
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October 10th, 2019
Pain and Glory dominated the theater average earning an average of $40,022 in four theaters. Joker was next with an average of $21,994 in over 4,000 theaters. The final film in the $10,000 Club this weekend was My Country, My People with an average of $13,069 in 67 theaters. That is very impressive and could be a portent of things to come as Chinese films gain a foothold in the domestic market.
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October 8th, 2019
Joker easily dominated the weekend box office crushing Venom’s October record in the process. The film’s $96.20 million opening was more than 60% of the $150 million total box office earned this weekend. Furthermore, the weekend total was 64% more than last weekend, which is great news for 2019, as it has been struggling. Unfortunately, this is still 15% lower than the same weekend last year when Venom had A Star is Born opening strong as counter-programing. Year-to-date, 2019 has pulled in $8.46 billion, which is a lot, but it is 5.2% or $470 million behind 2018’s record-setting pace of $8.93 billion.
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October 3rd, 2019
First Love was the only film in the $10,000 Club this weekend earning an average of $10,576 in two theaters.
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October 1st, 2019
Abominable led the way at the box office this weekend, but there wasn’t a lot to celebrate. That film merely did okay for this time of year, while there were no other new releases to boost the box office. This led to a 25% drop-off from last weekend, down to a mere $92 million. Worse still, this is 13% lower than the same weekend last year when Night School and Smallfoot were a strong one-two box office punch. We’ve had a couple of winning weeks in a row, so this loss doesn’t hurt 2019’s chances too much and the deficit is practically the same as it was last week at 5.6% or $490 million at $8.28 billion to $8.77 billion.
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September 29th, 2019
It is a mixed bag at the box office this weekend. None of the films are bombing, there are also no wild success stories either. Abominable is leading the way with an estimated $20.85 million opening. This is a little below expectations, but still a fine opening for this time of year. Additionally, its prospects have improved over the weekend, so it is clear its reviews and its A rating from CinemaScore have helped its word-of-mouth and that should help its legs going forward. The film also earned an estimated $8.8 million internationally in 30 markets for an early international total of $10.2 million It is still too early to judge how the film will do overseas.
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September 28th, 2019
Abominable bounced back a bit during Friday to earn $5.69 million. This is still behind Smallfoot’s opening Friday, but it is better than its previews. This is strong evidence that the film’s reviews and its A rating from CinemaScore is already having a positive effect. $20 million is now much more likely than it was yesterday at this time, while with a little luck, it will match our $22 million prediction.
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September 27th, 2019
There are a lot of excellent films on this week’s list. Not only that, but there are a wide selections of films as well. Do you want to watch a documentary? Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is your best bet. Want to watch a potential Oscar-winning performance? Then Judy is for you. Want a Neo-Noir love story? First Love has what you need. Want to stay home and watch something on VOD? There are several choices there, both big and small.
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August 19th, 2019
Biopic starring Renée Zellweger opens September 27 ... Full Movie Details.
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