March 15th, 2017
There are a few Oscar-nominated films on this week’s list. However, it was still hard to come up with a Pick of the Week release. Most of them were like Elle with great reviews and weak extras. The DVD for Drunk History: Season Four has more than two hours of extras, but I admit it is an acquired taste. Fortunately, we do have a clear winner: The Love Witch on Blu-ray.
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March 6th, 2017
There are not a lot of releases on this week’s list for two major reasons. Firstly, it is a very, very shallow week. Secondly... Dental Surgery. By the time you read this, I might still be at the dentist. There are only two contenders for Pick of the Week, Jackie on Blu-ray and Moana on Blu-ray Combo Pack. It wasn’t particularly close and Moana is easily the Pick of the Week.
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February 26th, 2017
It’s Oscar night and we were live blogging the show. Read on the the highlights of what turned out to be a crazy night.
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February 26th, 2017
It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. Nominees 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.
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January 25th, 2017
xXx: Return of Xander Cage easily took first place on the international chart with $50.5 million in 53 markets. The film’s biggest market was India, where it pulled in $7.4 million. Russia was second best with $5.39 million on 1,191 screens. The film had similar debuts in France ($3.1 million); Germany ($2.8 million); Mexico ($2.62 million); and Australia ($2.24 million on 331 screens). This film is clearly doing better internationally than it is domestically, but it will need about $200 million worldwide to have any chance of breaking even any time soon.
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January 24th, 2017
The Oscar nominations were announced starting at 5:18 am Pacific time. Nothing is good that early in the morning. Worse still, it’s a boring year for nominations with very few surprises worth talking about, especially in the biggest categories. Leading the way was La La Land with 14 nominations, tying the record.
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January 19th, 2017
For the first time in its run, Passengers earned first place with $30.59 million on 17,000 screens in 78 markets for totals of $136.34 million internationally and $226.07 million worldwide. At this point, the studio has either earned back the $110 million production budget, or has come close. If it can find an audience on the home market, then it could break even, eventually. This weekend, the film’s biggest opening was in China where it earned first place with $17.45 million on an estimated 10,000 screens over the weekend for a total of $17.52 million including previews. China is already the film’s biggest market overtaking Russia, where it has $16.25 million after four weeks of release, including $618,000 on 528 screens this past weekend.
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January 12th, 2017
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story remained in first place with $56.6 million in 57 markets for totals of $437.1 million internationally and $914.5 million worldwide. It is now in fifth place on the 2016 worldwide chart. ... The entire top five worldwide is from Disney. This is unprecedented. As for this past weekend, Rogue One earned first place in China with $30.11 million over the weekend and $30.65 million including previews. This is on par with expectations, although some were worried it would struggle due to... I was going to say weather, but is smog weather? China is currently dealing with a smog crisis and has been issuing warnings to stay inside. This is the last market for the film, but it should cruise to $1 billion on holdovers. It will likely reach second place on the 2016 worldwide chart, but I think Captain America: Civil War is safe on the top of the chart.
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January 10th, 2017
The first weekend of the year wasn’t as potent as anticipated, as none of the holdovers held on as well as expected. This helped Hidden Figures earn first place with $22.80 million, putting it just ahead of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which pulled in $22.06 million. The box office was down 26% from last weekend to $137 million, but this is a post-holiday weekend, so this decline was expected. The box office was also down 14% from this weekend last year. It is still way too soon to compare the box office year-over-year. In fact, we should wait till The Force Awakens faded out of the top five before we can really get a picture of how 2017 will do. That was President’s Day long weekend. So once we get past President’s Day long weekend, the year-over-year comparison will begin it have some real value.
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January 5th, 2017
It’s the first weekend of the year and there’s only one wide release, Underworld: Blood Wars, plus one wide expansion, Hidden Figures. (As expected, A Monster Calls is not expanding truly wide and it won’t grow enough to make the top ten. I don’t think it will top $3 million over the weekend.) None of these films are really going to challenge the top two holdovers, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Sing, although that pair should be in a close race for first place. This weekend last year was very similar to this weekend, with one new release, one wide expansion, and a Star Wars holdover on top. Unfortunately, this year is much weaker. 2017 is going to get off on a losing note.
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January 5th, 2017
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story added $45.8 million in 55 markets to its running tally, which now sits at $350.0 million internationally and $775.0 million worldwide. By the end of Sunday, the film was already in tenth place for the year and while it is not doing as well internationally as it is domestically, it is still on pace to hit fifth place by as early as this weekend. Its biggest market is the U.K., where it has pulled in $64.4 million, but the U.K. might not stay on top for long, because the film opens in China this weekend.
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January 4th, 2017
The final weekend of the year wasn’t as potent as we had predicted, but there were still a number of reasons to celebrate. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story won the weekend and is on its way to becoming the biggest hit of the year. Sing was relatively close behind and will get to $200 million this upcoming weekend. Overall, the box office rose by 2.9% from last weekend hitting $186 million. This is 15% lower than the same weekend last year, which again was actually the first weekend of 2016. We need to switch to the Strowbrinian Calendar. I’m not kidding about this. As for the year-over-year comparison, that’s a little confusing. If you just look at the calender years, then 2016 broke the record earning $11.4 billion. However, the movie year actually begins the first Monday of the year and ends the final Sunday before the first Monday of the next year. Going by this definition of the year, 2016 actually just failed to overtake 2015, because we lost a few days of The Force Awakens and only got one extra day of Rogue One.
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December 31st, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Sing continue to dominate the box office, which is great news for us, as Disney and Universal are practically the only major studios releasing numbers this weekend. The holidays are incredibly important at the box office, but they also make our job harder to do. As for the actual box office numbers, Rogue One led the way with $18.18 million on Friday for an 15-day total of $393.55 million. This is lower than expected and it will fall week-to-week; however, it will finish the three-day weekend with just over $50 million becoming the third film released in 2016 to get to $400 million domestically in the process. It also remained on pace for $500 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide.
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December 29th, 2016
The weekend after Christmas Day is usually a boring weekend with no wide releases to speak of. On the other hand, we do have a monster hit to keep track of, as well as some Awards Season hopefuls that are expanding significantly and could make the top ten. Of course, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will win this weekend and it should in fact grow from last weekend, because Christmas Eve is a dead zone at the box office. Likewise, Sing should grow even better, as it is the last weekend for families to hit theaters before school starts. Some of the other films that debuted last week are not looking so good. This weekend last year was actually the first weekend of 2016, which makes it harder to compare the two weekends. Again, we need to switch to the Strowbrinian Calendar that I mentioned at the end of the December Preview. The Force Awakens earned just over $90 million and while Rogue One won’t match that, it should be closer than most were expecting.
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December 24th, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story grew by 36% on Friday, earning $22.78 million for a running tally of $244.77 million. It has now overtaken Doctor Strange for ninth place on the yearly chart. By comparison, The Force Awakens rose by 80% on this day in its run, but this day in its run was Christmas Day. As I said before, we won’t be able to really compare numbers until after Boxing Day.
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December 23rd, 2016
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story grew by 12% to $16.77 million on Thursday for a first-week total of $222.00 million. This shows that it was hit by new releases on Wednesday, at least a little bit. It is impossible to compare this day to The Force Awakens, because this day in its run was Christmas Eve. For the record though, The Force Awakens fell by 28% to $27.40 million on that day and had pulled in $390.86 million during the same time period.
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December 22nd, 2016
As expected, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story led the way on Wednesday. It fell 15% to $14.97 million on Wednesday for a 6-day total of $204.23 million. By comparison, The Force Awakens rose 2% to $38.02 million on Wednesday for a six-day total of $363.46 million; however, it didn’t have to deal with three wide releases. In fact, it’s only “new” competition was the semi-wide expansion of The Big Short. Comparing the two movies’ daily numbers will get less illuminating until we get past Boxing Day, because the misalignment in the holidays will be playing a major role in the day-to-day changes.
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December 21st, 2016
This week is an utter mess when it comes to new releases. There are five films opening or expanding wide this week, three of them opening on Wednesday. Assassin’s Creed, Passengers, and Sing are all trying to get a head start on the weekend, while Why Him? debuts on Friday. Finally, Fences is expected to expand wide on Sunday, Christmas Day, but we’ve seen recently that “wide expansion” isn’t a meaningful term when studios use it. None of these films are expected to top Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, or even come close. Comparing this weekend to the same weekend last year is nearly impossible, because Christmas Eve lands on Saturday this year and Christmas Eve is a dead zone at the box office, while last year it landed on the Thursday, which is the best day of the week for optimal box office numbers. On the other hand, Monday is Boxing Day, which is a holiday for some. It doesn’t balance out, but fortunately 2016 still has a substantial lead over 2015, so even a really bad weekend won’t put 2016 behind.
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December 1st, 2016
November was good, but not great. Fortunately, 2016 had a large enough lead going into November that the month only needed to be good. In fact, it could have been mediocre and 2016 would have still had an excellent shot to end the year above 2015. As for December, it’s a race between Star Wars and Star Wars. Almost no one thinks Rogue One is going to match The Force Awakens, but if Rogue One earns just half of what The Force Awakens managed, then 2016 will come out on top in the year-over-year comparison. There are only two other films with a better than 50/50 chance of hitting $100 million, Passengers and Sing. Either one could earn second place for the month, but Passengers will likely start faster. Last December, the only other film to earn more than $100 million was Daddy’s Home, which earned just a hair over $150 million. There’s a chance both Passengers and Sing will earn more than $150 million, which would be a boon to the box office. However, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was just too strong last year and it would take a miracle for 2016 to have a stronger December. That said, it would take a complete collapse for 2016 not to top 2015 in raw dollars. The growth might not be enough to keep pace with ticket price inflation, on the other hand.
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September 20th, 2016
Sci-fi thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt opens December 21 ... Full Movie Details.
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