August 29th, 2018
It is a very busy week with a flood of TV on DVD releases. Because of that, each entry has to be a little shorter than usual, especially the TV on DVD releases. There are some titles that are worth more attention, like American Animals, Bound, RBG, and others. It was a close race for Pick of the Week, but in the end I went with Bound on Blu-ray.
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August 15th, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War comes out on DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, and 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack this week and it is scaring away most of the competition. That’s not to say there’s nothing else worth picking up. For example, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami isn’t selling well enough to make the list, but the Blu-ray is certainly worth owning.
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June 12th, 2018
The weekend was very kind to Ocean’s 8, as it opened with $41.61 million. This is not only the top result this weekend, it is the best opening weekend in the franchise. Hereditary also opened on the high end of expectations, leaving just Hotel Artemis as the only disappointment of the weekend. Overall, the box office rose 13% from last weekend to $120 million. More importantly, this was 17% lower than the same weekend last year. That said, it could have been worse and 2018 still has a 5.1% / $250 million lead over 2017 at $5.11 billion to $4.86 billion.
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June 4th, 2018
The overall weekend went about as well as expected. Unfortunately, that’s not good news. Solo: A Star Wars Story fell about as much as the average sophomore blockbuster film falls during a post-holiday weekend, earning first place with $29.40 million, while Deadpool 2 was the only other film to earn more than $20 million, landing in second with $23.18 million. The biggest new release of the week was Adrift with $11.60 million. The overall box office fell 42% from last weekend to just $106 million. To put this into perspective, this weekend last year, Wonder Woman opened with $103 million. That one movie made almost as much as the entire box office made this year. The year-over-year decline was 43%. Fortunately, 2018 is still ahead of 2017 by a sizable amount at 6.8% or $310 million at $4.94 billion to $4.63 billion and in a couple of weeks, 2018 should start winning again in the year-over-year comparison.
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June 3rd, 2018
We predicted Solo: A Star Wars Story would earn about $30 million during its second weekend of release and it earned $29.3 million over the weekend. I’m calling that a victory. It did fall 65%, but this is a standard decline for a tentpole release after a holiday weekend. The film has $148.89 million after 10 days of release and is on pace to top $200 million domestically. Internationally it has $115.3 million, including $30.3 million this past weekend. It doesn’t open in Japan until the end of June, but once it does, it should reach $400 million worldwide. Had the film not needed extensive reshoots, this would have been enough to break even, eventually.
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June 2nd, 2018
As expected, Solo: A Star Wars Story earned top spot on Friday with $8.15 million. We predicted it would earn about $30 million and it looks like that’s the case, although it’s on track for the lower end of that range, with a $29 million sophomore stint. If it recovers next weekend, then it will remain on pace for $200 million domestically. However, getting to that milestone is more about saving face than breaking even at this point. Even if the film’s reviews help it become a hit on the home market, it’s not going to break even any time soon. Fortunately, The Last Jedi made enough profits that Disney will still be happy with the overall results of the franchise. Plus there’s always merchandising, something the Star Wars films helped perfect.
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June 1st, 2018
This May was an odd month, as Avengers: Infinity War opened on the last weekend of April, rather than the first weekend of May. This meant May started out slowly, but Deadpool 2 and Solo: A Star Wars Story did well enough to give 2018 a healthy lead over 2017. Looking forward, there are two potential monster hits this month, Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and another $100 million hit, Ocean’s 8. Last June, there were four $100 million hits, led by Wonder Woman, which pulled in over $400 million. I think 2018 and 2017 will be an even match at the top, so 2018 will have to rely on depth to improve upon its lead over 2017.
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May 31st, 2018
While there are three wide releases coming out this week, Solo: A Star Wars Story should have no trouble remaining in top spot. In fact, Adrift is the only wide release that has a better than 50/50 shot at $10 million over the weekend. Action Point may or may not reach the top five. Meanwhile, there are some who think Upgrade will miss the Mendoza Line. This weekend last year, Wonder Woman opened with more than $100 million. The top ten won’t get there this year. 2018 is going to get crushed in the year-over-year competition.
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