July 25th, 2024
Twisters blew into theaters last weekend, whisking up a splendid $81 million in its opening frame, and currently enjoys a six-day domestic total of just over $113 million. The disaster film’s reign at the top of the box office, however, will likely be short-lived as two new wide releases make their way into theaters, including the long-awaited arrival of Deadpool & Wolverine.
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July 18th, 2024
After six consecutive weeks of box office dominance, the reign of animated features looks to be coming to an end this weekend as Twisters funnels into theaters. It has been impressive run for Inside Out 2, and Despicable Me 4, however, as the two films have combined for a worldwide total of over $1.84 billion, largely due to the massive success of the former.
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July 14th, 2024
Despicable Me 4 will continue at the top of the box office chart this weekend, with a very respectable 40% decline in its second weekend. With another $44.65 million expected to land in the bank between Friday and Sunday, the animated comedy will finish the weekend with $211 million domestically. It’s cruising past $400 million worldwide (Universal pegs its tally at $437.8 million), and the franchise now has over $5 billion in theaters worldwide—the first animated series to hit that mark. The real surprise of the weekend, however, is Longlegs, which will land in second place and give distributor Neon their best weekend ever.
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July 11th, 2024
It was a solid debut for the number one film at the box office, as Despicable Me 4 dominated with five-day domestic earnings of $122.6 million after opening in 4,030 theaters on July 3rd. The latest installment has since turned up another $34 million, taking its eight-day total to $157.28 million. As no mega blockbuster films are set to open this weekend, Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2 should once again find themselves in the number one and number two positions, respectively, at the box office.
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July 7th, 2024
Despicable Me 4 is headed for a Friday-to-Sunday opening in the region of $75 million, according to Universal’s Sunday-morning projection. With $47.6 million already earned from Wednesday and Thursday, the animated comedy will end the weekend with over $120 million in the bank. Inside Out 2 is being hurt a little by the competition, but will still put another $30 million into the bank on its fourth weekend (giving it the 12th-best fourth weekend). Once more, family audiences are leading the charge in theaters.
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July 3rd, 2024
As the summer heats up, two animated features seek to dominate the box office leading into the Fourth of July weekend. The newest entrant is the highly anticipated sequel from the beloved Despicable Me franchise, Despicable Me 4. This latest installment bursts onto screens in a staggering 4,428 theaters, aiming to dethrone the current box office champion after a three-week reign.
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June 27th, 2024
Inside Out 2 has been dominating the domestic box office since its June 14 release. It’s set to surpass Frozen’s $401 million mark this Thursday, entering the top 10 highest grossing animated films of all time. Currently, it has earned $400.7 million domestically and $434.7 million internationally, totaling $835.4 million globally. With 4,440 theaters still showing the film, it’s poised to join the billion dollar club soon, despite facing fierce competition from this weekend’s new releases.
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March 10th, 2024
This weekend’s new releases are more than living up to their “Po-tential,” led by a fantastic $58.3-million opening for Kung Fu Panda 4—for certain, the second-best debut for a film in the franchise, with an outside chance of topping the original Kung Fu Panda’s $60.2 million if it does really, really well on Sunday. While that will rightfully be garnering the most attention, Imaginary and Cabrini are also doing better than anticipated, and Dune: Part Two will have a great hold in its second weekend.
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August 4th, 2022
Like last week, two new wide releases grace movie theaters across North America this weekend in the form of the violent action-comedy Bullet Train, and holiday comedy, Easter Sunday. Opening in 4,317 theaters, Bullet Train is directed by David Leitch and contains a large ensemble cast, led by Brad Pitt as an experienced but unlucky assassin named “Ladybug”. Co-starring with Pitt is Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Andrew Koji among others. The Japanese-set film which is based on Kōtarō Isaka’s dark novel “MariaBeetle” will be available on both traditional and IMAX screens. Easter Sunday, which will debut in 3,175 locations, stars Jo Koy as a man who returns home for an Easter celebration with his riotous, bickering, eating, drinking, laughing, loving family.
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July 28th, 2022
An animated feature is back as the widest release as this week sees the arrival of DC League of Super Pets. Debuting in 4,314 locations, the latest from Warner Bros. features an all-star voice cast, headlined by the renowned comedic duo of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. The film follows Krypto (voiced by Johnson), who after his owner, Superman, is kidnapped must convince a rag-tag shelter pack—Ace the hound, PB the potbellied pig, Merton the turtle and Chip the squirrel—to master their own newfound powers and help him rescue the superheroes. DC League of Super-Pets will also be available to stream on HBO Max 45 days after its theatrical release.
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July 21st, 2022
For the second consecutive week, Thor: Love and Thunder and Minions: The Rise of Gru will be playing in the most theaters this weekend while newcomer Nope comes in strong in third spot on this week’s chart.
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July 3rd, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru will pick up an impressive $108.51 million over three days and $127.9 million over four, according to Universal’s Sunday-morning projection. That’s the second-best debut for the Despicable Me franchise, behind only the $115.7 million earned by the original Minions back in July, 2015. With Top Gun: Maverick continuing to perform well, the total box office this weekend looks like it will beat the July 4 Holiday weekend in 2019 in terms of total box office—another sign of the steady recovery of the theatrical market in 2022.
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July 1st, 2022
Minions: The Rise of Gru will, as expected, pull off a comfortable win at the box office this weekend. While it won’t have much competition from other films, it will have a mini-contest with itself as it shoots to earn $100 million over the Holiday. There’s a chance it’ll hit that number over three days, but my money is on it achieving the feat over four.
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June 30th, 2022
After an exciting head-to-head contest at the box office last weekend, another newcomer arrives in theaters this week to challenge chart toppers Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis. Minions: The Rise of Gru will open in 4,391 theaters this week, making it the widest release. The prequel to 2015’s Minions and fifth film in the Despicable Me franchise has earned nearly $4 million overseas so far in rollouts that began in mid June. Set in the 1970s, the animated feature follows a 12-year old Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) as he grows up in the suburbs. The animated comedy from Illumination will also be available on IMAX screens throughout North America.
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June 23rd, 2022
While it has taken a back seat to both Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion this week at the box office, Lightyear will become the widest release this weeked, albeit due Dominion dropping 400+ locations. While the Toy Story spinoff didn’t exactly hold up to the majority of expectations, the film has still garnered over $67 million in domestic revenue as of Wednesday. Pixar’s Lightyear keeps its opening count of 4,255 theaters as it heads into its sophomore outing.
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December 5th, 2017
The week is deceptively strong. At first glance, Despicable Me 3 appears to have scared off all of the competition, but when you look deeper, there are a lot of contenders for Pick of the Week. These include Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series, Better Watch Out, Princess Cyd, and others. In the end, I went with Long Time Running, which came out on DVD and Blu-ray last Friday.
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December 3rd, 2017
Despicable Me 3 is the fourth film in the Despicable Me franchise. I’ve previously reviewed the first three films and bought the first film, because I loved it. The second film was weaker, but still great. The third film was Minions. It’s a kids movie, nothing more. There’s been a downward trajectory in the quality that’s quite noticeable. Does it continue here? Is it at least better than Minions was?
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August 10th, 2017
Wolf Warriors 2 remained in top spot on the international chart with $164 million at the weekend. This is dominated by a sophomore stint of $163.38 million in its native China for a two-week total of $471.94 million. It is already the biggest hit in China, crushing The Mermaid, at least in terms of local currency. It still has a ways to go to become the number one film in terms of the US dollar, but it should get there shortly.
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August 3rd, 2017
Wolf Warriors 2 dominated the international box office with $132.88 million over the weekend in its native China, for a four-day opening of $148.10 million. This is more than the rest of the top five earned combined.
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July 30th, 2017
A solid second weekend will be enough to keep Dunkirk at the top of the box office chart this weekend, as The Emoji Movie falls short of a par performance for a family-friendly animated film. Christopher Nolan’s war movie will fall 44% from it opening—a decent figure these days—to earn $28.1 million this time around, according to Warner Bros.’ projection released on Sunday morning. That will take it past $100 million domestically today, puts it on course for around $200 million domestically in total.
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July 23rd, 2017
Dunkirk will easily top the chart at the box office this weekend, with a $50.5 million opening weekend from 3,720 theaters that’s broadly in line with expectations, and also remarkably similar to the first weekend for Interstellar, which opened with $47.5 million from 3,561 theaters back in 2014. It seems that the film has reached the Christopher Nolan fan base, but not extended much beyond that. Remarkably, Pearl Harbor remains the record holder for biggest opening weekend for a World War II movie, with the $59 million it earned back in 2001 (equivalent to roughly $93 million with today’s ticket prices).
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July 16th, 2017
A weekend estimate just ahead of our prediction for War for the Planet of the Apes, and a one just below our prediction for Spider-Man: Homecoming means there’s a clear winner at the box office. War will come in with $56.5 million, per Fox’s Sunday morning estimate, while Homecoming will finish second with $45.2 million.
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July 13th, 2017
War for the Planet of the Apes is going to be the biggest of the three wide releases coming out this week. This much is a near certainty. However, there is some doubt if it will open in first place, or if Spider-Man: Homecoming will remain the top draw over the weekend. The only other wide release of the week is Wish Upon, a low-budget horror film, if it can just reach the top five, then the studio will be very happy. Finally, The Big Sick is expanding wide. Given its limited release run so far, it should become a sleeper hit over the summer. This weekend last year, The Secret Life of Pets and Ghostbusters had a one-two punch of nearly $100 million. I think War for the Planet of the Apes and Spider-Man: Homecoming will top that figure, while the overall depth should help 2017 win in the year-over-year competition, but it will likely be close.
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July 11th, 2017
The weekend box office chart held few surprises. Every film in the top five was close to our predictions, while the top two films were a little stronger. This includes Spider-Man: Homecoming, which pulled in $117.03 million during its opening weekend, making it the second fastest debut of the summer. (Only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is ahead of it in that regard.) Despicable Me 3 held on better than most films this summer and will become a monster hit thanks to its international numbers. Overall, the box office rose by 22% from last weekend hitting $206 million. Unfortunately, this is still 5.1% lower than the same weekend last year. Before the summer began, 2017 had a $200 million lead over 2006. That lead is now down to just $13 million at $5.95 billion to $5.94 billion. This lead could be completely gone by the weekend.
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July 9th, 2017
A $117 million opening weekend is pretty much all Sony could ask for from Spider-Man: Homecoming. It’s the second-best debut for the Spider-Man franchise, if you ignore the effects of inflation, and makes it almost certain that the franchise will break its unfortunate streak of earning less at the domestic box office with every new outing. With, reportedly, a more constrained budget—this is the least expensive Spider-Man film, adjusted for inflation—profitability looks assured, and Sony’s partnership with Disney looks as though it’s paying off.
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July 3rd, 2017
The combination of Canada Day and Independence Day has resulted in some studios not releasing the weekend final numbers today. Some are releasing final numbers, some have updated Sunday’s estimates, while others are just waiting until Wednesday for final results. Despicable Me 3 is in the middle category, as Universal revised its estimate downwards to $72.41 million. This is still a great opening, but it is also a troubling trajectory, as it has fallen a lot from Friday’s Estimates, when it looked like it was going to hit $83 million. Granted, this is still the sixth-biggest opening of the year, so Universal has reason to celebrate, but its internal multiplier suggests short legs for a family film. I think this is a case of franchise fatigue, as its reviews were good, even if they were not as good as the previous Despicable Me films.
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July 2nd, 2017
With July 4 falling on a Tuesday this year, this is less a holiday weekend, and more the beginning of a holiday week, and it’s bookended by new releases from two of the industry’s most reliable franchises. Despicable Me 3 starts off festivities this weekend with a solid-but-unspectacular $75.4 million from a record-setting 4,529 theaters. Breaking The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’s record for widest opening weekend of all time is no small feat for Universal, but it’s an ominous sign for the franchise that the only film to open in close to this number of theaters and pull in similar numbers at the box office was Shrek Forever After, which opened with $70.8 million in 4,359 theaters back in 2010. That was the last Shrek movie, and this might be a good time for Gru to call it a day.
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June 29th, 2017
Despicable Me 3 should dominate the box office this weekend, which is good news, because the last few weeks have been underwhelming. In fact, we haven’t had a monster hit since Wonder Woman started the month off with a bang. The House is an R-rated comedy, but since the last such film to come out bombed, I’m a little worried about its chances. Baby Driver opened on Wednesday and its early numbers are promising. It won’t be a $100 million hit, but it should earn a solid profit for Sony. This weekend last year, there were no monster hits at the box office, but there was solid depth. This weekend, we should be much stronger on top, while the depth won’t be that much weaker, leading to 2017 ending its mini-losing streak.
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June 1st, 2017
May was a really soft month with only one unqualified hit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, which is climbing towards $375 million domestically. The second biggest hit of the month will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and I would be surprised if it tops $150 million by any serious margin. June looks a lot more profitable. There are five weeks and every week there is at least one film with a great shot at $100 million or more. In fact, there are four films with at least a decent shot at $200 million and we could double the number of $300 million hits released so far this year. Wonder Woman is widely expected to start the month with an explosive debut and pulling in more than $100 million during its opening weekend is more and more likely. That said, Despicable Me 3 will probably end up being the biggest hit overall with over $300 million. Meanwhile, Cars 3 and Transformers: The Last Knight are both aiming for $200 million. Last June was not particularly strong, outside of one hit. Finding Dory earned nearly $500 million domestically, while the second best film, Central Intelligence, barely earned a quarter of that. I don’t think any film will come close to Finding Dory, but there’s a lot more depth this time around and I have high hopes 2017 will extend its lead.
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July 10th, 2016
The Secret Life of Pets is storming to a massive opening weekend at the box office, with Universal projecting a $103.2 million debut for the Illumination Entertainment animated film. That’s just shy of the $115.7 million made by Minions this weekend last year, and the best opening ever by a non-sequel or spin-off animated film. This performance is particularly significant for Illumination, because it’s their first blockbuster from outside the Despicable Me universe.
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April 3rd, 2016
Despite what the box office numbers would indicate, there are some people who have never seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. [Copy Ed: Some of us have never seen any Star Wars movie]. Because of that, we are going to have two reviews. The first is going to contain absolutely no spoilers... okay, just one spoiler. The big boat sinks in the end. ... On the one hand, I feel the need to apologize for that joke. On the other hand, I will never not find that joke funny. So how do you do a review without a single spoiler? Simple, nothing but lists. I will rank The Force Awakens in a trio of lists. How does this film compare to others in the Star Wars Franchise? How does it compare to the biggest hits of 2015? And finally, how does it compare to the biggest all-time hits?
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December 7th, 2015
It is both a good week and a bad week on the home market. The top two releases are Ant-Man and Minions, which made more than $500 million and $1 billion globally, respectively. It's rare you get a one-two punch like that on top. However, the competition for those two films is much, much weaker. The third best-selling release, according to Amazon.com, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two Box Set. It looks amazing, which is why it led this years Holiday Gift Guide, but I'm not sure there are a lot of people who will be willing to spend $200 on a box set when they likely own all or most of the movies. Beyond that, there's mostly TV on DVD releases. The competition for Pick of the Week is also not very deep with Ant-Man coming out on top.
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December 7th, 2015
Minions is one of the four, probably soon-to-be five films that earned more than $1 billion worldwide this year. Impressive. When I first heard they were making a spin-off of the Despicable Me films, I was not shocked in the least. Those two films were monster hits and were loved by critics. However, I was worried this movie wouldn't live up to its predecessors, because a little Minions goes a long way. Could they handle a movie to themselves? Or do they work better providing comic relief for the main characters?
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November 27th, 2015
It's Thanksgiving weekend, which means Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will tackle first run releases, as well as franchise box sets. I'm going to try to keep it to a dozen or so releases, as these columns are notorious for getting out of hand. Also, while there were a record number of $1 billion box office hits, there were not as many first run releases that earned stellar reviews this year.
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July 19th, 2015
Perhaps we’re seeing the first signs of multiplex fatigue? In the midst of a buoyant Summer at the movies, Ant-Man will debut with around $58 million, according to Sunday estimates, about 10% below expectations, and well short of the $94 million earned by Guardians of the Galaxy this time last year. It’s a very good opening, to be sure, but the second slightly disappointing debut from the Marvel Cinematic Universe this year, after The Avengers: Age of Ultron’s $191 million opening weekend back in May. We’re talking disappointment of the level of seeing Babe Ruth only hit one home run in a game here, so we need to put things in perspective. It’s the twelfth straight $50 million-plus opening for the franchise in seven years—an unprecedented box office run.
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July 14th, 2015
The list of new releases for June 23rd was not good and the best DVD release, Teen Beach 2, wasn't even released on Blu-ray. This left holdovers on top of the DVD and Blu-ray chart for June 28th and The Kingsman: Secret Service claimed top spot with 198,000 units / $3.41 million units for the week for totals of 1.11 million units / $17.84 million after three weeks of release.
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July 9th, 2015
Of the three wide releases this week, only Minions is dominating the box office tracking. Unfortunately, its reviews are nowhere near as strong as they were at the beginning of the month. Even worse, they are twice as good as the reviews for Self/Less and The Gallows. The Gallows should earn a spot in the top five during its opening weekend, but the prospects for Self/Less are not as good. This weekend last year, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened with $72.61 million. Minions should crush that number. Also, last year only three films earned more than $10 million over the weekend, while this year, the top five should do the same. 2015 should earn a solid win in the year-over-year comparison.
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July 1st, 2015
June was a much better month than expected due to two films, Jurassic World and Inside Out. Had those two films merely matched expectations, then 2015 would have likely fallen behind 2014. As for this coming month, there are five weekends in July and each week there is at least one film with the potential to reach $100 million. Most weeks there are two films that at least have a shot at getting to the century mark. The biggest hit of the month will likely be Minions, which has already opened in several international markets and it's ahead of Despicable Me 2 at the same point. That film made more than $300 million and nearly $1 billion worldwide, so any growth would be fantastic. There are also a number of potential $200 million films, led by Ant-man. Ant-man is the latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that has averaged $300 million domestically over eleven films and all of the past six films have reached at least $200 million. I'm not saying this one is guaranteed to do the same, but you can't dismiss that possibility. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Pixels have smaller chances to get to $200 million, but you have to at least entertain the possibility. Additionally, last July was a lot weaker than this July looks to be, so 2015 should win in the year-over-year comparison most weeks. Or I might have let the box office success of June cloud my judgment. We will soon find out.
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June 4th, 2015
The second major change in news articles this week is the consolidation of the home market columns and using the Combined DVD and Blu-ray Sales Chart. It is kind of a bad week for this change, as the new releases were a disappointment; 50 Shades of Grey remained on top on both the Blu-ray sales chart and the DVD sales chart. It sold an additional 896,000 units and generated $15.82 million for the week giving it totals of 2.27 million units / $40.20 million.
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May 15th, 2015
None of the new releases were able to top the DVD sales chart leaving The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in first place with 73,000 units / $1.10 million over the week for a total of 1.13 million units / $16.92 million.
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January 18th, 2015
The Boxtrolls was a September release that earned good reviews, especially for a September release. However, it failed to meet expectations at the box office. On the other hand, it has done very well with Awards Season voters. Is it as bad as its box office would indicate? Is it as good as its Oscar nomination would indicate? Or is it somewhere in-between?
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December 9th, 2013
Despicable Me came out in 2010 and it was the first digitally animated film released by Universal. There was a lot of pressure to do well, because its level of success would not only determine if more Despicable Me movies would be made, but if the studio would continue to release digitally animated films in general. It beat expectations. Not only was it a great movie, but it earned more than $500 million worldwide on a $69 million budget. Needless to say, Despicable Me 2 was given the greenlight right away. However, can it live up to its predecessor? If not, is it still worth checking out?
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September 12th, 2013
There were only three new releases to chart on the June 30th, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart, but all three of them reached the top ten. That said, Jack the Giant Killer remained in first place with 90,000 units / $2.24 million over the week for a total of 313,000 units / $7.40 million after two.
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