May 12th, 2024
At 56 years old, the Planet of the Apes franchise is the 13th-longest-running franchise in movie history, by our reckoning, and ranks fourth to Godzilla, Batman, and James Bond among franchises that have spawned 10 or more films. Like those others, subtle evolution while keeping true to the fundamentals of the franchise is what keeps audiences coming back, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has managed to pull off that trick again this weekend, with 20th Century Studios projecting $56.5 million for the weekend, a fraction higher than War for the Planet of the Apes’ debut in 2017.
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March 21st, 2024
It was another battle at the domestic box office this week with Kung Fu Panda 4, and Dune: Part Two once again going head-to-head for the number one and number two spot, with the former taking the weekend, while the latter topped the weekday dailies chart. To date, the two films have combined for over $328 million in domestic revenue, with Dune grabbing $213 million, while Kung Fu Panda 4 holds $114 million. This week will see both take a backseat to the latest in the Ghostbusters franchise as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire charges into theaters.
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December 7th, 2023
It’s a rare scenario that a film becomes the widest release in its fourth week in theaters but that is just the case for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Even as the film loses 26 locations this week, it is still available in 3,665 cinemas, which tops our list this week. The film logged in over $14 million in its latest weekend, good enough for second place, in between the two newcomers, RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ, and Godzilla Minus One, which earned $21.8 million and $11.42 million respectively. This week in wide arrivals, two new arrivals make their way into theaters a two classics come back to the big screen.
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November 30th, 2023
The long holiday weekend saw three films vying for number one at the box office, with The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes taking the prize over both the three- and five-day weekend, relegating new arrivals, Napoleon, and Wish to their second and third place spots respectively. This week brings about five new wide releases including Beyoncé’s own concert film with the release of RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ
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March 25th, 2021
After completing another week as the widest release, Tom and Jerry will likely slip into second place this weekend with the release of Universal Pictures’ thriller Nobody, which opens in 2,460 theaters. Still going strong, Raya and the Last Dragon enters its fourth weekend playing in 2,212 theaters.
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August 18th, 2020
TV on DVD continues to dominate the home market, as it does this time every year. Some releases are worth picking up, including Batwoman: The Complete First Season (DVD or Blu-ray) and The Terror: Infamy (DVD). However, the best of the best is Gamera: The Complete Collection Blu-ray. It is expensive, but you could make it your full-time job to watch every piece of content on the 8-disc set and it would take you a week to do so.
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October 30th, 2019
It’s a weird week on the home market, as there is not a big new wide release to talk about. However, there are several older releases, imports, etc. that are easily worth picking up and a couple of them are contenders for Pick of the Week. This includes the An American Werewolf in London: Limited Edition Blu-ray and the Godzilla The Showa-Era Films Box Set. Both are absolute must haves, but the latter’s price-tag might scare away some folks.
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August 28th, 2019
This week, the main list of new releases is particularly short for two reasons. Firstly, it is a slow week. Secondly, I’ve filtered out the TV on DVD releases for their own section. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and we are entering the heart of TV on DVD season on the home market, so it made sense to do it this week. (I’m including all TV on DVD releases, both individual seasons and full series Megasets.) As for the biggest new releases, there are not a lot to talk about. Godzilla: King of the Monsters and The Secret Life of Pets 2 both missed expectations at the box office, but both are worth picking up for their respective target audiences. As for the best, only The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Rocketman are contenders for Pick of the Week. The latter has far better extras, but the former is the better movie and wins that title.
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May 1st, 2019
April got off to a fast start with Shazam! opening the first weekend of the month. Meanwhile, Avengers: Endgame ended the month with a record-breaking debut. Unfortunately for 2019, last April had a very similar result leaving 2019 behind 2018’s pace by over $400 million. Will May be able to turn things around? Last May, there were only two films that reached $200 million, Deadpool 2 and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Meanwhile, this May there are three such films, Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. There are two points we need to make. Firstly, the only reason there are more potential $200 million hits this year is because May has five Fridays this year. Secondly, this May also has a lot better depth with films like John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and Rocketman being potential $100 million hits. Even if we ignore the final weekend, May should do well enough to cut into 2018’s lead over 2019. It’s not going to be able to cut it in half, but it could do well enough to make box office analysts a little more positive about the year’s chances overall.
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April 13th, 2018
Rampage started its box office run with $2.4 million during its Thursday night previews. This is almost $2 million lower than A Quiet Place managed last weekend, but last weekend was also Easter weekend, so a lot of the target audience had Friday off. Even so, this isn’t quite where I was hoping it would land when I made my prediction yesterday. $35 million is still possible, but it would take strong legs to get there. Fortunately, its reviews have continued to improve and the film’s Tomatometer Score is now 53% positive. According to this metric, it is the best wide release based on a video game of all time. This actually makes some sense. The original video game was based on movies like King Kong or Godzilla, so it should be able to inspire at least a passable version of those films.
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March 9th, 2017
There’s only one new release this week, Kong: Skull Island, which should earn first place on the box office chart. Probably. Logan isn’t too far back as far as box office tracking and might repeat in first place. In order to do this, Logan would either have to hold on a lot better than most comic book movies do and / or Kong would have to miss expectations. This weekend last year, there were four wide releases; however, they only managed a little more than $35 million combined. Kong: Skull Island should top that with ease and that’s good news for 2017. Unfortunately, Zootopia earned more than $50 million and that will likely be out of reach for Kong, so 2017 will need to rely on its depth to win in the year-over-year competition. I’m optimistic that will happen.
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November 26th, 2014
This Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means this is Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and a ton of shopping. It also means the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. Over the next month, we will talk about TV on DVD releases, independent releases, foreign language releases, classics, etc. but this week we start with Major Movie Releases. These are first run releases, franchise box sets, etc. In some ways, this is better than last year, as there were a wider number of big releases that would make great gifts. However, in other ways it is much weaker. I can't think of a single big franchise box set that came out this year. There are some smaller ones, like the Halloween Box Set, but while the franchise has lasted ten installments and 30 years, how many can you really say are worth repeated viewing? Fortunately, there were plenty of great films to come out this year, starting with what is currently the biggest hit of the year.
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September 9th, 2014
The Christmas shopping season has begun in full force. Even if Captain America: The Winter Soldier were the only new release this week, it would be a great release, as the Combo Packs are clearly pick of the week contenders. It's not the only Pick of the Week contender. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 1 is also a prime contender, although I'm still waiting for the screener for that release. At the moment, I'm giving the win to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but when I get a chance to review the screener, that might change.
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May 27th, 2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past easily won the weekend race at the box office earning more than $100 million over the four-day weekend. That's great news and it helped the overall box office grow by 5% to $187 million over the three-day weekend from last week. That's the good news. The bad news the other new release, Blended, bombed and the three-day weekend was down 27% from the same weekend last year. In fact, this year's four-day weekend total of $231 million was 9% lower than last year's three-day total and 26% lower than the four-day weekend from last year. That's a devastating collapse. The only saving grace is last year was a record-breaking Memorial Day long weekend, so a sharp drop-off isn't that unexpected. So far, 2014 has pulled in $3.95 billion, which is 4% more than 2013's running tally of $3.80 billion.
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May 6th, 2014
It's a short list this week, because there's almost nothing worth talking about. The best-selling new release according to Amazon is Veronica Mars, while the first page of new releases is dominated by Godzilla titles, and not even good Godzilla titles. There are not a lot of new releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week, but Still Mine on DVD is the best of what is out there. Meanwhile, another Canadian release, Republic of Doyle: Season 1 earns an honorable mention and is the Puck of the Week.
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December 21st, 2013
PANIC! If you haven't finished your Christmas shopping yet, it is officially time to panic. Personally, I got the last of my shopping done on Wednesday, although I don't think the gift will arrive in time for Christmas. For those still looking for a last minute gift, Part IV of our Holiday Gift Guide focuses on books, CDs, and of course anything else I missed the first time around, beginning with...
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July 11th, 2013
There are two wide releases coming out this week, Grown Ups 2 and Pacific Rim, and depending on who you talk to, either one has shot at first place. However, most agree that Despicable Me 2 will repeat as the box office champ. There is a chance all three films could top $40 million at the box office, which would be great news in the year-over-year comparison. This weekend last year, Ice Age: Continental Drift opened with $46.63 million. That's a fine start, but I think Despicable Me 2 will top that during its sophomore stint and give 2013 a clear victory over 2012.
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January 15th, 2013
It is a rather shallow week on the home market. Taken 2 should come away with an easy win, but after that, there's almost nothing that will reach the top 30 for the week. Also, Taken 2 is not Pick of the Week material. I don't know if there is anything that is truly Pick of the Week material. Wake in Fright comes the closest, but the DVD or Blu-ray is still late, I hate giving this title when I'm still waiting for the screener.
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