September 4th, 2019
It’s another short week with not a lot to talk about. The biggest release of the week is Men in Black International, but it missed expectations by a significant margin. The best first-run release is Booksmart, which also missed expectations by a significant margin, but it is still good enough to be a Pick of the Week contender. In fact, it’s only competition is My Hero Academia: Season Three, Part Two. It came down to a literal coin toss and My Hero Academia won, but both deserve the title.
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June 27th, 2019
Toy Story 4 dominated the international chart with $120.0 million in 37 markets, representing 64% of the international marketplace. Interestingly, China wasn’t the film’s biggest market, as it had an absolute monster debut in Mexico taking top spot there with $23.82 million. The film also dominated the chart in the U.K. with $16.90 million, which isn’t as strong as its opening here, but still impressive. Likewise, the film managed $13.4 million in China, which is good for an animated film there. Good, but not great. The film broke the record for an opening by an animated film in Brazil with $9.6 million and did nearly as well in neighboring Argentina with $7.5 million. It was also impressive in South Korea with $7.47 million on 1,335 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $8.55 million.
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June 18th, 2019
There is some good news to report, as the weekend final numbers beat both the projections based on Friday estimates and Sunday’s estimates. There’s also some bad news. Even with this improvement, the weekend was really soft at the box office. Men in Black: International led the way with just $30.04 million during its opening weekend, while only two other films topped $10 million over the weekend. This left the overall box office down 18% from last weekend to just $135 million. This is 50% lower than the same weekend last year; a decline that we normally only see when there is a misalignment in a holiday. However, in this case, it was due to Incredibles 2, which earned more by itself than the total box office did this year. This has left 2019 further behind 2018 and it is now off last year’s pace by 7.0% or $370 million at $4.99 billion to $5.36 billion. Several weeks worth of gaining ground has gone in a single weekend.
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June 14th, 2019
Men in Black: International only managed $3.1 million during its previews on Thursday, which is well below the previews earned by Dark Phoenix ($5.9 million) and Godzilla: King of Monsters ($6.3 million). All three films have similar reviews and all three are part of long running franchises, so sadly this means Men in Black: International will likely have similar legs. Sony is still projecting $30 million over the weekend, but I’m not so sure anymore.
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June 13th, 2019
It’s a busy weekend at the box office with the potential for four new entries in the top ten. Unfortunately, only one of those films, Late Night, is earning good reviews. The other films’ reviews range from mediocre reviews to depressing reviews. Likewise, the four film’s box office chances range from mediocre, with Men in Black: International expected to open south of $30 million, to depressing, with some suggesting Late Night and / or The Dead Never Die missing the Mendoza Line. This weekend last year, Incredibles 2 opened with $182.69 million. That’s more than the entire box office will make this weekend. 2019 is going to get crushed in the year-over-year comparison.
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May 31st, 2013
Post-holiday weekends tend to feature weak releases and this time is no exception. After Earth is a film that should be a massive summer blockbuster, given its genre and its star, but the buzz is terrible. Now You See Me is the counter-programming release, but it should have a better opening than After Earth, relative to expectations and production budget. That said, Fast and Furious 6 will very likely remain on top of the box office chart. This weekend last year was the weekend Snow White and the Huntsman debuted and it earned $56 million. There's pretty much no chance any film will earn that much during this weekend. In fact, the two wide releases might not make that much combined.
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January 20th, 2013
New releases dominated the top of the December 9th edition of the DVD sales chart with four of them placing within the top six. Unsurprisingly, The Dark Knight Rises led the way with a stunning result of 2.03 million units / $26.96 million during its first week of release.
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