This graph shows Rosario Dawson’s score on our annual analysis of leading stars at the box office. The Star Score represents points assigned to each of the leading stars of the top 100 movies (based on box office) in the current year and two preceding years. For appearing in the number one movie in a year a star gets 100 points, the number two movie 99 points and so on..
Latest Ranking on Selected Box Office Record Lists
March was a month of extremes, led by two strong performances: Beauty and the Beast breaking records and Logan cracking $200 million with ease. There were also two other $100 million hits and another potential $100 million hit that we don’t have significant box office numbers for yet. This is fantastic. On the opposite end, there were three films on last month’s list that didn’t even open truly wide. This month won’t be as lucrative at the top, as The Fate of the Furious is the only film expected to top $100 million. Fortunately, it is expected to open with over $100 million. On the other extreme, there are many, many films on this list that I’m not sure will open wide. Fortunately, last April wasn’t any better. The Jungle Book made nearly $1 billion worldwide, but the other nine films combined made less than half of that. To emphasize: the other nine films that opened last April averaged less than $50 million worldwide each. If The Fate of the Furious can just come close to the previous installment of the franchise, then 2017 has a solid shot at topping 2016.
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January turned out to be a good month. Granted, it didn’t live up to last January, but its box office was one of the top five Januarys of all time, so that’s still a good start to the year. Also, we will have our first $100 million movie released in 2017 and that doesn’t happen this early very often. As for February, there’s potentially the first $200 million hit of the year, The Lego Batman Movie. Fifty Shades Darker and The Great Wall both have a shot at $100 million. That said, it is more likely that both will miss that milestone than both will get there. As for the rest of the films, there are a few that are aiming for solid midlevel hits, like John Wick: Chapter Two and Get Out, while there are very few potential bombs. By comparison, last February there was one monster hit, Deadpool, and a lot of bombs. No other movie besides Deadpool made $50 million. No movie opening this month will match Deadpool, but we won’t have as many bombs either, so hopefully that will balance out and 2017 won’t fall further behind 2016.
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Ratchet and Clank opened in late April, which is a bad time of the year to release a movie, as the first of the Summer blockbusters is just around the corner. Even so, Ratchet and Clank was a serious box office disappointment. Is it as bad as its box office numbers? Or would it have thrived during a better time of year?
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Top Five is the latest film written and directed by Chris Rock. Chris Rock is one of the biggest stand-up comics around; however, his film career has never truly taken off. He has had some missteps with critics, but even films that earned amazing reviews failed to find an audience in theaters. For instance, this film pulled in just $25 million during the holidays. Does it deserve to find a wider audience? Or will critics like this more than the average moviegoer?
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The Captive was co-written and directed by Atom Egoyan, who has made some amazing films over the years. It stars Ryan Reynolds, who showed he can really act with his performance in Buried. However, the film struggled in its opening weekend and failed to find an audience in theaters. Is it a worthy addition to the two men's filmography? Or is there a good reason audience stayed away?
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Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast is the latest release in the direct-to-DVD franchise, Tinker Bell. I've reviewed the past installments of the franchise and for the most part they are verygoodfilms. Can the latest installment live up to the rest of the franchise? Or are they running out of steam?
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November is over and there are not a lot of positive things to say about what happened during the month. There were a couple of films that matched expectations, but there were no breakout hits and a few that missed expectations by wide margins. Granted, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will top $300 million with relative ease, but that's still nearly $100 million lower than some people were predicting. The month ends with 2014 about $300 million behind 2013's pace and there's really no chance to catch up in December. That doesn't mean there are no films that will be worth watching in December. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies should at least earn $200 million, while $300 million is not out of the question. Additionally, there are several films that at least have a shot at $100 million at the box office, but not all will get there. At least this December and last December are on par with each other. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug topped $250 million while there were three others that topped $100 million. I think we will get the same result this month. Last year there were a lot more wide releases, but many of them bombed. I think this year the lack of competition will help more films reach their potential.
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Trance is based on a TV movie written and directed by Joe Ahearne. Joe Ahearne helped write the screenplay for the theatrical release with John Hodges. John Hodges previously wrote the screenplays for Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, among others. Many of his films were directed by Danny Boyle, who also directed Trance. Given the pedigree, a lot of people were expecting a lot out of this film. It earned overall positive reviews and made more than $2 million in limited release, which is better than a lot of films manage. However, this was still way below expectations. Was it a case of expectations simply being too high? Or were there serious enough flaws in this film that caused it to fail to live up to many of Danny Boyle's previous films.
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As usual, there is an eclectic mix of limited releases, including some that have earned some advance buzz, like Trance and The Company You Keep, which should help them at the box office. The best reviewed film of the week is Upstream Color, but it is probably too weird to thrive outside of the art house circuit. It might be too weird to thrive within the art house circuit.
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