October 18th, 2024
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Halloween season ramps up again in theaters this weekend, with Smile 2 looking to keep the horror genre firmly in control at the box office. It should do so relatively easily, even though Terrifier 3 has been enjoying a great run so far. The $2.5 million in previews on Thursday for Smile 2 isn’t spectacular, but sets the film up for $20 million or so on opening weekend.
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October 6th, 2023
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The Exorcist: Believer is technically the sixth movie in The Exorcist franchise, and the second attempt at rebooting the series (does anyone remember 2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning?). Critics haven’t generally been kind to this attempted resurrection, and, although audiences seem to enjoy it more, it looks like it won’t get good word of mouth. That won’t be enough to stop it from handily winning the weekend.
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November 1st, 2020
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Come Play is outperforming expectations and set for a comfortable weekend win, according to studio projections released on Sunday morning. Its $3.15-million debut is a little behind other recent chart toppers like Honest Thief and The War with Grandpa, both of which picked up $3.6-million openings, but it’s also comfortably ahead of our pre-weekend prediction of $2.2 million.
Is this better-than-expected performance a sign of a strengthening market? Unfortunately not.
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October 30th, 2020
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Although it’s unlikely to break any records (even pandemic-era ones), Come Play has a good chance to topping the box office this Halloween weekend, according to our model, which puts its opening weekend around $2.2 million. That’s not far enough ahead of Honest Thief for a win to be certain. Anything less would almost certainly point to another down weekend overall at the box office.
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October 25th, 2020
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With limited competition, Honest Thief will cruise to a second box office win according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning. Open Road is projecting $2.35 million over three days, down 35% from last weekend, for $7.5 million to date. As expected, The Empty Man was not much of a force, although it did slightly improve on our prediction.
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October 18th, 2020
Honest Thief will top the domestic box office this weekend with a $3.7 million opening that is in line with expectations, and provides more evidence that the theatrical business is at least stable in the United States. Relatively good numbers for the re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas bolster that argument, although 2 Hearts is underperforming hopes. Overall, it’s a story of two steps forward, one step back.
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October 16th, 2020
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After last weekend’s surprise win for The War with Grandpa, this weekend is looking a little more predictable, with Honest Thief expected to comfortably top the chart. The overall strength of the market remains very uncertain, but our model is now assuming about 40% of moviegoers are ready to go to theaters, based on Grandpa’s relative strength last weekend. Liam Neeson is a well-known quantity at the box office, and Honest Thief joins a long line of Neeson thrillers, most of which have done very well at the box office. Our model has this new one opening at around $4.4 million.
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October 11th, 2020
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Although the theatrical market is still in the doldrums, The War with Grandpa is providing some welcome good news this weekend with a surprise win. 101 Studios is projecting $3.608 million for the weekend, which is more than double our prediction, and wouldn’t be a particularly surprising result for a film like this from a new distributor under normal circumstances. Its performance raises some interesting questions about what films will and won’t work in theaters at the moment.
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October 8th, 2020
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The War with Grandpa opens in 2,250 theaters this weekend, making it the first truly-wide new release since Infidel back on September 25. Family movies have generally looked weak during the pandemic, but Hocus Pocus did surprisingly well last weekend, earning $1.925 million. Given Grandpa’s wider release and relative freshness, it might have a shot at toppling Tenet from the top of the chart, although our model thinks that’s unlikely. In fact, the re-release of Coco might have a better chance.
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October 4th, 2020
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The best that can be said about this weekend at the box office is that a movie is doing better than expected. However, to put that in perspective, the movie in question is a re-release of a film that opened in fourth place back in 1993, and earned four times as much on its original opening weekend (when ticket prices were less than half what they are now) as it did this weekend. The movie, of course, is Hocus Pocus, and its $1.925 million weekend is a welcome surprise for a film that will presumably be drawing more of a family audience than the other films in release right now (Disney has not reported any demographic information for the film).
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October 1st, 2020
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September is normally the slowest month of the year at the box office as the Summer season winds down and studios start prepping for the holidays and Oscar season. The build-up to the end of the year usually starts in early October. This weekend last year, for example, Joker opened with a massive $96 million weekend that kicked off a big Fall season. This year, a re-release of Hocus Pocus is the highlight, and $3 million will be enough to top the chart. Times really are dismal, and our model is predicting another down week. Unless a new release surprises in October (something that looks unlikely, given the slate), we’ll be headed for a down month at the box office, at a time when the industry desperately needs some good news.
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October 2nd, 2012
There was a wide variety of new releases to reach the top ten on the Blu-ray Sales Chart this week. Indiana Jones Blu-ray Box Set opened in first place with 239,000 units / $15.55 million, which is excellent for a box set.
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September 25th, 2012
It's the unofficial beginning of the Christmas Shopping Season. Starting the rush this year is The Avengers, which broke records at the box office and will likely do the same on the home market. It is clearly a contender for Pick of the Week, but I'm not sure if the Blu-ray Combo Pack or the 3D Combo Pack is the better deal. The only other contender for Pick of the Week is Bond: 50 on Buy from Amazon. However, it's a double-dip... or triple-dip. I've lost count. In the end, I'm going with The Avengers on 3D Combo Pack. It's only $5 more, so it is worth future-proofing.
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September 22nd, 2012
Hocus Pocus is a horror film aimed at kids, which means its mostly comedy with some horror elements. This is one of those movies I think I watched a couple times while babysitting, but my recollection of the film is very vague. It did come out nearly 20 years ago, which is plenty of time for a movie to fade from my memory. However, there's also a chance it is just a very forgettable film. So which is it?
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September 3rd, 2012
This week is again loaded with TV on DVD releases, including several in the top best sellers according to Amazon.com. The best TV on DVD release in terms of comedy is 2 Broke Girls: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray, while Person of Interest: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray is the best TV on DVD release as far as the dramas are concerned. Both are contenders for Pick of the Week, but neither quite gets there. The Five-Year Engagement on Blu-ray Combo Pack comes a little close, but in the end I went with Headhunters on DVD or Blu-ray. Just keep an eye on the price of the Blu-ray.
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