August 20th, 2013
The home market is rather slow this week with Epic the only first run release of note. (Scary Movie 5 is very unnoteworthy. Fortunately, there are some good TV on DVD releases worth checking out, like Revenge: The Complete Second Season and NCIS: Season Ten. In the end, I went with Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Third Season on Blu-ray Combo Pack for Pick of the Week.
More...
May 15th, 2013
Iron Man 3 earned first place for the third weekend in a row, this time pulling in $89.3 million on 9,921 screens in 55 markets for totals of $664.4 million internationally and $949.3 million worldwide. At this pace, the film will have no trouble getting to $1 billion this coming weekend, while it should enter the top ten of all time by the end of the weekend. The film's single best market of the weekend was China, where it added $32.7 million over the week to its running tally, which now sits at $97.2 million.
More...
May 8th, 2013
Iron Man 3 remained in top spot on the international chart with $174.3 million on 29,160 screens in 72 markets for totals of $502.8 million internationally and $676.9 million worldwide. The film opened with $64.07 million in China, which makes China the film's biggest international market, despite playing there for half as long as most other major markets. The film dominated Russia with $22.82 million on 1,188 screens over the weekend, which was more than five times the nearest competitor. It also opened in first place in Germany, but with a more subdued $6.91 million on 618 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $10.07 million. This is not a great opening, but one market is nothing compared to the monstrous international run so far. Iron Man 3 held on very well in South Korea down just 19% to $13.53 million on 1,388 screens over the weekend for a total of $43.23 million after two. In the U.K., the film made $9.80 million on 558 screens for a two-week total of $38.17 million.
More...
May 2nd, 2013
Iron Man 3 debuted internationally a week ahead of its domestic debut and its was record-breaking. The film earned $198.4 million on 13,633 screens in 45 markets, which is technically more than The Avengers made during its opening weekend. Granted, The Avengers were playing in fewer markets and on fewer screens, while it also had previews that boosted its total opening to $218.2 million, but this is still nothing short of fantastic.
More...
April 25th, 2013
After getting pushed back into third place last weekend, G.I. Joe: Retaliation returned to first place this weekend with $40.0 million on 13,616 screens in 62 markets for totals of $211.7 million internationally and $322.9 million worldwide. Of its weekend haul, $33.14 million was earned in China. That's really close to what it earned during its domestic opening weekend. Granted, it did open on a Thursday and that likely diluted its weekend number, while the Chinese results are for the full week, but this is still an impressive result.
More...
April 22nd, 2013
The overall box office was in line with expectations, more or less, which is unfortunately bad news, as expectations were low. Oblivion easily won the weekend, but the overall box office still fell 5.7% from last weekend to $110 million. Worse still, this is 19% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2013 has pulled in $2.77 billion, which is 11% lower than 2012's pace. 2013 is already $350 million behind 2012 and even with Iron Man 3 looming large, I don't see how 2013 is going to turn things around any time soon.
More...
April 18th, 2013
It is no secret that 2013 has been a bad year at the box office so far. There's only one film debuting wide this week, Oblivion, which should benefit from the lack of competition this weekend. (Although we are already seeing plenty of hype for Iron Man 3, which could hurt this film's chance at the box office.) There are also several films opening in more than 100 theaters: Filly Brown, Home Run, and The Lords of Salem. There's a chance one of them will be a better than expected hit and reach the top ten; it's a slim chance, but a chance. Finally, The Place Beyond the Pines is expanding to an additional 1,000 theaters and should climb higher in the top ten. Last year, there were three wide releases led by Think Like a Man. That film was a bigger than expected hit, but hopefully Oblivion will have an even better start, but not everyone is positive it will.
More...
April 16th, 2013
The winners of our Truly Scary Contest contest were determined and they are...
More...
April 15th, 2013
42 earned an easy win at the box office, in part due to a better than expected performance, but also in part due to really weak competition. It did manage 16th place on the list of April openings and 20th best April weekend overall, which is worth celebrating. Scary Movie 5, on the other hand, struggled and only a low production budget will save it or the franchise. The overall box office was down 13% from last week to $117 million; however, that's 2% higher than the same weekend last year, so there's another reason to celebrate. Year-to-date, 2013 is still taking a beating and is off 2012's pace by 11% at $2.62 billion to $2.95 billion.
More...
April 14th, 2013
Sports movies can be a risky proposition financially. While they potentially have a built-in audience among fans of the sport in question, they can also turn off people who don't much care for the sport. It takes a really compelling story to reach out to non-fans, and it seems as though the story of Jackie Robinson is compelling enough to draw in a broad audience for 42, which will open atop the box office chart this weekend with a projected $27.25 million, according to Warner Bros.' Sunday morning estimate. A 25% uptick on Saturday suggests good word of mouth for the film so far. Less good word of mouth is being earned by Scary Movie 5, which is projected to end in second place with $15.15 million. That's well behind previous outings for the franchise, which have clustered around the $40 million mark.
More...
April 12th, 2013
It's a two-way race for top spot at the box office this weekend with both Scary Movie 5 and 42. Just last week it looked like Scary Movie 5 would win, but as 42's box office prospects have risen, its have fallen. It is not a sure thing that 42 will win and it should be a close race, but it does have a slight edge. This weekend last year was led by... The Hunger Games ... for the fourth week in a row. It's the last time I have to say that. There were two other new releases that made an impact at the box office: The Three Stooges and The Cabin in the Woods. I think the new releases this year will be better than last year, but The Hunger Games will be the tie-breaker.
More...
April 5th, 2013
Next weekend, there are two wide releases, 42 and Scary Movie 5. The former will likely be the better film and should win in the end, but the latter will likely start faster. Because of this, it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Scary Movie 5.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Hitchcock on Blu-ray Combo Pack.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Fairfield Road on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
More...
April 1st, 2013
March is over and while it is a little too soon to tell where a few films will end their box office runs, it is clear Oz The Great and Powerful won the month. Some films beat expectations to become midlevel hits, like The Call, but it wasn't a great month at the box office, especially compared to last year. This month, there are only seven wide releases spread over four weeks. Only one of those films, Oblivion, has a shot at being anything more than a midlevel hit. None of the other six releases look like they will come close to $100 million, but none of them look like obvious bombs either. (Although I do have my worries when it comes to Scary Movie 5.) Last April was even weaker with no film earning $100 million, although Think Like a Man did come relatively close. We might actually see growth on the year-over-year comparison. We'd better, because 2013 is behind 2012's pace by a huge margin at the moment and things will get worse when May arrives.
More...
