January 30th, 2020
-(2019)-1-News.jpg)
The big winter releases are starting to come out, but the overall quantity of releases is still rather soft. Terminator: Dark Fate is the biggest release of the week, but it isn’t the best. As for the best, it was a close two-way race between Fail Safe and Parasite, with the latter winning by the tiniest of margins.
More...
January 29th, 2020
-2-News.jpg)
The first Terminator movie was a relatively low-budget horror movie where the unstoppable killer was a Sci-fi robot instead of some supernatural force. Its sequel was the most expensive movie at the time and a pure action film with cutting edge special effects. What they had in common were stellar reviews and massive profit margins. Unfortunately, the films rapidly got worse in terms of reviews and when it came to box office returns. Terminator: Dark Fate had the worst financial performance in the franchise. Is it also the worst movie? Or were moviegoers unwilling to see it, because they were burned too many times in the past?
More...
November 10th, 2019
-2-News.jpg)
Midway wasn’t supposed to be a major hit, and it won’t be, but, sadly for all the other new films, it is opening in first place at the box office. In fact, its weekend estimate is $17.49 million, which is less than 10% above our prediction, but it was able to earn first place with relative ease. The film only managed mixed reviews, but it did earn an A-rating from CinemaScore. Additionally, there are holidays coming up, so it could have surprisingly long legs. The film also opened in China with $4.48 million. It’s hard to use this result as a guide for other markets, as there haven’t been enough American-centric war movies released in China to compare against.
More...
November 9th, 2019
-1-News.jpg)
Midway made a surprisingly strong debut to earn first place on Friday with an estimated $6.34 million. Its reviews have improved and are currently 40% positive. Granted, this isn’t great, or even merely good, but it is also not so bad that it will be a major drag at the box office. Furthermore, the film scored a solid A-rating from CinemaScore, indicating its target audience loved the movie, especially compared to critics. Add in a more mature target audience and the film should have solid legs, helping it earn close to $18 million during its opening weekend. Granted, the film cost $50 million to make, so it will still need help internationally and on the home market to break even after a start like this, but this is still much better than most people were expecting.
More...
November 7th, 2019
-1-News.jpg)
It is not a banner week for stellar new releases. Doctor Sleep is earning good reviews, but not great reviews. Sadly, it is award-worthy compared to most of the other new releases. Last Christmas is earning mixed reviews, but that’s to be expected for a romantic comedy. The less said about Midway or Playing with Fire’s reviews, the better. This weekend last year, The Grinch opened with $67 million, which is likely more than all four new films will open with this year. In fact, last year’s number two film, Bohemian Rhapsody, will likely earn more than any one film will earn this year. 2019 is going to take a beating in the year-over-year competition.
More...
November 5th, 2019
-6-News.jpg)
It was a bad weekend at the box office, with Terminator: Dark Fate missing expectations by a significant degree. Harriet was able to beat expectations, but it wasn’t enough to truly compensate. Furthermore, Arctic Dogs and Motherless Brooklyn were practically non-factors at the box office. The box office did grow 9.5% from last weekend reaching $115 million. More importantly, this was 21% lower than this weekend last year. 2019’s deficit grew to 5.6% or $540 million and is now behind 2018’s pace by $9.15 billion to $9.70 billion. It is important to point out that while 2019 is being crushed by 2018, it is still on pace to be the second largest box office of all time, while its ticket sales are better than 2017’s pace, so as disappointing as the year as been so far, there are still reasons to celebrate.
More...
November 1st, 2019
-3-News.jpg)
Terminator: Dark Fate managed $2.35 million from its previews on Thursday. Normally, this wouldn’t be enough to kick-start a strong weekend, but yesterday was Halloween, which is far from a normal day at the box office. Furthermore, its reviews are better than most of the rest of the Terminator franchise, and good enough to have decent legs. It is still too early to tell where it will finish its opening weekend. Halloween is just too big a wildcard to make an accurate guess at this point. We will know more this time tomorrow when the Friday estimates come out.
More...
November 1st, 2019
-1-News.jpg)
Joker single-handedly saved October. Had the film merely matched expectations, then the month would had suffered a major loss in the year-over-year competition. We sill lost a little ground, but not so much that we will look to October as the reason 2019 missed last year’s pace. As for November, we have some potential monster hits with Frozen II leading the way. If that film doesn’t earn at least $1 billion worldwide, I will be shocked. Additionally, every week has at least one movie coming out that has a somewhat realistic shot at $100 million, although not all of them will get there. Unfortunately, last November was much better, with five films that topped $100 million, including three that earned more than $200 million. I think 2019 will be better at the top, but it just won’t have the depth to keep pace with last year.
More...
October 31st, 2019
It’s the first weekend of November, which is the unofficial start of both the Christmas blockbuster season and of Awards Season. There are four films hoping to take advantage of time of year to create some box office success. Of these, only Terminator: Dark Fate is expected to be a true box office hit. It will likely earn more during its opening weekend than any of the rest of the new releases earn in total. I think Harriet will do okay and could even crack $10 million during the weekend. On the other hand, Arctic Dogs still has no reviews and that’s a really bad sign. Finally there’s Motherless Brooklyn, which is opening in well under 2,000 theaters. This weekend last year, Bohemian Rhapsody opened with more than $50 million and even the high end predictions don’t have Terminator: Dark Fate earning that much. It’s going to be another bad week for 2019 in the year-over-year competition.
More...
July 17th, 2018
Terminator 2: Judgment Day has been released on the home market countless times. I mean that literally, as I’m not even going to bother to count. Amazingly, I’ve never actually reviewed this movie, despite owning three different versions of the movie on DVD / Blu-ray. I did review the original movie, twice, so it is about time I reviewed this one.
More...
November 9th, 2015
There are a couple of big hits on this week's list of new releases. Terminator: Genisys was a monster hit internationally, but it failed to live up to expectations here. On the other hand, Trainwreck earned $100 million here, but barely made a peep internationally. Of these two films, Trainwreck is the only one worth picking up. In fact, it is a Contender for Pick of the Week. However, I'm still waiting for the screener and I hate to give out this title when a screener is on its way. Because of that, I'm going with Better Call Saul: Season One as the Best of the Best, but it isn't the only other title worth picking up.
More...
September 10th, 2015
Terminator: Genisys remained in first place on the international chart, but with only $11.5 million in 8 markets. This lifted its international total to $346.3 million, while it now has $435.9 million worldwide. This helped the film become the second biggest hit in the franchise, assuming you don't take inflation into account. In China, the film managed $26.67 million, but that was for the full week, giving the film a total of $111.92 million after 15 days of release.
More...
August 27th, 2015
Terminator Genisys earned $26.97 million on Sunday in China. That was enough for first place in that market over the entire weekend. In fact, that was enough for first place internationally. Adding in one holdover market, and the movie made $27.4 million in 2 markets for totals of $264.0 million internationally and $353.1 million worldwide. One final note, China is already the film's biggest single market and it could save the franchise and make another installment likely.
More...
July 23rd, 2015
It is a special week on the international chart, as we have an international film in first place. Monster Hunt earned first place in China with an estimated $72 million over the weekend and a total opening of $107.58 million. (This includes less than $1 million in early previews.) This movie is a romantic comedy, of sorts, set in a world of CGI monsters. This is the kind of film that could have appeal in many markets outside of the usual markets Chinese films play in. Additionally, this is the kind of opening that will make distributors here interested in obtaining the rights. It is too soon to tell if it will have a global run, but it will be worth keeping an eye on.
More...
July 15th, 2015
Matching its stellar domestic debut, Minions rose to first place with $130.7 million on 9,606 screens in 56 markets at the international box office at the weekend for totals of $287.77 million internationally and $403.49 million worldwide. The film debuted in 30 new markets, earned first place in all of them, and broke the record for the biggest animated opening in 28 of them. This includes Russia, where it earned $15.12 million on 1,209 screens, which is the biggest opening in that market, animated or otherwise. Its biggest opening was in Mexico, where the film earned $15.72 million on 692 screens over the weekend. Meanwhile, it earned first place in France with a total opening of $12 million on 868 screens. It remains above Despicable Me 2's pace and this puts it on track to reach $1 billion worldwide.
More...
July 9th, 2015
Terminator: Genisys expanded its market count to 47 over the weekend, which allowed it to rise to first place with $74.0 million for a two-week total of $85.5 million internationally. Its biggest new market was Russia, where it dominated with $11.17 million on 2,192 screens over the weekend. South Korea was close behind with $9.24 million on 1,113 screens for a total opening of $11.06 million. The film earned first place in Mexico with $4.73 million on 1,307 for a total opening of $6.18 million. It only managed second place in Brazil with $3.9 million on 1,012. In all four markets, the film set records for the franchise. It wasn't as lucky in the U.K., where it opened in second place with $5.83 million in 536 theaters. That's about on par with its opening here in the US. The goal for the film is to earn over $200 million internationally and $300 million worldwide. If it can get there, then the film will likely break even, eventually. On the other hand, "breaking even" isn't enough to justify continuing the reboot trilogy.
More...
July 6th, 2015
It was not a good weekend for new releases, as the top two spots went to holdovers. Fortunately, Inside Out earned first place over Jurassic World, because I had no idea what I was going to do for an image this time around. (That's not true. I was going to look for pictures of corgis dressed as dinosaurs.) Neither Terminator: Genisys or Magic Mike XXL matched expectations. At least Terminator: Genisys came close. Overall, the box office plummeted 26% from last weekend to just $135 million. Granted, that's still 2.2% higher than the same weekend last year, but boy have we come down from the highs we saw just a few weeks ago. Year-to-date, 2015 has earned $5.62 billion, which is 6.0% above 2014's pace of $5.31 million. 2015 would really need to sink for a number of weeks before that lead was in trouble, but after this week, that scenario is a little more likely.
More...
July 4th, 2015
Inside Out earned first place on the Friday chart, just ahead of Jurassic World $12.5 million to $11.8 million. This is bad news, as the new releases will be well behind films that are three and four weeks old respectively. At this pace, Inside Out should top $30 million over the weekend, but barely. Jurassic World will earn about $28 million. This is roughly in line with Friday's predictions. On the other hand...
More...
July 2nd, 2015
(As I warned previously, we've run out of images for Jurassic World, so we are down to Picture Unrelated. And no, I will not explain the context of the image. I will say the TV show it comes from is surprisingly good.)
Jurassic World completed a hat-trick at the weekend by earning first place with $82.5 million in 67 markets for totals of $737.5 million internationally and $1.238 billion worldwide. The film entered the top ten on the all-time worldwide box office chart over the weekend and has already moved into seventh place. Its biggest single market was China, where it made $38.07 million over the full week for a total of $206.57 million after three weekends. Hopefully this is the last weekend the film spends in top spot, as new releases finally rise to overtake it. If it is still in first place next week, it will be a sign that the box office is slowing down.
More...
July 1st, 2015
June was a much better month than expected due to two films, Jurassic World and Inside Out. Had those two films merely matched expectations, then 2015 would have likely fallen behind 2014. As for this coming month, there are five weekends in July and each week there is at least one film with the potential to reach $100 million. Most weeks there are two films that at least have a shot at getting to the century mark. The biggest hit of the month will likely be Minions, which has already opened in several international markets and it's ahead of Despicable Me 2 at the same point. That film made more than $300 million and nearly $1 billion worldwide, so any growth would be fantastic. There are also a number of potential $200 million films, led by Ant-man. Ant-man is the latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that has averaged $300 million domestically over eleven films and all of the past six films have reached at least $200 million. I'm not saying this one is guaranteed to do the same, but you can't dismiss that possibility. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Pixels have smaller chances to get to $200 million, but you have to at least entertain the possibility. Additionally, last July was a lot weaker than this July looks to be, so 2015 should win in the year-over-year comparison most weeks. Or I might have let the box office success of June cloud my judgment. We will soon find out.
More...
February 17th, 2013
This is not the first time I've reviewed The Terminator. It's not even the first time I've reviewed the Blu-ray. This is in fact the third time time the film has been released on Blu-ray, but the other two were greeted with mixed reviews. The movie still lives up to its reputation, but the picture quality was weak for high definition. This Blu-ray is being labeled Remastered, but is it worth the triple-dip?
More...
