December 19th, 2013
Part III of the Holiday Gift Guide is a little late due to reasons you probably don't want to hear the details about. (I believe I've developed a food allergy to something in Eggnog.) The third installment of our holiday gift guide includes independent films, classics, foreign films, etc. The fastest way to find gifts is to go to the Independent Spirit Awards nominations and find any film that is on that list that is already out on DVD / Blu-ray (Frances Ha, Mud, etc.). Unfortunately, most of the films competing for Awards Season glory are still in theaters and not available as gifts. But there are still many films worth picking up, starting with...
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August 23rd, 2013
There are not a lot of limited releases on this week's list, but a few of them have good reviews and / or big name casts. Drinking Buddies is one such film, but I think Short Term 12 will come out on top of the Per Theater Chart thanks in part to its reviews.
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July 1st, 2013
For the most part, June was a really strong month at the box office with nearly every film either matching expectations, or at least coming close enough to call it a victory. Looking forward, there are a dozen films opening wide in July, more or less. One of them, The Smurfs 2, is opening on a Wednesday, so I'm going to hold off talking about that movie till the August preview. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain is opening in less than 1000 theaters, but it has a shot at reaching the top ten during its opening weekend. If we include both of them, there are twelve films, but I think it is better to stick with the ten truly wide, truly July openings. Of these, Despicable Me 2 is clearly going to be the biggest hit at the box office. It could become the second biggest hit of the year so far. It is not the only film that could be a $100 million hit. In fact, there are six films opening in July that I think have a better than 50% chance of reaching that level. There is currently only one film that I think won't at least become a midlevel hit. By comparison in 2012, there were three $100 million movies, led by The Dark Knight Rises, but the rest of the new releases struggled. There's no chance any movie opening this month will top $400 million, in fact, it is quite possible no film will get to $300 million. That said, 2013 has a lot better depth, so it might come out on top in the end.
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