July 12th, 2016
It is a very slow week for the home market. The biggest release of the week is The Divergent: Series Allegiant, which is a movie most people should avoid. (Looking at its box office numbers, most people did avoid it.) As for the best releases, Belladonna Of Sadness is amazing, but the screener arrived late and I don’t like handing out that title when I haven’t had a chance to check out the full release. Fortunately, we do have a backup contender, Everybody Wants Some on Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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July 11th, 2016
Richard Linklater is one of those directors with lots of Indie Cred that rarely have breakout success at the box office. The biggest hit of his career has been School of Rock. Everybody Wants Some was expected to do well enough to earn some measure of mainstream success. Some were even expecting it to be one of the biggest limited releases of the year so far, topping $10 million. That didn’t happen. Is this one of the director’s weaker movies? Or was it unfairly overlooked by moviegoers?
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June 20th, 2016
There are two wide releases coming out this week, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and The Divergent Series: Allegiant, although the latter is only coming out on Video on Demand. Neither of these are big releases and it only gets much worse from there. There wasn't a lot of competition for Pick of the Week, but I went with Fantastic Planet: Criterion Collection. It's a classic, but it is also a French Surrealist animated film, so that will limit its target audience.
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May 3rd, 2016
The Family Fang led the way on the theater average chart with $14,506 in one theater. This is the last time we will talk about this film's box office numbers, because it opens on VOD this Friday, thus ending its chances of box office success. Then again, clearly VOD is more important to a limited release than the theatrical box office is. The Man Who Knew Infinity was next with an average of $13,388 in six theaters. That's good, but likely not good enough to expand significantly. Eva Hesse was playing in just one theater earning $12,780 over the weekend and $17,912 from Wednesday through Sunday. The Jungle Book made the $10,000 club for the third weekend in a row with an average of $10,818.
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April 26th, 2016
It wasn't a great week for new limited releases, which left a holdover / wide release on top of the theater average chart. The Jungle Book led the way with an average of $15,278. The only other film in the $10,000 was The Meddler, which opened with an average of $14,256 in four theaters.
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April 20th, 2016
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Green Room led the way with an average of $29,328 in three theaters. This is yet another success for A24 and whoever is in charge of acquisitions over there needs to get a raise. The overall number one film, The Jungle Book was next with an average of $25,636. Sing Street was well back with an average of $12,715 in five theaters. The only holdover in the $10,000 club was Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt, which was down a mere 18% to $10,814 in its lone theater.
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April 6th, 2016
Miles Ahead led the way on the theater average chart with $28,633 in four theaters. Vaxxed: From Cover Up to Catastrophe was right behind with $28,339 in one theater. As someone who doesn't want to see measles make a comeback, this is a scary result. Everybody Wants Some earned an average of $16,440 in 19 theaters over the weekend after opening in five theaters on Wednesday. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice remained in the $10,000 club with an average of $12,062. Saturday's Warrior and Chongqing Hot Pot had very close averages at $10,671 and $10,098 respectively.
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April 3rd, 2016
Last weekend, Batman v Superman posted the 7th-biggest opening weekend of all time. This weekend, if Sunday’s estimate proves to be accurate, it will record the 27th-biggest 2nd weekend. That stat tells you most of what you need to know about the film’s box office performance: it hit big at the beginning, but is proving to have very little staying power. Warner Bros.’ Sunday morning projection for the weekend is $52.385 million, down 68% from last weekend, for a total of $261.5 million to date. With $419.8 million overseas so far, the film is well on its way to $700 million worldwide, and should make about $900 million in total. That’s certainly short of what the studio was hoping for—the consensus was that the film needed $1 billion globally to make a profit—but surely enough to keep their plans for the franchise on track for now.
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April 1st, 2016
There are a handful of films on this week's list earning great reviews and/or loud buzz. Of these four films, Green Room is the one I want to see the most, but Everybody Wants Some is the one most likely to become a box office hit.
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April 1st, 2016
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March was a really good month, for the most part. There were a few bombs, but the two biggest films, Zootopia and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both beat expectations by significant margins, so overall the box office was better than expected. Unfortunately, April is a mess, which makes prognosticating really tough. Every single week has at least one film that either moved, switched from wide to limited release, or disappeared entirely. The Jungle Book appears to be the biggest film of the year, but The Huntsman: Winter's War could also be a $100 million hit. Sadly, last April was led by Furious 7, which earned more than $350 million at the box office. That's very likely more than both The Jungle Book and The Huntsman: Winter's War will make combined. Worse still, there were only four weekends in April last year, meaning the month ends by going head-to-head with The Avengers: Age of Ultron. By the time the month ends, 2016's lead over 2015 might be gone. Let's hope it is not that bad.
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