July 7th, 2023
Insidious: The Red Door looks likely to pull off a surprise win at the box office this weekend, pushing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny into second place in its second weekend in theaters. With Sound of Freedom and Joy Ride also set for places in the top four, this will be a weekend where new releases at least partly make up for the poor performance of some recent box office misses.
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July 6th, 2023
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will continue into into its sophomore frame with its opening count of 4,600 theaters, once again easily making it the widest release of the week. The latest installment of the beloved adventure franchise turned up $60.37 million in its opening weekend, and currently holds a six-day total of $89.4 million, while bumping the franchise’s worldwide box office to over $2.1 billion. This week it will try to fend off the arrival of two new wide releases, as well as a surprise hit that arrived on the Fourth of July.
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January 1st, 2019
December would have been an excellent month, except it had to be compared to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The top four movies of this December might not finish with as much as that movie made. That said, the year ended on an overall positive note finishing with a lead of close to $800 million over 2017. Unfortunately, 2019 is going to get off to a slow start. Not only are there very few films opening wide this month, only one of them, Glass, is expected to be a midlevel hit or better. Granted, Glass is expected to earn more than $100 million domestically, which is something no film released last January could do. However, The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle both had such incredible legs that 2019 will still get off to a slower start, even if it has stronger new releases.
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April 3rd, 2018
It’s a short week for one reason: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which came out last week, but it is still scaring away top-notch releases. There are only a couple of first-run releases coming out this week, Father Figures and Insidious: The Last Key. However, there are also a few films in the main section that wouldn’t even be included in the secondary releases on a normal week. There are a trio of Pick of the Week contenders, including Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but that’s a late review. The best of this week’s releases are Jane and My Hero Academia Season Two, Volume One. Both are absolutely worth picking up, but in the end, I went with My Hero Academia.
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January 24th, 2018
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle remained in first place with $32.6 million on 33,000 screens in 83 markets for totals of $450.8 million internationally and $767.3 million worldwide. Had the film earned half of that, it still would have been a financial success worthy of a sequel. China was the film’s biggest market, both of the weekend and overall, as it earned $7.71 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $66.50 million. The film will have no trouble getting to $800 million worldwide, probably by the end of this coming weekend, while $900 million isn’t completely out of the question.
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January 9th, 2018
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle held on strongly during the first weekend of 2018 earning $37.23 million. Insidious: The Last Key opened with $29.58 million, earning a solid second place. Overall, the box office pulled in $165 million, which is 15% lower than last weekend; however, last weekend was a holiday weekend, so this is a better than expected hold. More importantly, this is 21% better than the same weekend last year. 2018 has a small lead over 2017 at 7.1% to $306 million to $285 million. It has been a while since we’ve seen a lead in the year-over-year comparison, but obviously it is far too early for this lead to be meaningful.
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January 6th, 2018
There will be a fifth installment in the Insidious franchise. That much is practically guaranteed after Friday’s debut. Insidious: The Last Key opened in first place with $12.74 million during its opening day. On the downside, its critical / popular reception has been mixed. Its reviews are only 25% positive and that won’t help it draw in new viewers. The film did earn a B minus from CinemaScore, which is better than a lot of horror films manage, so that could help. It will very likely slip to second place on Saturday, but the film will still top our prediction with between $25 million and $30 million.
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January 5th, 2018
Insidious: The Last Key opened with $1.98 million in previews on Thursday, which is surprisingly strong. Most analysts were expecting closer to $1.5 million. Therefore the film is on pace to top our prediction and could earn more than $20 million during its opening weekend. However, it still has to deal with bad reviews and it could be the weakest in the franchise so far. That said, if it hits $50 million domestically and does as well internationally, then the studio could go ahead with another installment.
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January 4th, 2018
It is the first weekend of 2018 and Insidious: The Last Key is the only true wide release, although Molly’s Game is expanding semi-wide. The Last Key isn’t expected to compete with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle or Star Wars: The Last Jedi for first place, but if it can open with more than $15 million, it should at least help the year get off to a good start. This weekend last year, Underworld: Blood Wars opened in fourth place, while Hidden Figures expanded into first place. Both Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Star Wars: The Last Jedi should top Hidden Figures and while 2018 won’t have the same depth, it should still earn a victory in the year-over-year comparison.
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January 1st, 2018
2017 wasn’t a good year. It started out well and ended on a high note, but the summer was a disaster and that proved to be too much for the rest of the year to overcome. Fortunately, The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle are still doing very well and will help January get off to a fast start. Unfortunately, the biggest new release of January is Paddington 2 and it isn’t expected to match its predecessor at the box office; it certainly won’t top $100 million domestically. It is unlikely any of the Oscar contenders will hit the century mark in January either. This is really bad news, as last January, we had a new release, Split and an Oscar contender, Hidden Figures, which both topped that milestone with ease. 2018 should get off to a faster start in the first two weeks, but overall, this month will end with a loss.
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November 7th, 2015
It was the first full week for The Avengers: Age of Ultron on the home market and it topped the new releases for October 6th, 2015 and earned first place on the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for October 11th. Over the week, the film sold 1.02 million units and generated $18.02 million for the week for sales of 2.62 million units / $47.21 million after nine days of release. By comparison, Furious 7 generated $47.05 million, not during its first two weeks, but since its release nearly a month ago. It is already in the top ten for the year and it should climb into the top five shortly.
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October 7th, 2015
The home market release report is a little late this week, because in our ongoing attempt to improve our site, we are looking at the format of this column and it will change shortly. (Also, this week both Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes were acting up. I had to download a script blocker and block all scripts on Rotten Tomatoes. Certain things no longer work, but at least it doesn't cause Firefox to freeze every ten minutes.) The biggest release of the week is The Avengers: The Age of Ultron, sort of. It came out last Friday, not this Tuesday. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive so I can do a full review. Meanwhile, the best new release of the week is When Marnie Was There in Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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June 16th, 2015
After disappointing weekend after disappointing weekend, I had become pessimistic about any film's chances of being a breakout success this summer. Jurassic World changed that. The film didn't just top expectations, it broke all-time records. Over the weekend, the film pulled in $208.81 million. That is the record for biggest single weekend and it helped take the overall weekend box office to an all-time high with $273.67 million. This is 106% more than last weekend; that's right, the weekend box office was more than double last week's result. Additionally, and more importantly, it was 46% higher than the same weekend last year. Jurassic World itself earned 12% more than all films combined this weekend last year.
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June 9th, 2015
None of the three new releases matched expectations and while the holdovers pulled their weight, it wasn't enough to help the overall box office. Spy didn't make it to $30 million during its opening weekend, but it came within a rounding error of that mark. Insidious Chapter 3 did very well compared to its production budget, but will likely be the weakest installment in the franchise. Meanwhile, if it weren't for its lower production budget, Entourage would be considered a bomb. Overall, the box office fell 4.3% from last weekend to $133 million. Worse still, the box office fell 18% from last year. Year-to-date, the overall box office has pulled in $4.39 billion, which is 1.2% above 2014's pace.
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June 5th, 2015
There are three wide releases this week, including one that is already in theaters. The biggest of these three releases is Spy, which is the latest film from Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig. Both of their previous films crossed $100 million with ease. Insidious Chapter 3 is the third film in the Insidious franchise, but most think it won't be the best. Entourage started out ahead of expectations, but its reviews could cause a quick decline. This weekend last year, The Fault in Our Stars opened with nearly $50 million, while Maleficent landed in second place with more than $30 million. I don't think 2015 will be strong on top, but I think it will have better depth.
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June 1st, 2015
May turned out to be softer than anticipated with The Avengers: Age of Ultron missing expectations by about $100 million. Additionally, only Pitch Perfect 2 really topped expectations. May 2015 kept pace with May of 2014, more or less. June doesn't have any films as strong as Age of Ultron, but there are two films that should have no trouble getting to $200 million. Those two films are Jurassic World and Inside Out and I'm not sure which one will turn out to be the biggest hit of the month. Last June, the biggest hit was Transformers: Age of Extinction, but both Jurassic World and Inside Out should top that film, albeit by small margins. On the other hand, last June had four other films that reached $100 million, while this time around only Spy! and Ted 2 have a real shot at that milestone. 2015 is stronger at the top, but has weaker depth. It will be interesting to see if 2015 will keep pace with 2014 over the course of the full month.
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