October 29th, 2015
(As we mentioned previously, we've run out of images for Jurassic World, so we're reduced to using less than official images. I know I promised Corgis dress as dinosaurs, but I couldn't find any really good pictures. I did find a picture of Guinea Pigs dressed as dinosaurs, which might be even cuter. So thanks to Reddit user guineapigsarethebest for letting us use your picture.)
Jurassic World became the biggest hit of the year and one of the biggest hits in the history of the box office. On the other hand, its reviews were not that good with the term "dumb" used repeatedly, even in the positive reviews. Is it dumb fun? Is it just plain dumb?
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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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February 1st, 2014
Escape Plan features two of the biggest action stars of the 1980s, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It earned mixed reviews and failed to find an audience here. (It did perform well enough internationally that it could break even early on the home market.) Is the film better than its box office performance? Or did it fail to find an audience for a reason?
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February 19th, 2013
Sinister is a horror film that opened early in October. Its early reviews were incredible, but by the time it opened its Tomatometer Score fell to just over the overall positive level. This suggests the studio was able to show the film to genre critics, who were more likely to give the film a positive review, before the overall community saw it. I don't begrudge them for doing this. After all, it makes total sense for the studio to want the early good reviews and the genre critics are the ones mostly likely to jump at the chance to review a horror film. And in the end, it still earned good reviews. But does this mean it will be seen as a classic by fans of the genre and only okay by others? And is an okay horror film still worth picking up for casual fans of the genre.
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October 1st, 2012
2012 continues its downward path. After a record-breaking spring, thanks to The Hunger Games, and a record-breaking start to the summer, thanks to The Avengers, the box office hasn't been able to maintain any real momentum. For most of the month, September was no better than August and now the year-over-year gains are just a little more than inflation. October will need to improve or 2012 will be in real trouble. Unfortunately, that might be tough. There's not a single film coming out in October that looks like it will be a guaranteed $100 million hit and there are only two films with a realistic chance, Taken 2 and Paranormal Activity 4. (There's also Cloud Atlas, which is a wild card. That movie could bomb or be the biggest hit of the month and I wouldn't be surprised either way.) There is a chance all three will get to the century mark, but there's a better chance none of them will. Last October, two films cracked $100 million: Paranormal Activity 3 and Puss in Boots, with the latter nearly reaching $150 million. I don't see any film coming close to matching that figure. On the other hand, last year there were six films that one could accurately describe as bombs. So while 2012 is weaker at the top, it could have better depth than 2011 did. Let's hope so, because we can't afford more bad news.
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