This graph shows Jesse Eisenberg’s score on our annual analysis of leading stars at the box office. The Star Score represents points assigned to each of the leading stars of the top 100 movies (based on box office) in the current year and two preceding years. For appearing in the number one movie in a year a star gets 100 points, the number two movie 99 points and so on..
Latest Ranking on Selected Box Office Record Lists
Venom: The Last Dance is enjoying a good hold from its opening, and will easily retain top spot at the box office this weekend, according to Sony’s Sunday-morning projection. The studio’s new release, Here, is headed for a very disappointing debut, at something around $5 million.
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After a fight between Columbus and Wichita creates a deep rift in the make-shift family that causes Little Rock to leave with a strange man, the group must band together to find Little Rock and mend the family ties. Facing new kinds of zombies along the way, the group are forced to adjust their strategies until they find an incredible new zombie hunter known only as Nevada.
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After Superman Returns struggled at the box office and The Dark Knight became a surprise $1 billion hit, the folks at Warner Bros. decided to reboot the D.C. movies as D.C. Extended Universe using the dark and gritty style of the Dark Knight Trilogy. That hasn’t worked out so far. Man of Steel barely broke even and the mixed reviews made a few people worried about the franchise’s future. The dour interpretation of Superman didn’t work and the editing and pacing was a mess, but at least it had an interesting villain. Batman v Superman was terrible and had one of the worst villains of any comic book movie I’ve seen. When that film was eviscerated by the critics, Warner Bros. stepped in and made last minute changes to Suicide Squad. Did it work? Nope. But is it better than BvS?
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Captain America: Civil War is the 13th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s 13 films in just 8 years. The film pulled in more than $1 billion worldwide, so the market isn’t tired of these movies. However, has the brisk pace resulted in a substandard film? Or is it yet another critical smash?
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July did reasonably well, thanks mostly to The Secret Life of Pets, which will top $300 million shortly and could earn double its nearest competitor when all is said and done. That said, there were also a quartet of $100 million hits as well, so the month had good depth as well. August isn’t as lucky. There is one film that is expected to earn $100 million during its opening weekend, Suicide Squad, and one more that is expected to reach $100 million in total, Pete’s Dragon. There could be a surprise hit among the rest of the releases, (my long shot with a shot is Sausage Party) but for the most part, the rest of the wide releases would be happy with just $50 million at the box office. Last August was a disaster and Straight Outta Compton was the only hit of the month. Unless Suicide Squad bombs compared to expectations, 2016 will come out ahead in the year-over-year comparison.
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It’s not a grand week for limited releases. Café Society is the only big release of the week and while its reviews and its pedigree suggest it should be a hit, it might be the only hit of the week.
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May was great, as long as you don't compare it to last May. Captain America: Civil War was a monster hit and is closing in on $400 million, while both X-Men: Apocalypse and The Angry Birds Movie will earn over $100 million. Looking ahead, every week in June, there is one movie that should top $100 million; however, only Finding Dory is expected to make more than $200 million. In fact, that film is expected to make close to $400 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide. Last June, there were two monster hits, Inside Out and Jurassic World, plus one $100 million hit, Spy. I don't see how 2016 will top that. Even if every film with a shot at $100 million gets to that milestone, 2016 still might not top last year's pace. Fortunately, 2016 does have a large lead and that could be enough to keep 2016 ahead of 2015's pace in the year-over-year competition. It could be really close at the end of the month, on the other hand.
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The third installment of the Holiday Gift Guide focuses on smaller releases, movies that opened in limited release, foreign films, classics getting new releases, and a few Canadian films. This year the list looks different to the previous guides for a simple reason. While there were only eight releases on the TV on DVD installment of the holiday gift guide, the first pass had more than 30 films on this list. I tried trimming the list, but that resulted in me remembering more films I wanted to add to it. Even after getting rid of the ones that won't be released until after Christmas, like Bone Tomahawk, there are still way too many releases to deal with. So let's not delay anymore and get to the list, starting with the biggest release...
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American Ultra was released in late August, which is a terrible time of the year to release a movie. Additionally, American Ultra is a Black Comedy, which is one of the hardest genres to pull off. It is very hard to balance the darker elements and the comedy and the tonal shifts that are not perfect will irritate critics. Even black comedies that do earn good reviews rarely connect with moviegoers, because it is a niche market. This film earned mixed reviews and bombed at the box office. Did it deserve better? Will it at least satisfy fans of the genre?
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It's a short list of new releases this week for two reasons. The first reason is the previously mentioned technical problems. I need to get three days of work done today so that I can get my computer off to the shop for an upgrade. Meanwhile, I've been battling an only mostly functional computer for a week. The second reason is Inside Out is coming out and that scared away the competition. The Blu-ray Combo Pack or 3D Combo Pack are clearly the Pick of the Week this week. However, it is far from the only new release worth picking up. It's just that the rest of the contenders are much smaller releases.
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It is still a little too soon to tell how July will finish, as we don't have any numbers for the final weekend at the time of writing. We know Minions was a monster hit and that Ant-man will be a financial success. However, until we see how Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation does, it will be impossible to call the month a true success. If Rogue Nation bombed this weekend, then the month is only a partial success. It would also mean the summer of 2015 could be coming to an abrupt end. As for August, only Fantastic Four has a better than 50/50 chance of reaching $100 million; although some people think Straight Outta Compton also has a shot at that milestone. Besides those two, only a couple of other films even have a realistic shot at becoming midlevel hits. Worse still, last August was amazing with Guardians of the Galaxy breaking records. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also did better than expected with a domestic haul of nearly $200 million. No release this August is going to match that figure. There's a good chance the top two releases combined won't do so. Fortunately, 2015 has a sizable lead over 2014, so even a soft month will keep 2015 ahead in the year-over-year comparison.
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It is a bad time of the year to release a limited release. It is too late into summer to think a limited release can expand wide enough to gain mainstream success before summer ends. At the same time, it is far too early for Awards Season buzz to have an effect at the box office. This partially explains why there are so few films on this week's list and fewer still have any chance at box office success. There are only two films on this week's list with strong buzz and overwhelmingly positive reviews. Best of Enemies and The End of the Tour. Both could do well on the Per Theater Chart this weekend, but The End of the Tour is the only film with a shot at expanding significantly.
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The final installment of our annual Holiday Gift Guide involves books, music, and whatever DVD and Blu-rays I forgot the first time around. Also, like every year, I use this as an opportunity do go over some screeners that arrived late and that I didn't have time to go through in-depth. Like I've said the firstthreetimes, I didn't feel like there was a huge amount of DVDs and Blu-ray that came out this year, so I really hope I didn't miss out much. We can start out with...
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This is not a good week for new releases on the home market. For one thing, the biggest first-run release is Blended (DVD or Blu-ray ComboPack) which is also one of the worst movies of the summer. There are many TV on DVD releases that helped pick up the slack somewhat, but it still feels like a shallow week. As for Pick of the Week contenders, there are not many. The Normal Heart (DVD or Blu-ray) and Belle (Blu-ray) are the two most likely candidates, but I kind of want to give it to Gravity Falls: Even Stranger (DVD). In the end, I went with The Normal Heart.
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I previously reviewedRio and thought it was... a movie. It is so middle of the road that I couldn't get passionate about the film, either positively or negatively. That said, it made a ton of money, especially internationally, so it should come as no surprise that Rio 2 was made. Does it improve upon its predecessor? Does it get worse? Or is it yet another movie that just exists?
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There are a number of limited releases coming out this week that are earning strong buzz and good reviews. Some of the films that have reviews that are strong enough to suggest box office success are Palo Alto and The Double, as well as two documentaries, Fed Up and Llyn Foulkes One Man Band. However, the film with the best combination of buzz and reviews is Chef.
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March was stronger than expected when compared to 2013 with four films earning $100 million or more, led by Divergent. (Not all of them have gotten there yet, but they are certain to reach that milestone before they are done their box office runs.) It wasn't a blow-out victory, on the other hand, as a few weekends the ticket sales were lower in 2014 than they were during the same weekend in 2013. April looks really strong with Captain America: The Winter Soldier leading the way. This film should top $200 million over the weekend, while it isn't the only film that should crack the century mark, as Rio 2 is also on track for $100 million. This is great news, as no film last April reached $100 million. Granted, 42 came close and Oblivion wasn't far behind, but The Winter Soldier should earn more than those two films earned combined giving 2014 a comfortable lead over 2013 over the full month.
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As April ends and summer begins, we see the 2013 box office on a losing streak. There is some good news, as May should be much, much, much better than April was. Much better. During the five weekends in May, there are nine films opening wide. Of those film, there are seven that at least have a shot at $100 million. And of those seven films, four at least have a shot at $200 million, two have a shot at $300 million, and we might even have a $400 million hit this month. Iron Man 3 should turn out to be the biggest hit of the month, while there are some who think Star Trek: Into Darkness could be a close competitor for that honor. There's also some bad news. The Avengers opened last May and earned more than $600 million. No film opening this month will come close to that figure. There's a chance the top two films opening this month won't match that combined. On the other hand, last year there was a huge drop-off from the biggest hit of the month to the second biggest hit of the month. There were so many high-profile failures last year, that 2013 might actually start winning some weekends in the year-over-year comparison.
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