Contest: Going Nuclear

July 20th, 2017

Next weekend could be one of the closest races we’ve seen all year. I can almost guarantee Atomic Blonde will have better previews and will top the chart on Friday; however, The Emoji Movie is just as likely to win on Saturday and that could be enough to win overall. It is literally a coin toss to pick the target film in this week’s box office prediction contest and Atomic Blonde won that toss. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening three-day weekend box office number for Atomic Blonde.

Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film’s opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Girls: Season Six on Blu-ray. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film’s opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a Frankenprise consisting of one TV on DVD release. Finally, we will be choosing an entrant from the group of people who haven’t won, or haven’t won recently, and they will also win a Frankenprize, as described above.

Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don’t delay! More...

Theater Counts: Dunkirk Lands in 3,720 Theaters

July 20th, 2017

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk will roll out in 3,720 theaters, according to Warner Bros.’ announcement this afternoon. That might not seem much, given that it breaks a record streak of seven consecutive weeks with a move opening in over 4,000 theaters, but it’s by far the widest opening for a war movie ever. Pearl Harbor has, remarkably, held that title for 16 years, thanks to its launch in 3,214 theaters over Memorial Day weekend in 2001. (If you’re curious (and I was), Saving Private Ryan opened in 2,453 theaters in 1998, and peaked in 2,807 locations—the 1990s were basically a different eon in cinema history at this point.) More...

The Lego Ninjago Movie Trailer

July 20th, 2017

Animated adventure opens September 22 ... Full Movie Details. More...

Weekend Predictions: Take a Trip with Valerian and Laureline to Dunkirk

July 20th, 2017

So far this summer, box office is running about $200 million behind last year’s pace. The numbers have fallen so far that, year to date, 2017 is now behind 2016’s box office pace. This is even more depressing as last weekend, five of the top six films earned Tomatometer Scores that were over 90% positive. This week, we are continuing the amazing run with critics as two of the three wide releases are earning 90% positive reviews or better, but it doesn’t look like we will be able to improve our box office woes. This weekend last year, Star Trek Beyond opened with nearly $60 million and four other films earned more than $20 million. This weekend, Dunkirk will open in first place and it might top Star Trek Beyond, but that seems unlikely. Even getting to $50 million could be asking too much. Girls Trip should have a box office run somewhere between Rough Night and Bad Moms. ... Yes, I know that’s a lot of wiggle room, but there’s a lot of uncertainty here. Finally there’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, which cost $180 million to make but is earning almost no buzz here. (It should do a lot better internationally.) We would have to have all three new releases beat expectations and have solid holdovers for 2017 to come out ahead in the year-over-year comparison. More...

International Box Office: Despicable Me Steals Crown from Spider-Man with $72.7 million

July 19th, 2017

I thought last week was close, but this week was even closer. In fact, according to Sunday’s estimates, Spider-Man: Homecoming was the top film on the international chart, but Monday’s final numbers had Despicable Me 3 in first place. That film earned $72.7 million in 61 markets for totals of $434.00 million internationally and $622.39 million worldwide. Its biggest opening came in Indonesia, where it earned $3.5 million on 230 screens. Meanwhile, the film is now the second biggest animated film at the Chinese box office. This past weekend, Despicable Me 3 earned $22.09 million on 8,057 screens for a two-week total of $115.16 million. The film opens in Japan and South Korea before the end of the month, as well as Italy and a few other smaller markets by the end of August. More...

Happy Death Day Trailer

July 19th, 2017

Horror movie starring Jessica Rothe, written and directed by Christopher Landon opens October 13 ... Full Movie Details. More...

Contest: Win the War: Winning Announcement

July 19th, 2017

The winners of our Win the War contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for War for the Planet of the Apes’s opening weekend were... More...

Theater Averages: Apes Overtake MacBeth $13,989 to $12,907

July 18th, 2017

War for the Planet of the Apes earned first place on the weekend box office chart and the theater average chart with $13,989. The only other new release to come close to that was Lady Macbeth with an average of $12,907 in five theaters. Last week’s winner, Spider-Man: Homecoming, slipped to third place this weekend with an average of $10,167. It is still quite rare for a wide release to stay in the $10,000 club two weeks in a row, so this is a reason to celebrate. More...

Home Market Releases for July 18th, 2017

July 18th, 2017

Last week, The Fate of the Furious scared away all of the competition. This week, the competition is still scared, as there’s very little in the way of top notch releases. Kong: Skull Island is by far the biggest new release of the week, while the next two biggest are The Promise and Free Fire. As for the best releases of the week, The Expanse: Season Two is a contender, but ultimately the Pick of the Week goes to the Stalker Criterion Collection Blu-ray. More...

Blade Runner 2049 Trailer

July 18th, 2017

Sci-fi action movie starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, directed by Denis Villeneuve opens October 6 ... Full Movie Details. More...