The Numbers News - December 2014
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Contest: Story Time: Winning Announcement
December 31, 2014
The winners of our Story Time contest were determined and they are...
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Per Theater Chart: American Shoots for the Top
December 31, 2014
American Sniper led the way on the per theater chart with an estimated average of $152,500 in four theaters. This is the second best per theater average of the year, behind just The Grand Budapest Hotel and ahead of The Imitation Game. Second place for the weekend was Selma, which earned an average of $30,076 in 19 theaters during their Oscar-qualifying run. Two Days, One Night was a surprise entry in the $10,000 club earning an average of $24,118 in two theaters. It earned amazing reviews, but it didn't have as much buzz behind it as other film's that opening on Christmas. Into the Woods was the best of the wide releases in the $10,000 club earning an average of $12,726 in 2,440 theaters. Last week's winner, Inherent Vice, was next with an estimated average of $12,500 in 16 theaters. The overall box office leader, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, earned an average of $10,689, while The Imitation Game was right behind with $10,618. The final film in the $10,000 club was Mr. Turner with an average of $10,498 in 24 theaters.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Close Battle over Christmas Break
December 30, 2014
We are still dealing with studio estimates for the weekend numbers, but we can at least tell you what film won, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and roughly how much it earned, $41.42 million. The new releases were much closer than expected with Into the Woods and Unbroken both earning just over $30 million over the weekend. Because we don't have enough final numbers, we really can't compare the overall box office to last weekend or last year. So far, the final weekend of 2014 pulled in $200 million and that number should grow a little bit as box office numbers filter in. This is 52% more than last weekend and 2.3% more than the same weekend last year. I'm a little more bullish about January's box office chances after this result.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for December 30th, 2014
December 28, 2014
Christmas day is the single biggest gift-giving day of the year... so it makes total sense that the week after Christmas is a terrible week to release any new DVDs or Blu-rays. The week is better than you would expect with a few notable releases, including The Equalizer, which earned just over $100 million during its theatrical run. It is also one of the best releases on this week's list and with solid extras, the Blu-ray is a contender for Pick of the Week. The other two contenders are Banshee: Season 2 on DVD or Blu-ray and Shameless: Season 4 on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack. It was a bit of a coin toss, but in the end I went with Shameless.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Tusk
December 28, 2014
Tusk is the latest film from Kevin Smith, who has a mixed track record at the box office. He has made some amazing movies, like Clerks and Chasing Amy. However, he has also made some serious misses, like Cop Out. Is this one of his better films? Or is this another recent miss?
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Featured TV on DVD Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation: All Good Things
December 26, 2014
Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to an end with All Good Things..., the two-hour series finale. Each of the past four seasons had a two-part storyarc that was released as a separate Blu-ray to the full-season Blu-ray. It makes sense to give this show's series finale a proper Blu-ray of its own, assuming the series ended on a high note. Is that the case? If so, does the Blu-ray do it justice?
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Featured TV on DVD Review: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Seven
December 26, 2014
Star Trek: The Next Generation's Blu-ray run ended this month. I already mentioned the Blu-ray as a possible holiday gift, but since I've reviewed every other season of this series, I thought it would be strange not to do a full featured review as well. Season seven is widely regarded as the worst season since season two, but it is as bad as that? Or are there still enough solid episodes that fans will want to complete their collection?
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Contest: Back in Black
December 26, 2014
Usually we don't have a box office prediction contest this time of year, because usually there's no wide release the weekend after Christmas. However, this year Friday is January 2nd and The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death is opening wide and so it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Frankenprize of one TV on DVD season set, two DVDs or Movies, or three kids TV on DVD releases.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, 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!
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Contest: The Devil Made Me Do It: Winning Announcement
December 24, 2014
The winners of our The Devil Made Me Do It contest were determined and they are...
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International Box Office: Hobbit Stands Tall
December 23, 2014
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies remained in first place with $109 million in 59 markets for a two-week total of $269 million internationally and $358 million worldwide. It is still too early to tell where this film will end up, but by this time next week it should be well past $500 million worldwide, which is enough to pay for its production budget. The film debuted in first place in South Korea with $10.3 million. Meanwhile, it was tops in Spain and Italy with $6.5 million and $6.1 million respectively. Despite opening in nearly two dozen new markets, the film's biggest market was a holdover, Germany, where it added $13.3 million over the weekend to its running tally, which now sits at $38.6 million. It was also strong in the U.K. earning $8.5 million over the weekend for a total of $31.8 million after two, while in France the film made $8.2 million over the weekend for $25.5 million, also after two weeks of release.
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Weekend Predictions: Christmas Wishes for Woods and Unbroken
December 23, 2014
We have a short prediction column today detailing the three Christmas day wide releases, as well as the two bigger limited releases. Sadly, none of these five films are really living up to potential and Christmas Day could be rather weak at the box office. Then again, why should Christmas be any different than the past several months. 2014 got off to such a great start. Last Christmas was busier, but not particularly strong either, so at least 2014 won't lose too badly.
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Per Theater Chart: Going Once, Going Vice...
December 22, 2014
The $10,000 club was crowded this weekend with six films earning per theater averages of more than $10,000. This includes Inherent Vice, which led the way for the second time in a row earning an average of $29,055 in five theaters. This bodes well for its wide expansion in January. Speaking of expanding, The Imitation Game expanded from 25 theaters to 34 theaters earning an average of $25,253 in the process. It has already earned some measure of mainstream success and with room to grow, it will stay in theaters for a while. Mr. Turner was the best of the new limited releases earning an average of $21,728 in five theaters. Song of the Sea was next with $17,967 in one theater. The overall box office champ, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, earned an average of $14,122, which is lower than anticipated, but still pretty good. Finally, P.K. opened with an average of $13,108 in 272 theaters. It is rare that we get to talk about a Bollywood film in the $10,000 club.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Christmas Gets Scrooged
December 22, 2014
The Christmas break got off on a soft note with all three new wide releases failing to meet expectations by substantial numbers. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies got off to a good start on Wednesday, but plummeted the next day and couldn't recover. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb failed to live up to the low end of expectations, while Annie's opening at least came close to predictions. We are still missing some numbers. Overall, the box office rose by more than 60% from last weekend to $135 million and this figure should rise a little as other numbers filter in. However, it likely won't rise by enough to match the $140 million earned the same weekend last year. I really thought 2014 would end its year-over-year slump this weekend, but alas, it was not to be. Year-to-date, 2014 has earned $9.60 billion, which is 4.6% lower than last year's pace.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for December 23rd, 2014
December 22, 2014
Like every other week, new releases on the home market come out on Tuesday. Unlikely every other week, Christmas Eve is on Wednesday. Christmas Eve is the busiest shopping day of the year, but it is mostly last minute food purchases and almost no one is paying attention to new DVD and Blu-ray releases. This explains why there are so few new releases of note. That's not to say there are no releases worth checking out; in fact, there are four contenders for Pick of the Week. Continuum: Season 3 (DVD or Blu-ray); The Good Lie (Blu-ray Combo Pack); and The Trip to Italy (DVD or Blu-ray) were all in the running. However, in the end, I went with Pride (DVD or Blu-ray).
2014 Holiday Schedule
December 21, 2014
The holidays have begun and that means there will be changes to our usual schedule for the next two weeks. What are those changes? Unfortunately, the most accurate answer is, "I don't know." At least I don't know for sure. Some of the studios / distributors I deal with are already closed and won't open again till January 5th. I suspect we will have to deal with estimates and not full results till then, so weekend wrap-ups and per theater charts will be shortened. International numbers likely will be on full hiatus till January. We will try to keep disruptions to a minimum, but we are limited by the numbers we receive. This week's predictions and limited release report will be shortened because most of the films are coming out on Christmas, but next week those stories should return to normal.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: The Trip to Italy
December 21, 2014
The Trip to Italy is a sequel to The Trip, which I previously reviewed. That movie was basically two people, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, travelling around northern England, eating food, and getting into weird conversations. Is this film any different? If not, is it worth watching a second time?
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Weekend Estimates: Hobbit Enjoys $50 Million Swansong
December 21, 2014
After thirteen years (with a lengthy break in the middle), Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth Saga finally comes to an end this weekend with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Tolkein/Jackson fans are giving the franchise a rousing farewell, with $50 million expected this weekend and $90 million in total after five days. Comparisons are a little difficult, because the previous Hobbit installments opened on Fridays, but Desolation of Smaug racked up $86 million in its first five days and An Unexpected Journey hit $100 million on its fifth day in release. So this outing seems set to perform similarly overall, with $250 million – $300 million domestically and around $1 billion worldwide. That will solidify the franchise as the fourth-most successful in history, and if it can top $1.079 billion in this outing, it will be the only franchise ever to average more than $1 billion globally per film.
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2014 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part IV
December 20, 2014
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 first three times, 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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Limited Release: Anything for Limited Releases
December 19, 2014
It is not a super busy weekend, but that doesn't mean there's nothing worth checking out. Mr. Turner's reviews are incredible, so much so that I'm surprised it hasn't been a major player during Awards Season thus far. It isn't the only film earning great reviews, as both Song of the Sea and Winter's Sleep could find audiences in theaters.
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Contest: Story Time
December 18, 2014
Christmas is next week and as always, there are a number of films trying to take advantage of the holiday. This year, that number was supposed to be three, but The Interview has been pulled from the movie schedule indefinitely. That leaves Into the Woods and Unbroken and of the two, Into the Woods will very likely be the bigger film. As such, it is the clear choice for for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Into the Woods.
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 The Brittany Murphy Story on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of The Brittany Murphy Story on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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Weekend Predictions: Battle of the Three Armies
December 18, 2014
For most, this weekend represents the beginning of the Christmas break, so it comes as no surprise that there are three potentially big hits coming out this week. I'm a little surprised none of them are getting overwhelmingly positive reviews. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is earning the best reviews of the week, but its Tomatometer Score is barely above 60%. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb has been floating around 50% positive all week, while Annie is being destroyed by critics. This weekend last year, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug earned first place for the second weekend in a row. Meanwhile, the new releases were less impressive, as Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues earned second place with $26.23 million and Walking with Dinosaurs landed in the lower half of the top ten. The depth this year won't be as strong, but I still think 2014 will finally end its slump and win in the year-over-year comparison.
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International Box Office: Hobbit Stands Tall
December 17, 2014
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies started its international run earning first place with $122.2 million on 15,395 screens in 37 markets. Not only did it earn the best opening of The Hobbit Trilogy, but it was often times the biggest opening in Peter Jackson's career, or even occasionally in Warner Bros' history. Its biggest opening came in Germany where it pulled in $20.5 million on 1,442 screens. Next up was the U.K. and France, which had nearly identical openings of $15.2 million on 1,489 screens and $15.1 million on 914 screens respectively. It earned $13.56 million on 2,390 screens in Russia. Brazil and Mexico were neck-and-neck with $6.8 million on 1,037 screens and $6.3 million on 2,775 screens respectively. It earned $2.4 million on 640 screens in Japan, which seems low compared to the other markets, but it is nearly double the debut The Desolation of Smaug earned.
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Contest: Pump You Up: Winning Announcement
December 16, 2014
The winners of our Pump You Up contest were determined and they are...
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Per Theater Chart: Holdovers Versus Vice and Vice Versa
December 16, 2014
Inherent Vice won top spot on the per theater chart with an average of $65,637 in five theaters. This is the fifth best per theater average for the year, which is much better than expected. Second place went to The Imitation Game with an average of $34,010 in 25 theaters. It still has plenty of room to expand. The final film in the $10,000 club was Wild with an average of $13,198 in 116 theaters. It too has some room to expand, while it has also reached some level of mainstream success.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for December 16th, 2014
December 16, 2014
It is getting very close to Christmas and while this means there are more and more people shopping, it also means the new releases are less likely to stand out in a sea of sales. The biggest release of the week is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is coming out on a 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack. However, it is also one of the worst big releases of the year. There are some releases that are contenders for Pick of the week, including Extant: Season 1 on DVD or Blu-ray, Tootsie on Blu-ray, and The Americans: Season 2 on DVD. In the end, I went with The Skeleton Twins on Blu-ray.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: The Skeleton Twins
December 16, 2014
The Skeleton Twins is the fifth film I reviewed this week and it is the only one that earned impressive reviews. This does raise expectations, but is that a mistake? Or does this film truly deserve the critical praise it has received?
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Exodus Win, but Overall Box Office is on the Run
December 15, 2014
All-in-all, the box office matched expectations, but sadly, that is not a good thing. Exodus: Gods and Kings opened with $24.12 million, which is anemic for a film that cost $140 million to make. Top Five had a better per theater average, but was playing in less than 1,000 theaters, so it will only become a midlevel hit, at best. Overall, the box office did rise 6.8% from last weekend, but this still only amounted to $83 million. Worse still, this was 43% lower than the same weekend last year. Last year, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opened with $73.65 million, which is about 2% less than the top ten earned this year. It should come as no surprise that 2014 lost in the year-over-year comparison, while it continues to lose ground in the year-to-date race as well. Currently, 2014 has pulled in a total of $9.41 billion, which is 4.8% or $470 million lower than last year's pace. There's no chance 2014 will catch up at this point. I just hope it doesn't sink any lower.
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Featured DVD Review: Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever
December 15, 2014
Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever is a Lifetime channel movie, a Christmas movie, and a movie based on a web series. ... That's a lot of knocks against it. On the other hand, it has Aubrey Plaza providing the voice for the titular cat, so it can't be all bad, right?
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: At the Devil's Door
December 14, 2014
At the Devil's Door is the third and final horror / thriller I'll be reviewing this weekend. It earned the best reviews of those three films, but that's not saying much. Am I finally going to enjoy one of these movies? Or will horror / thriller go zero for three this weekend?
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Featured DVD Review: The Devil's Hand
December 14, 2014
The Devil's Hand was filmed early in 2012, but its release was pushed back until it finally came out in October in limited release, as well as on Video on Demand. It opened well below the Mendoza Line and I very much doubt most people reading this even remember it came out. That's how quiet its buzz was. That said, does it deserve better? Or is there a good reason the film's release was delayed?
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Featured DVD Review: Cam2Cam
December 14, 2014
Cam2Cam was originally a 27-minute long short film made in 2008. Adapting short films into feature-length movies is quite common and sometimes the result is excellent. The Oscar-winning Sling Blade started out as a short film, for instance. However, while sometimes the result is award-worthy, this is not the case here. So far there are five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and all of them are negative. Will I be the dissenting vote? Or is the film as bad as its reviews would indicate?
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Weekend Estimates: Exodus Leads with Lackluster Debut
December 14, 2014
Big budget bible epic Exodus: Gods and Kings is probably the riskiest studio bet this Holiday Season. The $140 million-budgeted film will need to do considerable business domestically and internationally to earn a profit, and biblical epics haven’t had the best of track records in recent years. Early signs aren’t great, with Fox projecting a $24.5 million opening weekend, well behind the $43.7 million earned by Noah earlier in the year. There is room for the film to recover though, as it will almost certainly be able to keep playing in a lot of theaters through the New Year. $100 million seems like the top end of domestic expectations at this point, and its international performance so far doesn’t suggest overseas coin will help make up the difference.
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2014 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part III
December 13, 2014
The third installment of our annual Holiday Gift Guide involves limited releases, including foreign films and documentaries; classics hitting DVD or Blu-ray for the first time; and of course Canadian films. There were better choices for the limited releases than there were for big releases and TV on DVD releases, which is good news, because this Holiday Gift Guide feels that it ahs been lackluster so far. There have been many great limited releases to come out this year, including several foreign-language films to find some measure of mainstream success. On the downside, every year a lot of these movies hit theaters in the fall, so they won't hit the home market for months. That said, there are still some real highlights among the limited releases, classics, and Canadian films. In fact, we start off with the highest of the highlights for the entire year.
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Limited Release: Vice as Nice
December 12, 2014
We are deep into Awards season with three major awards nominations already handed out. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of limited releases coming out this week that will be part of Awards Season. Inherent Vice is the biggest release of the week, but its reviews are only good and not great, while there are a lot of great films in theaters at the moment.
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Contest: The Devil Made Me Do It
December 12, 2014
Next week, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opens on Wednesday. Normally this would prevent it from being the target film in our weekly box office prediction contest. However, it will still earn more than the other two wide releases, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie, will make combined. As such, The Battle of the Five Armies is the clear choice for for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
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 At the Devil's Door 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 copy of Cam2Cam on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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Weekend Predictions: Will the Box Office Exodus End?
December 11, 2014
The box office has been struggling the past few weeks and / or months. It really depends on how you look at things. This weekend there are two films hoping to help 2014 get back into the win column: Exodus: Gods and Kings and Top Five. Exodus will win the weekend with relative ease, but it might not earn more than $20 million in the process. Top Five would like to earn second place with just over $10 million, but it will probably fall short finishing just behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. This weekend last year, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug led the way with $73.65 million. That's more than the top five will make in total this year. It might be more than the top ten earn. Even last year's second place film, Frozen, might make more than the top film this year will earn. 2014 is going to lose in the year-over-year comparison by a large margin.
2014 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Nominations
December 11, 2014
The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, at three in the morning, because the people at Golden Globes are under the delusion that news announced at 3:00 a.m. is somehow more important if it is announced before anyone is awake. As for the actual nominations, like with the Independent Spirit Awards and the SAG nominations, Birdman led the way. It earned seven nominations, while Boyhood and The Imitation Game tied for second with five apiece. Starting to notice a pattern here? This could be a really dull Awards Season with very few surprises. On the other hand, predictable means less work for me. Plus, predictable probably means the Awards Season voters are making the right choices, as surprises usually mean someone made the wrong choice.
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International Box Office: Mockingjay Maintains Milestone Pace
December 11, 2014
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 reached a couple of milestones hitting $500 million worldwide before the weekend and $300 million internationally during the weekend. Over the weekend, the film pulled in $32.9 million in 87 markets for three-week totals of $306.6 million internationally and $564.8 million worldwide. The film will top $600 million worldwide over the weekend, while it is on pace to top the original's worldwide total before the end of its run.
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2014 - Awards Season: SAG - Nominations
December 10, 2014
The Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced Wednesday morning. Are there surprises worth mentioning? Is the Oscar picture beginning to take shape? Like with the Independent Spirit Awards, Birdman led the way this time earning four nominations from six categories, while Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything had three nods each.
Contest: Short Trip: Winning Announcement
December 10, 2014
The winners of our Short Trip contest were determined and they are...
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Per Theater Chart: Imitation Remains Real
December 10, 2014
The Imitation Game remained in first place on the per theater chart with an average of $48,658 in 8 theaters over the weekend. It also reached $1 million in the process, barely. The best new release of the week was Wild with an average of $28,896 in 21 theaters. This film will hit major milestones very soon. She's Beautiful When She's Angry just managed to earn a spot in the $10,000 club with $10,505 in one theater. Meanwhile, Zero Motivation just missed the $10,000 club with $9,427 in one theater. However, it was a Wednesday release and it earned $13,145 over five days. Had it opened on Friday instead, it very likely would have reached the $10,000 club.
DVD and Blu-ray Releases for December 9th, 2014
December 9, 2014
It is a very shallow week on the home market. Granted, Guardians of the Galaxy is coming out this week on DVD or 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack and it would be a clear contender for Pick of the Week even on the busiest of week. However, after that, there is a sharp decline in quality. Calvary and Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead are two very different movies, but both are contenders for Pick of the Week. In the end, I went with Guardians of the Galaxy as the Pick of the Week.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Box Office has Post-Holiday Indigestion
December 9, 2014
The post-holiday weekend is rarely a great weekend and this weekend was no exception. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 fell more than 60%, while no film in the top ten fell less than 40%. The only wide release in the top ten was The Pyramid, which barely topped the Mendoza Line. Overall, the box office fell 52% from last weekend to $78 million. That's 16% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2014 is behind 2013 by a 4.5% or $440 million margin. It is not going to close that margin over the next four weeks, but it should still top $10 billion before the year is over.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Frank
December 8, 2014
Frank is a film that is very much an art house film. It earned incredible reviews and earned a spot in the $10,000 club during its opening weekend. However, when it tried to expand, it went nowhere. Is it truly limited to art house aficionados? Or will a wider audience appreciate it on the home market?
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Guardians of the Galaxy
December 8, 2014
At the moment, Guardians of the Galaxy is the highest grossing film released in 2014. (Mockingjay, Part 1 still has a chance of catching it, depending on how well it does over Christmas). It is also one the the best-reviewed wide releases of 2014. As a fan of Marvel Comics in general and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in particular, I had very high hopes for this film. Was the buzz warranted? Or was this a case of too much hype?
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2014 - Holiday Gift Guide - Part II
December 7, 2014
This week on the Holiday Gift Guide, we tackle TV on DVD releases. As usual, I will only talk about first season and complete series updates, because you don't need me to tell you if Modern Family: Season Five on DVD would be a good gift or not. Do you know someone who owns and likes the first four seasons but doesn't have season five on DVD yet? Buy it. Or maybe not. Maybe they are waiting for it to come out on Blu-ray. Okay, bad example. But you get were I'm coming from. Unfortunately, this year's collection seems rather weak. There were only three new TV shows from last year that I really liked and there are not as many Full-Season Megasets to compensate. Worst still, some of these Megasets that are coming out are like True Blood or How I Met Your Mother and ended on a really weak note.
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Weekend Estimates: Hunger Games Unchallenged at Top
December 7, 2014
With no new wide releases, the weekend after Thanksgiving will see a comfortable victory at the box office for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. Now playing in its third weekend, the film will gross around $21.6 million, taking it to a total of $257.7m, virtually equal with The Lego Movie in third place for the year. Weekend performances for returning movies were down across the board coming off the holiday, with, in the top 10, only Gone Girl and Birdman down less than 40%.
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2014 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Nominations
December 6, 2014
The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced last week and I'm getting to them a little late, because I needed to organize the whole Awards Season stories. Firstly, I've decided to use the year the movies were released not the year the awards are handed out, unlike what we did last year. This means both will have 2014 as the year. Not ideal, but it is better to fix the mistake now than carry on making it. Secondly, the headlines are just going to be the name of the Awards and either nominations or winners. This will make it easier for readers to find later on. As for the Independent Spirit Awards nominations, Birdman led the way with 6 nods, while Boyhood, Nightcrawler, and Selma were right behind with 5 each.
Limited Release: Still Wild
December 5, 2014
There are two films opening in limited release this week that have a chance of picking up Awards Season nominations. Wild is earning the better reviews, but it is also one of the widest limited releases of the week. Still Alice is only having an Oscar-qualifying run, which means it might not put a lot of advertising into selling movie tickets until its regular release in January.
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Contest: Pump You Up
December 5, 2014
Next weekend Exodus: Gods and Kings should dominate the box office, while Top Five will be playing the part of counter-programming. Since Exodus will be by far the bigger of the two wide releases, it is the clear choice for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Weekend Predictions: Will Pyramid Scheme Its Way to the Top (Five)
December 5, 2014
It's the weekend after Thanksgiving, one of the worst weekends of the year for a new release. This year, no film is daring to open wide, but The Pyramid is coming the closest opening in just under 600 theaters. The film would need a per theater average of more than $10,000 to reach the top five, which is nearly impossible at this stage. This means the top five this week will mostly be the same as the top five last week with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 leading the way. Likewise, this weekend last year, Frozen led the way with more than $30 million. There is very little chance Mockingjay, Part 1 will match that, so 2014 will lose yet again in the year-over-year comparison.
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International Box Office: Milestone for Mockingjay
December 4, 2014
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 remained in first place with $67.0 million in 86 markets for a two-week total of $254.6 million. Its worldwide total rose to $480.3 million. I would be surprised if the film hasn't already broken even, even though it will have the lowest box office in the franchise. The film remained in first place in Australia with $7.52 million on 574 screens over the weekend for a total of $22.69 million after two weeks of release. It was pushed into second place in the U.K., but still pulled in $7.69 million in 569 theaters for a two-week total of $33.32 million.
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Contest: Black and White: Winning Announcement
December 3, 2014
The winner of our Black and White contest was determined and it is...
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Per Theater Chart: Imitation Scores Game-Winning Goal
December 3, 2014
The Imitation Game led the way on the per theater chart with an incredible average of $119,838 in four theaters. This is the second best per theater average of the year, behind only The Grand Budapest Hotel. Second place went to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, with an average of $13,725 during its sophomore stint. The final film in the $10,000 is The Babadook, which earned an average of $10,002 in three theaters.
DVD and Blu-ray Releases for December 2nd, 2014
December 2, 2014
It is a good week / bad week on the home market. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the biggest and possibly the best release of the week and the 3D Combo Pack is a Pick of the Week contender. However, there are several other contenders, including two where I'm still waiting for the screener: Legend of Korra: Book Three - Change on DVD or Blu-ray and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Seven on Blu-ray. However, in the end I went with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on Blu-ray.
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Featured DVD Review: Kids for Cash
December 2, 2014
Kids for Cash is a documentary about the Cash for Kids scandal, which took place for years before it was uncovered in 2008. Will this film be worth checking out for those who never heard of the scandal? Will those who have heard of it learn something new?
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Thanksgiving Gives the Box Office Indigestion
December 2, 2014
Thanksgiving weekend was... well, it wasn't good. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 easily won the race for top spot and actually topped expectations by a tiny margin. On the other hand, the two new releases, Penguins of Madagascar and Horrible Bosses 2, both really struggled. Neither managed to top their three-day prediction over the five-day long weekend. Overall, the three-day weekend fell 17% to $162 million from last weekend. Worse still, this was 22% lower than the same weekend last year. 2014 is now behind 2013 by a margin of $370 million or 3.9% at $9.20 billion to $9.58 billion. There's no way we will catch up by the end of the year. I just hope we don't fall further behind.
Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey
December 1, 2014
The Hundred-Foot Journey came out in August and was counter-programming, to be generous. It opened in barely more than 2,000 theaters and only managed fourth place during its opening weekend. On the other hand, its multiplier was 4.94, which is incredible compared to the average wide release, while it ended up a solid midlevel hit. Obviously the word-of-mouth was strong, but now that it is on the home market, will those who missed it in theaters want to check it out? And will those who saw it in theaters want to pick it up?
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2014 Preview: December
December 1, 2014
November is over and there are not a lot of positive things to say about what happened during the month. There were a couple of films that matched expectations, but there were no breakout hits and a few that missed expectations by wide margins. Granted, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will top $300 million with relative ease, but that's still nearly $100 million lower than some people were predicting. The month ends with 2014 about $300 million behind 2013's pace and there's really no chance to catch up in December. That doesn't mean there are no films that will be worth watching in December. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies should at least earn $200 million, while $300 million is not out of the question. Additionally, there are several films that at least have a shot at $100 million at the box office, but not all will get there. At least this December and last December are on par with each other. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug topped $250 million while there were three others that topped $100 million. I think we will get the same result this month. Last year there were a lot more wide releases, but many of them bombed. I think this year the lack of competition will help more films reach their potential.
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