The Numbers News - February 2015
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Spy! Trailer
February 27, 2015
Comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law, directed by Paul Feig opens May 22... Full movie details...
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Limited Releases: Summer of '71
February 27, 2015
There are a number of limited releases that are earning excellent reviews, including '71, which might be the biggest hit of the week. Or there might not be any limited release that will become a hit. Maps to the Stars has a great cast, but its reviews are only good. Plus is is playong on Video on Demand. Likewise, Wild Canaries is earning excellent reviews, but it is also playing on Video on Demand.
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Contest: Easy Breezy
February 27, 2015
Next weekend, there are three wide releases, including Chappie, which should lead the way on the box office chart over the weekend. (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Unfinished Business could be midlevel hits, but nothing more.) Because Chappie's box office potential is about twice that of the two other new releases, it is the only real choice for target target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Chappie.
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, including Life's a Breeze 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 Frankenprize, including Life's a Breeze 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: New Releases are Not In Focus
February 26, 2015
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The month ends with two wide releases: Focus and The Lazarus Effect. Neither film is expected to be a big hit, but at least Focus is expected to earn first place overtaking Fifty Shades of Grey. Overall, I think the box office will drop when compared to last week. Worse still, the box office looks weak when compared to last year. Last year, the box office was led by Non-Stop, while three films earned more than $20 million over the weekend. This year, there's a chance no film will earn $20 million. 2015 is very likely going to lose in the year-over-year comparison ending 2015's winning streak.
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Tomorrowland Trailer
February 26, 2015
Sci-fi adventure starring Britt Robertson and George Clooney, directed by Brad Bird opens May 22... Full movie details...
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Pitch Perfect 2 Trailer
February 25, 2015
Musical comedy starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Brittany Snow opens May 15... Full movie details...
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International Box Office: $400 million for 50 Shades
February 25, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey remained in first place internationally with $68.1 million on 10,323 screens in 58 markets for totals of $280.5 million internationally and $409.7 million worldwide. The film had no major market openings this weekend, but it does open in South Korea this weekend. It is already the biggest hit of the year after just ten days of release and it has made enough to justify a sequel. However, its legs are definitely weak and I'm don't think the sequel will match its box office dominance.
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Contest: Time and Time Again: Winning Announcement
February 25, 2015
The winners of our Time and Time Again contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 opening weekend were...
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Per Theater Chart: Tales has Wild Debut
February 25, 2015
Wild Tales was the only film in the $10,000 club over the weekend earning an average of $21,275 in four theaters. However, What We Do in the Shadows is an interesting case. It expanded to 16 theaters over the weekend, sort of, earning an average of $8,033. The reason I said "sort of" is that in many theaters it had special showings, not a full run. It is really hard to reach the $10,000 mark on the per theater chart when several theaters are only showing the film once a night instead of more than a dozen times a weekend.
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Mad Max: Fury Road Trailer
February 24, 2015
Action movie starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, directed by George Miller opens May 15... Full movie details...
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 24th, 2015
February 24, 2015
This list is going to be a little shorter than I wanted... a lot shorter actually. My Internet Provider decided it would be a good idea to do maintenance tonight, so I was without internet access for several hours. There are two first-run releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week: Big Hero 6 (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack) and Whiplash (DVD or Blu-ray). The other contender is the Criterion Collection release for Watership Down (Blu-ray). All three are worth owning, but Big Hero 6 is the Pick of the Week.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: New Releases are the DUFFs to the Holdovers
February 24, 2015
While there were three new releases to reach the top ten, the top three spots were held by holdovers. As expected, Fifty Shades of Grey won the box office race, but it did so with a much lower number. McFarland, USA was the strongest of the three new releases, while The DUFF earned the best per theater average. The less said about Hot Tub Time Machine 2's debut, the better. Overall, the box office fell 45% to $119 million compared to last weekend. At first glance, this is a disaster; however, this is a post holiday weekend and last week's number one film was artificially inflated at the box office due to hype and Valentine's Day. Compared to last year, the box office was 7% higher. This helped push 2015's lead over 2015 to 8.5% or $1.60 billion to $1.48 billion.
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Oscar Results: The Numbers Readers Score 18 out of 24
February 23, 2015
Once more, entrants in The Numbers Predict the Academy Awards Contest did an impressive job of predicting winners, in spite of a volatile Awards Season. Overall, the top voter-getters in 18 out 24 categories went on to win the Oscar on the night, including all acting awards, all but one of the technical awards, and all the short films.
Our biggest misses were actually in the biggest categories: Best Picture was won by Birdman, not Boyhood; Alejandro Inarritu beat Richard Linklater for Best Director; and Big Hero 6 prevailed over How to Train Your Dragon 2.
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Oscar Contest Results
February 23, 2015
Thank you to everyone who entered our 18th annual Predict the Academy Awards Contest. As usual, the contest drew hundreds of high-quality entries, with the winners predicting at least 21 of the winners on what proved to be an unpredictable Oscar night.
Read on for our list of 2015 prize winners...
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Hot Pursuit Trailer
February 23, 2015
Comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara opens May 8... Full movie details...
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Big Hero 6
February 23, 2015
Big Hero 6 just won the Oscar, which is great timing, as it hits the home market this Tuesday. Many were surprised that the film won. Should they be? Is this really the best animated film of the year?
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2014 Awards Season: Oscars - And the Winner is... Birdman for Best Picture
February 22, 2015
The Oscar ceremony is tonight and we will be live-blogging the winners... assuming I don't get bored and wander away. On a serious note, while my job is all about movies and I love watching movies, I love paying attention to box office numbers, I even love Awards Season. I hate ceremonies. As per usual, here is the list of nominees marked according to predictions / wishes. Nominees in Bold are the ones predicted to win by our readers. If I predicted a different film, those are in Italics. Meanwhile, the nominees I want to win, but don't think will win, are Underlined. There are a few categories where the film I really think deserves the award were not even nominated, plus a few I don't have a real opinion on.
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Oscar Predictions: Boyhood and Birdman Neck and Neck for Top Two Awards
February 22, 2015
The polls are closed in our 18th annual Predict the Academy Awards contest, and it has turned out to be the most exciting two-horse race in the history of the contest.
After weeks of intense debate among our voters, we have a virtual tie in the biggest categories of all: Best Picture and Best Director. The predicted Best Picture winner is, in fact, a statistical dead heat. Boyhood garnered 47% of the total vote, and Birdman 46%, giving the Linklater epic the tiniest of edges.
Best Director is a clearer contest, but still close, and still a bout between Boyhood and Birdman. Richard Linklater is favorite to win Best Director, perhaps in part because he’s more “due” for the award than Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. As noted, though, “favorite” is strong, given the closeness of this category, with Linklater getting 55% of the votes and Inarritu taking a 46% share.
The other big story about this year’s contest is just how much of a two-horse contest it really is. With 93% of the Best Picture vote going to Birdman and Boyhood, the remaining nominees were left to split the other 7% of the vote. American Sniper, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything each gathered a handful of votes from The Numbers readers, and Selma and Whiplash are given virtually no chance at all.
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Oscars Contest: Last Chance to Enter!
February 22, 2015
Our 18th Annual Predict the Academy Awards Competition ends at noon today, so this is your last chance to enter your predictions for the winners at tonight’s Oscar ceremony. This is shaping up to be a very interesting year, with overwhelming favorites in some categories and extremely close races in others, including the battle for Best Picture.
We’ll publish predicted winners in all categories when the contest ends at noon, and we’ll be posting updates throughout the Oscar ceremony as we know who has won each statuette.
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Weekend Estimates: Fifty Shades Holds Top Spot After Big Fall
February 22, 2015
A 73% second-weekend drop won’t be enough to keep Fifty Shades of Grey out of its top spot on the weekend box office chart, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. With another $23.25 million in the bank, the erotic drama has amassed $130 million after two weekends domestically, and has now taken over $400 million worldwide.
This relative weakness in Fifty Shades' second outing isn’t a big surprise given its fervent fanbase, who are more likely to attend on the first weekend, its mediocre reviews, and the fact that last weekend was a holiday, which can increase the box office take substantially. Perhaps more to the point, taking the top spot twice and reaching $400 million is enough. Universal already has every incentive to continue the franchise.
Second and third places this weekend go to two other returning films that are also set to fall more than 50% from last weekend’s totals: Kingsman: The Secret Service will post $17.5 million for $67 million after two weekends, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water adds $15.5 million to take its tally to $125 million after three. While it is a substantial decrease, this is a more typical second-weekend drop.
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Home Market Numbers: Hitmen vs. Vampires
February 22, 2015
New releases grabbed the top two spots on the Blu-ray sales chart for the week ending February 8, with John Wick taking the top spot and Dracula Untold taking a close second place. Two other new releases debuted in the top ten: The Best of Me took fifth place, and Ouija took eighth.
This welcome shot of sales helped fuel a strong increase over last year for Blu-ray sales. Compared to last year, 21% more units were sold, and revenue jumped 17%. Overall, the Blu-ray share of home market sales ticked up a percentage point, to 43%.
While this week's Blu-ray numbers do represent a drop from last week, sales were down only 0.7% in terms of units sold and 7.5% in revenue, perhaps suggesting that slightly lower prices helped maintain sales of units and supported the increase from last year.
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DVD Sales: Dracula's Debut Tells an Important Story
February 22, 2015
New releases occupied four of the top five spots on the DVD sales chart for the week ending February 8. The top spot went to Dracula Untold, with 237,000 units sold and $4.16 million in consumer spending during its first week of release. With this strong result, I think the odds of this film becoming the first of a franchise have increased.
Second place, just barely, went to The Best of Me, with 227,000 units sold and $3.45 million in consumer spending. The Best of Me edged out John Wick, sending it to third place with 227,000 units sold and $3.44 million in spending.
Blu-ray Sales: Wick Lights up the Competition
February 22, 2015
The Blu-ray sales chart was dominated by two new releases. John Wick led the way with 301,000 units / $6.30 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 57%. The film was an action film with visual style, but not a ton of visual effects, so this is better than expected.
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2014 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Winners
February 22, 2015
The Independent Spirit Awards winners were announced last night and there were few surprises. Birdman led the way with 3 wins, but it wasn't the only film to come away with more than one award.
She’s Funny That Way Trailer
February 21, 2015
Comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, Imogen Poots, Owen Wilson and Will Forte opens May 1... Full movie details...
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Picture
February 20, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the biggest prize, Best Picture. Like with Best Director, this is a two-horse race with the same two films at the top of the list.
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Limited Release: Going Wild
February 20, 2015
It is Oscar weekend, so it should come as no real surprise that there are not a lot of films opening in limited release this week. After all, the target audience for these films is paying a lot more attention to the potential Oscar winners than they are to the new releases. There is one film that will actually benefit from the Oscars, Wild Tales, which earned a Best Foreign-Language Film nomination.
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Far from the Madding Crowd Trailer
February 20, 2015
Romantic drama, based on the classic book, starring Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen and Tom Sturridge opens May 1. Full movie details...
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Contest: You Need to Focus to Win
February 20, 2015
Next weekend, Focus will dominate The Lazarus Effect at the box office. As such, it is the only real choice for the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Focus.
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 Tale of the Princess Kaguya 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 also win a copy of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya on Blu-ray.
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: In Fifty Shades' Shadow
February 20, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey will again win the weekend box office race. In fact, it could make more than the three new wide releases make combined. The biggest of these three wide releases is Hot Tub Time Machine 2, but it is unfortunately earning terrible reviews. The DUFF's reviews were amazing, but it has since settled on merely good. McFarland, USA is earning the best reviews, but unfortunately its buzz is really quiet. Granted, its target audience doesn't tend to get hyped about movies, but this still isn't a good sign. This weekend last year, The LEGO Movie remained in first place with just over $30 million. This is about the same as Fifty Shades is expected to earn. If 2015 is to win, it will need to rely on depth. Since we could have seven films earning $10 million or more, that won't be an issue.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Director
February 20, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the Best Director category, which is neither among the most nor among the least competitive categories. We definitely have a favorite, but we also have another nominee with a better than average shot at winning.
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International Box Office: 50 Shades a Worldwide Phenomenon
February 19, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey dominated the international box office with an opening weekend of $158 million in 58 markets over the weekend for a total opening of $173.56 million. Worldwide, the film took $258.73 million during its opening weekend, which puts it just behind Taken 3 for the year. It became the biggest hit shortly after the weekend ended. The film's biggest market was in the U.K., where it made $20.90 million in 586 theaters. This is better than it opened with here, relative to the size of the two markets, so we can blame the U.K. for the success of this film. It also did incredibly well in Germany ($15.2 million on 741 screens); France ($12 million on 785); and Russia ($10.68 million on 1,105). Obviously the film is going to be turned into a franchise.
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Trailer: Furious 7
February 19, 2015
Contest: Sticky Situation: Winning Announcement
February 19, 2015
The winners of our Sticky Situation contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for Fifty Shades of Grey opening weekend were...
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Per Theater Chart: Shadow Steals Spotlight in Its Debut
February 18, 2015
What We Do in the Shadows dominated the per theater chart earning an average of $41,778 in two theaters. This is high enough to suggest the film will be able to expand significantly. Additionally, its reviews are stunning, so its chances at box office success are even better. However, the comedy stylings of Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi are not really mainstream and that might hurt its chances. The second place film on the per theater chart was the overall number one film, Fifty Shades of Grey, which earned an average of $23,360. The Last 5 Years was next with an average of $17,158 in three theaters. Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem opened with an average of $12,105 in two theaters. Meanwhile, the second wide release of the week, Kingsman: The Secret Service, was the final film in the $10,000 club with an average of $11,300.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Shades has a Bright Opening
February 18, 2015
As expected, Fifty Shades of Grey dominated the weekend box office, while Kingsman: The Secret Service was strong in its own way. Overall, the box office earned $214 million over the three-day weekend and $247 million including Monday. Its three-day number is 41% more than last weekend. It is also 21% more than the same weekend last year. The four-day box office was 19% higher than the same weekend last year. 2015 has now opened up a 6.0% lead over 2014 at $1.45 billion to $1.37 billion.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Original Screenplay
February 17, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two writing categories, starting with Best Original Screenplay. This is actually a two-horse race and for once, I'd be happy with either of the two leading contenders winning.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Adapted Screenplay
February 17, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two writing categories, ending with Best Adapted Screenplay. This is also a two-horse race, but one of the horses has a significant, but not insurmountable lead.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 17th, 2015
February 16, 2015
This is the best week on the home market in a long time. Game of Thrones is one of the best TV shows on at the moment, if not the best TV show, and its DVD and Blu-ray is Pick of the Week material. Additionally, there are a few potential Oscar winners hitting the home market this week as well. On the down side, there is not a lot of depth. Birdman, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and The Theory of Everything are all up for Oscars next weekend and all of them are worth picking up. Life Itself was snubbed by Oscar voters, but it too is a must have. However, in the end, I went with Game of Thrones for Pick of the Week.
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Featured DVD Review: Tricked
February 15, 2015
Tricked is a documentary about sex-trafficking. This is a difficult topic to deal with for two reasons. Firstly, it is a depressing topic so it is a challenge to make a movie that doesn't just drive viewers away. Second, because there's sex, it is easy to fall into the trap and become salacious and exploitative. Does the film avoid these pitfalls?
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Weekend Estimates: Fifty Shades Dominates Valentine’s Day Weekend
February 15, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey has overcome poor (although generally not disastrous) reviews and unusually risque material to dominate at the box office over Valentine’s Day weekend. Universal is projecting a $81.67 million three-day weekend as of Sunday morning, the second-biggest February weekend at the box office, just behind, ironically, The Passion of the Christ. Passion’s weekend was $83.8 million, and Fifty Shades could still overtake it for the best weekend of all-time in the month. Watching people suffer is apparently a thing in February.
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Featured TV on DVD Review: Maison Close: Season One
February 15, 2015
Maison Close is a French TV show set at a brothel in 1871. The first season came out in France in 2010 and did so well that it not only earned a second season, but also HBO picked up the rights to remake it. However, season two came out in 2013 and the ratings fell enough that the show was canceled and the remake appears to be on hold for now, possibly indefinitely. Since the show is set in a French brothel, it goes without saying there is sex. Is that the reason a lot of people tuned into the show in the first place? Possibly. Is there more to the show than sex? If not, is that why so few people tuned into the second season?
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2014 - Awards Season: WGA - Winners
February 14, 2015
The Writers Guild of America winners were just announced and there wasn't a lot of surprises to talk about, but enough interesting things happened that it wasn't boring.
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Home Market Numbers: Fury and Downton Lead Home Market to Victory
February 14, 2015
It was a great week on the home market as the new releases like Fury helped the overall market grow in nearly every regard. In fact, it had double-digit growth in six of the eight metrics. Blu-ray sales were 18% higher than last week in terms of units and 20% higher in terms of revenue. Compared to last year, 35% more units were sold and 31% more revenue was generated. DVD sales were a little stronger, so the overall Blu-ray share slipped to 42%, but that's still strong.
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DVD Sales: Going Downto(w)n
February 14, 2015
New releases earned the top four spots on the DVD Sales Chart. Fury led the way in terms of units sold at 355,000 units to 302,000 units over Downton Abbey: Season 5. However, Downton Abbey earned first place in terms of revenue at $7.40 million to $6.20 million.
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Blu-ray Sales: Furious Debut
February 14, 2015
New releases dominated the Blu-ray sales chart, again. There were three new releases in the top three spots, while newcomers earned five of the top six spots. Leading the way was Fury with 432,000 units / $8.80 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 55%, which is great for this type of film. It is an action film, but not a visual effects action film.
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Limited Releases: Out of the Shadows
February 13, 2015
After two weeks of doing highlights for limited release, I'm thinking of sticking with the format. If the film can't get at least five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it likely won't find an audience in theaters. I was thinking of only talking about films with overwhelmingly positive reviews, but some weeks that would be none. This week, there are only two. What We Do in the Shadows (Reviews) and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Reviews). The latter has better reviews, but the former has more popular appeal.
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Contest: Time and Time Again
February 13, 2015
Next weekend, there are three wide releases, none of which are expected to do well. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is opening wider than McFarland, USA and has louder buzz, but McFarland is going after a more mature target audience, so it is harder to gauge the buzz online. (The DUFF won't even be a factor in this race.) I think Hot Tub Time Machine 2 has a slight lead over McFarland, USA and as such, it is the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Hot Tub Time Machine 2.
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, featuring Big Bad Wolves on DVD, among other prizes.
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, also featuring Big Bad Wolves on DVD, among other prizes.
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: How Big Will 50 Shades Be?
February 13, 2015
Fifty Shades of Grey will win the weekend box office race and then aliens will come down to Earth and eliminate us as a species. Okay, that second part is just wishful thinking on my part. Kingsman: The Secret Service will open in a distant second place, despite earning reviews that are really good, for this time of year. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water will fit somewhere in-between the two new releases. Last year, The LEGO Movie remained in first place with $49.85 million. Fifty Shades of Grey will crush that figure, leading 2015 to an easy victory.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Lead Actor
February 13, 2015
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With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two leading actor categories, finishing with Best Lead Actor. As I previously mentioned, three of the four actor races are not even close; however, this is the one exception and there is a two-horse race to pay attention to.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Lead Actress
February 13, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two leading actor categories, starting with Best Lead Actress. One actress is so far ahead of the rest of the field that there isn't even a consensus on who the second place actress should be.
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International Box Office: Jupiter Ascends to the Top
February 13, 2015
Jupiter Ascending earned first place on the international chart with $32.5 million. At first glance, this doesn't seem too bad for an opening weekend on the international chart, except the film was playing in 65 markets, so it doesn't have a lot of room to grow. Its biggest market was Russia, where it earned first place with $4.97 million on 1,900 screens. On the other hand, it only managed fourth place in South Korea with $1.67 million on 561 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $2.03 million.
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Contest: Soak Up the Prizes: Winning Announcement
February 13, 2015
The winners of our Soak Up the Prizes contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water opening weekend were...
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Supporting Actress
February 12, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two supporting actor categories, starting with Best Supporting Actress. Three of the four acting categories have almost no suspense to them, as there is an overwhelming favorite amongst the five nominees. This is not the exception.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Supporting Actor
February 12, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two supporting actor categories, finishing with Best Supporting Actor. Like the Best Supporting Actress category, Best Supporting Actor isn't even close and one of the five nominees is absolutely running away with things.
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Per Theater Chart: Hip to be Square(Pants)
February 11, 2015
Just like it did on the overall box office chart, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water led the way on the per theater chart with an average of $15,206. This is surprisingly high compared to weekend predictions. There were two other films in the $10,000 club. Ballet 422 earned an average of $13,827 in two theaters and Old Fashioned was right behind with $12,988 in three.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 10th, 2015
February 11, 2015
I can't wait till the winter blockbusters start coming out, because I've run out of ways to say, "It is a slow week on the home market." without repeating myself. There are some releases that are certainly worth picking up, like the Blu-ray debut for 101 Dalmatians, but there are also releases that I would call filler on the first page of Amazon.com's list of new releases. There are a number of releases that are worth picking, including Force Majeure (DVD or Blu-ray); Laggies (DVD or Blu-ray); Nightcrawler (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack); and Rosewater (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack). However, the only real contender for Pick of the Week was 101 Dalmatians.
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Featured TV on DVD Review: Nurse Jackie: Season Six
February 10, 2015
I have reviewed four of the previous five seasons of Nurse Jackie and for the most part thought the show was good, but has some problems. I thought the fourth season was the best season. Did the show continue to grow? Or did it suffer in the year that I missed?
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Weekend Wrap-Up: SpongeBob Stands Tall
February 9, 2015
As expected, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water led the way at the box office; however, it did so in a much more explosive way. In fact, its opening was in the top five for February releases. The other two new releases, Jupiter Ascending and Seventh Son, did as well as expected, more or less, but that's not really a good thing. The overall weekend box office was $152 million, which was 51% more than last weekend. Compared to the same weekend last year, 2015 actually came out ahead, albeit by 0.3% margin. This is less than ticket price inflation, so fewer tickets were sold, but I don't really care. Considering I thought 2015 would lose by close to $20 million, I will take any victory and celebrate it. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled ahead of 2014 by nearly $100 million at $1.17 billion to $1.08 billion. Again, it is too soon to judge how well 2015 will do, but being ahead by 8.8% is still worth noting.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Rosewater
February 9, 2015
Rosewater is Jon Stewart's directorial debut and it is coming out on the home market the same week John Oliver's show returned to HBO. I wonder if that is a coincidence? As for the movie itself, it opened in a very awkward theater count and it struggled at the box office, but still managed $3 million overall. Is it worth checking out for those interested in Jon Stewart's directorial debut? Is it good regardless of who was behind the camera?
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Home Market Numbers: Blu-ray and DVD Headed in Different Directions
February 9, 2015
New releases helped the overall Blu-ray sales grow this past weekend. Lucy, The Boxtrolls, and Annabelle were the big trio and they helped the overall Blu-ray numbers grow to 1.11 million units / $23.82 million. This was week-to-week growth of 40% in terms units and 41% in terms of revenue, which is excellent for one weeks growth. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sold 41% more units and generated 35% more revenue. This helped the overall Blu-ray share grow to 44%.
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DVD Sales: New Releases all but Gone
February 9, 2015
New releases scored four of the top five spots on the DVD sales chart this week. This includes Lucy, which opened with 367,000 units / $5.39 million.
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Blu-ray Sales: Lucy has Diamond Debut on Blu
February 9, 2015
New releases dominated the Blu-ray Sales Chart earning the top three spots. This includes Lucy, which opened in first place with 425,000 units / $8.71 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 54%. Action films tend to do really well on Blu-ray, so this result isn't too much of a surprise.
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2014 - Awards Season: BAFTA - Winners
February 8, 2015
The BAFTA winners were announced on Sunday and there were a few surprises, including the number one winner. The Grand Budapest Hotel took home five awards, while Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, and Whiplash earned three each.
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Featured TV on DVD Review: Power Rangers: Super Megaforce: The Silver Warrior
February 8, 2015
The latest incarnation of the Power Rangers is called Super Megaforce. It is the 21st season of the long-running show and it is a bit of a special season. The original Japanese series the show borrows from, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, was an anniversary celebration, so in the series, the Power Rangers were given the ability to change into any of the Power Rangers from the past. Does this add to the nostalgia of the show? Does this come across as a silly gimmick?
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Laggies
February 8, 2015
Laggies is a film that opened in limited release earning much better buzz than most films do. It opened well, but struggled as it tried to expand. Then again, it is a romantic comedy and those rarely do well in limited release. Did it fail to find an audience because it is the wrong genre? Or did the word of mouth kill it?
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Weekend Estimates: SpongeBob Soaks Up $56 Million
February 8, 2015
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is wiping out the competition this weekend with a dramatic $56 million debut, enough to give it the 5th biggest weeked in February, with a chance of 4th place if it does well today. After the success of The LEGO Movie this weekend last year, there’s a good bet we’ll be seeing the first weekend in February becoming a regular landing spot for animated films. (Perhaps The Nut Job 2 will move back a few weeks next year in response?)
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2014 - Awards Season: DGA - Winners
February 7, 2015
The Directors Guild of America were handed out Saturday night and the number surprises was... well, none. Birdman was expected to win and it did, while CitizenFour is rapidly becoming the Oscar-favorite.
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Limited Release: Voicing Their Opinion
February 6, 2015
Like last week, this week's list is more of a highlights. It is the heart of Oscar season, so it is hard to have the time to research all dozen plus limited releases coming out each week. Additionally, this week most of the limited releases are opening with no buzz and bad reviews and many of them are only coming out in theaters to boost their Video on Demand release. That is not to say there are no good new releases coming out... there are three films earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Two of those are documentaries and the other, The Voices, is coming out on Video on Demand. It is going to be a really bad weekend at the box office for limited releases.
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Contest: Sticky Situation
February 6, 2015
Next weekend, Fifty Shades of Grey opens and while Kingsman: The Secret Service looks like the better movie, Fifty Shades of Grey is going to crush it at the box office. As such, it is the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Fifty Shades of Grey.
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, featuring Syrup on DVD, among other prizes.
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, this time featuring Tasting Menu 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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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
February 5, 2015
Alexander and the I hate movies with long names cost only $28 million to make, which is low compared to the average film. It did do well enough to become a midlevel hit, which is better than most live action kids movies. Will it also be a hit on the home market? Or did it thrive due to a lack of competition in theaters?
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Weekend Predictions: Will SpongeBob Stop Sniper?
February 5, 2015
We should have a new film to top the chart, finally, as The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water looks to take top spot, although if the more pessimistic analysts are correct, American Sniper could be close behind. Jupiter Ascending is looking for a $20 million opening, so if it can surprise analysts just a little it will compete for second place. Meanwhile, Seventh Son should be happy with a spot in the top five. It will get there, but mainly due to the lack of depth at the box office. This weekend last year was led by The LEGO Movie, which earned nearly $70 million. There's a chance the top three films won't earn that much this year. Even if all three wide releases top expectations, 2015 will still have trouble matching last year's box office.
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Feature-Length Animated Film
February 4, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Animated Film. For a while, it looked like The LEGO Movie would be the favorite to win the Oscar, then it wasn't even nominated. Because of that, it is a little hard to know what will happen going forward. There is one film that looks to be the favorite, but that was true before the nominations and nearly every expert got it wrong before.
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International Box Office: China Runs a New Release to the Top
February 4, 2015
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Running Man opened in top spot in both China and on the International chart with $37.05 million over the weekend in its native market. Films in China tend to have short legs, most of the time. There's still too much uncertainty to really predict the film's final box office numbers after just this weekend's results. On a side note, it wasn't that long ago that it would be unthinkable for a film opening in just China to finish first on the international chart. Now it is relatively common.
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Featured Blu-ray Review: 101 Dalmatians
February 4, 2015
101 Dalmatians first hit theaters more than 50 years ago. Since then, the film has been released on the home market a number of times, including in 2008, which is when I previously reviewed it. My opinion on the movie hasn't changed much, it is definitely worth owning, but is the new Blu-ray Combo Pack worth picking up for those who own the DVD?
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2014 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Feature-Length Documentary
February 3, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Documentary. This category had a lot of surprises throughout the nomination process; however, now that we have our five Oscar nominees, it seems like one of them has really settled into first place, while one of the other four might make it a two-horse race. On a side note, there are five major awards that we track that have a Documentary category. Of those, only one has announced its winners and none of the Oscar-nominated films won.
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Contest: Operation Project: Winning Announcement
February 3, 2015
The winners of our Operation Project contest were determined and they are...
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Per Theater Chart: Future for Timbuktu Is Bright
February 3, 2015
Timbuktu was the only film in the $10,000 club this weekend earning an estimated average of $12,500 in four theaters. Running Man came close with an average of $9,246 in 20 theaters. Impressively, Game Of Thrones: The IMAX Experience earned 15th place on the overall chart with $1.46 million in just over 200 theaters for an average of $7,142. This is enough to expect this to happen again, but I don't know if it will be a regular thing.
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Home Market Numbers: Blu-ray Bounces Back, But Winter Slump Continues
February 2, 2015
A couple of new releases, Gone Girl and A Walk Among the Tombstones, were able to take the top two spots on the Blu-ray sales chart and that helped the overall sales of Blu-ray grow 22% to 852,000 units and 21% to $17.92 million compared to last week. Unfortunately, this was 19% fewer units and 25% less revenue from the same week last year. This is less of an issue with the Blu-ray market and more of an issue with the weakness in the theatrical numbers. In fact, the overall Blu-ray share rose to 37% in terms of units and 43% in terms of revenue.
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Blu-ray Sales: Girl Feeling Blu
February 2, 2015
There were not a lot of new releases to reach the top twenty on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, but we did have a new film on top. Gone Girl earned first place with 342,000 / $6.64 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 43%. This isn't bad, for a thriller.
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DVD Sales: Gone Walks All Over Competition
February 2, 2015
Gone Girl led the new releases on the DVD sales chart with sales of 460,000 units / $6.97 million during its opening week of release. This is a good start for the film and probably enough to get to 1 million units before it is done. Eventually.
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Weekend Wrap-Up: Box Office was Less than Super
February 2, 2015
Super Bowl weekend was rough at the box office with only one film topping $10 million. That film was American Sniper, which completed the hat trick, but with less than expected. Second place went to Project Almanac, again earning less than expected, while Paddington was right behind in third place. Overall the box office fell 36% from last weekend, down to just $102 million. This is still 18% higher than the same weekend last year, so we have that to focus on. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $994 million, which is 7.0% more than last year's pace of $929 million. Again, it is way too early to judge and as we saw last year, things can fall apart really quickly. That said, I will take any good news I can get.
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DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 3rd, 2015
February 2, 2015
It is a slow week on the home market, and will remain a slow week until the winter blockbusters start coming out. According to Amazon.com, this week the biggest release is John Wick. Granted, the Blu-ray Combo Pack is Pick of the Week material, but the film only made $43 million at the box office, so it likely won't sell a lot on the home market. The other two contenders for Pick of the Week are The Overnighters on DVD or Blu-ray and Dear White People - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray. Are three are worth picking up. The Overnighters is arguably the best, but I love the Film Noir style in John Wick, so I'm awarding that one the Pick of the Week.
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Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: John Wick
February 1, 2015
John Wick stars Keanu Reeves in the titular role. Keanu Reeves has earned close to $2 billion domestically, but it has been more than a decade since he starred in a film that earned more than $100 million at the box office. This film couldn't even get halfway to the century mark. Did it deserve to become a hit? Or was it destined to fall between the cracks?
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Weekend Estimates: American Sniper Wins Super Bowl Weekend
February 1, 2015
With only some relatively lightweight competition, American Sniper will cruise to another weekend win, with Warner Bros. projecting a $31.85m weekend, down 51% from last weekend thanks to an expected steep decline on Super Bowl Sunday. Without the big football game, the film would most likely be down closer to 40% in its third weekend in limited release.
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2015 Preview: February
February 1, 2015
It was a record-breaking January thanks entirely to American Sniper, which set records, both during its limited release run and especially when it expanded wide. There were a couple of other films that did well, but for the most part, it was a typical January. The question is, will American Sniper boost the overall box office, which would help February, or will its effects fade as it does? There are ten wide releases in February; there are a few films that may or may not open in the top ten. Of these, there are only two that have a real shot at true box office success. The biggest film in terms of buzz is Fifty Shades of Grey, which looks so, so bad. Personally, I would rather watch The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water a hundred times than sit through just the trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey. If Fifty Shades of Grey becomes the biggest hit of the month, it will mrean the end of civilization. Because. I. Will. End. Civilization. Last February was mostly mediocre, except for The LEGO Movie which was a huge early year hit. There's no chance any film opening this month will match The LEGO Movie; the top two films likely won't match The LEGO Movie. Because of this, 2015 will need to rely on depth to come out ahead. I'm not sure how likely that will be.
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