February 9th, 2018
A lot of films on this week’s list are earning good reviews, but not great reviews. This means most of them will have to wait till the home market to find an audience. That’s not to say there are no movies worth going to the theater to see. Summer 1993 is the best, but both Pad Man and the 2018 Oscar Shorts collections are also worth the trip.
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October 16th, 2017
American Gods came out about 15 years ago. Since it was first released, lots of people wanted to turn it into a movie, but it never went far, because turning the 465 page book into a 2 hour movie seemed fool-hardy. Turning it into a TV series, on the other hand... Was this the wiser path to take? Or is the book just too hard to adapt?
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September 5th, 2014
Awards Season starts soon. If you are a fan of limited releases, just keep repeating that. To be fair, there are two limited releases earning overwhelmingly positive reviews, No No: A Dockumentary and Wetlands, but neither are really likely to find audiences outside of the art house circuit. There are a couple films that are earning good reviews, but not great reviews. This includes God Help the Girl, which I'm rooting for, but I don't think any film here will top $10,000 on the per theater average. One last note, Forrest Gump is getting an IMAX release this weekend in 337 theaters.
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January 31st, 2014
After a weak start, January rebounded and a couple of films on last month's preview cracked $100 million at the box office. Granted, Lone Survivor is technically a December release, but Ride Along will become one of the rare January releases to reach the century mark. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be too many February releases that have a real shot at $100 million. It is very likely that The Lego Movie will reach that milestone, but most of the rest of the movies will be lucky if they reach $50 million. Last February was very similar. We had one surprise $100 million hit, Identity Thief, plus a couple of solid midlevel hits, Warm Bodies, for instance. However, for the most part, the month was one miss after another. This means 2014 could continue its winning ways, or at the very least, shouldn't fall behind 2013's pace.
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January 17th, 2014
It's the weekend after the Oscar nominations were announced and it is closing in on Sundance, so it is not a good time to release a film in limited release, as art house aficionados are focuses elsewhere. Unfortunately, there are lots of limited releases on this week's list, most of which are earning weak, or really weak reviews. There are a few that are earning good reviews, Big Bad Wolves, G.B.F., Like Father, Like Son, etc., but with the competition, I can practically guarantee that most of them will get lost in the crowd.
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October 14th, 2013
It's a good week on the home market with two $100 million hits coming out: The Heat and Pacific Rim. I've heard good things about both films, but unfortunately, neither screener has arrived. Also, while we have two big release on top, there's not a lot of depth and we quickly run into releases that would be filler during a normal week. At the time I started this column, no new releases for the week had arrived on time, but at least that gave me a chance to get a bit caught up on some of the previous late arrivals. This list includes two contenders for Pick of the Week: White Collar: Season Four and Modern Family: Season Four on DVD or Blu-ray. Both are must haves, but the latter won out for Pick of the Week honors.
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September 13th, 2013
The list of new limited releases is shorter than it was last week, but there are more films earning Award-worthy reviews this week than there were last week. Wadjda, Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, Sample This, and Blue Caprice are all either above 90%, or very close to it. Of those four, Blue Caprice has the best shot at breakout success, but I hope they all thrive in limited release.
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