Despite debuting last week, the arrival of Morbius could not oust The Lost City from its place as widest release. This week is a different story however as last week’s box office chart topper becomes the new widest release while fending off the two newcomers, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Ambulance.
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I think it’s a great week on the home market for a few reasons, one of which is selfish. Amazon finally got its act together and upcoming releases are appearing on the site so I can pre-plan weeks, which makes my job easier. It also is making my wallet very scared, because there are a number of amazing releases coming out soon. This includes several new releases this week that are worth picking up like Buffaloed, Emma., Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, etc. and those aren’t even the contenders for Pick of the Week. That list is limited to The Good Place: The Complete Series Blu-ray and The Quintessential Quintuplets: Season 1. In the end I went with The Good Place, which I think will have a wider appeal.
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Talk of a Sonic the Hedgehog movie first began 25 years ago. It’s a super popular video game franchise, or at least it was at its peak. A string of subpar instalments in the franchise hurt its popularity, while the overall terrible quality of the average video game movie made a live-action movie seem like a risk. Then that first trailer came out. Granted, the effects quality improved dramatically as a result of the backlash, but I was still not interested in the substance the trailer offered. Then the reviews showed up and many people said this film was the best video game adaptation of all time. It then went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2020 so far. Is it as good as its reviews / box office numbers? Or do I think this film benefited from low expectations?
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Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day combine into one long weekend. It’s a great early weekend of the year and there are four films hoping to take advantage of the holiday to get off to a fast start. Unfortunately, four films is too many for all of them to succeed and it looks like one or two will fall between the cracks. Sonic the Hedgehog is the biggest release of the week and will likely earn more during its opening weekend than any of the three other films will earn in total. This includes The Photograph, the only new release that is earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. It looks like Fantasy Island will have some of the worst reviews of the year. Finally, Downhill has the quietest buzz and that’s going to kill it more than its mixed reviews will. Meanwhile, this weekend last year, Alita: Battle Angel opened with $28.5 million, while The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part earned $20.8 million during its sophomore stint. Sonic the Hedgehog should top that with ease. In fact, there are some who think it will top those two films’ combined weekend hauls. If so, then 2020 will return to its winning ways.
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We had a great start to the year, sort of. Most films that opened / expanded wide in January are going to miss expectations; however, Bad Boys for Life and 1917 are so much stronger than anticipated that they alone will more than make up the difference. Looking forward, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is almost guaranteed to be the biggest hit of the month. There are two questions. Firstly, is it going to top Bad Boys for Life and become the biggest hit of the year so far? Secondly, is it going to be the only $100 million hit of month? Hopefully the answers to those questions are yes and no respectively, but no to both is would still be good news overall. Sonic the Hedgehog is looking better than before and frankly Paramount needs a hit after a very troubling 2019. Meanwhile, there are several midlevel hits that could help the overall box office. Last February was a mixed month with some hits, like How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, but some disappointing results as well, like from The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. I think it will be a close race in the year-over-year competition with 2020 winning some weeks and losing others.
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Night School struggled with critics, but did quite well with over $100 million worldwide. Were critics right? Or was there a reason audiences seemed to connect to the film?
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Many of the films on this week’s list are good, but not great. Some are like After Louie, good enough to rent on VOD, but not worth a trip to the theaters. Fortunately, there are some that are worth a trip to the theaters, including Love After Love and Outside In.
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House of Lies debut in January of this year on Showtime. The cable network seems to specialize in flawed anti-heroes for their comedies. Many times this works, like with Shameless or Nurse Jackie, other times it doesn't, like with Californication or the later seasons of Weeds. Can the cast of lies maintain the balance between flawed and charming? Or have the writers mistakenly thought selfish and egotistical is a shortcut to compelling characters?
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