Theater Averages: Dragons Look Down on the Other New Releases

February 27th, 2019

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was the only film in the $10,000 Club earning an average of $13,506. The best limited release was Wrestle, which earned $6,027 in its lone theater. More...

Theater Averages: Fighting for First Place

February 20th, 2019

Not only did we set a new yearly high market for theater average this past weekend, but two of the top three results from 2019 were from this weekend. Fighting With My Family led the way with an average of $34,695 in four theaters over the three-day weekend. The film earned just under $200,000 during its five-day debut, which is great news for its wide expansion this weekend. The re-release of War and Peace managed $22,976 in its one theater. That’s amazing, because the film is six hours long and they could only fit in 2 screenings a day. Then again, the movie is six hours long, they probably charged double to see it. Birds of Paradise was next with an average of $11,541 in two theaters. This is more impressive than it looks at first, because the film debuted on Wednesday, which undoubtedly tempered some of its weekend box office. The final film in the $10,000 club was CatVideoFest with $11,269. At first I was confused by this result, but then I found out it is a charity event, so good job everyone involved. More...

Theater Averages: Everybody Knows it’s a Slow Time for the Theater Average Chart

February 14th, 2019

There was only one new release in the $10,000 club this week, Everybody Knows, which earned an average of $17,802 in four theaters. Last week’s winner, Never Look Away, expanded into three theaters earning an average of $12,942. The 2019 Oscar Shorts didn’t make the $10,000 club, but it did earn nearly $1 million in 270 theaters for an average of $3,476, which is a better than 30% increase compared to the previous installment and easily the best of the franchise. Granted, it was also the widest release in the franchise, but this is still a start worth celebrating. More...

Weekend Estimates: Lego Tops Chart, but Fails to Match the Original

February 10th, 2019

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part reportedly cost $99 million to make and it will earn that much domestically, so it will very likely make a profit and Warner Bros. will be fine. That said, it is estimated to only manage $34.4 million over the weekend, which is about 40% lower than expectations and almost exactly 50% lower than the first film opened with. Its reviews are 84% positive, while it managed an A minus from CinemaScore, so it really should have done better than this. This hopefully isn’t a sign that the overall box office is unhealthy, but just a sign that WB has pushed the franchise too much too soon. Internationally, the film started with $18.1 million in 63 markets. This includes a first place, $5.2 million on 1,301 screens in the U.K. It also managed first place in Russia with $1.7 million on 2,493 screens. On the other hand, it only managed fourth place in Brazil with just $707,000 on 854 screens, which is the weakest start in the franchise. More...

Limited and VOD Releases: A Short List or a List of Shorts

February 8th, 2019

It is a rather long list of limited releases this week, but this is a case of quantity over quality and there’s not much here to get excited about. If you are into strange films with overly long titles, then The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Big Foot should be up your alley. However, the film most likely to find an audience is 2019 Oscar Shorts. More...