January 28th, 2015
The winners of our A Bird in the Hand contest were determined and they are...
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January 21st, 2015
It is another very shallow week on the home market with only a few releases that are really worth considering. The biggest release is Lucy, which is absolutely worth picking up the Blu-ray Combo Pack, assuming you are willing to ignore the bad science. Likewise, The Boxtrolls the second biggest hit and the 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack is worth picking up, if you like stop-motion animation. As for Pick of the Week Contenders, there are a trio of such films: Coherence on DVD, The Drop on DVD or Blu-ray, and The Mule on DVD or Blu-ray. In the end it was a coin toss and Coherence won.
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January 20th, 2015
I heard a lot of pre-release buzz for White Bird in a Blizzard, in part because it starred Shailene Woodley, who is rapidly becoming an A-list star. However, its reviews were mixed and it opened below the Mendoza Line. (Although the weak box office numbers are in part due to the film opening on Video on Demand.) Were the critics overly harsh? Or was the buzz overly generous?
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January 16th, 2015
Next weekend there are three wide releases, The Boy Next Door, Mortdecai, and Strange Magic. Oh boy. This is the most January out of all of the January weeks. I really don't think any of them will even come close to becoming a midlevel hit, but one of them will have to be the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. I'm going with ... rolls a dice ... Mortdecai. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Mortdecai.
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 White Bird in a Blizzard on DVD.
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 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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January 14th, 2015
The winners of our No Need to Take contest were determined and they are...
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October 28th, 2014
Despite growing its theater count to 50, Birdman was able to remain in top spot on the per theater chart with a powerful average of $27,593. Next up was CitizenFour, which was really close behind with an average of $25,264 in five theaters. This is excellent for a documentary, but as a documentary, it's chances of expanding significantly are limited. Laggies will likely expand somewhat after opening with an average of $14,828, also in five theaters. It has a much more mainstream appeal, so it if does expand, it could do well. Then again, this is never an easy strategy and I'm sure the studio will be happy with a strong home market run. Force Majeure was the final film in the $10,000 club with an average of $11,655 in two theaters.
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October 24th, 2014
Last weekend, Birdman opened with Oscar-worthy reviews and it wasn't the only film that was expected to be a hit at the box office. This weekend, there are no such films. CitizenFour and Force Majeure are both earning Oscar buzz, but one's a documentary and the other is a foreign-language film, so neither are likely to expand significantly. This leaves Laggies as the film with the loudest buzz, even if its reviews suggest it might not thrive in limited release.
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