December 18th, 2017
Game of Thrones is one of the biggest TV shows of all time. It was considered a hit right away with an average viewership of just over 2.5 million during its fourth season. Its most recent season had an average viewership over four times that. It holds the record for most Emmy wins by a scripted show at 38. (This past season wasn’t eligible for this year’s Emmys because it started too late in the year, but I suspect it will earn a ton of nominations next year.) However, there is bad news, as season eight, the final season, won’t begin airing until 2019. Will season seven leave viewers aching for more? Or has the show finally started to show its age?
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November 13th, 2016
Long time fans of Game of Thrones have just one question on their minds... Why is Season Six coming out this week and not in spring just before Season Seven comes out, like they’ve done every year before. Well, I have some bad news for you. Season Seven isn’t coming out in the spring. It’s coming out in the Summer. So will this Blu-ray holdover fans until the next season comes out?
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March 13th, 2016
Season Six of Game of Thrones starts on the 24th of April. Still a full month away. On the other hand, Season Five comes out this week and to celebrate we have a Contest and a review. How was Season Five compared to the previous seasons? Is it still engaging? Or now that the show is running out of source material to pull from, is it starting to show cracks?
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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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February 19th, 2013
Game of Thrones was one of the biggest new shows of 2011 and the second season was given the green light, and a larger budget, a mere two days after the series premiere. This turned out to be a wise choice, because the ratings for season two were even greater than they were for season one. But was this due to just hype? Or did the quality of the show increase as well? And is the DVD or the Blu-ray Combo Pack as good as the first time around?
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October 1st, 2012
2012 continues its downward path. After a record-breaking spring, thanks to The Hunger Games, and a record-breaking start to the summer, thanks to The Avengers, the box office hasn't been able to maintain any real momentum. For most of the month, September was no better than August and now the year-over-year gains are just a little more than inflation. October will need to improve or 2012 will be in real trouble. Unfortunately, that might be tough. There's not a single film coming out in October that looks like it will be a guaranteed $100 million hit and there are only two films with a realistic chance, Taken 2 and Paranormal Activity 4. (There's also Cloud Atlas, which is a wild card. That movie could bomb or be the biggest hit of the month and I wouldn't be surprised either way.) There is a chance all three will get to the century mark, but there's a better chance none of them will. Last October, two films cracked $100 million: Paranormal Activity 3 and Puss in Boots, with the latter nearly reaching $150 million. I don't see any film coming close to matching that figure. On the other hand, last year there were six films that one could accurately describe as bombs. So while 2012 is weaker at the top, it could have better depth than 2011 did. Let's hope so, because we can't afford more bad news.
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