March 20th, 2018
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It is a slow week with less than a dozen releases in the main section, and that includes two late reviews. There’s no more than that for the secondary Blu-ray releases. That said, a high percentage of these are worth picking up with many Pick of the Week contenders. For example, the biggest release of the week, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, is one of the best, as is one of the smallest releases, Miss Kiet’s Children. However, in the end, I went with Coco, which technically came out a couple of weeks ago, but the screener arrived late and it really deserves the title of Pick of the Week.
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December 28th, 2015
It's been a few weeks since I did a review. I stopped taking screeners knowing how busy Star Wars: The Force Awakens would keep me, but I figured I should get back in the game. However, there was a question of what late review would be worth checking out? Well, there have been five $1 billion movies to come out this year and I've previously reviewed all of the ones that hit the home market. All of them, but one: The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Of the five $1 billion movies, this one is arguably the one that had the most disappointing run at the box office. Yes, a film that made $1.40 billion worldwide was seen as a box office disappointment by some. This is mostly because its predecessor, The Avengers, broke box office records. The film also earned much weaker reviews than the first movie, but still earned 75% positive reviews, which is very good for a wide release. Is it a real disappointment? Or does it hold up compared to the competition?
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May 1st, 2015
April is over and there was good news and bad news. Good news: Furious 7 crushed the competition, and broke records along the way. Bad news: Furious 7 crushed the competition and no other April release will earn as much in total as Furious 7 earned during its opening day. Fortunately, Furious 7 was so strong that it carried April of 2015 to a draw when compared to April of 2014. May has a lot of similarities to April. The Avengers: Age of Ultron is expected to break records during its opening weekend and even the low end has it earning more than $1 billion worldwide. Unfortunately, no other film is going to come close to that figure. There are five other films with a potential to reach $100 million at the box office. The keyword there is "potential". There's a chance less than half of those five films will get to that milestone. And like last April, last May had much better depth with five films that reached $100 million, including four that surpassed $200 million. Age of Ultron will earn more than the combined totals of Maleficent, last month's winner, and X-Men: Days of Future Past, which placed second for the month. I am a little concerned about the lack of depth this month and this could cause May to lose in the month-over-month comparison in the end.
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April 1st, 2014
March was stronger than expected when compared to 2013 with four films earning $100 million or more, led by Divergent. (Not all of them have gotten there yet, but they are certain to reach that milestone before they are done their box office runs.) It wasn't a blow-out victory, on the other hand, as a few weekends the ticket sales were lower in 2014 than they were during the same weekend in 2013. April looks really strong with Captain America: The Winter Soldier leading the way. This film should top $200 million over the weekend, while it isn't the only film that should crack the century mark, as Rio 2 is also on track for $100 million. This is great news, as no film last April reached $100 million. Granted, 42 came close and Oblivion wasn't far behind, but The Winter Soldier should earn more than those two films earned combined giving 2014 a comfortable lead over 2013 over the full month.
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September 9th, 2013
Star Trek: The Original Series began nearly 50 years ago and created a TV and movie franchise that is still going on. The franchise has had its share of low points, but the 2009 reboot, Star Trek, revitalized the franchise at the box office. Star Trek into Darkness did even better at the box office. But did it deserve this box office success? Does it live up to franchise as a whole?
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July 20th, 2013
Spring Breakers is one of the more unusual films to come out this week. The original buzz was pretty weak, with a lot of people dismissing it as "Disney Girls Gone Wild". When it was finally released, the critical response was divided. There were many critics who liked the movie, more so than those who disliked the movie, but there were also some who called it one of the worst movies ever. Its limited release was more lucrative than expected and the film currently has the best per theater average for 2013. So which side of the argument do I fall under? And is the DVD or the Blu-ray worth picking up?
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June 9th, 2013
Coming into this weekend, Universal was already celebrating above-expectations performances this year for their releases Fast and Furious 6, Identity Thief and Mama, but those three successes have been eclipsed by a big surprise in the opening weekend for The Purge. The home invasion movie, made for just $3 million, will top the chart this weekend with an estimated $36.4 million, blowing past all expectations, and putting it on par with big budget movies like Oblivion. Doing so from a modest 2,536 theaters (and with a correspondingly low marketing budget) makes the victory even sweeter for the studio, which now boasts a 15% market share for the year. If it keeps going at this pace, Universal will have its best year since we started keeping records in 1995.
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June 7th, 2013
There are not a ton of new releases this week, but there are a few earning good reviews, and even a couple that are earning excellent reviews. Hopefully several will do well enough at the box office to thrive, but the only one I'm really bullish about is Much Ado About Nothing. It has excellent reviews, lots of buzz, and plenty of name recognition on both sides of the camera.
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November 23rd, 2012
This weekend is Thanksgiving and as always that means Black Friday and Cyber Monday plus 48 hours of shopping in-between. Unlike most years, I'm only halfway done with my Christmas shopping. So what recent, and not so recent releases are prime candidates for the perfect gift this year? Over the next month, we will go over several dozen possibilities with our annual Holiday Gift Guide, which is divided into into four sections. This week we start with Major Movie Releases. These are first run releases, franchise box sets, etc. However, before we get into the individual titles, we will start with an update on...
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November 13th, 2012
New releases this week are dominated by one title, Brave. The second best selling title according to Amazon.com is Lawrence of Arabia, which is a film that should be in everyone's collection, but as a catalog title, it likely won't sell a huge number of units. The third best selling title according to Amazon.com is Duck Dynasty: Season One. That's not a good sign. Fortunately, Brave is clearly Pick of the Week material with the Blu-ray Combo Pack or 3D Combo Pack battling for that honor.
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November 10th, 2012
Joss Whedon and John Cassaday helped restart the Astonishing X-Men and their four six-issue arcs and the giant size edition was amazing. It earned awards, including the Will Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series, which is like the Best Picture Oscar for comics. This week, the final DVD hits the home market, Unstoppable, as well as the two-disc Blu-ray Box Set. Does the series end on a high note? And is the Blu-ray worth picking up, even if you own the previous three DVDs?
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