March 7th, 2024
After a successful opening week at the worldwide box office, Dune: Part Two adds three locations this week, once again taking the top spot on our theater count chart by playing in 4,074 theaters. Domestically, the sequel scored $82.5 million during its opening weekend and passed the $100-million mark on Wednesday, clocking with with a six-day domestic total of $104.62 million. The film’s opening weekend figure doubled that of its predecessor’s $41 million. This week will pose a much bigger challenge however as three new wide releases make their debut on the big screen.
More...
April 24th, 2017
La La Land was one of the best-reviewed films of the year and inarguably the biggest player during Awards Season. In fact, it earning 14 Oscar Nominations, tying the record previously set by All About Eve and Titanic. However, this caused a bit of a backlash against the film. Is the film as good as its Awards Season run would indicate? Or did it only do as well as it did, because it was practically designed to sway Oscar voters?
More...
September 30th, 2014
Jon Favreau's career behind the camera started out with smaller movies. He co-wrote Swingers and wrote and directed Made. However, recently he has directed a number of major movies. He was the one behind the camera for the first two Iron Man movies, for instance, and the average budget for his three most recent films he directed is close to $175 million. With his latest film, Chef, he went the opposite direction and created a much, much smaller film. Was he able to still maintain his usual high level of quality? Or does he need the spectacle to make a compelling movie?
More...
June 18th, 2013
It's another typical summer week on the home market. That is to say, it's a bad week on the home market. There are several first-run releases, the biggest of which was Jack the Giant Killer, which bombed at the box office. There are some limited releases that help the overall quality, but it is still a bad week. As far as Pick of the Week candidates go, Quartet on DVD or Blu-ray is the best choice. One could argue it is the only choice, but there are three Criterion Collection releases that are worth checking out, as well as some horror films, both old and new, that should please genre fans. On a side note, there are six Disney Channel releases on this week's list. That's a little strange.
More...
January 11th, 2013
With the Oscar nominations announced yesterday, the focus is on the the high-caliber films from 2012 that are still in theaters. This will hurt the new wide releases coming out this week, but it will be devastating to the limited releases. There's only one film on this week's list that looks like it might escape relatively unharmed: Quartet.
More...
December 10th, 2012
Dick Tracy came out in 1990 and the buzz surrouding the film was huge. However, well it earned good reviews and topped $100 million domestically, it was still seen as a disappointment by some. (It was released a year after Batman and some thought it would live up to that film.) This week it makes its Blu-ray debut, and while there were many complaints leveled at the film from flat characters to an unengaging story, nearly everyone agreed it was visually stunning. So does it work better more than 20 years after its release without the unfair comparison? And does it thrive on Blu-ray?
More...