November 5th, 2020
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The country might be distracted by a drawn-out election right now, but the movie business soldiers on this month, even though recovery from the pandemic looks as far away as ever. While theatrical grosses remain tiny, Universal is currently planning to try its luck with three new wide releases, two from the studio itself and one from its specialty division Focus Features.
At least, that’s their current plan. Two of the films seem certain to roll out, but their Thanksgiving release of The Croods: A New Age has to come with an asterisk attached. Perhaps this release will be an olive branch to theater operators after the studio caused controversy in March by pulling Trolls World Tour from theaters and sending it direct to PVOD. Universal is maybe taking this opportunity to look they’re supporting the theatrical business, and their case is made more convincing by the fact that every other major studio is sitting out November. Even looking beyond the end of the month, 20th Century Studios is the only other distributor that looks like it’ll have a wide release between now and Christmas, with Free Guy on December 11 and Death on the Nile on December 18. (Universal has another film, All My Life slated for December 4.)
If Universal sticks to its plans, and a couple of other expected changes (Coming 2 America going direct to Amazon Prime, and Wonder Woman 1984 getting pushed back again) happen, it’ll be the only studio offering real support to the theatrical business between now and the end of the year. Maybe everyone will let bygones be bygones, and we can at least point to that as a ray of hope for the industry going in Holiday Season.
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November 12th, 2018
Incredibles 2 was one of three absolute monster hits Disney released this year, all of them super hero movies. It is the delayed sequel to The Incredibles, which came out in 2004. Fourteen years is a long time for a sequel. Was it worth the wait? Or is Pixar running out of ideas?
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July 24th, 2018
It is an incredibly slow week on the home market. Most of the films in the main list would be filler on even a below average week. The only real exception is Ready Player One, which did earn better than expected reviews, but it’s still not Pick of the Week material. There were a few actual contenders for that title, including Gravity Falls: The Complete Series and A Matter of Life and Death, but in the end, I went with In the Mouth of Madness on Blu-ray.
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April 20th, 2018
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It is not a particularly good week for limited releases, as there are a number of them with reviews that are good, but not good enough for limited release. There are some that I’m interested in seeing, Ghost Stories, Little Pink House, and Imitation Girl among them.
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May 23rd, 2017
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Get Out is inarguably the biggest surprise hit of the year. It earned over $200 million worldwide on just a $5 million budget. It also earned 100% positive reviews. (Armond White doesn’t count, because he’s not a real critic. Roger Ebert himself called Armond White a Troll.) Does the film live up to its success? Is it even medically possible for it to live up to its success?
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October 16th, 2013
The Croods opened in March with more than $40 million and lasted long enough to pull in more than $180 million domestically and $570 million worldwide. That's a very impressive run for a spring release. Did it deserve this box office success? Or did it thrive because of the lack of direct competition?
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October 1st, 2013
October is an awkward month. It sits between the dumping ground that is September and November, the unofficial start of Awards Season / holiday blockbuster season. For the most part, September was stronger than average for the month and there's reason to be optimistic going forward. After all, box office success tends to feed on itself, as does box office struggles. That said, there are not a lot of sure hits over the coming four weeks. Of the nine or ten films opening wide this month, only Gravity has a better than 50/50 chance at $100 million. Captain Phillips could have a shot at the century mark, but only if it becomes a serious Awards Season player. Its early reviews suggest that could be a possibility. Last October, there were two films to reach the $100 million mark, Taken 2 and Argo. On the other hand, pretty much everything else that opened that month crashed and burned. While this October doesn't have as strong a top end, it will hopefully have much better depth.
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September 20th, 2013
There are a few films on this week's list earning overwhelmingly positive reviews, including the The Wizard of Oz 3D re-release. This film might do well enough to reach the top ten. Rush opens in two theaters before expanding wide next weekend, so its per theater average is not as important, but could still do well. Enough Said is the big limited release hit of the week. The film has a lot of buzz, a sad real world story, and amazing reviews. It will likely come out on top.
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March 1st, 2013
February is over, and for the most part, we should be very happy it is done and buried. The biggest hit of the month turned out to be Identity Thief, which will cross $100 million shortly. There were also a couple of impressive midlevel hits, like Warm Bodies and Escape from Planet Earth, but for the most part, it was miss after miss. This is bad news for March, which is not only dealing with a slumping 2013 box office, but will be compared with a strong March of 2012. Last March started with The Lorax, which earned more than $200 million. There's a good chance no March release this year will reach this milestone. Last March was also the month The Hunger Games opened, which earned more than $400 million. There's a chance the top three films opening this month won't earn that much combined. 2013 is going to take a beating in the year-over-year comparison and it is already $100 million behind last year's pace.
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February 14th, 2013
A Late Quartet opened last November and it earned good reviews, but not great reviews. It also did well in limited release, but never expanding significantly. Is it worth checking out for those who missed out on the film in theaters? Are there enough extras to make it worth picking up?
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October 4th, 2012
There are a large number of limited releases on this week's list, but very few have a serious shot at box office success. There are several films with casts with strong name recognition that were earning pre-release buzz, Butter, The Oranges, and The Paperboy, but none of them are earning strong enough reviews to suggest they will thrive in limited release. Fat Kid Rules the World might be the film with the best chance at mainstream success on this week's list, while Escape Fire might do well for a documentary.
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