July 18th, 2024
After six consecutive weeks of box office dominance, the reign of animated features looks to be coming to an end this weekend as Twisters funnels into theaters. It has been impressive run for Inside Out 2, and Despicable Me 4, however, as the two films have combined for a worldwide total of over $1.84 billion, largely due to the massive success of the former.
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April 25th, 2017
We are entering the worst time of year for the home market. The number of Oscar contenders have nearly dried up and there are more bombs than box office hits. As for the best of the new releases, The Criterion Collection release for Tampopo is the best and the only real choice for Pick of the Week. Meanwhile, the Mean Dreams DVD earns Puck of the Week, for the best Canadian release of the week.
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March 17th, 2017
Beauty and the Beast scared away most of the wide-release competition and there are not many limited releases either this weekend. T2: Trainspotting is by far the biggest in terms of buzz. We also have a few like Mean Dreams, which have good reviews, but are playing on VOD. Or foreign-language films like Frantz.
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October 17th, 2016
The original Alien movie can be described as a haunted house movie set in space, only with an alien instead of a supernatural entity attacking the cast. Aliens, on the other hand, loses nearly all of its tension and instead goes for an action-oriented approach. Does it work? Oh hell yeah. This is one of the best films from the 1980s and it is a must have. Is this 30th Anniversary Blu-ray worth picking up if you have the box set? That’s an interesting question.
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September 30th, 2014
September is over and while it got off to a bad start, a really, really, truly terrible start, it actually ended on a bit of a strong note. Granted, no film has yet to reach $100 million, but The Maze Runner and The Equalizer both could get there in the end. As for October, we might go another month without a $100 million hit. There are a couple of films that have the potential to reach the century mark, Gone Girl and Fury. Hopefully they will get there, but given the recent box office woes, it is probably best to keep expectations low. Last October, there were two films that earned more than $100 million. Bad Grandpa just made it passed that mark. On the other hand, Gravity was a monster hit earning nearly $275 million. It you compare its run to this year's batch of films, it only ranks behind Guardians of the Galaxy. ... There's no way any film opening this month is going to match that. ... There no way the top two films will match that. ... The top three films might not match that. ... 2014 is going to get crushed in the year-over-year comparison and by the end of the month, it will be safe to say its chances of ever catching up to 2013 will be over. It is going to be a depressing month.
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June 1st, 2014
It is too soon to tell how May will end, as this story will be published before the weekend estimates came out. (Maleficent had an excellent start on Friday, unlike A Million Ways to Die in the West.) Overall, it was a good month with at least three movies that are on track to hit $200 million, but there was no really big winner for the month. It was nice and balanced. Unfortunately, last May there was a monster hit, Iron Man 3, and 2014 could not compete with that, so it lost ground to 2013. June hopes to turn things around and there are some reasons to be optimistic. All four weeks there is at least one film opening that at least has a shot at $100 million. There are even two films that at least have a shot at $300 million. Transformers: Age of Extinction should win the monthly box office race while How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a long shot to win, but I wouldn't be completely surprised if it did. Additionally, 22 Jump Street, Edge of Tomorrow, The Fault in Our Stars, and Think Like a Man 2 are all contenders for the century club. Not all of them will get to that milestone, but all of them at least have a short. Last June, there were three films that reached $200 million, including Man of Steel, which nearly reached $300 million. It looks like June of 2014 will be about as strong as June of 2013, more or less. If all films reach their potential, it could win the year-over-year comparison. Unless there are some shocking bombs, it shouldn't struggle so much that 2014 loses its lead over 2013 entirely.
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