MCN Weekend Archive for November, 2014
The Weekend Report
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 held top spot over the extending Thanksgiving holiday with an estimated $56.9 million. Turkey days featured two new national releases that came up short of expectations. Animated Penguins of Madagascar bowed in second spot with $25.7 million and the sequel of revenge Horrible Bosses 2 ran fifth at $15.5 million. Exclusive newcomers included Oz horror yarn The Babadook with $18,800 from two engagements. The biggest clues were left by Oscar hopeful The Imitation Game, that bowed to $484,000 on just four secret estates.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
Mockingjay continues to rule the roost and is now looking to catch up to the domestic gross of the first Hunger Games, but not the second (which it is still behind by 24%). It’s now past $400m worldwide. newcomer/spinoff The Penguins of Madagascar is looking soft, due for a Saturday uptick, but not close to Big Hero Six opening numbers, even if you adjust expectations because of the Wednesday launch. Interstellar had an uptick this weekend, even as it dropped more than 10% of its screens. And newcomer/sequel Horrible Bosses 2 is no Horrible Bosses… but how different they really are at the box office won’t be known until the end of next weekend, once we’ve digested Thanksgiving.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 generated the biggest box office bow (wow) of the year with an estimated $123.2 million salvo. The franchise’s third outing was always expected to be boffo albeit tracking indicated it would not attain the $158 million level of the prior chapter. Nonetheless, some held out hope for a gross close to $150 million. In light of the anticipated b.o. tsunami, competitors steered clear of the date with even limited, niche and exclusive debuts pared way back. But there was an encouraging $23,500 gross for the offbeat California-shot, Iran-set hipster vampire tale A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from two playdates. The sesh also featured small expansions for The Homesman, Foxcatcher and The Theory of Everything with the latter two maintaining hefty screen averages.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
A little move called Mockingjay: Part 1 shocked the movie world on Friday by a) having the biggest opening day of 2014, b) having the weakest opening day of the Hunger Games franchise, c) being unwatched by anyone in the movie world who doesn’t have a financial stake in it. In other box office news… well… is there any other box office news?
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Walt and Harry get a hero’s welcome after two decades away, grossing out an outrageous $38 million, while Big Hero 6 mashes up an estimated $35.8 million. Interstellar doesn’t quite go beyond infinity with $28.5 million, but gets tantalizingly close to the $100 million barrier.
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Twenty years later, the original-star sequel to Dumb & Dumber‘s opening day is just $2.1 million behind the entire opening weekend of the original. Back in 1994, it took seven weeks for that film to generate 85% of its domestic box office.This film will have more like four weekends to do the same. The Friday/weekend flip between Interstellar and Big Hero 6 should occur again this weekend as BH6 hits the $100m tape on Sunday. Newcomer Beyond the Lights from Relativity will open a little behind Addicted, Lionsgate’s October “urban” entry. Foxcatcher will be the big per-screen opener of the weekend, looking at about $35k per on five.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Mood Indigo, Jersey Boys, Tammy, Happy Christmas, Land Ho!, I Am Yours, Demons, Ornette/Jason, S.O.B., Compleat and more
Imagine a collaboration between Jacques Tati, Pee-wee Herman and Giacomo Puccini and it might resemble Michel Gondry’s latest romantic fantasy, Mood Indigo, not that he needs much help in that department.
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The weekend was expected to be highly competitive between spaced-out Interstellar and the cuddly animated robot of Big Hero 6. When the dust cleared the tilt went friendly with BH6 grossing an estimated $56 million and the sci-fi eye-popper close behind with $48.3 million. The two films accounted for roughly 66% of the session’s box office. Similarly, it was drear among the new exclusive with the notable exception being the Stephen Hawking origin story The Theory of Everything with a potent $206,000 box office from five screens.
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The weekend will go to Big Hero Six in the end rather than Interstellar, but the placement at the top of the chart means almost nothing in reality. These two films are not cannibalizing one another. Geeks who love Interstellar will surely also see Big Hero 6 this weekend or next. And kids under 10 aren’t expected to rush to Interstellar. These are both strong openings, but by no standard sensational. Both films should have the kind of legs that reach to Thanksgiving weekend. Interstellar‘s open is about 23% off of Inception and Big Hero Six, compared to other animated films in the first weekend of November slot, should be slightly ahead of Wreck-It-Ralph, but still #4 all-time.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler is a movie mostly about Los Angeles at night, mostly about the times when a lot of the city closes down and the streets go black, and freelance newshounds and videographers come crawling out of the dark corners and racing through the dark streets to take pictures of disaster and bloodshed and mayhem — which they peddle to the noisier TV channels and news programs: all those second or third tier (or less) stations whose (not always) unspoken motto is “If it bleeds, it leads.” It’s a good movie: tough, eloquent, very well-shot (by Robert Elswit)—a rousing little show that tries to tap the same sort of sleaze-scraping, unsparing vein as Ace in the Hole (about newspapers and sensationalistic journalism), Sweet Smell of Success (about newspaper gossip columnists) and A Face in the Crowd (about populist rightwing TV). A lot of the time, it succeeds. Sometimes sweetly, and sometimes with a spray of acid.
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Halloween said si to Ouija as the spooky yarn edged out newcomer Nightcrawler for top spot at the box office. Respective estimates for the films were $10.9 million and $10.7 million. The session’s other wide release was the chiller Before I Go to Sleep that grossed a disappointing $1.9 million. Holiday-timed retreads of Saw and The Nightmare Before Christmas also failed to treat.
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In spite of premature guessing by the “trades,” Ouija wins Friday over excellent adult thriller Nightcrawler. There is still a good chance that Nightcrawler will win the weekend, holding better on Saturday and Sunday than Ouija. The last time Halloween fell on a Friday (2008), Zack & Miri Make A Porno started with a $2.2m Friday and made it to the $10m mark. So the tale for Nightcrawler will be told today, as people actually buy tickets.
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