MCN Weekend Archive for December, 2014
The Weekend Report
No big changes from Friday… or Thursday. Unbroken remains about a million ahead of Into The Woods , both headed to $100m+. The Hobbittstill on top by more than 30%. The Imitation Game showing its commercial legitimacy. The Interview averages an estimated $5,800 per screen on 331 after all the noise, suggesting that VOD day-‘n-‘date remains cannibalistic.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
Two days into the Christmas 4-day, The Hobbit 3 returns to the top, both for Friday and for the cume of Thurs-Fri. Still, Unbroken and Into The Woods are doing strong business and should be around the $50 million mark by the end of the weekend. American Sniper remains steady on Day 2, down minimally from opening day, though still on just four screens. Selma takes a 35% hit from opening day, but could be extra-strong on Sunday, as churches send parishioners from the pews to the theaters. And The Interview drops from its millio- dollar opening day to $720k, drawing about $2,175 per screen… which is good, but hardly overwhelming. The story continues to write itself, day by day.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: A Christmas Carol (1951)
Perhaps critics and movie lovers treasure it because they can see how deftly Hurst and Langley have resisted the obvious temptations of the material. This is the one of the most faithful of all “Christmas Carol”adaptations and also one of the least sentimental, one of the most stylishly crafted and one of the more psychologically acute. It’s beyond question a film for adults more than for children, which is almost never how “A Christmas Carol” is played.
Read the full article » 3 Comments »The Weekend Report
The final installment The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies not unexpectedly led weekend viewing with an estimated $55.9 million. Two other new releases slugged it out for the bridesmaid slot with Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb slight ahead of the re-imagined contemporary urban Annie with $16.9 million to $16.1 million respectively. Session box office chimed in just shy of $140 million and an upward bump of 64% from the immediate prior weekend. It was nonetheless 5% behind the 2013 frame was the second weekend of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug edged out Anchorman 2 with, respectively $31.5 million to $26.2 million.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
A lot of very hopeful movies are opening between now and a week from now, as is the norm for the holiday. It’s hard to judge the Friday for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five ArmiesHobbit movie after doing it with all three Rings movies.The domestic gross has been behind Rings on all Hobbits, but the international ahead in all but the Oscar-winning finale. So… we’ll see. Signs are good. As for Museum 3 and Annie , the history of this kind of opening in December is that $100m domestic is still a legit option for both… playability will be key.
Read the full article »DVD Geek: Snowpiercer
So, the science is at best dubious, the drama, while engagingly performed, is hardly profound, and the story, even aside from the fantasy parts, is illogical and is a mad amalgam of genres. Why, then, is Snowpiercer so entertaining? The answer is simple, it’s a train movie.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report
Exodus: Gods and Kings swept into the marketplace with an estimated $24.5 million to lead weekend movie ticket sales. The session’s other national newcomer was raw romantic comedy Top Five that bowed to $7.1 million. The exclusive bow of Inherent Vice generated a potent $336,000 box office from five pads and modest expansions for The Imitation Game and Wild maintained both pictures’ commercial momentum.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
Exodus will “win” the weekend easily, but right there in between December releases with hope of Christian audience interest The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Golden Compass, both of which were considered flops at the time. This does not preclude word-of-mouth from arriving for Exodus. But the launch leaves much to be desire. Likewise, Top Five, which has every indication of getting very, very strong word-of-mouth started slow, even on just 979 screens. Paramount clearly saw this problem coming in tracking and slowed the roll (out) to build the chatter on the film. They will know whether that paid off by next weekend .Inherent Vice lands on five pads with a per-screen that should inhale about $80k for the weekend.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 made the hat trick as it topped session moviegoing with an estimated $21.7 million. In what’s been traditionally one of the slowest weekends on the calendar. Distribution propped up the self-fulfilling prophecy by largely avoiding new product apart from low-budget horror adventure The Pyramid that grossed only $1.3 million. On the bright side, limited launch of Wild opened to a sturdy $622,000 from 21 screens and The Imitation Game continued to post strong numbers with the addition of four engagements. The significant expansion of The Homesman also generated OK results.
Read the full article »Friday Box Office Estimates
On one of the weekends of every year which distributors avoid like the Bermuda Triangle of old, no new wide releases. Fox shoves The Pyramid out onto 589 screens and may get past $1 million for the weekend. Otherwise, last weekend’s Top 10 jostles for position. And Searchlight’s Wild starts its trek on 21 screens and has its eye on $24k per screen for the weekend.
Read the full article »
