MCN Weekend Archive for December, 2015
The Weekend Report

Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominated holiday moviegoing with a second weekend estimated at $154.6 million. A quartet of Christmas Day releases favored comedy Daddy’s Home, ranking second with $38.7 million. Also strong was bio-ish Joy at $17.3 million while hardhitting Concussion and action remake Point Break got lost in the crush of holiday options with respective bows of $10.9 million and $9.9 million. The 70mm exclusive 100-screen launch of The Hateful Eight arrived with both barrels blazing and a $4.5 million bounty.
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The Little Movie That Could, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, had another good day. It is getting the accelerated December benefit, but at a level much higher than ever before. The best previous day in December in history was $37m for The Hobbit. SW:TFA has had a higher gross than that each and every day but one (Christmas Eve) in its run so far. Daddy’s Home had a very solid opening. It’s the second biggest Will Ferrell-starring opening and the holiday period may push the number ahead of his #1, Talladega Nights. And Joy joins the party with the best non-action opening for Jennifer Lawrence and for David O. Russell overall. Concussion and Point Break open softer. And The Hateful Eight‘s roadshow draws $19k per on Friday on 100 screens, though without out any screen expansion in individual theaters and a 3:12 running time. The Revenant, which has the flexibility of adding screens in its multiplexes, did $42,500 per on 4, which is less impressive in context, but will be much more impressive in (some) coverage, grossing numbers similar to last December’s American Sniper, October’s Steve Jobs, American Hustle and Dreamgirls.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: War Room, Nasty Baby, Queen of Earth, Leonard Cohen and more

Queen of Earth, Elisabeth Moss portrays Catherine, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After the recent death of her father, a famous artist, and being dumped by her boyfriend, Catherine accepts an invitation from her best friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) to recuperate at her lake house. Although her memories of the house include images of happy times spent with her then-boyfriend, Catherine anticipates spending quality time with Virginia. While it’s possible to anticipate the close friends partaking in some sexual healing, what happens next is far more disturbing. For a while, Catherine is able to hold her own in the increasingly nasty verbal exchanges. Moss’ facial expressions provide all the evidence we need to determine precisely when Catherine reaches her breaking point. Alex Ross Perry’s Bergman-esque approach to his story benefits from the pastoral setting.
Read the full article »DVD Geek: Pan

An ‘origin’ story that does its darnedest to turn Peter Pan into Harry Potter.
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The box office wars are over and The Force Awakens has won its opening weekend worldwide. Soft starts for The Road Chip and Sisters can’t be thrilling, but should survive through the holidays.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens did some business. Sisters, not so much.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: M:I, Ted 2, Burroughs, Time Out of Mind, Slow Learners and more

Everyone who’s fallen in love with the mythos of the Beat Generation has, at one time or another, wondered how William S. Burroughs fit into the bigger picture. Apart from being an extremely cool guy, an accomplished writer, avant-garde artist and intellectual outlaw, the grandson of the man who founded the Burroughs Adding Machine Company didn’t fit into any of the molds created by the media to explain the confederation of artists that most prominently included Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, Herbert Hunke, Neal Cassady, Gary Snyder and Gregory Corso. It’s almost impossible to imagine Burroughs hitchhiking across the country with Kerouac and Cassady, simply to “go,” and not be mistaken for a mortician or bible salesman. And, yet, go he did … to Mexico, Tangier, Paris, Rome, London and the Amazonian rain forest.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 made it four in a row at the top of the weekend box office with an estimated $11.2 million. The session’s sole incoming national newcomer, historical whaling saga In the Heart of the Sea, was just behind with $10.9 million with just $1.1 million separating the top four movies in the marketplace. Exclusive freshmen met tepid response with the exception of awards contender The Big Short, bowing to a potent $713,000 from eight swaps.
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On a sleepy weekend, a week from Star Wars, a film sold as a Moby Dick prequel, In The Heart of The Sea, will open to just over $10 million, just outgrossing the 4th weekend of HungerMock2 and Creed, which is holding well, but started from a modest perch. The Big Short opens to something close to $75,000 per screen on 8, which is impressive, but not a sure indicator of what will happen when it goes wider, especially given the wide-release ad dollars already spent against this eight-screen kick-off.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Ant-Man, Minions, Blind, Girl King, Speedy, Lucky and more

Is anyone surprised to learn that Universal’s family-oriented Minions sailed right past the movies from which it was spawned, Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, on its way to an astonishing $1.157-billion worldwide box-office haul? I was.
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 sealed the hat trick atop weekend movie going with an estimated $18.5 million. Christmas-themed horror Krampus slotted second with a better than anticipated $16 million debut. The first December weekend is traditionally one of the slowest of the calendar and 2015 was no exception with most films dropping by half. Still, early estimates could well make it the best-grossing in history for this particular three-day.
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Krampus rustles pre-holiday takings of $6 million; Mockingjay 3.2 and Creed follow, with $5.6 million and $4.5 million, respectively. Spike Lee’s musical sex farce about murder in Chicago and Chi-raq preaches to 305 choirs for $430,000.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Momentum, Amorous, Secrets of War, Grace of Monaco, The Wall, The Square, Hunting Ground, MST3K and more

Last week, the dull thud of one of the worst box-office duds of all times reverberated from the U.K. to trade and gossip sites across the U.S. Momentum, a crime thriller that cost an estimated $20 million to make, returned a whopping $69 to its investors from its opening week’s run in 10 theaters. How is that even possible? Is Momentum really as bad as all that? Yes.
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