Box Office Weekend: Cinderella Has $70 Million Opening Ball
Sometimes, there is simply no winning against Disney and Buena Vista. The new, live action Cinderella proved a big boost to a flagging weekend box office, pulling in an estimated $70.1 million – a strong start against a $92 million budget. Nothing else even came close, with the Ed Harris/Liam Neeson thriller Run All Night opening with a rather weak $11 million estimate in comparison, and an unrepo...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Chappie Tops Unfriendly Box Office
Director Neill Blomkamp took the weekend box office with his latest science fiction epic Chappie, though it is not as impressive a debut as it might seem. With the box office even down from last week, Chappie and its estimated $13.3 million is a weak start for a $49 million budgeted film…and it has not seen much better in overseas earnings. Focus, on the other hand, is seeing some pick up th...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Focus In the Lead, But Not Very Energetic
It is a slow week for new releases. After the smash opening weekend of Fifty Shades of Grey, the box office took a nose dive as Will Smith and his con artist comedy/drama Focus opened in first place with a fairly tepid estimated $19.1 million, a rough start to the $50 million budgeted film. In second, Kingsman: The Secret Service finds it has settled comfortably in second place for the third week ...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Fifty Shades Remains a Worldwide Smash
Critics and audiences do not always agree, and little more is this evidence than with Fifty Shades of Grey. With an estimated domestic weekend of $23.2 million, the film has become a worldwide sensation, costing $40 million to make and grossing $410.6 million in total box office around the world, despite lackluster reviews. Second-place place finisher, Kingsman: The Secret Service, with an estimat...[Read More]
Movie Review: The DUFF
It behooves me to say, before we begin, that I am nowhere near the target audience for The DUFF. There is very little to make one feel old like watching high school students’ lives in upheaval when forced to give up their smartphones, when cell phones without all the bells and whistles were the big thing when I was at that age. And yet, despite this glimpse into the grim passage of time and cultur...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Fifty Shades of Grey Seeing Green
Controversy can lead to the demise or the rise of many films, good and bad alike. For the highly anticipated (but critically panned) Fifty Shades of Grey, the controversy was enough to make Presidents’ Day Weekend a profitable one, earning an estimated $81.7 million here and nearly $240 million worldwide, making the $40 million production a runaway success. It won out over the much better reviewed...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Sniper Washed Out By SpongeBob
Warner Brothers has reasons to shout with both joy and shame this week. The studio’s American Sniper estimated $24.1 million puts it at $282.3 million and, most likely, the film to beat for 2015 box office (at least at this point), but it was finally topped in weekend earnings by The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (estimated $56 million). Adding major injury to this minor insult, Warner came...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Third Times a Charm for Sniper
There were three new releases this week, but with American Sniper reigning once more at the top of the box office with an estimated $31.9 million…and at $248.9 million and counting, it is the fifth highest earning R-Rated film of all time…it is understandable that they are not exactly the top draws, especially considering their critical reception. Even Paddington, for instance, entered...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: American Sniper Still Busting Box Office
There seems to be no stopping American Sniper. With an estimated $64.4 million, it not only handily took the weekend box office by storm, it surpassed $200.1 million in revenue. It stood head and shoulders above even second-place finisher The Boy Next Door, which brought in only an estimated $15 million in comparison, but budgeted at only $4 million, it managed to be a wild success on its own meri...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: American Sniper Takes Aim at January Record
While it spent three weeks in limited release, American Sniper benefited greatly from an increase in the number of theaters over the weekend, as well as Oscar buzz and good reviews. Its estimated $90.2 million weekend is a box office record for January, and nothing else even came close. Not to say the competition fared poorly in comparison to their own goals…The Wedding Ringer was not well r...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Audiences Taken for a Third Time
Critics may have been very much unimpressed with the Liam Neeson-helmed Taken 3, but audiences made the latest in the action-thriller franchise a box office hit over the weekend. With an estimated $40.4 million, nothing else came close, even the acclaimed Selma, which entered wide release this week and earned an estimated $11.2 million. Still, both films made strong bids against their production c...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Hobbit On Top for a Third Time
The numbers have spoken, and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is still the lowest earning of the Peter Jackson Middle Earth films…still, when the lowest earner remained in first at the box office for the third week in a row, picked up an estimated $21.9 million, and has earned $220.8 million in domestic box office alone, it is not a particularly bad track record. However, 2015 is off to...[Read More]