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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
While it may have had a comparatively rough ride (and remains the lowest-earning of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies), The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies proved Hobbits can still be surprising, earning an estimated $41.4 million, losing a little less than a quarter of the opening weekend audience and raking in $168.5 million in domestic earnings (and a hefty $573.6 million in worldwide take,...[Read More]
After a long road, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies brings the latest Peter Jackson trilogy to an end. Weathering both praise and criticism (especially in comparison to his previous Lord of the Rings films), it may be somewhat understandable that, while it took first place at the box office with an estimated $56.2 million, it falls below the revenue of any of his previous Middle Earth-based f...[Read More]
Director Ridley Scott may be pleased about his Exodus: Gods and Kings is in first place at the box office with an estimated $24.5 million; however, it is an extremely weak start to the $140 million epic (even with overseas box office), and with a critical slamming it cannot compete with the likes of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Even at only an estimated $13.2 million in its fourth week, ...[Read More]