As Valentine’s Day nears, you would expect to see more romantic movies hitting the cinema. Instead, the big winners of the weekend turned out to be an off-kilter comedy and a decidedly unconventional love story. Identity Thief debuted as the top spot taker, the Jason Bateman/Melissa McCarthy comedy earning back its entire budget in a single weekend with an estimated $36.6 million, though critics a...[Read More]
Box office totals continue to recede through the cold months of 2013, with very few new names to cheer things up. Of the two new releases to make any waves, only one was able to claim a top three victory: Warm Bodies, the $30 million budgeted horror-comedy-romance of a zombie whose love for a human slowly brings him back to life, made a strong first weekend showing with an estimated $19.5 million ...[Read More]
Receipts were down this week as a whole, as a handful of new films hit the box office that did little to inject life into it. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters led the way with a fairly weak estimate of $19 million, though the $50 million film had a big enough opening overseas to ensure it made back on its investment. It was the only new film to break the top three, which belonged to box office w...[Read More]
With Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first starring role on the big screen since his political career ended (not including his ensemble role in The Expendables 2) and a noir thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, the top draw was…a PG-13 rated ghost story? Yes, with a cast and crew whose biggest name is Gullermo del Toro as an executive producer, Mama led the box office, with an estimated $28....[Read More]
While returns for the year are down from the end of 2012 and the new year’s debuts have failed to impress thus far, Django Unchained nevertheless failed to stay on top against one critically acclaimed film and two…well, not-so-acclaimed ones. Zero Dark Thirty, entering its fourth week of release with an expansion of nearly 3,000 new theaters, drew in the most crowds with an estimated $24 million. ...[Read More]
Be it chopping off limbs or…threatening to chop off certain limbs, there is no shortage of moviegoers starting 2013 by seeing plenty of blood and gore, whether it was that this week’s big winner (but critical loser) Texas Chainsaw 3D with an estimated $23 million or critical winner Django Unchained with an estimated $20.1 million. Django Unchained is still not director Quentin Tarantino’s most suc...[Read More]
As 2012 draws to a close and a new year of movies dawns ahead, we still have one more weekend worth of movies to talk about, and with business up from last week, the old year is going out on a high note. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey did not lose much steam from last weekend to this one, earning an estimated $32.9 million. It had strong competition from newcomer Django Unchained, Quentin Taran...[Read More]
It’s finally December, and that means it’s the time we’ll all start preparing to celebrate our winter holiday of choice – Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Festivus/Decemberween/etc. And this week’s edition of Trailer Trashin’ brings us another look at the most awesomely inappropriate movie of this holiday season: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Premise: Django (J...[Read More]
As I said last week, the summer is a time when movie studios start promoting their big films and Oscar hopefuls that are coming out in the fall and winter. And just like last time, this week’s installment of Trailer Trashin’ is looking at a promising December release – Django Unchained, the new film from writer/director Quentin Tarantino. Premise: Django (Jamie Foxx), a freed slave, tr...[Read More]