Lionsgate's s Cold Pursuit “slightly exceeded [box-office] expectations with an $10.8 million opening,” according to BoxOfficeMojo. The film played to a 58% male audience, with 79% of the overall audience coming in aged 25 or older. Neeson's The Commuter, opened last January with $13.7 million and went on to gross around $36 million domestically. If anything, the “slightly’ exceeded expectations might have to do with the controversy which hit the actor earlier this week, it probably alerted audiences who may have not known that he had a new movie out that “Cold Pursuit” was being released.
Read moreClint Eastwood is still a box-office draw at 88-years-old; “The Mule” has amassed a domestic total of $101.4 million
Warner Bros.’ “The Mule” has amassed a domestic total of $101.4 million against a budget of $50 million. Don't be surprised by that total, it's Clint Eastwood.
Read moreChinese Arthouse Film “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night” Breaks Records With $38M Opening, Followed by 96% Drop Amid Mass Walkouts & Bad Audience Reception
I was shocked to learn last week of the surprising success of Bi-Gan's “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” at the Chinese box-office. The film, which I reviewed earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, is as artsy as they come. Even some of the highest-browed critics I've spoken to have admitted how hard it was to follow the film's plot. However, thanks to a misleading promotional campaign which sold it as a romcom, Bi-Gan's film had record-breaking success at the Chinese box office. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” earned $38 million in ticket sales, that is before Chinese audiences caught on and realized this wasn't the film they signed up for.
Read moreArt House Film ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ Breaking Box-Office Records In China
Consider me shocked by the surprising success Bi-Gan's “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is having at the Chinese box-office. The film, which I raved about earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, is as artsy as they come. Even some of the highest-browed critics I know have admitted how hard the film is to fully appreciate. However, don't say that to Chinese audiences who have made Bi Gan's film a record-breaking success in box office pre-sales. No doubt, this has to do with the film switching midway into an incredible, 59-minute one take sequence, in 3D no less. The plot is overtly-complicated, I'm still not sure what it's fully about, but the craft is beyond exceptional.
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” has earned $15 million and counting in ticket sales, and it doesn't even open in China until December 31. It's set to open in U.S. theaters sometime next year.
Box-Office: “Aquaman” has $72M debut; “Welcome to Marwen” Bombs
D.C. Comics’ “Aquaman” had already grossed $370 million overseas before its $72 million North American weekend. That mad it easily take the top spot at this weekend’s box-office. (The movie’s budget estimated at $200 million.)
Read moreOscar Watch: “Green Book” Starting to Pick Up Steam at the Box-Office
In its fifth week of release Peter Farelly's "Green Book" is starting to have major legs at the Box-Office. It accumulated an additional $2,780,000 in 1,215 theaters (+34) this weekend for a Cumulative gross of $24,660,000, not too shabby for a film that has been shunned as being "racist" and a "white savior" flick. That it is not. The crowd-pleaser, and that the film surely is, has remained in the top ten since its release back in November. Expect another bump come Christmas, with a plan by the studio to expand it to as many theaters as possible in mid-January once Oscar nominations are announced.
Cinema attendance is highest since 1970 in the UK
More people went to movie theaters in 2018 in the UK than at any time since 1970.
Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, claims that close to 176 million admissions were sold in 2018 - the highest number since 1970, "there has been a really strong film slate with a diversity of films performing well," Mr Clapp told Sky News. “Probably one of the reasons why admissions have been higher than they have been is because we’ve been pulling in audiences from a broad range of places.”
Read moreLars Von Trier’s ‘The House That Jack Built’ makes more in one night than half of what ‘Nymphomaniac’ grossed overall
Lars Von Trier has built a solid cult fanbase since his 1984 debut "Element of Crime" and that was proven once again this week with the one-night-only debut of his first film in over 4 years. This Wednesday “The House That Jack Built,” a film which prompted hundreds of walkouts at Cannes this past May, amassed more than half the U.S. total gross of von Trier's previous film, “Nymphomaniac: Volume II.” All of this on its one-day-only preview engagement (showing on 140 screens).
Read moreDoes the average ticket-buyer no longer want to pay for serious-minded adult dramas?
At this time of the year there usually are a few adult dramas succeeding at the box-office. October, November and December are supposed to be the months where serious-minded fare takes over mainstream cinema, where Oscar contenders get made. However, this year, a concerning trend has evolved, that of the film festival bomb. Most of the well-reviewed movies from this year's fall film festival circuit have landed with a thud at the domestic box-office. I'm thinking of "First Man," "Widows," "Green Book," "Boy Erased," "The Front Runner," "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," "Beautiful Boy," "Suspiria," all underperforming and being overshadowed by"Ralph Breaks the Internet," "Creed II," "Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch," "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," "Instant Family," "Bohemian Rhapsody," and "A Star Is Born," the latter two of which are the sole adult-dramas that have done very well for themselves.
Read more‘Green Book' Disappoints at Holiday Box-office
I have consistently been saying that if "Green Book" wants to compete for the Best Picture prize then it has to have a successful box-office run. Right now, we are looking at "okay" numbers, nothing that spells out a runaway success -- its $7.1M weekend, in over 1000 screens, just doesn't cut it. Word of mouth will surely hit, more people will go see what is under my estimation the movie that has the highest quality mainstream appeal this holiday season.
Read more‘The Girl in the Spider's Web' is Bombing Badly at the Box-Office
The real absolute disaster of the moment has got to be Fede Alvarez' "The Girl in the Spider's Web." Its budget, according to a few reports that I've read, ranges between the $40-$50M mark. Two weeks since its November 9th release, the film has only made $13M at the domestic box-office.
Read moreDespite Bad Reviews 'Venom' Has Bite At Box-Office, $80M Opening Weekend; 'A Star Is Born' Opens With Impressive $41M
"Despite a rocky road to release the strange off-brand start to the Sony Marvel Spider-man Without Spider-Man Cinematic Universe know as Venom opened to an incredible $80M at #1. That smashes the previous October opening record holder Gravity which set the bar at $55.7M in 2013. It's weird to think a superhero/villain film could ever be considered an underdog story (especially this year) but Venom might have been it. Fans of the film were first put on edge when Sony finally decided that the film would get a PG-13 rating which angered star of the film Tom Hardy who's been vocal about the cuts from the R-rated version. Then there was the awful critics reviews who trashed the film as one of the worst of the year. So while the film opened to $10M on Thursday there was nothing there that guaranteed an ending like this with a potential massive drop-off by Sunday. But the monster just kept growing and now it's become yet another huge success for the superhero genre."
1. Venom — Sony — $80,030,000
2. A Star is Born —Warner Bros. — $41,250,000
3. Smallfoot —Warner Bros.— $14,900,000
4. Night School — Uni. — $12,275,000
5. The House With A Clock In Its Walls — Uni. — $7,295,000
6. A Simple Favor — Lionsgate — $3,435,000
7. The Nun— Warner Bros. — $2,610,000
8. Hell Fest — LGF — $2,075,000 ($8,864,476)
9. Crazy Rich Asians — WB — $2,060,000
10. The Predator — Fox — $900,000
[Source]
'Crazy Rich Asians' Is Now The Highest-Grossing Romantic Comedy In A Decade
Despite my mixed review of the film, I couldn't be happier for the success "Crazy Rich Asians" at the American box-office. The latest news on this landmark film is that it has just become the highest-grossing romantic comedy in 10 years, surpassing 2009′s “The Proposal” [via Box Office Mojo].
Read more‘Free Solo’ Soars at Specialty Box Office
It's been an incredible year for documentaries. "Three Identical Strangers," "RBG" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor" have broken records at the box-office. However, news has come out that Vasarhelyi and Chin's "Free Solo" just had the strongest opening weekend of any documentary in 2018. This movie has to be seen in a theater, NOT on home video.
From my review on 9.16.18:
Read more'Fahrenheit 11/9' bombing at the box-office
"Fahrenheit 11/9" is bombing badly at the American box-office and it's not because it's a bad movie. I was pleasantly surprised by its passionate, anti-establishment discourse when I saw it earlier this month. However, opening to a little over $3 million in 1,719 theaters is bad, really bad. Moore's 2004George W. Bush indictment, and Palme d'Or Winning, “Fahrenheit 9/11” was a product of its time, and it worked wonders at the box-office (check that $19M opening weekend) because Bush, contrary to Trump, was not as consistently covered on television. This just goes to show the grasp and hold Trump has on the American discourse, he wants consistent wall-to-wall coverage so he can manipulate the media as the puppets that they are and, guess what, he is doing just that.
Read more'Crazy Rich Asians' Tops Box-Office for Third Week in a Row, passes $100M mark
'Crazy Rich Asians' keep chuggin' along at the weekend box-office. For a third weekend in a row the John Chu-directed picture topped the box-office by not really losing much momentum and making close to $22M over labor day weekend. The lack of major new releases definitely helped in that regard, 'Asians' has now made $112M domestically, a hell of an accomplishment, especially for a film touted as the having an All-Asian cast, unheard of in Hollywood as its been close to 25 years since the last film to feature such a cast (1993's "The Joy Luck Club.")
Read more"Justice League" Box-Office: What happened?! How DC and the WB messed up the DCEU.
Ok, so you're probably wondering how did things become so bad for the WB and the DCEU? In a nutshell, it's more complicated than the following 400 words thesis.
The WB was desperately in need of a franchise, The Dark Knight trilogy was done ditto Harry Potter and the Hobbit. "Man of Steel" was made with the intent to be followed by a sequel, however, the WB decided to turn that sequel into the misbegotten "Batman vs Superman" and had that film launch their unprepared cinematic universe. That same year, the WB interfered a lot with David Ayer's "Suicide Squad," production rumors were swirling all around and, as you know, the film is now the stuff of cinematic infamy.
We all thought they had set-up a concrete cinematic universe by that point. Ten movies were announced, to be released from 2016 to 2020. Not even halfway through that slate of films, and banking on Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" having surprise success at the Box-Office, the WB decided to have "Wonder Woman 2" released before "Flash" and "The Green Lantern." Not just that, they also decided to add in a slew of new projects in the span of 6 months: "Suicide Squad 2," "Justice League Dark," "The Batman," "Batgirl," "Gotham City Sirens," "Nightwing," "Man of Steel 2," "Black Adam," "Deadshot," "Lobo" "Deathstroke" and the untitled Joker and Harley Quinn film, produced by Martin Scorsese. Phew, suffice to say, the plans of a DCEU are all but fucked. In fact, there never really was a plan, they were changing their plan every month. They haven't even announced if Ben Affleck will return as Batman. They were supposed to rebuild around Affleck and now he may be done, with Jake Gyllenhaal being sought for the caped crusader role. That much anticipated "Flash" movie? It's lost, multiple directors have quit or been fired.
Who is to blame for all this? The WB of course, they set their sights on Zack Snyder to herald the DCEU forward, that didn't work so well. They wanted Avengers-sized success but didn’t want to put the time, effort, thought and resources into building it up in a thoughtfully conceived manner. At this point, my advice to them would be to do what they did with "Wonder Woman" and actually hire competent directors that have talent and that can put their own signature to the films. You might as well get on the critics good side because, and I do say this with the utmost confidence, I do believe bad reviews have contributed to this debacle.