Focus has pushed two of its upcoming releases. DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA vacates its March 18th date and is now scheduled to open May 20th. Meanwhile, THE OUTFIT moves from February 25th to DOWNTON’s old March 18th slot. This gives Focus more time to build awareness and interest for these films. And, quite frankly, […]
PINOCCIO vs. PINOCCIO
There are plenty of examples of two thematically similar films hitting theaters at the same time. ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT hit theaters two months apart in 1998. MIRROR MIRROR and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN were also two months apart in 2012. In those examples, it was easy to tell the two films apart. Obviously, […]
Is Kenneth Branagh about to have a NORBIT moment?
No, of course not. And some might argue that it’s a faulty question to pose. In 2006, Eddie Murphy was riding a wave of accolades for this career-redefining role in DREAMGIRLS. Murphy was coming off a string of box office stinkers (THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH, I SPY), and the ones that made some money […]
ALERT: Is a film in trouble if it hasn’t reached 30% awareness by 60 days out?
Box office watchers wouldn’t be blamed for having a case of whiplash right now. We have witnessed enormous wins with SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME scoring the 2nd largest opening weekend ever and SCREAM recording the 2nd best debut for a January horror film. And yet, these box office successes have been coupled with a slew of […]
Will UNCHARTED be the lone February hit?
Over the past 22 months, we have been looking for signs that the pandemic-era box office can be as healthy and robust as before Covid. There have been some bright spots. VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE had a bigger opening than the first VENOM, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME had the 2nd largest debut of all […]
CYRANO on the move…again
Once again, CYRANO is shifting dates. This time, it’s moving from January 28th to February 25th. The deacons to push a month is likely intended to leverage awards momentum. By moving to February 28th, CYRANO now comes out after the Academy Award nominations. A nomination or two would give United Artists a marketing hook to […]
New To The Quorum: HALLOWEEN ENDS
When the first film in the most recent HALLOWEEN trilogy debuted in 2018, it opened to $78M making it the 2nd largest opening ever for a horror film (it has since slipped to #3). That’s not bad for a series that already had nine sequels before 2018. Given the box office strength of the 2018 […]
With a $200M budget, should awareness for THE GRAY MAN be higher?
Back in July 2020, Netflix announced that it was moving forward with the production of THE GRAY MAN based on the Matt Greaney novel of the same name. The film is top-lined by Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, with Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Alfre Woodard, and Billy Bob Thornton rounding out the […]
Should Sony have held on to theatrical for HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMIA?
The HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA franchise may not get the same attention as the Minions or Buzz Lightyear, but it has been a remarkably consistent performer for Sony. The original film, released in 2012, opened to $43M making it the largest opening ever for a September animated movie. Three years later, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 broke the record […]
THE BATMAN is on the rise. Can it catch SPIDER-MAN?
Was KING RICHARD a success? How about MALIGNANT? The truth is, we don’t know. When it was announced that Warner Bros. would be releasing its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, it was clear that we would have no idea if these films were hits or not. We have box office […]