Box Office Weekend: An Unexpected Journey Makes Big, but Lower than Expected Debut
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s prequel to his epic The Lord of the Rings series, was expected to make a big start, and even if there had been any new competition it was not likely to cause much damage against its big take: an estimated $84.8 million, larger than the opening weekends of any of the Lord of the Rings films and the biggest December opening on record. However, An Un...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Skyfall Rises Back to the Top of a Tepid Weekend
With the wide release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey due next weekend and little new to talk about, box office returns are down significantly from the previous week, though James Bond is certainly not frowning. Skyfall returned to the number one spot for the weekend, having been displaced after its opening by The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 for three weeks. Though receipts are expect...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: No Sunset for Twilight
Critics might not have agreed, but there was no stopping the juggernaut finale…The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 held the top spot for the third week in a row. Though its estimated $17.4 million is far below its previous weekend totals, it has not suffered a bit for it, having earned $254.6 million domestically and $702.4 worldwide. If its fortunes continue it could be not only be the highes...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Thanksgiving Weekend Grateful for Some Big Hits
Note: Any estimate given in brackets represents how much the movie made over the five-day weekend; all other estimates represent the three-day weekend. While revenue over the three-day weekend may have been down from last week overall, Thanksgiving added a nice bit of revenue to the box office, with both The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 and Skyfall helping this weekend to be the highest ear...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Rides Off Into the Sunset With Big Opening Weekend
What more can be said? While The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 did not rise to the opening weekend numbers of New Moon, it certainly came close: the latest (and last) film in the series earned an estimated $141.3 million, more than enough for the series to end on a financial high note (having cost $120 million to make and $199.6 million in foreign box office alone). Critics may have been kin...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Sky’s the Limit for Skyfall as Bond Gets Big Numbers
It has been four years since James Bond last appeared in Quantum of Solace, and while it could not be said the last entry was any less than a box-office smash ($586 million worldwide) and got generally good reviews, MGM’s bankruptcy put the future of the franchise on hold for quite some time. However, it appears it was worth the wait…amid a flurry of good reviews, Skyfall also made good at the box...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Wreck-It Ralph Punches Up Box Office
After last weekend’s lull, the box office returned to the sort of numbers typical for the year, thanks in part to a solid debut for Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph. The animated film brought in audiences in a way that the likes of Cloud Atlas (which landed at sixth this week and an estimated $5.3 million) and Silent Hill: Revelation (which came in tenth with an estimated $3.3 million) failed to do a week ...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: No Films are New Films; Newcomers Can’t Topple the Favorites
With three major new releases, it is a little surprising that only one ended up in the top three, and barely at that. Cloud Atlas, with an estimated $9.4 million, was the highest grossing of the new releases, but the ambitious multi-era epic only placed third overall, behind the current favorites Argo (an estimated $12.4 million) and Hotel Transylvania (an estimated $9.5 million). While grosses ar...[Read More]
Movie Review: Silent Hill: Revelation
The videogame-to-movie adaptation Doom bombed at the box office. One of the major factors was that the game on which it was based, a solitary marine fighting wave after wave of demons that had come to Mars through a portal from Hell, was turned into a squad of marines fighting mutants. Essentially, what made the game worth playing was completely stricken from the plot. So, is it any wonder that on...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Paranormal Activity 4 On Top, But Only Finds Ghosts of Its Former Success
For a movie costing only $5 million, a weekend estimate of $30.2 million would normally be a phenomenal thing…and to be fair, it still is…but for Paranormal Activity 4, that is a drop from the record-setting October release of the previous film, which did $52.3 million during the same weekend last year. Despite the lackluster reviews and diminished returns, the fourth film in the franchise stood a...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Taken 2 Holds Box-Office Captive for Second Week
The critics say Taken 2 is a simplistic rehash, but that has not stopped the movie-going public from making the Liam Neeson-helmed actioner top at the box office for a second week in a row. Its estimated $22.5 million puts the film into a domestic total of $86.8 million, a strong performance not only over its reported $45 million budget, but against almost any film during this quarter…with the exc...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Taken 2 Abducts Box Office
With October underway, it may be a little surprising that the horror film season kicks off with the first-place winner at the box office being an action thriller whose only horrific element may be its reviews. Taken 2 stood tall over the rest with an estimated $50 million, enough to already show net earnings over its $45 million budget, despite being much less well-received than the original film....[Read More]