News
The best stories from the CinemaNerdz News Desk and our independently opinionated reporters.
Box Office Weekend: It’s A Good Day to Try Hard as Newest Die Hard a Tepid Box Office Winner
While the overall revenue at the box office has increased over the last two weeks, the latest installment in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, has first place standing at the box office with a mixed blessing. While it was the strongest performer of the weekend with an estimated $25 million (and $33.2 million counting its Valentine’s Day opening), the $92 million action flick has to h...[Read More]
Box Office Weekend: Identity Thief Swipes Top Spot from Warm Bodies
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 Weekend: Warm Bodies Is the Hottest Property at the Box Office
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]
Box Office Weekend: Hansel and Gretel Lead A Weak Box Office
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]
Box Office Weekend: Ghost Over Guns and Mama is the Big Winner
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]
Box Office Weekend: Zero Dark Thirty Knocks Out Django Unchained
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]
Box Office Weekend: Violence Brings in the New Year as Texas Chainsaw and Django Unchained Lead
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]
Box Office Weekend: Django May Get Bloody Revenge, But He Can’t Conquer Middle Earth
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]
Box Office Weekend: Hobbits Win Again
Well, it’s that time of year again. For those of you diehards who must get your box office info, know that the studios will not be releasing the official numbers for this weekend until the New Year, just the estimates. Until then, here’s the short, short version of the box office news: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey held off the four new big releases by a substantial amount (though it dropped q...[Read More]
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]