Author Archive
 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 10.1.2023

  OPENINGS:  PAW PATROL:  THE MIGHTY MOVIE (Nickelodeon/Paramount) launched with $23M, above expectations and an impressive rise over the $13.1M start for the 2021 installment of the franchise.  It also has $23.1M overs...
by Mitch Salem
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Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 9.24.2023

  OPENINGS:  THE EXPEND4BLES (Lionsgate) had a disastrous start with $8.3M, about half of both expectations and the $15.9M opening of Expendables 3 in 2014.  Expend4bles may only total $20M in the US, and while the franc...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Burial,” “Wildcat” & “Poolman”

  THE BURIAL (MGM/Amazon – Oct. 13):  A yarn that’s also a true story.  Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) was the owner of a family-run, regional Mississippi business that for decades had offered funer...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “American Fiction,” “The Critic” & “Mother, Couch”

  AMERICAN FICTION (Orion/MGM/Amazon – Nov. 17):  The Toronto People’s Choice Award has been something of a golden ticket to a Best Picture nomination over the years, and this year the prize went to Cord Jeff...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Rustin,” “Memory” & “Fingernails”

  RUSTIN (Netflix – Nov. 17):  The director and producer George C. Wolfe is a towering figure in American theater, but his films to date have been wobbly at worst (A Night in Rodanthe, You’re Not You) and stur...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Boy and the Heron,” “Dumb Money” & “North Star”

  THE BOY AND THE HERON (GKids – Dec. 8):  Hiyao Miyazaki, a legend of animation (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke), had announced his retirement as a feature film director a decade ago, upon the...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Hit Man,” “Daddio” & “Next Goal Wins”

  HIT MAN (no distrib):  A clever, funny, sexy entertainment from Richard Linklater and emerging star Glen Powell, who co-wrote the script with the director (both also produced), inspired by an already-wild true story.  ...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “His Three Daughters,” “Backspot” & “Lee”

  HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (no distrib):  The premise of Azazel Jacobs’ film is simple enough to be staged as a play:  as their father Vincent (Jay O. Sanders) lies dying in an unseen room of his Bronx apartment, Katie...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Wicked Little Letters,” “Anatomy Of A Fall,” & “All The Light We Cannot See”

  WICKED LITTLE LETTERS (no distrib):  In The Lost Daughter, Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley played the same character at different ages, which prevented them from sharing the screen.  That’s remedied in the fair...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Zone Of Interest,” “Expats” & “Finestkind”

  THE ZONE OF INTEREST (A24 – TBD):  Jonathan Glazer has only directed 4 feature films in his 23-year career (the most recent was Under the Skin a decade ago).  His latest, The Zone of Interest, is a work of for...
by Mitch Salem
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Holdovers,” “Pain Hustlers” & “Woman Of the Hour”

  These haven’t been glory days for the Toronto Film Festival.  The WGA/SAG strikes dampened the vibe, of course–of the 27 films I saw at TIFF, only 4 screenings featured appearances from the cast.  Beyond th...
by Mitch Salem
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Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 9.3.2023

  OPENINGS:  THE EQUALIZER 3 (Escape Artists/Columbia/Sony) performed both within expectations and at around the same level as its predecessors, with $34.5M for the 3-day weekend compared to $36M for Equalizer 2 and $34M ...
by Mitch Salem
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Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8.20.2023

  OPENINGS:  Although BLUE BEETLE (DC/Warners) won the weekend over a tiring Barbie, it landed at the low end of expectations with $25.4M–and given the heavy 15% Friday-to-Saturday drop (much steeper than the 4%/6% ...
by Mitch Salem
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Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8.13.2023

  OPENINGS:  THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (Universal) stirred little interest from critics or audiences, and set sail with a flat $6.5M.  It hasn’t yet opened overseas, but will have a difficult time trying to re...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8.6.2023

  OPENINGS:  The 3-day weekend in the US went narrowly to MEG 2: THE TRENCH (CMC/Warners) with $30M.  That was down more than 1/3 from the $45.4M start for The Meg in 2018, which would ordinarily be concerning for a film...
by Mitch Salem