Author Archive
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Capsule Reviews

  When push came to shove, a choice had to be made between The Birth of A Nation and “the farting corpse movie” (AKA Swiss Army Man), and your faithful narrator has to confess that he went with the former, so a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2/7/16

  OPENINGS:  It was only 20 years into their career, with 2007’s No Country For Old Men ($74.3M in the US) that Joel and Ethan Coen began to be considered box office forces, and even after that, only True Grit (thei...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2/14/16

  A Valentine’s Day in the middle of Presidents Day weekend allowed for strong Sunday studio estimates–in one case, suspiciously so. OPENINGS:  A couple of notable sidelights to the gargantuan success of DEADP...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Deadpool” Flings Aside “Risen,” “The Witch” & “Race”

  None of the weekend’s openings were expected to come near last week’s blockbuster opening, and none will.  The target Christian audience is turning out for RISEN (Affirm/Columbia/Sony), with preliminary numb...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2/21/16

  OPENINGS:  RISEN (Affirm/Columbia/Sony) topped the weekend’s arrivals with an $11.8M start that was above the $11.4M for War Room and the $9.2M for God’s Not Dead, although it was well below Heaven Is For Re...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Girls”

  GIRLS:  Sunday 10PM on HBO We now know that the 6th and next season of Lena Dunham’s GIRLS will be its last, and the Season 5 premiere made clear that Dunham has little intention of making the show less polarizing...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “Togetherness”

  TOGETHERNESS:  Sunday 10:30PM on HBO HBO pairs Jay and Mark Duplass’s TOGETHERNESS with Girls on Sunday nights, and in a way they make sense as companion pieces, since Togetherness concerns a screwed-up foursome a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: No Gods for “Egypt,” “Triple 9″” or “Eddie” In Another “Deadpool” Romp

  GODS OF EGYPT (Summit/Lionsgate) has been sitting around for so long that Gerard Butler managed to make next week’s London Has Fallen in the interim, and its own studio has been bleating about how the downside had ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2/29/16

  OPENINGS:  The really bad news for GODS OF EGYPT (Summit/Lionsgate) wasn’t the $14M US opening, although that was certainly pathetic enough.  No, the really bad news was that in 68 overseas territories covering m...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

OscarLand: The Day Arrives

  Provocative, almost existential questions have circled this year’s Oscars since seconds after the nominations were announced.  Should the awards, and the Motion Picture Academy’s voting membership, mirror th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Zootopia” Cages “London,” “Whiskey,” “Deadpool”

  Pixar is still Pixar, but the Disney Animation division of the studio (also headed by John Lasseter) is proving that it’s a formidable creator of animated features as well, following Frozen with the smashingly imag...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3/6/16

  OPENINGS:  The weekend belonged to ZOOTOPIA (Disney Animation/Disney), which broke its studio unit’s opening record and the March animation record with $73.7M, and also earned $63.4M internationally (including $24...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Finale Review: “Downton Abbey”

  In this era of peak TV, there are more shows than ever that we devour, that we obsess about and are thrilled by and that shock us and tear us apart.  There are fewer, however, that we simply love.  Julian Fellowes̵...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Pilot + 1 Review: “The Family”

  THE FAMILY:  Sunday 9PM on ABC Previously… on THE FAMILY:  Ten years after his disappearance and presumed death, a now-teen Adam Warren (Liam James) appears, freshly escaped from what he describes as a decade spe...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Zootopia” Tops “10 Cloverfield Lane,” Crushes “Brothers Grimsby,” “Young Messiah,” “Perfect Match’

  Word of mouth was great for ZOOTOPIA (Disney), which according to preliminary numbers at Deadline fell a soft 36% from last week’s opening day to $12.5M, setting up a $50M weekend that will put the smash over $140M...
by Mitch Salem