Author Archive
 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 4.7.2024

  OPENINGS:  MONKEY MAN (Universal) walked an odd path to theaters, originally being targeted for a Netflix release.  While the result earned strong reviews (87% on Rotten Tomatoes), there was no storybook ending at the ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.24.2024

  OPENINGS:  GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (Columbia/Sony) played as a family movie, with a Saturday afternoon bump, and that enabled it to match projections at $45.2M, slightly higher than the $44M start for 2021’s G...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.17.2024

  OPENINGS:  ARTHUR THE KING (Lionsgate) was clearly hoping to emulate the sleeper success of 2022’s Dog, which ran a $14.9M opening into $61.8M in the US.  However, the Mark Wahlberg vehicle came up very short wit...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.10.2024

  OPENINGS:  KUNG FU PANDA 4 (DreamWorks Animation/Universal), the first new all-ages animated release since the holiday season, arrived at the high end of projections with $58.3M, impressively above the $41.3M start for ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.3.2024

  OPENINGS:  DUNE: PART TWO (Legendary/Warners) landed at the high end of projections with $81.5M.  Comparisons with the 2021 Dune have little meaning, since that film was part of the studio’s controversial year of...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.25.2024

  OPENINGS:  In what Hollywood hopes will be the last weekend of drought for a while, the TV episodes packaged as DEMON SLAYER:  KIMETSU NO YAIBA – TO THE HASHIRA TRAINING (Crunchyroll/Sony) led the newcomers with ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.18.2024

  OPENINGS:  The calendar did Hollywood a favor by placing Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, affording films a 6-day window with Presidents Day on Monday.  The chief beneficiary was BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE (Paramount), wh...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.4.2024

  OPENINGS:  ARGYLLE (Apple/Universal) arrived within blah expectations at $18M.  That makes it the third consecutive wildly expensive theatrical flop for Apple (with worldwide marketing included, costs were around $300M...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2024 Film Review: “A Real Pain”

  A REAL PAIN (Searchlight/Disney – TBD):  David (Jesse Eisenberg, who also wrote and directed) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) are cousins born just months apart and raised in close companionship.  Over the years, thoug...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “Love Me” & “Handling the Undead”

  LOVE ME (no distrib):  A truly existential romance.  Many years after the end of the human race, seemingly due to a combination of nuclear war and a new ice age, the two remaining artifacts with any ability to communic...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “Little Death” & “Good One”

  LITTLE DEATH (no distrib):  Jack Begert’s first feature (co-written with Dani Goffstein) is a diptych about Los Angeles, put together in sharply contrasting ways.  The first half is about sitcom writer Martin (Da...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Sundance 2024 Reviews: “Didi” & “Between the Temples”

  DIDI (no distrib):  Sean Wang’s endearing memory piece won the US Dramatic Competition Audience Award.  It’s set in 2008 Northern California during the summer before Chris (Izaac Wang) begins high school an...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “Exhibiting Forgiveness” & “Suncoast”

  EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS (no distrib):  The noted painter Titus Kaphar has made an impressive shift into scripted feature films.  Although Exhibiting Forgiveness isn’t strictly speaking autobiographical, KapharR...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “In the Summers” & “Stress Positions”

  IN THE SUMMERS (no distrib):  The winner of the Jury Prize in the US Dramatic Competition is a somewhat prototypical Sundance drama.  Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio’s semi-autobiographical story depicts four summer...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “The Outrun” & “Veni Vidi Vici”

  THE OUTRUN (no distrib):  Films about alcoholics and addicts in recovery are too numerous to count, and it’s easy to understand why.  The stories offer a clear narrative path, usually with an inspirational destin...
by Mitch Salem