Did you see 'The Dial of Destiny' or pass?

By Nathaniel R

The box office prelude to a mid-week Fourth of July (today) rested on Indiana Jones's 5th outing but he didn't truly deliver in The Dial of Destiny, a sequel that few people outside of Hollywood's money-obsessed board rooms  were asking for. Hollywood is discovering that it can't live on franchises alone. Problem is that's become Hollywood's ONLY strategy and all they've been investing in for some time now. Unfortunately for those of us who love the cinematic experience audience  increasingly lukewarm or chilly response to the big franchises isn't really morphinng into interest pointed at other moviegoing options. Hollywood has been training people to only care about franchises for years and now that they've "won", we're all losing!

Weekend Box Office (estimates? actuals? it's always a little fuzzy around holidays) June 30th - July 2nd  🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY	EVERY BODY
1 🔺 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY $60.3 *NEW* 4600 screens	1 🔺 EVERY BODY [doc] $150k *NEW* 255 screens

Click to read more ...

Box Office: 'Past Lives' Rising

By Nathaniel R

The weekend looked, at first glance, exactly like the first weekend in June as Across the Spider-Verse and Past Lives topped the box office charts for wide and limited release. That shows both films excellent word of mouth and staying power. On the other hand, it's a horrible sign for what Hollywood is offering up each weekend that audiences aren't being distracted by the shiny newer films...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) June 23rd-25th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE	PAST LIVES
1 ★ SPIDER-MAN ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE $19 (cum. $316,7) 3785 screens	1 🔺 PAST LIVES $1.1 (cum. $3.5) 296 screens

Click to read more ...

Box Office: "The Flash" wasn't worth the wait?

By Nathaniel R

We live in strange box office times. Hollywood (and the media) got high on the supply of Marvel's Avengers 2010s run and thought the grosses and interest for each and every superhero film / franchise would grow forever. That hasnt been the case and genre is coming back down to earth... not crashing exactly but bumpy landings. Warner Bros/DC's The Flash was held for a long time due to numerous issues. Despite all the issues the buzz was fairly good on its quality. But now that it's finally here the reception is a bit of a shrug despite its easy #1 finish. After years of downplaying the importance of Pixar in their portfolio, Disney had trouble bringing Elementals in at previous numbers.

In limited release things were much brighter... 

Weekend Box Office (actuals) June 16th-18th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
THE FLASH	ASTEROID CITY

Click to read more ...

Weekend Box Office: Spider-Verse Superiority

By Ben MIller

To absolutely no one's surprise, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won the box office weekend.  The sheer amount of money the film made might have been a bit surprising.  With $120+ million, Spider-Verse had the second biggest opening weekend of 2023, only behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie.  What's even more impressive is the improvement over its predecessor.  Into the Spider-Verse only made $190 million its entire domestic run.  This sequel should easily surpass that number.

Weekend Box Office (actuals) June 2nd-4th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE	PAST LIVES
1 🔺★ SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE $120.6 *NEW* 4,313 screens	1 🔺 ★ PAST LIVES $232k *NEW* 4 screens

Click to read more ...

Holiday Box Office goes 'Under the Sea'

By Nathaniel R

Apologies for the radio silence. I've been struggling with my newish day job (had to finally admit last year that movies weren't keeping a roof over the head *sniffle* and go back to corporate America) but I have hope that I a personal rhythm / balance will soon be found again. For the holiday weekend I saw no movies but visited friends who have a home on Fire Island.  I'd already seen the weekend's big draw, Disney's live action remake of their own fable The Little Mermaid...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) May 26th-29th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
THE LITTLE MERMAID	MASTER GARDENER
1 🔺 THE LITTLE MERMAID $118.8 *NEW* 4320 screens	1 🔺 THE WRATH OF BECKY $168k *NEW* 274 screens

Click to read more ...