Monthly Movie Madness: October

As you may have noticed Box Office preview hasn't been done for a while. That's mostly because due to time constraints something had to go, not only was that one of the more time consuming endeavours but it was also the thing getting the least amount of views so insted of letting you know what's happening at the movies weekly I've decided to do a preview for the month, on the first friday of every new month I'll be looking at what are my most anticipated movies for that month, ignoring the fact that this is the 2nd friday in October let's delve right into this month.

Before we start I must admit Because this was done late I've already seen Gravity, had I of not it would've been in the top 3 likely but because it has been seen I am leaving it off. Now here's my Top 5 for October:

5. CBGB: Okay so the early reviews aren't great, but being a punk kid, it'd be a travesty to not have this one on my list. It's only hitting limited theatres so if you're one of the lucky ones check it out and if it helps Ron Weasley and Snape of Harry Potter are headlining the cast, that's Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman for all you non-nerds out there. If by chance it isn't playing near you, don't fret it'll be on DVD by the new year.

Synopsis: CBGB looks at New York's dynamic punk rock scene through the lens of the ground-breaking Lower East Side club started by eccentric Hilly Kristal in 1973 originally as a home for "country, bluegrass and blues" (thus the club's name) and which showcased cutting-edge bands through its closing in 2006. The Talking Heads, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie, The Dead Boys, Bad Brains, Green Day, Soul Asylum, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Everclear, George Thorogood, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Black Crowes, The Flaming Lips, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The B-52s, The Runaways, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tool and The Wallflowers are just some of the thousands of bands that played the club over the years.

4. Captain Phillips: So Tom Hanks hasn't had a hit in a while, but this is right in his wheelhouse. The early reviews are great and I can see it having Zero Dark Thirty lasting power, though I don't see it quite matching up with the incredible holds put up by Argo last fall. This is the 2nd, after Gravity, big Best Picture contender to open this year and I tihkn it'll do just fine come award season.

Synopsis: Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is - through director Paul Greengrass's distinctive lens - simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller, and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama's commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award (R)-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips' unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control. The film is directed by Academy Award (R) nominee Paul Greengrass, from a screenplay by Billy Ray based upon the book, A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca.

3. Runner Runner: Bad reviews be damned, I still want to see this movie, sure it opened last week to bad reviews and low box office figures but it's still Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, yes that Justin Timberlake, I'm actually of the opinion he can act, have you seen Alpha Dog? I'm not sure I'll get the chance to see this in theatres as there are things ahead of it as well as the low figures likely means a quick exit from theatres.

Synopsis: Richie, a Princeton college student who pays for school with on-line gambling, bottoms out and travels to Costa Rica to confront the on-line mastermind, Ivan, whom he believes has swindled him. Ivan sees a kindred spirit in Richie and brings the younger man into his operation. When the stakes get incredibly high and dangerous, and Richie comes to fully understand the deviousness of his new boss, he tries to turn the tables on him.

2. The Counselor: I love me some Ridley Scott films and that cast... Oh my god... That cast. The early results seem preferable as it currently sports an incredible 97% want to see rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Opening at the end of the month, The Counselor should turn heads and be front and center come award season.

Synopsis: Legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott and Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) have joined forces in the motion picture thriller THE COUNSELOR, starring Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt. McCarthy, making his screenwriting debut and Scott interweave the author's characteristic wit and dark humor with a nightmarish scenario, in which a respected lawyer's one-time dalliance with an illegal business deal spirals out of control.




1. Carrie: Okay so had this film of come out in any other month it likely wouldn't of cracked #1 but let's be fair here. It's October, Halloween month, of course I'm going to want to go to the theatre and check out a sweet horror movie, and even though it's slim-pickings this month, Carrie still looks really good. Chloe Grace Moretz is the leading lady in the re-imagining of the classic horror hit.

Synopsis: A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. Based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King, Carrie is directed by Kimberly Peirce with a screenplay by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

Honourable mentions: The aforementioned Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Escape Plan, and Kill Your Darlings 

B.O. Preview: September 27, 2013

Another Friday with a whole new slew of releases to enjoy in theatres so let's take a look at this weekend in movies...

The biggest opening comes in the form of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2, the sequel to the 2009 family hit which opened to 30.3 million 4 years ago on it's way to 125 million domestically, a rather low figure for family oriented animation, but a high point for Sony Animation thus far. Given the first one was well liked and the marketing job Sony has done for it's sequel, I'm expecting a huge weekend for Cloudy 2. Sony is modestly predicting the low 30 millions but I think it'll top Hotel Transylvania (42.5 million) record setting September opening last year for the above stated reasons as well as the lack of family oriented films to choose from, last week had The Wizard of Oz and Planes occupying the 9th and 10th spot respectively at the Box Office and they represented the best 2 options, The Wizard of Oz was a one week promotion and Planes will be entering it's 8th weekend so I expect families to flock to Cloudy 2 and open north of 40 million easily.

There is also a pair of romantic comedies opening up this week. Joseph Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed and starred in Don Jon opposite Scarlett Johansson. Both have nice star power but the combination of New Jersey accents and Pornography may draw some people away. It'll be in good shape with 10 million which would be up from his films 50/50 and last summer's Premium Rush and the (500) Days Of Summer effect can not be counted out since this does fall in JGL wheelhouse. Secondly African-American rom-com Baggage Claim is being released in over 2000 theatres this week which is a hefty amount for Fox Searchlight since their last release to debut in that many theatres was Street Kings way back in 2008. 10 million is possible, but with direct competition from Don Jon, that might be asking a little much.

Also following it's underwhelming limited release, formula 1 pic Rush starring Thor himself is expanding to 2,297, given it's surprisingly low numbers last week from NY and LA. I find it hard to believe that Ron Howard's film will have difficulty finding an audience in North America despite it's amazing reviews. I think we'll have to wait for award season to see a bump in sales from Rush. The low teens seems to be it's ceiling but I think we'll end up with 3 movies in the 8 - 12 million range this week.

The only other opening is Metallica Through The Never hitting IMAX's this week and although a Justin Bieber/One Direction opening is not possible, expect a solid 1 million plus opening before it goes nationwide next week. Also expanding is Enough Said the last film starring James Gandolfini which has good reviews and word of mouth, despite playing in only 277 locations, expect it to cross the million dollar threshold as well.

As far as holdovers, Insidious 2 will drop another 50%+ likely pushing it out of the top 5, the same can be said for opening week cousin The Family. As you will see below I give up on properly guessing Instructions Not Included but given the lack of adult alternatives this week, expect a small decline, the same can be said about Prisoners, We're The Millers and The Butler.

4 new inclusions in the Top 10 mean 10 have to go and unfortunately Riddick has been dropping faster than a brick after it's solid opening. The effects of The Wizard of Oz in IMAX will have worn off and after Battle of the Year's horrendous opening expect it to fall into obscurity immediately. Also longtime Top 10 Planes has reached the end of it's rope but expect it to kick around the top 15 for weeks to come.

My Predictions:

1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (44 million)
2. Prisoners (13.6 million)
3. Don John (11.8 million)
4. Rush (10.8 million)
5. Baggage Claim (9 million)
6. Insidious 2 (6 million)
7. Instructions Not Included (4.9 million)
8. We're The Millers (4.2 million)
9. The Butler (3.9 million)
10. The Family (3.8 million)

Last Week:

My Prediction                                                 Actual
1. Prisoners (21 mil)                                    1. Prisoners  (20.8 mil)
2. Insidious Chapter 2 (15.3 mil)                   2. Insidious Chapter 2 (13.8 mil)
3. Battle Of The Year (8 mil)                         3. The Family (7 mil)
4. The Family (7.9 mil)                                 4. Instructions Not Included (5.4 mil)
5. We're The Millers (4.2 mil)                        5. Battle Of The Year (4.6 mil)
6. The Butler (4 mil)                                     6. We're The Millers (4.6 mil)
7. Instructions Not Included (3.6 mil)             7. The Butler (4.2 mil)
8. Riddick (3.4 mil)                                      8. Riddick (3.7 mil)
9. Planes (2.4 mil)                                       9. The Wizard Of Oz (3.1 mil)
10. The Wizard Of Oz (1.8 mil)                    10. Planes (2.7 mil)

Scorecard: F  You'd think over guessing the top movie by .2 million would be a good week. But alas after that it fell off the rails. After over guessing Instructions Not Included last week, I drastically undercut it this week where it actually made money from last week. Battle Of The Year tanked even more than I had assumed it would. The Wizard Of Oz had a record setting IMAX re-release that no one seen coming. and I predicted higher declines for the bottom tier movies (Planes, Riddick, We're The Millers and The Butler) as they all made somewhere between .2 million and .4 million than I had guessed. Not to mention last week's new releases Insidious (-65.7%) and The Family (-50.1%) had steeper drops than I expected. But hey I'm hanging my hat on the closeness I was to Prisoners.

B.O. Preview: September 20, 2013

It's friday! That means another weekend at the theatres is upon us... Let's take a look at what is being released this week...

The biggest opening this week comes from Prisoners, a drama starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal that is poised to take 1st place over the weekend opening up in 3,200+ theatres. Prisoners tells the story of Keller Dover (Jackman) facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces the only suspect's release. Knowing his child's life is at stake, the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? A good enough sounding presence and it's from an Oscar winning director in Denis Villeneuve, albeit an Oscar winner for a foreign language film. The problem I have with Prisoners is it is admitedly the first adult drama of the fall season, generally a good time for this type of film to come out, but it may be a little too dark for the average adult movie goer, that being said a strong cast and solid marketing campaign should be enough to push Prisoners ahead of holdover Insidious 2 and other nationwide release Battle of the Year. A solid 20+ start is expected, I'd say the ceiling would be Les Miserables (27 mil last christmas) but would be shocked if this movie didn't open with a 2 in front of the 8 figures.
Battle of the Year as a much worse future ahead of it, moviegoers are obviously getting bored of the 3D dance movie gimmick as shown by the poor numbers Step Up Revolution put up last summer (a hair over 11 mil). Sony is only expecting 6 - 8 million for the weekend which even given Chris Brown's starring role in the film, seems about right considering the disasterous reviews it has gotten thus far and the fact that it's barely hitting 2000 theatres over the weekend. However it is important to note that it's been a slow time for teen movies so after everyone went to see Insidious 2 last weekend, nothing else in theatres would really appeal to the aged 13-19 crowd, I'd suggest seing Insidious 2 however or Percy Jackson if you haven't already.

Insidious 2 had a big opening, and although the first held well, this one will likely fall in with the usual horror movies, immensely frontloaded taking a dive of about 60% the 2nd week. Last week's other opening The Family checked in a little better than the studio thought, normally these types of movies hold decently well but given the new arrival of Prisoners as direct competition I expect about 50% fall. The same could be said for The Butler, that at this point has already gone well above expectations as it is a surprise summer movie hit, also surprisingly a summer hit is We're The Millers which has had middling reviews at best but continues to hold strong due to strong word of mouth, reminds me a little bit of Battle: Los Angeles which suffered from negative reviews but audiences couldn't get enough. I expect the Millers to continue to dip between 30 and 40 percent like it has been.

Family movies Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and One Direction: This Is Us will likely see their exit from the top 10 this week with the new entries of Battle of the Year and Prisoners, One Direction benefited last weekend from an extended "fan cut" being released which limited it's drop, expect it to all off the face of the earth this week, while Percy is holding okay, the domestic box office has to be dissapointing at this point with only 62+ million domestically.

Other movies opening this week are Ron Howard's Rush which opens solely in New York and Los Angeles, as well as sex addict comedy Thanks For Sharing which opens at only 247 theatres and the reviews have been mixed so don't expect a million from either title, but don't be surprised to see Rush put a per-theatre average around $100,000.

The only other "new" movie is the re-release of The Wizard of Oz in IMAX. Considering the success of past IMAX releases (Raiders of The Lost Ark, Top Gun) I wouldn't be surprised to see it as a top 10 movie ahead of Elysium but it'll be close.

My Predictions:

1. Prisoners (21 mil)
2. Insidious Chapter 2 (15.3 mil)
3. Battle Of The Year (8 mil)
4. The Family (7.9 mil)
5. We're The Millers (4.2 mil)
6. The Butler (4 mil)
7. Instructions Not Included (3.6 mil)
8. Riddick (3.4 mil)
9. Planes (2.4 mil)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1.8 mil)

Last Week:

My Prediction                                                 Actual
1. Insidious 2 (30 mil)                                     1. Insidious 2 (40.3 mil)
2. The Family (15 mil)                                     2. The Family (14 mil)
3. Instructions Not Included (7.5 mil)                3. Riddick (6.8 mil)
4. Riddick (7 mil)                                            4. The Butler (5.5 mil)
5. The Butler (5.8 mil)                                     5. We're The Millers  (5.4 mil)
6. We're The Millers (5.5 mil)                           6. Instructions Not Included (4.9 mil)
7. Planes (3.9 mil)                                          7. Planes (3.1 mil)
8. Elysium (2.5 mil)                                        8. One Direction: This Is Us (2.5 mil)
9. One Direction: This Is Us (2 mil)                  9. Elysium (2.1 mil)
10. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (1.8 mil) 10. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (1.9 mil)

Scorecard: C+ Apart from underguessing Insidious 2 by 10 million... Oops. The only other big mistake was Assuming Instructions Not Included wouldn't fall as much as it did, I even gave it a chance to make more than last week but guess conservatively, but not conservatively enough as it ended up dropping 40%. The 2 next highest differences was overguessing The Family by 1 million and overguessing Planes by 0.8 million. Altogether not horrible, but no t particularly good either.

B.O. Preview: September 13th 2013

Hello all, and thank you for reading this first post in this new series I like to call Box Office preview, I'm your friendly neighbourhood Blogger-Man DonnyFTW so what should you see this weekend? Let's take a look:

This weekend we have 2 new nationwide releases, first up opening in +2,900 theatres is the 2nd chapter of horror franchise Insidious, which follows the haunted Lambert family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The first Insidious grossed a mere 13 million in it's opening weekend, which is very low for a supernatural horror film, though the movie did have surprisingly strong word of mouth which lead it to finish up it's run with a 54 million total. Couple the popularity of the first film with the heavy marketing push for chapter 2 and you should see an opening above $20 million, taking into account that director James Wan was responsible for the surprise hit of the summer in "The Conjuring" I wouldn't be surprised to see it push up to $30 million especially given the Friday the 13th opening. I think any less than the originals $54 million overall would be a disappointment for the film, though I expect a steep drop off after Friday and Saturday given that at this point everyone knows what to expect from Insidious and horror movies tend not to hold that well over time so the opening weekend will likely be responsible for 50% of the movie's total income.

The other new release is Luc Besson's "The Family" starring Robert DeNiro, now by this point we know DeNiro in gangster roles generally sell tickets, even though at this point in his career he's limited to playing ex-mafioso's given the fact that he is now 112 years old. The film is cleverly marketing this as "From Martin Scorsese" as he is producing to mask the fact that Besson is indeed directing and he's best known for doing "The Fifth Element" and a bunch of middling to no success movies highlighted by "The Professional" starring Jean Reno and Gary Oldman and "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" starring Milla Jovovich and Dustin Hoffman in roles they'd rather forget I'm sure. So what is The Family even about? A mafia boss and his family are relocated to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to keep them in line, Fred Manzoni (Robert DeNiro), his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) can't help but revert to old habits and blow their cover by handling their problems the "family" way, enabling their former mafia cronies to track them down. Chaos ensues as old scores are settled in the unlikeliest of settings in this darkly funny film. Seems like an interesting enough storyline. I'd have to guess the floor for this movie is around 10 million although I expect something around Righteous Kill money, about 16 million. Though that was released in 2008, adjusted for today's theatre prices would be around 18 and a half million. Where as the ceiling would have to be Analyze This, adjusted for inflation would be just below 30 million, though it originally was a hair under 20 million in 1999. I can't see the latter happening but I foresee a little less than Righteous Kill... Then again, I seem to be guessing on the high end for The Family, but call me old fashioned, I love me some Tommy Lee Jones.


The wild card here might be Lee Daniels' "The Butler" who has been scoring some pretty nice green from the adult crowd thus far as they have been pretty much ignored since August began, now that there is another movie playing targeted at an older crowd it'll be interesting to see if The Butler continues to hold well, thus taking money away from The Family, or if it'll start it's descent down the top 10 ladder now that it has some competition.

Expect more sharp declines (50%+) from Elysium, One Direction: This Is Us, The World's End, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, Getaway and You're Next. As well as you can expect Riddick to take a similar plunge than it's predecessor did on it's second weekend (60%+) especially considering the Horror/Sci-Fi club has been looking forward to Insidious 2. This Is The End is also expected to digress in a big way after Sony threw it back into theatres to collect some more money off the back of James Franco's Roast.

Movies that will have decent holds tend to be the ones that have a family appeal so continue to expect the likes of Planes, Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters and surprise August hit We're The Millers to lose about 40% of their grosses. Also expect to see Spanish sensation Instructions Not Included in the top 5 again as I suspect word of mouth will keep it strong and may even gain on last weeks box office this in it's 3rd week of release.

So here is how I imagine things shaking out:

1. Insidious Chapter 2 (30 million)
2. The Family (15 million)
3. Instructions Not Included (7.5 million)
4. Riddick (7 million)
5. The Butler (5.8 million)
6. We're The Millers (5.5 million)
7. Planes (3.9 million)
8. Elysium (2.5 million)
9. One Direction: This Is Us (2 million)
10. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (1.8 million)

What to expect when you're expecting to be reading this blog

So I just thought I'd do a quick little post here on my lunch hour to let you fine folks know what I'll be working on here at Ye Olde Bloge (read: Donny's Blog). This is a list of features i'll be hoping to keep up with on a regular basis.

The List:

Tuesday - Comic Shop Corner:  I'll be previewing the newest books each week for the major publishers (DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, IDW Publishing and Dark Horse Comics) as well as spotlighting an independent book either by a lesser publisher (Boom! Studios, Dynamite, Valiant, ect.) or maybe it's just a legit indie book. I was hoping to have the premier post done for yesterday but you know I have other things to do and a meeting tonight so I can't even hope to post it late but know that I have every intention of getting it done so it's ready for publishing on tuesday so you know what to pick up when you go to your local comic book shop on wednesday AKA New Comic Book Day.

Friday - B.O. Preview: I promise I will not keep you informed on what I expect my body to smell like that. Quite the contrary, I'll be previewing the Box Office for the upcoming weekend with recommendations on what you should watch, what you shouldn't watch and what the movie going audience in general plan to go see... It's to be noted more often than not, people are stupid but that's a whole other post. Again, I expect to be busy leading up to friday's deadline so I'll try to preview this weekend's movies on friday, if not well expect a post next week since the majority of the time i'll be writing these posts on one day when I have time and post accordingly on the day specified.

Saturday - Top 10 Countdown: This is a weekly segment where I countdown my own top 10 songs of the week based on my opinion of what is good, and what is not, but it's important to note as a general matter of fact, I'm always right and have better taste than you, so you're welcome in advance. I can tell you this will be posted Saturday as it is already done! **Happy Dance**

I'll also be doing special posts of whatever I see fit really, I'll likely review some stuff, such as albums, movies, TV series, and such. As well as maybe do some Top 10 lists such as "Top 10 songs I take my pants off too" or "Top 10 video games I play pantless" or the ever popular "Top 10 things I do to cause my pants to come off" SPOILER: #6 is eating butterscotch pudding.

So there you have it kids that's what you can look forward to, have a great Wednesday and keep in touch... Hugs and Kisses.

- DonnyFTW