Holiday 2015 Box Office Predictions (PART TWO)

Yesterday, I looked at the first five of the ten movies going into wide release over the next three weeks over the holidays. Now, let's look at the remaining five features, shall we?

Krampus Review

Krampus kicks off its running time with a scene that perfectly exemplifies what's to come tonally; humorous imagery combined with an authentic unsettling ambiance. In this sequence, Bing Crosby's rendition of It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas plays over the visual of swarms of shoppers descending on a mall looking for gifts for the holidays. A lost sobbing child is ignored as individuals trample each other to get that very last XBOX. It doesn't take a Walter Alvarez to comprehend the meaning of this scene; before the titular beast even descends into the features plotline, there's already plenty of terror one can easily experience at this time of year.

Holiday 2015 Box Office Predictions (PART ONE)

The holiday season always brings a bevy of new films to movie theaters across the country, so, hey, why not, just for fun, we take a look at how these new features may fare at box office? Yes, we all know the new Star Wars adventure will rake up big bucks, but what about In The Heart Of The Sea or The Big Short or Daddy's Home? The financial fates of those films is less clear, so I'm here to offer my predictions on how those will do!

Just a heads up, this is part one of these box office predictions. There are ten wide releases coming out over the next three weeks (I'm counting the expansions into wide release that The Big Short and The Danish Girl will undergo on Christmas Day), so today I'll look at the five closest to release films and then tomorrow I'll look at the remaining five features. Sound good? Alright then, on with the show!

December 11th
In The Heart Of The Sea
Warner Bros. moving this one from its original March 2015 perch to a December 2015 date was deemed a curious tactic by many once it happened, especially since the marketing for the film was already well underway. In The Heart Of The Sea will likely drum up solid, though not extraordinary business once it opens up, with the best box office comparison for this one maybe being Everest. Both are "men-enduring-the-elements" films, though Everest had a far more famous location at the center of its marketing (Mt. Everest of course), it also burned off demand with a one week play in IMAX 3D before debuting to $13.2 million in its first weekend in wide release. A similar number will likely occur for In The Heart Of The Sea, which, while dealing with far lesser known true story elements, won't burn off demand with a one week stay in IMAX 3D locations, which should help it match the opening weekend of Everest.

Opening Weekend: $14 million
Total Gross: $65 million

December 18th
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
So, card's on the table, laying it all out there...I'm gonna wager Star Wars: The Force Awakens doesn't break the opening weekend record set by Jurassic World.

Could I be wrong on this? Hell yeah. If any franchise is gonna prove anyone wrong, it's Star Wars, king of subverting expectations (sometimes for good, sometimes for bad). But December releases typically act far different than summertime fare, with grosses being more spaced out thanks to people being off for extended periods of time for the holidays. This leads to movies sticking around a bit longer, with films like current biggest December opening weekend The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey turning an $84 million into a $303 million domestic haul. There's also the fact that inclement weather may damper its grosses, as Avatar (which opened on this exact date six years ago) experienced massive dips in major cities like Baltimore and Washington D.C. from Friday to Saturday of 75 and 86 percent, respectively, thanks to bad weather.

All that being said, this is still gonna easily become the first December release of all-time to make over $100 million in its opening weekend and it should also have no trouble at all soaring past $150 million. Disney has done a great job mining peoples nostalgia while promising plenty of new characters and adventures, and if reviews turn out to be positive, that could only add to the deafening hype surround the feature.

Opening Weekend: $183 million
Total Gross: $710 million

Sisters
While opening against Star Wars: The Force Awakens might sound foolhardy, Sisters is actually pretty damn smart counterprogramming, as both films serve different audiences. Moviegoers looking for more action-packed fare will have Star Wars, while those looking for a move overtly humorous feature will have the R-rated Sisters. Interestingly, this film marks one of the most high profile films for both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler yet, the duo not having worked together in a film since Baby Mama and since then the two have mostly done family films (Poehler has done two of the Alvin And The Chipmunks sequels and Inside Out, Fey has been busy with MegaMind and Muppets Most Wanted), but their work together on the Golden Globes and on SNL has certainly cemented them as a beloved duo, and the prospect of seeing them work together in a new film will likely hold lots of appeal. Toss in a marketing campaign that's brought out some memorable gags, and I'm going gutsy with this one and predicting it'll be the sleeper hit of the Christmas season.
Opening Weekend: $25 million
Total Gross: $120 million

Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Yeah, the bloom is off the rose for this franchise. The first Alvin And The Chipmunks film had the novelty (if you could call it that) of seeing these well-known pop culture icons in the "real" world, while the sequel brought female counterparts to the table. The third entry already saw a major dip in its domestic gross (a sharp 40% drop from $219 million to $133 million), and after a four year break, this new chipmunk tale will doubtlessly see another domestic box office tumble. No compelling new plot details, gags, characters or even musical covers are presented in the trailers, and with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Good Dinosaur out in the marketplace, parents have other places to turn for family friendly entertainment.
Opening Weekend: $10 million
Total Gross: $60 million

December 23rd
The Big Short
Trying to get a head start on fellow Christmas Day dramas Joy and Concussion by opening two days before Christmas is The Big Short, which is unlikely to find mainstream box office success despite the presence of four big name stars (none of whom are without box office blemishes of course). It's premise dealing with Wall Street and the 2007 Financial Crisis is unlikely to appeal to conventional moviegoers looking for more upbeat and kinetic entertainment over the holidays. Luckily, this one wasn't too costly (this one has a $28 million budget), and its early reviews are extremely positive, meaning it may have legs at the box office.

Opening Weekend: $9.6 million ($11.8 million over its first five days)
Total Gross: $44 million

Come back tomorrow when I'll be looking at the other five box office releases that'll be unleashed onto the populace on Christmas Day!

New Batman v. Superman Trailer Is Full Of Deliciously Hammy Jesse Eisenberg, Ben Affleck Grumbling And Spoilerz

Everyone's been talking about the R-rated "true-to-the-comic-books" irreverence of Deadpool and the gravitas-infused epicness of Captain America: Civil War, but now Warner Bros. has stepped up to the plate to generate more buzz for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The past two trailers for this new Zack Snyder film have their share of devotees to be sure, but they haven't quite resonate in the public consensus like, say, the trailers for Age of Ultron, Jurassic World or The Force Awakens did. Will that change with this new trailer? We shall see.

Watch it below and then read my thoughts on this new trailer, which does contain some hefty spoilers.

The Next Mission: Impossible Movie Has A Familiar Director, Christopher McQuarrie!

If you're a fan of the Mission: Impossible movies like me, well, you're well aware of how long it takes to get one of these movies off the ground. Between the first and second installments in the franchise there was a four year long wait, while there was more than a five year wait for both the third and fourth movies. After the tremendous success of the newest Mission: Impossible movie, Rogue Nation (which grossed $195 million domestically and over $680 million worldwide), Paramount is waiting no time to get another entry in the saga going, with an August 2016 start date planned for the sixth film in this franchise.

Creed Review

Why, of all sports, does boxing seem to pop up so frequently in cinema? Baseball, football and basketball are the far more popular sports in terms of TV viewers and presence in schools across America, yet, on silver screens everywhere, the primal sight of grown-ups in stripped down attire fighting each other has a far larger presence than any other sport. I have a hunch this is due to the simpler structure of boxing; it's not a team sport, so you only have to concentrate on one individual for an entire story, and the price they pay for participating in the sport of boxing are far more visually overt than the bruises one gets from, say, bowling.

Hunger Games Leads Again As Good Dinosaur Does OK And Creed And Danish Girl Turn In Knockout Box Office Performances

For the third Thanksgiving in a row, a Hunger Games movie led the box office, and though the numbers it turned in were lower than past Katniss entries, it still showed solid stamina at the box office. Gathering up another $51 million, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two dropped 50% from its opening weekend, which is slightly smaller than the 53% dips of the last two Hunger Games movies and a solid showing considering this new film was more frontloaded on its opening weekend than past Hunger Games adventures. With Star Wars on the horizon, it's unlikely Mockingjay holds quite as well as its predecessors over the Christmas holidays, though considering it's amassed $198 million domestically already, it should be good to go for a final domestic total over $260 million.

The Good Dinosaur Review

One of the reoccurring storytelling templates that have cropped up in the filmography of PIXAR Animation Studios (and it's such a basic template for storytelling that its reappearance amongst the studios output feels less like repetition and more like an inevitability) is to apply human characteristics to distinctly non-human entities. This trait can even be seen in the pre-PIXAR feature The Brave Little Toaster (incidentally, that's the movie that inspired my life-long fear of clowns), which employed future PIXAR alumni John Lasseter and Joe Ranft (the latter was a screenwriter on the project) as crucial members of its crew.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today, in the United States Of America, is Thanksgiving, or as its known to marketers "That weird holiday in-between Halloween and Christmas that we can't make toys for". This is a day where we give thanks to the things in our life that truly make our existence worthwhile, and for me, I'd easily say getting the chance to write for this website is one such item I'm most grateful for. Other things I'm grateful for? Well, in the realm of pop culture, I'm super grateful PIXAR delivered another masterpiece in Inside Out this year, Jessica Jones sure is thought-provoking and awesome, and oh boy how about that Civil War trailer, right? Plus, having some awesome family members, friends and my fellow Solute writers and readers are pretty spectacular too.

The Night Before Review

Gazing onto the page on Box Office Mojo dedicated to Christmas movies, one might be shocked to see how few massively financially successful films have been released that center directly on this holiday. Films that use the holiday as merely a backdrop (like Home Alone, Die Hard and Iron Man 3) typically find much greater success in the department of dollars and cents compared to its kin that tackle Christmas head on their plots. The Night Before, the newest Seth Rogen comedy, just so happens to fall into that latter type of Christmas filmmaking.

The First Captain America: Civil War Trailer Brings On The Action And The Emotions

This is another one of those trailers where we should just skip the fancy-schmancy introductions and get right to the meat and potatoes of this whole thing; you want that sweet sweet Captain America: Civil War trailer? Here ya go!

The Secret In Their Eyes Review

Movies like The Secret In Their Eyes tend to drive me right up the wall, simply because such features squander a plot that one could easily see being good, even excellent, in the right hands. A different screenwriter, someone else behind the camera, just something else to deviate it from the final product playing in over 2300 theaters across the country right now. Granted, what we're left with isn't something that'll join Manos: The Hand Of Fate on the list of "Worst Movies Ever", but it's fairly obvious more could have been done with the cast and storyline.

Spotlight Review

Man oh man, do I love it when a movie like Spotlight lives up to the hype, especially when it carries a cast of this caliber and a director like Tom McCarthy. This guys 2011 feature Win Win was a real treat, an emotionally gripping and surprisingly layered tale that, to me, indicated that a truly special direct had entered the land of American cinema. I may be on the minority on this, but his follow-up project, The Cobbler, did not resonate with me at all, but luckily, Spotlight seems to be as clear of a sign as any that that Adam Sandler feature was an enormous fluke.

The Hunger Games Come To A Solid, Though Slightly Under Expectations, Financial Conclusion At The Box Office This Weekend

There's no denying a $101 million three day haul is a very impressive haul, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two can hold its head high by knowing it will go down as one of the most impressive sagas of all-time in terms of box office. However, there's no denying that such a lower opening is kind of surprising, especially since, typically, when books are split into these kind of two part movies, the second entry is the higher grossing one (see: the Breaking Dawn and Deathly Hallows films) of the duo. Instead, Mockingjay: Part Two made about 16% less on opening weekend than its predecessor and about 30% below the $158 million debut of Catching Fire just two years ago on this very same weekend.

"Don't Be The Hero With Me": Jessica Jones Season 1 Episode 1 "AKA Ladies Night" Review

It's fairly obvious that, in translating Hal Jordan to the big screen in the 2011 motion picture/abomination Green Lantern, someone involved in the project saw how successful Tony Stark had become and decided that some of Tonys most distinctive character traits (namely that of his snark and cockiness) should be implanted into Jordan. This, of course, didn't work, for one simple reason; Stark uses his wisecracks as a defense mechanism of sorts, a way to combat the forces around him that he's all too aware he can't control. Plus, underneath all his flippant remarks is a good person, one who, in the first Iron Man movie, plainly says that protecting people with his Iron Man technology needs to be his only purpose in life.

Edward Scissorhands Review (Classic Write-Up)

In the year 2015, Edward Scissorhands serves as some kind of bizzaro gaze into another life, another world, another time and place where the pairing of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton would produce anticipation, not dread. And while it's true that Burton and Depp would collaborate for further successful projects after this 1990 feature (as recently as 2007, their Sweeney Todd effort was an excellent movie), it seems the duo have decided to cease working together for the time being after back-to-back critical duds Alice In Wonderland and Dark Shadows (the latter film being a huge box office bomb likely resulting in the split more than anything else).

What A Twist! The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two Spoiler Discussion

Spoilers for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two follow, of course.

I was quite positive about The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two in my formal review of it, and for good reason. This is one well-crafted, exceptionally well-acted motion picture that tackles darker themes with surprising nuance. However, it must be said that it's taken back from achieving true greatness because of its last half hour or so, in which (in a shocking twist) the story, and, by definition of this being the last movie in this particular story, this saga, comes to its conclusion, an ending which the film feels like its in all too much of a hurry to get to.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two Review

And so, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) takes her bow, concluding her four-part Hunger Games saga that gave a massive push to both the career of Lawrence and female led action movies. The final adventure in her grand story is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two, which, as evidenced by the title, is the second part of a two film adaptation of the singular novel entitled Mockingjay. Like I said, this is where it all ends folks...until Lionsgate pushes out those inevitable Hunger Games prequels/spin-offs which will arrive no later than 2018.

Magicians, Male Models And Naked Zac Efron Pop Up In Five New Trailers

Note: The trailer for Dirty Grandpa is NSFW, so proceed with caution.

The release of a huge new blockbuster like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part Two (which, by the by I'll have a review and a spoiler discussion written up for that particular movie by tomorrow morning) will of course spur a deluge of new trailers. But the amount of new promotional trailers released over the past few days has reached critical levels considering the first high-profile comedy (The Night Before) since Vacation nearly four months ago is also opening this weekend and a whole bunch of 2016 comedies wanna get promoted on that new Seth Rogen vehicle.

Chill Out (I'm So Sorry For That Pun) With The First Trailer For The Huntsman: Winter's War

I didn't really care all that much for Snow White And The Huntsman, a forgettable feature that I freely admit wasn't a torturous experience, but was certainly a cookie-cutter experience that wasted the talents of its two lead actors (Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth), with only Charlize Theron getting to go hog-wild as a scenery chewing bad guy. Normally, a sequel wouldn't be anywhere near my radar, but this follow-up, entitled The Huntsman: Winter's War, has made a number of smart decisions to get my interest.