Category: Monthly Previews

2022 Blockbuster Season Box Office Preview: July

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

July 1, 2022

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Premise: From IMDb: “The untold story of one twelve-year-old’s dream to become the world’s greatest supervillain.”
Box Office Prospects: $280 M
Expectations: Excellent. The first Minions movie outperformed all but the second film in the Despicable Me series. At $363 million, it gives us an idea of how this second film might perform. That said, the third Despicable Me came out after and there was a noticeable drop. With uncertainty about family attention at the box office, I’m going a bit conservative with this prediction.
Oscar Prospects: Poor. The Academy hasn’t shown much interest in this franchise, so I doubt we’ll see it in the Oscar nominations.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Wrap-Up: January

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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

January 7, 2022

The 355

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “None.”
Oscar Results: Still None.
Box Office Prospects: $35 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Poor. This film has been held back longer than it should have and its concept isn’t likely to liven up the January box office.”
Box Office Results: $14.6 M
Thoughts: [Major Flop] During the winter months, when COVID-19 infections were surging, it was rare for a movie to do well, especially one without a built-in audience like this one.

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2022 Blockbuster Season Box Office Preview: June

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

June 3, 2022

Watcher

Premise: From IMDb: “A young woman moves into a new apartment with her fiancé only to be tormented by the feeling that she is being stalked by an unseen watcher in an adjacent building.”
Box Office Prospects: $25 M
Expectations: Weak. This film looks like one of those horror thrillers that disappoints when released wide.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

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2021 Oscar Season Box Office Wrap-Up: December

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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

December 3, 2021

Wolf

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “None.”
Oscar Results: None.
Box Office Prospects: $1.5 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Poor. If this is truly releasing wide, it has little hope of doing well as the concept is far too strange to be a hit.”
Box Office Results: $0.147 M
Thoughts: [Flop] As with many indie films that are initially listed as wide releases, this one ultimately released in limited runs and still didn’t manage to make much of an impact.

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2022 Blockbuster Season Box Office Preview: May

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

May 6, 2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Premise: From IMDb: “Dr. Stephen Strange casts a forbidden spell that opens the doorway to the multiverse, including a alternate versions of himself, whose threat to humanity is too great for the combined forces of Strange, Wong, and Wanda Maximoff.”
Box Office Prospects: $300 M
Expectations: Excellent. The first film pulled in $232 million. After six years, that number is sure to go up, but will it be enough to surpass the original when adjusted for inflation? It’s not certain.
Oscar Prospects: Good. After Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multiverse is likely to be a Visual Effects powerhouse for the MCU.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

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2022 Blockbuster Season Box Office Preview: Introduction

Monthly Previews, Season Introduction
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If you didn’t think Hollywood was back and firing on all cylinders, this blockbuster season’s offerings are bound to prove it. Things start off with a bang with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second Doctor Strange movie. It’s sure to do far better than its three predecessors. Following that is the remake of Firestarter, the cinematic Downton Abbey sequel, and May finishes off with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.

June is next up and that starts off slow, but picks up with the one-two punch of Jurassic World: Dominion followed by Pixar’s latest, Lightyear. July doesn’t want to be left behind, so the lucrative Fourth of July holiday weekend sees the release of Minions sequel followed by another MCU film, Thor: Love and Thunder. The month rounds out with DC League of Super Pets, spaced just enough after Minions to be consequential. Then August closes out with nary a guaranteed blockbuster, but with a handful of films that could surprise like The Man from Toronto, which is my pick for the sleeper hit of the month.

And, as that film points out, there are several other films this summer that aren’t part of a franchise or aren’t remakes of other films. The likes of Elvis, Where the Crawdads Sing, Nope, or Bullet Train being big hits is possible in perhaps every case.

A quick note, actual stills from Thor and Toronto weren’t available. The pic from Thor is a pre-vis photo and the Toronto is also a publicity shot. Once I have film images to share, I’ll update these.

To introduce you to the upcoming films, there will be two preview articles every month and this introduction every four months. The Season Preview article will focus on one of three seasons Spring Season (January through April), Blockbuster Season (May through August) and Oscar Season (September through December). In these introductory articles, I will give you the current release schedule for the specified season, which may change as the release dates get closer.

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2021 Oscar Season Box Office Wrap-Up: November

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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

November 5, 2021

Eternals

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “Good. The film will surely compete in Sound and Visual Effects categories if nowhere else.”
Oscar Results: Flop. In spite of making the shortlist for Best Visual Effects, the only category it had much of a shot in, it came up empty-handed.
Box Office Prospects: $200 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Excellent. With the box office starting to rebound, Disney has done tremendously well getting audiences to the theater for films like Shang-Chi, so I expect this one should do fairly well.”
Box Office Results: $164.9 M
Thoughts: [Minor Success] This result, while solid, is unimpressive in terms of Marvel releases.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Preview: April

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

April 1, 2022

The Contractor

Premise: From IMDb: “After being involuntarily discharged from the Marines, James Harper (Pine) joins a paramilitary organization in order to support his family in the only way he knows how.”
Box Office Prospects: $35 M
Expectations: Weak. There’s no evidence to support this type of film or this actor (Chris Pine) is enough of a box office draw to overcome the familiarity and low key nature of the film itself.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.



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2021 Oscar Season Box Office Wrap-Up: October

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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

October 1, 2021

The Addams Family 2

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “Poor. The first film failed to score an Oscar nomination and sequels struggle a great deal, so don’t expect it.”
Oscar Results: Now None. The film couldn’t overcome the Academy’s aversion to sequels, especially sequels to films that weren’t nominated in the first place.
Box Office Prospects: $90 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Good. The first animated film scored nearly $100 million in its outing two years ago. The pandemic has changed the box office a bit, so it might struggle to reach that threshold, but kids’ films have been faring better than addult entertainment lately, so it’s possible to equal out.”
Box Office Results: $56.5 M
Thoughts: [Flop] Trying to make this into a longrunning animated series of films doesn’t seem to be in the cards thanks to the mediocre numbers the sequel has pulled in.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Preview: March

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

March 4, 2022

The Batman

Premise: From IMDb: “In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.”
Box Office Prospects: $200 M
Expectations: Good. It’s hard to say how Warner Bros. will do now that they’ve stopped forcing day-and-date on their features. This should be an interesting test, though it’s fascianting how few wide release are coming out in the typically more lively March.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

March 25, 2022

The Lost City

Premise: From IMDb: “A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.”
Box Office Prospects: $100 M
Expectations: Good. Give audiences a good action-adventure romance film and they’ll show up. The question is will this be good enough to summon people to the box office.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

2021 Oscar Season Box Office Wrap-Up: September

Monthly Previews, Wrap-Up
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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

September 3, 2021

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “Uncertain. While the MCU has done decently in the past scoring Oscar nominations, their product hasn’t always made the case, but this film certainly could due to its more fantastical elements.”
Oscar Results: Success. It managed to make the nominations ballot in exactly one category: Best Visual Effects.
Box Office Prospects: $170 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Good. Black Widow managed to pull in over $170 million at the box office, which means Marvel is still good, even in a pandemic, for drawing people to the theater. That said, attendance has been dropping ever since, so this might be wishful thinking.”
Box Office Results: $224.5 M
Thoughts: [Success] The only genuine success for the entire month of September, usually a fairly respectable one at the box office. Marvel seemed to be able to draw people in to theaters in such a way that few others have been able to.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Preview: February

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

February 4, 2021

Jackass Forever

Premise: From IMDb: “After 11 years, the Jackass crew is back for their final crusade.”
Box Office Prospects: $100 M
Expectations: Good. Whether or not this franchise can withstand the pandemic box office decline, the series has done quite well with audiences who apparently like mindnumbing entertainment.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.



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2021 Blockbuster Season Box Office Wrap-Up: August

Monthly Previews, Wrap-Up
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Below is a wrap-up of the predictions I made several months ago, an exploration of what succeeded and what failed, and how I observe things to have gone.

August 6, 2021

The Suicide Squad

Oscar Prospects: What I said: “Uncertain. The first film was nominated for, and won, an Oscar for Best Makeup & Haristyling. Lightning isn’t likely to strike twice, but we will see.”
Oscar Results: Still Uncertain. It’s on the shortlist for Best Makeup & Hairstyling and the original won the award, so it’s still possible for it to get nominated.
Box Office Prospects: $250 M
Box Office Expectations: What I Said: “Uncertain. The first Suicide Squad made over $325 million, but the Harley Quinn-focused Birds of Prey made $85 million thanks to the rise of the pandemic. The pandemic is still in play, so it might not be able to come close to the original, but we shall see.”
Box Office Results: $55.8 M
Thoughts: [Flop] The Suicide Squad sequel didn’t have any defense for its poor showing. Sure, the pandemic was still raging, but everything else that released around it seems to have done just fine. Clearly no one was enthralled by the prior outing enough to make the second one a hit.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Preview: January

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Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

January 7, 2022

The 355

Premise: From IMDb: “When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who’s tracking their every move”
Box Office Prospects: $35 M
Expectations: Poor. This film has been held back longer than it should have and its concept isn’t likely to liven up the January box office.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

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2022 Spring Season Box Office Preview: Introduction

Monthly Previews, Season Introduction
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With a lot of strong options in the first four months of the year, studios are really hoping for a rebound that has yet to sufficiently rematerialize.

To introduce you to the upcoming films, there will be two preview articles every month and this introduction every four months. The Season Preview article will focus on one of three seasons Spring Season (January through April), Blockbuster Season (May through August) and Oscar Season (September through December). In these introductory articles, I will give you the current release schedule for the specified season, which may change as the release dates get closer.

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