hello and welcome to this week's movie math where first off I have to say I
really enjoy talking about the box office with you every week because even
when it seems at first glance like there's absolutely nothing happening and
I got a little nervous when I sat down to write the script for this late last
night I was like look there's got to be a pony in there somewhere that's an old
saying when you're dealing with a pile of poop there's a pony in there maybe
somewhere and I have to say I'd I got a couple ponies I think there's some
really interesting stuff going on here if you take a closer look so as for the
weekend what we're really dealing with here is several movies playing out and
what has become a closed system and what I mean by that is that this year
Hollywood didn't bother to gamble with a wild card like split and Kevin Hart was
already taken off the board with Jumanji although interestingly this means that
historically he's earned this title winter is truly Kevin Hart movie season
that's pretty nice for him if I were his agent I would you know send out a little
card to everyone or email and be like did you notice this because we certainly
have that would maybe bring his price up a little bit but anyway essentially
there is no big new movie and during the marketplace until February 9th after
Super Bowl weekend because in America which again is the biggest movie going
audience in the world recently challenged by China but still America is
the biggest everyone focuses on the Super Bowl all weekend long even though
it's only on Sunday night because there's a lot of party planning involved
and of course it's a huge night for movie trailers and that takes up a lot
of the discussion as well I'm very excited as I'm sure you are as well only
lions gates Winchester is going to try and counter programming then that's oh
that's a smart move it's a small horror movie and again since nothing else is
opening they should be able to you know make a little bit of cash so yeah things
can be pretty quiet for the next two weeks which means an intense cash grab
opportunity for what's already out unless your awards fair because it
doesn't seem to be able to interest movie goers whatsoever even though it's
dominating the headlines that might be again fascinating this might be a side
problem with all the help clinical award season has become right
it's wonderful that it's shining a light on some important issues but a warrant
season is supposed to shine a light on the movies that are being honored and
that's not really happening you know it's almost like a secondary headline a
sub-headline would actually want it's everyone cares more about well I guess
what's everyone what political thing everyone talked about what they were
wearing and then what movies one that's that's
unfortunate and it's also not great for these movies box office
although phantom thread of course is really not getting a lot of nominations
period but anyway fandom thread and call me by your name expanded this weekend to
around 800 theaters that's pretty good but they showed little evidence and the
numbers they delivered that they should expand further you know you test the
waters and if you get a good pursuit or average with your first large expansion
then you keep expanding I'm not surprised with phantom thread because
it's really been a no-show there's season but call me by your name that's
kind of sad also Megan Ellison has truly killed Paul
Thomas Anderson's career and now it looks like she's taking Daniel down
Daniel day-lewis as well I don't understand why everyone in Hollywood at
least the authors haven't realized that she's their very own siren luring them
with seductive wads of cash and creative freedom into the choppy waters of
working with an inexperienced producer only for them to crash and break apart
upon the rocks with no guidance right it's pretty clear also it's not just
those two movies I Tanya and the shape of water also added theaters but still
suffered slight drops and then darkest hour and three billboards three
billboards lost some theaters and they suffered even bigger drops you would
think that three billboards will be going up and up and up considering that
Hollywood has decided it's the best movie of the year
Hollywood has said this is the best that we have to offer and an audience is
still said you know what hard pass it's so bad I mean this year's Oscar ratings
are going to be so low unless Wonder Woman and or Logan get a nomination or
two or maybe get out has a very strong showing
and I'm sure ABC is praying for one of those things to happen now as for the
mainstream flakes Jumanji continues to be the king of the jungle and has now
passed Skyfall domestically to become Sony's
fifth biggest movie of all time again after their core spider-man
these I don't know why they haven't announced a Jumanji 2 yet perhaps
someone's holding it up someone actually could be to someone's are holding up the
deal in terms of wanting to get gets paid but anyway for 2017 its climbed to
number 7 domestically that's amazing and it's close to unseating pirates 5
worldwide for the number 10 spot for the year
now speaking of top tens as I predicted last week the last Jedi easily surpassed
frozen take the number 9 spot on the worldwide all-time list that's just an
undeniable win but despite all that cash or maybe because of it the peeps at
Lucasfilm are losing their cool with the detractors Rian Johnson continues to
defend the movie aggressively let the cash do the talking Ryan and now one of
the story people at Lucasfilm is also weighing in on social media you know
Kathleen Kennedy I understand that you don't want to get involved with all of
this publicly right but you still need to leave behind the scenes because right
now your people are running around like chickens with their heads cut off or
pork's I love ports boards didn't really catch on that's amazing to me the whole
movie I mean people are more interested in whether the discussion is whether not
Star Wars the last Jedi is a good movie it's just take it up all the air in the
room no one's really discussing anything else and I'm surprised considering there
are so many people who do support the movie that instead of fighting the
detractors Disney just doesn't shift the spotlight onto the positive comments
right I mean they have friends in the press I'd be like right be a positive
article for pete's sake and then the press would probably say if no one's
going to click on that article you know that's where the problem comes in I
liked it but I think I really do feel it's like
Batman V Superman a lot of people liked it but you can't deny that a lot of
people hated it and it's potentially damaging and again we have to wait and
that's that's another part of the frustration we're not gonna have a
verdict on this until episode 9 Star Wars I mean Han Solo to some degree but
we have to wait until 2019 to understand how this all played out oh that's a long
time to argue about something although we managed to do it for the DC EU we're
still doing it alright and once again the greatest showmen had the smallest
drop in the top 10 and that century mark that's fantastic
hopefully that'll ease Hugh Jackman's pain is what he thought would be an
awards favourite has instead turned out to be a fan favorite should go to
Broadway so obvious I hope that's announced as well and then right behind
the greatest showman is Paddington - the second smallest drop in the top ten
hooray although it's gonna be a real harsh lesson about the importance of
business when it comes to moviemaking when Peter Rabbit and probably Disney's
live-action Christopher Robin blow this quaint charmer out of the water box
office wise later this year and they're gonna have that's gonna be a harsh
lesson for David Heyman and of the director Paul King and something they
want to make a Paddington 3 it's doing pretty well not as well as the first one
where I think well enough to maybe do a third but that's something that that
lesson I hope that I hope they learn it it's it's and I think the movies perfect
does is but you can't argue with the lower box office numbers it's really
frustrating alright cuz I mean as good as the movie is it didn't connect with
audiences maybe we'll see how it does on streaming so as for the weekends new
releases yes there were some this is great so 12 strong followed the 13 hours
release strategy even down to the title 12 strong 13 hours so Hollywood
sometimes they're so transparent and they wound up get this with the exact
same opening as we've discussed before box-office patterns do exist and that's
where Hollywood is so good at predicting box-office hopefully this is the last of
old Chris Hemsworth and his career truly has turned a corner or will he not be
able to make box-office lightning strike twice I really thought he was so good in
Thor Ragnarok but he just cannot get his non Marvel career off the ground
alright then den of thieves opened per usual for a Gerard Butler flick and the
trades insist this is business as usual for a movie like this which is designed
to make money overseas and in the ancillary market streaming airplanes
hotels etc and then for some reason a Lifetime movie opened in theaters this
weekend and still more people want to see it than three billboards and other
awards fare divide in this country continues to grow Hollywood should be a
uniter all right and I think it's possible now as for this coming weekend
the last before Superbowl weekend the final Maze Runner movie has the
franchise set to open at its lowest point and then hostiles oh this is great
hostiles has seen an opportunity there's no big movies in the marketplace Maze
Runner is pretty much do a so hostiles is gonna go super wide in 3,000 theaters
to try and capture an audience and maybe since awards season has totally ignored
it that means audiences might actually be interested I think this is a fabulous
little movie as I said in my review it's not necessarily theater worthy but hey
it's gonna be a slow weekend and I would actually recommend at least checking it
out as a matinee cuz it's very very good and you can check out my review via the
link in the video description and that's this week's movie math as always thanks
for going over the box office with me I'm very curious to hear your thoughts
down below and as always you can check out some more videos including that
hostiles review right now