Coronavirus Mortality Updates: 2020 - 2023 |
JAN. 20 |
YOU DUG IT
Good 2 Know: Any weekend box office drop of less than 50% is good. Any weekend B.O. drop smaller than 30% of the previous is excellent.
General Rules:
A. Theaters get approximately 50% of the gross in North American B.O. (negotiable).
B. Distributors omitting budget figures believe the movie will under perform.
C. Total gross by the 3rd weekend accounts for at least half of movie's total theater ticket sales regardless of length of stay.
D. After the 3rd weekend, as screens drop, theaters 50/50 B.O. split rises about 10% each weekend, favoring the theater, until it stops at 80/20 (negotiable).
3. WOLF MAN debuts at #3 making a slightly bigger per screen average than the movie in first place. The only reason it winds up at 3 is due to its fewer opening screens. We'll see which way Leigh Whannell's latest feature and original take on lycanthropy goes from here.
7. NOSFERATU drops from last weekend's #4 with a 40% dip in ticket sales against a 53 screen cut. All said, it's surpassed its $50 million budget more than three times over in the world market and hasn't left the Top Ten yet.
9. WICKED, in its 9th weekend, jumps down from last weekend's #7 with a mere 30% dip in ticket sales against a whopping 615 screen cut. WICKED surpassed the half billion mark worldwide, winning the Holiday season.
These numbers are incomplete as Martin Luther King Day is giving a 3 day weekend to government workers (those not busy with today's President's Inauguration). Box Office counting organizations are giving movies a three day as well, so these numbers may shift by tomorrow.
You Buried Nothing This Week
Figures calibrated from reporting by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers.
And -
THE TOMB OF LIGEIA Turns 61
At his prime actor Vincent Price was a handsome devil with a rich honeyed voice and a suave demeanor draped over a cad beneath. This was catnip to his overwhelmingly large female audience. But he never had a breakout hit like the major actors of his day and age range. For one thing, he presented the cool intellect of a tiger biding its time before the pounce. He wasn't the kind of actor that could carry a romantic movie, which is what all the A-List actors of his era had in their portfolio as their "break-out" movie.
By the late 1950s, consigned to powerful character actor roles, a middle-aged and aging Vincent Price found his movie offers growing ever more Schlocky.
So much so that he was approached by famed Schlockmiester Roger Corman. Roger made his name as a movie making machine who could turn a dime on the most ridiculous crap. Yet among all of his quantity, he occasionally created quality so stunning that the major studios and critics were left gasping. "How did that Corman make that picture?"
Despite the occasional stumbles with each other, the two worked on eight Edgar Allen Poe movies together. Price the leading man in every one and Roger proving that he could make quality. It culminated in their last, most expensive and experimental: 1964's THE TOMB OF LIGEIA.
Plus -
THE PROPHECY II Turns 26
Like any sequel from Dimension Films, if you liked the first one you probably won't be *that* disappointed by the Direct to Video second one. At least THE PROPHECY II offers just as much Christopher Walken as the first.
Also -
UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION is 19
Like any sequel released to theaters by Sony Pictures in the 2006 Dump Month of January, if you liked the first UNDERWORLD you may like the second, UNDERWORLD EVOLUTION, a little better.
Finale -
HAPPY HORROR THRILLER BIRTHDAYS TO -
By E.C. McMullen Jr.
A final farewell to the maestro,
Writer/Director David Lynch (ERASERHEAD, THE ELEPHANT MAN, DUNE, BLUE VELVET, TWIN PEAKS [TV], LOST HIGHWAY, MULHOLLAND DR., INLAND EMPIRE, TWIN PEAKS [TV - 2018]) who died on January 16, mere days before his 78th birthday.
Look for David's Suspense, Thriller, Mystery, tentatively set for a 2023, 2024, 2025 release, UNRECORDED NIGHT [TV].
Actor Tom Baker (THE CANTERBURY TALES [1972], THE VAULT OF HORROR, FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, THE MUTATIONS, THE CURSE OF KING TUT'S TOMB, DOCTOR WHO [TV], SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLES [TV - 1982], BACKTIME, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, AGATHA CHRISTIE MARPLE: TOWARDS ZERO) is 88.
Actor Daniel Cudmore (X2, ALONE IN THE DARK, X-MEN III: THE LAST STAND,
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON, REVOLUTION, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 1, RITES OF PASSAGE, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2, HALO 4: FORWARD UNTO DAWN, X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, DEVIL IN THE DARK, SIREN [TV], CORRECTIVE MEASURES) is 42.
Daniel shares a January birthday with PERCY JACKSON alumni, Logan Lerman.
Actor Lorenzo Lamas (DETOUR TO TERROR, FLESH AND THE DEVIL, CIA CODE NAME: ALEXA, MASK OF DEATH, TERMINAL JUSTICE, BLACK DAWN, UNDERCURRENT, THE IMMORTAL [TV], THE PARADISE VIRUS, DARK WATERS, DEEP EVIL, RAPTOR ISLAND, SCI-FIGHTER, ALIEN 3000, BLOOD ANGELS, SUCCUBUS: HELL BENT, SCORPION GIRL, BLEACH, and way more) is 66.
Actor Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe (SANCTIMONY, CHILDREN OF THE CORN: REVELATION, INSOMNIA, BLOOD ANGELS, Masters of Horror: PICK ME UP, FINAL DESTINATION 3, SCARY MOVIE 4, SNAKES ON A PLANE, BLACK CHRISTMAS [2006], WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END, YETI: CURSE OF THE SNOW DEMON, THE BOY NEXT DOOR, KILLER MOUNTAIN, A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE, PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD [TV], SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED [TV], OLD FLAMES NEVER DIE) is 42.
Musician Paul Stanley (Band: KISS. Albums: PSYCHO CIRCUS. Movies: KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK) is 72.
SUNDAY -
I don't usually give Happy Birthdays to dead people, but dead people rarely have a career this active for so long after their death!
Writer Edgar Allen Poe (Movies: THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM [1913], A BARGAIN WITH SATAN, THE LUNATICS, THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE [1914], ISLE OF OBLIVION, EERIE TALES, THE LIVING DEAD [1932], BUCKET OF BLOOD [1932], THE CRIME OF DOCTOR CRESPI, THE TELL-TALE HEART [1939], THE BLACK CAT [1941], THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER [1949], PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE, HOUSE OF USHER [1960], THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM [1961], TALES OF TERROR, THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, THE RAVEN [1963], CITY IN THE SEA, MASTER OF HORROR [1965], THE BLACK CAT [1966], HOUSE OF EVIL, WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE OBLONG BOX, AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLEN POE, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE [1971], LEGEND OF HORROR, ONE MINUTE BEFORE DEATH, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER [1979], THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER [1981], ZOMBIE 5 [1982], THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE [1986], THE HOUSE OF USHER [1989], MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH [1989], TWO EVIL EYES [1990], THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA, [1990], BURIED ALIVE, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM [1991], HAUNTING FEAR, TALE OF A VAMPIRE, THE MUMMY LIVES, MORELLA [1999], HATRED OF A MINUTE [2002], ALONE, LUNACY, THE RAVEN [2006], THE RAVEN [2007], THE TOMB [2009], THE RAVEN [2012], REQUIEM FOR THE DAMNED, TERROIR, LIGEIA [2013], FEAR THE CROOKED CORPSE, STONEHEARST ASYLUM, CREEPERS [2014], EDGAR ALLEN POE'S LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER, THE TELL-TALE HEART [2016], THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER [TV]), who died at the age of 40, would be 216 today.
Look for Edgar's upcoming Horror Thrillers for 2025. There are 18 in production.
Actor Linda Hayden (TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, SOMETHING TO HIDE, NIGHT WATCH [1973], MADHOUSE, OLD DRACULA, TRAUMA [1976], QUEEN KONG, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, STALKER) is 72.
Actor Tippi Hedren (THE BIRDS, MARNIE, TIGER BY THE TAIL, ROAR, IN THE COLD OF THE NIGHT, PACIFIC HEIGHTS, INEVITABLE GRACE, I WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED, BREAK UP, MIND RAGE, DEAD WRITE, HER MORBID DESIRES, THE GHOST AND THE WHALE, SOMETHING HORRIBLE) is 89.
Actor Logan Lerman (THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, THE NUMBER 23, GAMER, PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTENING THIEF, PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS, NOAH, THE VANISHING OF SYDNEY HALL, SHIRLEY, BULLET TRAIN) is 31.
Logan shares a January birthday with THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT alumni, Kevin Durand.
TREMORS Turns 35
Ahh... remember when you were 18 and saw TREMORS in the theater for the first time?
Well now yer 53 and yer OLD!
53 isn't the new 33! Yer old, sucker!
But you know what else? Your kids and possibly your grandkids still enjoy this damn movie! And you know why? You Know Why?
This is why we still love TREMORS.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN Turns 29
In 1996, Fans were already wild over the fact that this movie would feature the talents of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino together, but the unexpected showstopper wasn't the Balls-To-The-Wall Special Make-up Effects by Robert Kurtzman, but the appearance of Salma Hayek as Santanico Pandemonium: the Vampire Queen! This was my youthful reaction to 1996's FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.
SATURDAY -
Actor Dave Bautista (THE SCORPION KING 3, RIDDICK, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY [all], L.A. SLASHER, SPECTRE, MARAUDERS, BUSHWICK, BLADE RUNNER 2049, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, HOTEL ARTEMIS, AVENGERS: ENDGAME, ARMY OF THE DEAD, DUNE, SEE [TV], ARMY OF THE DEAD [TV], DUNE, SEE [TV], GLASS ONION, KNOCK AT THE CABIN, DUNE PART 2) is 56.
Look for Dave in the upcoming 2024, 2025 Thriller IN THE LOST LANDS. Also in 2025, ARMY OF THE DEAD LOST VEGAS [TV], AFTERBURN [2025],
Writer/ Director/ Producer/ Editor/ Actor Takeshi "Beat" Kitano (YASHA, DIOXIN FROM FISH!, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, TOKYO EYES, BROTHER, BATTLE ROYALE, FIREWORKS, BATTLE ROYALE II, IZO, THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK: ATTACKS THE G8 SUMMIT, BLACK GOSPEL, MOZU THE MOVIE, DOCTOR X: GEKAI DAIMON MEKIKO SPECIAL, GHOST IN THE SHELL [2017]) is 76.
Look for Takeshi in the 2024 Thriller, IN YOUR BLOOD.
Writer D F Lewis (editor NEMONYMOUS, WEIRDMONGER) is 76.
Visit him at dflewisreviews.wordpress.com.
EVE OF DESTRUCTION Turns 34
You want to talk about a movie that is ripe for remake? A movie with a solid concept, great possibilities, amazingly untouched by all of the episodes of the WESTWORLD TV series (itself an unfortunate chock-a-block of missed opportunities), yet suffused with poor execution due to a complete misunderstanding of what such a plot entails?
What this movie got wrong in 1991, the animated GHOST IN THE SHELL got right in 1995 (and the live-action movie got wrong in 2017). Still, just as there's more than one tale in a Zombie apocalypse, so there is more than one tale of robots in our future. This is EVE OF DESTRUCTION.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3 Turns 25
I'm old enough to remember 1999 and my Art House theater friends moaning over the fact that their beloved Foreign Artsy Queen, Sonia Braga, had lowered herself to be in a cheap Direct-To-Video movie sequel like this one. While Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino retained Producer name and rights, they had little involvement in this. Yet here was my friend's Sonia Braga slumming through a movie where she didn't even get top billing.
She's not even on the poster!
The thing about being an Art House fan of foreign actors, is that you miss everything that person does that never makes it to your little cinema alcove in your tony little 'hood. Your favorite star in the sky, unknown to the hoi polloi and all the more cherished for her relative obscurity "Why, you've never heard of Sonia Braga? Harrumph! Peasant1!" is not who you think she is.
Sonia started and stayed in low-budget sex comedies and dramas. A large body of her work could charitably be viewed as the equivalent of late night cable adult soft core porn aka "Skinamax". It was not unusual for posters to feature her front and center, legs spread or cupping her breast. Once in a while she wound up in a good or great movie like KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, The Milagro Beanfield War, and a few others, but she made her name in softcore skin flicks and in addition to her youth and beauty of the era, she could actually Act! In her country she regularly turned up in TV series. Sometimes she'd cross the pond to act in U.S.A. TV shows like an episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
None of which takes anything away from her training, experience, and talent as an actor, but she wasn't slumming in a low rent vampire flick. Sonia is a working actor: making another in a long string of movies in her career. Sonia fit right in with her other character actors in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER.
1Or "Pissant" in Texas.
CLOVERFIELD Turns 16
For fans of Universal Pictures' FRANKENSTEIN franchise, they have their favored non-canon spin-off, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Trekkies have their GALAXY QUEST and Romero's Children have SHAUN OF THE DEAD. But those are all comedies!
In 2008, Drew Goddard and Matt Reeves decided to do a Kaiju movie with a light touch and a hardcore heart. They wanted you to laugh, cry, and be chilled to the bone. Which wound up making their movie less of a GODZILLA tribute, with CLOVERFIELD coming dangerously close to being a...
Wassmor -
GLASS Turns 6
Why does M. Night Shyamalan's final movie in his protean Superhero franchise join the ranks of rare trilogies that finished their franchise on top? This is why GLASS completes M. Night's nearly 2 decade masterpiece.
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