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Hollywood can't blame Rotten Tomatoes for recent flops
A recent New York Times article highlighted a growing Hollywood industry trend -- if a film does poorly at the box office, blame Rotten Tomatoes. The website, which aggregates movie reviews and assigns a percentage score with anything 60 or above labeled "Fresh" and anything scoring lower labeled "Rotten," is catching a lot of flack for disrupting ticket sales and tanking films. But Yves Bergquist, the director of the Data & Analytics Project at USC's Entertainment Technology Center decided to throw some data at the issue and see if those claims hold up.
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is the UK's biggest ever film
We knew that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be a popular film, but the sheer speed at which it's breaking box office records has still taken us by surprise. It's now the biggest movie in UK history, raking in a whopping £104 million after 22 days. The seventh instalment in the force-wielding franchise took the title by toppling Skyfall, the quieter and character-focused Bond film that struck a chord with moviegoers in 2012.
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' broke several movie records
If you suspected that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would smash box office records when you saw the lengthy queues at your local theater, you made a pretty good guess. Disney expects the adventures of Finn, Poe and Rey to set an all-time domestic debut record with an estimated $238 million haul. The previous best, this summer's Jurassic World, "only" pulled in $208.8 million. On top of that, TFA also broke several other domestic records, including the biggest single-day gross ($120.5 million), biggest Thursday preview ($57 million), best December debut and multiple IMAX records. Worldwide, it's estimated to rake in $517 million over its first five days -- and that $4 billion Lucasfilm purchase suddenly seems like the bargain of the century.
The Steve Jobs movie flopped at the box office
The internet was full of talk about the accuracy of Steve Jobs, but it turned out that the general public just didn't care about the film at all. The Danny Boyle / Aaron Sorkin biopic of the late Apple co-founder went on wide release this weekend, but only made a paltry $7.3 million at the box office. That put it in 7th place, behind films like The Martian, The Last Witch Hunter and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. Unfortunately analysts had predicted that it would do double that figure, and it looks like Steve Jobs will struggle to turn a profit.
2014 was the worst year for movie attendance since 1995
If you noticed a little more elbow room while you were at the movies last year, it probably wasn't the result of recliner chairs at your cineplex. As The Hollywood Reporter tells it, only about 1.26 billion folks bought movie tickets between New Year's Day and New Year's Eve in 2014 -- the lowest ticket sales figures have been since 1995 (1.21 billion sold). It's a six percent decrease compared to 2013, as well, when the number of tickets sold amounted to 1.34 billion butts in seats. THR also reports that in terms of dollars, sales dropped compared to last year too, seeing a five percent decline, which apparently is the biggest year-to-year fall in almost a decade.
'Jobs' movie disappoints with $6.7 million opening weekend
The Ashton Kutcher-led Steve Jobs biopic Jobs had a disappointing opening weekend, earning just US$6.7 million at the US box office. That puts Jobs in seventh place for the week. As we've written about before, Jobs has received a number of critical remarks from former Apple employees saying the movie is inaccurate, as well as generally bad reviews. Still, with an opening at more than 2,300 theaters and a production budget of just over $12 million, a $6.7 million take on opening weekend is bad. As BoxOfficeMojo reports: Jobs had plenty of issues, including awful reviews and a comedy star playing dramatic (almost never a good idea). Most important, though, was the movie's apparent tonal issues: while plenty of people enjoy their Apple products, the deification of Steve Jobs is a bit of a turn off. Jobs received a weak "B-" CinemaScore, and all indications are that it will disappear from theaters quickly. See it while you can, folks (or, if the reviews are any indication, don't).
Patriot's $130 Box Office 1080p media player streams on the cheap
Eying a Popcorn Hour device, are you? We know Patriot isn't exactly the first name you think of when pondering your next media streamer, but the $129.99 price tag affixed to the black box shown above definitely piqued our interest. Like most of its rivals, this one features a 2.5-inch HDD slot (though you'll need to bring your own drive, obviously), a trio of USB sockets, 10/100 Ethernet for content streaming, UPnP support, a rather decent file support list and a bundled remote. There's also an optional USB WiFi adapter for those not keen on running 80 feet of Ethernet cabling through their den, and while the GUI won't revolutionize your life, it certainly ain't bad given the low barrier to entry. Too bad it's still stuck in that painful-to-watch "pre-order" stage, huh?[Via thegadgetsite]
Apple pulls Box Office from App Store
Gizmodo is reporting that Box Office, an app that gives showtimes for your area, along with movie synopses and images from RottenTomatoes.com and other online sources, has been pulled from the App Store. Metasyntactic, the developer, claims they have received no communication from Apple on the subject, despite emailing Apple about the situation. They also say they communicate regularly with all their data providers, and none have issues with the app. Late last week, NetShare was mysteriously yanked under the same cloud of secrecy. As we mentioned in last night's talkcast, it's clear that Apple has complete control over what you install on your iPhone or iPod touch. Gizmodo speculates that something might be going on "under the surface -- an undiscovered security flaw, maybe." Update: Our commenters are pointing out that this could be nothing more than a name change. The app will be called Now Playing but it doesn't appear to be available in (at least the U.S.) App Store yet. Metasyntactic also hasn't commented beyond their original confusion as to why their app was pulled.
DoA movie even deader after arrival
After what seems like a lifetime in development, direct-to-DVD speculation and a dismal 18th place opening last weekend, we thought things couldn't get much worse for the Dead or Alive movie. But we were wrong. Dead wrong, if you will. This weekend's box office numbers show earnings for the movie dropping off an incredible 91.9 percent to just over $21,000. Total. For the whole country. For reference, top-earner Evan Almighty made that much off just three of its 3,604 opening screens. The 54th-most popular movie for the weekend, DoA was shown in just 98 theaters, earning an average $214 per screen. For even more context, action flick 300 was shown in 140 theaters and averaged $737 per showing despite being four months old. Granted, DoA was a low-budget popcorn flick with no big names attached and next to no advertising. Still, what does this unmitigated flop say about the prospects of other upcoming, game-based movies like Prince of Persia or Spy Hunter ... or Metal Gear Solid or Diablo ... or City of Heroes or The Sims? They can't all be Tomb Raider, after all. [Via 1up]
