Screendollars

Analysis for the week of January 27th. 

The 2020 Sundance Film Festival opened last Thursday and we have included a list of the early screenings and reactions in our report this weekend.

Sony's Bad Boys for Life continued its reign at the top of the box office. The R-Rated action comedy starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence took in $34M in its second weekend, a cume of $120.6M after 10 days in theaters. This film proves the right sequel, well-made and released at the right time, can not only meet but exceed expectations. Congratulations to Sony on this year's biggest hit (so far).  Universal's 1917 continues its successful march, taking second place at box office with $15.8M in ticket sales. This is a truly impressive performance for the awards-favorite after 5 weeks in distribution.  It continues to expand to new locations - 3,937 this weekend, up 325 from last week.

We begin our Industry News Roundup with several articles about Sundance. Industry watchers are unsure about the commercial prospects for this year's films after last year studios spent record amounts on distribution deals without generating hoped-for success at the box office.  But the presence and appetite of streaming services at the festival is certain to impact the deal making.  On the subject of streaming, we highlight Netflix's Q4 2019 earnings report which was received positively by investors but also included some mixed signals - slowing growth in the US market. An article last week in IndieWire explains some of the reasons why studios release big-budget flops - didn't they see it coming?  We conclude by remembering a film success that came out of Sundance 25 years ago, the indie-classic romance Before Sunrise directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

Gower Street's Rolling 8-week Box Office Forecast extends through the week of March 13th. Their analysts predict that Pixar's Onward will hold onto top spot that week for a second week in a row and that the overall box office will also be strong, supported by contributions from a trio of new openers of varying genres: I Still Believe (Christian/Faith), Bloodshot (Comic Book) and My Spy (Action-Comedy).

In The Hollywood Report, Martin Grove draws the connection between success by an actor at the SAG awards and success one month later at the Oscars.  Because actors make up the single largest group of Academy members, if an actor wins among his/her peers at the SAG awards, it tends to be theirs to lose at the Oscars as well.

We conclude with our regular film data and tables: the Weekly Film Calendar covering releases over the next six weeks, recently announced Studio Release Changes, a list of Upcoming Industry Screenings, the latest MPAA film ratings and a list of important new trailers released last week.

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