When the greatest bands are mentioned in general conversation – many of the obvious pop up. The Beatles. The Stones. Zeppelin. And those are three of my absolute favorites, make no mistake about it.
Yet there’s another one that doesn’t get mentioned as often and in this blogger’s mind, they really should. I give you the absolute genius of Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne’s exquisite group of pop/rock perfection that has given us gem after gem. For a number of years now, they’ve easily maintained a place in my top 5 favorite bands.
They’ve been on my mind lately after touring the United States for the first time in several years. ELO (as they’re commonly referred to) played three nights at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend and play two shows at Radio City Music Hall tonight and Sunday.
For those unfamiliar with their sound — their amazing sound with the greatest strings section in the history of rock and roll — I give you my personal top 16 (for 2016, you know? ELO songs of all time. And it was not easy getting it to just 16…
16. “Can’t Get It Out of My Head” from Eldorado (1974)
15. “The Lights Go Down” from from Time (1981)
14. “Confusion” from Discovery (1979)
13. “Don’t Bring Me Down” from Discovery (1979)
12. “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” from Out of the Blue (1977)
11. “All Over the World” from Xanadu (1980)
10. “Telephone Line” from A New World Record (1976)
9. “Livin’ Thing” from from A New World Record (1976)
8. “Wild West Hero” from Out of the Blue (1977)
7. “The Diary of Horace Wimp” from Discovery (1979)
The final weekend of January at the box office should bring an easy three-peat for Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. Three newbies make their way to the screen: the found footage sci-fi pic Project Almanac, Kevin Costner interracial drama Black or White, and murder mystery The Loft. You can peruse my individual prediction posts on each here:
American Sniper continues to confound all expectations and, as mentioned, should easily steamroll all competitors.
Almanac appears to have the best chance to do decent business and I don’t expect much out of the other two. In fact, I have the latter two films debuting at seventh and eighth place.
As for holdovers, current #2 The Boy Next Door should suffer the furthest drop in its sophomore frame. Paddington and The Wedding Ringer should stay in the top five while Oscar hopeful The Imitation Game is experiencing very small drop-offs and could top both Black or White and The Loft.
Two important factors to keep in mind that could effect the box office this weekend: The Super Bowl and the aftermath of a massive winter storm expected to pound the East Coast. Both could trend my predicted numbers downward.
And with that, we’ll do a Top 8 for this weekend:
1. American Sniper
Predicted Gross: $42.1 million (representing a drop of 34%)
2. Project Almanac
Predicted Gross: $16.4 million
3. Paddington
Predicted Gross: $7.7 million (representing a drop of 37%)
4. The Boy Next Door
Predicted Gross: $7.5 million (representing a drop of 49%)
5. The Wedding Ringer
Predicted Gross: $6.7 million (representing a drop of 41%)
6. The Imitation Game
Predicted Gross: $6 million (representing a drop of 14%)
7. Black or White
Predicted Gross: $5.6 million
8. The Loft
Predicted Gross: $4.8 million
Box Office Results (January 23-25)
The cultural and financial phenomenon that is American Sniper continued to keep jaws on the floor in its second weekend of wide release. Dropping just 28%, it grossed $64.6 million – well above my $50.4M projection. That’s the eight largest sophomore frame in box office history. The Best Picture nominee has grossed $200.4M so far and should easily surpass $350M with $400M being a possibility. That means it is likely to end up as the largest grosser that was released in 2014 (in limited release, for awards consideration), passing The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Unreal.
The Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door debuted solidly with $14.9 million – on par with my $14.7M prediction. Considering its low-budget, this is a fine debut for the poorly reviewed flick.
Paddington was third with $12.2 million – in line with my $12.6M estimate. The children’s pic has earned $39M at press time. The Kevin Hart comedy The Wedding Ringer earned fourth with $11.3 million, just under my $12.1M projection. It too has amassed a decent $39M so far.
The failure of two newcomers (we’ll get to that in a second) allowed Taken 3 to place fifth with $7.4 million with a total of $75M. I did not have it predicted in the top five. Same goes for The Imitation Game which was sixth with $6.9 million and has earned $60M (making it the second highest grossing Best Picture nominee after Sniper).
The George Lucas produced animated pic Strange Magic stumbled with a debut of only $5.5 million for seventh place. I gave it too much credit and estimated an opening of $8.6M.
Then… Mortdecai. Johnny Depp suffered a colossal bomb as the critically drubbed comedy placed eighth with a pathetic $4.2 million (under my $7.4M estimate). The star clearly needs to start picking better projects as his recent resume is littered with duds that include Dark Shadows and Transcendence.
And that’ll do it for now, folks! And remember… should you need to conduct a super secret business meeting this week, go see Mortdecai and you’ll probably have the theater to yourselves. Until next time…
Three new movies take on the daunting task of attempting to unseat the box office juggernaut that is American Sniper. They are the Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door, Johnny Depp comedy Mortdecai, and George Lucas produced 3D animated pic Strange Magic. You can find my individual prediction posts on each here:
We’ll cut right to the chase here: not a one of them has a chance of taking on Sniper. I look for Lopez’s flick to appeal to a female audience and generate the best debut among the newbies that should be good enough for a #2 opening. As for Magic and Mortdecai, neither look to make much of a dent.
As mentioned, the jaw dropping opening of American Sniper should mean it easily retains its top spot. Both Paddington and The Wedding Ringer premiered solidly and I look for them to be right behind Door in their second weekends. If either Magic or Mortdecai fail to perform even up to my meager expectations, it could mean Taken 3 remains in the top six as it should gross around $7 million in its third weekend.
And with that, estimates for this weekend’s Top 6:
1. American Sniper
Predicted Gross: $50.4 million (representing a drop of 43%)
2. The Boy Next Door
Predicted Gross: $14.7 million
3. Paddington
Predicted Gross: $12.6 million (representing a drop of 33%)
4. The Wedding Ringer
Predicted Gross: $12.1 million (representing a drop of 41%)
5. Strange Magic
Predicted Gross: $8.6 million
6. Mortdecai
Predicted Gross: $7.4 million
Box Office Results (January 16-18)
This weekend, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper became a cultural phenomenon. No one saw a gross this huge coming as it performed similar to what a superhero summer tent pole would earn. It took in $89.2 million over the Friday to Sunday portion of the weekend (I predicted less than half of that at $40.6M). For the long MLK weekend, it made $107 million. Unreal. Clearly the combination of critical acclaim, Oscar nominations, and highly effective trailers and TV spots did the job.
The Kevin Hart comedy The Wedding Ringer had a sturdy second place opening at $20.6 million, however it was below my $29.4M estimate. Over the four-day it made $24 million.
The children’s bear tale Paddington took in $18.9 million from Friday to Sunday, under my $22.3M projection. The well-reviewed pic amassed a pleasing $25.4M over the four day portion of the weekend.
Taken 3 dipped to fourth in its sophomore frame with $14.7 million, under my $17.1M prediction. The action sequel stands at $65 million at press time.
Selma was fifth in its second weekend in release with $8.7 million – not matching my generous $12.5M estimate. I thought the MLK holiday might assist a little more in bumping its grosses, though it’s worth noting that yesterday’s holiday gave the pic its largest single day during its run. It’s earned $31M so far.
Finally… Blackhat. Oh boy. The Michael Mann directed thriller with Chris Hemsworth bombed placing 10th with a pathetic $3.9 million. I predicted $13.6M. Oops. The heavy competition, weak reviews, and middling marketing campaign sunk this project, which reportedly cost $70M. Blackhat easily qualifies as the first enormous failure of 2015.
In case you didn’t notice, everything but Sniper grossed less than I figured. It’s no accident. Sniper unquestionably had an effect on the viability of the other releases and Sniper‘s debut will definitely rank as one of the box office top stories of this year.
He may not be involved in 2015’s most anticipated film that carries on the franchise he started, but George Lucas is credited with coming up with the story for Strange Magic, out Friday. The 3D animated musical fantasy comes from LucasFilm and features the voices of Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristen Chenoweth (who also appears in this weekend’s The Boy Next Door), Maya Rudolph, and Alfred Molina.
Competition for family audiences is there with the well performing Paddington entering its sophomore frame. The marketing campaign for Strange Magic has been rather quiet and it doesn’t help that the story isn’t based on a well known property. Nor does it have the trusted Disney or Pixar moniker.
All that considered, I’ll predict this doesn’t even reach a double digit debut out of the gate.
Strange Magic opening weekend prediction: $8.6 million
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