Don’t start throwing parties just yet, but there was
movement on the new theatrical release front this past week.  

We are 17 weeks into the calendar year and that represents
just under 32 percent of the number of new films that are likely to open
theatrically during the year. 

There’s nothing magical about it — some sort of
super-secret formula and all that.  
There are so many weeks in the year, coupled with the number of screens
(theatres, multiplexes) and how many seats available each week (especially on Friday
and Saturday nights).

You factor in what has taken place historically (pre-pandemic)
and then see what IS taking place right now and make projections.   Simple.

For a solid month the projected
annual output for 2023 was bouncing back and forth between 501 and 502, with 63
in the top two boxes ($25 million plus; $100 million plus).   The past two weeks the projected count was 511
and then 510 as the number of new films likely to be released during the year.

For the films that opened
this past week, the top grossing movie at the local multiplexes was writer/director
Kelly Fremon Craig’s film adaptation of Judy Blume’s 1970 best-selling novel, Are
You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Lionsgate). 

Despite going wide (over
3,000 screens), the film pulled in just $6.8 million in ticket sales … reviews
were strong and audiences liked it, so it might have legs, but getting to $25
million in terms of domestic ticket sales might be a tough go.

Although the box office
numbers were not all that strong, there were quite a bit of indie and small
budget studio releases to move the projected number of new theatrical film
offerings up to 523.   That’s still
well-below the pre-pandemic average of 753 per year, but it is at least moving
in the right direction.  

As a result of this, the top
box numbers — hit theatrical releases — moved up to 66.   That too is still below the pre-pandemic
average of 94 hit films churned out by the studios on an annual basis.

Speaking of “hit films,” writer/director
Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise (Warner Bros. Discovery) moved up to $44.3 in
domestic box office receipts.   Put that
one in the win column … and the studio took a victory lap by selecting June 27
as the street date for the transition from theatrical venues to the home
entertainment packaged media marketplace.  

Elsewhere on the transition
front, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment confirmed that the writing and
directing team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ sci-fi thriller, 65,
starring Adam Driver, will indeed be heading home on May 30.

Lionsgate Home
Entertainment announced this past week that June 13 will be the street date for
director Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 4, which yields
an ARR of 81 days.  The domestic box
office haul thus far is a tasty $176 million.

On the “helper” and “void-filler”
front (remember, we no longer call these packaged media entrepreneurs by the old
school labels of “pirates” or “bootleggers”), we begin with the DVD format and
can report that the directing team of Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle’s Jesus
Revolution got another discounted DVD edition from a “helper” source,
as did a half-dozen Hallmark Channel titles (why the fascination with Hallmark
these days?).  

Among those, Hallmark
producing associates, the Johnson Production Group got clipped for two, including
My
Grown-Up Christmas List, and Larry Levinson Productions got tagged for
one (these two sources seem to be of special interest to their “helper”
friends).

The SKY Original/Viva Pictures
animated theatrical release of director Toby Genkel’s Amazing Maurice got a “void-filler”
assist this past week, as did such studio theatrical catalog titles as Airplane,
Airplane II, The Philadelphia Story, Meet Me in St. Louis and Raging
Bull.

On the Blu-ray front, the
“helpers” were busy with a newly minted edition of the filmmaking team of John
Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves
(announced just this past week for a May 30 launch by Paramount Home
Entertainment).   Ditto for John
Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate Home Entertainment), director Julius Avery’s
The
Pope’s Exorcist (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) — starring Russell
Crowe — and the Walt Disney/Lucas Films production of Star Wars: Visions – Season 2.   There were more, lots more.

Still no word on Avatar:
The Way of Water, Prey or Barbarian from Disney.  Let’s hold off on speculation on these (along
with a ton of Star Wars series) until after the quarterly earnings report on
May 10.