Box Office Forecast 10/30/15-11/1/2015

So will the box office recover after one of the worst weekends in box office history?  Signs are pointing to...probably not.

Last Weekend's Recap:

Where do I start?  I am not the only person who clearly overestimated how last weekend would go, but man.  Bombs.  Bombs galore.  Which lead to our top three being the repeat pairing of The Martian, Goosebumps, and Bridge of Spies.  The former were neck and neck being separated by 15.7 to 15.5 million respectively.  The latter had the best hold in the entire Top 10 with dropping nearly a quarter percent over last weekend.  I am not surprised since the older demographic it was aiming for would show up when they heard the magnificent reviews.  It's the same reason The Martian is holding so well.  Both of these movies will definitely be in competition for Oscar in the months to come.  Goosebumps will earn enough to warrant a sequel.

Now to the bombs.  The Last Witch Hunter only earned 10.8 million.  I wasn't expecting it to do gangbusters, but for a 80 million production budget and one of the biggest action stars on the planet, one would expect this to at least double what it did.  You hear that sound?  That's the sound of Vin Diesel signing for even more Fast and Furious movies.  The last Paranormal Activity earned 8 million.  That's less than half of the most recent from the franchise.  Yeah it's still technically profitable, but it's the nail in the coffin for the franchise to end (at least in cinemas, if anymore sequels come out, they definitely won't be in cinemas).  The only other release that even cracked the Top 10 was expansion Steve Jobs.  I thought for sure it would be number one after how amazing it was doing in limited release, but only made 7 million.  However, I don't think all hope is loss yet.  It can still hold well especially with Michael Fassbender's hopeful nomination for Best Actor.  But yeah, HUGE disappointment.  This was just poor scheduling for it's expansion.  Two weeks from now would have been much better since nothing worth noting is coming out between Bond and Hunger Games.  Universal isn't hurt by this in comparison to their OTHER release that came out this weekend, but still a massive disappointment box office wise.

Before we talk about those OTHER releases though, our holdovers that rounded out the Top 10.  Hotel Transylvania 2 spends it's fifth weekend in the Top 5 with 8.8 million.  Crimson Peak made what I thought it would proving the only thing I got right with 5.6 million.  The Intern finished ninth with 3.8 million and Sicario finished tenth with 2.8 million.  Both of these have to be gone by next weekend, right?

Our OTHER two releases are a certain kind of special.  They are officially two of the ten worst nationwide openings of all time.  Rock the Kasbah made 1.4 million and Jem and the Holograms made 1.3 million.  Both are huge financial burdens that will go down in history.  You'll soon find these in your local Wal-Mart discount bin for $1.99 this time next year....maybe even less time.  Embarrassing.

This Weekend:

Our Brand is Crisis

Our name is terrible.  Obvious joke aside, this reeks of failed Oscar bait.  I know that there is an audience for political satire comedies, but even with Sandra Bullock's involvement, this is doing absolutely nothing to pull in anyone.  Maybe if this came out one year later, there would be a proper audience for it due to election season.  Honestly, look at The Campaign.  That was successful because of it coming out near the 2012 presidential election.  Now look at...say Man of the Year.  That same brand of comedy as this film, except starring Robin Williams.  That came out nearly nine years ago and was terribly forgettable.  Only reason I remember this was due to another column I read about this film in.  Bottom line, doesn't matter who your star is all the time.  Subject matter is equally as important and this isn't doing anything to make anyone care.  Also, nice to see you Billy Bob Thornton.  I guess you're still relevant somehow.  You haven't mattered in years and when you are one of the main promoted stars, that's reeking of desperation.  I'm guessing this makes 6 million just because of Bullock still being an A list talent.  She deserves far better though.

Burnt

Fun fact. This is the second Bradley Cooper/Sienna Miller collaboration in the past year, with the first being American Sniper. This is also the second Bradley Cooper kitchen drama in the past fifteen years. He was the star of a Fox show called Kitchen Confidential.  This is also going to be the second Bradley Cooper disappointment in the past year.  Yeah nothing about this is appealing.  If I wanted to watch a kitchen chef be melodramatic and cuss out people, I would watch Hell's Kitchen.  Honestly, cut and paste a majority of what I just said for Our Brand Is Crisis and you can apply it here too.  Same box office prediction too with 6 million because Bradley Cooper is an A-list talent (hell 10 million dollars worth of people paid to see Aloha opening weekend) but he deserves better too.

Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

....who seriously wants to see this.  Really Paramount?  Honestly, it's got....a slightly morbid curious concept to it, but when it all boils down...that's it.  It's trying to go for that Zombieland target audience, but failing miserably with absolutely nobody worth paying to see (although Cloris Leachman deserves far better at her age).  And just like that Paranormal Activity release last weekend, Paramount is sending this straight to Video On Demand two weeks after it's release, so they have absolutely no hope that anyone will pay to see this in theaters, hence the small wide release count.  I'm giving this 2 million and that's generous.  It honestly wouldn't surprise me at all if this joins Rock the Kasbah and Jem in the Bottom 10 wide releases of all time.

As for our holdover, it's going to be another weekend of Goosebumps vs The Martian for the top crown.  I'm giving it to The Martian again though...just slightly like last weekend.  Because when it comes down to it, The Martian has been holding very well all month, while Goosebumps does have Halloween in it's favor, it won't matter when the new month starts on a Sunday.  Plus the same family audience will be trick or treating on Saturday.  Bridge of Spies will come in third with around 8 million.  Hotel Transylvania could make between 6-5 million like two of our new releases.  Everything else doesn't matter because it will make 4 million or less (The Last Witch Hunter, Paranormal Activity, Steve Jobs, and Crimson Peak).

While this weekend will be doom and gloom, the box office next weekend will liven things up for sure as Spectre and The Peanuts Movie will make 50 million, hell even more possibly.

Movie Talk: My Top 10 Favorite Horror Movies

Hey so Halloween is right around the corner.  I'm not as big a fan of Halloween as I once was primarily because it's become just another day.  But I still like dressing up for costume parties and/or other Halloween based festivities.  The past few Halloweens however have consisted of just watching horror movies with family and/or friends.  That being said, it became easy to decide what to do for my Movie Talk this week.  Usually horror movies get a bad rep due to unoriginal ideas, endless sequels that keep getting worse, and constant remakes/reimaginings.  But still when done right, horror movies can be really good.  That's why I want to honor my personal Top 10.

10. The Conjuring

It was a close race for figuring out what to put at my number ten spot, but then it occurred to me.  Should my number ten be shunned for being too new of a horror movie against some of the "classics"?  Well here's the thing, The Conjuring will be considered a classic in due time.  This might just be the best horror movie I've seen in the past ten years.  Of course that's entirely arguable since horror movies might just be my least favorite genre not just because of the bad rep being true, but not only is The Conjuring scary, it's entertaining and smart.  James Wan is one of the best modern directors to work the horror genre and for a good reason too.  He's good at it.


9. The Birds

Huh?  A movie about birds attacking people?  Why would this be on your Top 10 list?  I get it.  The premise doesn't sound scary.  But it just goes to show how damn good a director Alfred Hitchcock really was.  He's the master of horror and watching birds attack and kill really is legitimately scary when watching it.  For the longest time, this was the scariest movie I've ever seen.  I highly recommend it today even if the quality isn't as good as the rest of this list personally.

8. Carrie

Repeat viewings still don't help the fact that the last forty five minutes or so where Carrie completely snaps and her telekinesis tortures everyone around her is still some of the scariest moments of any movie ever.  It makes it solely on here alone.  Sissy Spacek does a brilliant job here as the title character and makes me really appreciate it more and more as the recent remake keeps leaving me less and less scared.  Because seeing everything that leads up to Carrie's infamous freak out really makes you feel an emotional connection that horror movies rarely get right.

7. Friday the 13th

For all extensive purposes, the Friday the 13th franchise is a laughingstock.  Not that all of them are bad, but when it comes to franchises running the well dry, people can easily point to this franchise as a key example of shameless sequels.  However, don't say anything bad about the original.  The original plays off of your fears so well and you are kept glued to the screen to see when Jason will hack off the next one.  Great slasher flick....mediocre to shit sequels and remakes follow it.

6. Alien

I was kind of on the fence if I should include this on here or not, but when it comes down to it, the Alien franchise started off as a pure horror movie more than action.  Of course everyone knows how famous a director Ridley Scott is.  This was where he got his big break.  Of course everyone knows how much of a badass Sigourney Weaver is.  This is where she got her big break.  The praise seriously writes itself as well as endless amounts of sequels and whatever the hell Prometheus is....prequel?  Reboot?

5. Poltergeist

If any of you are thinking about the 2015 version...get out.  You have no idea how disappointing that remake was.  Made me go home and rewatch the original again and man.  I absolutely love the original Poltergeist.  The jump scares, the classic quotes "They're here."....seriously.  If anyone actually paid to go see the remake and want the bad taste washed out of their mouths, go locate the original.  Timeless.

4. Evil Dead

You know before Sam Raimi became chastised for becoming a big budget blockbuster director who may or may not make laughable films, Sam Raimi was a horror genius.  His Evil Dead franchise is glorified for all the right reasons.  They are just too good for words.  The two sequels were definitely in consideration for my list, but the first one just holds a special place in my heart.  It defines the usual conventions horror movies use to go for around that time frame and that's why it became the cult classic that it is today.  Oh and Bruce Campbell.  Got to show love for Ash for being amazing.

3. The Shining

This movie makes it this high just because of Jack Nicholson.  It's honestly his one man performance that makes this truly great.  It's what lead him onto the path of being the legend he is today.  Also, rewatching this makes me appreciate Stanley Kubrick's direction more and more.  Of course making the classic A Clockwork Orange is impossible to top in my honest opinion, but The Shining comes pretty damn close.

2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Ok so I'm willing to admit that out of all my choices, this would be the most arguable over whether this is even classified as a horror movie.  This classifies itself as a horror comedy musical.  But even then, that doesn't prevent it from being amazing.  I watch this at least once a year.  It's campy.  It's stupid.  It's insanely catchy.  You just can't keep your eyes off of this movie.  It's so bizarre, different, and endlessly amusing to the point that you don't want this to end.  I adore this movie for it just being fantastically different than what you expect it to be.

1. Psycho (1960) 

But at the end of the day, nothing beats this as the best horror movie for me.  Psycho is just too damn good and Hitchcock is just a once in a lifetime director to come along and set a genre to impossible standards to surpass.  Sure some movies may be better "reviewed" than Psycho, but no director has a more consistent track record for any genre than Hitchcock has with horror movies.  Watch this trailer and be amazed at Hitchcock showing everything that will happen in this movie.  You can't watch that and wonder for yourself what exactly is going to happen, even if you already know from the amount of times you've seen the movie or remakes or parodies.  The original for this is just way too damn good to ever be done this right.  I love everything about this movie and it will be damn near impossible to surpass this anytime in the future for me.

Music Talk: 2015 Flops and Why They Didn't Take Off

So 2015 has been a pretty stagnant year for the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  It will be interesting to see what charts on the Year End list this year because 2015 really didn't have 100 true hits.  More like 58 and more than a handful of 2014 holdovers.  Obviously it will have hits that made the Top 25 at some point during it's chart run, but it's just a sign of how deep Billboard will be scrapping this year for their year end list.

But I think there was more to the lull this year compared to last year.  We had more flops than normal from big names that never really took off.  I wonder why they didn't?  Besides the fact that they sucked.  Let's look into a couple of them today:

"Pretty Girls" - Britney Spears & Iggy Azalea

So one year ago, we had Fancy as our song of the summer.  Iggy Azalea took off and was the breakout star of 2014.  Then the backlash came as everyone got sick of Iggy's persona and she started releasing flop after flop.  Meanwhile, Britney Spears last album was a massive flop that she just focused on her Vegas gig for the past years.  So why not have a comeback single just in time for the summer with the artist behind last summer's big hit?

Well there lies the problem.  If the public is sick of Iggy, then it's especially not going to help matters by making your comeback song Fancy 2.0.  Seriously, it sounds like a massive Fancy rip-off.  But wait you might be asking hypothetical reader?  Didn't Summer 2015 have another Fancy rip-off in Jidenna's "Classic Man"?  Well, that may be true, but at least Classic Man had good lyrics to back off the rehashed production.  Pretty Girls was just Britney and Iggy bragging about how they go through guys and the perks of being attractive.  Because I'm so fancy...you already know....bleh.  Pretty Girls was atrocious and it's easy to see why it barely lasted on the charts for over a month.  Maybe Iggy Azalea's recent focus on her next album will remind people why she took off in the first place and Britney's next comeback single will be better because pop music apparently still wants Britney to be the new elder diva.  Speaking of which...

"Bitch, I'm Madonna" - Madonna (featuring Nicki Minaj)

...*groans*...I can just picture Madonna's kids watching this saying "Mom, quit embarrassing me."  And honestly, what else is there to say about this besides that?  It's Madonna's hideously poor attempt to try and stay relevant while embarrassing herself in the process.  I can only imagine what her conversation was with her agent during this.

Agent: So Madonna what would you like your new song to be about?

Madonna:  My kids love this new EDM craze, let's do a dance track.

Agent:  Sure.  Due to your legend status, let's get Diplo since he is on nearly every hit song this past year.

Madonna: Is Nicki Minaj still popular?  I would love a rap guest verse from her.

Agent: She still is, we have Nicki on speed dial.  She guest spots on nearly every song on the radio anyway.

Madonna: Oh and you know what I want?  Cameos.  Cameos galore.  To show how I'm still relevant, I want only nothing but the biggest stars.

*right before filming*

Madonna: So who else is showing up besides Nicki and Diplo?

Agent: Well we got good news, bad news, and even more good news?  The good news is Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Beyonce, and Kanye West all agreed to cameo in your video.  The bad news is that they can't make it here because they don't want to be associated with this so they won't be on set and will film their parts and send it to us so we can edit them in afterwards.

Madonna: So who did actually show up to be in my video?

Agent: We got Rita Ora and Chris Rock.

Madonna: What's a Rita Ora?  Eh whatever, it can be in my video.

"This Summer's Gonna Hurt" - Maroon 5

Well this killed Maroon 5's recent hot streak they were on with eight Top 10 hits dating back to 2011.  Self-sustaining kept this one afloat for awhile, but this one hurt like a motherfucker.  Figuratively and metaphorically.  This is without a doubt the worst Maroon 5 song I've ever heard and if you want to know why their follow up hasn't even charted yet despite being around for the past month, you can look no further than how terribly this song was received.  It's an audio nightmare in every way imaginable from the uninspiring lyrics to the atrocious production.  I am sure that Maroon 5 will rebound from this when their next album comes out and probably even sooner if their offer to do the Super Bowl halftime show actually goes through.  Hell for all we know, the public has forgiven Adam Levine for this atrocity with a Top 10 hit he's featured in and people still tuning in to watch The Voice.  But if there was ever a song where Adam Levine came off at his most punchable, it's this one.  Adam Levine, still a douche in 2015.

"The Night Is Still Young" - Nicki Minaj

I'm actually surprised this wasn't a Top 10/20 hit to be completely honest with you.  Nicki is one of the biggest names out there.  Personally, Nicki Minaj is the biggest wasted talent in the music industry.  She obviously has "IT" and when she raps, she can be one of the best rappers on the planet.  I love ferocious Nicki.  But more often than not, she sells herself short.  She goes for songs where she focuses on sexualizing her body.  Not saying she isn't hot because she definitely is. Then of course, she also goes for the pop music sellout tracks.  I hate a good portion of her pop singles because bubblegum pop Nicki is not interesting.  She's as uninspiring as any other pop star when she goes full pop.

That being said, this wasn't absolutely terrible.  It probably has a lot to do with that production because once it hits the chorus, it's full blast in your face and makes you feel like going out and partying...which is what this song is suppose to do.  But man, Nicki sounds as lifeless as ever here.  Especially in the chorus.  If the night is still young, why do you sound so bored Nicki?  Maybe that's why the public didn't accept this like they did with Starships and Super Bass.

"Nothing But Trouble (Instagram Models)" - Lil Wayne & Charlie Puth

This is not fairly new and it's still charting, but it's flopping.  It's a shame to see Lil Wayne have to cling onto Charlie Puth to stay relevant.  Granted what Lil Wayne is going through right now with Birdman and Cash Money, it's easy to see why Lil Wayne is pretty much irrelevant in music right now.  Even with legal troubles freezing the release of Tha Carter V for the past year, this song from Lil Wayne's Free Weezy album makes me feel like this subject matter has been handled a lot better.  Poor Lil Wayne talking about girl troubles despite the fact that he runs through girls faster than you can say Tunechi.  Also, Charlie Puth comes off as incredibly uninspired and I just don't see the appeal with Charlie Puth in general.  Yeah he is emotionally sound, but there seems to be this spark of passion that seems to be withheld from his performances to me.

 "I Really Like You" - Carly Rae Jepsen

You know, I could be here all night with songs that have underperformed this year, but for my last one I want to cover on this blog, I want to go over one of my favorite pop songs of 2015.  How this wasn't a hit flabbergasted me.  But then I realized something.  Carly Rae Jepsen is just simply too good to be appreciated by American audiences.  Yeah Call Me Maybe got big and I kinda like it despite not being her best and I love Good Time.  Everything else I've heard from her is just great to fantastic.  This song is fantastic and while the music video is corny, watching Tom Hanks have as much fun as he does here is just glorious to the point that it makes me appreciate it a lot more.  

So yeah as you can see, 2015 has had it's fair share of good hit songs, but there were plenty of songs reeking of potential from big names that just never really took off.  So while we can complain all we want about stagnancy, it also requires our big name pop stars actually committing to making popular hit songs....

....except for Carly Rae Jepsen.  Seriously America, why the hell can't you make Carly Rae Jepsen a superstar?  She's too good for pop music.

"The Hills" - The Weeknd

So let's talk about The Weeknd.

Yep this pineapple headed Canadian....without the "e",,,god what a stupid stage name.

Anyway, The Weeknd is without a doubt the biggest breakout star of 2015 as he has been on top of the charts the past two months, minus that one week blip from fellow Canadian, Justin Bieber.  The guy is absolutely on fire right now with a top selling album, a surprise guest spot on Taylor Swift's tour, run ins with the law....seriously why would you punch a cop?  It's safe to say the guy is going to be around for awhile.

But I'm not a fan.  Not saying that I hate him because he does have songs that I like, but it has a lot to do with his voice.  His voice can be grating and whiny to the point that it makes me not care what he's singing about because he sounds unbearable.  It doesn't help matters that most of his songs come off as pretentious as hell.  Yeah I get that R&B artists love to brag about their sexual exploits, but man.  The Weeknd's  stuff is beyond dark.  To the point that he gets incredibly explicit.  Like it's downright gruesome nitty gritty to the point that I just don't see the appeal of it.

Anyway, let's tackle his biggest hit to date....

Oh how I wish this was....because this only is actually good...hell it's great.  At least this one I get the Michael Jackson comparisons because this is the best Michael Jackson impersonation I've heard in years....even if it's low key about cocaine.  

Nope this is one is called The Hills and....it has one of the strangest...hell even ingenious samples I've ever heard.

 

This song samples, hell even references the belated Wes Craven's B-movie horror classic The Hills Have Eyes.  As you can see, it makes a ton of sense to see how this got huge around this time frame.  Take one of the most iconic horror movie classics and make a song dedicated to....cheating?

Your man on the road, he doin' promo
You said, "Keep our business on the low-low"
I'm just tryna get you out the friend zone
Cause you look even better than the photos

....the friend zone?  Please tell me this is a parody of some sort because if not, bragging about trying to get a girl out of the friend zone doesn't make you come off as an alpha male player.  It makes you come off as a pathetic loser....or creeper since I can't even tell if you met this chick past her Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Even questionable lyrics aside, while I do admit the sampling is smart, could this song be any more unlistenable?  It's an audio nightmare with the production not working at all with The Weeknd's voice and story that he's trying to tell.  I don't buy what he is trying to pull off with this dark visceral persona here.  Which is a shame because he was able to pull it off in the past.  For those who don't know, this isn't the first time The Weeknd has done this sort of stylistic R&B before.  I've heard plenty of songs off of his previous album Kiss Land where he was able to do this act better and while they may have not all been great, I was able to buy into the point.  It honestly feels like he's not even trying here.  For a song about cheating, The Weeknd isn't even trying to sound like he cares.

Hills have eyes, the hills have eyes
Who are you to judge, who are you to judge?
Hide your lies, girl, hide your lies
Only you to trust, only you

But who are you to care?  You're the guy who is bragging about fucking multiple bitches before you saw this girl and how when you are fucked up that it's the real you.  Who is the real you?  I can't even tell because you come off as ridiculously fake that I can't even tell if any effort was actually put into this...at least until the recent Eminem remix.  Because I totally buy Eminem as dark and visceral when he's spitting out straight fire like he does with this.

As for the stand alone single, I hate this.  It's one thing to think you are visceral and shocking, but it's another thing entirely to actually pull it off.  The Weeknd just doesn't do it and it makes this just a smart concept in theory and an audio nightmare in execution.  I would much rather have my ears ripped out and eaten to death by radioactive cannibals than listen to this song.  If The Weeknd can reference The Hills Have Eyes and miss the point, so can I.

Box Office Forecast: 10/23/15-10/25/15

Welcome to the first edition of my Box Office Forecast column.  I love predicting how each movie is going to do every weekend and then tuning in Sunday to see how close I was to the actual estimates.  Now I won't be doing an estimate recap on Sundays for this blog due to overexerting myself since I do have a full time job and I have already committed my Sunday blogging to my weekly song review, but I will be doing the previous weekend recaps on Fridays with my current weekend forecasts.  Confused yet?  Hope not.

Last Weekend's Recap:

So let's start by talking about last weekend.  Much to my surprise, Goosebumps dethroned The Martian to take the number one spot at the domestic box office with 23.6 million versus 21.3 million respectively.  If you would have told me this a month ago, I would have laughed it off since the initial previews came off as incredibly uninspired and phoned in.  But apparently, Sony decided to save the good content for the actual movie and the reviews for this were actually good.  With that in mind, now I feel like Sony could have left money on the table when it came to advertising this.  Plus if this was released a week earlier, the opening could have been larger as well.  But alas, this is still going to be a profitable movie for Sony which is having a very good fall box office season so far.

Our other two new releases were Bridge of Spies and Crimson Peak as both finished third and fourth with 15.3 million and 13.1 million.  Both were somewhat underwhelming, but I feel like not all hope is loss with both.  Bridge of Spies actually made more than it should have due to amazing reviews and it's two stars Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg.  Any other film dealing with the subject matter handled here would have made much less.  Plus with the solid word of mouth and eventual Oscar consideration, this can definitely earn back it's 40 million budget.  Crimson Peak is trickier since it cost more to make and due to the horror movie oversaturation coming.  But with director Guillermo Del Toro having an oversea following more so than domestic, not all hope is lost.  It's a slight misfire for Universal, who has made enough money to not be in the red for at least the next year no matter how many misses they might have.

Otherwise, our holdovers formed the rest of the Top 10 as Hotel Trannsylvania 2 led the pack with 12.6 million as this still the biggest release of the fall season so far, but not for much longer as The Martian should pass it by this weekend.  Pan fell incredibly hard to about 5 million in it's second weekend as I contemplate whether I should post a review for this hilarious failure.  The Intern, Sicario, and The Scorch Trials also finished between the 4 to 2 million range as these will all be gone by this weekend from our Top 10.  The other new release that is worth honestly nothing to note was Woodlawn as it finished 9th with 4 million.  Woodlawn is a faith based movie and despite my religious beliefs, it's not even worth reporting on these unless they are as big as War Room was a few months ago.  When these movies don't even bother advertising themselves, why should I give them a full recap?  Alas, these are still profitable with such low budgets.

This Weekend:

Now onto our new releases/expansions, starting with:

Steve Jobs

This is probably going to be our number one movie this weekend when it comes to box office.  It's been destroying in limited release with already over 2 million and almost cracking the Top 10 last weekend.  Universal has been playing this smart and now with it's nationwide expansion, it will be interesting to see how well this does.  It has a lot working in it's favor with an Oscar pedigree cast from director (Danny Boyle) to writers (Aaron Sorkin) to casting (Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet....Seth Rogen!?!).  I can see this performing along the same lines as The Social Network did with about 20 million opening weekend and holding very well as the weeks come due to it's very positive reviews.  Oscar consideration is definitely warranted as we are actually going to have a very deep Academy Award film season ahead of us.

.....well there is our one positive review film of the weekend.  The rest of our list consists of nothing higher than 23% as of this writing on Rotten Tomatoes.  You have been warned.

The Last Witch Hunter

If any of our other contenders have any chance of challenging Steve Jobs and our holdover group of Goosebumps and The Martian, it's this.  Vin Diesel has had a career renaissance of sorts ever since returning to the Fast and Furious franchise.  So this will be a true test of seeing how marketable he actually is without his bevy of franchises.  I think this has a chance.  After all, this reminds me a lot of that Dracula remake we got last year shot for shot.  Plus with it being released during a prime month for these sorts of movies, it has a chance.  I'm giving this about 17-18 million, but this could end up being either higher or lower.  Tough to project because who knows if Vin Diesel's fan base is still relevant outside of said franchises.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Being billed as the final Paranormal Activity movie is definitely a marketing ploy if I've ever seen one.  Although, I truly believe this has to be the last one.  With how quickly this franchise fell in profitability after the third movie, it's audience finally caught onto the gimmicky nature of this found footage franchise.  Paramount has absolutely no faith that this will be profitable, hence why it's going straight to Video on Demand two-three weeks after it's release.  So if the movie studio is willing to bail that quickly, why shouldn't it's audience?  I'm giving this 10 million this weekend only because of it's October release date.  Wouldn't surprise me if this made less to be honest.

Jem and the Holograms

Wow has the intense internet hatred for this not bare well for my initial forecast.  I have seriously seen nothing but people mocking this ever since it's trailer debuted back in May.  Jason Moore bailed on the Pitch Perfect sequel for this?  Terrible move.  I don't think this is going to perform as badly as the internet is reacting to this though.  Still not good enough to make back it's budget though, but I'm giving it 8 million this weekend because it's young female target audience has to show up for this....right?  This will definitely be Universal's biggest flop from 2015, which just goes to show how massive of a year they had.

Rock the Kasbah

I'm absolutely stunned this is from the director of Rain Man.  I'm absolutely stunned this is a Bill Murray star vehicle.  Most stunning of all, this is one of the worst reviewed wide releases of 2015.  Most puzzling of all is why this is getting a wide release to begin with.  I guess Open Road Films thought that Bill Murray would have a huge enough following to make this profitable?  Hell no.  Bill Murray may be awesome, but he rarely does commercialized films like this anymore as a starring vehicle.  If he does, it's in a supporting role.  Awful decisions all around as I expect this to make 5 million opening weekend and barely anything else after that.  I'm not pissed, but more confused than anything else.  What is this?   Why?

As for our holdovers as previously mentioned, I expect Goosebumps and The Martian to still be in the play for audiences with drops around the 15-14 million area respectively.  Hotel Transylvania 2 should still make about 8 million or so being the only animated movie on the market having it's perks once again.  Meanwhile Bridge of Spies should drop to about 9 million because it's the best reviewed movie on the market and it's target audience likes that.  Crimson Peak on the other hand could drop above 60 percent due to so many other horror movies coming out this weekend to about 5 or 6 million.

Definitely an over saturated market right now so it will be interesting to see what audiences pay to see this weekend.

Movie Talk: How Big Will The Force Awakens Be?

Hey look.  Three blog entries as of now.  That is one more entry than my previous two attempts at blogging.

So you've already seen one post talking about music.  Let's talk about movies in this new segment called...how original...Movie Talk.  Just like in Music Talk, I will be talking about news, random thoughts that I might be having, movie announcements, you know anything of that nature.  Now unlike this past week's Music Talk, I do have an individual topic for Movie Talk.  It's all the internet seems to be talking about when it comes to movie news this week.  Yes folks, I am going to talk about the behemoth that will be Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

A prime trailer release on Monday Night Football.  28 million views in one day on YouTube.  Breaking advanced ticket sales records.  Setting new IMAX screening standards.  Guys, we're looking at a box office performance that will be historic.  This will be one of the biggest box office performers of all time.  It has A LOT going for it...but here is where things get interesting.  Will the high demand for this new Star Wars movie translate to it being the #1 domestic box office earner of all time, let alone the #1 of 2015?

See this is tricky to project and it will be for the coming months.  Do I think this can break Jurassic World's opening weekend record of 208 million?  Absolutely.  These supremely high advanced ticket sales are probably going to secure that record is going down.  But this is where I feel some forecasters are overlooking.  With all this high demand for opening weekend, this movie is going to be supremely front loaded.  Look no further than the last round of prequels.  The movies had high demand and fell at a rapid rate weekends afterwards.  Plus with the fact that the Star Wars fan base is as polarizing as they come, this isn't as open to the public as Jurassic World was earlier this year.  This sequel is obvious fan service to fanboys only.  What Jurassic World did that The Force Awakens doesn't have the capability of doing is having an accessible box office megastar in Chris Pratt that fans would pay to see and relaunching the Jurassic Park franchise to not be direct fan service minus a few key references to the original Jurassic Park.

Now a ten year break between Star Wars movies plus the fact that this is going to be a true sequel to the original trilogy, I'll admit, I might be underestimating The Force and how this will do.  Do I personally want this to be the all time record breaker everyone wants this to be?  Hell yes.  I am an arms wide open fanboy through and through.  I'll be there opening night with either my Chewbacca or Vader shirt and nerding the hell out with my friends while hoping this is better than the prequels that do get hated on too much.

I just don't see this making 800 million, let alone 650 million domestically.  Now if you wanted to talk 500 and maybe 600 million, I'd be willing to talk.  This is definitely going to be a Top 5 domestic performer of all time, but this is going to be a crowded market place this winter.  Go check the release date list, this Nov and Dec is going to be stacked with Bond, Pixar, Peanuts, the final Hunger Games, big comedies, Oscar movies with big name stars, a new Chipmunks movie (it's the only new family movie this Dec, it's going to be big whether we want it to be or not).  The Force Awakens will be the big dog on the market, but it will have to fight it's counter programming adversaries that Jurassic World really didn't have to go up against this past June.

2015 has been a box office year for the record books.  The fact that I'm even making a counter debate post about how big the new Star Wars movie will or won't be just goes to show how massive this year has been financially.  Ten months ago, the fan voted most anticipated movie of 2015 was The Force Awakens.  Maybe my gut instinct will be wrong, the winter box office season has surprised us all in the past.  One thing is for certain though.  Disney is about to test to see how loyal the Star Wars fan base truly is with new Star Wars movies scheduled every year for the next five years.  Be prepared to see how strong the force truly is with this one.

Music Talk: Random Thoughts

So for my first blog entry, I'm going to share this segment called Music Talk.  This will be a weekly set up where I talk about either a subject matter I feel needs some of my insight....or like today, just some random thoughts I've been having about certain artists, songs, etc.  So with that in mind, I would like to give my insight on the following:

-The charts have been stagnant for three weeks now.  We've had the same ten songs in the Top 10 and although I feel like this is the calm before the storm that is November, with Hurricane Adele and other big albums coming from big artists and a bunch of new singles dropping from big names like Ariana Grande.

-Does anyone else feel like Downtown is somewhat of a flop?  I thought for sure this would be in the Top 10 by now and while it still has an outside chance of making it with Can't Feel My Face, Good For You, and hopefully Watch Me dropping out of the Top 10 sooner or later, I can't help but feel like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were expecting this to be bigger.

-I think it's hilarious that Hit the Quan has now charted higher than any actual song by or featuring Rich Homie Quan.  Song still sucks though just like all of these Vine rap novelty hits we've been getting from 2015.

-Speaking of novelty hits from 2015, I think we have had one too many of them this year.  Not sure if that is a good or bad reflection of 2015 as a whole in music because while this year has been an improvement over the year before, it's also been far more stagnant which allows these cheap novelty hits to chart so high like Coco, Watch Me, Nasty Freestyle, Hit the Quan, etc.

-And while we're on the novelty Vine rap pool, White Iverson is going to be the next novelty hit we unfortunately allowed to become a hit song.  Mark my words.

-Taylor Swift better not be serious about this talk of a long hiatus from making music.  She's the biggest music star right now and is one of the few pop artists that actually matter anymore.  We need Taylor Swift whether you want to accept it or not.

-The Hills has been number one for five weeks now and counting.  But it's reign comes to an end next Monday.  With the release of the Hotline Bling music video (finally) tonight, Drake will finally have his first number one solo Hot 100 hit next week.  It's topping sales, topping streaming, and keeps growing on radio.  All it was missing was YouTube and now that it will finally have an actual presence instead of god knows how many covers of it by actual artists (Sam Smith, Alessia Cara, etc.).

-Speaking of Sam Smith, I know that one of these days he'll actually have a Bond theme that will be amazing, but right now, his new Bond theme is like most of his music at the moment.  Technically sound, but lacking any sort of passion.

-I hope that the longer Katy Perry is away, the more time and effort she is putting into making a good album.  Prism was not good.  Not at all.  She's still capable of being a huge guilty pleasure.

- I'm almost convinced Imagine Dragons will never make an album as good as Night Visions ever again.  When their most recent stuff sounds exactly like their worst song off of Night Visions (Demons), that's not a good sign.

-Out of the pool of 2008 Disney pop stars, Demi Lovato was by far the least interesting of them.  She had a good voice, but had absolutely no personality in her music that she was just another singer.  Seven years later, I think Demi has finally made her music reflect her personality and her songs are 10x better now because of it.

-To continue on with that last thought, Selena Gomez is now the one who is not letting her music reflect her personality.  Everything she has done this year just sounds boring and while she has technically improved as a singer, I'm not a fan of anything I've heard off of Revival so far because it sounds like a functioning product without the passion.

-Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus's free EP was free for a reason.  I have no clue how much longer she's going to keep doing this wild party girl act, but her next actual studio album better be a vast improvement over that god awful EP because she's going to flame out quickly if she doesn't evolve.

Greetings

Hey everyone.  I've tried many times in the past to open my own blogspot, but constantly keep abandoning the idea due to prior commitments with work and not having a real idea as to where I want to go with this blogspot.

Not anymore.  I know my real passion is critiquing and it just doesn't feel right to abandon this concept entirely.  So with that being said, instead of just talking about film like I have previously done with my blogspots, I'm going to open the window for another form of entertainment: music.  Over the past three years, I've started to dive into getting just as serious about critiquing music.  I enjoy analyzing what music has become popular in the mainstream and following the Billboard Hot 100 charts.  Because it is fun to see what music gets popular and to judge it by my own merits.  Coming from a household where I grew up playing instruments in band classes and listening to an assortment of music (mostly country), my passion for music is almost nearly as strong as my passion for film.

What else can I say about film that I haven't in my previous attempts to launch a blogspot to those of you who have followed me in the past?  I've loved movies since I started following the local newspapers when I was 8 to see what movies are in theaters to go see.  I took a multitude of film appreciation, production, and screenwriting courses in high school and in college.  I've followed the box office forecasts and prognostics since I was ten.  No matter how many times I try to freelance critique, I know that film will always be at the forefront of what to try and freelance critique in.  Even when I abandoned my past two blogs, I still want to show my love for movies.

So with that being said, I'm going to open this blog properly by doing what will eventually become one of the norms of what I will be blogging about.  Since today is a Monday, that means Billboard will be updating what the new Top 10 songs are for this upcoming week.  Of course, like the Hot 100 has become over the past two years, it will more than likely be stagnant.  But since it's a new week, I want to give some slight commentary on what I am thinking about music lately.  It's not going to be just about the pop genre, which I will mostly be covering because that's what is the most popular genre is.  I will cover all genres and insert my two thoughts about certain trends.  On Sundays will be when I do my weekly music review because it is the last official day before Billboard updates their charts again on the following.  Plus I want to pay homage to a good friend of mine who influenced me to give this a shot.  Thank you Eric.

As for film, I will also be doing not two, but three different types of film blog topics.  On Wednesdays, I will be giving the same sort of meta-commentary on the film industry and what I think about upcoming attractions, films from yesteryear, big news stories like a new movie announced or actors/actresses signing for new roles, etc.  On Friday,  I will give my weekend forecast on how I think certain movies will perform while also recapping the previous weekend and what I got right and what I got wrong.  Then of course, my movie reviews will be posted sporadically, not weekly.  Because let's face it.  If I reviewed a new movie once a week, I'll overexhaust myself critiquing and burn a hole in my wallet at the movie theater haha.

So let's get this journey started.  Thank you to whoever reads this and/or comments.  I hope you guys enjoy this and let's keep my fingers crossed that I don't abandon this again.  Third time is the charm or so they say.