The Panda

This looks like the closest thing we'll get to an Incredibles sequel, so i'll take it.

Crap! I thought that bet said under 18m, I just lost 50 points...

I'm going to join in I'll take the second one. I bet 1 person 100 points Free Birds opens at #1 I bet 1 person 50 points Ender's Game opens under 25m I bet 1 person 25 points 12 Years a Slave is #6 I bet 1 person 25 points 12 Years a Slave grosses 8m+

That's good, an extra week should help it a lot.

I still don't see why Avatar 2 would increase from Avatar when The Empire Strikes decreased substantially from Star Wars. (a very similar comparison, imo)

I assume BG will probably increase to around 30m from that.

I honestly don't get the point of bringing back dead villains, I find it kind of arbitrary.

"To put it broadly, Identity Thief is like a stand up comedian who, instead of giving his jokes a proper exposition before delivering a punchline, gives the answer before he asks the question, the climaxes fail to have any impact because they just happen and then move onto the next scene..." See Full Review At http://thepandaflicksreviews.blogspot.com/2013/10/identity-thief-review.html

"Rush is a fascinating take on true rivalries and how your enemies develop your character, ethics, and willingness to go out on a rush and take risk." - See Full Review At http://thepandaflicksreviews.blogspot.com/2013/10/rush-ill-be-honest-here-being-american.html

It needed better marketing to maximize its potential.

Except the summer was record breaking, although it might be smart to make a few less blockbusters and give the smaller ones like Rim spring or fall dates.

I like to use this website to keep track of dates http://www.movieinsider.com/movies/-/2015/#.Ul2qXlCsh8E May is barren though, if I were studios I would move in movies like this for May, May 1st - Avengers 2 8th - Some Tyler Perry/Madea movie 15th - Pitch Perfect 2 (Countermarketing, similar to Gatsby, although giving it a week gap is wise given Avengers 2 is a different beast than Iron Man 3), 22nd - Jurassic World (Men in Black 3 did well on Memorial Day against Avengers, Jurassic World would do well too), 29th - Prometheus 2, B.O.O. Bureau of Otherworldly Operations (Moving back from Inside Out would do Dreamworks some good)

I would flip bricks in excitement if Gravity could dethrone either of those, heck i'd flip bricks if it beat Iron Man 3, or even Despicable Me 2, and I would say Man of Steel but that looks inevitable right now.

That's just because sci-fi movies don't win.

I expect it to be able to hit 35m over the next weekend so I could easily see a 10+ Friday.

My Review Thousands of miles above the Earth's surface, adrift through orbit, "Gravity" feeds on the oft' unthought of fear of the vast dangers of space. With many movies you'll see a trailer or hype that a film can't live up to, that's the exact opposite of this space epic. Not only does this film steal your breath in jaw-dropping visuals and suspenseful it captivates you to completely emotionally cheer on this woman you have barely known, and dwells subtly (but with complete focus and clarity) on *MINOR THEMATIC SPOILER* the theme of rebirth, starting anew. *MINOR THEMATIC SPOILER ENDED* The direction in this film is absolutely outstanding, and you can see it with every single shot, with a screenplay that ties everything together with complete and utter detail (there is only one small segment which I thought was realistically questionable, although I'll need a second viewing to make a final judgement), it sucks you into orbit within the first 30 seconds of the movie and it doesn't let you go until the credits roll out. You can tell everything within the film was finely crafted with Cuaron's subtle touch, even the way sound is shown through the movie creates a powerful, realistic style. I'm not going to dwell to far into anything because I don't want to spoil anything but let me just say that it is breathtaking shot, after breathtaking shot, after breathtaking shot, it is impeccably beautiful. There were only two actual performances in the movie (Bullock and Clooney), but by golly are they great. Clooney provides great support throughout various points of the movie while Bullock firmly carries her weight throughout, she fully captivates her character and ultimately helps to elevate the theme Cuaron is portraying with the film. While, I cannot say if Bullock has the Oscar or not yet, I can definitely confirm that she will be nominated for this (and I can also pretty much guarantee nominations for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Visual Effects, Original Score, Screenplay, and other various awards as well). Speaking of original score, Steven Price does a phenomenal job at the musical score for this film. The soundtrack comes in at all the right moments, he plays the silence at all the right moments, and the compositions are probably the most memorable work I have heard this year, with fantastic range. Steven Price is definitely a composer to look out for. Overall, despite the fact that I really want to talk about a lot of the shots and gravity behind them, I won't (for this review at least) for the mere fact that it is a review and the average person has not seen it yet. Creating an ingenious depiction of collapsing and returning to your feet through rebirth, Gravity is the must-see movie of the year where everything balances out perfectly. 10/10

My Review I'm not sure if it's because I already practically knew what would happen the entire movie from everything the trailers gave away (except the awesome last 20 minutes) or that it just got to hyped, I didn't fall in love with it like I thought I would. Now don't get me wrong, it is a very well made film (I have some issues with the pacing and other parts) but for me, I just didn't get that click that I was expecting, it was still very enjoyable though. Captain Phillips is based on the true story of the man (Captain Phillips) who gets his cargo boat raided by pirates and has them take him hostage into a life boat in order to save his crew, the only problem is it honestly seemed like it took over a quarter of the movie before the pirates even get on the ship. There were some brilliant parts of suspense, however it was fairly inconsistent because of the pacing. Now, I am a guy who can take slow pacing, but there needs to be a purpose to it, there were so many purposeless cuts and long shots that honestly were just there to add running time to the film, it made the film constantly teeter on being engaging and being boring. What's especially important is that this is a fairly recent true story, most people know what happened, so when Greengrass takes so much time to build it gets tedious at points. Now, the movie slowly picks up pace as it goes, but what baffled me is why he didn't spend more camera time on the actual meat of the story inside the lifeboat. There were so many moments in that lifeboat that were bordering on brilliant, they just needed more time given to them, they were cut short, while the part that should have moved faster was given way to much time. The screenplay in this movie honestly has a very valid point to serve besides just going down the typical true story thriller path (although it does that as well), it brings subtle humanity to the Somalian pirates, and I have deep respect with how they conveyed that. The Somalian pirates were just gruntman trying to get out of their desperate situation, thinking (and believing) they'd get pay from the warlords if they brought back the ship like the warlords said. I was a big fan at how the screenplay was able to invoke a slight sense of sympathy to the villains of the story to portray them as humans, but also not going down the opposite end of the spectrum and placing complete and utter pity on them, it was very well written. Next, the performances were also spot on, they were probably some of the highlights of the movie. However it applies again that the performances were at their best in the last act of the movie, just like how the most engaging part was the last act, before that they were solid, it was in that act that they became great. It just goes to show, some films really don't need to be 2 and half hours long to be great, in fact it's the massive length with little substance in the first half that really drives the movie into just being good, instead of being something better, more impactful. I mentioned the last act above, so I'll go onto to say that the last act is what completely saves the movie for me, it was done brilliantly and had just the right amount of substance, while the last 25 minutes or so brought out an outstanding performance from Hanks. Honestly, go see the movie for the last 30 minutes of it, the ending is powerful, and it is what is inevitably driving my rating upwards. Now, don't let this review come across as if I didn't like the movie (I really did think it was good), but it was disappointing to say the least in that it could have been outstanding, I saw so many moments of brilliance, but they could often at times get overshadowed by the shaky cam, and odd pacing with little substance. Overall, Captain Phillips has some engaging moments, a very smart screenplay, and a bombastic last act that delivers Oscar worthy performances, but it is ultimately boggled down by inconsistent direction by Greengrass. 7.5/10 (If it weren't for the last act i'd probably go 6.5/10, but it was powerful enough to raise it that high) Side Note: Barkhad Abdi delivers a stunning breakout performance in the film, it's worth the ticket for him alone.

Yeah, I think the first was one of those exceptions that has a massive gross because of its status as completely groundbreaking (combined with the good release date) in terms of visuals, plus it had all that 3D hype which is why I think people went so see it. It won't flop, but it won't improve or be equal to the first film.

I'm going to say Avatar 2 fails to outgross Titanic.

So I have to ask, what went wrong? What is causing this mass exodus from the previously thought theatrical sanctuary that is Gravity?

I think Gravity should be able to be number 1 for the rest of October, and possibly number 2 in November all the way till Catching Fire (and stay in the top 5 until the Hobbit).

I think the drop will be smaller next weekend because there is no new movie (that'll be a hit) going against Gravity's target demo. So I would say closer to a 19% drop next weekend and I expect the drops to get smaller each weekend as its gross goes down.