BadAtGender

What? No, Interstellar's ending is excellent. It's exactly the right beat.

For all his other flaws, Nolan knows how to end a film, possibly better than anyone. And TDKR is probably his best in that regard.

They did the single shot thing better than Birdman.

Last year, Frozen fell just 18.6% the weekend after the Oscars... but for Oscar weekend itself it only fell 17.5%. The win might have had an effect, but it wasn't monumental. In comparison 12 Years a Slave (the BP winner) increased 116.3%, Gravity (BD and numerous other awards) jumped 1.4%, and Dallas Buyers' Club (Best Actor) went up 42.6%. Blue Jasmine went up over 150%. What you'll probably see is Birdman get a heck of a bump, while Still Alice and Theory of Everything get more modest ones. BH6 might get a slight arrest, but the video release is still going to hit it hard. The win may end up generating more sales there, though. Ultimately, this is going to be one of the quietest Oscar winners as well as one of the quietest $200m grossers.

There was a snub in 2010 for best score, but it wasn't Inception. Actually, there were two snubs. Tron: Legacy should have gotten a nom. (not a win, but at least a nomination.)

Bradley Cooper.

War films tend to do well with those. Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker, Letters from Iwo Jima, U-571. I suppose if nothing else Bigelow and Eastwood do good sound editing in their films. Sound Mixing will more often go to other things, hence Whiplash's win. As for score, Desplat was due. He also did an amazing score.

No, screw that. Selma's the best film of the year, it should win.

Let's go, Selma upset.

Neither would have been my choice, but it's not a bad couple of wins.

If you're doing something in a story JUST to evoke emotion, then that's a poor use of the form. Emotional beats should drive the plot forward, or at least work in tandem with it. Now, if you feel that the emotional arcs in the story aren't well done, that's something else entirely. I don't agree, mostly because BH6 hits the right emotional climax. And unlike most Marvel films it actually has a third act that stands up well.

See if your library has it to check out.

Y'all need to watch A Fish Called Wanda. It's one of the best comedies ever made.

Why would it be there otherwise?

Nice list, Blanks. I don't agree with your LEGO love, but it's cool.

And it's the most expensive of the three openers. Hot Tub came in at 14m and DUFF is under 9m.

The films aren't that expensive. Black or White cost 9m, Draft Day 25m, 3Days 28m, Jack Ryan was pricier at $60m, but also grossed the most WW. All of them have beat their budgets in WW gross, though Draft Day is pretty close. They may not be super profitable, but I doubt they're losing a ton of money, either. Also, Costner might just be a guy people like to work with. (I dunno, I don't follow celeb news.) That can count for a lot for getting repeated employment.

That seems to be typical for the post-Presidents day weekdays. LEGO, Frozen, and The Nut Job were all up over the previous week last year.

I'd currently rank them: 1. Kaguya (Arguably it's Takahata's best film.) 2. HTTYD2 3. BH6 4. Boxtrolls I won't get a chance to see Song of the Sea until the 27th, though. I hope for good things, since Secret of Kells is so fantastic. It's starting to look like a tossup between Dragon and Hero, though. If they were slightly weaker, I think Kaguya could sneak in for the deserved win, but it's probably not in the cards. Unfortunately, with the way the animation industry is looking, it's unlikely we'll ever get a situation where a plucky underdog can take the crown. There are no years that will have a truly weak slate to allow it.

1 2 Fifty Shades of Grey Uni. $5,487,230 -30% - 3,646 $1,505 $98,497,580 5 2 3 Kingsman: The Secret Service Fox $3,283,012 -41% - 3,204 $1,025 $45,044,539 5 3 1 The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Par. $2,744,528 -68% +20% 3,654 $751 $105,884,583 12 4 4 American Sniper WB $1,284,385 -46% -28% 3,436 $374 $307,762,521 55 5 6 Jupiter Ascending WB $807,444 -46% -47% 3,181 $254 $34,684,037 12 6 5 Paddington W/Dim. $521,240 -70% +89% 2,244 $232 $64,485,107 33 7 8 Seventh Son Uni. $402,360 -42% -39% 2,874 $140 $14,514,340 12 8 7 The Imitation Game Wein. $377,304 -46% -21% 1,551 $243 $80,689,129 82 9 10 Black or White Rela. $290,853 -39% -44% 1,591 $183 $18,173,526 19 10 11 The Wedding Ringer SGem $266,571 -42% -39% 1,456 $183 $60,316,921 33 - 9 Project Almanac Par. $212,819 -60% -40% 1,732 $123 $20,342,946 19 - - The Boy Next Door Uni. $160,335 -29% -58% 1,192 $135 $34,198,860 26 - - Selma Par. $130,143 -45% -44% 566 $230 $48,644,529 55 - - Birdman FoxS $90,135 -48% -31% 481 $187 $36,720,890 124 - - The Theory of Everything Focus $80,807 -51% -30% 466 $173 $33,419,811 103 - - Taken 3 Fox $80,761 -46% -58% 691 $117 $87,021,466 40 - - Old Fashioned Free $51,286 -40% +4,913% 224 $229 $1,177,485 12 - - Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Fox $37,030 -72% +12% 282 $131 $111,180,839 61 - - Into the Woods BV $36,964 -66% -39% 287 $129 $126,445,435 55 - - Wild (2014) FoxS $34,768 -33% -46% 185 $188 $37,009,386 77 - - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies WB $34,363 -64% -49% 272 $126 $253,702,950 63 - - Unbroken Uni. $24,865 -43% -54% 217 $115 $115,129,195 55 - - Interstellar Par. $22,252 -43% +33% 196 $114 $187,255,480 105 - - Annie (2014) Sony $21,143 -71% +149% 227 $93 $85,372,454 61 - - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 LGF $21,141 -65% -35% 232 $91 $336,208,800 89 - - Penguins of Madagascar Fox $19,639 -73% +5% 222 $88 $82,470,302 84 - - The Loft ORF $17,395 -19% -89% 245 $71 $5,904,004 19 - - Strange Magic BV $16,229 -71% -72% 175 $93 $11,912,052 26 - - Timbuktu Cohen $15,435 -31% +82% 33 $468 $329,102 21 - - Inherent Vice WB $6,586 -53% -46% 45 $146 $8,038,587 68 - - Spare Parts LGF $6,532 -47% -43% 54 $121 $3,453,099 33 - - St. Vincent Wein. $5,771 +19% +95% 77 $75 $44,085,700 131 - - The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death Rela. $4,784 -55% +21% 101 $47 $26,381,173 47 - - Exodus: Gods and Kings Fox $4,321 -53% -58% 66 $65 $64,979,418 68 - - Black Sea Focus $4,008 -34% -87% 92 $44 $1,156,908 26 - - Cake CLF $3,802 -28% -69% 34 $112 $1,946,434 26 - - Big Eyes Wein. $3,724 -46% -59% 66 $56 $14,402,040 55 - - Mortdecai LGF $2,247 -50% -88% 81 $28 $7,690,770 26 - - The Gambler Par. $2,102 -15% -73% 46 $46 $33,677,329 55 - - Horrible Bosses 2 WB $1,601 -28% -44% 44 $36 $54,442,938 84 - - Gone Girl Fox $1,098 -10% -71% 25 $44 $167,760,711 13

Yes, there are some very large theaters that can hold several hundred people. There are also many theaters that can't even hold a hundred. Theater sizes vary, which is why I'm wondering what the average number of tickets sold per showtime is going to be. The slow times and all is irrelevant, because that's included in the total number of screenings over the weekend. But regardless if you look at the data for total showtimes and screens on BOM you'll find that most films come out to around 12 showtimes on average for the weekend for openers.

165k would be a new record, but I could see it. So what's the average ticket price going to be OW? $8.50 or something? Let's go with that. To get 210m for OW, it would need to sell about an average 150 tickets per showtime throughout the weekend. For every 10 tickets you add or subtract to the average showtime the weekend gross will go up or down by 15m, give or take. How many people, on average, are going to be sitting at each of these showtimes?

How many showtimes do you think it's going to get over the weekend?

The total showtimes per screen per weekend is interesting to look at. DH2 - 12.92 CF - 12.65 THG - 12.55 IM3 - 12.38 TDKR - 11.89 TA1 - 11.39 That's all the hyper large OWs over the past few years. It doesn't seem like the number of showtimes is a limiting factor. Similarly I'm not sure theater or screen count is limiting. At this stage, it seems that just making sure there's enough access for anyone who wants to see the film can. It would be nice if we knew how many seats existed at each of these.

DH2 fells 72%. Various Twilight films fell around 70%. Outside of those, the biggest drop is X-Men Origins Wolverine, which fell 69% from an 85m weekend. Valentine's Day fell around 70%, too. (Not 80m+ but it's comparable.