Jonwo

I'm shocked that Emily Blunt for nominated for The Girl on the Train, was the catergory really that weak!? Silence was snubbed

Its a UK thing, previews are combined with the opening weekend total rather than counted separate which is stupid IMO as a film can claim it's number 1 with a weeks worth of takings. Spectre has the highest opening in the UK for example but that include 3 and a half days of takings whereas solely based on Friday to Sundays it's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It's interesting that Hidden Figures was successful in the US but not so much in Canada, guess it's a cultural thing La La Land has two top five entries, I wonder if Lionsgate should have gone wider and could have clinched a number 1 position, it's still going to make money though next week when it expands again.

I think Amazon Studios has done a great job along with Roadside promoting it. I won't be surprised if we see an Oscar winner from them in the next few years.

I think Jumanji will do well but I wouldn't be surprised if PP3 drops from the last film. I wonder if WB should have kept Ready Player One in December, it'll probably still do great business in March 2018.

The BFG wasn't a full Disney film, they only distributed in a handful of territories and i think put up 1/3 of the budget.

I think it'll hit £55m although it's going to lose cinemas just because it's out a while and there's a ton of new release so cinemas usually drop the older titles to make way.

It'll be La La Land for number 1, there a lot of buzz and it's advertised really well. I think despite the reviews, Live by Night will crack the top 3 as WB has been really promoting it.

In the case of Moana in the U.K., it faced Fantastic Beasts which was still going strong but it had the advantage there was no real family competition as Sing isn't out in the UK until the end of the month and the others Monster Trucks and Ballerina barely made a dent

Of course, it wouldn't be that difficult, but I imagine each distributors pay what is relative to the country or region that they distribute in but we'll never know how much each distributor pays for any film, it's only when it's big money, it makes news.

Paramount paid $20m for domestic and China distribution rights for Arrival so I expect Silence didn't cost as much to acquire, maybe $10-15m tops. It's a business model used by Lionsgate since they don't distribute their films OS apart from the UK plus it minimises the risks. New Line used to do it when they were independent. At the end of the day, Paramount took a punt on it because they wanted to work with Scorsese again and it didn't work out but they would have known that it wasn't ever going to be a smash hit from day one.

Silence is financed by independent financiers and then sold to distributors so Paramount acquired it for x amount of money for domestic and various local distributors worldwide also acquire it for x amount of money which means the budget is already recouped so Paramount won't losing much money other than P&A, award campaign costs etc but that's a risk they took when they acquired it, same with Arrival. Sing is doing good in some places but poorly in others similar to Moana, it still has UK, France, China and Russia left although in the case of UK and France, it'll face The Lego Batman Movie two weeks after so it's likely it won't hit the heights of SLOP, Minions etc in those territories but I expect it'll have a healthy run. I'm thinking $300m OS might be the final total but it wouldn't be surprising if it falls slightly short.

Once you're an established director, studios are more willing to give you leeway if you produce a hit every so often. Clint Eastwood for example had two back to back flops with Hereafter and Invictus but more than made up for them with American Sniper and Sully.

Silence was financed by several different companies and distributed by different studios so it's likely the production budget is already recouped.

Spotlight was a hard sell but at $20m budget and $88m gross WW, it was still successful. Likewise with Room. For films like those and Manchester by the Sea, making huge profits isn't the main aim, it's awards. It's the same with Silence, an excellent film but it's never going to appeal to a wide audience due to the subject matter.

Netflix shot themselves in the foot by not giving their films proper releases theatrically whereas Amazon are working with distributors to get their films to a wide audience before they go on Prime.

Lionsgate and Summit probably have recouped the budget for La La Land through presales anyway.

Sully should be a winner, over $200m WW in a $60m budget even with Hanks and Eastwood is a win. New Line should be a winner with a successful summer with Conjuring 2, Me Before You, Central Intelligence etc Kinda winner should be Bridget Jones, while it flopped stateside, it was a winner OS especially in its native U.K. considering it was 12 years since the last film

Studios usually let directors have one or two flops as long as they deliver another hit, if Marty directs another Shutter Island or Wolf of Wall Street type hit then it'll make something like Silence seem worthwhile The Irishman could be a winner for him as it would be his first film with DeNiro for a long time, Devil in the White City I like the sound of but Sinatra I imagine if Marty doesn't do it then another director like Howard, Zemeckis etc will

Scorsese will be fine, he's had bigger flops and I suspect not even Paramount or the other studios who are distributing Silence thought it was going to be another Wolf of Wall Street. Its a shame the Sinatra biopic has stalled as that seems up his street but there's issues with the estate

Silence was always going to be a tough sell. Its more of a passion project for Marty than something that was ever to make money

I'll be curious to see how La La Land fare in IMAX, doesn't seem like a film that audience would flock to see in that format. I'm sure it's going to get a PLF release as well

I'm surprised Fox was second for 2016 considering WB had Fantastic Beasts, BvS and Suicide Squad. The difference is around £12m so I'm guessing Ab Fab's successful run elevate them over WB. Captain America barely beat BvS, only £300,000 between them despite Civil War having a bigger four day opening.

Fox will be very pleased with that figure for Hidden Figures.

Denzel took a massive pay cut to star and direct Fences but I guess it's a passion project where it's not about the money. Hidden Figures will sadly struggle OS unless it gets Oscar buzz due to its lack of star, Fences at least has Denzel to sell the film.