Was It Worth It - The Films of April

[Shrykespeare]

A lot of good stuff this month, much more so than in the first three months of the year.




NG

Cheap PTA picks that failed to net a single point:

For No Good Reason ($5U) - 6.7 UR.



F

Transcendence ($18U, $17BO) - 2 T5, 0 PTA, 6.4 UR, $18M. Yikes, what a turkey.

The Quiet Ones ($9U, $8BO) - 0 T5, 0 PTA, 5.5 UR, $8M. What a crappy year for horror it's been.



D-

A Haunted House 2 ($10U, $9BO) - 1 T5, 1 PTA, 4.8 UR, $17M. The spoof genre is dead, Marlon, didn't you get the memo?



D

Draft Day ($11U, $11BO) - 2 T5, 0 PTA, 7.0 UR, $28M. Movie about athletes are one thing, but movies about athletic directors? That's something else.

Nymphomaniac Vol. 2 ($5U) - 1 PTA (Apr only), 7.0 UR. Not a surprise, given how Vol. 1 did.



D+

Ouclus ($11U, $10BO) - 3 T5, 1 PTA, 6.9 UR, $27M. Like I said, a crappy year for horror.

Bears ($5U, $4BO) - 0 T5, 0 PTA, 7.7 UR, $17M. A poor pick, but at least it did okay in two categories.



C-

Brick Mansions ($6U, $6BO) - 1 PTA, 0 PTR, 6.1 UR, $20M. Made some coin, but not exactly a blaze of glory for Paul Walker.



C

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa ($4U) - 2 PTA (Apr only), 6.8 UR. Meh.



B

Dom Hemingway ($4U) - 3 PTA, 6.3 UR. Not shabby, but not great either.



B+

Rio 2 ($29U, $29BO) - 10 T5, 5 PTA, 6.8 UR, $118M. Did about what we expected, but not much more.



A-

Locke ($5U) - 8 PTA, 7.7 UR. A good source of PTA that a lot of people saw coming.



A

The Other Woman ($14U, $12BO) - 13 T5, 6 PTA, 6.6 UR, $72M. Expertly placed, but not a lot of people took advantage of this film's surprising numbers.

Under the Skin ($4U) - 7 PTA, 7.4 UR, $72M. Scarlett Jo is hot. In just about every way.



And the best picks of April, and there were a few:

A+

Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($40U, $40BO) - 22 T5, 13 PTA, 8.2 UR, $251M. Boffo numbers in every category, you were pretty much hurting if you didn't have this on your slate. Outperformed everything in March by a country mile.

Heaven is for Real ($7U, $6BO) - 12 T5, 9 PTA, 5.5 UR, $82M. No arguing with those numbers. When you earn more than 1 T5, 1 PTA and $10M for each dollar a film costs, that's money well spent. Those that picked this film laughed all the way to church.

Only Lovers Left Alive ($5U) - 10 PTA, 7.6 UR. Loki as a vampire? Sign us up!




Here's how my box office predictions fared this month:

HITS
Rio 2 - Predicted $41/$131, Actual $45/$118
Draft Day - Predicted $10/$26, Actual $10/$28
Bears - Predicted $7/$16, Actual $5/$17
Brick Mansions - Predicted $8/$19, Actual $10/$20

NEAR MISSES
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Predicted $93/$220, Actual $96/$251
Oculus - Predicted $17/$38, Actual $12/$27

EGREGIOUS MISSES
Heaven is for Real - Predicted $17/$40, Actual $22/$82
Transcendence - Predicted $27/$72, Actual $11/$18
A Haunted House 2 - Predicted $12/$30, Actual $9/$17
The Other Woman - Predicted $18/$49, Actual $25/$72
The Quiet Ones - Predicted $7/$17, Actual $4/$8

[Ron Burgundy]

Transcendence was this years Oblivion, and dug a hole for the next April Sci-Fi movie to climb out of, what a turd

I picked The Other Woman for a couple of slates, but Box Office not Ultimate, bugger.

Glad how Captain America performed, should have saw Heavin is for real coming, we all should have

[Shrykespeare]

Oblivion underperformed slightly, but not nearly to the degree that Transcendence did. Oblivion made $89M (with a $37M OW), Transcendence $22M. Not even close.

[JohnErle]

I originally had The Other Woman on a whole bunch of BO slates, but then I dropped it at the last minute because of the reviews and the tracking. It turned out to be critic-proof and the tracking underestimated it. Oh well, at least I didn't have it on my Bankrupts slate like a lot of you did.

I'll post the BO ROI later.

[Chienfantome]

I'm pretty sure it's the shot of Kate Upton in her tiny bikini running on the beach that caused such a wave at the BO for The Other Woman.

[Buscemi]

I think The Other Woman did so well because Hollywood continues to ignore female audiences (despite 2013's top two films being female-led movies). Even with a film as bad-looking as this one, create a film with enough appeal and the audience will show (studios cannot survive on making only films aimed solely towards white males). This was my main influence for selecting Tammy and Search Party in the full-year draft.

I must say that Cameron Diaz and Nick Cassavetes (who of course directed The Notebook) knew something that the male-led studios didn't.

[JohnErle]

The Other Woman's target market was any woman who's ever been lied to or screwed over by a guy, i.e. every woman ever. That's why I was so high on it originally. And Kate Upton might have made it easier for wives to drag husbands along on date night. The tracking seemed to indicate that it wasn't registering with the intended audience, but the OW tracking was low by close to $10 million. I should have stayed with my gut, unless the film I swapped it out for does even better, which is still a possibility.

Anyway, here's the BO ROI:



Heaven Is For Realsies was the clear winner in April and almost lived up to my bold prediction that it would outgross Noah. Captain Winter: The American Soldier currently sits in second place, but The Other, Other Woman has shown great legs, and an ample bosom, and should climb into the #2 spot before the April leagues wrap up.

[Buscemi]

I figured that men would have come for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's role (I was surprised he wasn't given above-title billing but then again, three names was more than likely enough). Game of Thrones is a kind of big deal, you know.