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Movie Kombat: The November Man vs. As Above, So Below

8/29/2014

As Above, So Below wins!

Talk about a close one! As Above, So Below made $10.3 million this holiday weekend, while The November Man finished with $10.2 million. This is the closest battle we've seen yet! As Above, So Below performed well below my own expectations, but it still had a solid showing, and cracked into the weekend top 5. Seems I was foolish for assuming that either film had a chance at the #1 spot, as Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kept going strong and probably will continue their hot streak for at least another week. All in all, this weekend closed out what's been a hugely disappointing summer for the box office.

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Movie Kombat: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For vs. If I Stay

8/23/2014

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If I Stay wins!

Did anyone see this one coming? Well, 2 of you voted for If I Stay, while me and everyone else expected Sin City: A Dame to Kill For to sweep up this weekend. I think what's far more shocking to me than If I Stay winning is that Sin City only managed to pull in $6 million this weekend, debuting in 8th place at the box office. I would have never in a million years foresaw that one! That's gotta make it the biggest box office bomb of the year, and it's easily one of the most unexpected flops I can think of. I was really excited for this movie (though it seems I was one of a very small few), and thought it would easily make $20 million. To get a better perspective of just how bad of an opening this was, let's take a look at The Expendables 3, which was considered a huge failure when it debuted last week with a total of $16 million. That's over 2.5 times better than Sin City did, and to add insult to injury, both The Expendables 3 and The Giver still managed to finish ahead of Sin City in their second week. Meanwhile, If I Stay finished in 3rd place behind Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with $15.7 million.

I'm almost at a loss for words over Sin City. I'm not sure what this can be attributed to, other than facing strong box office competition, and the fact that this sequel is far too long over-due (it's been about 10 years since the original film). Despite the long gap between the films, they still managed to keep most of the cast intact, although it seems they couldn't keep their hold on the audience's interest. Having seen the movie, I feel like it's just been a colossal disappointment all around. It looks like this one would have been better off just staying dead. (See what I did there? Hahahaha.)

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Movie Kombat: The Expendables 3 vs. The Giver vs. Let's Be Cops!

8/16/2014

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Let's Be Cops wins!

While none of this week's Movie Kombat kontestants won the overall box office this weekend, Let's Be Cops beat out The Expendables 3 and The Giver for this week's victory. Behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy, Let's Be Cops rolled in at third with $17.7 million. That's a pretty strong opening for the cop comedy, which only cost $17 million to make and ended up breaking even in as little as 3 days. The Expendables 3, and The Giver, on the other hand, failed to meet expectations. The big-budget action star ensemble of The Expendables 3 pulled in $16.2 million, and while just barely behind Let's Be Cops, the film certainly cost a lot more money to make. Many will try to blame the weak box office performance on the film's online leak a few weeks ago, though I think box office statistics have shown that most people have grown tired of these old action-stars. In fifth place is The Giver, the emotion-oppressed utopian film starring Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep which only managed to muster a disappointing total of $12.8 million. It looks like the summer box office may be losing steam, although next week Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and If I Stay look to get things back on track.

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Movie Kombat: Double Header! "Guardians" vs "Turtles", and Into the Storm vs The Hundred-Foot Journey!

8/8/2014

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wins!

Looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shell-shocked the box office this week, by taking the #1 spot from last week's winner, the Guardians of the Galaxy. This week, the Turtles brought in a total of $65.6 million at the box office, while the Guardians dropped to $42.1 million in its second week. This week's other two movie kombatants, Into the Storm and The Hundred-Foot Journey battled it our for third and fourth place, with Into the Storm scoring the bronze with a weekend box office total of $17.3 million. The Hundred-Foot Journey meanwhile ended pretty far behind with a gross of $11 million. Rounding out the top 5 is Lucy, our original Movie Kombat winner, who is still narrowly hanging in there with an added $9.5 million.

While Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was far behind Guardian's debut opening of $94 million last week, it has still managed to be one of the most successful August movie openings in history. It was uncertain how Turtles would perform considering the negative buzz it garnered leading up to its release (which I imagine influenced your predictions). However, as someone who has seen the movie, I can tell you that all of the ridicule is unwarranted, and the film does justice to the beloved TMNT series.

Into the Storm did quite well for itself, easily defeating The Hundred-Foot Journey. Although, given it's $50 million budget and weak box office performance over seas, it doesn't look like it will net much of a profit in the end. The Hundred-Foot Journey did a bit less than I expected, though in its defense, it's not the type of movie that's going to draw a lot of opening weekend crowds. Be sure to tune in later this week as The Expendables 3 dukes it out with The Giver. Let's Be Cops might even sneak its way into the mix! Stay tuned!

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Movie Kombat: Guardians of the Galaxy vs. Get On Up

8/1/2014

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Guardians of the Galaxy wins!

To no one's surprise, Guardians of the Galaxy topped the box office this weekend with a total domestic gross of $94.3 million. That broke the all-time box office record for the month of August, easily surpassing the previous record holder, The Bourne Ultimatum, which made $69.3 million back in 2007. To put the film's success into perspective, this is the 3rd biggest movie opening of the year, coming in narrowly behind only Transformers: Age of Extinction ($100 million) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million). That's a remarkably impressive start for being the first film in a franchise, and for featuring a group of relatively unknown superheroes.

The James Brown biopic Get on Up didn't stand a chance against Marvel's new series, although it still did fairly well for itself, pulling in a total of $14 million. This puts the film in third place this week behind Lucy which dropped to the #2 spot with a weekend total of $18.2 million, while Hercules ($10 million) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes rounded out the top 5 ($8.7 million). Next week, be sure to tune in for our next installment of Movie Kombat as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go up against Into the Storm!

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Movie Kombat: The November Man vs. As Above, So Below

Movie Kombat: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For vs. If I Stay

Movie Kombat: The Expendables 3 vs. The Giver vs. Let's Be Cops!

Movie Kombat: Double Header! "Guardians" vs "Turtles", and Into the Storm vs The Hundred-Foot Journey!

Movie Kombat: Guardians of the Galaxy vs. Get On Up

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