Tag Archives: Jennifer Sperber

December21 2012 | 1:40am

Monkey Biz: The Wisdom of the December Rollout

In the past few years, the Oscars have been dominated by these Crock-Pot indies—films that do better and better the longer they cook in the marketplace. Eight out of the last ten Best Picture winners were independent—or at least non-Big-6-studio—films that grew their box office and audience slow and steady.

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November21 2012 | 7:58pm

Monkey Biz: Thankfulness

It is no coincidence that every major release this Thanksgiving weekend adheres to the “you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone” template, featuring protagonists that long for and learn to fight for the things they’ve lost. They cast aside posttraumatic stress in favor of posttraumatic growth, surpassing us in their abilities to flourish in the aftermath of the storm (this is literally the plot of Life of Pi).

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October24 2012 | 2:00pm

Monkey Biz: From Viewers to Voters, Hollywood to D.C.

Moviegoers cast their votes every single weekend, if not two or three times a week. With every click of the remote to purchase a flick On-Demand, every dollar handed over at the Cineplex ticket booth, even every time the channel isn’t changed when a trailer pops up onscreen, viewers become voters.

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September19 2012 | 2:00pm

THE MONKEY BIZ BAROMETER: 9/19/12

Giving the Monkey Biz the business, from George Clooney to James Cameron, and from Entourage to Manimal.

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September12 2012 | 3:16pm

Monkey Business: 9/12/12

Didn’t I tell you that the fall movie season is the worst? The autumn opener this past weekend had the lowest total gross since September 2008. Not a single flick even reached the $10M mark. You can blame the start of the school year or the NFL season, but best to blame Hollywood, which has made a habit of settling for sub par seasons.

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September05 2012 | 2:00pm

Monkey Biz: The September Slouch

What’s going on in the Monkey Biz this September?

Here’s your Top 10 roundup in this month’s movie business news to date:

1. As per usual, September kicked off sans bang with a lackluster Labor Day weekend, with The Possession hauling in $21.1M and Lawless making $12.9M.  Even though The Possession‘s haul was a bit off from recent Lionsgate horror flicks (like The Last Exorcism), it still had one of the best debuts … Read More

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August29 2012 | 3:56pm

Monkey Biz: The Mediocre Summer

This summer there were a few clear winners and a few clear losers, but most flicks struggled just to break even. The goal is to make money, not scratch and claw to make it back. Honestly, the season was filled with movies no one wanted to see (and those are the numbers talking).

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August22 2012 | 3:00pm

Monkey Biz: 10 Things That Shouldn’t Have Happened…

A crowd-stopping (literally crowd-stopping, not good crowd-stopping, like there will actually be no crowds) slate of films comes to theaters Friday. Lackluster? Yes. But also not atypical for the end of August to feature a bunch of dump movies that never could have competed with the real summer fare. Not that that’s an excuse. After all, who wouldn’t want fun, quality movies all year round?

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August15 2012 | 9:10am

Monkey Biz 8/15/12

What do Daredevil, Alf, Abe Lincoln and Jeremy Renner have in common? They all show up in this week’s Monkey Biz.

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