Two movies that I saw this past week, “The Express” and “City of Ember”, both performed poorly at the box office. “The Express” grabbed $4.7M and “Ember” took in only $3.2M.
I think “The Express” is one of the best films of the year, while I didn’t love “City of Ember” (see reviews below). Down through the years I have reviewed a lot of films that bombed at the box office – some that were really good and some that were terrible. You’d think that the good ones would do better than the bad ones, but that’s not always the case.
Predicting how movies will do at the box office is always tricky and you can’t judge by the quality of the film. But I don’t like it when good movies such as “The Express” or “Be Kind Rewind” don’t make a lot of money. Sure, people can always catch them when they come out on DVD, but making it high in the Top 10 that first weekend is a major accomplishment.
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic/entertainment reporter in 2006 at the age of 7. Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases. All together he has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9.
LCJ appears every Friday morning on WGNA-FM . His movie reviews are also posted on his website, his YouTube channel and the popular website Cultjer.com. He is also a contributing writer for Jerry Beck’s AnimationScoop.com. Jackson hosts the weekly internet pop culture news show “LCJ LIVE” (every Sunday at Noon ET). And “The LCJ Q&A Podcast” features interviews with celebrities and filmmakers. Among those who have joined LCJ on the show are comedy legend Gilbert Gottfried, “Wallace & Gromit” creator Nick Park, Emmy-winning game show host Todd Newton and Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.