Week 2 Update

After analyzing the box office numbers for the previous week, 2 interesting trends occurred.

The Lego Movie 2 opened February 7th to high critical praise, while Alita: Battle Angel opened February 14th to mixed reviews from critics. However, contrary to expectations, the Lego Movie 2 only 43 million dollars in contrast to the first installments’ 80 million opening gross. It then fell 22% in contrast to the first’s 11%. Meanwhile Alita opened to first place and claimed the top spot, continuing to make high grosses into the next week as well. The audience ratings for The Lego Movie were high, as expected, but the reception for Alita was also extremely high, which was contrary to the critics. It appears that due to word of mouth between viewers, Alita gained a reputation as a film with dazzling visuals, while the Lego Movie seemed to just be treated as standard childrens movie affair, especially since it could not live up to the expectations set by the original. As a result of this development, I have changed my survey questions to accommodate the power of word of mouth reviews, which may be more influential in the long run than the critical aggregates.

Movies to watch:
1) How to Train Your Dragon 3
2) Lego Movie 2
3) Alita: Battle Angel