Another good day for Yahoo! Looks like the ratios are finally stabilizing.

It's only Wednesday and The Covenant already has 58 reviews (Grade B+) and 7 written.
No reviews for The Protector, which is surprising considering it's already showing in some countries. No reviews for Hollywoodland either.

None of these should be active. Thanks for the heads up on The Covenant - we will take note of how many reviews it has when we start tracking the openers Friday.

Approximate Final Ratios:

Crank - 119.60
The Wicker Man - 211.02
Crossover - 176.84
The Illusionist (Fri.) - 94.78

WTF. The Covenant now has 65 votes (B+ grade). It went up 7 votes in a matter of a few hours two days before it opens.

We saw this happen recently with another film - I don't remember which.

I have a theory: Screeners.

I saw Cars and Shanghi Knights both before they were released due to that.

Crank had about 450. Crossover about 220. I don't remember WM.

Unlike some of the previouse cases, Yahoo already opens The Covenant for reviews (instead of having to go through some backdoors). 107 so far with 10 written reviews. Low written percentage, and pretty much points to a typical ratio for PG-13 horror film.

In case no one notices before tracking begins, The Covenant has 172 reviews as of this post.

The Covenant 176, 0 Friday, +0, B-
Hollywoodland 11, +11, A
The Protector 8, +8, A-

I think all those reviews might be from before. One of the Protector's written is from June. Hollywoodland doesn't have any written, but I think 11 as an increase would be high given that Covenant had zero or nearly zero.

The Covenant 183, 7 Friday, +7, B-
Hollywoodland 12, +1, A
The Protector 9, +1, B+ (down from an A-)

any idea what ratios will be

The Covenant 189, 13 Friday, +6, B-
Hollywoodland 13, +1, A-
The Protector 27, +18, B+

Even if Hollywoodland had previous reviews, that few of them won't make much of a difference come tonight.

The Covenant had promo screenings in many cities yesterday... The Protector reviews might be from people who saw the original movie on DVD. Hollywoodland isn't a midnight Thursday movie.

The Covenant 200, 24 Friday, +11, B-
Hollywoodland 20, +7, A
The Protector 41, +14, B

As for ratios, here are my thoughts:

The Covenant opened for reviews on Wednesday. With a low percentage of written to overall reviews and a PG-13 rating, a low ratio is likely. The Grudge had 125, while Emily Rose had 136. With generally lower ratios this year, I'll go with 115-135.

Hollywoodland seems to be adult domimant, so I'm looking for a ratio along the lines of Stepford Wives & and Ladder 49 (I realize these aren't the best comparisons). It shoudn't be as high as Ray, so I'll go with 80-100.

The Protector is a tough call. Hero's ratio was 110, but this is definitely a different film with nowhere near the same level of online buzz. Still, with the low theater count and likelihood of a niche fanbase for foreign action, I'm aiming high at 250-270.

Feedback welcome, particularly with The Protector.

The Covenant 202, 26 Friday, +2, B-
Hollywoodland 21, +1, A-
The Protector 45, +4, B

The Covenant 219, 43 Friday, +17, B-
Hollywoodland 27, +6, A-
The Protector 62, +17, B

Yahoo! is working well so far today.

The Covenant 230, 55 Friday, +12, B-
Hollywoodland 36, +9, A-
The Protector 70, +8, B

The Covenant 234, 59 Friday, +4, B-
Hollywoodland 39, +3, A-
The Protector 78, +8, B

Some early notes:

The Covenant doesn't have a strong early pace, which is not unusual for a horror film in September. Even still, this clearly won't be an Emily Rose repeat. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see this finish with 350-400 reviews and a sub-$10M weekend. We'll see if the pace intensifies in the evening.

Hollywoodland doesn't appear to doing well on the surface, but I think it should have the lowest ratio of the three. If recent patterns hold, it could finish with 200-250 reviews for $2-3M Friday.

The Protector leads the pack so far, but I don't see a ratio of under 200 for it. I expect 425-475 reviews and quite possibly a sub-$5M weekend.

This is all just food for thought. It's only 1PM, so these could be way off. I based the above on historical trends and observations, to the best of my ability.

I need to check what The Constant Gardener had. Actually, I need to complete the tables so that it isn't full of missing movies that we've tracked. Without comparing to that, my instinct on Hollywoodland is also around 90-100.

I agree The Protector's ratio is sure to be high.

By opening the reviews up on Wednesday for The Covenant, it should lower the ratio more. I'd say around 100 is possible.

The Covenant 236, 61 Friday, +2, B-
Hollywoodland 43, +4, A-
The Protector 81, +3, B