March 11th, 2012
Although John Carter's opening won't be as bad as the direst predictions, an anemic $30.6 million debut will condemn the film to the record books for all the wrong reasons and (in spite of good international numbers) almost certainly cause a write-down for Disney. Or more immediate embarrassment, the film will fail to win the weekend, coming in second to The Lorax, which is set to post $39.1 million in its second weekend, according to Universal's estimate. That combination of two $30 million plus films will give 2012 another weekend win over last year.
More...
December 15th, 2011
The Smurfs led a group of five new releases on the Blu-ray sales chart earning first place in the process. It sold 355,000 units while generating $8.88 million during its first week on the home market, which represents 42% of all units sold. That's a very strong opening week Blu-ray ratio for a live action kids movie.
More...
December 13th, 2011
We are in the final stretch for the Christmas shopping season, but there are still few more summer blockbusters coming out from now till Christmas week. This time around, there were half a dozen new releases on this week's DVD sales chart, led by The Smurfs with 491,000 units / $8.34 million. For a kids' film that sold more than $140 million in tickets, this is slow start.
More...
December 8th, 2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 and Super 8 had legitimate claim to top spot in this week's Blu-ray sales chart. The holdover sold more units at 550,000 units to 503,000 units, but the newcomer led the way in revenue at $11.49 million to $9.89 million. That represented an opening week Blu-ray ratio of 55%, which should make the studio happy. Also of note this week, the final Harry Potter release became the best selling Blu-ray of the year with 3.95 million units sold and $86.16 million in total revenue so far.
More...
November 29th, 2011
It's another relatively slow week on the home market. The two biggest release of the week don't come out till Friday, while there are few other releases to pick up the slack. As for the search for best and not necessarily the biggest, there are a few contenders. Cave of Forgotten Dreams earned Oscar-worthy reviews and the 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack is a clear contender for Pick of the Week. But in the end I went with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil on DVD or Blu-ray.
More...
October 6th, 2011
The Smurfs were finally knocked off the top spot on the international chart, falling prey to The Sorcerer And The White Snake. This Chinese film opened in a trio of markets earning $15.88 million, but no other details were released.
More...
September 28th, 2011
The Smurfs were the only film to top $10 million on the international chart this past weekend earning $12.61 million on 5,931 screens in 61 markets. This lifted its totals to $364.47 million internationally and $502.83 million worldwide after two months of release. The film has no major markets left to open in, but it remained in first place in Italy with $3.03 million on 559 screens over the weekend for a total of $8.26 million after two. It also remained in top spot in Australia with $2.55 million on 458 screens over the weekend for a total of $6.97 million after two.
More...
September 21st, 2011
The dry season continues at the box office with the last of the summer blockbusters fading away while the first of the fall hits is a long way off. This has left The Smurfs without any real competition and for six weeks it has topped the international box office. During its eighth week of release, the film pulled in $17.93 million on 6,404 screens in 69 markets for totals of $345.44 million internationally and $483.04 million worldwide. The film opened in first place in Italy with $3.55 million on 542 screens, while it also placed first in Australia with $2.56 million on 458 screens over the weekend and $3.59 million in total.
More...
September 14th, 2011
The Smurfs have taken top spot on the international chart for the fifth weekend in a row, this time earning $14.78 million on 6,425 screens in 80 markets for a total of $321.17 million internationally and $457.18 million worldwide. The film opened in Japan over the weekend, but was a non-entity placing fifth with $857,000 on 235 screens over the weekend and $994,000 in total. It opens in Australia and Italy this weekend and if it can do well in those two markets, it should reach $500 million worldwide before long.
More...
August 1st, 2011
It was a very, very close race for top spot at box office this weekend with the top two films separated by less than $1 million. In the end, it was Cowboys and Aliens that came out on top, even though it finished on the low end of predictions. However, with The Smurfs earning much more than expected, the overall box office take was a surprisingly brisk $180 million. This was still 6% lower than last weekend, but more importantly, 24% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2011 has brought in $6.42 billion, or about 6% less than last year's pace. With a little luck, 2011 will be able to close that gap a bit more before the end of summer.
More...
July 31st, 2011
Universal and Sony showed how compromise is done on Sunday, as each studio settled on an identical weekend estimate, with Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs tied on an estimated $36,206,250. That's a slight disappointment for Cowboys (although certainly up from the worst fears of a few weeks ago) and above expectations for Smurfs, which showed the resilience of kids movies to weak reviews and gave 3D a needed boost.
More...
July 25th, 2011
The weekend race at the box office turned out to be not quite as close as expected with Captain America: The First Avenger running away with things. Fortunately, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 fell a little faster than expected, the overall box office was a little stronger than expected. It still fell 27% from last weekend, but a 30% decline would not have been surprising here. Compared to last year, the weekend total of $191 million was 17% higher, while the gap between 2011 and 2010 has close from just over $600 million to just over $400 million in roughly ten days. Revenue is still down by 6%, while ticket sales are close to 8% lower, but if we can end summer less than $300 million off 2010's pace, we might be able to close the gap entirely by the end of the year.
More...
July 24th, 2011
After last week's fireworks, this weekend was another good one for the industry thanks to a better-than-expected opening for Captain America: The First Avenger. The superhero movie is set to gross about $65.8 million at the box office this weekend, which is almost exactly the same as Thor's $65.7 million opening back in May. Captain's estimate does rely on a slightly better Sunday than Thor, so it might not quite top the list of superhero opening weekends in 2011, but the difference will basically be a rounding error. What was billed as a potentially close race for top spot this weekend turned in to a very one-sided battle, with Deathly Hallows dropping a steep 72% from its massive opening to an estimated $48.1 million. $274 million after 10 days is still a best for the franchise, however.
More...
July 21st, 2011
This weekend the battle will be between the last Harry Potter movie and The First Avenger. As long as the two films are close, the box office should be strong. In fact, The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 could break the record for largest week-to-week drop off (in terms of raw dollars) and still top last year's number one film. As long as Captain America comes close and Friends with Benefits doesn't bomb, we should see strong growth on a year-over-year basis.
More...
July 19th, 2011
After a weak start, 2011 started to improve in late April. However, by June it had all fallen apart again and it looked like the summer of 2011 would be even worse than the summer of 2010, which was the worst summer in a decade. Thank goodness Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 came along. That film made more than the entire box office did last weekend and came within $10 million of doing the same in comparison to last year. It helped the overall box office reach $262 million, or 68% more than last weekend and 47% more than the same weekend last year. 2011 is still off 2010's pace by more than 7% at $5.85 billion to $6.30 million, but at least there's some hope for the near future.
More...
June 28th, 2011
July starts with one of the most important holidays of the year, which is good news for the industry, as June was a little weaker than expected, at least on average. None of the films were shockingly bad at the box office, even if a few missed early predictions by significant degrees. But conversely, none really shocked analysts with their box office prowess. As such, 2011 continued to slide a little further behind 2010's pace, a trend the movie industry hopes will end this month. Fortunately, that is a reasonable goal. Last July was home to two $100 million movies, two $200 million movies, and a one $300 million movie, assuming you count The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as a July film. This time around, we could see two films top $300 million, assuming you count Transformers: Dark of the Moon as a July release. Meanwhile, there are several potential $100 million films. I count up to six films with a statistically significant shot at reaching the century mark, but I would be amazed if more than half of them got there.
More...