October 29th, 2007
There were six new releases on this week's sales chart, including the number one film of the week, The Transformers. That DVD sold 5.09 million units for opening week sales of $117.01 million, which was the best opening on the home market this year in terms of raw dollars. However, 300 sold more units, barely, at 5.10 million.
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October 29th, 2007
The Transformers led a list of six new releases and the overall rental chart this week, but at $9.97 million in rentals, it was a subdued victory compared to its dominance of the sales chart.
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October 21st, 2007
Evan Almighty was a surprise winner on this week's sales chart topping fellow new release Surf's Up in terms of sales 740,000 units to 682,000 units and in terms of dollars $12.58 million to $10.91 million.
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October 21st, 2007
New releases took three of the top five places including Surf's Up, which earned first place with $8.13 million. This is unusual since kids movies tend to place higher on the sales chart than the rental chart, but that was not the case here.
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October 14th, 2007
The Heartbreak Kid missed the top five by less than $20,000 over the weekend earning $5.74 million on 819 screens in 4 markets during its opening weekend on the international charts. This includes openings in to major markets including the U.K. where it opened in first place with $2.52 million on 409 screens, but this was still a disappointing debut, much like it was domestically. Conversely, the film opened in second place in Russia with $2.31 million on 360 screens, but this is a much better performance compared to the overall box office size of the marketplace.
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October 9th, 2007
The holiday-delayed list is here, but there are not many releases I can get truly excited about. There are quite a few limited releases on this week's list that deserve to be seen, but only one rises to the level of a DVD Pick of the Week and that is Black Sheep - Unrated - Buy from Amazon. Fair warning, this movie is not for everyone, but it manages to mix the gore and giggles nearly perfectly and fans of such movies will certainly want to add it to their DVD collections.
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October 7th, 2007
Hairspray managed to climb into sixth place by the narrowest of margins earning $4.59 million on 2073 screens in 37 markets for a running tally of $54.35 million. This includes a third place, $1.36 million opening on 302 screens in Italy, which is close to its opening domestically, when you take into account the relative size of the two markets. On the other hand, many muscials prove to be difficult to market internationally and it was never likely that this film would match its domestic run. However, it has already made enough to be considered a financial success.
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September 30th, 2007
Ratatouille opening in first place in South Africa this weekend earning $298,000 on 40 screens, which is very close to what The Simpsons Movie made in its opening there a few weeks ago. Its best market of the weekend remains France where it was down a mere 4% to $1.67 million on 655 screens over the weekend for a total of $58.63 million. At this pace, the film will reach $60 million by this time next week while topping Finding Nemo's total of nearly $65 million is increasingly in reach. Overall Ratatouille added $4.66 million on 2535 screens in 27 markets for a total of $216.42 million, which is more than Cars managed, and this film still has openings in Germany, U.K., Italy, and Scandinavia.
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September 23rd, 2007
Rush Hour 3 missed spending its fifth week in fifth place by less than $4000 at $5.69 million on 2443 screens in 31 markets for a total of $69.71 million. This weekend the film opened in first place in Russia with $2.28 million on 385 screens while it had to settle for second place in Denmark with $485,000 on 41 screens over the weekend and $517,000 in total.
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September 17th, 2007
The weekend was, for the most part, very predictable with The Brave One opening a little softer that expected while D-War opened a little stronger. However, overall there are not many surprises worth talking about. This includes the overall box office, which brought in $79 million over the weekend. This was 1% lower than last weekend, but 1% above the same weekend last year. However, at this pace the box office's winning streak over last year will end next weekend.
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September 16th, 2007
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry soared into sixth place with $4.72 million on 1521 screens in 21 markets for a total of $14.61 million internationally. The film finally hit big in a non-English speaking market earning first place with $1.27 million on 364 screens in Russia, but was soft in its debuts in South Korea and Italy. In Italy it managed $683,000 on 198 screens, but that was a tiny fraction of the first place film, while in South Korea it managed just ninth place with $275,000 on 123 screens over the weekend and $312,000 in total.
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September 9th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix may have fallen out of the top five, but it was able to cross $900 million worldwide since last week making it only the tenth film to do so. Over the weekend the film added $7.08 million on 4486 screens in 53 markets for a total of $626.30 million internationally, which places the film sixth place on that chart just $16 million behind Dead Man's Chest. There's not much to report for individual markets with the film down 43% during its second weekend in Greece adding $612,000 on 129 screens for a total of $2.91 million. Its best market remains Japan at $1.67 million on 605 screens over the weekend for a total of $75.18 million after seven weeks. Meanwhile, the film continues to march towards $100 million in the U.K. and after earning $796,000 on 306 screens over the weekend it now sits at $97.89 million in total.
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September 2nd, 2007
Knocked Up went from barely making the top 30 to nearly hitting the top five after adding $6.89 million on 1628 screens in 19 markets. The film now has a total of $25.54 million internationally while its worldwide total hit $173.34 million. To put this into perspective, The 40-Year Old Virgin earned $177.34 million and Knocked Up has yet to open in France, Spain, Italy, and many other significant markets. This week it did open in two major markets, the U.K. and Germany. In the former it had to settle for second place with $3.08 million on 423 screens while in the later it topped the charts with $2.11 million on 597 screens. In both markets this represents a small drop-off from The 40-Year Old Virgin, but the movie has already covered its total cost, so there's little reason to complain.
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August 26th, 2007
The Transformers fell out of the top five but still cracked 8 digits with $11.10 million on 54.92 screens in 52 markets for a total of $354.33 million. The film is mostly coasting on holdovers at the moment, but it did top the Polish market with $664,000 on 106 screens while its best market was Japan where it added $2.49 million on 592 screens over the weekend for a total of $23.98 million.
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August 19th, 2007
D-War slipped to sixth place overall, but remained in first place in South Korea with $10.19 million on 623 screens over the weekend and $37.81 million in total.
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August 12th, 2007
Live Free or Die Hard was knocked out of the top five but still earned $7.15 million on 317 screens in 29 markets for a total of $192.83 million. The film opened in first place in four markets, with the biggest being Brazil at $1.60 million on 352 screens over the weekend and $2.07 million in total. At this pace the film would hit $200 million this weekend, even if it didn't open in Australia, while it will top Die Hard with a Vengeance's worldwide total shortly.
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August 5th, 2007
No, this is not a repeat, May 18 is the name of a South Korean film that opened last weekend with $7.40 million on 534 screens over the weekend and $9.66 million in total. This was enough for first place finish in its native market and a sixth place finish internationally.
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July 10th, 2007
Records fell this past week(end) as The Transformers topped almost all expectations and broke a couple of records.
However, while the overall box office hit $174 million, which was 12% higher than last weekend, it was 20% lower than the same weekend last year.
There are some mitigating circumstances to deal with.
For instance, the midweek releases did pull some business from the weekend.
And secondly, last year at this time was the then record-breaking opening of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
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July 6th, 2007
With the strange release schedule this week, it seemed a smart plan to give updates just before the weekend starts.
This should be the end of the scheduling weirdness as well, at least until the next holiday.
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July 3rd, 2007
The weekend lasts seven days this time around, starting on Monday evening at 8 p.m. with the debut of The Transformers in roughly 3,000 theaters.
And with July Fourth on Wednesday, there are films opening up practically every day this week.
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July 2nd, 2007
There was some good news over the weekend; the mini-slump ended as the overall box office pulled in $156 million, 1% over the same weekend last year. That's not a big increase, in fact, it is below ticket price inflation, but that's still something to celebrate and focusing on the good news is good for business.
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July 1st, 2007
There was a troubling lack of final results this week and this results in a few studio estimates with some of the numbers. However, it appears that Black House was able to place fourth on the international charts after winning the box office race in South Korea The film was able to top its native market with $2.71 million on 325 screens over the weekend and $3.35 million in total.
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June 28th, 2007
The mini-slump of 2007 threatens to become the dominant story if things don't change soon. This week there are a two wide releases hoping to prop up the box office numbers, as well as two other films opening or expanding semi-wide. None look like they will set records during their opening weekends, but Ratatouille should outperform Superman Returns, and that's good news.
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June 25th, 2007
The box office was off last year's pace, again, this time it is mainly due to the box office struggles of the overall box office leader, Evan Almighty, which missed lowered expectations. Overall the industry added $132 million over the weekend, which was down 9% from last weekend and 6% from the same weekend last year. It is not time to panic, yet, but if we don't see the box office rebound over the next few weeks, industry talk will switch from the big hits to the misses, and that tends to worsen a depressed market even more.
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June 24th, 2007
Evan Almighty made a mediocre debut over the weekend according to studio estimates, earning $32.1 million.
That's about half the opening weekend of Bruce Almighty, and about on par with the debuts of Norbit ($34.2 million) and Blades of Glory ($33 million) earlier in the year.
With a start like this, Evan can still hope for a $100 million run at the US box office, but it's going to be a long, long time before it recoups its $175 million plus production budget.
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June 24th, 2007
One of the most anticipate films of the summer became the best site of the week. The Simpsons Movie - Official Site is finally here and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 21st, 2007
A trio of new releases this week are led by Evan Almighty, but while that film has a clear shot at first place, the real question is whether the overall box office can avoid falling behind last year's pace. Last year's top 10 pulled in just under $125 million, which is certainly within reach, but far from a sure thing.
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June 15th, 2007
Evan Almighty is the target film for his week's box office prediction contest.
Not only that, but it is also the first time in our series that we will be giving away a High Definition DVD, maybe.
Bruce Almighty was recently released on HD-DVD and that is the top prize this week.
However, since most people don't have HD-DVD players, we will only give the HD-DVD version if the winner requests it.
Otherwise, they will get the DVD version.
To win, one must simply predict the box office opening for Evan Almighty.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, as well as whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win one copy of Bruce Almighty (HD-DVD or DVD, please specify).
In addition, for both winners, we will purchase a tree in their name in the Almighty Forest.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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June 9th, 2007
There are a lot of movies on this week's list, but many have just the synopsis, image gallery, and the trailer, and many don't even have that. There were very few that stood out, but at least Speed Racer - Official Site got off to a great start. Perhaps it will win the award before it hits theaters.
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June 1st, 2007
With the irrational exuberance of May over, June promises to be a solid month with a number of big hits opening. In fact, every week there's at least one film being released that has a legitimate shot at $100 million at the box office and two films that should hit $200 million. If both Ratatouille and Evan Almighty make it there, we will have six $200 million films so far this year, just two back of 2005's record. On the other hand, there are also a number of films on this month's list that may or may not open wide, and for most of these becoming a midlevel hit will be a chore.
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May 26th, 2007
Another slow week. If this keeps up I'm going to have to rethink my methodology. Not only were there not as many sites as I would like, there were none that really stood out as award-worthy. The best was Stardust - Official Site, but here I will wait for more of the content to be added before I make a final decision.
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May 19th, 2007
Either it was a really slow week or my Google-Fu is way off, because there's a short list this week. Not only were there very few new / updated sites, but there was nothing that jumped out as award winners. I was tempted to give the award to The Transformers - Official Site just for the new trailer, but I already geeked-out over that site when the first trailer came out. In the end there just wasn't a site worthy of the award this week.
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April 29th, 2007
It's a slow week in terms of the cream-of-the-crop sites. There are a few that look like they could be award-worthy once they have a few more updates, but for the most part this week we have a collection that is rather average. There was one stand-out site, Evan Almighty - Official Site, and it was the only choice for the Weekly Website Award.
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April 7th, 2007
It's the Saturday after Good Friday, which explains why this column was delayed one day. But while the Friday was good, this week's sites were mediocre, at least they were compared to high expectations. If this was January, it would be a great list. However, at this point of the year I'm expecting one potential summer blockbuster to have a major website launch each week, and that didn't happen this time. We still had an award-worthy effort with Grindhouse - Official Site.
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March 31st, 2007
Awesome. We are finally getting some major updates to the summer blockbuster movies. The ones people are watching to see if they break records. This includes the first half of the massively interactive website for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Official Site. And while the site isn't done yet, it is still more than enough to win the Weekly Website Award.
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January 13th, 2007
A slow week, but that's not surprising. The movie industry is seasonal with peaks and valleys throughout the year. With movie websites, there tends to be the same peaks and valleys, just a few months earlier. (The same is true for DVDs, just a few months later.) While there are a few sites on this week's list that show promise, there are none that are really award-worthy.
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