January 20th, 2009
A terrible week for first run releases. There are five such releases on this week's list, but they has a combined haul of around $130 million, and nearly $100 million of that came from two films. With no big releases, we had to look other places for the DVD Pick of the Week. Repo! The Genetic Opera on Blu-ray is a clear contender for that title, but its lack of mass appeal is troublesome. This American Life - Season Two is a safer pick, but it is a Borders Exclusive release. Regardless of these issues, both releases are worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week. Despite the weakness at the top, there are still more than enough total releases to cause this column to stretch into two parts. The second part can be found here.
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January 19th, 2009
The new releases overwhelmed the sales chart this week taking the top four places, and six of the top ten, and nine of the top thirty. This includes the new number one film, Pineapple Express, which opened in first place with 1.48 million units sold and $31.39 million in revenue.
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January 19th, 2009
New releases took the top four spots on the rental chart this week, just as they did on the sales chart, and they did it mostly in the same order. Pineapple Express led the way with about 16% more rentals than second place Righteous Kill.
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January 6th, 2009
The new year starts off like most on the home market, rather weak. There are few first run releases coming out this week, most of which are terrible. We do have one top-notch release though, Duckman - Season Three and Four, which is clearly the DVD Pick of the Week.
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November 9th, 2008
Saw V slipped a spot to sixth place with $6.44 million on 1703 screens in 26 markets for a total of $16.52 million. This week it opened in fourth place in Russia with $745,000 on 200 screens while in earned seventh place in Mexico with just $148,000 on 120 screens. As far as holdovers go, the film fell more than 60% in the U.K. to $1.55 million on 367 screens for a total of $7.53 million.
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October 26th, 2008
Vicky Cristina Barcelona remained in sixth place internationally with $6.66 million on 1136 screens in 11 markets for a total of $22.85 million after a month of release. This includes France, where the film remained in first place with $3.15 million on 443 screens for the week and $7.68 million after two. Meanwhile, it opened in Italy with $2.16 million on 378 screens, which was enough for second place in that market.
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October 19th, 2008
First some updates on Wednesday's numbers. Due to Columbus Day, we were relying on studio estimates instead of final numbers, and while they were mostly accurate, they were not entirely accurate. The Russia film, Admiral (Koltchak), did indeed top the charts with $12.51 million on 1,223 screens in 2 markets over the weekend and $13.31 million in total. Meanwhile, Eagle Eye added $10.88 million on 3,030 screens in 38 markets for a still early total of $29.41 million. Mamma Mia! continues its quest for $400 million with $8.37 million on 3,713 screens in 46 markets for a total of $390.72 million. These three films were very close to the original figures, however, the rest of the top five was different than originally reported, starting with...
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October 12th, 2008
German Unification Day helped The Baader Meinhof Complex grow by 10% as it remained in second place in Germany with $4.82 million on 594 screens for a total of $10.99 million after two weeks. Adding in two smaller markets and the film made $5.35 million on 660 screens in 3 markets for a total of $12.06 million.
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September 14th, 2008
Wanted failed to reach first place during its opening in Germany, but still rose dramatically earning sixth internationally with $6.13 million on 1590 screens in 29 markets for a total of $147.68 million. In Germany is finished in second place behind The Dark Knight's third weekend of release earning $3.18 million on 444 screens, which is still impressive. Next up is Spain this weekend, while it opens wide in Japan next weekend and China early in October.
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September 8th, 2008
After the summer comes the fall, which was certainly true this past weekend. Bangkok Dangerous and rest of the market only pulled in just $68 million over the weekend, which is 45% lower than last weekend. However, while that's a huge drop-off, more importantly it is nearly 15% lower than the same weekend last year and the ninth weakest weekend since 2000, and worst weekend in five years. Year-to-date, 2008 is now behind 2007 by just over 1% at $6.75 billion to $6.82 billion, but hopefully it will bounce back next weekend. I can't imagine it will be worse.
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September 2nd, 2008
The Dark Knight did what few films in the past decade were able to do, lead the box office charts for four weeks in a row. Now Tropic Thunder is one weekend away from tying that mark. However, it was able to win this weekend thanks to weakness in the new releases, which caused the box office to slump. From Friday to Sunday the industry brought in $98 million, which was 8% lower than last weekend and 17% lower than the same weekend last year. Over four days, $124 million was earned, which was again 17% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2008 fell further behind $6.67 billion to $6.73 billion, but that is still less than a 1% difference and certainly not an insurmountable lead.
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August 30th, 2008
Summer ends with a lot of second-tier releases. The only movie that is earning reviews that are above the horrible level is Traitor. It is also the only film with an Official Site that is worth recognizing with the Weekly Website Award.
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August 28th, 2008
Labor Day long weekend is the final weekend of summer, but far from ending on a high note, it is arguably the slowest long weekend of the year. And this year it looks to be no different, at least in terms of box office numbers. In terms of new releases, well, that's a another story with four movies opening wide, and another expanding wide. It is very unlikely that they will all succeed; in fact, it is more likely that they will all bomb. This makes it very difficult to predict which new release will come out on top, if any do.
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August 23rd, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Extract, Gnomeo and Juliet, My Life in Ruins, and more!
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August 7th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Edge of Darkness, Inglorious Bastards, Rachel Getting Married, and more!
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August 1st, 2008
Summer usually comes screeching to a halt early in August, usually by the second weekend in August. However, this year we could have a $100 million hit opening each of the first three weeks. Or we could have no $100 million hits opening during the whole month. On the other end, there are a number of releases that probably looked good on paper, but failed to live up to their potential, not to mention a few that could not have looked good, even on paper. (I'm looking at you, Disaster Movie.)
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June 19th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for 2012, Public Enemies, Transformers 2, and more!
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June 17th, 2008
The last couple of weeks another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!
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June 15th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Transporter 3, Hoodwinked 2, The Green Hornet and more!
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