April 27th, 2010
After Avatar dominated last week's list, the selection of releases this week is not any better. There are only two first run releases of note, It's Complicated on DVD and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus on Blu-ray, while there are a few smaller releases that are also worth picking up. To find the Pick of the Week, however, we have to travel back in time as a couple of late releases finally found their way to my desk this week. Those late releases are Defendor (Buy from Amazon: DVD or Buy from Amazon.ca: Blu-ray) and Yesterday Was A Lie (DVD) and they share the Pick of the Week honors.
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December 14th, 2009
The box office was a little mixed this weekend with good news balancing the bad news. For instance, the two new releases in the top five both disappointed, but all three holdovers topped expectations.
Overall business was down 2.3% from last weekend, but up 6.0% from the same weekend last year, which is always the more important number.
Year-to-date, 2009 has now pulled in $9.79 billion, which is 8.6% higher than the same pace last year and more than $100 million more than the previous record.
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December 7th, 2009
It was one of those good news / bad news weekends; however, the bad news was minor compared to the overwhelming positive stories to talk about. Yes, the overall box office plummeted 47% from last weekend to $99 million, but that was expected for a post-holiday weekend and it was still 20% higher than the same weekend last year. Also, total ticket sales for the year now sit at $9.66 billion, which is not only 8.5% higher than last year's pace, it is within a rounding error of 2007's record-setting total.
That means it is possible that 2009 has already set the record for biggest yearly box office with three weeks left in the year.
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December 6th, 2009
The Blind Side rode tremendous word of mouth to a 3rd weekend victory at the box office, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Although the movie fell nearly 50% from its Thanksgiving performance, that was better than any other movie in the top ten, and gave the drama a safe $5 million lead over second place New Moon.
Blind Side is estimated at $20.44 million for the weekend, New Moon will come in around $15.7 million.
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December 3rd, 2009
While there's no scientific basis for blaming Tryptophan for post-Thanksgiving dinner lethargy, there's ample evidence that the post-Thanksgiving weekend fills moviegoers with apathy. This weekend will be no different and despite there being four films that at least have a shot at placing in the top ten, none really have a shot at first place. That said, three of the four should top last year's number one new film and December should begin on a strong note.
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December 1st, 2009
November turned out to be a good month with more films meeting or exceeding expectations that missing.
We also saw records broken as 2009 marches closer to the all-time record, and the possibility of becoming the first year to hit $10 billion in total ticket sales growing.
It won't need that much to get there, and even if just one or two of the predicted $100 million hits this month get to that milestone, we will still finish the year by breaking records.
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