August 7th, 2017
Monster Hunt was, well, a monster hit in its native Chinese. In fact, it was the biggest hit in that market until The Mermaid took the crown the following year. On the other hand, it only managed mostly positive reviews and completely bombed in theaters in the US. It did so poorly that it was dumped onto the home market on a featureless DVD. Is it a cultural issue? Does the film just not translate well from the Chinese to Western culture? Or does it deserve to be seen by more people?
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December 22nd, 2016
We listed the first-run releases, TV on DVD releases and Classics. The final installment includes some books, music, and anything I forgot before. And let’s be honest, there’s a couple of late screeners on this list, because I don’t have time to review them.
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July 4th, 2016
It's a strange week on the home market, as there are no first-run releases and very few other releases to make up the difference. There are some contenders for Pick of the Week, but all of them are foreign-language films, which is again odd. In fact, two of them, Only Yesterday and The Boy and the World, are animated. However, in the end, I went with The Mermaid, which deserves to be seen by more and Blu-ray is a great way to see it.
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February 25th, 2016
Deadpool remained in first place with $85.0 million in 74 markets over the weekend for totals of $256.3 million internationally and $493.2 million worldwide. The film had a trio of openings in major markets. This includes South Korea where it earned $7.36 million on 1,035 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $11.58 million. This is the biggest opening for a 18+ film, which is the South Korean equivalent of an R-rating. The film also opened in first place in Spain with $3.86 million on 319 screens, but had to settle for second place in Italy with $3.24 million on 368. Even if the film doesn't earn another dollar, its return on investment would be well over 100%.
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February 19th, 2016
It's a short list this week, but there are more than a few films worth talking about. The Mermaid is by far the biggest and it has already earned close to $300 million worldwide. Additionally, its director, Stephen Chow, has had some box office success here in the past. Unfortunately, it has No Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, so it is hard to tell if it deserves breakout success here.
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May 26th, 2014
While summer time is a great time for theatrical releases, it is a terrible time on the home market. This week, there are nearly no first-run releases, and the one that came out, Endless Love, earned terrible reviews and failed to find an audience in theaters. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of other releases to make up for the lack of first-run releases. There are some catalog releases, like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which is coming out on Blu-ray. There are also some summer shows coming out on DVD ahead of the premiere of the latest season, like Suits: Season Three. There's not much in the way of contenders for Pick of the Week. Cheap Thrills is one such contender, but I'm still waiting for the DVD or the Blu-ray screener to arrive. This leaves Journey to the West on Blu-ray as the only choice for Pick of the Week.
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May 25th, 2014
Stephen Chow wrote, directed, and starred in Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, which are two amazing movies. When I heard he was making another movie, I was super excited. When Journey to the West was released last year, the film made $200 million internationally, which helped lift expectations. (It made less than $20,000 here, but it was playing on Video on Demand as well as in theaters, so this isn't surprising.) Is the film as good as its predecessors? And is the Blu-ray worth picking up?
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March 7th, 2014
This week the list of limited releases includes The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is earning amazing buzz and arguably better reviews. It will likely dominate the per theater chart so much so that the rest of the films might suffer as as result. This would be too bad, because there are several other films that deserve to find an audience. Grand Piano and In Fear are both earning great reviews, but as horror films playing on Video on Demand, their box office numbers will be nothing more than an afterthought. There are also a couple of comedies I'm interested in seeing, Journey To The West and No Clue, although the latter is only playing in Canada.
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