October 25th, 2011
It's a rather strong week on the home market with several top-notch releases and no matter what your tastes are, you should find something to enjoy here. Even if you just look at contenders for Pick of the Week, there are first run releases (Captain America: The First Avenger on Blu-ray Combo Pack); limited releases (Attack the Block on DVD); TV on DVD releases (Robot Chicken: Season Five on Blu-ray), Box Sets (Jurassic Park: Trilogy Box Set) and even classics (Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection on DVD). In the end, I went with the Winnie the Pooh Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack, which should pick up an Oscar nomination and might be the favorite to win Best Feature-Length Animated Film.
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September 21st, 2011
Restless won the race to the top of the per theater chart with $15,467 in its lone theater. However, given its reviews, I don't think the word of mouth will be there to help it expand. The Lion King was second with an average of $12,941. The Mill and the Cross was the only other film to cross $10,000 at $11,354 over the weekend and $15,443 from Wednesday through Sunday.
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August 3rd, 2011
Miranda July's second film, The Future, opened about as well as her first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, did. It earned $27,137 in its lone theater, which was enough for top spot on the per theater chart and suggests a strong potential for expansion. The Devil's Double and The Guard were in a virtual tie with averages of $19,283 and $19,209 respectively. Attack the Block was one of the wider limited releases of the week, and it had the biggest opening in terms of raw dollars. Furthermore, its average of $17,198 suggest potential to expand. El Bulli: Cooking in Progress opened in one theater earning $12,756 over the weekend and $20,699 since Wednesday. Sarah's Key expanded from 5 theaters to 33, but still managed a very strong per theater average of $11,112. The final film to cross the $10,000 per theater average was The Smurfs at $10,489.
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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.
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July 29th, 2011
There are five films opening in limited release that are earning Tomatometer Scores of 80% or better. There are also a couple others earning reviews that are good, but not great. That's a lot of competition and sadly it likely means a few of them won't live up to their potential as a result. Some, like Attack the Block, might have to wait till the home market to find an audience. Others won't be as lucky.
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May 18th, 2011
Fast Five remained in top spot on the international chart with $58.34 million on 8,819 screens in 61 markets for totals of $272.24 million internationally and $441.93 million worldwide. The film's only major market opening was in China, where it grabbed $9.1 million, which was easily enough for first place. It remained in first place in France ($4.97 million on 500 screens) and in Mexico ($4.77 million on 1,003) while it now has $15.17 million and $17.22 million in those two markets respectively. Its biggest market so far has been Russia, where it has earned $27.39 million after three weeks of release, including $2.53 million on 752 screens this past weekend. At this point, $600 million worldwide is becoming very likely, even with few additional markets left to open in. In fact, its next major market is Japan, but it doesn't open there till October.
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