April 20th, 2010
The week ending April 11 was one of the weakest weeks in a long time for new releases, with not a single one reaching the top five on the DVD sales chart. Only three reached the top 30. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel remained the best selling DVD with 394,000 units sold for the week, pumping its total sales to 2.93 million units after two.
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August 11th, 2009
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra topped expectations and that helped 2009 finally snap its month-long slump at the box office. Overall the industry brought in $146 million, which was 17% higher than last weekend, and more importantly, 22% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2009 has brought in $6.64 billion, which is 6.6% higher than 2008's pace; however, while that's impressive, it is seriously off its highs for the year and 2009 will need to work to make sure ticket sales don't fall behind last year's pace.
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August 3rd, 2009
2009 took another hit at the box office over the weekend, bringing in just $125 million.
This might seem like a huge amount, but that's 17% lower than last weekend and 18% lower than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date 2009 has earned $6.43 billion, which is 7.0% more than the running tally from this time last year, and if 2009 can just maintain pace with 2008 for the rest of the year, then the total ticket sales will reach $10 billion for the first time ever.
However, we haven't matched box office numbers in nearly a month, so things will need to turn around soon.
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August 2nd, 2009
On a weekend that was modest overall for the industry, Funny People took top spot on the box office chart with a $23.4 million opening weekend, according to Universal's Sunday estimate.
The movie is Judd Apatow's third directorial effort, and the opening falls in the middle of his range so far, ahead of The 40-Year-Old Virgin's $21.4 million but some way behind the $30.7 million opening enjoyed by Knocked Up.
It's also something of a disappointment for an Adam Sandler movie, as he has become more accustomed to $30 million plus openings.
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July 30th, 2009
The final weekend in July starts today, while August starts the day after. It's not a great weekend to open a movie, and of the three wide releases, only one has any real box office potential. Even worse, this time last year there were two films that made $40 million or more at the box office, which means 2009's lead on 2008 will continue to shrink.
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July 12th, 2009
July 1st, 2009
June gave us some unexpected hits in The Proposal and The Hangover, as well as expected hits like Up, not to mention the biggest hit of the year, so far, in Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen. However, despite this, 2009 lost a bit of ground to 2008, and this will likely continue this month, as this month last year saw the release of The Dark Knight.
This year we have a couple of potential $300 million hits, but nothing likely to perform on that scale.
Then again, I only predicted Dark Knight would make $250 million, so we could be surprised again this year.
The box office is certainly hot, and is currently running more than 12% ahead of last year's pace.
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