March 7th, 2010
The Oscars are being handed out as we speak and I will be updating our list of nominees with some of the winners as they happen. So far we've seen a few awards handed out, but no surprises.
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March 7th, 2010
The Numbers' annual Oscar polls have proved to be remarkably accurate predictors of
the final results on Oscar night.
We call results based on the hundreds of The Numbers readers who vote in our
Predict the Oscars competition.
We've received all the votes now, and are ready to make predictions in all categories.
Percentage figures are the percentage of The Numbers readers who believe a movie or performance
will win.
They are a rough guide to how likely a particular movie is to win in a category.
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March 6th, 2010
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Picture and we actually have a real race in this category.
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March 6th, 2010
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Director and we actually have a real race in this category.
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March 5th, 2010
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Supporting Actor, which might be even less competitive than the Best Supporting Actress.
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March 4th, 2010
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should feel honored to just be nominated. Today we look at Best Original Screenplay, which is one of the more competitive categories this year.
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February 5th, 2010
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs led all new releases to grab top spot on the DVD sales chart for the week ending January 10 with 1.10 million units and $19.90 million in consumer spending at retail.
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February 2nd, 2010
Oscar nominations were announced at 5:38 this morning, continuing a tradition that have never been adequately explained to me. (Why so early in the morning? Does earning an Oscar nomination become sweeter if people have to wake you up to congratulate you?) Leading the way in nominations were Avatar and The Hurt Locker, both of which pick up nine nods each, many of them in the same categories.
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January 25th, 2010
The Directors Guild of America release their nominations over three days stretched out over a week. Only two of the nominations are for theatrical releases, but at least the documentary category had some interesting nominees. On the other hand, Feature Film merely enforces the trends we've seen throughout Awards Season.
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January 24th, 2010
There were few surprises when the SAG awards were handed out this weekend, and no film dominated the night.
Only one film, Inglourious Basterds, won more than one award, while most of the winners lined up with those handed out at other awards ceremonies so far this season.
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January 20th, 2010
Thanks to the holidays, DVD sales numbers were not reported on our usual schedule, but next week we should be back to normal, so it's a perfect time to wrap up some of the interesting notes from over the holidays.
The week after Black Friday saw the release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Terminator Salvation, neither of which matched expectations, although made up for their poor DVD performance somewhat by selling well on Blu-ray.
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January 17th, 2010
Some might debate the predictive value of The Golden Globes.
After all, they don't have all of the same categories as the Oscars, and the results for Best Picture in particular have varied from the Oscar result many times over the years.
However, it is hard to argue with the free publicity a film gets from winning, and the big winner tonight was Avatar.
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January 6th, 2010
The Producers Guild of America announced their nominations this week, and while there are only three categories for theatrical releases, they tend to be quite accurate predictors for the Oscar nominations.
This is great news for Up, which picked up nominations in two of the three categories.
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December 17th, 2009
The SAG nominations were announced this week, and the trend of the year continues with Up in the Air leading the way, but no one film dominating. This time around Up in the Air was in a three-way tie with Inglourious Basterds and Precious, which makes the race even more interesting.
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December 16th, 2009
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations this week, but looking over the list of films chosen, it is hard to declare any one film as the big winner. Up in the Air did pick up six Golden Globe nominations, including several of the most prestigious nominations, but it is far from the only major player.
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December 15th, 2009
This is the last full week before Christmas, so in many ways this is the last chance studios have to release their top properties.
And you can tell.
There are four releases that are prime candidates for the DVD Pick of the Week, including two $100 million hits (Inglourious Basterds and The Hangover) and two TV on DVD releases (Robot Chicken and Star Trek - The Original Series).
All have their strengths and weaknesses, but if I were forced to choose just one, it would be Inglourious Basterds on Blu-ray.
On the other hand, all four are joining my collection, plus several others coming out this week.
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December 12th, 2009
It's the film that might have saved, or at least postponed the demise of Weinstein.
The film Quentin Tarantino worked on for the better part of a decade, maybe more.
What movie are we talking about?
Inglourious Basterds, of course.
The World War II flick with the international cast that earned stellar reviews and, despite opening late in the summer, became one of the surprise hits of the year, the first Tarantino film to reach $100 million domestically in 15 years and his first film to reach $300 million worldwide ever.
It is also one of the most hotly anticipated home market releases of the week. ... Make that month.
But does it live up to its hype?
Is it worth picking up or just renting?
If it is worth picking up, which version is the best deal?
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November 29th, 2009
Planet 51 started its international run in a limited fashion, but was only a little better than its domestic opening. Its biggest market was Russia, where it placed fourth with $1.49 million on 344 screens, which is on par with its opening here, perhaps a little bit stronger.
The film also placed fourth in Italy with $1.16 million on 255 screens, which is again on par with the US, but perhaps a little weaker.
Overall, it landed in sixth place with $3.22 million on 894 screens in 6 markets during its opening weekend, but should improve this weekend when it opens in Spain, Mexico, and Brazil.
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November 14th, 2009
Couples Retreat expanded this past weekend but just missed the top five with $5.84 million on 1,373 screens in 18 markets for a total of $28.92 million after a month of release.
The film opened in third place in Germany under the name All Inclusive, with $2.55 million on 338 screens while it also took third place in Mexico with $446,000 on 235 screens.
Next up for the film is Spain next weekend and Italy the weekend after that, while it doesn't end its run until March when it opens in France.
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November 7th, 2009
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs fell out of the top five but still earned $5.18 million on 2568 screens in 39 markets for a total of $52.45 million so far. This was only 31% lower than last weekend, with no major market openings. In fact, the film doesn't have another major market opening till it debuts in Australia at the end of the month, while it still has openings in Italy and Spain by the end of the year, and it doesn't end its run till early next year with openings in Germany and some midlevel markets.
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October 31st, 2009
The Ugly Truth reached a major milestone over the weekend with $5.75 million on 2046 screens in 55 markets for a total of $102.27 million internationally. Its biggest market of the weekend was Spain, where it added $1.86 million on 360 screens for a total of $5.17 million. With a debut in Italy a few weeks away, it will likely fall sharply next weekend, but should have no trouble earning $200 million worldwide before its run is over.
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October 21st, 2009
Up had its best weekend on the international stage thanks mainly to two factors: It's first place opening in Italy, and its first place hold in the U.K. In Italy the film opened with $6.67 million on 652 screens over the weekend for a total of $7.15 million, which is a little weaker than Ice Age but better than Transformers. It held on very well well in the U.K. down just 19% to $8.40 million on 746 screens over the weekend for a total of $22.62 million after just two weeks of release. Ny this time next week it could have more than Cars made in total in that market, while it should end its run somewhere between WALL-E ($41 million) and Ratatouille ($48 million). Overall the film added $29.77 million on 4602 screens in 26 markets for a total of $295.15 million internationally and $587.96 million worldwide and has very likely that the film has reached $300 million internationally.
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October 14th, 2009
It took a long time, but after 20 weeks of release, Up finally took top spot on the international box office this past weekend. It earned $21.73 million on 3,616 screens in 25 markets over the weekend for a total of $257.39 million internationally and $550.03 million worldwide.
Almost half of the film's weekend haul came from the U.K., where it opened in first place with $10.10 million on 411 screens.
It is still going strong in Germany after pulling in $3.17 million on 846 screens over the weekend for a total of $20.22 million after four.
At this pace, it should earn around $30 million in that market, and with debuts in Italy and Japan, as well as other, smaller markets, the film should have no issue reaching $600 million worldwide, while $700 million isn't out of the question.
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October 11th, 2009
Le Petit Nicolas debuted in sixth place internationally with $9.39 million on 618 screens in 3 markets. Of that total, $8.88 million was earned on 571 screens in France, which was more than five times the amount earned by the second place film.
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September 30th, 2009
The Founding Of A Republic remained in first place down just 26% to $13.56 million on 1,380 screens over the weekend for a total of $36.16 million after two.
This film is performing amazingly in China and while it nationalistic story (it is about the rise of the communist party in China) will hurt its chances elsewhere, it's already made enough money to be considered a success.
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September 24th, 2009
The Founding Of A Republic opened in first place in China and first place internationally with $18.24 million on 1450 screens. It's quite rare for an non-Hollywood movie to top the international charts, but now is a great time of year for that to happen, as the summer blockbusters are (mostly) coasting on holdovers and the fall blockbusters are weeks away.
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September 17th, 2009
The Final Destination reached first place on the international chart with $16.15 million 2,704 screens in 25 markets for a total of just a hair under $55.00 million.
It is already the highest grossing film in the franchise both domestically and worldwide, and it will soon become the undisputed champion when it overtakes the first film's international final figure of close to $60 million.
As for this weekend's returns, it opened in first place in Russia with $5.50 million on 621 screens over the weekend for a total of $6.68 million.
It was pushed into second place in Germany with $2.15 million on 427 screens over the weekend and $7.16 million in total.
Meanwhile, it remained in second place in the U.K. with $1.54 million on 385 screens over the weekend and has made $17.70 million there after just three weeks of release, which is higher than the total box office of any of the other three films in the franchise.
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September 15th, 2009
The first official weekend of Autumn was not great at the box office, as every single new release missed expectations, some by small margins, others quite dramatically.
This was enough to push the total box office down to $92 million, off 6.7% from last weekend and 8.7% lower than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2009 is still up on 2008 by a significant margin, leading $7.53 billion to $7.00 billion.
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September 11th, 2009
Fall officially begins with the weekend after Labor Day, which in many years is the worst weekend of the year.
That probably won't be the case now thanks to Tyler Perry's propensity for wearing dresses.
This time last year wasn't the first weekend after Labor Day (it's a strange year this year and the weekends don't line up perfectly) and this will mean 2009 might have a little more trouble keeping up with last year than it normally would.
2009 should still come out ahead, but it will be close compared to the first weekend of Fall from last year.
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September 10th, 2009
There was a close two-way race for top spot on the international box office chart with Inglourious Basterds just coming out on top with $14.90 million on 2,929 screens in 34 markets for a total of $83.99 million.
The film remained in first place in France with $3.7 million over the weekend and now has $18.8 million in total.
It was pushed into second place with Germany, but it was still impressive with $3.02 million on 466 screens over the weekend for a total of $13.99 million after three.
It opens in Spain in just over a week's time, and when it does it will have reached $100 million internationally and $200 million worldwide, and will likely become the undisputed biggest hit of Quentin Tarantino's career when it does.
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September 8th, 2009
Labor Day long weekend is over and, as we already knew, the summer of 2009 set records.
Over the summer months, the box office earned $4.31 billion, which was well ahead of 2007's previous record of $4.16 billion.
Granted, as mentioned before, this summer not only had two years of inflation, but also one additional weekend.
Even so, there's a lot to cheer about.
This past weekend, the industry pulled in $99 million over three days and $125 million over four.
This is a huge amount compared to same weekend last year; however, because summer lasted one week longer, this weekend last year was the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend, so the comparison falls apart.
Year-to-date, 2009 has earned $7.41 billion, which is 7.8% more than at the same point in 2008.
The lead in terms of raw dollars is more than $500 million, and it would take a massive collapse for this lead to evaporate.
Hopefully that will not happen, but given the performance of the three new releases this week, it is not impossible.
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September 6th, 2009
The Final Destination pulled off an unlikely repeat win over Labor Day weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
The horror movie, which was considered only a marginal favorite to win last weekend, beat off modest openings for All About Steve and Gamer.
Destination's 3-day estimate is $12.435 million, with Steve second with $11.2 million and Gamer a disappointing fourth with $9 million.
Inglourious Basterds places third with $10.8 million.
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September 3rd, 2009
It's the final weekend of summer 2009, and already we've broken the record for the season.
The previous record was set in 2007 when the total summer box office was $4.16 billion.
In comparison, at the end of last weekend, 2009 had earned $4.17 billion and there's one more weekend to go.
Granted, 2009 is a rare year where the summer had 18 weekends instead of 17, and 2009 also has two years worth of inflation to help, but this is still worth celebrating.
Looking at the final weekend of the summer, we should end the season on a high note as this time last year was, well, terrible.
It would be nearly medically impossible for the summer to end weaker than last year, but there is a chance none of the three wide releases will come out on top, which would be a bit of a disappointing end.
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September 2nd, 2009
Inglourious Basterds remained in first place with $19.89 million on 2854 screens in 31 markets for a total of $59.63 million internationally and $132.66 million worldwide. The film had no major openings this week and its holds were all over the map. On the one hand, it was down just 22% in Germany adding $3.28 million on 461 screens over the weekend for a total of $9.54 million after two. On the other hand, the film was down 65% in the U.K. to just $1.83 million on 443 screens over the weekend, but it has earned a nearly identical $9.52 million after two. Other markets where the film took top spot include France, where the film added $5.4 million over the weekend for a total of $13.5 million after two, while in Australia it added $1.79 million on 266 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.49 million. The next major market opening for the film is Spain in a couple weeks, while it has major market openings till the end of November. Even if the film didn't have any major market openings, it would still reach $100 million internationally and $200 million worldwide, which would make it the biggest hit of Quentin Tarantino's career.
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August 31st, 2009
It was a great weekend at the box office as all but one film in the top five films met or exceeded expectations, some by large margins. This helped the box office pull in a very healthy total of $125 million over the weekend, which was just 1.7% lower than last week. More importantly, it was a stunning 28% higher than the same weekend last year. Wow. Granted, this weekend last year was Labor Day weekend, which is a terrible time at the box office, but this is still a fantastic result. Year-to-date, 2009 has pulled in $7.24 billion, which is 7.4% higher than last year's pace.
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August 28th, 2009
There are two horror sequels opening at saturation-level theater counts this week, both of which could open with near identical numbers over the next three days.
This close race should add interest to the weekend box office, while 2009 should have little trouble maintaining its lead over last year, which had four wide releases, none of which topped $10 million.
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August 26th, 2009
Inglourious Basterds made its debut on the international market taking first place with $27.49 million on 2650 screens in 22 markets. This includes first place openings in a number of major markets, led by France where it opened with $6.09 million on 500 screens; this is not really surprising as Quentin Tarantino is extremely popular in that market. The U.K. was close behind with $5.92 million on 444 screens, while it also topped the charts in Germany ($4.20 million on 439 screens) and in Australia ($2.56 million on 266). On the other hand, the film was stuck in second place in Russia, but still performed well with $2.55 million on 340 screens. So far the film is tracking well ahead of Kill Bill - Volume 1 and should become his biggest hit of all time topping Pulp Fiction.
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August 26th, 2009
My One and Only opened on top of the per theater chart with an average of $14,673 in four theaters. This is a better start than expected for the film. The only other member of the $10,000 club was the overall box office champion, Inglourious Basterds, which opened with an average of $12,024.
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August 24th, 2009
Overall the box office was weaker than expected this weekend with only one of four releases meeting expectations, while the holdovers were not able to completely compensate. This led a 10.5% drop-off in ticket sales from last weekend; however, the $127 million total box office take is still 20% higher than the same weekend last year.
2009 stretched its year-to-date lead over 2008 to 6.9%, earning $7.06 billion to $6.60 billion so far.
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August 23rd, 2009
Quentin Tarantino enjoyed the best opening of his career over the weekend, according to Weinstein Co.'s estimate released on Sunday morning.
With $37.6 million, the movie tops his previous best, which is either Sin City (if you count his single scene as a legitimate directing credit) or Kill Bill: Volume 2, depending on your perspective.
Either way, it's an impressive debut for a late Summer movie.
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August 21st, 2009
This week we have two saturation level releases and two releases that don't even qualify as truly wide but could still reach the top ten. Realistically, even with four wide-ish releases, only one of them has a real shot at top spot and that will hurt the overall box office. On the other hand, this week last year was much worse in terms of high powered releases and 2009 should continue its winning ways.
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August 20th, 2009
August 1st, 2009
July was a mixed month with several of the big hits failing to live up to great expectations, while still being big hits. There were no surprise hits, but no outright bombs either. No outright bombs is what the industry is hoping for August, but that seems less likely. We could see a monster hit opening on the first week, but that potential hit, G.I.Joe, could also be a monster bomb. There is at least one movie opening each week that I'm personally interested in, although for the most part it is not the widest release of the week that piques my interest.
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October 2nd, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Paper Man, Sherlock Holmes, Kung Fu Panda 2, and more!
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August 16th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Chilled in Miami, Dorian Gray, Surfer Dude, 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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July 31st, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Finding Amanda, The Hobbit, Inglorious Bastards, and more!
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