March 7th, 2012
Like it did on the DVD Sales Chart, Puss in Boots opened on first place on the Blu-ray sales chart. It sold 571,000 units generating $15.99 million in sales, and that's just from Friday through Sunday. Its opening Blu-ray share was 40%, which is excellent for a kid's movie.
More...
March 7th, 2012
Puss in Boots opened in top spot on the DVD Sales Chart despite coming out on Friday instead of Tuesday. Over the weekend, it sold 851,000 units generating $14.58 million in sales. As a point of comparison, Shrek Forever After sold about twice as many during its first week of release, but it was a Tuesday release and it came out during the heart of Christmas shopping season.
More...
February 21st, 2012
It's a mixed week on the home market. The biggest hit coming out on Tuesday is Tower Heist, which struggled compared to expectations and its production budget. The rest of Tuesday's offerings include more wide releases that missed at the box office, some TV on DVD releases from cable networks, as well as a few limited releases of note. Fortunately, there is a film coming out on Friday that is picking up the slack. Puss in Boots also missed expectations at the box office, at least domestically. However, it earned more than $500 million worldwide, not to mention an Oscar nomination. It is also the easy choice for Pick of the Week.
More...
December 16th, 2011
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations and the Awards Season picture started to look a whole lot clearer. The Artist led the way with six nominations, while The Descendents and The Help were right behind with five apiece.
More...
December 15th, 2011
The SAG nominations were handed out this week, and while The Help led the way with four nods, it wasn't the only film that earned multiple nominations.
More...
November 21st, 2011
Normally the breaking of the dawn is a sign of hope, and normally a film opening with close to $140 million is a reason to celebrate. However, despite the success of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, there are some troubling signs ahead. If we can focus on the positive for a bit, the film did help the overall box office rocket up 63% from last weekend to $222 million, which was 14% higher than the same weekend last year. That's not enough to suggest 2011 will catch up to 2010 by the end of the year. We are still 3.5% behind last year's pace at $9.09 billion to $9.42 billion and we are rapidly running out of time. Plus there are worse signs ahead.
More...
November 14th, 2011
We finally had some good news, as there was a surprise hit at the box office. Immortals opened with substantially more than expected, while the rest of the top five at least came within $500,000 of weekend predictions. This led to an increase from last weekend of 20% to $136 million, while compared to last year, the box office was 12% higher. There is still some bad news. For instance, 2011 is still behind 2010's pace by about 4% at $8.83 billion to $9.19 billion. Also, in order to catch up, we need to maintain year-over-year gains that are about twice as high as they were this weekend. I don't see that happening.
More...
November 13th, 2011
Relativity will enjoy a relatively comfortable win at the box office this weekend, based on Sunday estimates. 3D fantasy action movie Immortals is set to earn about $32 million, according to their Sunday estimate, and will comfortably beat fellow-opener Jack and Jill. The Adam Sandler comedy is projected to earn $26 million, which makes it essentially tied with Puss in Boots. The animated adventure will be down just 22% this weekend and has passed $100 million at the box office in its third weekend.
More...
November 10th, 2011
2011 continues to stumble to the finish line and I'm starting to get more than a little depressed at the overall box office numbers. This week we have three wide releases, if you stretch the definition of wide a little bit, as J. Edgar will open in less than 2,000 theaters. On the other hand, both Jack and Jill and Immortals are opening in 3,000 theaters and both have a shot at first place. However, Puss in Boots has an even better shot at holding onto first place for the third weekend in a row. While this is good news for Puss in Boots, it's bad news for the box office as a whole. It will likely earn substantially less than last year's number one film, Megamind. The combined openings of the three wide releases coming out this week will likely be larger than three wide releases from last year. If there's a pleasant surprise or two, 2011 will be able to earn the win. At least there's little chance we will see the kind of year-over-year declines we saw the last two weeks.
More...
November 1st, 2011
October was a bit of a write-off. After the last weekend of September, the 2011 box office was about $280 million behind 2010's pace, but after the final weekend in October, that gap increased to $340 million. November will obviously bring in more box office dollars than October did. After all, it has one of the most important long holiday weekends of the year, Thanksgiving. However, the important question is not, "Can this November top last month?" It's, "Can this November top last year?" The biggest hit of last November was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, which earned just shy of $300 million. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 should match that figure. Tangled reached $200 million and maybe Happy Feet 2 will match that figure, but that's far less certain. There's a chance The Muppets will match Megamind while Tower Heist should top Due Date. If Jack and Jill and / or Hugo can become surprise $100 million hits and one of the limited releases can become a monster hit, like The King's Speech was able to, then suddenly the box office looks whole lot rosier going into the final month of the year. It's possible, but it's kind of like getting a backdoor full house in Texas Hold'em to beat a straight. I wouldn't bet on it. On the other hand, there doesn't appear to be many Skyline, The Next Three Days or Faster films that bombed at the box office. So while we might not be as strong at the top, there is better depth this year and hopefully that will be enough.
More...
