September 13th, 2010
Six new releases reached the top 30 on this week's sales chart, including five new releases in the top five. A clean sweep of the top five is quite impressive. Leading the way was Why Did I Get Married Too? with 553,000 units / $9.91 million in consumer spending during its opening week on the home market. This is almost identical to the opening week of I Can Do Bad All By Myself.
More...
August 30th, 2010
It's a devastatingly slow week on the home market when it comes to first run releases with only a couple making an appearance, and combined these two films failed to reach $100 million at the box office. There are a few TV on DVD releases that try to make up the difference, but overall it is still a very slow week. Looking at the best of the best, House, M.D.: Season Six on DVD or Blu-ray gets serious consideration for Pick of the Week, but that honor goes to Thriller: The Complete Series on DVD.
More...
August 1st, 2010
After opening in a few markets last weekend, Inception got its international run off in earnest last weekend and climbed into second place with $56.78 million on 5,177 screens in 36 markets for a still early total of $87.86 million.
It opened in a number of major markets and debuted in first place in most of them.
The biggest was Japan with $7.86 million on 525 screens over the weekend and $8.94 million in total.
France was also a lucrative market for the film with $8.01 million on 626 screens, while in South Korea it made $6.01 million on 583 screens over the weekend and $7.89 million in total.
Russia added $7.08 million on 895 screens to its weekend haul, while Australia produced $6.67 million on 413.
The film only managed seventh in Mexico with just $467,000 on 152 screens, but this was a low screen count.
In the U.K. the film was down just 29% to $6.47 million on 456 screens over the weekend for a total of $22.01 after two.
More...
July 25th, 2010
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse slipped to second place with $43.82 million on 9,527 screens in 61 markets for a total of $295.66 million internationally and $560.45 million worldwide.
This includes a first place debut in Germany with $9.76 million on 767 screens over the weekend and $12.30 million in total.
On the other hand, the film was down a stunning 75% in the U.K. to $5.19 million over the weekend and $33.84 million after two.
The amazing growth the franchise saw from installment one to two is gone, but this is still a fantastically profitable movie.
More...
June 20th, 2010
For the third weekend in a row, Robin Hood remained in fourth place. This time it pulled in $7.19 million on 5742 screens in 54 markets for a total of $183.71 million internationally and $283.17 million worldwide. This week it opened in China and India, two countries that rarely release box office numbers in a timely fashion.
More...
June 14th, 2010
It turns out that the battle of the 80s superstars was a one-sided affair, as The Karate Kid easily took the top spot. Overall, the box office brought in $151 million over the weekend, which was 18% higher than last weekend and nearly 10% higher than the same weekend last year. It will take a few more weekends like this before the exuberance from earlier in the year returns, but this is a welcome result. Year-to-date, 2010 has now made $4.68 billion compared to last year's running tally of $4.53 billion, but its lead is due to much higher ticket prices. Attendance is down by 3%.
More...
June 13th, 2010
Rajneeti was the second Indian film within a few weeks to open strong on the global scene. Internationally, it earned third place with $11.01 million on 925 screens in 16 markets, which is an excellent start for this type of film. After Kites opened respectively well, it quickly collapsed. Thanks to a higher than average production budget, it will end up costing the studio money. However, this film is already well on its way to profitability and hopefully it will show much better legs.
More...
June 11th, 2010
The winners of our Burn, Baby, Burn contest were determined and they are...
More...
June 8th, 2010
Well, that was bad. After the worst Memorial Day long weekend in nearly two decades (at least in terms of tickets sold) we had another weekend full of disappointing new releases. The overall box office was $129 million, which was down 15% from last weekend. Since it is a post-holiday weekend, this drop-off is not surprising. However, it was also down 22% from the same weekend last year, which is the third weekend in a row where we've seen double-digit declines year-over-year. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009, but the lead has shrunk to less than 4% at $4.47 billion to $4.31 billion.
More...
June 3rd, 2010
With May over and not a single wide release beating expectations, the beginning of June can be looked upon with joy or trepidation. On the one hand, maybe we can put May behind us and move on. On the other hand, perhaps the slump will just continue and make matters worse. It is unlikely that any of the new releases will keep up with last year's champion, The Hangover. But perhaps the combined efforts of all four new releases will top the combined efforts of the three wide releases from last year.
While there is no likely breakout hit like we had last year, four films have a legitimate shot at top spot.
More...
June 1st, 2010
So far this summer the disappointments are outnumbering the pleasant surprises by a disturbing margin. Granted, we've only just finished May, but none of the May wide releases met expectations. None. Iron Man 2 was still a massive hit, but no film since then has come close to matching its box office prowess and we are coming close to hitting the panic button at the box office. Worse still, June of 2009 was better than expected with two massive hits that came out of nowhere. Plus, there was the release of the Revenge of the Fallen, which for much of the year looked like it would be the biggest hit of 2009. So, do we have any films likely to do as well as Revenge this June? Maybe. And hopefully we will have more depth, because outside those three films, the rest of June 2009 struggled.
More...
May 28th, 2010
Next week is a busy week with four wide releases, none of which seems like obvious blockbusters. The widest release of the week is Marmaduke, which might be the only saturation level release, and that should give it the edge. Whether or not this turns out to be true, it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Marmaduke.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Burn Notice: Season Three on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of Burn Notice: Season Three on DVD.
Finally, one additional person will be chosen at random and they will win the final copy of Burn Notice: Season Three on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
More...