April 14th, 2009
Not a busy week on the home market with the least number of new releases on this week for a number of weeks. (It seems busier than it is, because of all of the spotlight reviews. In fact, there are as many spotlight reviews as there are simple mentions. Additionally, there are more spotlight reviews for late arrivals than there are for this week's releases.) Looking for the best of the best, there's not a lot on top worth of the DVD Pick of the Week. The release I'm looking forward to the most is Lost in Austen - Buy from Amazon, which I'm awarding the DVD Pick of the Week. Thanks to the number of spotlight reviews, this week's list had to be split into two with the second part found here.
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April 14th, 2009
Not a busy week on the home market with the least number of new releases on this week for a number of weeks. (It seems busier than it is, because of all of the spotlight reviews. In fact, there are as many spotlight reviews as there are simple mentions. Additionally, there are more spotlight reviews for late arrivals than there are for this week's releases.) Looking for the best of the best, there's not a lot on top worth of the DVD Pick of the Week. The release I'm looking forward to the most is Lost in Austen - Buy from Amazon, which I'm awarding the DVD Pick of the Week. Thanks to the number of spotlight reviews, this week's list had to be split into two with the second part found here.
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February 20th, 2005
The Annual Writers Guild Awards held their 57th annual awards on Saturday. Among the more than a dozen awards handed out were three for theatrical releases, including the inaugural award for best
documentary, (which had been handed out earlier.)
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February 20th, 2005
Iznogoud: Calife a la place du calife, a movie based on a Asterix and Obelix
spin off of sorts, dominated the French box office taking in $7.1 million, more than double the second place film and more than a third of the top ten total. It is also enough to push it into the
Top Five on the international scene, dropping
Finding Neverland into sixth place. Unfortunately, like the several films made in the Asterix and Obelix series, this one is unlikely to make much of an impact outside the French speaking markets.
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February 2nd, 2005
Meet the Fockers open in the U.K. over the weekend with an astounding $14.8 million on 456, which is more than four times the
original's earnings there in 2000.
That figure was also more than 8 times the second place film , and more than half the market's total box office.
Add in a handful of openings in other, mostly smaller markets and the film brought in $19.2 million on 1,700 screens in 15 markets for a $58.8 million total so far.
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September 20th, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section, including the co-winners of the DVD Pick of the Week.
Star Wars,
Star Wars,
Star Wars and of course
Star Wars - Original Trilogy -
Buy from Amazon.
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September 14th, 2004
The Village again was the weekend champ in the international box office with $15.3 million on nearly 3,500 screens in 31 markets. Highlights for the weekend include and impressive debut in Germany at $5.5 million and a less spectacular $3.1 million in Japan. The film also suffered a 55% drop-off in its second weekend in Australia while it held up much better in Brazil. So far the film has earned $63.2 million internationally and is well on its way to matching its $112 million domestic total.
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September 8th, 2004
The weekend on the international scene was very much the same as last weekend, just a little bit slower.
The Village was again the champ, thanks to seven openings in mostly mid-ranged markets. A $2.2 million debut in Australia was the top money earner as the film took in $9 million in 23 markets. It's international total is now $45 million and should be headed to $100 million before it is done.
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August 31st, 2004
As the summer box office comes to a close,
The Village continues to set career best records for
M. Night Shyamalan, but it's the sophomore stint drop-offs that the real story. The previously mentioned career best openings were in Belgium, Sweden and Norway totaled $2.6 million, but at the same time saw its U.K. and French numbers cut nearly in half from last weekend. This week it took in a total of $10.2 million in 14 markets, lifting its international total to $30.8 million
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July 20th, 2004
Another 11 openings, mostly in European markets, helped
Spider-man 2 swing to new heights this week on the international charts. This week it earned $62.3 million on roughly 9,400 screens in 61 markets, which pushed it international total to $200.1 million and in just 19 days. Highlights include $15.7 million in the U.K., $11.6 million in France and $7.7 million in Spain. The news was less impressive in Northern Europe where a heat wave hurt the industry as a whole; specifically, this lead to smaller than expected openings in Belgium and Holland and a steep drop in Germany. Worldwide the film has topped $500 million, just the fifth film to do so this year, and the 35th all-time. With Italy the only remaining major opening left, and it doesn't open there till mid-September, the weekly numbers have most likely peaked. However, it should still quickly climb the charts.
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July 13th, 2004
With openings in more than 20 markets,
Spider-man 2 took top spot on the international charts this week with $50.9 million on 6,723 screen in 50 markets. Most of this week's openings were like its domestic opening, huge, but not record breaking. So far the film has earned $113.9 million and is ahead of the
first's film pace, in fact, it has already topped Spider-Man's total in five markets: Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Turkey. Worldwide the film has earned nearly $400 million and with very impressive legs it should more double that before its run is over.
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June 29th, 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban finished first for the fourth weekend in a row with an amazing $40.9 million. That's represents a tiny decrease from
last weekend. A large chuck of that figure came from Japan where the film earned $17.5 million on 782 screens. Also helping was Germany, Italy, U.K. and France being eliminated from Euro 2004. Those four nations represent 260 million people whom were closely following the soccer tournament in Portugal, which hurt the overall box office numbers. Internationally the film has now earned $321 million, putting it in second place for the year and just behind
E.T. for 25th all time. Worldwide its $533 million is also second for the year but 28th all time.
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June 22nd, 2004
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban still leads the pack internationally despite increased competition from fellow family friendly film
Shrek 2 and from Euro 2004 coverage. With an additional $44.9 million from over 10,000 screens in 48 territories, including number one openings in 7 mostly minor markets. The lone exception was Spain, which added $6.1 million to Harry Potter's coffers, and that number would have been higher had it not been for Sunday's Spain Portugal soccer match. Internationally, the film has earned almost $270 million so far and is still tracking ahead of the other films in the
Harry Potter Franchise, but with greater week-to-week drop-offs it is unlikely to finish quite as high. Worldwide the film has already pulled in $450 million making it the second highest grossing film of the year.
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June 14th, 2004
The weekend box office was filed with bad movies and that makes predicting that much more difficult. However, while there were a few surprises, it wasn't as chaotic as it could have been. But with the three new movie combined opening barely above the drop
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban suffered. And that lead to a serious drop from last weekend of 15.75%. But last year at this time, the trio of films that opened really bombed leading to a spectacular 29% increase at the box office. That's several weeks in a row of year to year increases.
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June 11th, 2004
While three films open wide this weekend, none seem likely to finish first. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if at least one of them misses the top 5. However, if any one new movie doubles my predictions I wouldn't be too surprised. Nor would I be all that shocked if any one movie failed to reach half of what I predicted. It's just that kind of week.
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June 4th, 2004
If you were to ask a hundred moviegoers at the beginning of the year what their most anticipated film of 2004 was, I'd bet
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban would be in the top three, if not number one. And because of that, it's no surprise that no other studio would try and take on Harry Potter.
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June 1st, 2004
In retrospect, I may have been a little harsh on the new films opening this weekend as two of the three earned more during the 3-day weekend than I thought they'd earn during the 4-day weekend. And that helped this Memorial Day long weekend become the biggest weekend ever. Comparing the 3-day total we see a 12.4% increase from last weekend and a 9.9% increase from last year. However, last year at this time it was not Memorial Day. Compared to last year's Memorial Day the three-day portion is up 16.9% and the four-day potion is up an incredible 22% to nearly $250 million. This will create a lot of buzz, which will result in free publicity for the rest of the summer movies.
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May 31st, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. This was a hugely busy week for DVD releases. Taking a look at the list of releases we find almost 700 DVDs, unfortunately, it's mostly a case of quantity not quality. There are a LOT of re-releases coming out this week, many related to upcoming films. However, there is not one release that shouts Pick of the Week, so I didn't choose one. But there are so many DVD being released that there should be at least one to fit everyone's tastes.
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May 28th, 2004
With the buzz around this week's new wide releases less than impressive,
Shrek 2 should repeat as winner at the box office. And at least one, and possibly both, of the wide releases could be D.O.A.
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May 25th, 2004
Finally, we have something to celebrate this summer. The lone wide release this week,
Shrek 2 had a multi-record breaking opening, and that meant a huge 51% increase in the overall box office from last weekend. And that lead to a huge increase over the same weekend last year, right? Well not quite, the increase was rather minimal at just 3.6%, inline with estimated ticket price increases. However, this weekend last year was the Memorial Day long weekend, so the comparison is not quite fair. Further more, 2004 has again slipped behind 2003 year-to-date, albeit by the narrowest of narrow margins $3.125 billion to $3.119 billion based on Sunday's estimates.
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May 21st, 2004
Shrek 2 didn't get off to as solid a start as predicted and without any other wide releases this week we could be in trouble. But there may be mitigating circumstances that will help the box office this weekend.
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May 17th, 2004
Both opening films were unable to reach expectations and because of this we saw a relatively flat performance week-to-week of just 6.8%. And compared to last year's monster opening for The Matrix Reloaded this year was down an amazing 26.5%. Year to date now has 2004 up by just 1.2%, half the estimated ticket price inflation and unless Shrek 2 opens huge next weekend this year will dip below last year's pace.
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May 14th, 2004
This week looks reasonably stronger than last week, but nothing like this time last year when
The Matrix Reloaded opened. Still, as long as we can see significant growth each weekend in May, then 2003 should maintain its lead on 2004.
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May 10th, 2004
Summer got off to a really, really slow start this year. Last year the first weekend in May resulted in an incredible 66% week-to-week increase but this year that increase was only 7.1%. And while this weekend last year was the slowest of the summer box office season (May to mid-August), but this year it was actually 1.4% lower. If we don't see a dramatic increase next weekend the year-to-date increase could drop below the inflation.
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May 7th, 2004
Finally, the summer season at the box office is starting. While it isn't until Memorial Day that Summer Official starts in the movie industry, the first full weekend in May has become increasingly important. This year doesn't look as strong as last year, but it still should be a mile above anything we saw in April.
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May 5th, 2004
First the bad news; only one time in the past six weeks has any film managed to cross the $10,000 per theatre threshold. As for the good news, at least this week one movie came close.
The Saddest Movie in the World, a film about a legless beer Baroness who wants to find the saddest music to improve beer sales during Prohibition. Don't worry, I'll let you re-read that last part again before I continue. The film earned an average of $9,436 in four theatres this past weekend.
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May 3rd, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. There was again an excellent mix of wide releases, limited releases, older films and TV on DVD. And because of the wide section, there should be something for everyone, and for me it's
Gilmore Girls - Season 1 - (
Buy from Amazon), which is my DVD pick of the week.
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May 3rd, 2004
Five movies opening wide in one weekend is just too many for one weekend. Combined with the horrible reviews and its no wonder all but one film flopped. Fortunately that one film had one of the best April openings ever so we saw a pretty good increase from last weekend at 4%. However, this time last year was the beginning of May, which marks the official start of the Summer Blockbuster season, so it is no surprising that this weekend is down a huge 33% from last year. In fact
X-Men United opening was just shy of the top 10's total. And if you add in
The Lizzie McGuire Movie and their combined debuts are higher than the weekend's total box office.
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April 30th, 2004
It's a busy last weekend in April with five movies opening wide. However, it is uncertain if any of these films can take top spot. This is partly due to the competition but it is also due to the weakness of the reviews; just one film has overall positive reviews and the other four films have combined reviews under 15% positive.
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April 29th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Mean Girls -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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April 23rd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Van Helsing -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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April 15th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
The Punisher -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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April 8th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week saw a deceptively poor crop of site as there were a lot of movie site launched / updated / released, more than 30 in fact. However, very few of them even came close to the being considered for this week's award. It's so bad I've spent the last 3 hours looking for a gem of movie site that I may have missed in previous weeks. In the end it was
Kill Bill: Volume 2 -
Official Site that won the award with only one or two other that were even briefly considered. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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April 1st, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies
were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Hellboy -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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March 28th, 2004
With summer just around the corner ... Yes I know Spring started a week ago, but this is the movie industry, we do things differently. So with Summer just around the corner it's time for the Summer Movie Preview, Part 1 - April. In April we have nearly 20 films opening wide over 5 weekends, or almost 4 per weekend. That much variety should please moviegoers, but that much competition will kill the chances of half the movies released.
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March 25th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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February 26th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Dawn of the Dead -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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February 13th, 2004
This week's batch of new movie release dates is highlighted by MGM announcing the release date of the as-yet-untitled 21st James Bond Movie,
a confirmed release date for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
a curious move for the
Bridget Jones sequel and the usual shuffling about as studios try to position their movies for the greatest chance of success.
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November 14th, 2003
