March 24th, 2008
According to Amazon, there are more than 700 DVDs coming out this week; however, this is certainly a case of quantity over quality and I'm having trouble finding 30 releases worth mentioning. It is also a rather light week when it comes to spotlight reviews with only three of them. To end the trifecta of weakness, there are not a lot that are even in contention for DVD Pick of the Week. War Made Easy is arguably the best movie of the week, but the DVD is devoid of extras. Likewise, Bonnie and Clyde on Blu-ray is a good choice, but there are no exclusive features and the Ultimate Collector's Edition has more physical features. Another contender was PTU - Police Tactical Unit, which is a strong movie with equally strong extras. However, in the end none of these releases really lived up to the title of DVD Pick of the Week.
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April 9th, 2006
With
Ice Age: The Meltdown dominating the international box office, the rest of the charts were weaker than usual with several films in the top 30 this week that would not have charted last week.
Failure to Launch had its best weekend haul on the international scene taking in $4.17 million on 1300 screens in 14 markets for a running tally of $13.61 million. Much of that came from the film's opening in two major markets, the U.K. and Italy. In the former is finished second with $1.88 million on 352 screens while in the latter it managed just fourth with $686,000 on 220 screens. It's best market in total is Germany, despite the fact that it fell out of the top five there; so far the film has pulled in $4.10 million after three weeks there, including $841,000 on 354 screens this weekend.
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April 2nd, 2006
Two openings in two major markets helped
Hostel climb into sixth place with $4.03 million on 1120 screens in 27 markets for a running tally of $15.42 million. Its best opening was in the U.K. where it debuted in second place with $2.12 million on 304 screens while it struggled in Spain with just $1.01 million on 250. The film has already earned enough to show a profit even after taking into account P&A budget, exhibitor's share, etc. and should be able to double its current international total before its run is over.
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April 1st, 2006
Despite a weak DVD, Derailed topped the rental charts with $8.39 million during its first week of release.
Last week's winner, A History of Violence, fell 28% to $6.42 million and now has $15.42 million during its home market run. A pair of family films, Chicken Little and Dreamer - Inspired by a True Story, came in third and fourth with $5.68 million and $5.45 million respectively. Rounding our the top five was Walk the Line, which added $5.10 million to its four-week total of $34.19 million.
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March 26th, 2006
The only opening of note for
Syriana over the weekend was Turkey where the film placed third with $211,000 on 62 screens. Without a major opening, the film fell 35% to $3.68 million on 1992 screens in 43 markets and now has $27.35 million, which is still a disappointing total.
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March 25th, 2006
A History of Violence took top spot on the rental charts with $8.91 million in combined rentals during its first week of release. In that one week the film earned more than a quarter of what the film took in during its entire theatrically run and should have no trouble surpassing that total before long.
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March 19th, 2006
A number one opening in France, as well as a slew of smaller debuts, pushed
Underworld: Evolution into sixth place on the international charts with $4.98 million on 1473 screens in 20 markets for a running tally of $36.12 million after nearly two months in release. In France the film earned $1.84 million on 346 screens while it managed the same feat in a trio of Asian markets: Taiwan with $600,000 on 75 screens, Malaysia with $310,000 on 45, and Hong Kong with $290,000 on 25. Interestingly, the
original was banned in Malaysia.
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March 18th, 2006
Despite the release of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,
Walk the Line remained in first place on the rental charts with $10.03 million over the week and $21.81 million in total.
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March 14th, 2006
Famed Oscar Bounce failed to materialize this year partially because the
awards were spread out over many difference films and partially because many winners were well into their releases.
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March 12th, 2006
A fourth place, $1.63 million debut on 250 screens in France helped
Memoirs Of A Geisha leap up the charts this weekend. Overall the film finished in sixth place on the international charts with $3.98 million on 1723 screens in 47 markets for an international total of $88.34 million. The film placed higher during its opening in Finland with $79,000 on 12 screen over the weekend and $95,000 in total while it had to settle for ninth place in Belgium with $200,000 on 29 screens.
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March 11th, 2006
In a week that saw four new releases in the top ten,
Walk the Line won the weekly race with $11.78 in DVD rentals. (Like many releases, it was either not released on VHS or the studio is not tracking VHS rentals.)
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March 5th, 2006
The
Oscars were handed out tonight and while there were a handful of multiple winners, no single movie stood out.
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March 1st, 2006
The
French film, Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, again topped the international box office charts this time taking in $7.45 million on 1006 screens in 3 markets for a running tally of $72.66 million. Again, the vast majority of that came in France where the film entered the all-time top ten with $68.4 million, which is enough to pay for its entire $42 million production budget.
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February 27th, 2006
It's a deceptively slow week; while there are plenty of releases, many of them are totally unnoteworthy and that makes finding the exceptions harder to find. There are some really stellar releases including this week's DVD Pick of the Week,
NewsRadio - The Complete Third Season -
Buy from Amazon, while both Controversial Classics - Volume 2 - The Power of Media -
Buy from Amazon and
The Ice Harvest -
Buy from Amazon earn honorable mentions.
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February 22nd, 2006
For the third weekend in a row, The
French film, Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, topped the international charts. This week it made $11.28 million on 1019 screens in three markets for a total of $62.48 million. It goes without saying that its best market was France where it made another $9 million on 950 screens for a $57.8 million running tally there.
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February 19th, 2006
With the
Oscars less than a month away and our
contest well under way, there's no better time to take a closer look at some of the nominees. Today we'll look at the Best Acting Awards.
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February 15th, 2006
The
French film, Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, fell 40% this weekend, but that was still more than enough to finish first on the overall box office charts with $15.68 million on 1019 screens in three markets for an international total of $47.05 million so far. It earned the vast majority of that amount in France where it finished first with $14.37 million on 950 screens over the weekend for a running tally of $43.16 million. The film also finished first in Belgium with $805,000 on 39 screens and in Switzerland with $505,000 on 30 screens; so far it has earned $2.32 million and $1.57 million in those two markets respectively.
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February 8th, 2006
Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, which is the latest film in a trilogy that started in the late 70s, opened in its native
France and dominated the market. The film made $24.26 million over the weekend, which was more than 60% of the overall French box office. The film also finished first in Belgium with $1.25 million on 41 screens and in Switzerland with $734,000 on 30 over the weekend and $882,000 in total. This film cost 35 million Euros to make, which at today's exchange rate would about $42 million American, and the film should have no trouble showing a profit in its native markets even if it has shorter legs than most films there have.
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February 7th, 2006
With most of the nominations in the more prestigious categories going to smaller films, the famed Oscar bounce is very important this year. However, the first weekend's results were mixed.
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January 31st, 2006
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece,
Crash,
Good Night and Good Luck, and
Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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January 29th, 2006
There were 5 theatrical awards handed out tonight by the
Screen Actors Guild, and five different films won.
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January 24th, 2006
The weekend after the Golden Globe Awards proved to profitable for several of the winners.
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January 23rd, 2006
Nearly every film in the top five beat expectations over the weekend, which helped soften the post-holiday drop-off to just 3.9%, and push the overall box office to $121 million. The weekend was up a massive 23.2% over the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2006 has overtaken 2005 by 2%, which is even more impressive when you remember that 2005 got off to a strong start.
However, as history shows us, it is far too soon to tell how well this year will go.
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January 16th, 2006
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today at the Golden Globes taking home four of the seven statuettes it was up for. The film is still expanding into more and more theatres, so these awards couldn't have come at a better time.
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January 6th, 2006
It's guild day today as the
Producers Guild of America nominations were announced this week.
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January 6th, 2006
Of the 13 awards the Screen Actors Guild will hand out on January 29th, 2006, five will be awarded to theatrical releases. And like past awards nominations,
Brokeback Mountain again led the way, with four in total.
However, this time there were two films close behind as
Crash and
Capote each received three nominations.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today as Golden Globe nominations were announced. With seven nods, it led all films, which is an important Oscar indicator.
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December 12th, 2005
As expected,
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was easily able to win the weekend race but it was able to do so in such a fashion that it lifted the entire box office. Week-to-week the overall box office saw a mind-blowing 42.2% increase, while more importantly, it was up 15.2% from the same weekend last year. That helped cut the year-to-date deficit to 5%, which is still a significant drop-off, but not the disaster that it was earlier in the year.
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December 9th, 2005
The 2005 box office enters its final sprint to the finish line with two potential monster hits opening within 5 days of each other, the first tonight. Looking at the pure mathematics of it, there's almost no chance of 2005 catching up to 2004, or even 2003 or 2002. However, if Narnia and Kong both out perform, they can help cut the gap to something respectable.
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December 5th, 2005
The post holiday weekend was particularly brutal this year with the overall box office in free-fall.
Receipts were down 47.6% from last weekend and it was also down compared to last year, although by a mere 0.5%. Year-to-date, 2005 is still behind by 6% and we're quickly running out of chances to catch up.
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December 2nd, 2005
The first weekend of December is usually not a very strong; too many people are trying to get their gift shopping done and are way too busy to check out a movie. (I, on the other hand, have been finished for weeks now.) Without much in the way of competition, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will likely win the weekend race for the third time in the film's run.
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December 2nd, 2005
I learned a lot this week. For instance, I learned that when you removed the power supply from your computer, you should write down where each connection goes so you know how to put it back. To make a long story short, I'm writing this on my parents' computer and I'm picking up mine from the repair shop at 6:00 p.m. (I'm such an idiot.) In the meantime, here are the abbreviated predictions for the top five this week...
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November 28th, 2005
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire continues to prop up an otherwise sagging box office.
It was the only film to top $20 million over the long weekend, the first time that just a single movie has topped that figure over Thanksgiving weekend since 1997.
This led to a decrease of 8.4% compared to last weekend, but the three-day weekend was still 1.7% more than last year. The five-day result was even better, with 2005 up 2.9% over 2004.
Year-to-date, 2005 is still 6% behind, but with a few more potential monster hits on their way, it could close the gap.
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November 23rd, 2005
Thanksgiving Weekend is as busy as ever.
With five films opening wide (and another expanding wide) and with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a dead cert to finish first again, many of the films will have a difficult time attracting moviegoers.
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November 21st, 2005
It was a great weekend at the box office, as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire topped almost all expectations.
Even with holdovers falling a little faster than expected, there were massive gains at the box office.
Week-to-week the overall box office was up an astounding 42.9%, but more importantly it was up 19.2% from the same weekend last year, cutting the year-to-date deficit to 6%.
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November 18th, 2005
For the first time since Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith opened, there is a monster hit awaiting moviegoers at the box office. And while it is very unlikely that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will have a better opening, it should still reinvigorate the box office and pull 2005 out of this slump.
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November 17th, 2005
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, however, it was a slow week for updates and I've decided not to award any site with the Weekly Website Award.
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November 10th, 2005
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 this week's winner,
Aeon Flux -
Official Site
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November 1st, 2005
Wow, that sucked.
October was a terrible month at the box office and all the gains made in September were erased. November promises to be better than October, but the real question is whether it will be better than November of last year.
On the plus side, last November was pretty bad, with most films missing expectations.
On the down side, there is only one guaranteed hit this month, and only a couple of others that should also perform well with both the critics and the moviegoers. If you have predictions of your own to make, feel free to head over to our forum and share them with our readers.
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October 27th, 2005
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 this week's winner,
Jarhead -
Official Site.
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October 20th, 2005
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 this week's winner,
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang -
Official Site.
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August 4th, 2005
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 this week's winner,
Broken Flowers -
Official Site.
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