March 17th, 2008
There were only four new releases to chart this week, and only one made it into the top five. This left Beowulf with an easy road to first place as it added $9.02 million in rentals for the week and $19.94 million after two.
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March 11th, 2008
A rather slow week for new releases, which is good because three DVDs arrived late last week and I was able to get caught up on spotlight reviews. (Actually, I'm not completely caught up as at least one failed to show up in time for this week.) As for the DVD Pick of the Week, the obvious choice would seem to be No Country for Old Men, but the lackluster DVD just screams double-dip and in the end I went with Stargate - Ark of Truth - Buy from Amazon instead.
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March 10th, 2008
New releases were spread pretty evenly on the rental charts and included a new number one, Beowulf, which opened with $10.93 million.
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March 3rd, 2008
There were a number of new releases to chart this week, including the new number one, American Gangster, which sold 2.63 million units for $44.54 million in revenue. After one week, it is already the best selling DVD of the year. This isn't surprising as the film was the first $100 million hit to be released on the home market this year, but is an impressive start nonetheless.
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March 3rd, 2008
New releases dominated the rental charts taking three of the top five spots, as well as five of the top ten and the best of the best was American Gangster with $9.67 million during its opening week.
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February 25th, 2008
The Oscars have all been awarded and No Country for Old Men was the big winner at the Oscars, taking home four major awards.
(It was shut out of the technical nominations.)
The second biggest winner of the night was The Bourne Ultimatum with three awards, all technical.
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February 23rd, 2008
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 Best Picture.
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February 21st, 2008
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 Female Actor in a Lead Role and Best Male Actor in a Lead Role.
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February 19th, 2008
With the Oscars less than a week away, we have a few Oscar contenders on this week's list. However, for DVD Pick of the Week I've made what many might consider a weird choice and went with Walker - Criterion Collection - Buy from Amazon.
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February 17th, 2008
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 Female Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
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February 15th, 2008
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 will look at Best Writing - Original Screenplay and Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay.
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January 22nd, 2008
The Oscar nominations were announced today and there is no shortage of contenders.
In fact, with no real juggernaut to deal with, the competition is more up in the air that most years.
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January 15th, 2008
The final three guilds handed out their nominations over the past week and while most deal with television, there are a handful of theatrical nominations for each of the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America.
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December 23rd, 2007
The Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced this week, but again there were no clear front runners for the six theatrical categories.
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December 13th, 2007
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their Golden Globe nominations this week, but there were no truly dominate films out of the 14 theatrical categories.
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December 3rd, 2007
Lions for Lambs climbed a spot to sixth place with $4.34 million on 2453 screens in 53 markets for a total of $25.97 million, while only managing $1 million or more in one market this past weekend, ($1.40 million on 390 screens during its sixth place debut in France). It opens in Italy later this month and Japan in the spring of '08, but there's almost no chance the film will show a profit at this point. Normally one movie losing money isn't a big issue because the studio can rely on one or two monster hits to pay for their misses, (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made enough money to pay for the entire budgets of half-a-dozen misses for Warner Bros. this year, and that's before the home market). However, United Artists is a newly relauched studio and they don't have a war chest built up from past victories. Stumbling out of the gate like this hurts.
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November 25th, 2007
Elizabeth: The Golden Age nearly reached the top five with $5.79 million on 1579 screens in 12 markets for a total of $21.80 million. This includes a first place, $1.89 million opening on 470 screens in Russia, while the film added $933,000 on 394 screens in the U.K. for a total of $8.40 million so far.
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November 4th, 2007
The Orphanage may have fallen out of the top five internationally, but it remained the top draw in Spain with $4.11 million on 373 screens over the weekend for a three-week total of $20.78 million. This is more than Ratatouille has earned in that market after three months of release and equivalent to $200 to $300 million here. It won't make $200 to $300 million here, in fact, it might not make $20 million here. It all depends on how well it does with critics and award committees.
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October 28th, 2007
Superbad climbed into sixth place with $4.26 million on 1836 screens in 27 markets for a total of $31.79 million. Most of that growth came from Spain where the film debuted in second place with $2.24 million on 350 screens while it also opened in Brazil with $511,000 on 192 screens. The film doesn't have many major markets left to open in, but it has already earned more than most comparable films do during their entire run.
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October 22nd, 2007
It's been more than a month since we've seen the weekend box office numbers top last year's figures. This time around the overall box office was $97 million, which was down 2% from last weekend and 8% from the same weekend last year. So far this fall is behind lasts year's pace by more than 6%, 10% if you are using tickets sold and not dollars. Year to date, on the other hand, is still showing a 6% growth, and up more than $400 million on last year's pace. Even ticket sales are still up a strong 1.4%, so there's no reason to panic just yet, but the recent weakness is still a cause for concern.
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October 21st, 2007
Bhool Bhulaiyaa became the latest in a long line of Indian films to strike it rich on the international box office as it scored sixth place with $4.59 million on 756 screens in 17 markets. The supernatural comedy even scored a top ten finish in Britain with $600,000 on 45 screens topping a few major Hollywood releases that week.
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October 15th, 2007
October is turning into a nightmare at the box office as all but one new release failed to reach modest expectations. The overall box office did take in $100 million, which was a health 19% increase from the last week. However, that was still 10% lower than the same weekend last year. 2007 is still up 7% from last year, but the fall season is down 5% and if things don't turn around, and soon, it could cast a gloom on the important holiday box office market.
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October 14th, 2007
The Heartbreak Kid missed the top five by less than $20,000 over the weekend earning $5.74 million on 819 screens in 4 markets during its opening weekend on the international charts. This includes openings in to major markets including the U.K. where it opened in first place with $2.52 million on 409 screens, but this was still a disappointing debut, much like it was domestically. Conversely, the film opened in second place in Russia with $2.31 million on 360 screens, but this is a much better performance compared to the overall box office size of the marketplace.
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October 11th, 2007
September continues.
At least it feels that way at the box office.
No one film seems destined for box office glory.
For that matter, no film is opening in 2,500 or more theaters, although one film, Michael Clayton is expanding that wide. Without one powerhouse film, there's a wide-open race for first place with three films in the running.
At least that should keep people interested in the numbers.
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October 9th, 2007
As has been the case for the past few weeks, we had a limited release with a monster start.
This time it was Michael Clayton and its $700,000 opening in just 15 theaters for an average of $47,994; this bodes very well for the film's wide expansion this weekend.
Second place went to the re-release of Blade Runner, which earned just under $90,000 in 2 theaters for an average of $44,575; this bodes very well for the sales of the Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition, which comes out this December on DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD.
Last week's winner, The Darjeeling Limited, showed strong resilience in the face of expansion, earning an average of $29,559 during its first full weekend.
The same can be said of Lust, Caution as the film went from a single theater to 17 while averaging $21,342.
Finally, Finishing the Game was a surprise entrant into the $10,000 club with $11,903 in its lone theater.
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October 7th, 2007
Hairspray managed to climb into sixth place by the narrowest of margins earning $4.59 million on 2073 screens in 37 markets for a running tally of $54.35 million. This includes a third place, $1.36 million opening on 302 screens in Italy, which is close to its opening domestically, when you take into account the relative size of the two markets. On the other hand, many muscials prove to be difficult to market internationally and it was never likely that this film would match its domestic run. However, it has already made enough to be considered a financial success.
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October 6th, 2007
We are starting to get full websites for some of the massive holiday season releases, which should mean there will be at least one award worthy website on each week's list. As for this week, there were a few that have potential assuming the sections marked coming soon live up to the rest of the site. But just one site, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising - Official Site, that was worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
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October 6th, 2007
It seems like every limited release this week is a documentary. Of course that's not true as only seven of the thirteen releases are documentaries ... eight if you include Finishing the Game, which is a mockumentary. However, it is Michael Clayton that should become the biggest hit of the group.
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October 1st, 2007
October means one thing: Free candy. ... Oh yeah, and the unofficial start of Award Season.
And Halloween brings us a few horror films as well.
Unfortunately, this year October is rather weak, with no film looking like a strong contender for $100 million and most of the films with early Oscar buzz having performed poorly with the critics.
The only good news is last October was also weak at the box office, meaning there's at least a reasonable shot at 2007 maintaining its box office lead over 2006.
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September 1st, 2007
As we enter the slowest month of the year, the number and quality of website updates has slowed to a crawl as well. I suspect that within a few weeks we will start getting website launches for films opening during the holidays, and that will again give us plenty of award-worthy sites.
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August 5th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Fame, Watchmen, Shrek 4 and more.
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July 21st, 2007
Big list in terms of numbers, not so much in terms of quality. In fact, the best film in terms of updates this week was The Simpsons Movie - Official Site, which has already won the Weekly Website Award. Because of that, there are no new winners this week.
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June 24th, 2007
One of the most anticipate films of the summer became the best site of the week. The Simpsons Movie - Official Site is finally here and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 23rd, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Michael Clayton, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Love Guru and more.
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April 1st, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Nanny Diaries, Sweeney Todd, The Happening and more.
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October 15th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Jumper, Kung Fu Panda, Charlie Wilson's War and more.
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