September 27th, 2010
Like many retail businesses, the home market does most of its sales in the last quarter of the year. And while technically the fourth quarter doesn't begin until October, like any good business, the movie industry tries to extend its prime business season as long as possible, which explains why Iron Man 2 is coming out this week instead of next. Unfortunately, that screener is late and I won't be able to review it. (In fact, its one of those weeks where it seems more screeners are late than arrived on time.) There were plenty of other DVDs / Blu-rays that came out this week, but the presence of Iron Man 2 did scare away a lot of prime competition, so much so that I'm awarding it the Pick of the Week, specifically the Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy Combo Pack edition.
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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.
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May 17th, 2010
The overall box office this past weekend was adequate. While three of the top five films were unable to match Thursday's predictions, none were off by a significant degree. All combined, the box office brought in $139 million, which was down 22% compared to last week. Again, this was expected. Compared to last year it was higher, but by a mere 1.3%. Not enough to keep pace with inflation. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009 at $3.85 billion to $3.62 billion. However, due to the influx of 3D ticket sales and the much higher ticket prices they command, attendance is actually down by a fraction of a percent. It's nothing to worry about at the moment, but it is still interesting.
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May 10th, 2010
Iron Man 2 started off the summer in style with the biggest opening weekend of the year and the fifth biggest of all time. This helped the overall box office hit $174 million, which was 76% higher than last weekend. More importantly, it was 20% higher than the same weekend last year. This is extra important, because last year we were already a week into summer and we couldn't afford any weakness at the box office if 2010 was to maintain its lead over 2009. It was able to do so. In fact, it increased its lead slightly to 6.5% at $3.66 billion to $3.44 billion.
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May 9th, 2010
A prime launch date, inflated ticket prices, and the unbeatable formula of a superhero sequel combined to give Iron Man 2 a massive opening weekend, according to Paramount's estimate, released on Sunday.
Their projected $133.6 million would make the movie the fifth-biggest opener of all time, and cements Iron Man's place among the industry's mega-franchises, alongside Batman, Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, Twilight and Harry Potter.
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May 6th, 2010
Summer has finally begun. It feels a week late because May 1st fell on a Saturday. However, the wait could be worth it, as a number of analysts are expecting a record-breaking performance by Iron Man 2 over the weekend. The movie has no competition at the box office. There's not even competition when compared to last year, as practically everyone thinks it will open with much more than Star Trek. For that matter, most think it will easily top Iron Man's opening weekend and perhaps even break records.
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