April 14th, 2013
There were two new releases that had a legitimate claim on top spot on the Blu-ray sales chart for the week of February 24th, 2013. Argo sold the most units at 378,000 generating $8.68 million earning a opening week Blu-ray of 40%. On the other hand, Game of Thrones: Season Two generated the most revenue at $10.08 million, from 336,000 units sold. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 58%, which is fantastic, even compared to first run releases and not just TV on DVD releases.
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April 14th, 2013
Argo was one of six new releases to chart on this week's DVD sales chart. It pulled in first place with 564,000 units / $8.44 million. This is not a huge amount given its box office and critical success, but it did relatively better on Blu-ray.
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February 25th, 2013
Argo was the big winner at the Oscars last night, although arguably, there were no big winners, but a lot of films that shared in the glory. There were also some pretty interesting twists and a few events that stand out. Due to ongoing computer difficulties, I was unable to live-blog the Oscars this year. I will still be giving my reactions on a category by category basis, but not in the order they were handed out.
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February 20th, 2013
This week's list is a little shorter than usual, because of technical difficulties. I've been getting an average of one Blue Screen of Death per day for just over a week. It seems to happen most often when I open too many tabs in Firefox. Worse still, two of the sites that seem to set off the BSOD are YouTube and Rotten Tomatoes. Fortunately I've narrowed the problem down to a driver conflict for either my video or perhaps a Windows system driver. Or it could be bad RAM. Or it could be a bad power supply. Or perhaps a virus or other malware. So when I said I had it narrowed down the problem, I was lying. I don't have time to take the computer to get it fixed, not until the Oscars are over, but I promise to get caught up by the weekend. It is quite a good week for new releases with a number of contenders for Pick of the Week. The two main contender are Argo on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Game of Thrones: Season Two on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack. While Argo is cleaning up during Awards Season, I've given Game of Thrones the edge here.
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January 10th, 2013
The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and there's certainly a lot to talk about. There are some nominations that should surprise no one. For instance, Lincoln led the way with twelve nominations, and it has been seen as the major contender for a long time. However, there were also a few surprise nominations and some major snubs. Here are the list of nominations, and some reactions.
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January 3rd, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty shot up to the top of the per theater chart with averages of $83,430 during its opening weekend and $63,283 during its sophomore stint. Expanding truly wide is virtually guaranteed. Amour was well back with an average of $20,005 over the past weekend and $22,755 during its opening weekend. The Impossible rose 27% to $12,172 in 15 theaters. This is a great sign and while its reviews are too low to be a major contender during Awards Season, it should still do well enough to expand significantly, but probably not truly wide. The final film in the $10,000 club was Django Unchained, which opened with an average of $10,008.
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December 13th, 2012
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations and the same list of films that have been mentioned since the beginning of Awards Season were rewarded today. Lincoln led the way with seven nods, while Argo and Django Unchained were close behind with five.
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December 11th, 2012
Hyde Park on the Hudson opened on top of the per theater chart with an average of $20,341 in four theaters. That is good for a limited release, but bad for a potential Awards Season contender, which is how many people saw the film prior to its release. Additionally, with weak reviews, it has little hope at long legs. Burn was much further back at $13,602, also in four theaters. Rust and Bone saw its theater count double to four, but its per theater average actually grew to $13,015. Its word-of-mouth is outstanding. Beware of Mr. Baker remained in the $10,000 club with $10,349 in one theater.
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December 4th, 2012
It was a rather slow week on the per theater chart with only two films topping the $10,000 mark, and none of them were massive hits. Rust and Bone rose to first place with an average of $12,369 in two theaters. It rose to top spot thanks to a miniscule 9% drop-off. The only other member of the $10,000 club was Beware of Mr. Baker, which was right behind with $12,195 in its lone theater.
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December 2nd, 2012
The weekend after Thanksgiving is not known for its box office prowess, and this year is proving no different. Most films in the top 10 are down around 50% from last weekend, and the new wide releases are both falling short of their respective distributor's hopes. Killing Them Softly is headed for a $7 million debut, according to Weinstein, which is Brad Pitt's worst wide opening since Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas back in 2003, and worst live action wide release since 1994's The Favor. Meanwhile, LD Distribution is projecting $3.4 million for The Collection in 1,403 theaters, which is less of a surprise, but still a disappointment. With those two misfires, the top of the chart is once more populated by Breaking Dawn, Part 2 and Skyfall, which are essentially neck and neck at this point, with Twilight topping $250 million domestically this weekend and Bond set to reach that landmark in the next few days.
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November 27th, 2012
It was a particularly busy week on top of the per theater chart with seven films topping the $10,000 mark. Leading the way was Hitchcock with an average of $16,924 in 17 theaters. This is good for a limited release, but not great, and given the competition at this time of year, it needed to be great to survive. Anna Karenina expanded from 16 theaters to 66 earning an average of $13,580. Again, this is good, but not great. Rust and Bone was next with an average of $13,577 in two theaters. If it had sold just one more ticket, it would have earned second place instead of third on this list. Lincoln actually saw its per theater average grow reaching $12,724. It has already expanded truly wide and it should expand at least a little bit more. Likewise, Silver Linings Playbook should also expand more, as its per theater average this week was $11,945; however, it likely won't expand wide. The overall box office leader, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, was next up with an average of $10,723. The Central Park Five topped $10,000 on the per theater chart, barely, with an average of $10,190 in three theaters. Skyfall was the final film in the $10,000 club with an average of $10,069. It is pretty rare for a film to remain above that mark for three weeks in a row.
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November 25th, 2012
As expected, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 and Skyfall are dominating the Thanksgiving charts, and, with some help from three new releases and two strong holdovers, will produce the most lucrative Thanksgiving holiday in history. All told, we should see something a little over $200 million in revenue for the three-day portion of the weekend, placing it in the top 20 weekends of all time. Breaking Dawn, Part 2 is tracking about in line with Part 1 at this point in its run. In contrast, Skyfall is well ahead of James Bond's previous outing, and has become the first Bond movie to top $200 million domestically (before adjusting for inflation).
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November 20th, 2012
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 led the overall chart and the per theater chart. Its average was $34,660, which is especially impressive, as it was playing in more than 4,000 theaters. The next best release was Silver Linings Playbook, which earned an average of $27,688 in 16 theaters. This suggests a strong potential to expand, while its reviews suggest a strong word-of-mouth and some Awards Season buzz. Anna Karenina was next up with an average of $20,043, also playing in 16 theaters, but the reviews suggest it will struggle if it tries to expand. The Comedy opened in New York this week after playing in Los Angeles last week and it did really well earning $13,150. Both members of last week's $10,000 club remained above that mark this week with Lincoln earning an average of $11,859 and Skyfall earning an average of $11,727. One final note, while Jab Tak Hai Jaan didn't quite reach that mark with an average of $8,022 in 160 theaters, it debuted on Tuesday. In total, it made $1.94 million, which would have given it an average of $12,136, had it made that over the weekend.
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November 18th, 2012
The beginning of the end for the Twilight franchise is here, and, as expected, big money is being made by Lionsgate/Summit. While this installment doesn't look like it will break franchise records, Lionsgate is predicting a $141.3 million opening weekend, which will be the 8th-best of all time, assuming it holds up. New Moon will most likely remain the top opener for the franchise with $142.8 million, although it will be a close-run thing. Twilight will most likely end up the 5th-highest-grossing franchise at the domestic box office, behind only the "box office gods", Harry Potter, Star Wars, Batman and James Bond.
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November 16th, 2012
There's good news and bad news this week when it comes to limited releases, and both focus on the same film: Silver Linings Playbook. At the beginning of the month, this was one wide release I was really looking forward to and I thought it had a real chance of being a sleeper hit. However, it was moved up a week and is rolling out in limited release this week before expanding to select cities next week. It should be the biggest hit this week, but expanding wide is never an easy task. There are a few other limited releases this week that have earned some measure of pre-release buzz, but none of them have earned reviews to match.
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November 1st, 2012
October was pretty good with a few films really crushing expectations, which made up for the few duds that opened at the end. 2012 gained about $100 million over 2011 during the month of October. We really needed this success and hopefully November will continue this push forward. However, November is a bit of a weird month. There are five weekends, but only eight true wide releases, half of which open on the Thanksgiving long weekend, leaving the other four weeks with just one true wide release each. There are a couple others opening in the semi-wide level and another opening in limited release with a planned wide release, but even so, it is not a busy month. That said, it is a case of quality over quantity. There are four films that are pretty much guaranteed to reach $100 million, one of which should reach $300 million. By comparison, last November only produced one $100 million film. Granted, that film was The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, which made nearly $300 million, which is a huge number no matter how you look at it. But this year, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 should top that number and with the other $100 million movies pulling in more than $400 million combined, it should be a very profitable month at the box office.
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