May 30th, 2015
There were six new releases to reach the top 30 of the DVD sales chart this week. We also have a new number one DVD, 50 Shades of Grey, which opened with 573,000 units / $8.59 million for the week.
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May 30th, 2015
There were only four new releases on this week's Blu-ray sales chart, but three of them reached the top five. This includes a new number one Blu-ray, 50 Shades of Grey, which sold 852,000 units and generated $16.74 million in sales. This represents 73% of total Blu-rays sold this week, while the film's opening week Blu-ray share was just under 60%. This is a shockingly high opening week Blu-ray share, especially given the target demographic.
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May 6th, 2015
While summer is the worst time of year for the home market, there are actually two big first-run releases coming out this week, plus a handful of TV on DVD releases that are worth checking out. The biggest release is 50 Shades of Grey, but while it made more than $500 million worldwide, its reviews are just bad. On the other hand, Selma, the second biggest new release of the week, is clearly the best new release of the week and the DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack is the Pick of the Week.
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February 9th, 2015
As expected, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water led the way at the box office; however, it did so in a much more explosive way. In fact, its opening was in the top five for February releases. The other two new releases, Jupiter Ascending and Seventh Son, did as well as expected, more or less, but that's not really a good thing. The overall weekend box office was $152 million, which was 51% more than last weekend. Compared to the same weekend last year, 2015 actually came out ahead, albeit by 0.3% margin. This is less than ticket price inflation, so fewer tickets were sold, but I don't really care. Considering I thought 2015 would lose by close to $20 million, I will take any victory and celebrate it. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled ahead of 2014 by nearly $100 million at $1.17 billion to $1.08 billion. Again, it is too soon to judge how well 2015 will do, but being ahead by 8.8% is still worth noting.
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February 2nd, 2015
Super Bowl weekend was rough at the box office with only one film topping $10 million. That film was American Sniper, which completed the hat trick, but with less than expected. Second place went to Project Almanac, again earning less than expected, while Paddington was right behind in third place. Overall the box office fell 36% from last weekend, down to just $102 million. This is still 18% higher than the same weekend last year, so we have that to focus on. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $994 million, which is 7.0% more than last year's pace of $929 million. Again, it is way too early to judge and as we saw last year, things can fall apart really quickly. That said, I will take any good news I can get.
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February 1st, 2015
With only some relatively lightweight competition, American Sniper will cruise to another weekend win, with Warner Bros. projecting a $31.85m weekend, down 51% from last weekend thanks to an expected steep decline on Super Bowl Sunday. Without the big football game, the film would most likely be down closer to 40% in its third weekend in limited release.
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January 29th, 2015
There are three wide releases coming out this weekend, sort of. Project Almanac is the only film opening truly wide this weekend and it is easily the biggest of the three releases. The other two new releases, Black or White and The Loft, are both opening in below 2,000 theaters and neither has a real shot to open in the top five. This leaves American Sniper with an easy path to first place, but perhaps the Super Bowl will be bigger competition this weekend than any of the new releases were the last two weeks. This weekend last year, both new releases struggled and Ride Along was easily able to win, but with just $12 million. 2015 is going to crush 2014 in the year-over-year comparison.
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January 1st, 2015
2014 is over and for the most part, December was a soft ending to a weak year. This is bad news for two reasons. Firstly, it means the overall box office is still soft and it is unlikely that January will start strong. Secondly, last January was a great month, thanks in part to Frozen and other holdovers. The slump can't last forever and Taken 3 should help 2015 get off to a reasonably fast start and it even has a shot at $100 million. American Sniper got off to a really fast start in limited release, so it too could be a hit when it expands wide. By comparison, last January was led by Ride Along, but there were only two other films that didn't completely bomb. I want to say 2015 will start out on a winning note, but given the box office losing streak, it will likely pay to be pessimistic.
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