June 25th, 2011
While True Grit opening in first place on the Blu-ray sales chart this week was no surprise, its dominance was. During its first week of release it sold 737,000 units and generated $13.41 million in sales, which is close to half the total Blu-ray market. Compared to DVD, Blu-rays represented 42% of total units and 46% of revenue. Normally Westerns tend to skew a little older when it comes to age demographics, so I was expecting a slightly weaker than average Blu-ray ratio, closer to 30% than 40%.
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June 21st, 2011
There were seven new releases on this week's DVD Sales Chart, and six of those reached the top ten. Leading the way was True Grit with 1.02 million units / $15.91 million during its opening week on the home market. It is already in 30th place for 2011 and should quickly climb much further up.
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June 7th, 2011
The summer is usually a really weak time for home market releases, but this week is amazing. Not only are there two $100 million hits coming out on DVD / Blu-ray this week, but there are also half-a-dozen TV on DVD releases, a few limited releases, direct-to-DVD releases, and catalog titles, many of which are worth picking up, or even contenders for Pick of the Week. I tried to narrow the list of contenders down to one, but I couldn't do it. In the end I went with Leverage: Season Three on DVD and True Grit on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack as co-winners of the Pick of the Week.
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March 8th, 2011
Red State started its box office run over the weekend, sort of. It played at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City at a special engagement, bringing in $161,590 for one showing. However, with ticket prices at $54, it's hardly a regular showing, so some are saying it shouldn't count. There is an argument to be made that people were paying for the Q&A with Kevin Smith and it is more accurate to consider this part of his popular speaking tour. That said, Dreamgirls also started with a premium showing at higher that usual prices and that counted. Given the number of tickets sold, even if they cost the average amount, it still would have earned $30,000, which would have still led the way on the Per Theater Chart. The only real competition was from Happythankyoumoreplease, which opened with an average of $17,532 in two theaters.
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February 15th, 2011
Strong reviews and an impressive cast helped Cedar Rapids top the per theater chart with an average of $20,198 in 15 theaters. Vidal Sassoon: The Movie was the only other film to reach an average of $10,000 with $13,053 in its lone theater.
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February 8th, 2011
Like last week, only one film reached the $10,000 mark on the per theater chart this past weekend. That film was Cold Weather, which beat my expectations, earning $14,513 in one theater ahead of its VOD demand later this week.
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February 1st, 2011
There's was only one film able to top $10,000 on the per theater chart and that film was Kaboom, which made $13,714 in one theater.
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January 25th, 2011
There's a bit of a controversy on the per theater chart with The Housemaid and Barney's Version in position to claim top spot. The latter made $143,000 in 16 theaters for an average of $8,938, in the United States. Adding it what it made in Canada, and it earned almost $500,000 in 77 theaters for an average of $6,217. That was a great weekend, but only third best on the chart. The winner was The Housemaid with an average of $8,335 in two theaters. This suggests it will be able to find more theaters willing to play it, but it is unlikely that it will expand significantly.
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January 23rd, 2011
A decent $20.3 million estimated opening for No Strings Attached and some surprisingly good holds in the top four wasn't enough to halt 2011's early box office slump.
Overall, the weekend's box office take looks like it will be about $35 million below last year's total, once more uncannily close to the haul of Avatar in the equivalent period.
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January 21st, 2011
There are a large number of limited releases this week, including a few that are opening in a large number of theaters. One might even sneak its way into the top ten, as The Way Back is opening in more than 600 theaters.
It is also possible that we could have an Oscar winner on this week's list, as Incendies is on the short list of nine films up for Best Foreign Language Film.
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January 1st, 2011
Well, 2010 is over and while it started amazingly, it ended on a real down note. I'm not saying December was a disaster. ... Actually I am. There were only ten wide releases, and of those, eight missed expectations, some by very wide margins. Despite having a $200 million lead going into the month, 2010 still managed to lose out to 2009. The bad news continues in 2011, as Avatar made $300 million during January alone. With no strong holdovers to help power the box office, and only one or two potential solid hits among the new releases, 2011 will likely get off to a very weak start.
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December 10th, 2010
Another week, another Oscar hopeful coming out in limited release. Unfortunately, very few of the films on this week's list are earning Award-worthy reviews. In fact, most are not even earning reviews that are strong enough to suggest they will thrive in limited release. Hopefully we will still get a few hits out of the mix.
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