February 14th, 2015
It was a great week on the home market as the new releases like Fury helped the overall market grow in nearly every regard. In fact, it had double-digit growth in six of the eight metrics. Blu-ray sales were 18% higher than last week in terms of units and 20% higher in terms of revenue. Compared to last year, 35% more units were sold and 31% more revenue was generated. DVD sales were a little stronger, so the overall Blu-ray share slipped to 42%, but that's still strong.
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February 14th, 2015
New releases earned the top four spots on the DVD Sales Chart. Fury led the way in terms of units sold at 355,000 units to 302,000 units over Downton Abbey: Season 5. However, Downton Abbey earned first place in terms of revenue at $7.40 million to $6.20 million.
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February 14th, 2015
New releases dominated the Blu-ray sales chart, again. There were three new releases in the top three spots, while newcomers earned five of the top six spots. Leading the way was Fury with 432,000 units / $8.80 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 55%, which is great for this type of film. It is an action film, but not a visual effects action film.
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January 27th, 2015
It is a really bad week for the home market with a lot of filler on the first page of the new releases on Amazon.com. Fury is the biggest release, but there are not enough extras on the DVD or Blu-ray to be a contender for Pick of the Week. The Book of Life, on the other hand, has a loaded DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack and is a contender. The only other real contender is The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness on DVD. In the end, I went with The Book of Life.
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November 6th, 2014
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roared into first place with $34.9 million in 31 markets over the weekend for a running tally of $244.2 million internationally and $434.7 million worldwide. This includes a first place, $26.52 million opening in China. This is the film's last major market opening until it debuts in Japan in February. The film is aiming for $500 million worldwide by that time, but it is hard to tell how long a film's legs in China will be.
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October 30th, 2014
Tomorrow is Halloween, which is one of the worst days of the year as far as box office numbers are concerned. I would argue only Christmas Eve is worse. Nightcrawler is the only truly wide release of the week, but it is not expected to be a hit. It will likely earn first place, but with only around $10 million. There are two other films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and the tenth anniversary release of Saw. Before I Go to Sleep is the third release from Clarius Entertainment whose first two releases bombed horribly. This one is expected to finish somewhere in-between the first two at the box office. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror franchise of all time, but will people really go to theaters to see it? I would assume fans of these movies likely own the film on Blu-ray, so staying at home would be more appealing. Worse still, this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and it shows. There were five films that earned more than $10 million, led by Ender's Game. This year, we might have no movies earning more than $10 million. Ouch.
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October 28th, 2014
As expected, Ouija won the race for first place, but it finished on the very low end of expectations. On the other hand, John Wick beat expectations earning second place. Overall, these two results balanced out, but this still resulted in the box office falling 12% from last weekend to $116 million. More importantly, it was 13% higher than the same weekend last year. 2014 is still behind 2013, but it is chipping away at the deficit, which has fallen to under $300 million at $8.20 billion to $8.49 billion. 2014 is still behind last year's pace by 3.4%, but if it can close that gap by the same amount in November and December, then at least by the end of the year, it will have closed the gap enough to call it a spiritual victory.
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October 23rd, 2014
It is not a good week at the box office for new releases. There are only two films opening wide, one of which is earning terrible reviews and the other is earning terrible buzz. At the moment, Ouija's Tomatometer Score is barely in the double-digits. That said, it is a horror film opening the week before Halloween, so it should make at least $20 million at the box office. On the other hand, John Wick's reviews are Award-worthy... but the buzz is so quiet, I doubt many award voters will see it. This weekend last year was led by Bad Grandpa, which opened in first place with $32.06. Maybe if Ouija is a surprise hit, it will match that figure. However, while 2013 looked better at the top, it had really weak depth beyond the top five, so 2014 will likely win in the year-over-year comparison.
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October 10th, 2014
Next week Fury is opening wide. It isn't the only wide release of the week, but it is widely expected to dominate the box office, while it might become the biggest hit of the month. As such, it is the clear choice for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Fury.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Penny Dreadful: Season One on Blu-ray.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a previously reviewed TV on DVD release.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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