December 15th, 2009
This is the last full week before Christmas, so in many ways this is the last chance studios have to release their top properties.
And you can tell.
There are four releases that are prime candidates for the DVD Pick of the Week, including two $100 million hits (Inglourious Basterds and The Hangover) and two TV on DVD releases (Robot Chicken and Star Trek - The Original Series).
All have their strengths and weaknesses, but if I were forced to choose just one, it would be Inglourious Basterds on Blu-ray.
On the other hand, all four are joining my collection, plus several others coming out this week.
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December 9th, 2009
Star Trek led all new releases and holdovers to dominate the rental chart this week.
It took top spot with two-and-a-half times the rentals of last week's winner and this week's second place film, The Ugly Truth.
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August 24th, 2009
Overall the box office was weaker than expected this weekend with only one of four releases meeting expectations, while the holdovers were not able to completely compensate. This led a 10.5% drop-off in ticket sales from last weekend; however, the $127 million total box office take is still 20% higher than the same weekend last year.
2009 stretched its year-to-date lead over 2008 to 6.9%, earning $7.06 billion to $6.60 billion so far.
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August 18th, 2009
Nine was the lucky number over the weekend as District 9 topped the charts with better than expected results.
Also, nine of the ten film talked about in Thursday's column met or exceeded expectations.
This helped the box office bring in $142 million overall, which was only 3% lower than last weekend.
More importantly, it was 14% higher than the same weekend last year, which was much better than expected.
Year-to-date, 2009 has earned $6.86 billion in total revenue, which is 6.6% higher than last year's pace.
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August 16th, 2009
District 9 showed that quality is still worth something at the box office this weekend by topping most predictions to score a healthy $37 million opening, according to Sony's estimate released on Sunday morning.
While that's some way behind the $54.7 million earned by G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra last weekend, it was made in almost 1,000 theaters, and at a much lower cost to the studio.
Profitability for the movie seems assured.
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August 14th, 2009
As summer slows down, the number of new releases speeds up. This week we have five films with a shot at reaching the top ten, but only three of those are opening truly wide, and only one is a saturation-level release.
It's hard to say if this week is much stronger or weaker than last year, but it should be close.
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August 13th, 2009
August 1st, 2009
July was a mixed month with several of the big hits failing to live up to great expectations, while still being big hits. There were no surprise hits, but no outright bombs either. No outright bombs is what the industry is hoping for August, but that seems less likely. We could see a monster hit opening on the first week, but that potential hit, G.I.Joe, could also be a monster bomb. There is at least one movie opening each week that I'm personally interested in, although for the most part it is not the widest release of the week that piques my interest.
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August 10th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Chilled in Miami, Tooth Fairy and more!
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October 11th, 2007
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Star Trek XI, and more!
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October 9th, 2007
This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!
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