September 13th, 2011
It is an incredibly busy week on the home market with several major releases, including Thor on Blu-ray, as well as Star Wars The Complete Saga, which comes out this Friday. Unfortunately, neither of the screeners have arrived yet, so it is hard to tell if they are pick of the week material. I figured Star Wars would easily take that honor, but the changes made have pissed off enough people that I think it's best that I hold off making a judgment till after it arrives. After spending way too long trying to pick between the two, I'm going with Degrassi: Season Ten, Part Two instead.
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July 23rd, 2006
A
South Korean film, Hanbando, a.k.a. The Korean Peninsula, topped its native market with a huge $6.14 million on 520 screens over the weekend and a total of $9.85 million overall. That was good enough for sixth place on the international charts.
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July 16th, 2006
The Da Vinci Code slipped out of the top five with $3.85 million on 3037 screens in 55 markets for a total of $515.15 million. This is the 11th best international total ever, while its worldwide mark of $728.36 million places it 23rd on the
all-time worldwide chart.
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July 15th, 2006
A near total lack of competition allowed
Failure to Launch to remain in first place with $8.87 million over the week for a two-week total of $19.41 million.
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July 9th, 2006
Last minute updates in weekend numbers showed that it was
The Da Vinci Code and not
Poseidon grabbing the final spot in the top five. It was an exceedingly close race with the former film topping the latter by less than $3000 both with $5.68 million.
The Da Vinci Code earned its box office on 4352 screens in 57 markets while
Poseidon needed just 3584 in 48. On the other hand, their running tallies are worlds apart with
The Da Vinci Code leading $507.68 million to $94.72 million. That film became just the 12th film to cross $500 million internationally and is less than $20 million from overtaking
Finding Nemo for 10th place on the international charts.
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July 8th, 2006
Failure to Launch wasn't the only new DVD release to chart this week, but it was far and away the best. The film took first place with $10.42 million, which was nearly double its nearest competition.
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July 2nd, 2006
Scary Movie 4 opened in first place in both France and Spain, helping the film into sixth place overall with $4.89 million on 1512 screens in 22 markets for a total of $74.72 million internationally. In Spain the film made $1.76 million on 400 screens over the weekend and $1.83 million in total, while in France it brought in $3.47 million on 571 screens, but that was for the full week.
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July 1st, 2006
As I suggested when it
came out, people rented
Syriana to the amount of $7.93 million during its first week of release. That was enough to put it in first place during a close three-way race.
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June 19th, 2006
It may seem like a really slow week for DVD releases, but this is because several releases were grouped together. I have one section for the five
Alfred Hitchcock releases instead of spreading them out and padding the word count. Taking that into account, the week is about average in terms of quantity, and quality. There were a handful of contenders this week, and a few that looked good in advance but the special feature were a let down. In the end I went with
NewsRadio -
The Complete Fourth Season as the best of the best while
Married With Children -
The Complete Fifth Season earns and honorable mention. ... "Go with him." (If you get that reference, you probably already have the latter release pre-ordered.)
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April 30th, 2006
The Wild added a few more markets but still fell out of the top five down 54% to $4.37 million on 2868 screens in 27 markets for a two week total of $17.77 million. Its best market was Spain where the film was down just 43% to $875,000 on 382 screens over the weekend and $3.49 million in total. It had a hard time in family friendly Mexico where it was down 59% to $702,000 on 501 screens over the weekend and $3.60 million in total while in Italy it plummeted an unheard of 84% to just $216,000 on 343 screen for a two-week total of $2.75 million.
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April 9th, 2006
With
Ice Age: The Meltdown dominating the international box office, the rest of the charts were weaker than usual with several films in the top 30 this week that would not have charted last week.
Failure to Launch had its best weekend haul on the international scene taking in $4.17 million on 1300 screens in 14 markets for a running tally of $13.61 million. Much of that came from the film's opening in two major markets, the U.K. and Italy. In the former is finished second with $1.88 million on 352 screens while in the latter it managed just fourth with $686,000 on 220 screens. It's best market in total is Germany, despite the fact that it fell out of the top five there; so far the film has pulled in $4.10 million after three weeks there, including $841,000 on 354 screens this weekend.
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April 2nd, 2006
Two openings in two major markets helped
Hostel climb into sixth place with $4.03 million on 1120 screens in 27 markets for a running tally of $15.42 million. Its best opening was in the U.K. where it debuted in second place with $2.12 million on 304 screens while it struggled in Spain with just $1.01 million on 250. The film has already earned enough to show a profit even after taking into account P&A budget, exhibitor's share, etc. and should be able to double its current international total before its run is over.
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March 26th, 2006
The only opening of note for
Syriana over the weekend was Turkey where the film placed third with $211,000 on 62 screens. Without a major opening, the film fell 35% to $3.68 million on 1992 screens in 43 markets and now has $27.35 million, which is still a disappointing total.
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March 20th, 2006
Another poor weekend at the box office saw the overall gross drop to $106 million, which is 3.6% lower than last weekend and 8.7% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2006 has now brought in $1.8 billion, which is about 2% lower than 2005's pace.
If this keeps up 2006 will be the second year in a row of declining box office revenue and the fourth year in a row of declining ticket sales.
It's not quite time to push the panic button yet, but it is certainly worrying.
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March 19th, 2006
A number one opening in France, as well as a slew of smaller debuts, pushed
Underworld: Evolution into sixth place on the international charts with $4.98 million on 1473 screens in 20 markets for a running tally of $36.12 million after nearly two months in release. In France the film earned $1.84 million on 346 screens while it managed the same feat in a trio of Asian markets: Taiwan with $600,000 on 75 screens, Malaysia with $310,000 on 45, and Hong Kong with $290,000 on 25. Interestingly, the
original was banned in Malaysia.
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March 17th, 2006
The first event movie of the year comes out this week, and V for Vendetta should have no problem topping the charts.
However, there are other questions that are not so easily answered.
For instance, will it become the biggest opener of the year?
Will it help the box office keep pace with last year?
Can it become the first $100 million movie of the year?
At least two of those three questions will be answered by Monday.
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March 13th, 2006
Only one of the four new films beat expectations over the weekend, and that left the box office hurting.
Overall, the total for the weekend was $110 million, which was 6.8% higher than last weekend, but since last weekend was Oscar weekend, this is hardly an impressive result.
More importantly, it was 4.7% lower than the same weekend last year.
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March 13th, 2006
Our second weekly box office prediction contest begins today. The prizes for this contest are from the recent releases, The Hills Have Eyes and include a T-shirt, double-sided poster, a plastic knife that you can wear so it looks like you have a knife through your head, and a squishy ball with eyeballs inside. Since that movie has already opened, we will be basing this contest on V for Vendetta, which is also opening this Friday. All you have to do to enter is predict the opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday) gross for the movie. The winner will be whoever's prediction is closest to the actual result without going over. Entries must be received by 10am, Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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March 10th, 2006
There are three and a half new films opening wide this weekend, and the best of them is earning merely mediocre reviews. (The half film refers to
The Libertine, which is opening in only 815 theatres.) Even so, there should be a huge jump from last weekend, perhaps even enough to push 2006 ahead of 2005 again.
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March 9th, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week's winner was one of last week's best sites,
She's the Man -
Official Site, which added a lot of content this week including some old stuff that was off site for previous weeks.
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March 6th, 2006
This Friday marks the release of the daring and provocative The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, and it is the first film featured in our new weekly box office prediction contest.
The winner will receive a T-shirt, poster, and a pair of underwear.
(We have a picture of a model wearing said T-shirt and underwear, which we would post, but it would probably melt the server.)
Since that film is taking the limited release route, we will be basing this contest on The Hills Have Eyes, which is also opening this Friday.
All you have to do to enter is predict the opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday) gross for the movie.
The winner will be whoever's prediction is closest to the actual result without going over.
Entries must be received by 10am, Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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March 1st, 2006
This is a not as busy a month as it initially looks. Granted, there are 18 movies on this month's list, but there are five weekends, or at least five Fridays. Also, every week there's at least one film that may or may not be getting a truly wide release. Considering the level of competition, I'm leaning against any of five such films opening in more than 2000 theatres. On the plus side, we should see the
first $100 million movie of 2006 open this month, and perhaps even see
two movies reach that milestone.
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February 16th, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It's another busy week as the winter slump starts to subside. As for the best site on this week's list, it came down to the interactive feature of
Freedomland -
Official Site and the atmosphere of
Night Watch -
Official Site. After looking over the sites a few times, I still can't decided which one should get the award, so I'm giving it to both.
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February 9th, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It was the busiest week in more than a month, but there weren't many big launches or massive updates, so it is the slow-growing
V For Vendetta -
Official Site that earns the Weekly Website Award.
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