July 23rd, 2007
It's the busiest week in a long time and not only do we have more than three dozen films on this week's list (and six spotlight reviews), but we have plenty of releases worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week.
Hard Boiled - 2-Disc Collector's Edition, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law - Volume 3, The Host - 2-Disc Special Edition... and those are just the ones beginning with the letter H. All three of those deserve to be added to your DVD collections, as well as a few others, but I'm trying to limit the DVD Pick of the Week to one selection and that's The Host - 2-Disc Special Edition.
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September 18th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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September 11th, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin topped the U.K. marked with an impressive $3.26 million on 394 screens in the U.K., but this is probably not indicative of its potential in other international markets. The film should do well in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but will likely struggle in non-English speaking markets. (Germany may be an exception.)
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September 4th, 2005
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but
War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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August 21st, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where
Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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July 31st, 2005
Early numbers had
Mr. and Mrs. Smith taking fifth place on the overall international box office charts, but better than expected results has
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overtaking them $6.7 million to $5.4 million. It's biggest single market continues to be France where the film dipped just 6% during its second weekend there earning $3,533,857 for a $9,034,141 running tally. But it was even more impressive in Belgium where the film shot up by 68% to $400,000 for the weekend and $785,000 in total. The film also opened in first place in three markets, Brazil with $1.1 million on 200 screens, Holland with $625,000 on 124 screens, and South Africa with $275,000 on 41 screens.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has $13.3 million so far and opens in a couple of important markets this weekend, (The U.K. and Mexico.)
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June 4th, 2005
The
multi-Oscar winning movie,
The Aviator won the week at the home market, which really surprised no one. The film topped both the DVD rentals with $10.14 million and the VHS rentals with $1.21 million for a combined total of $11.36 million. On the other hand, it came in second on the sales charts to the record breaking The
Chappelle Show
Season 2.
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May 28th, 2005
For the third weekend in a row National Treasure come out on top spot on the combined rental charts. It was a much closer race this week and the film fell 28% to $7.72 million in combined rentals, lifting its three week total to $30.45 million.
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May 22nd, 2005
It was another slow weekend for international details as few studios were brave enough, or foolish enough to try and squeeze in a release between
Kingdom of Heaven and
Revenge of the Sith. It was hard to find many films that earned more than $1 million over the weekend and most of the activity came from smaller releases in midlevel markets. Next weekend there could be even fewer details as
Revenge of the Sith should dominate every market, but after that the summer blockbuster season should be in full swing and things should pick up.
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May 21st, 2005
Three new films in the top five and two more than just missed could push
National Treasure out of top spot. The film fell just 11% this week for $9.40 million in DVD rentals and $1.30 million in VHS rentals for a combined rentals of $10.70. The film also held up well in DVD dropping to second place.
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May 16th, 2005
The summer got off to a really, really slow start international this week and while
Kingdom of Heaven didn't wasn't quite the blockbuster most people were looking for, it did cannibalized what little box office there was. There were a few local films to make noise, including Negotiator: Bayside Shakedown 3, which easily topped the Japanese market with $5,275,685 on just 280 for a huge $18,842 per screen average.
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May 9th, 2005
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It usually takes over four months for a film's theatrical release till its debut in DVD, and just over four months ago was the middle of January, which explains why there are some real low quality films on this week's list. However, there are also some top-notch choices, leading the way is the DVD pick of the Week - In Good Company - Buy from Amazon.
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May 8th, 2005
Golden Week helped
Shall We Dance? climb 19% to $2,250,195 for the weekend and $7,270,348 during its run. The film now has $90.3 million internationally and could break $100 million if it continues to show strong legs in Japan.
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May 1st, 2005
It was a good news, bad news kind of weekend for
Constantine. The film remained in top spot in Japan with $2,330,027 on 349 screens for a $9,011,671 running tally in the market. Bad news, it dropped 37% during its second weekend in the market, which is really steep for Japan. Overall the film brought in $3 million on 1,200 screens in 40 markets for a international box office of $136.4 million.
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April 24th, 2005
Hitch is just coasting on holdovers now, and will be until it opens in Japan at the beginning of June. This week it added $5.1 million from 3000 screens in 55 markets to its already impressive $170.4 million international total and with soft week to week drop-offs and a good showing in Japan and it will have a $200 million future. This week the film added $643,359 in its fifth weekend in France for a $12,785,670 total in the market, $110,000 in its second weekend in Argentina, (rising to first place in the meantime) as well as other, smaller markets.
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April 17th, 2005
The Pacifier finally debut across Australia after playing in Queensland and Victoria for the past two weeks; the massive expansion allowed the film to climb to first place with $1.125 million on 267 screens. That lifted its total in the market to $3.41 million so far and the film should have strong legs. Add to that its $1.75 million opening in Spain and $590,000 in Belgium and the film managed $4.1 million over the weekend, which doubled its early total to $8.1 million.
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April 10th, 2005
It was a slow week at the international box office, the slowest of the year, and without much activity at the box office hit there were little in the way of details published by the studios. Therefore this week's column is much shorter than usual. Leading the best of the rest was
Be Cool with an estimated $5 million for a disappointing $12.7 million international tally. Its best single market was the U.K. where the film finished second with $2.2 million on 336 screens after an exclusive engagement last weekend. The film also did well in the Netherlands with $190,000 on 43 screens but really struggles in Germany opening in fifth place with just $930,000 on 321 screens, a result mirrored in Austria, (fifth place, $165,948.)
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 6th, 2005
The Aviator beat weekend estimates by a substantial margin leading to a $5.9 million box office on 3000 screens in 34 markets. The multi-
Oscar winning movie has hit $86.2 million internationally and will cross $200 million worldwide before too long. The film dropped a spot to fifth place in South Korea with $834,660 for the week and slipped to second in Australia with $798,000. The only market the film opened it was Argentina, where it easily took top spot with $232,000.
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February 27th, 2005
Ocean's Twelve may have dropped out of the top five, but it is still going strong with $4.5 million on 1400 screens in 35 markets for an international box office of $225.8 million so far. No new openings means the
heist film had to rely on holdovers likes its $2.5 million during its third weekend in the U.K. and $1.4 million during its fifth week of release in Japan, finishing second in both those markets.
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January 24th, 2005
A massive snowstorm hit the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and New England over the weekend, and while we're usually skeptical about the effects weather patterns have on the box office, this was a particularly widespread storm.
Even so, it alone cannot explain the 29.3% drop from last weekend, even after taking into account the post-holiday drop-off.
Comparing this weekend to last year we see a much smaller 3.4% drop.
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January 21st, 2005
The weekend after the Golden Globe Awards will not be remembered for the high quality of the new releases.
With most of the awards going to smaller films, the awards probably won't have any impact on the top five.
In fact, there probably won't be any change at the top spot and only one change in the top five.
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January 18th, 2005
The Martin Luther King Day long weekend was huge, with 6 films topping $10 million over the 3-day period.
Overall the weekend was up 18% from last year, putting 2005 ahead of 2004's pace so far.
In spite of this, two things should be kept in mind.
First, it is much too early in the year for those comparisons to be truly meaningful.
Second, 2004 started off very slowly, and didn't pick up until late February.
So the comparison is tilted in 2005's favor.
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January 17th, 2005
Much of the country is celebrating the life of the civil rights leader, which will lead to a one day delay in the weekend wrap-up, but shouldn't affect any of the other columns this week.
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January 14th, 2005
With three new films opening and two others expanding into wide release, there is a lot of competition for top spot. However, no film is standing out as the obvious choice for top spot, which makes for an exciting weekend. In fact, given the average reviews the race for top spot could be more entertaining than most of the movies in question.
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January 14th, 2005
Meet the Fockers continues as the most widely distributed movie this weekend, adding 25 theaters to reach a healthy 3,553 locations.
In spite of big expansions for In Good Company (to 1,565 theaters) and House of Flying Daggers (to 1,190), two movies have significant openings.
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January 11th, 2005
Four of last week's five films in the $10,000 club managed to repeat that feat this week with In Good Company continuing its reign on the charts. The film, which opens wide this week, dropped a mere 5% at the box office earning an average of $48,050 in three theatres. Well back at $17,619 was Million Dollar Baby, which did an amazing job holding onto its per theatre average despite increasing its theatre count from just 9 to 109. On the other hand, The Merchant of Venice dropped almost 30% to $12,237 even though its theatre count was unchanged. Another film holding up well despite massive gains in its theatre count was Hotel Rwanda with $11,155 on average in 105 theatres. Rounding out the $10,000 club was the only new wide release this weekend, White Noise with $10,665.
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January 4th, 2005
As you can probably guess from the grammatically incorrect headline,
In Good Company took top spot on the Per Theatre Charts with an amazing $50,583 average in three theatres over the weekend and a total of $225,000 since the film opened on Wednesday. Coming in second is the oldest film in the $10,000 club,
Million Dollar Baby, which saw its per theatre average jump to $30,164 in nine theatres and has already topped $1 million during its limited run.
Hotel Rwanda also saw its per theatre average climb and earned $20,340 in 7 theatres and needs to expand quickly to take advantage of its strong start. Oscar hopeful,
The Merchant of Venice, started well with nearly $70,000 over the weekend and over $100,000 since its Wednesday opening, which works out to a $17,467 average in 4 theatres. Rounding out the $10,000 club was the overall box office leader,
Meet the Fockers with an average of $11,845.
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January 1st, 2005
January is one of two main dumping grounds for bad movies on the calendar, September being the other one. And while the average box office is lower in September the quality of films has been dropping for a while so by comparison September's entries don't feel so bad. January, on the other hand, comes after the best month in terms of Box Office and Award Season combined. Throughout December the quality of films builds to a crescendo and then it suddenly falls flat.
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December 31st, 2004
After four films opened on
Wednesday, there's a lone release tonight.
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December 30th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
The Ring 2 -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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December 29th, 2004
Four more films open tonight hoping to catch some Oscar glory. Ironically, the film with the least likely shot at earning a nomination is also the film with the best reviews and strongest box office potential.
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December 17th, 2004
Universal's In Good Company opens in limited release on December 29, and will be going nationwide on January 14.
We have some publicity shots from this comedy, starring Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson.
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December 9th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
In Good Company -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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November 4th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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October 28th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner Kung Fu Hustle -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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October 21st, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Blade: Trinity -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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