October 29th, 2007
Another massive week for releases with dozens of releases mentioned below (and in the second part).
Of these numerous releases, there were several that were in contention for the DVD Pick of the Week, but I was able to narrow the selection down to just two: Spider-Man 3 - Blu-Ray Edition and Looney Tunes - Golden Collection - Volume Five. Blu-Ray finally gets on the board and scores a DVD Pick of the Week, but it won't be the last. In fact, I have a funny feeling the format will score its second award.
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October 29th, 2007
There were six new releases on this week's sales chart, including the number one film of the week, The Transformers. That DVD sold 5.09 million units for opening week sales of $117.01 million, which was the best opening on the home market this year in terms of raw dollars. However, 300 sold more units, barely, at 5.10 million.
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October 29th, 2007
The Transformers led a list of six new releases and the overall rental chart this week, but at $9.97 million in rentals, it was a subdued victory compared to its dominance of the sales chart.
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October 16th, 2007
This week we have the first of the summer blockbusters hitting the home market.
But, strangely, it was the last of the four $300 million movies that were released this year.
This signifies the unofficial start of the of the Christmas DVD rush season and I would expect every week massive blockbusters or super-special editions being release from now until the Boxing Day.
As for this week's best bets, I'm torn between two releases: Grindhouse - Planet Terror - Extended and Unrated - Two-Disc Special Edition and The Transformers - HD-DVD Edition.
I've giving both the DVD Pick of the Week honors, but I will add that while Grindhouse is the better movie, The Transformers will appeal to a wider audience.
(On a side note, this is the second time a HD-DVD release has earned the DVD Pick of the Week.
Blu-Ray better catch up to HD-DVD soon.)
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May 20th, 2007
The competition is still being pushed down by Spider-Man 3 and although there were half a dozen new releases to chart this week, it was still impossible to fill out a top 30 chart with any real details. For instance, Next had no major openings and its best midlevel was a second place debut in Malaysia with $115,000 on 30 screens. However, it was still able to remain in sixth place with $2.45 million on 1347 screens in 19 markets while its running total has grown to $18.94 million.
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May 7th, 2007
Now that's what the Summer is all about.
With Spider-man 3, the blockbuster season got off to a record-breaking start and that lifted the overall box office to amazing heights.
Last weekend was one of the worst weekends in a long time, but Spider-man 3 alone earned nearly twice as much as the previous week's total box office and, adding in the holdovers, the 3-day take of $190 million was 144% more than last weekend, and already ranks as the fourth-biggest single weekend in history with reports for some movies still to come in (see the full list).
More importantly, it is 72% more than the same weekend last year.
Granted, last Summer got off to a slow start, but this is still a huge year-to-year increase and a very good omen for the season as a whole.
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May 3rd, 2007
With the start of the summer blockbuster season, all eyes are on Spider-man 3.
But the real question isn't whether Spider-man 3 will win the box office race, there's very little doubt that it will.
No, the real question is whether Spider-man 3 can break Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's opening weekend record.
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May 1st, 2007
Wow.
That was one of the worst weekends I can remember.
There was almost nothing worth celebrating as the overall box office dipped by 12% from last weekend to $78 million.
That's nearly 24% lower than the same weekend last year and probably the worst weekend in more than a year.
(We'll have more details on that when the box office chart is certified later this week.)
The only silver lining I can think of is a possible reason for this massive dip.
In my opinion, a lot of people who thought about going to the movies this weekend likely said, "Let's wait a week and catch Spider-man 3 instead."
I can't prove this happened, but this time next weekend if Spider-man 3 has broken records, we'll know that it is a likely scenario.
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April 29th, 2007
It's a slow week in terms of the cream-of-the-crop sites. There are a few that look like they could be award-worthy once they have a few more updates, but for the most part this week we have a collection that is rather average. There was one stand-out site, Evan Almighty - Official Site, and it was the only choice for the Weekly Website Award.
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April 26th, 2007
It's the final weekend before the summer blockbuster season and it appears that while everyone is excited about Spider-man 3, almost no one is paying attention to this week's new releases.
This could result in the worst weekend of the year and there is a possibility that no film will reach $10 million.
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April 1st, 2007
April is an interesting month to open a movie. Interesting, but not a particularly good month. This year it does start with Easter, but that's traditionally not a strong long weekend. Only one movie has topped $40 million over that weekend and only one other has cracked $30 million. Worst still, it's jammed right up against May, the start of the summer blockbusters season.
Ironically, the closer you get to this most lucrative time of year, the tougher it is for films to make a buck.
No movie wants to open the weekend before Spider-man 3, for instance.
Overall, there are a few hits to be found in the month, and a few misses, but nothing that really stands out above the pack.
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January 29th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Hills Have Eyes II, Pathfinder, Lucky You and more.
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January 9th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains the announcement for Indiana Jones 4 and more.
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January 2nd, 2007
It is the beginning of a new year. A time to start fresh. So why do most of the new releases smell so stale? It's the January dumping ground, home to films that looked promising on paper but just didn't pan out.
That doesn't mean there are no films that could be worth checking out.
Out of the twelve new films opening wide this month (that's opening, not expanding), Smokin' Aces looks great and so does ... no, that's about it.
Almost all of the new releases are likely to struggle at the box office and with critics alike.
And to make matters worse, six of these new releases are going wide on the same weekend.
This is complete madness and guarantees that at least two films that would otherwise succeed are going to fail.
On the other hand, there are nearly a dozen films that have previously opened and are expanding wide (Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, for example), or are being re-released to grab some last minute Oscar buzz,
(The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, among others).
This makes for an incredibly busy month, but not one that will likely produce many hits.
Two additional notes...
Firstly, Letters from Iwo Jima is expanding throughout the month but likely won't go wide until February.
Secondly, The Dead Girl has a planned expansion on the 19th, but after struggling in limited release since opening last weekend, this seems unlikely.
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September 23rd, 2006
Slow week with just over half a dozen sites on the list. Of them,
Renaissance -
Official Site is clearly the best with a few others showing promise.
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August 27th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains the new and changed release dates that have been announced for the past two weeks.
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