May 31st, 2013
Like the DVD sales chart, there were almost no new releases to find a place on the April 14th, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rose to the top of the chart 104,000 units / $2.60 million for the week and 1.93 million units / $45.02 million after four.
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May 31st, 2013
There were only three new releases to reach the top 30 on the April 14th, 2013 edition of the DVD sales chart and none of them reached the top five. This left the top five identical to last week. The Bible: The Epic Miniseries sold 161,000 units and generated $5.29 million in sales for the week, lifting its running tallies to 597,000 units / $19.60 million.
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May 23rd, 2013
There were a couple of new releases to chart on the April 7th, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. This includes The Bible: The Epic Miniseries, which earned first place with 172,000 units / $6.31 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 28%, which is low for the format as a whole, but better than expected, given its genre and target audience.
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May 23rd, 2013
New releases were nearly shut out of the April 7th, 2013 edition of the DVD sales chart. That said, the one and only new release to chart was The Bible: The Epic Miniseries, which earned first place with 436,000 units / $14.31 million.
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May 19th, 2013
The overall Blu-ray market suffered a little setback for the week of March 24, 2013. The new releases were not very strong and the chart was led by Lincoln, which is not the type of film that needs to be seen in high definition. This left the overall Blu-ray market down 10% in terms of units and 12% in terms of revenue. Granted, this still means it sold 2.61 million units and generated $61.23 million in sales, which is great for the time of year. In fact, it was 136% better than last year in terms of units and 145% better in terms of revenue, but this was due in part by a misalignment in the Easter weekend. On the other hand, DVD did even better thanks to the Easter sales and the overall Blu-ray share fell to 34% in terms of units and 41% in terms of revenue. It won't bounce back next week, but more on that down below.
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May 19th, 2013
There were quite a few new releases to reach the upper echelon of the March 31st, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. Lincoln was the best of these earning first place with 496,000 units / $14.24 million during its first week of release for a Blu-ray share of 38%. This is really good for a drama.
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May 19th, 2013
The week of March 31st, 2013 was a strange week on the home market, as it contained Easter weekend. Easter sales helped a lot of older releases rise on the DVD sales chart. Even so, a new release, Lincoln, led the way with 818,000 units / $15.62 million.
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April 8th, 2013
It's another bad week on the home market. According to Amazon.com, the biggest release of the week is the fifth season of Merlin, which is a British TV show. Gabriel Iglesias' latest Stand-Up Concert DVD is right behind. The rest of the top five is filled with a canceled cable show and a poorly reviewed limited release. The best release of the week is Naked Lunch Criterion Collection Blu-ray, which is great, but not quite Pick of the Week material. (It is just too bizarre for most people.) Fortunately, Lincoln on Four-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack finally arrived and I was able to review it. Despite it not coming out this week, or this month, it is still the Pick of the Week material. It towers that high above this week's releases. I do hope more people check out Sexy Evil Genius on DVD than its sales ranking indicates.
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April 8th, 2013
Lincoln was an Oscar contender right from the very beginning. Steven Spielberg directing a movie about Abraham Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis. Of course it was an Oscar contender. Lincoln earned twelve Oscar nominations and earned two wins. Did the film deserve these awards? Or did it coast on reputation alone?
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March 27th, 2013
It is a shallow week on the home market. Lincoln is coming out and should dominate the sales chart, but after that, there's almost nothing to talk about. Given its reviews and its Awards Season success, it is the easy choice for Pick of the Week, right? Not so fast. I'm still waiting for the screener. Speaking of late reviews, Skyfall finally showed up and despite not coming out this week, or this month, I'm giving the Blu-ray Combo Pack Pick of the Week honors.
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February 25th, 2013
Argo was the big winner at the Oscars last night, although arguably, there were no big winners, but a lot of films that shared in the glory. There were also some pretty interesting twists and a few events that stand out. Due to ongoing computer difficulties, I was unable to live-blog the Oscars this year. I will still be giving my reactions on a category by category basis, but not in the order they were handed out.
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February 24th, 2013
The box office crown for Oscar weekend will be claimed by Identity Thief, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning, even though the comedy will fall by a relatively large 41% from last weekend. So its win is in large part due to the low-key new releases: Snitch will be second with $13 million in a modest 2,511 theaters and Dark Skies is headed for 6th place with $8.85 million from 2,313 theaters. Neither new film has particularly low per theater averages ($5,177 and $3,826 respectively), so their so-so debuts are as much a factor of their smallish opening theater counts as lack of demand.
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February 22nd, 2013
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try to figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. We wrap up our look at the prestigious categories with the most prestigious of them all: Best Picture. Like last year, there are nine nominees. Unlike last year, none of them were completely out of left field. That's not to say they all have a legitimate shot at winning; there's definitely a favorite. However, politics could become an issue. I don't mean politics as in Democrat vs. Republican. I mean behind-the-scenes issues might play a bigger role than what is on the screen. Let's take a look at the nominees, and their chances to claiming the crown on Sunday.
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February 22nd, 2013
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we will look at the Best Director, which is one of the stranger races this year. Before Awards Season began, I thought Kathryn Bigelow would be the favorite. She wasn't even nominated. The evidence suggests Ben Affleck will win. But again, he wasn't even nominated. So with the top two choices not even on the list of nominees, we are looking at the best of the rest.
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February 21st, 2013
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we will look at the two writing categories, starting with Best Adapted Screenplay. This is a race that is not as close as many thought it would be, and it is not the two early front-runners running away with the Oscar.
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February 21st, 2013
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. This week we will look at the four acting categories, continuing with Best Lead Actor. This category is not truly competitive, but I'm supporting an underdog.
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February 21st, 2013
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. This week we will look at the four acting categories, starting with Best Supporting Actress, which is again not a very competitive category this year. I'm not saying it is impossible for upset to happen here, but it is very, very unlikely.
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February 14th, 2013
For the third weekend in a row, Django Unchained earned first place on the international chart. This weekend it earned $19.55 million on 5,090 screens in 65 markets for totals of $187.71 million internationally and $342.23 million worldwide. It has now made more than Inglourious Basterds made worldwide, and it is a week away from becoming Quentin Tarantino's undisputed biggest hit of his career. Plus, it has yet to open in Japan and a few other markets, so it might have more milestones ahead.
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February 6th, 2013
Django Unchained won the international race with $30.28 million on 5,990 screens in 65 markets for a running total of $158.36 million. Worldwide, its total has reached $309.31 million. It is just a week away from overtaking Inglourious Basterds as Quentin Tarantino's biggest hit of his career. The film had no major market openings, which makes its hold more impressive. Its best market was Germany, where it made $6.61 million on 708 screens over the weekend for a total of $30.78 million after three.
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January 30th, 2013
There was a relatively close race on top of the international chart, but Django Unchained came out on top for the second week in a row. This time it earned $43.10 million on 6,421 screens in 64 markets for a total of $111.61 million after just two weeks of release. It is rapidly closing in on Inglourious Basterds as Quentin Tarantino's biggest hit of his career. It is also the most expensive film in his career. The film opened in first place in Australia with $3.95 million on 330 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $5.61 million. It also remained in top spot in Germany with an incredible $8.08 million on 650 screens over the weekend for a two-week total of $21.32 million.
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January 28th, 2013
The SAG handed out their awards over the weekend and while Lincoln took home two awards, Argo continues its surprising run by winning the big award of the night.
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January 14th, 2013
The Directors Guild of America handed out their nominations for Feature Films last week and Documentaries today. No, I have no idea why they split up their announcements. Usually, there's a lot of overlap between the DGAs and the Oscars, but that's not the case this year, so we again have some surprises.
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January 14th, 2013
Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out their awards last night, and the trend of surprises continues. Les Miserables led the way with three awards, only one of which I was truly expecting. Meanwhile, Argo won more awards than Lincoln. I don't think anyone was predicting that.
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January 10th, 2013
The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and there's certainly a lot to talk about. There are some nominations that should surprise no one. For instance, Lincoln led the way with twelve nominations, and it has been seen as the major contender for a long time. However, there were also a few surprise nominations and some major snubs. Here are the list of nominations, and some reactions.
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January 7th, 2013
Surprises seems to be the word of the day, as the WGA nominations included a number of them. Granted, Zero Dark Thirty and a lot of the other films that have earned Awards Season success thus far were here, but there were almost as many surprises as there were obvious choices.
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January 6th, 2013
Producers Guild of America announced their nominations this week, including the three theatrical categories. There were a number of films on the list that have been mentioned time and time again this awards season, like Zero Dark Thirty, but there were also a few surprises.
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December 27th, 2012
This year, Christmas fell on a really awkward day and compounded with the smart decision for some studios to close the entire week, dealing with the weekend box office numbers is a little trickier this year. We are still stuck with a mixture of final numbers and studio estimates, but since we won't get absolute final numbers till likely January 2nd, we should at least talk about the numbers we have. We won't be able to compare the full weekend to last week or last year, because we don't have the full weekend numbers. But since most of the films failed to match expectations, things look grim.
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December 17th, 2012
In a result that surprised absolutely no one, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey earned first place on top of the chart this weekend. It earned more than the entire box office earned last weekend leading to a 70% increase week-over-week to $136 million. Compared to last year, the box office was 15% higher, as The Hobbit made more than last year's three wide releases opened with combined. Year-to-date, 2012 has earned $10.19 billion, which is 6.1% higher than last year's pace. Additionally, the year is about $100 million away from topping 2011's final tally. It should have no trouble surpassing that total some time over the weekend. On the other hand, it is still far behind the record set by 2009.
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December 13th, 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens this weekend and it will clearly be the biggest hit of the month and likely the biggest hit of the winter. There is roughly a 100% chance that The Hobbit will earn first place and nearly all analysts think it will earn more than the entire box office earned last week. It might even earn more than the entire box office made last year. Last year, the box office was led by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which made just under $40 million, while second place went to Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked with just over $23 million. If The Hobbit doesn't make more than those two films made combined, then the box office is in serious trouble.
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December 13th, 2012
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations and the same list of films that have been mentioned since the beginning of Awards Season were rewarded today. Lincoln led the way with seven nods, while Argo and Django Unchained were close behind with five.
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December 12th, 2012
SAG nominations were announced and there were only a few surprises to deal with. Leading the way for total nominations was The Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, and Les Miserables, all of which earned nominations in four of the six categories.
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December 10th, 2012
Skyfall returned to the top of the box office chart, which is fitting, because it was the last film released that truly beat expectations at the box office. The only wide release this week, Playing For Keeps, barely remained above the Mendoza Line and failed to reach the top five. The overall box office fell 30% to just $80 million. Ugh. There are a couple of pieces of good news we should focus on. Firstly, $80 million is still 7% higher than this weekend last year. Secondly, it was enough to push 2012 over the $10 billion market. At the moment, the total box office for 2012 is $10.02 billion, which is 6% higher than 2011 had managed at the same point in the year. By this time next week, 2012 might be ahead of 2011's final figure of $10.28 billion.
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December 7th, 2012
For the third weekend in a row, holdovers are expected to dominated the box office. In fact, there are many analysts that think Playing For Keeps won't even reach the top five. That doesn't mean there won't be a race for top spot, as Skyfall, Lincoln, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 were within $100,000 of each other on Wednesday. Will Lincoln finally gets its place at the top? Or will Skyfall return to the clouds? Meanwhile, how will the overall box office compare to last year, which was led by the one-two punch of New Year's Eve and The Sitter. That was a pretty weak effort from 2011, so 2012 does have an opening for a victory, despite the lack of significant new releases.
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December 3rd, 2012
It was a close race for top spot as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 just held off Skyfall by less than $1 million. Unfortunately, the best new release, Killing Them Softly, failed to match low expectations, while The Collection barely managed a spot in the top ten. The overall box office fell 45% to $114 million. However, as sharp as that decline was, it was still 41% higher than the same weekend last year and December begins with 2012 ahead of 2011 by 5.9% at $9.91 billion to $9.36 billion.
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November 30th, 2012
Like last weekend, holdovers will again dominate the new releases this weekend. However, one could argue the headline is inaccurate, as Killing Them Softly is really the only new film opening truly wide, so it should be "release", singular. The Collection is opening in more theaters than originally anticipated, perhaps enough to grab a spot in the top ten, but it is not opening truly wide. That said, there are some who think The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 will relinquish top spot at the box office with some thinking Skyfall will regain the title, while others think Lincoln will climb to first place. This weekend last year was a total disaster with the best new release playing in just 10 theaters. This year we should be a little stronger at the top and with a lot more depth.
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November 26th, 2012
The Thanksgiving long weekend was stronger than anticipated with nearly every film topping predictions, some by pretty big margins. In fact, some earned more over three days than they were expected to earn over five days. Despite this, the box office was actually down 17% from last weekend to $208 million over the three-day portion of the weekend. This was 26% higher than the three-day portion of last year's Thanksgiving long weekend. Over five days, the box office pulled in $291 million, which is the most ever for a Thanksgiving weekend and 25% higher than last year. Year-to-date, 2012 has pulled in $9.75 billion, which is 5.5% higher than last year's running tally of $9.24 billion. If 2012 can simply match 2011 the rest of the way, then we will set a new all-time yearly box office total with about $10.7 billion.
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November 25th, 2012
As expected, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 and Skyfall are dominating the Thanksgiving charts, and, with some help from three new releases and two strong holdovers, will produce the most lucrative Thanksgiving holiday in history. All told, we should see something a little over $200 million in revenue for the three-day portion of the weekend, placing it in the top 20 weekends of all time. Breaking Dawn, Part 2 is tracking about in line with Part 1 at this point in its run. In contrast, Skyfall is well ahead of James Bond's previous outing, and has become the first Bond movie to top $200 million domestically (before adjusting for inflation).
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November 21st, 2012
It's the beginning of Thanksgiving long weekend tonight, which means it is a busy day for new releases. There are three new releases opening wide, plus another film that is expanding wide enough that is has a shot at the top ten. Unfortunately for the new films, there's little hope any of them will top The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 over the weekend. In fact, there's a chance none of them will top Skyfall for second place. Rise of the Guardians is the only one with a real shot at second place, while Life of Pi and Red Dawn will be in a tough battle for fifth place. Finally, Silver Linings Playbook is expanding to more than 400 theaters and could grab tenth place. The box office last year looks very similar to the box office potential this year. With a little luck, there will be mostly pleasant surprises rather than serious disappointments and 2012 will have another solid win.
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November 20th, 2012
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 led the overall chart and the per theater chart. Its average was $34,660, which is especially impressive, as it was playing in more than 4,000 theaters. The next best release was Silver Linings Playbook, which earned an average of $27,688 in 16 theaters. This suggests a strong potential to expand, while its reviews suggest a strong word-of-mouth and some Awards Season buzz. Anna Karenina was next up with an average of $20,043, also playing in 16 theaters, but the reviews suggest it will struggle if it tries to expand. The Comedy opened in New York this week after playing in Los Angeles last week and it did really well earning $13,150. Both members of last week's $10,000 club remained above that mark this week with Lincoln earning an average of $11,859 and Skyfall earning an average of $11,727. One final note, while Jab Tak Hai Jaan didn't quite reach that mark with an average of $8,022 in 160 theaters, it debuted on Tuesday. In total, it made $1.94 million, which would have given it an average of $12,136, had it made that over the weekend.
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November 19th, 2012
While The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 wasn't quite as strong as predicted, it still had a monster opening. Likewise, the two big holdovers both fell a little further than anticipated. The only film in the top five that really beat expectations was Lincoln. Fortunately, all of the films in the top five came close enough to matching the predictions that the overall box office was still very strong. Compared to last week, the box office grew by 44% to just under $250 million. Compared to last year, the box office grew 12%, which is a much more important number. Year-to-date, 2012 has pulled in $9.41 billion and is now 4.8% above last year's pace. It is still technically possible that 2012 will fail to match last year at the box office, but it is ferociously unlikely.
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November 18th, 2012
The beginning of the end for the Twilight franchise is here, and, as expected, big money is being made by Lionsgate/Summit. While this installment doesn't look like it will break franchise records, Lionsgate is predicting a $141.3 million opening weekend, which will be the 8th-best of all time, assuming it holds up. New Moon will most likely remain the top opener for the franchise with $142.8 million, although it will be a close-run thing. Twilight will most likely end up the 5th-highest-grossing franchise at the domestic box office, behind only the "box office gods", Harry Potter, Star Wars, Batman and James Bond.
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November 15th, 2012
As The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 prepares to re-write the record book, it would be easy to overlook the rest of the top five. However, there are a few other films of note. Firstly, Lincoln, which is expanding this weekend and will nearly be at the truly wide level. Nearly everyone thinks this film will grab a spot in the top five. Also, despite a lot of people predicting Breaking Dawn will break records, a lot of people think Skyfall will hold up pretty well over the weekend. By comparison, last year, Breaking Dawn, Part 1 had an impressive opening, but it was the only thing about the weekend that was impressive, as Happy Feet 2 crashed and burned. There's a slim chance Breaking Dawn, Part 2 will open with more than the combined openings of those two films. Adding in Skyfall and 2012 should come out with a major win this week.
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November 14th, 2012
Lincoln was the easy winner on the per theater chart earning an average of $85,846 over the weekend. Had it earned an average of $31,554, which was its best single-day average, it would have been impressive. A start this strong is a good indicator for Awards Season success. The overall box office leader, Skyfall, was the only other member of the $10,000 earning an average of $25,211.
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November 9th, 2012
There's quite a few limited releases coming out this week, but the list is dominated by Lincoln, which should not only be the biggest hit of the week, but it is virtually guaranteed to expand wide and has a real shot at being the big winner at the Oscars next year. Unfortunately, it is the only limited release with a real shot at mainstream success. Starlet is a long shot, but it deserves to find an audience in theaters.
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November 1st, 2012
October was pretty good with a few films really crushing expectations, which made up for the few duds that opened at the end. 2012 gained about $100 million over 2011 during the month of October. We really needed this success and hopefully November will continue this push forward. However, November is a bit of a weird month. There are five weekends, but only eight true wide releases, half of which open on the Thanksgiving long weekend, leaving the other four weeks with just one true wide release each. There are a couple others opening in the semi-wide level and another opening in limited release with a planned wide release, but even so, it is not a busy month. That said, it is a case of quality over quantity. There are four films that are pretty much guaranteed to reach $100 million, one of which should reach $300 million. By comparison, last November only produced one $100 million film. Granted, that film was The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, which made nearly $300 million, which is a huge number no matter how you look at it. But this year, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 should top that number and with the other $100 million movies pulling in more than $400 million combined, it should be a very profitable month at the box office.
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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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