March 14th, 2013
New releases did well on the Blu-ray sales chart for the week of January 27th, 2013. This includes End of Watch, which earned first place with 428,000 units / $9.41 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was just a hair over 50%, which is really impressive for this type of release.
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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 19th, 2013
Argo continues its winning ways at the WGAs this weekend. It has become the defacto favorite for the Oscars, despite the high profile Oscar snub.
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February 6th, 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 look at Best Feature-Length Documentary, which is probably not as competitive as I thought it would be. There are two films that earned perfect reviews, so it should be a close race between those two for the Oscar, right?
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February 3rd, 2013
Directors Guild of America Awards were this weekend and the big winner shouldn't surprise too many people, assuming they've been paying attention. Argo won yet again and given this, Ben Affleck should be the favorite to win an Oscar at the end of the month... except he wasn't even nominated.
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January 28th, 2013
Producers Guild of America gave out their awards over the weekend, and there were a couple surprises, including a big win for Argo.
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January 21st, 2013
There are not a lot of big releases on this week's list with End of Watch being the biggest. Conveniently, it is also the best and it is the Pick of the Week on either DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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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 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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January 3rd, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty shot up to the top of the per theater chart with averages of $83,430 during its opening weekend and $63,283 during its sophomore stint. Expanding truly wide is virtually guaranteed. Amour was well back with an average of $20,005 over the past weekend and $22,755 during its opening weekend. The Impossible rose 27% to $12,172 in 15 theaters. This is a great sign and while its reviews are too low to be a major contender during Awards Season, it should still do well enough to expand significantly, but probably not truly wide. The final film in the $10,000 club was Django Unchained, which opened with an average of $10,008.
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October 30th, 2012
The Sessions was the only film to top $10,000 on the per theater chart with an average of $10,868 in 20 theaters. Earning some measure of mainstream success is very likely at this point.
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September 19th, 2012
We had a monster hit on the per theater chart, as The Master earned close to $750,000 in five theaters for an average of $147,262. This is unbelievably strong; however, one does have to take into account the particulars. The Master was released on 70mm and because this is such an unusual event, the tickets were sold at a premium price. The only other film to top the $10,000 mark was Arbitrage, which made just over $2 million in just under 200 theaters for an average of $10,163.
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July 31st, 2012
The Dark Knight Rises remained on top of the per theater chart with an average of $14,101 in more than 4,400 theaters. Killer Joe opened with an average of $12,621 in three theaters, while Ruby Sparks was also strong with an average of $10,832 in thirteen. Both films have some potential to expand. Deep Sea 3-D remained strong with $10,412 in its lone theater.
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July 27th, 2012
There are not a huge number of limited releases on this week's chart, but all of them are earning overall positive reviews, and a few of them are generating some strong buzz.
Killer Joe is one such film, but its rating could prevent it from reaching a sizable audience.
Ruby Sparks has far more populous appeal, but weaker reviews.
Searching for Sugar Man has some of the best reviews of the month, but documentaries rarely escape the grasp of limited release.
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