June 3rd, 2008
This was a bad week for big movies, with not a single first run release is even worth rating a solid purchase, never mind being a contender for DVD Pick of the Week. There were a few other contenders for the title, including Dirty Harry Collection on DVD or Blu-ray. However, I found it impossible to decide which format was the better deal. Had the Blu-ray provided anything more than High Definition, or been a more reasonable price compared to the DVD, it would have been an easier choice. One of them is the DVD Pick of the Week, I just don't know which one. On a side note, there is an immense flood of Blu-ray releases, including a few I thought were coming out previously.
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July 24th, 2006
On the surface this is a big week for DVDs, but there's a lot of chaff and not much wheat. However, there are several releases that rate a purchase or higher including this week's DVD Pick of the Week,
Animaniacs - Volume 1 and
Pinky and the Brain - Volume 1, both of which are perfect for kids and adults alike. One last note, both
Blackballed: The Bobby Duke Story -
Buy from Amazon and
Deck Dogz will be featured next week in our box office prediction contest.
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January 24th, 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 and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. Speaking of TV on DVD, this week is massive on that front with more than a dozen complete season sets coming out tomorrow. One of these,
Married... With Children - The Complete Third Season -
Buy from Amazon is my DVD pick of the week, along with
Mean Creek -
Buy from Amazon
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November 24th, 2004
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason's second round of openings was no quite as strong as last week's, but it was still more than enough to keep its first place finish at the international box office. Overall the British
comedy took in $20.6 million on 1,854 screens in 18 markets lifting its tally to $59 million. Out of the new openings, the film was most impressive in Spain with $2.6 million while its best market overall was the U.K. where the film dropped just 29% to $9.3 million. The film is still tracking well ahead of the
original and is becoming one of the monster hits of the fall.
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November 17th, 2004
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason opened in a mere half a dozen international markets over the weekend, but what an opening it was. Despite place on fewer than 1000 screens the film was able to pull in an amazing $26.7 million, the lion's share coming from the U.K. where the film took in $19.1 million on 496 screens, (including $5.9 million from sneak peaks.) That was the best opening for a Working Title film smashing the previous record of $11.1 million for
Love Actually. In each market the film broke the record for Working Title films and more than doubled the
original's debut. And even with legs that are expected to be much lower, it should be able to break $300 million internationally, although it may have trouble hitting $50 million domestically.
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October 13th, 2004
With openings in nearly a dozen new markets,
Shark Tale was able to take top spot on the international charts with $9.4 million in 16 markets, pushing its early total to $19.2 million internationally and over $100 million worldwide. Highlights include $4.4 million in the U.K., (including previews) and $2.05 million in Mexico. How happy the studio is with these results depends on their expectations. Compared to the average film,
Shark Tale is a massive hit. But compared to
Dreamworks previous
digitally animated film,
Shrek 2, it is a large drop.
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October 8th, 2004
A trio of new films open wide this week, but none look likely to de-thrown
Shark Tale as the weekend champ. Overall there should be a small drop at the box office, whether the drop will be large enough to push the weekend box office below 2003 level is up in the air.
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October 6th, 2004
Collateral finished first on the international charts breaking
The Village's five week run on top. Although, with a weekly take of only $9.4 million in 28 markets, it has as much to do with the weakness of the competition as it does with the strength of the film itself. The largest chunk of that box office came from France, where the film earned $3.8 million.
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October 4th, 2004
It's amazing what the turning of a page on a calendar can do for the movie industry. After a dismal September, October got off to a near record start. It goes without saying that the weekend box office was up significantly from last week, 58.9% to be more exact and the yearly comparison was also very impressive at 20.9% increase. However, the yearly comparison is a bit misleading as Shark Tale is probably the biggest movie to open this month, so the box office may have already peaked for the month. We'll have to wait till next week to see if this is a sign of newfound strength or just an aberration.
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October 1st, 2004
Well, September is over so the industry can breathe a collective sigh of relief. And it couldn't end a moment too soon. How bad was September? Total box office for September was $423 million, the worst month in two years. And the majority of that box office came from holdovers released in previous months like
Hero, which earned nearly $30 million during the month of September. Fortunately, the first weekend in October sees the release of what should be the first $100 million movie since
The Village.
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September 27th, 2004
Normally September starts out slow with Labor Day Weekend and drops a bit the weekend after, but then rebounds. But this September it started out weak, and just kept on getting weaker. The drop from last weekend was severe at nearly 9.5%, but the drop from last year was a hefty 24%. With $6.803 billion so far, 2004 still leads the year to date comparison by over 4%, but if October is half as bad as September that will change very quickly.
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September 24th, 2004
There are a lot of questions that need answering with regards to the box office this weekend. Will any new release come in first? Or will they all be dead on arrival, making this a weekend the studios would rather forget? And, are these questions mere cheap excuses to put links into the summary?
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September 20th, 2004
None of the new films could live up to expectations, but the holdovers held up better than expected, especially as you went farther down the list. This helped the box office remain relatively flat from last weekend, down just 1.3% from last weekend, hardly worth noting. The yearly comparison is not as bright with 2004 down more than 25% from the same weekend last year. With the Fall box office stumbling, 2004's lead over 2003 is shrinking. As of last weekend this year is ahead $6.712 billion to $6.450 billion, just 4% ahead.
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September 17th, 2004
This weekend is a little busier than most with 4 movies opening wide and another film having a preview. Most of the films are also earning better than average reviews, especially for this time of year. This should give a little boost to the box office, but don't expect to see any major breakout hits or records broken along the way.
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September 16th, 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
Shaun of the Dead -
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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September 1st, 2004
Yikes. September has historically been a dumping ground for bad films and this year looks no different. September is also a very hard month to write a preview for; there are more than a dozen films, but very few of them have received any advanced buzz, good or bad, making predicting their chances very hard indeed.
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July 8th, 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 the winner for the week,
The Bourne Supremacy -
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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May 20th, 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. It was another deceptively slow week as there are lots of site on the list, but none stood out as an award winning site. Many were simple placeholders, others had just minor updates, and the only three flash sites to launch were mostly marked coming soon. I was even tempted to not give out an award or maybe even bring in a
ringer. But in the end I went with
The Incredibles -
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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May 13th, 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 the winner for the week,
The Chronicles of Riddick -
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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February 13th, 2004
This week's batch of new movie release dates is highlighted by MGM announcing the release date of the as-yet-untitled 21st James Bond Movie,
a confirmed release date for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
a curious move for the
Bridget Jones sequel and the usual shuffling about as studios try to position their movies for the greatest chance of success.
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January 8th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week we have a larger list to make up for the holidays, but a winter storm took out my internet access on Tuesday / Wednesday so the column is a little late today. Here the list of new releases, updated sites, and some upcoming releases that slipped through the cracks, including the winner for the week Along Came Polly - 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 18th, 2003
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here is a list of highlights, (including this week's winner
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King -
Official Site plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. 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 11th, 2003
Paramount's 2004 summer tentpole release The World of Tomorrow gets an even more retro name with the addition of Sky Captain to its title, making it Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
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