July 28th, 2011
Despite only going on sale on Friday, Rango led all new releases and took top spot on the Blu-ray sales chart. It wasn't even really close, as it sold 353,000 units and generated $7.05 million. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio of 37% is strong, especially for a kids movie.
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July 20th, 2011
Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy remained on top of the Blu-ray sales chart this week selling 104,000 units / $5.08 million for the week. It now has generated just over $30 million in sales in just two weeks, and even if you split that between the three movies, it's still an excellent run for a catalog title.
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July 19th, 2011
New releases were dead on arrival on this week's DVD sales chart. None reached the top five, while only three reached the top 30. This left Sucker Punch in top spot, but with only 105,000 units / $1.58 million units for the week giving it totals of 381,000 units / $5.71 million after two.
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July 12th, 2011
While it's not common for a box set to lead the way on the Blu-ray sales chart, it is also no real surprise that Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy managed to do just that, as it was clearly the biggest new release of the week. It took top spot with sales of 336,000 units, and thanks to its premium pricing, it generated $25.21 million in opening week consumer spending.
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July 12th, 2011
While plenty of new releases reached the top of this week's sales chart, none were exactly burning up the chart. Leading the way was Sucker Punch, but with only 275,000 units / $4.13 million during its opening week on the chart. Season of the Witch could claim a share of first place with $4.28 million in opening week sales from 265,000 units sold.
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June 27th, 2011
It's a bit of a madhouse in terms of DVD and Blu-ray releases this week: Amazon.com has more than 400 listed. That said, a lot of them are catalogue titles that would barely warrant a mention during a slow week. The most intriguing first run release is Sucker Punch on Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy Combo Pack, but while I think it's worth picking up, it's appeal is limited enough that it is not worthy of the Pick of the Week honors. Fortunately, one of the catalogue titles is clearly Pick of the Week material. In fact, Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Edition - Blu-ray is one of the most anticipated releases in the history of Blu-ray.
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April 20th, 2011
Rio has become the biggest hit on the international box office so far this year after just two weeks of release. This past weekend it made $56.34 million on 13,754 screens in 63 markets to lift its total to $131.78 million. This is just a couple of million above The Green Hornet, although it is extending that lead very rapidly. The film was aided by a pair of first place openings in major markets, scoring $4.92 million on 667 screens in France and $2.38 million on 626 screens in Italy. It really shone in a number of holdover markets as well, including Brazil, where it was down a mere 14% to $7.22 million on 1,025 screens over the weekend for a total of $18.75 million after two. At this pace, it will top the final box office of Toy Story 3, Harry Potter and Tangled by next weekend. It added $5.70 million on 1,297 screens in Russia to lift its running tally to $18.94 million. It did drop by 39% from its opening weekend, which was higher than in most major markets, but still very strong for Russia. It grew by 33% in Australia to $3.22 million on 467 screens over the weekend for a total of $7.97 million after two. It was up 12% in the U.K. to $2.76 million on 531 screens over the weekend for a total of $8.97 million. Rio doesn't have a lot of markets left to expand into, but even so, at this pace it should hit $200 million internationally and $300 million worldwide with relative ease.
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April 13th, 2011
Did summer start already? I ask because we have a summer-like result at the international box office this weekend. Rio crushed the competition with $54.94 million on 11,714 screens in 45 markets. Opening on more than 10,000 screens is usually a feat reserved for summer blockbusters. The film earned first place in nearly every market, although its individual results did vary considerably. For instance, it was stunning in Russia earning $9.28 million on 1,297 screens over the weekend for a total of $11.31 million. Perhaps more impressively, the film earned $8.77 million on 1,024 screens in Brazil. While Brazil is a very large country, it's still an emerging market and this is a great result there. The film was also strong in Mexico with $4.90 million on 1,521. On the other hand, it was more average in a number of other major markets. For instance, it earned $2.63 million on 724 screens in Germany, which is mediocre for a potential blockbuster. The same was true in the U.K. with $2.48 million on 522, in Australia with $2.42 million on 459, and in Spain with $2.21 million on 390.
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April 6th, 2011
Just Go With It reached first place on the international chart with $10.84 million on 2,791 screens in 40 markets for a total of $76.26 million after 8 weeks of release. It opened in first place in Australia with $2.44 million on 311 screens, but it struggled in Italy with just $732,000 on 248. So far the film has $9.09 million in Russia after just two weeks, including $2.87 million on 544 screens this past weekend.
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April 4th, 2011
It was mostly a good news start to the month as the top film, Hop, beat expectations with ease and nearly became the fastest opening film of the year. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the top five at least came close to matching expectations. This helped the box office grow 3% from last weekend to $125 million. Unfortunately, this was nearly 30% lower than the same weekend last year. This means 2011 continues to lose ground on 2010 and it is now off last year's pace by just over 20% at $2.34 billion to $2.93 billion. Things need to turn around very soon.
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March 30th, 2011
Battle: Los Angeles remained in first place on the international scene with $16.32 million on 7,746 screens in 55 markets for a total of $79.63 million after three weeks of release. It didn't have many new openings. It did add $1.12 million on 331 screens during its second weekend in Australia for a total of $4.39 million so far. It has already made more internationally than it has domestically, and with openings in Spain, Germany, and Italy, it should have no trouble getting to $200 million worldwide. I think the studio should be happy with that, but I'm not sure they will be happy enough to go with a sequel.
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March 30th, 2011
While Sucker Punch opened a disappointing second place overall, it managed a very strong $4.0 million on just 229 IMAX screens during its opening weekend. This works out of 21% of of its total opening, which is the highest ever for a 2D DMR IMAX film. It also added $315,000 on 23 IMAX screens internationally, while it could expand its international IMAX theater count past 100 screens.
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March 28th, 2011
Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules opened on the high end of expectations while Sucker Punch opened on the low end of expectations, which meant there wasn't a really tight race for top spot at the box office this weekend. The overall box office was healthy with a total haul of $121 million, which was close to 6% higher than last weekend, but it was also close to 6% lower than the same weekend last year. On the one hand, this is arguably the best performance 2011 has had so far, as the only time we've won on the year-over-year comparison was when 2011 has a holiday that didn't line up with 2010. On the other hand, 2011 is still half a billion dollars behind 2010's pace at $2.18 billion to $2.69 billion.
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March 27th, 2011
The last weekend in March have brought us another pair of movies opening in the high teens to low twenties. This time around Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was the low-twenties movie, picking up a very respectable $24.4 million on debut, which is a shade ahead of the $22 million earned by the first film in the franchise this time last year. Sucker Punch produced a slightly disappointing $19 million opening weekend, which is a drop in the bucket compared to its $75 million budget. It'll need good international numbers and a strong home market performance to recoup costs.
Overall box office will be down about 7% from last year, continuing 2011's losing streak, although that makes this one of the better weekends of the year so far.
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March 24th, 2011
Predicting the winner at the box office this weekend could be tough, as there appears to be no real consensus on which film has the advantage. This is mostly due to uncertainty with one of the films, with just as many analysts predicting Sucker Punch will win with ease as are predicting that film will really struggle. On the other hand, there is a pretty strong consensus with regards to the overall box office when compared to last year and there's almost no chance 2011 will keep pace with 2010. Worse case scenario has Sucker Punch and Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodick Rules combined opening with less than How to Train Your Dragon opened with. This means March will end on a low note, which has happened far too often this year.
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March 1st, 2011
This is going to suck. February wasn't exactly a banner month at the box office and 2011 is already roughly $400 million behind 2010's pace. To make matters worse, last March broke records starting with the release of Alice in Wonderland. There is no movie coming out this month that will come close to Alice in Wonderland's performance; in fact, the number one film this March will likely not do as well as the second best film from last March. The best case scenario has the month producing three $100 million movies, plus a number of midlevel hits, while still failing to match last year's pace by about $100 million. The worst case scenario has two of the three potential $100 million hits missing that mark, plus the midlevel hits also struggling. In that case, we could end March about $300 million further behind 2010's pace. (Hopefully things will start to turn around in April.)
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January 4th, 2011
IMAX released their 2010 numbers and they had a lot of reasons to celebrate, more than 500 million of them. Total worldwide revenues doubled from their previous record of $270 million in 2009 to $546 million in 2010. This is partially due to increased market penetration, especially internationally (international revenue tripled from $70 million to $212 million) but their per theater revenue also grew by an impressive 50%. Revenue for the fourth quarter was also up compared to last year, but by a tiny margin at $102 to $101 million. However, this should be considered a solid result, as last year was boosted by Avatar, and there was nothing that came close to matching its box office this year.
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May 12th, 2010
Iron Man 2 opened domestically and while its overall total was on the low end of expectations, it broke records on IMAX, pulling in $9.8 million on 181 IMAX screens. This is a record opening for a 2D title. Internationally, it added $1.5 million for a total of $4.7 million overseas and $14.5 million worldwide.
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