January 26th, 2010
It's a soft week at the top, as the biggest release of the week is Michael Jackson's This Is It. There are a few other wide releases hitting the home market as well, but all the rest were box office disappointments of varying degrees. This Is It is a good movie and the DVD / Blu-ray are worth picking up, but they are not Pick of the Week material. For that we have to look to a smaller Canadian film, Pontypool, which earned excellent reviews while the DVD gets a rarely-awarded Puck of the Week.
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August 31st, 2009
It's the calm before the storm on the home market. There's not a lot of TV on DVD releases this week, but that's temporary, while the summer blockbusters will start flooding the market in just two weeks. From that week till the end of the year, there will be a major blockbuster release coming out practically every week. As for this week, the list of top tier releases is not particularly strong, but there are a trio of DVD Pick of the Week contenders. These include Earth on Blu-ray, Supernatural - Season Four on DVD or Blu-ray, and Degrassi - The Next Generation - Season 8 on DVD. Each one has their draws and weaknesses, but all three are worthy of the title.
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June 9th, 2009
Two new releases cracked $10,000 on the per theater chart this week, including Away We Go, which led the way with $32,603 despite mixed reviews.
The overall number one film, The Hangover, was second with $13,759.
Perhaps most impressive was Up, which remained in the $10,000 club during its sophomore stint with $11,561.
It's rare for a saturation level release to repeat on this chart.
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June 7th, 2009
Up held on to top spot on the box office chart over the weekend, based on the studio's Sunday estimates.
But it was a very close thing.
Only strong family business on Saturday and Sunday was enough to hold off a very impressive debut by The Hangover.
The buddy comedy opened with an estimated $43.275 million, which was well ahead of most predictions, and showed that good reviews can still help bring in moviegoers.
Land of the Lost, meanwhile, showed how bad reviews can still kill a movie: it opened with a paltry $19.5 million, making it the worst Summer opening of Will Ferrell's career.
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June 6th, 2009
There were three wide releases to crack the top ten this weekend, but when it comes to the best of the websites, it's a smaller Canadian movie that was the best. Waterlife's Official Site had a surprising amount of sound and animation to go with the impressive information and it is the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 5th, 2009
The latest attempt at an independent sleeper hit opens this week with Away We Go.
Sadly, it doesn't have reviews that inspire confidence, but hopefully it can beat expectations.
That's the biggest release of the week, but there are also a couple of documentaries that are worth checking out.
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