January 20th, 2009
A terrible week for first run releases. There are five such releases on this week's list, but they has a combined haul of around $130 million, and nearly $100 million of that came from two films. With no big releases, we had to look other places for the DVD Pick of the Week. Repo! The Genetic Opera on Blu-ray is a clear contender for that title, but its lack of mass appeal is troublesome. This American Life - Season Two is a safer pick, but it is a Borders Exclusive release. Regardless of these issues, both releases are worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week. Despite the weakness at the top, there are still more than enough total releases to cause this column to stretch into two parts. The second part can be found here.
More...
February 6th, 2006
It's a massively busy week in the world of DVD releases, so much so that I'm dividing the column up into two parts with the second part being published tomorrow. I'm trying to organize it alphabetically, (although I'll probably miss a few today and add them tomorrow), but this presents a small problem as none of today's list are really DVD Pick of the Week material. As for tomorrow's list, both
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit -
Buy from Amazon and
Waiting... -
Unrated Edition are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week. You'll have to stay tuned to see which one wins. (Hint: probably both.)
More...
September 29th, 2004
For the fifth week in a row
The Village finished in first place with $14.0 million on 4000 screens in 38 markets. The biggest opening of the week was $5.2 million in Spain, but suffered another collapse in Mexico dropping 55% during its second weekend there. Its international total hit $100 million over the weekend, the fifth
Disney film to do so this year, and the 17th overall.
More...
September 21st, 2004
The Village once again top took spot on the international scene, but by a very narrow margin. Still being plagued by sharp drop-offs, the film earned $11.2 million on 3,500 screens in 34 markets. So far the film has taken it $117 million internationally, higher than its $113 million it earned domestically. Although, it is much lower than
M. Night Shyamalan's previous movie
Signs.
More...
September 14th, 2004
The Village again was the weekend champ in the international box office with $15.3 million on nearly 3,500 screens in 31 markets. Highlights for the weekend include and impressive debut in Germany at $5.5 million and a less spectacular $3.1 million in Japan. The film also suffered a 55% drop-off in its second weekend in Australia while it held up much better in Brazil. So far the film has earned $63.2 million internationally and is well on its way to matching its $112 million domestic total.
More...
September 8th, 2004
The weekend on the international scene was very much the same as last weekend, just a little bit slower.
The Village was again the champ, thanks to seven openings in mostly mid-ranged markets. A $2.2 million debut in Australia was the top money earner as the film took in $9 million in 23 markets. It's international total is now $45 million and should be headed to $100 million before it is done.
More...
August 17th, 2004
It's a little early to say what effect the 2004 Summer Olympics will have on the box office, but the early indication is that Eurocup 2004 had a larger effect.
I, Robot hit its first international milestone topping the $100 million mark and now sits at $107.7 million. It accomplished this feat by taking in $18.8 million on more than 5,300 screens in 34 markets over the weekend. With Japan and Italy still ahead, $300 million worldwide is almost guaranteed while $200 million internationally is not out of the question.
More...
August 10th, 2004
With the summer juggernauts mostly wrapping up their runs, and very little in the way of new competition,
I, Robot easily finished first on the international box office charts. Its weekend earnings of $31.3 million on more than 6,000 screens in 29 markets was nearly triple what the nearest competitor could take in. The film opened number one in the U.K. (8.7 million), Germany ($5.3 million) and Russia ($2.4 million) as well as strong holdovers in France ($2.6 million) and other nations. The film has already earned $71.2 million internationally, and should top its domestic numbers within a few weeks.
More...
August 2nd, 2004
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, including the co-winners of the DVD Pick of the Week,
13 Going on 30 - Special Edition -
Buy from Amazon and
Sliders - The First and Second Seasons -
Buy from Amazon.
More...
May 10th, 2004
Summer got off to a really, really slow start this year. Last year the first weekend in May resulted in an incredible 66% week-to-week increase but this year that increase was only 7.1%. And while this weekend last year was the slowest of the summer box office season (May to mid-August), but this year it was actually 1.4% lower. If we don't see a dramatic increase next weekend the year-to-date increase could drop below the inflation.
More...
May 7th, 2004
Finally, the summer season at the box office is starting. While it isn't until Memorial Day that Summer Official starts in the movie industry, the first full weekend in May has become increasingly important. This year doesn't look as strong as last year, but it still should be a mile above anything we saw in April.
More...
May 3rd, 2004
Five movies opening wide in one weekend is just too many for one weekend. Combined with the horrible reviews and its no wonder all but one film flopped. Fortunately that one film had one of the best April openings ever so we saw a pretty good increase from last weekend at 4%. However, this time last year was the beginning of May, which marks the official start of the Summer Blockbuster season, so it is no surprising that this weekend is down a huge 33% from last year. In fact
X-Men United opening was just shy of the top 10's total. And if you add in
The Lizzie McGuire Movie and their combined debuts are higher than the weekend's total box office.
More...
April 30th, 2004
It's a busy last weekend in April with five movies opening wide. However, it is uncertain if any of these films can take top spot. This is partly due to the competition but it is also due to the weakness of the reviews; just one film has overall positive reviews and the other four films have combined reviews under 15% positive.
More...
April 26th, 2004
This was a weird weekend. We had a record-breaking event when two movies opened with $20 million and that's the first time that's ever happened in April. However, the total box office was still down more than 5% from last weekend. It was up 6% from the same time last year, sort of. It's getting really confusion doing the yearly comparisons because last year April had four weekends, while this year it has five.
More...
April 23rd, 2004
Just the two wide releases this week targeting two entirely different audiences. So we could have two break out hits this week. Then again, probably not. April started out ok, but it has really started to suffer and it doesn't look better next weekend. Summer can't start too soon.
More...
April 23rd, 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,
Van Helsing -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
April 19th, 2004
With just two movies opening wide this should have been a good week, and while the wide releases did ok, the holdovers really suffered. In the end the weekend was down 10.6% from last weekend, and even more telling was its 3.5% drop from last year. Granted, it was Easter this time last year, but it's not that important of a holiday to make a large enough difference.
More...
April 16th, 2004
For the first time this month we don't have an overload of new movies opening up. However, the two wider releases we do have are in direct competition for the same audience, so the same ticket splitting will still happen. That will make it hard for both films to succeed. There's an addition film opening sort of wide, but at just 1000 theatres don't expect it to make much of an impact.
More...
April 15th, 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 Punisher -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
April 8th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week saw a deceptively poor crop of site as there were a lot of movie site launched / updated / released, more than 30 in fact. However, very few of them even came close to the being considered for this week's award. It's so bad I've spent the last 3 hours looking for a gem of movie site that I may have missed in previous weeks. In the end it was
Kill Bill: Volume 2 -
Official Site that won the award with only one or two other that were even briefly considered. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
April 1st, 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,
Hellboy -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
March 28th, 2004
With summer just around the corner ... Yes I know Spring started a week ago, but this is the movie industry, we do things differently. So with Summer just around the corner it's time for the Summer Movie Preview, Part 1 - April. In April we have nearly 20 films opening wide over 5 weekends, or almost 4 per weekend. That much variety should please moviegoers, but that much competition will kill the chances of half the movies released.
More...
March 25th, 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,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
March 4th, 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 Prince & Me -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
February 6th, 2004
This week's new batch of movie release dates has some more shuffling around of this Summer's blockbusters, and even next Summer's blockbusters.
We also have release dates for some smaller (and more interesting) movies.
Among movies with moved dates: Welcome to Mooseport,
13 Going on 30,
Raising Helen,
Mr. 3000,
The Notebook and Shall We Dance?.
We also have a announced date for Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and a new name and date for the XXX Sequel.
More...
January 29th, 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. It was a two-way race this week as most sites on today's list had either small updates or launched flash sites that were mostly marked 'coming soon.' In the end,
Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed took this week's top prize. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
January 23rd, 2004
Each week, the studios do another dance, shuffling around the release dates of their movies in an effort to best position themselves for future success.
This week sees the sudden disappearance of Mindhunters from the schedules and new release dates for Raising Helen, Mr. 3000, The Clearing, Wicker Park, Beauty Shop, Amityville, The Notebook, Secret Window, 13 Going on 30 and Breakin' All the Rules.
More...
January 2nd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week we have a very abridged list due to the holidays; in fact, the list is so abridged I contemplated not giving an award this week. In the end I gave the award for the week to
King Arthur -
Official Site - for excellence in a placeholder site. (Hopefully the full site will not let me down.) If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
