February 22nd, 2015
New releases occupied four of the top five spots on the DVD sales chart for the week ending February 8. The top spot went to Dracula Untold, with 237,000 units sold and $4.16 million in consumer spending during its first week of release. With this strong result, I think the odds of this film becoming the first of a franchise have increased.
Second place, just barely, went to The Best of Me, with 227,000 units sold and $3.45 million in consumer spending. The Best of Me edged out John Wick, sending it to third place with 227,000 units sold and $3.44 million in spending.
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February 22nd, 2015
The Blu-ray sales chart was dominated by two new releases. John Wick led the way with 301,000 units / $6.30 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 57%. The film was an action film with visual style, but not a ton of visual effects, so this is better than expected.
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February 14th, 2015
New releases earned the top four spots on the DVD Sales Chart. Fury led the way in terms of units sold at 355,000 units to 302,000 units over Downton Abbey: Season 5. However, Downton Abbey earned first place in terms of revenue at $7.40 million to $6.20 million.
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February 14th, 2015
New releases dominated the Blu-ray sales chart, again. There were three new releases in the top three spots, while newcomers earned five of the top six spots. Leading the way was Fury with 432,000 units / $8.80 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 55%, which is great for this type of film. It is an action film, but not a visual effects action film.
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February 9th, 2015
New releases helped the overall Blu-ray sales grow this past weekend. Lucy, The Boxtrolls, and Annabelle were the big trio and they helped the overall Blu-ray numbers grow to 1.11 million units / $23.82 million. This was week-to-week growth of 40% in terms units and 41% in terms of revenue, which is excellent for one weeks growth. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sold 41% more units and generated 35% more revenue. This helped the overall Blu-ray share grow to 44%.
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February 2nd, 2015
It is a slow week on the home market, and will remain a slow week until the winter blockbusters start coming out. According to Amazon.com, this week the biggest release is John Wick. Granted, the Blu-ray Combo Pack is Pick of the Week material, but the film only made $43 million at the box office, so it likely won't sell a lot on the home market. The other two contenders for Pick of the Week are The Overnighters on DVD or Blu-ray and Dear White People - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray. Are three are worth picking up. The Overnighters is arguably the best, but I love the Film Noir style in John Wick, so I'm awarding that one the Pick of the Week.
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January 31st, 2015
The Book of Life opened in October and as a family film with a bit of a Halloween flavor to it, I thought it would be a success at the box office. The reviews were certainly great, but it failed to find an audience in theaters. Will it perform better on the home market? Or was there a reason it failed to find an audience in theaters?
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January 27th, 2015
It is a really bad week for the home market with a lot of filler on the first page of the new releases on Amazon.com. Fury is the biggest release, but there are not enough extras on the DVD or Blu-ray to be a contender for Pick of the Week. The Book of Life, on the other hand, has a loaded DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack and is a contender. The only other real contender is The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness on DVD. In the end, I went with The Book of Life.
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January 11th, 2015
The BAFTA nominations were announced yesterday and unlike most other Awards Season voters, the BAFTA voters gave us some real surprises. For instance, Birdman didn't lead the way. In fact, it was a comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, that earned the most nominations at 11. Granted, Birdman and The Theory of Everything were tied for second place with ten each, but it is still strange to see a comedy leading the way.
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January 10th, 2015
The Producers Guild of America nominations were announced and there's not a lot of surprises among the three categories. Birdman, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and others continue to get accolades, but there are also some films that are being passed over too often.
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December 11th, 2014
The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, at three in the morning, because the people at Golden Globes are under the delusion that news announced at 3:00 a.m. is somehow more important if it is announced before anyone is awake. As for the actual nominations, like with the Independent Spirit Awards and the SAG nominations, Birdman led the way. It earned seven nominations, while Boyhood and The Imitation Game tied for second with five apiece. Starting to notice a pattern here? This could be a really dull Awards Season with very few surprises. On the other hand, predictable means less work for me. Plus, predictable probably means the Awards Season voters are making the right choices, as surprises usually mean someone made the wrong choice.
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November 3rd, 2014
Halloween is over and the box office took a real hit. Ouija was the only film that was a pleasant surprise topping expectations and earning first place. Nightcrawler matched expectations, but due to the competition, landed in second place. The other two films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and Saw, were... well, the less said the better. Overall, the box office fell 18% to just $95 million. Worse still, this was 25% lower than the same weekend last year. There is mitigating circumstances, as this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and didn't have to suffer with Halloween landing on the Friday. Next weekend will bounce back, obviously, but 2014 is running out of time to catch up to 2013. Currently it is down by 3.3% at $8.33 billion to $8.62 billion.
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October 30th, 2014
Tomorrow is Halloween, which is one of the worst days of the year as far as box office numbers are concerned. I would argue only Christmas Eve is worse. Nightcrawler is the only truly wide release of the week, but it is not expected to be a hit. It will likely earn first place, but with only around $10 million. There are two other films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and the tenth anniversary release of Saw. Before I Go to Sleep is the third release from Clarius Entertainment whose first two releases bombed horribly. This one is expected to finish somewhere in-between the first two at the box office. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror franchise of all time, but will people really go to theaters to see it? I would assume fans of these movies likely own the film on Blu-ray, so staying at home would be more appealing. Worse still, this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and it shows. There were five films that earned more than $10 million, led by Ender's Game. This year, we might have no movies earning more than $10 million. Ouch.
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October 28th, 2014
As expected, Ouija won the race for first place, but it finished on the very low end of expectations. On the other hand, John Wick beat expectations earning second place. Overall, these two results balanced out, but this still resulted in the box office falling 12% from last weekend to $116 million. More importantly, it was 13% higher than the same weekend last year. 2014 is still behind 2013, but it is chipping away at the deficit, which has fallen to under $300 million at $8.20 billion to $8.49 billion. 2014 is still behind last year's pace by 3.4%, but if it can close that gap by the same amount in November and December, then at least by the end of the year, it will have closed the gap enough to call it a spiritual victory.
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October 26th, 2014
Teen horror movie Ouija will win this weekend at the box office with a solid $20 million debut and $7,000 theater average. With a budget reported at just $5 million, the movie is a sure-fire money maker for Universal, even with a shelf life of exactly eight days. By comparison, John Wick, which marks a return to form for Keanu Reeves, should have a longer run, based on its current reviews and word of mouth, but will have some ground to make up after opening with around $14 million.
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October 23rd, 2014
It is not a good week at the box office for new releases. There are only two films opening wide, one of which is earning terrible reviews and the other is earning terrible buzz. At the moment, Ouija's Tomatometer Score is barely in the double-digits. That said, it is a horror film opening the week before Halloween, so it should make at least $20 million at the box office. On the other hand, John Wick's reviews are Award-worthy... but the buzz is so quiet, I doubt many award voters will see it. This weekend last year was led by Bad Grandpa, which opened in first place with $32.06. Maybe if Ouija is a surprise hit, it will match that figure. However, while 2013 looked better at the top, it had really weak depth beyond the top five, so 2014 will likely win in the year-over-year comparison.
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October 21st, 2014
The weekend box office was a little softer than expected, with Fury earning first place, but with much less than some were expecting. I was a little more conservative and I was still off by close to $10 million. The rest of the top five, on the whole, were also not quite as strong as expected, so the overall box office fell 11% from last weekend. However, it was 26% higher than the same weekend last year, which is the much more important figure. 2014 is still behind 2013 by more than $300 million, or 3.6%, at $8.05 billion to $8.36 billion, but if we can close the gap a little bit each week, we can at least make it a respectable race in the end.
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October 19th, 2014
Fury will top the box office chart this weekend with a solid, but unspectacular, $23.5 million, according to Sony’s Sunday morning estimate. Pre-weekend projections had the film closer to $30 million, and with an $80 million price tag, and Brad Pitt starring, the film is really underperforming at this point. By way of comparison, Gone Girl opened with $37.5 million three weeks ago. Fury will need really good legs, or a really strong performance overseas, to post a profit.
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October 16th, 2014
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Three wide releases are trying to fight for box office dollars, including Fury, which could be the biggest hit of the month. Its reviews are excellent and the buzz is strong enough that is should have no trouble earning first place. The Book of Life is a family friendly animated horror film opening near Halloween. That should be a combination that spells box office success, but while the reviews are strong, the buzz is not as loud as I would like. Finally, there's The Best of Me, the latest from Nicholas Sparks, but I think the shine has come off his career. Its early reviews are terrible, which isn't surprising. The buzz is rather quiet, which is a little more surprising. This weekend last year, Gravity completed the hat-trick earning just over $30 million. I think Fury will top that. The best new release last year was Carrie, which earned just over $16 million earning third place in the process. It looks like there are a couple of films that will earn a similar amount this year. Additionally, the depth again appears to be better than last year, so 2014 should find itself on top of the chart, again. This is a surprise, as at the beginning of the month, it looked like 2014 would be in an extended slump by this point.
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