Awards Season: Lincoln Shows a United Front at the Golden Globes

December 13th, 2012

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations and the same list of films that have been mentioned since the beginning of Awards Season were rewarded today. Lincoln led the way with seven nods, while Argo and Django Unchained were close behind with five. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for July 24th, 2012

July 23rd, 2012

I'm getting tired of saying this, but it is a slow week on the home market. There is one prime release, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One on Blu-ray, which is currently leading this week's new releases, according to Amazon.com. The second best selling new release is Masterpiece Mystery: Inspector Lewis Series 5 on DVD. It's a good show, but it is a British Import and these rarely make an impact on the chart. Third best selling new release? Game of Thrones. This is the third or fourth time the first season of this TV show has been "released" on the home market. I don't know why they are doing this, but it is getting annoying. There are not a lot of contenders for Pick of the Week either. Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Blu-ray and Star Trek: The Next Generation are the two leading contenders. While ST:TNG became an amazing series, it started out weak, so Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the better choice, but both are easily worth picking up. More...

Per Theater Chart: New Releases Are Overshadowed

May 15th, 2012

No new releases managed to earn a spot in the $10,000 club on this week's per theater chart. That doesn't mean it was empty, as The Avengers remained potent with an average of $23,696 during its second weekend of release. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was arguably even more impressive, as it expanded into more than 150 additional theaters, but its per theater average only fell to $15,012. It did well enough to grab eighth place overall, and with this average, it will certainly expand more. On the other hand, the best new release was Dark Shadows with an average of $7,906. This is good, but not great. The best limited release was Girl in Progress. That was was playing in more than 300 theaters and managed an average of $4,298. That's a good start, but I don't think it will expand greatly. More...

Games Redeem Per Theater Chart

March 27th, 2012

There were only two films in the $10,000 club on the per theater chart, but the number one film was massive. The Hunger Games not only took top spot on the overall chart, but it earned an average of $36,871, which was more than double its nearest competitor. Second place went to The Raid: Redemption with an average of $15,270 in 14 theaters. This suggests some potential for expansion, while it should reach at least one major milestone before its theatrical run is done. More...

Weekend Estimates: Hunger Games Smashes Records with $155 Million Debut

March 25th, 2012

Lionsgate has reported a $155 million estimated opening weekend for The Hunger Games: a record for the studio, for a non-sequel, for March, and the 3rd-best weekend of all time. In fact, it's already Lionsgate's top-grossing film of all time, beating Fahrenheit 9/11's actual $119 million and inflation-adjusted $151 million in just three days. With an A CinemaScore and a more diverse audience than the Twilight franchise, the film will almost certainly top Summit's best performance (the $300 million earned by Eclipse), but for now the studio will have plenty to celebrate about this weekend alone. More...

Limited Releases are Feeling Blue

March 23rd, 2012

After last week's strange list of limited releases, which included three films playing in more than 200 theaters, this week's list is a lot more typical. In fact, there's only one film placing in more than a handful of theaters. That film is The Deep Blue Sea, which is also earning some of the best reviews and should be the biggest hit, at least in raw dollars. I'm not sure how well it will do on the per theater chart. More...