June 13th, 2012
True Blood: Season Four led all new releases and earned top spot on the Blu-ray sales chart. During its first week of release, it sold 369,000 units and generated $12.93 million in revenue. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 34%, which is low for the format as a whole, but very strong for a TV on DVD release.
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June 7th, 2012
New releases took the top four spots in the Blu-ray sales chart. Red Tails took first place with 446,000 units / $10.25 million for a 48% opening week Blu-ray share. The film was expensive to make and it didn't perform well enough in theaters, but its home market numbers are better.
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June 7th, 2012
Getting caught up on the Blu-ray sales chart after a massive overhaul of the database, which hopefully you didn't notice too much. We're splitting the two weeks into two articles, otherwise they would be just too cumbersome. We start with the week ending May 20th, which featured six new releases on the chart. Top spot went to The Grey with 375,000 units sold, but in terms of revenue, it was in second place with $7.50 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 51%, which even just last year would have been momentous, but now is standard for a first-run release for any action or adventure film.
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June 5th, 2012
After a major change on the back end of site, we have two weeks of home market numbers to get to, starting with the week ending on May 20th. New releases dominated the chart taking the top three spots and four of the top six. The Grey earned first place with 360,000 units / $6.12 million. This is a fine start given its theatrical run, but not an exceptional one.
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May 23rd, 2012
The same four new releases that charted on the DVD sales chart also charted on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, with just one addition. (And that one addition is actually related to the top film.) Leading the way was Underworld: Awakening, which earned $11.77 million from 590,000 units sold. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 56%, which is becoming commonplace for action films.
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May 14th, 2012
It's not a bad week, for this time of year, with three films that are selling well, and two of those earned really good reviews. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for those screeners. Also, after those three big releases, there's a sharp drop-off in sales strength and we quickly find releases that would be overlooked most weeks. As for the best of the best, both Chronicle and The Grey are contenders for Pick of the Week, but like I said, I don't have the screeners to judge the extras. Therefore, I'm giving that title to Being John Malkovich Criterion Collection Blu-ray.
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February 7th, 2012
It was Super Bowl weekend, which apparently some people care about. (Not me. Go B.C. Lions!) The crossover audience between the Super Bowl and most movies is quite high, so it is no real shock that the box office was down compared to last weekend. However, it was only down 8% to $116 million. This was 33% higher than the same weekend last year. Both Chronicle and The Woman in Black topped expectations by significant degrees, while the weakest movie the top five missed weekend predictions by less than $1 million. Year-to-date, 2012 is ahead of 2011's pace by 12% at $964 million to $850 million. Before we get too excited, by this weekend in 2010, the box office had already pulled in $1.21 billion.
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February 5th, 2012
The industry's healthy start to 2012 will continue this weekend thanks to two more good opening weekends. Chronicle is currently favorite to win the weekend, with Fox predicting a $22 million opening. CBS Films is pegging The Woman in Black at $21 million (a record for the fledgling studio). Both figures are predicated on historical models for SuperBowl Sunday, which can be a difficult day to predict, so the final order between the two could yet switch, although Chronicle is heavily favored to win at this point. Overall box office will be up about 35% from last year, although that reflects the very weak start to 2011. This weekend looks as though it will be about average for a SuperBowl weekend overall.
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February 2nd, 2012
There are two important dates in February: Valentine's Day and Presidents Day. This weekend deals with neither of those, so it is probably going to be a little soft at the box office. On the other hand, all three films opening this weekend, Big Miracle, Chronicle, and The Woman in Black, have overall positive reviews and are averaging around 75% positive (That might change by the end of the evening as more reviews come in.) By comparison, this weekend last year saw the release of The Roommate and Sanctum, both of which earned terrible reviews and neither of which earned a lot at the box office. Those two films combined earned just under $25 million over the weekend, while there's a slim, slim chance The Woman in Black will make that much by itself. Even on the low end, the top two new releases should match that, while this year appears to have the advantage with depth as well. I'm almost feeling optimistic. ... I may have just cursed the box office.
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February 1st, 2012
The winners of our Colorful Character contest were determined and they are...
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January 30th, 2012
January completed the sweep this weekend, despite slipping 6% from last weekend to $126 million over the weekend. This was still 16% higher than the same weekend last year, meaning three out of the four weekends in January saw double-digit gains over 2011 and by the end, 2012's lead over 2011 was 12% at $812 million to $726 million. I'm starting to get a little optimistic and hopefully this trend will continue next month.
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January 29th, 2012
The industry will enjoy another weekend of increased revenue compared to last year, based on studio estimates released on Sunday, with The Grey starting out on the high end of expectations with $20 million, according to Open Road -- comfortably beating the $9.3 million of their previous film, The Killer Elite. In third place, One for the Money will post a surprisingly strong $11.75 million, according to Lionsgate, which will get to claim bragging rights over its new division Summit Entertainment, which is predicting $8.25 million for its new release, Man on a Ledge. The two films would most likely have ended up on different weekends if the combined studio had have had longer to rearrange their schedules.
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January 26th, 2012
There are three important questions that need to be answered this weekend. Can the box office finish the January sweep this weekend? Will Liam Neeson's box office reliability overcome Open Road's inexperience? And shouldn't The Grey be spelled The Gray? That is how it is spelled in America, as opposed to the U.K. Last year the number one film, The Rite, opened with less than $15 million. However, there were a total of five films with more than $10 million over the weekend. This year does look weaker, but it should be close. All it will take is one film to be a surprise hit and 2012 can come out a head for the fourth weekend in a row.
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January 20th, 2012
A trio of wide releases debut next week, all of which will be opening in close to 2,800 theaters according to early estimates. I don't think any of them will be massive hits, but The Grey probably has the best shot at top spot. Liam Neeson is building a reputation for being reliable at this time of year. Because of this, it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Grey.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of SpongeBob SquarePants: Frozen Face-Off on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of SpongeBob SquarePants: Truth or Square on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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January 1st, 2012
2011 ended, and really that's the only good news we got from the entire month of December. That's not snark either. Of the eleven films opening or expanding wide that month, six will definitely miss expectations by significant margins and with the other five it is too soon to tell, (it depends on how well they hold up during the New Year's Day long weekend). Only Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol can be considered a pleasant surprise, and even then it might not match original expectations. Looking forward, the only really good piece of news for this January is that last January was a pretty bad as well. Only two films, The Green Hornet and No Strings Attached, beat expectations by significant margins, while The Dilemma bombed hard enough to nearly wipe out those gains. This time around, the biggest hit will likely be Beauty and the Beast's 3D re-release, but even then, I doubt it will do as well as The Lion King's 3D re-release. There's a good chance the year will start off on a sour note, just like 2011 ended.
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