September 22nd, 2009
Both a great week for home market releases, and a rather soft week. There are numerous DVDs and Blu-rays worth consideration for DVD Pick of the Week, but almost all of them are from the TV on DVD category, and no first run theatrical releases even coming close to that level.
The best of the best are 30 Rock - Season Three, Castle - Season One, Star Trek - The Original Series - Season Two - Blu-ray, and Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season Two - Blu-ray, all from the TV on DVD category, while Star Trek - The Next Generation - The Movie Collection on Blu-ray and Wallace and Gromit - The Complete Collection - Blu-ray. And of those six possibilities, the DVD Pick of the Week is... All of them. I honestly tried to narrow it down, but I just couldn't. They are all so amazing. With so many top-notch releases, it's no surprise that the list had to be split into two. The second part can be found here.
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November 26th, 2007
Last Friday was Black Friday, one of the most important shopping days of the year.
And Monday was Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year.
So it goes without saying that releasing a DVD the day after the most important weekend of shopping ends is not a good idea.
There are still several DVDs worth checking out, and a few contenders for the DVD Pick of the Week.
However, there are a lot more sub-par releases and several that are contenders for worse movie of the year (half of which I had the task of reviewing).
But let's concentrate on the positive end.
The three best bets are Futurama - Bender's Big Score - Buy from Amazon, Namesake - Buy from Amazon, Waitress - Buy from Amazon.
If I was forced to choose just one DVD, it would be Bender's Big Score, but all three earn the title of DVD Pick of the Week.
Also of note, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series is also being released this week.
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August 19th, 2007
Disturbia led a large group of new releases and took first place on the rental charts with $9.70 million in rentals.
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August 12th, 2007
New releases made their presence felt this week, earning five spots on the DVD sales chart, including the first two places.
The battle for first place wasn't even close, though, as
300 made a dominant debut, selling 5.10 million units, which was 2 million more than the rest of the top 30 combined.
Its opening week sales of $115 million was double the rest of the top 30.
Second place went to Hot Fuzz with a very respectable 676,000 units; you must remember, this is a film that only cost 8 million Pounds to make, roughly, which is about $17 million American.
The film made more than that in just one week on the home market in combined rentals and sales, so everyone involved must be very, very happy indeed.
Pathfinder's sales were stronger than its rentals as it moved 562,000 units for a total of $10.10 million in sales, which was more than it earned theatrically.
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July 30th, 2007
We finally got some wide releases worth picking up this week, which have been in tight supply most of the summer.
It's been rare to find one first-run release worth picking up in any given week, but this week we have two that are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week: 300 - 2-Disc Special Edition and Hot Fuzz - Buy from Amazon.
I was a little worried that a special edition for the latter might be around the corner, but that wasn't enough to prevent me from naming it as the DVD Pick of the Week.
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July 22nd, 2007
As expected, The Transformers fell to second place this week, what wasn't expected was how well it held on. The film was down a mere 23% to $36.13 million on 3667 screens in 31 markets for a total of $146.66 million internationally. The film opened in China with a record-setting $12.6 million on 300 screens over the first five days while it earned $498,000 on 71 in Greece and $258,000 from 28 in Israel. The film's best market so far has been South Korea where it has taken in $39.52 million in three weeks, including $5.76 million on 540 screens this past weekend. This is a record for a non-South Korean film and an unexpectedly strong performance. Additionally, the film has yet to open in a number of major markets including the U.K., Japan, France, and Mexico and should hit $300 million internationally and $600 million worldwide, if not more.
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July 8th, 2007
Some very interesting news on the international front this weekend regarding Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. First of all, it fell out of the top five; however, it was still able to pull in more than $10 million over the weekend. Not too long ago it was a chore to find a dozen films that cracked $1 million, while this past weekend we had 6 that earned $10 million or more. Over the weekend the film added $14.02 million on 5775 screens in 104 markets for a total of $608.89 million internationally. It is the sixth film to cross $600 million internationally and is now in fifth place on that chart. Worldwide the film has $906.89 million making it the ninth highest grosser of all time. The U.K. is still the film's best market at $78.51 million compared to second pace Japan where it has made $74.02 million. However, that gap continues to narrow with the film making $3.23 million on 691 screens in the latter and $1.37 million on 401 screens in the former.
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July 1st, 2007
There was a troubling lack of final results this week and this results in a few studio estimates with some of the numbers. However, it appears that Black House was able to place fourth on the international charts after winning the box office race in South Korea The film was able to top its native market with $2.71 million on 325 screens over the weekend and $3.35 million in total.
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June 3rd, 2007
Spider-Man 3 earned a comfortable second place earning almost as much as the rest of the films on this list with $21.07 million on 10,365 screens in 76 markets for a total of $501.00 million. It is only the 14th film to reach that milestone while it became the 16th film to top $800 million worldwide and has already climbed into 14th place overall. The U.K. regained the lead as the best market for the film adding $2.58 million on 460 screens for a total of $61.09 million. Japan took in $2.36 million on 630 screens while France made $2.31 million on 866 screens as the only other two markets to top $2 million over the weekend and the film now has $47.79 million and $48.55 million respectively. There were a quartet of led by Brazil, ($1.29 million for the weekend and $21.55 million in total); Spain, ($1.29 million / $22.49 million); Mexico, ($1.22 million / $32.90 million); and Germany, ($1.01 million / $27.16 million).
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May 6th, 2007
300 was knocked out of the top five this week but still added $3.82 million on 3,537 screens in 52 markets for a total of $223.77 million.
The film has yet to open in Japan, but that's about it at this point and there's little hope that the movie will hit any more milestones from now until then.
However, it is already a massive hit and a huge financial boon for the studio, so everything it does earn will be pure gravy.
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May 3rd, 2007
With the start of the summer blockbuster season, all eyes are on Spider-man 3.
But the real question isn't whether Spider-man 3 will win the box office race, there's very little doubt that it will.
No, the real question is whether Spider-man 3 can break Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's opening weekend record.
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May 1st, 2007
Wow.
That was one of the worst weekends I can remember.
There was almost nothing worth celebrating as the overall box office dipped by 12% from last weekend to $78 million.
That's nearly 24% lower than the same weekend last year and probably the worst weekend in more than a year.
(We'll have more details on that when the box office chart is certified later this week.)
The only silver lining I can think of is a possible reason for this massive dip.
In my opinion, a lot of people who thought about going to the movies this weekend likely said, "Let's wait a week and catch Spider-man 3 instead."
I can't prove this happened, but this time next weekend if Spider-man 3 has broken records, we'll know that it is a likely scenario.
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April 29th, 2007
The Reaping climbed into sixth place this past weekend with $5.98 million on 2634 screens in 39 markets for a total of just $20.38 million. The film had a couple respectable openings including South Korea where it made $1.17 million on 129 screens over the weekend and $1.34 million in total while it took in $335,000 in Brazil. However, in most markets the film stumbled, like in France where is placed seventh with $684,000 or the the U.K. where it placed eighth with $622,000 on 282 screens. The film debuted in ninth place in Australia, ($405,000 on 133 screens); in Russia, ($261,000 on 111); and in Germany, ($247,000 on 201). Mexico became the film's best market as it has pulled in $4.45 million in three weeks, including $589,000 on 350 screens this past weekend; this is just ahead of the $4.25 million the film has earned in Spain, but it only managed $334,000 on 299 screens this past weekend and will quickly disappear there.
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April 23rd, 2007
It was a slow weekend at the box office as most of the new releases, and a couple of the holdovers, were unable to live up to expectations.
How slow was it?
The overall box office dropped below $100 million.
It fell 25% from last weekend to just $89 million and that's a severe 19% drop-off from the same weekend last year.
In fact this was the worst weekend since last September.
However, it is important to note that overall 2007 is still ahead of last year's pace by 5% and most analysts expect many, many records to fall this summer.
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April 22nd, 2007
Sunshine climbed into sixth place with $5.20 million on 1866 screens in 30 markets for a total of $10.20 million. However, while it nearly doubled last week's opening, this was entirely due to the film's expansion. Its biggest market of the weekend was France where it placed fourth with $1.36 million on 339 screens while it placed eighth in its debut in Australia with just $611,000 on 161 screens. On the other hand, the film only managed $508,000 on 192 screens during its debut in Japan and while likely see a sharp drop-off next weekend given its weak per screen average. Meanwhile in the U.K. the film suffered the worst week-to-week drop-off in the top ten down 57% to $879,000 on 409 screens over the weekend and a total of $4.45 million in total.
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April 22nd, 2007
Disturbia held off a batch of openers to spend a second weekend at the top of the box office chart, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
The thriller earned a solid $13.46 million, down just under 40% from last weekend.
That was a couple of million more than fellow-thriller Fracture, which opened with an estimated $11.18 million.
Vacancy had the most disappointing start among the main contenders for box office victory, earning $7.6 million and falling behind Blades of Glory over the weekend to finish fourth.
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April 21st, 2007
There were a few new flash sites to launch this week, but while there might be a couple future winners among those sites, it was a long time resident on this week's list that walked away with top honors. That site was Hot Fuzz - Official Site, which probably could have won several weeks ago if the features were added all at once. However, it's much better to spread the updates out in order to get people coming back week after week.
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April 19th, 2007
Another week, another batch of new movies that are hoping to find a spot in the top ten.
While there are four wide - or wide-ish - releases, none are tracking with any real strength and there's a good chance Disturbia will be a repeat winner this weekend.
However, two newcomers, Fracture and Vacancy, stand a catch of stealing first.
All three films are so evenly matched, we might not know the winner until the final numbers are released on Monday.
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April 16th, 2007
This Friday Hot Fuzz finally lands on our shores and to celebrate we have four Hot Fuzz related prizes, some distantly related. However, since that film isn't opening truly wide, we will be basing this week's box office prediction contest on Fracture. To win one must simply predict the opening weekend box office of Fracture. Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Hot Fuzz T-shirt, poster, and soundtrack.
Meanwhile, the person who comes the closest to the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday, without going under, will win a copy of Hot Fuss by The Killers for no other reason than the names are sort of similar and I happen to have an extra copy on CD, as well as 3 Needles on DVD, and if that has a connection to Hot Fuzz I haven't found it.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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April 15th, 2007
Wild Hogs had its best performance of its run so far climbing into sixth place with $3.33 million on 817 screens in 8 markets for a total of $18.43 million after a month of release. About half of that came from the film's number one debut in Mexico where it earned $1.33 million on 355 screens over the weekend and $1.67 million including previews while the film did reasonable business in Taiwan with $345,000 on 40. Its best market to date has been Australia where the film has earned $11.30 million, including $907,000 on 263 screens this past weekend.
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April 8th, 2007
Norbit saw its weekend haul sliced neatly in half landing in sixth place with $4.09 million on 2270 screens in 39 markets for a total of $49.38 million. The film wasn't able to crack $1 million in any single market, but Italy came the closest with $940,000 on 263 screens for a two-week total of $3.19 million.
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April 7th, 2007
It's the Saturday after Good Friday, which explains why this column was delayed one day. But while the Friday was good, this week's sites were mediocre, at least they were compared to high expectations. If this was January, it would be a great list. However, at this point of the year I'm expecting one potential summer blockbuster to have a major website launch each week, and that didn't happen this time. We still had an award-worthy effort with Grindhouse - Official Site.
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April 1st, 2007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started its international run this past weekend and just missed the top five on debut.
It did manage $3.92 million on 1,004 screens in 8 markets over the weekend and $4.53 million including previews.
Of this box office, nearly half of it came from a pair of third place openings in England ($1.27 million on 368 screens over the weekend and $1.86 million in total), and Australia ($379,000 on 58 screens).
The film also opened in Russia where the strong mutant demographic helped the film capture second place with $1.38 million on 360 screens.
(That was a Chernobyl joke, by the way.)
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April 1st, 2007
April is an interesting month to open a movie. Interesting, but not a particularly good month. This year it does start with Easter, but that's traditionally not a strong long weekend. Only one movie has topped $40 million over that weekend and only one other has cracked $30 million. Worst still, it's jammed right up against May, the start of the summer blockbusters season.
Ironically, the closer you get to this most lucrative time of year, the tougher it is for films to make a buck.
No movie wants to open the weekend before Spider-man 3, for instance.
Overall, there are a few hits to be found in the month, and a few misses, but nothing that really stands out above the pack.
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March 31st, 2007
Awesome. We are finally getting some major updates to the summer blockbuster movies. The ones people are watching to see if they break records. This includes the first half of the massively interactive website for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Official Site. And while the site isn't done yet, it is still more than enough to win the Weekly Website Award.
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March 25th, 2007
The French film, Taxi 4, just missed the top five with $3.94 million on 1255 screens in 7 markets for a total of $49.56 million. Obviously, most of that has come from France, $35.70 million in fact, but the film is also doing well in Russia with $10.63 million so far, including $2.22 million on 466 screens over the weekend.
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March 18th, 2007
There was quite an international flavor on the charts this past weekend with five local hits charting, and one more just missing that mark. The best of these was Lubov Morkov, which opened in sixth place with $5.38 million on 492 screens in 4 markets over the weekend and $6.28 million in total. Of this amount, $4.90 million on 427 screens was earned over the weekend in Russia while it managed $5.80 million including midweek numbers.
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March 11th, 2007
Music and Lyrics remained in sixth place with $5.64 million on 1645 screens in 18 markets for a total of $32.01 million internationally. The film disappointed domestically, but it appears to be making up for that softness on the international scene. The film's best opening of the weekend came from South Korea where it placed second with $2.06 million on 144 screens while it also grabbed second place in Brazil with $490,000 on 140. Holdovers were led by the U.K. where the film earned $1.09 million on 364 screens during its fourth week of release for a total of $15.71 million in that market alone. That's close to a $100 million run here, taking into account the relative sizes of the two markets.
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February 28th, 2007
Ghost Rider weekend haul grew by 2% to $16.92 million on 3039 screens in 40 markets for a total of $40.06 million internationally. New openings include $3 million on 426 screens in France, $2.37 million on 362 screens in Germany, and $820,000 on 250 screens in India. Holdovers were mixed with high percentage drops in many markets; for instance, the film fell 51% during its second weekend in Spain but still came out on top with $1.54 million on 417 for a two-week total of $5.28 million. On the other hand, the film held up better in Mexico down just 44% but was knocked out of first place with $1.16 million on 403 screens for a total of $5.63 million. The film has yet to open in a number of markets, including the U.K. and Japan, and has likely not yet peaked at the box office.
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February 23rd, 2007
Big week in terms of flash sites launching, but a tough one when it comes to picking a winner. There were several sites that were contenders, and a few that will likely be winners after a few more updates, but none that stood out as the best for the week. It's almost like there were so many that were so close to winning the award that none were able to stand out and get me excited. However, there was one site that was updated this week that did, The Simpsons Movie - Official Site. This site did get a new look, but the real draw here is the first full trailer, to go along with the three previous teasers. Is that enough to make it award worthy? No. But while my rational side was distracted by a game of Sudoku the Fanboy in me made that decisions, and all Fanboy freak-outs are legally binding. Hopefully the final site will live up to the award. I have a feeling it will.
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February 22nd, 2007
Ghost Rider debuted in first place internationally, which is even more impressive when you think about it as
super hero movies tend to not do so well internationally. During its debut the film managed $16.60 million on 1748 screens in 26 markets while nearly cracking the $10,000 per screen average. The film had first place openings in 21 of those 26 of markets including $3.67 million on 401 screens in Russia, $3.12 million on 415 screens in Spain, $2.10 million on 403 screens in Mexico, $1.92 million on 208 screens in Australia, and $1.5 million on 120 in Taiwan. It's a little early to given predictions about the film's final box office, but this was a great start and if it can duplicate its run next week when it opens in France, Germany, and other markets it will be on track to top $100 million internationally and may even reach $200 million worldwide. There's no official, official word that a
sequel has been given the go-ahead, but the evidence suggests that is a mere formality now.
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February 18th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Miss Potter, DOA: Dead or Alive, Lions for Lambs and more.
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February 17th, 2007
While the big summer blockbusters are sill M.I.A., there are plenty of other films to pick up the slack. This includes this week's winner,
Bridge to Terabithia -
Official Site.
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February 9th, 2007
Still waiting sites for the big summer blockbusters to come online. In the meantime, this week is relatively busy, but with only a couple sites that look like they could be award-worthy once the features are added. The best of the best, and I use that term loosely, is
Norbit -
Official Site with a site that could be more entertaining than the movie it promotes.
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February 3rd, 2007
Busy week for limited releases and a busy week for websites, which explains why I'm wrapping things up at midnight. There wasn't a whole lot on this week's list that really attracted my attention, but I'm giving the Weekly Website Award to
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters -
Official Site, mainly for their ... extracurricular activities of the viral marketers in Boston. And remember people, real bombs are meant to be inconspicuous, they won't sing you a song or make rude gestures at you.
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January 6th, 2007
Big list as I try to catch up after the holidays. I think I caught all the updates. Not only are there a lot of sites on this week's list, several of them are potential award winners with the best of the best being
Smokin' Aces -
Official Site.
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December 28th, 2006
Currently I am taking a vacation and because of that the release dates update will be irregular at best. Things should be back to normal (weekly updates on Sunday) starting Sunday January 21. If I have some time, like today on a rainy day in Singapore, I will try to make updates.
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December 9th, 2006
Good week for websites with a number of candidates for the top spot. In the end I went with
Ghost Rider -
Official Site, but there's a few others here that will undoubtedly win in the coming weeks.
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November 3rd, 2006
Slow week for websites with only one real contender for the weekly website award, (not counting those sites that have already won). Fortunately, that site,
Flushed Away -
Official Site, truly deserved to win.
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October 20th, 2006
Strange week with very few site featuring updates, but several very strong contenders for Weekly Website Award. In the end I went with
The Prestige -
Official Site, but several others on this list should win awards in the coming weeks.
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