March 24th, 2023
John Wick: Chapter 4 will continue the remarkable run for the John Wick franchise by earning more on opening weekend than John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum, just as that movie beat the opening weekend of John Wick: Chapter Two, which had a better opening weekend than the original John Wick. It’s a rare franchise that manages to grow business with each new release, and an even rarer one that gets better reviews with each outing. But this is one of them. Exactly how much it’ll make this weekend remains a little uncertain, but things are looking very, very good.
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November 23rd, 2017
It's Thanksgiving weekend, which means Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will tackle first run releases, and normally franchise box sets as well, but this year none jump out as essential additions to the Holiday Gift guide. Worse still, 2017 has been awful at the box office with potential blockbuster after potential blockbuster getting savaged by critics and struggling at the box office. Additionally, some of the biggest and some of the best have been on the home market for nearly half a year, meaning nearly everyone who would want them, already own them. That doesn’t mean there are no films worth adding to this list, but the list is a little shorter than usual. On a side note, two of the films on this year’s list are from the MCU and it would have been three, but Thor: Ragnarok is still in theaters. If you know someone who loves the MCU, but has all of the movies, then check out this site, which has some more unique gift ideas. I specifically like the Spider-man Drone.
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March 1st, 2015
There were a lot of new releases in the top 30 of the DVD sales chart. However, there were only two new releases in the top five. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day earned first place, as it sold 345,000 units and generated $5.98 million during its first week of release.
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March 1st, 2015
The Blu-ray sales chart was led by a very old new release. 101 Damlatians made its Blu-ray debut earning first place with 339,000 units / $7.69 million. This is a little lower than The Jungle Book opened with last year.
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February 22nd, 2015
New releases grabbed the top two spots on the Blu-ray sales chart for the week ending February 8, with John Wick taking the top spot and Dracula Untold taking a close second place. Two other new releases debuted in the top ten: The Best of Me took fifth place, and Ouija took eighth.
This welcome shot of sales helped fuel a strong increase over last year for Blu-ray sales. Compared to last year, 21% more units were sold, and revenue jumped 17%. Overall, the Blu-ray share of home market sales ticked up a percentage point, to 43%.
While this week's Blu-ray numbers do represent a drop from last week, sales were down only 0.7% in terms of units sold and 7.5% in revenue, perhaps suggesting that slightly lower prices helped maintain sales of units and supported the increase from last year.
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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
It was a great week on the home market as the new releases like Fury helped the overall market grow in nearly every regard. In fact, it had double-digit growth in six of the eight metrics. Blu-ray sales were 18% higher than last week in terms of units and 20% higher in terms of revenue. Compared to last year, 35% more units were sold and 31% more revenue was generated. DVD sales were a little stronger, so the overall Blu-ray share slipped to 42%, but that's still strong.
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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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February 1st, 2015
John Wick stars Keanu Reeves in the titular role. Keanu Reeves has earned close to $2 billion domestically, but it has been more than a decade since he starred in a film that earned more than $100 million at the box office. This film couldn't even get halfway to the century mark. Did it deserve to become a hit? Or was it destined to fall between the cracks?
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November 6th, 2014
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roared into first place with $34.9 million in 31 markets over the weekend for a running tally of $244.2 million internationally and $434.7 million worldwide. This includes a first place, $26.52 million opening in China. This is the film's last major market opening until it debuts in Japan in February. The film is aiming for $500 million worldwide by that time, but it is hard to tell how long a film's legs in China will be.
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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 17th, 2014
Next week, John Wick and Ouija both open wide, but Ouija is expected to make more during its opening weekend than John Wick is expected to make during its entire run. As such, it is the clear choice for 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 Ouija.
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 Annie Oakley: The Complete TV Series on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a previously reviewed TV on DVD release.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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