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 24th, 2006
On the surface this is a big week for DVDs, but there's a lot of chaff and not much wheat. However, there are several releases that rate a purchase or higher including this week's DVD Pick of the Week,
Animaniacs - Volume 1 and
Pinky and the Brain - Volume 1, both of which are perfect for kids and adults alike. One last note, both
Blackballed: The Bobby Duke Story -
Buy from Amazon and
Deck Dogz will be featured next week in our box office prediction contest.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today as Golden Globe nominations were announced. With seven nods, it led all films, which is an important Oscar indicator.
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September 25th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of
South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like
last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out
Pride and Prejudice.
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September 18th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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September 11th, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin topped the U.K. marked with an impressive $3.26 million on 394 screens in the U.K., but this is probably not indicative of its potential in other international markets. The film should do well in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but will likely struggle in non-English speaking markets. (Germany may be an exception.)
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September 4th, 2005
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but
War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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August 28th, 2005
The Skeleton Key opened in 10- more markets over the weekend and in now playing on 1400 screens, however, it still hasn't found the success the studio was hoping for. It did open in first place in Germany, but it still had a very soft opening with $1.6 million. It also opened in first place in Russia with $625,000 over the weekend and $780,000 since Thursday, but in Australia and New Zealand it had to settle for a distant second place with $760,000 and $110,000 respectively.
The Skeleton Key also open in Austria with $230,000 for the week, but its placing is unknown at the moment. Add in holdovers in France, ($250,000 for $2.2 million) and the U.K., ($130,000 for $4.5 million) and you have roughly $4 million for the weekend and $16.5 million so far.
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August 27th, 2005
It's no surprise that
Sin City led the rental market this weekend, but it was a little surprising that it was the top seller as well. During its opening week the film earned $8.61 million in DVD rentals and $480,000 in VHS rentals for a grand total of $9.09 million, which is lower than I would have thought.
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August 21st, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where
Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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August 20th, 2005
Guess Who was able to repeat as the champion on the home market thanks in part to the weak competition, but also due to the miniscule 8% drop-off from its
opening week numbers. The film earned $8.01 million in DVD rentals, $630,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $8.64 million this week, which lifted its two-week total to $18.23 million.
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August 14th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in Belgium with $1.7 million on 80 screens, easily enough for first place and had a similar result with $480,000 in Poland. It also remained in first place in France with $2.88 million, (despite falling 54% there) and in the Netherlands with $740,000. In Germany the film remained in second place for the third straight week with $3.06 million for a $17.06 million running tally. The film now have $140 million in territories where
Fox is handling the distribution and $192 million overall.
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August 8th, 2005
I do believe
last week was the first week that a
Foreign Language film was selected as the DVD Pick of the Week, this week it's two in a row as
Kung Fu Hustle -
Buy from Amazon takes that coveted prize. Also scoring a DVD Pick of the Week rating is The Muppet Show - Season One - Special Edition -
Buy from Amazon, which is a must have for fans of Jim Henson's particular brand of genius.
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August 7th, 2005
The Island managed a couple of first place finished over the weekend, but the results were still less than impressive. In Australia the film opened with $1.404 million for a close victory while in Hong Kong it earned a disappointing $490,000 over the weekend and $520,000 including previews. It's best market continued to be South Korea with $3.167 million, down 38% from last weekend dropping to second place along the way. On the other hand, no wide openings and a mere 23% drop-off allowed the film to rise to first in New Zealand. Overall the film added $7.64 million to its $24.1 million running tally on the international scene and will opens in several markets this weekend including the U.K., Germany and Spain.
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July 24th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened in three French speaking markets over the weekend and while it didn't finish first, it still had a great start.
In France the film earned $3,741,793 in 670 theaters for the best per theater average in the top ten.
The result was similar in Belgium ($250,000) and Switzerland ($190,000), giving the film $4.2 million for the weekend.
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July 17th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith continues its excellent run in Asia with a $2.2 million opening in 450 theatres in China. The film also added $1.8 million in South Korea for an $18 million running total in that market, (although it was pushed out of the top spot in that market. Overall the film made $4 million pushing its total to $117 million internationally and $275 million worldwide.
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July 10th, 2005
With the last of this summer's worldwide releases opening last weekend, the international details are once again dominated by smaller films. And to compound matters, most of those are only making noise in one of two markets. However, over the next few weeks there are plenty of big films opening in big markets and the International Details column should start showing signs of life soon.
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July 3rd, 2005
Summer blockbusters continue to squeeze out the competition, so much so that the only real news is about such blockbusters. For instance,
War of the Worlds managed $13.35 million during its first day of release on the international scene, which is good, but below expectations. On the other hand,
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith broke another record earning $4.96 million during its preview in Japan.
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June 26th, 2005
The international box office is suffering even more than the domestic box office is. In Germany the first six months of 2005 are down 14% compared to the same period in 2004 and Australia also saw double digit decline slipping by 12%. In Spain the total box office is down 8% and it was little better in France at 6%. The U.K. also fell, but at a much more reasonably 1.9%.
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June 19th, 2005
Just when the International Details column was getting back to normal we have another film dominating the international scene. Mr. and Mrs. Smith led in nearly every major / midlevel market and those it didn't were mostly owned by Revenge of the Sith. Because of that there isn't as much news to tell as usual, and with Batman Begins opening worldwide this weekend and in two weeks, War of the Worlds doing the same, this trend will last until mid-July at the earliest.
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June 12th, 2005
The Longest Yard opened in second place in Australia with $2.5 million. On the other hand, the film could only manage $750,000 on 260 screens in Mexico, not surprising since
Adam Sandler has never been a big draw internationally, especially outside English speaking markets.
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June 5th, 2005
It was a slightly busier weekend as several studios were brave enough, or foolhardy enough to try and sandwich their film between the worldwide release of
Revenge of the Sith and
Batman Begins, which debuts in just 10 days. With
War of the Worlds' worldwide release just two weeks after that, there's very little room for smaller films to survive.
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April 25th, 2005
This week's box office leader's opening was brighter than expected and that helped lift the overall box office up 12.25% from last weekend.
However, even with such a massive jump, 2005 is still lagging behind 2004 at 5.72% for the weekend and 6% year-to-date.
And that's not taking the ticket price increases into account.
The number of actual admissions is nearly 10% lower this year.
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April 22nd, 2005
Despite having four wide releases this weekend the box office is likely to be relatively flat. To be more accurate, there are two wide releases, one semi-wide release and a limited release expanding wide, but such a busy schedule will result in at least one of those films getting squeezed out, possibly two or more. That will leave the overall box office nearly flat compared to last weekend and have it fall further behind with last year. Summer can't start soon enough.
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April 19th, 2005
Last week's winner on the per theater chart, Kung Fu Hustle, was able to repeat on top of the charts.
The film dropped a mere 8% to $35,373, and this bodes very well for its wide release this Friday.
Next on the list was the new film It's All Gone Pete Tong, which earned $19,717 in its lone theater, and was slightly ahead of the average for House of D at $18,186 average in two theaters. Rounding out the $10,000 club was the long-term release, Short Cut to Nirvana: Kumbh Mela, which has been in theaters for half-a-year and earned $11,102 in its lone theater this week.
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April 12th, 2005
Not only did Kung Fu Hustle top the per theater charts this week, it wasn't even a close race as no other film managed to make it into the $10,000 club. The Martial Arts extravaganza earned an impressive $270,000 in just 7 theaters for a per theater average of $38,461. This, combined with superlative reviews, bodes really well for its wide release ten days from now.
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April 8th, 2005
Despite the fact that there's more than half-a-dozen limited releases coming out this week, only two of them were able to earn overall positive reviews. Fortunately, one of those films is the much anticipated
Kung Fu Hustle, which should lead the per theatre charts over the weekend.
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April 7th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Yes -
Official Site.
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March 17th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Ice Princess - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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February 24th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Dust to Glory -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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February 20th, 2005
Iznogoud: Calife a la place du calife, a movie based on a Asterix and Obelix
spin off of sorts, dominated the French box office taking in $7.1 million, more than double the second place film and more than a third of the top ten total. It is also enough to push it into the
Top Five on the international scene, dropping
Finding Neverland into sixth place. Unfortunately, like the several films made in the Asterix and Obelix series, this one is unlikely to make much of an impact outside the French speaking markets.
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February 2nd, 2005
Meet the Fockers open in the U.K. over the weekend with an astounding $14.8 million on 456, which is more than four times the
original's earnings there in 2000.
That figure was also more than 8 times the second place film , and more than half the market's total box office.
Add in a handful of openings in other, mostly smaller markets and the film brought in $19.2 million on 1,700 screens in 15 markets for a $58.8 million total so far.
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January 26th, 2005
The International Box Office Race is certainly interesting, as Ocean's Twelve recaptured the lead this weekend with $14.4 million on 4,600 screens in 58 markets and now sits at $170.4 million internationally and $292.8 million worldwide. A large chunk of that total came from Japan, where the film earned $6.8 million (including sneak peaks) on 510 screens, while ending Howl's Moving Castle's nine week reign on top.
While this was a strong performance, it was 20% lower that the original's debut in the same market.
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January 20th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Fantastic Four -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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January 19th, 2005
After a massive opening last week in Spain,
Alexander took top spot on the international charts thanks to a strong opening in Italy, Brazil and Hong Kong. The film managed first place in all three markets with $3.87 million on 446 screens in Italy, $906,900 on 193 screens in Brazil and $275,244 on 30 screens in Hong Kong. Holdovers were not as kind to the
Sword and Sandal epic as it dropped nearly 50% in the U.K., Spain and France. Overall the film brought in $14.5 million on 3600 screens in 51 markets for a running tally of $88 million. And while the film will easily cross $100 million internationally, which is roughly 3 times its domestic figure, it has to be looked at as a disappointment financially.
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January 12th, 2005
The race for first in the international marketplace continued to be close with three films within a couple million of each other. Leading the way was
Ocean's Twelve with $17.5 million on 5200 screens in 54 markets; the film's international total now sits at $137 million, slightly more than half of what
Ocean's Eleven finished with. The
heist film did open well in several markets, which mostly balances out severe drop-offs due to the post-holiday. For instance, the film opened well in South Korea with $2.1 million on 150 screens and debuted in first place in Argentina, ($500,000), Portugal, (with $720,000) and in the Philippines, ($370,000.)
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January 5th, 2005
Like last week, this week's international box office race was very close, but unlike last week,
The Incredibles were able to reclaim the crown over
Ocean's Twelve. The holidays helped the box office climb in several markets and overall the film earned $23.2 million on 6800 screens in 49 markets and now sits a week away from $300 million with $286.8 million international box office.
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December 29th, 2004
Ocean's Twelve opening in another two markets, (Mexico and Belgium) helped the
heist film finish first on the international charts with $22.6 million on 5,183 screens in 46 markets. The film opened well in Belgium where it easily took first place with $1.2 million on just 75 screens. That's up nearly 40% compared to the the
original, but down nearly 10% in Euros. In Mexico the film could only manage $1.8 million on 550 screens for a rather limp per screen average. However, in most markets the film is not holding up as well as the studio would have liked. For instance, in Germany the film dropped by more than 50%, in France the decline was 44%. The only exception appears to be Italy where holidays and a serious boost to screen count helped the film climb 33% to $2.9 million over the weekend.
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