June 28th, 2014
The Grand Budapest Hotel is the latest film from auteur director, Wes Anderson, and it is also his biggest box office hit. I liked some of his earlier films, but after The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited, I didn't consider myself a fan of his work. Then I saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom and I loved both. Because of this, I was super excited to see The Grand Budapest Hotel and its box office success caused my expectations to rise even more. Did they rise too high? Is this Wes Anderson's best movie, as well as his biggest hit?
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May 26th, 2014
While summer time is a great time for theatrical releases, it is a terrible time on the home market. This week, there are nearly no first-run releases, and the one that came out, Endless Love, earned terrible reviews and failed to find an audience in theaters. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of other releases to make up for the lack of first-run releases. There are some catalog releases, like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which is coming out on Blu-ray. There are also some summer shows coming out on DVD ahead of the premiere of the latest season, like Suits: Season Three. There's not much in the way of contenders for Pick of the Week. Cheap Thrills is one such contender, but I'm still waiting for the DVD or the Blu-ray screener to arrive. This leaves Journey to the West on Blu-ray as the only choice for Pick of the Week.
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May 21st, 2005
Three new films in the top five and two more than just missed could push
National Treasure out of top spot. The film fell just 11% this week for $9.40 million in DVD rentals and $1.30 million in VHS rentals for a combined rentals of $10.70. The film also held up well in DVD dropping to second place.
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May 9th, 2005
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It usually takes over four months for a film's theatrical release till its debut in DVD, and just over four months ago was the middle of January, which explains why there are some real low quality films on this week's list. However, there are also some top-notch choices, leading the way is the DVD pick of the Week - In Good Company - Buy from Amazon.
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 27th, 2005
Million Dollar Baby has again slipped off the radar screen, but we do know it hit $52 million internationally, which means it made $9 million during the week. The film didn't earn $1 million in any single market, but is still doing strong in South Korea, ($970,000), Spain, ($840,000), Italy, ($600,000) and Australia, ($350,000.) Best estimate has the film earning just shy of $5 million of that over the weekend and taking sixth place on the international box office charts.
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March 20th, 2005
After gathering in all the data the winner for the race for fifth place is
Million Dollar Baby, I think. It would need to lost more than 40% from last week's total and that's not taking into account its openings in South Korea at $1,515,672 and second place, its $110,000, third place debut in Finland, $86,000 in Russia, $50,000, second place debut in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, exact weekend totals are unknown but it is estimated at $6 million raising its international total to $43 million so far.
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March 13th, 2005
Shark Tale finished its international run with a second place $2.08 million opening in Japan on 485 screens. Its $4,296 per screen average it quite low for the market and generally means the film won't have the usual legs films in Japan have. The film performed much better in Italy where it finished first again with $3.0 million, down just 23% during its sophomore stint. Overall it took in $5.2 million to raise its international total to $181 million, but without any more openings it might struggle to hit $200 million.
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March 6th, 2005
The Aviator beat weekend estimates by a substantial margin leading to a $5.9 million box office on 3000 screens in 34 markets. The multi-
Oscar winning movie has hit $86.2 million internationally and will cross $200 million worldwide before too long. The film dropped a spot to fifth place in South Korea with $834,660 for the week and slipped to second in Australia with $798,000. The only market the film opened it was Argentina, where it easily took top spot with $232,000.
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February 27th, 2005
Ocean's Twelve may have dropped out of the top five, but it is still going strong with $4.5 million on 1400 screens in 35 markets for an international box office of $225.8 million so far. No new openings means the
heist film had to rely on holdovers likes its $2.5 million during its third weekend in the U.K. and $1.4 million during its fifth week of release in Japan, finishing second in both those markets.
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December 27th, 2004
Despite records set for biggest Christmas Day box office, the total box office over the weekend was down significantly from last year.
This is partially due to Christmas Eve falling on a Friday, but also has to do with the poor selection of films being released.
The weekend was up by 27% from last weekend, but down 28% from last year, leaving 2004 just 0.4% up on 2003 with $8.894 billion to $8.854 billion.
With a lead of just $40 million going into the final stretch, 2004 will most likely finish slightly ahead of 2003 in terms of total box office, but will finish behind in term of ticket sales.
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December 24th, 2004
The busiest weekend of the year starts off with Christmas Eve, one of the slowest holiday nights of year. Because of this, it make predicting the weekend results much more difficult. Also adding to the difficulty, several films only open / go wide on Saturday.
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December 21st, 2004
During its second weekend of release,
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou saw its per theatre average drop just 12.6% to land at $49,394, easily the best result this weekend. Next on the list are two new award season hopefuls,
Million Dollar Baby with $22,494 in 8 theatres and
The Aviator with $21,451 in 40 theatres. The second returning member of the $10,000 club rounds out the list as
Bad Education earned an average of $12,816 to spend its fifth week on the list.
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December 14th, 2004
The highly anticipated release, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou easily topped the per theatre chart with $113 thousand in just two theatres for a $56,543 average. But since there was almost no doubt about whether the film would finish first, the real question is how well it stood up compared to Wes Anderson's previous release, The Royal Tenenbaums. That film, opened in 2001 with an average of $55,396 in five theatres, so taking into account the narrower release and inflation, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou debut is weaker, and with merely average reviews it probably won't have the legs either.
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