April 10th, 2013
As expected, Skyfall dominated the list of new releases and easily earned first place on the February 17th, 2013 edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. It sold an outstanding 1.62 million units and generated $32.33 million in sales while its opening Blu-ray share was just shy of 60%. That's a fantastic start.
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April 10th, 2013
Skyfall led a set of four new releases that earned spots in the top 30 on the February 17th edition of the DVD sales chart. It easily took top spot with 1.09 million units / $18.54 million, which is already enough for fourth place for the year.
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February 12th, 2013
It's a busy week, not only in terms of big selling DVDs and Blu-ray, but also in terms of quality. Skyfall will be the best-selling DVD and Blu-ray of the week, plus it is a contender for Pick of the Week. It is not the only contender, as The Perks of Being a Wallflower (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack); The Sessions (DVD or Blu-ray); Bully (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack); Nurse Jackie: Season Four (DVD or Blu-ray) and The Thieves (DVD or Blu-ray) were all contenders. In the end, I went with Skyfall, but it was close.
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November 13th, 2012
Most people were expecting Skyfall to be a monster hit, but the film actually beat great expectations. Its opening helped the box office grow by 25% from last week to $173 million, which was 26% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2012 reached the $9 billion mark and not sits at $9.10 billion. By comparison, at this point in 2011, the total box office was $8.72 billion giving 2012 a 4.4% lead over last year.
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November 8th, 2012
There's only one wide release this weekend, but Skyfall could become one of the biggest hits of the holiday season. Nearly all analysts assume it will be the fastest opening Bond film of all time. It might make more that last year's top three films made combined. Wreck-It-Ralph should still be strong at the box office, while Flight should hold on better than most other films do. Overall it should be a very good week at the box office.
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November 5th, 2012
Wreck-It-Ralph's opening was on the very high end of expectations, which was a pleasant surprise over the weekend. Also, Flight beat all but the most bullish predictions. Even The Man with the Iron Fists did a little better than expected. Overall, the box office soared 49% from last weekend to $138 million. It was also higher compared to this weekend last year by a very impressive 21%. November certainly got off to a great start. Year-to-date, 2012 is ahead of 2011's pace by just under 4.0% at $8.89 billion to $8.55 billion. After a couple weak months, the box office has shown great strength and it would take a disastrous collapse for 2012 to not come out ahead.
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November 4th, 2012
Wreck-It Ralph is breathing new life into the box office this weekend, after a few slow weeks, and with some help from an impressive opening for Flight this weekend will be a healthy 20% or so ahead of last year. Disney is projecting that Ralph will open with $49.1 million, which is a very creditable performance, if well behind the openings of The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc., both of which were released on the equivalent weekend in years gone by. The Pixar brand still counts for a lot, evidently. Flight's $25.01 million projection is well ahead of expectations (take a bow Denzel Washington and Robert Zemeckis), and has strong enough reviews to have good chances of legs into the Holiday Season.
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November 2nd, 2012
There's only one truly wide release this week, Wreck-It-Ralph, but it is opening in more than 3,700 theaters and with reviews that match its pre-release buzz. There are also two films opening in a little under 2,000 theaters, Flight and The Man with the Iron Fists, but both are earning good reviews and could have some impact at the box office by earning places in the top five. Last year the box office was led by Puss in Boots with $33.05 million during its sophomore stint. I think Wreck-It-Ralph will easily top that. The new releases were Tower Heist and A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas, which combined pulled in $36.98 million. I really doubt Flight and Iron Fists will do the same. So unless Wreck-It-Ralph has close to a $50 million opening, November will start off on a losing note in the year-over-year comparison.
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November 1st, 2012
October was pretty good with a few films really crushing expectations, which made up for the few duds that opened at the end. 2012 gained about $100 million over 2011 during the month of October. We really needed this success and hopefully November will continue this push forward. However, November is a bit of a weird month. There are five weekends, but only eight true wide releases, half of which open on the Thanksgiving long weekend, leaving the other four weeks with just one true wide release each. There are a couple others opening in the semi-wide level and another opening in limited release with a planned wide release, but even so, it is not a busy month. That said, it is a case of quality over quantity. There are four films that are pretty much guaranteed to reach $100 million, one of which should reach $300 million. By comparison, last November only produced one $100 million film. Granted, that film was The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, which made nearly $300 million, which is a huge number no matter how you look at it. But this year, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 should top that number and with the other $100 million movies pulling in more than $400 million combined, it should be a very profitable month at the box office.
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October 26th, 2012
Wreck-It-Ralph is the only film opening truly wide next week and it might open in more theaters than the combined theater counts of Flight and The Man with the Iron Fists. So it is obviously the film in this week's Box Office Prediction Contest, right? Not so fast. This week we don't have a Box Office Prediction Contest. We have a Presidential Election Prediction Contest. In order to win, one must predict the Electoral College results for the 2012 Presidential Election as reported by CNN on their official site at noon, Pacific Time, on Wednesday, November 7th. As a tie-breaker, we will be using the percentage of the vote earned by the two main candidates, again as reported by CNN on their official site at noon on Wednesday November 7th. While you are researching your predictions, it is very important to keep in mind that the chances all 50 states and D.C. will be called by noon on Wednesday is roughly 0%. To emphasize, last time around, it took three weeks for Missouri to be called. This time around one of two things are guaranteed to happen. Either one candidate will win with a surprisingly strong margin, in which case the news networks will not be in a rush to call a state that is close. Or the candidates will be so close that at least one close state could tip the balance, in which case no network will want to get the call wrong and have another Florida 2000 on our hands. So read your favorite political sites, head over to 270towin.com, or another similar site, to play with the map to figure out how many Electoral College votes Obama and Romney will have, as well as the number of states that will remain undecided by the next day. And don't forget the popular vote tie-breaker.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the actual results, without going over Obama's total, will win a copies of The American President on Blu-ray and Dave on Blu-ray.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the actual results, without going over Romney's total, will win a copies of The American President on Blu-ray and Dave on Blu-ray.
Update
We've had a question regarding exactly what you need to send in for the contest. Here's a good sample entry based on 2008's election results:
Barack Obama Electoral Votes = 350
TIEBREAKER: Popular Vote = 53.7%
John McCain Electoral Votes = 162
TIEBREAKER: Popular Vote = 46.7%
The Electoral Votes do not add up to 538, because two states were uncalled by noon on Wednesday. If you've already sent in your prediction and it doesn't follow this format, send it in again and we will use your original date in case we need to go to the double tie-breaker. (First entry wins.)
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Monday November 5th to be eligible, so don't delay!
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