September 15th, 2008
We have a big list this week with more than 50 releases. This includes very few top-notch, first run releases, but that weakness is counterbalanced by the strength in the TV on DVD department, including a few contenders for DVD Pick of the Week like Duckman - Season One & Two and Pushing Daisies - Season One on DVD or Blu-ray. If I were to choose just one release this week, it would be the former; however, I think the latter has a better chance at mainstream appeal. As I previously said, this is a huge list this week, so much so that it had to be split into two parts. Part two can be found here.
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June 15th, 2008
Kung Fu Panda started its international run in third place with $20.46 million on 1521 screens in 9 markets. The film reportedly set records in a number of its smaller, Southeast Asian debuts while its brought in an impressive $8.26 million on 821 screens in Russia and $7.84 million on 632 screens in South Korea (including midweek numbers). Next up for the film is Australia and Mexico next weekend while it has major market opening throughout the summer.
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June 8th, 2008
Sex and the City made its international debut this past weekend, and while it wasn't able to top the charts like it did domestically, it still managed a fantastic $32.77 million on 3590 screens in 14 markets over the weekend for a total of $37.52 million. Its biggest opening came in the U.K. where it dominated the market with $17.22 million on 460 screens, which is equivalent to an $80 million to $100 million opening here. It also finished first in Germany with $7.41 million on 836 screens. It also did very well in France with $6.12 million on 551 screens and in Italy with $2.74 million on 552 screens, finishing second in both markets. The film opened in Australia and South Korea this past weekend, while it doesn't end its run till late August with Japan and it should reach several major milestones before then.
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April 14th, 2008
There were only two new releases to reach the top 30 on the rental chart, but they placed one - two on the charts. Alvin and the Chipmunks led the way with $8.74 million while Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Baker Street was right behind with $8.08 million.
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April 7th, 2008
New releases didn't have a major impact on the DVD sales chart this week and that helped I Am Legend remain in top spot with 803,000 units sold for revenue of $15.32 million for the week. Its total sales have reached $81.71 million from 4.36 million units making it the best-selling DVD of the year so far.
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April 7th, 2008
There were only two new releases to chart this week while I Am Legend repeated on top with $9.08 million in rentals for the week and $20.08 million in total.
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March 24th, 2008
According to Amazon, there are more than 700 DVDs coming out this week; however, this is certainly a case of quantity over quality and I'm having trouble finding 30 releases worth mentioning. It is also a rather light week when it comes to spotlight reviews with only three of them. To end the trifecta of weakness, there are not a lot that are even in contention for DVD Pick of the Week. War Made Easy is arguably the best movie of the week, but the DVD is devoid of extras. Likewise, Bonnie and Clyde on Blu-ray is a good choice, but there are no exclusive features and the Ultimate Collector's Edition has more physical features. Another contender was PTU - Police Tactical Unit, which is a strong movie with equally strong extras. However, in the end none of these releases really lived up to the title of DVD Pick of the Week.
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January 27th, 2008
National Treasure: The Book of Secrets fell from second to sixth, but it was relatively close with $8.37 million on 3883 screens in 36 markets for a total of $143.30 million. Even if the film had no more markets left to open in, it would reach $150 million and beyond. However, it has yet to open in Germany, the U.K., and France and should top its domestic total before it is done.
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January 20th, 2008
Enchanted fell out of the top five but still had a very impressive weekend box office adding $8.12 million on 4348 screens in 43 markets for a total of $151.50 million. This includes a fifth place opening in South Korea where the film earned $1.08 million on 322 screens over the weekend and $1.34 million in total. Meanwhile it also earned fifth place in the U.K. with $1.59 million on 472 screens over the weekend for a total of $29.46 million after a month of release. Its chances at $200 million internationally depend heavily on its run in Japan staring mid-March, but $300 million worldwide is all but assured now.
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December 3rd, 2007
There were very few shocks at the box office this weekend as Enchanted remained the dominant film.
However, there was an unsettling malaise as the overall box office reached just $85 million.
This is barely more than half of last weekend's $162 million holiday-inflated haul, but that was to be expected.
What wasn't as expected was the 8% drop-off from the same weekend last year.
At the moment, 2007 is ahead of 2006 in terms of box office and ticket sales.
However, while a gain at the box office is academic at this point, a slide in ticket sales is likely if things don't turn around.
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December 3rd, 2007
Lions for Lambs climbed a spot to sixth place with $4.34 million on 2453 screens in 53 markets for a total of $25.97 million, while only managing $1 million or more in one market this past weekend, ($1.40 million on 390 screens during its sixth place debut in France). It opens in Italy later this month and Japan in the spring of '08, but there's almost no chance the film will show a profit at this point. Normally one movie losing money isn't a big issue because the studio can rely on one or two monster hits to pay for their misses, (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made enough money to pay for the entire budgets of half-a-dozen misses for Warner Bros. this year, and that's before the home market). However, United Artists is a newly relauched studio and they don't have a war chest built up from past victories. Stumbling out of the gate like this hurts.
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November 29th, 2007
The weekend after Thanksgiving is the only slow weekend during the entire Holiday Season.
So it comes as no surprise that only one movie is opening wide, but it is a bit surprising that the weekend is a weak as it is.
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November 27th, 2007
Thanksgiving provided plenty of reasons for studios to give thanks, especially since every single film managed to earn enough to be called a hit in one form or other.
Even the weakest releases of the week did well compared to their modest costs.
Overall, the box office brought in $162 million over three days, which is 55% more than last weekend.
More importantly, it is virtually identical to the same weekend last year.
Over five days, movies earned an estimated $229 million, which is up just shy of 2% from last year.
This is great news after a Fall that most would like to forget, but the growth is still lower than ticket price inflation, meaning actual attendance was down.
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November 25th, 2007
As expected, Enchanted won the Thanksgiving box office race, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
With a solid $35 million over the three day weekend, and $50 million in five days, the family fantasy had an excellent debut.
If strong reviews translate into good word-of-mouth, this could be the first blockbuster of the Holiday Season.
The biggest surprise of the weekend, though, was This Christmas, which blew past its tracking numbers and beat everyone's expectations with an estimated $18.6 million in just 1,858 theaters.
It has already notched up $27.1 million in its first five days.
Also out-performing expectations was Hitman, which finished fourth with a very creditable $13.035 million.
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November 24th, 2007
There are not a whole lot of movies on this week's list, but at least we had a race for top spot with both This Christmas - Official Site and Enchanted - Official Site. Both had their strong points, but in the end Enchanted was able to take home the crown.
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November 21st, 2007
The five-day Thanksgiving long weekend officially starts tonight, as does the lucrative holiday weekend. From now until the New Year, there we should see hit after hit released, as well as a number of Oscar contenders.
With the box office slowing down, this couldn't come at a better time.
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November 1st, 2007
After a horrible October, we finally get to November and the start of the holiday season.
Just like the summer season doesn't officially begin until Memorial Day, the winter holiday season doesn't officially begin until the Thanksgiving long weekend.
However, studios are trying to stretch the lucrative box office season as long as possible and the holiday-like releases start during the first weekend of the month.
This means practically every weekend this month, there's at least one potential $100 million movie. There are also a few that might be Oscar contenders, although not as many as I had expected.
In fact, so far Award Season has been particularly slow, but at least this means there should be more buzz surrounding the upcoming films as the race is wide open.
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October 6th, 2007
We are starting to get full websites for some of the massive holiday season releases, which should mean there will be at least one award worthy website on each week's list. As for this week, there were a few that have potential assuming the sections marked coming soon live up to the rest of the site. But just one site, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising - Official Site, that was worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
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December 17th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for I am Legend, Angels & Demons and more.
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