October 12th, 2012
The Avengers dominated a lengthy list of new releases and sold roughly 20 times the number of DVDs of the second place release on this week's DVD sales chart. It sold 2.09 million units and generated $35.41 million in opening weekend revenue. This is a good start on the home market, but not great compared to the film's theatrical run. In fact, it wasn't even the best opening of the year, as both The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 sold more during their first week of release, and they both had shortened opening weeks. That said, it is already in eighth place for the year and this film did much better on Blu-ray than it did on DVD. More on that very shortly.
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October 2nd, 2012
It's the first week of the month and there is a wide variety of releases worth checking out, but not exactly a strong selection of best sellers. The biggest first-run release is Dark Shadows and while I'm looking forward to possibly reviewing the Blu-ray Combo Pack, I don't think it will be a huge hit. New Girl: Season One and The Princess Bride: 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray look great, but I'm waiting for the screeners to make final decisions. I won't get a chance to review Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection, but it is a contender for Pick of the Week. The winner of that honor is Cinderella Blu-ray, which is a classic, even if it is a little old-fashioned.
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July 9th, 2012
The Amazing Spider-Man started faster than expected, but stumbled a little bit over the weekend. Additionally, the other two wide releases, Savages and Katy Perry: Part of Me, were mixed and weak respectively. This left the overall box office down 6.5% from last weekend to $196 million. However, this was 26% higher than the same weekend last year. 2012 increased its lead over 2011 to 8% at $5.78 billion to $5.36 billion, so even if the rest of the year is completely flat compared to last year, it would still be a solid win.
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July 2nd, 2012
The box office wasn't as close a race as some had predicted, as Ted ran away with things breaking records in the process. That's not to say the competition was weak. Both Magic Mike and Tyler Perry's Madeas Witness Protection beat expectations and this helped the overall box office grow 61% from last weekend. It also grew 4% from last year, which normally wouldn't seem like a big deal, but this weekend last year was the Independence Day long weekend. For 2012 to win despite the misalignment is amazing and hopefully this is a good sign for the coming weeks. Year-to-date, 2012 still holds a solid lead over 2011, $5.43 billion to $5.06 billion. Percentwise the lead is now 7%, which is a great position to be in at the halfway mark of the year.
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July 1st, 2012
A huge opening for Ted and better-than-expected starts for both Magic Mike and Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection will add up to an impressive weekend for the industry, based on Sunday's studio estimates. Even with a tough comparison (July 4 fell on a Monday last year), the total for this weekend should be about on par with the same weekend last year.
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June 28th, 2012
There are three new releases and a holdover looking to battle for top spot over the weekend. Magic Mike will likely be the best of the new releases, but Ted could be close behind. Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection is a wild card and could earn first or could struggle to reach $20 million. The only one of the four new releases that will not have a shot at first place is People Like Us, which at its lowest might not reach the top ten. Brave will also be in the race for first place and many believe it has the advantage over the newcomers. As for the year-over-year comparison, forget about it. This weekend last year was the Independence Day long weekend and the misalignment will result in 2012 taking a beating. In fact, the combined openings of the four wide releases will likely not be as much as Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened with last year. June is going to end on a really soft note, but July should start strong due to the same holiday misalignment.
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June 1st, 2012
As May ends and we look forward to June, we have some good news and some bad news to report from last month. First the bad news. Nearly every film missed expectations, sometimes by massive levels. The good news? The Avengers was a record-breaking hit and it managed to compensate for every miss of the month and May of 2012 was just as strong as May of 2011. Unfortunately, the month has ended on a low note and The Avengers is shedding theaters, so new releases will be really important for June's chances. There are two films that were supposed to open wide this month that are no longer doing so, although we did have one film moved up to replace G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but that still leaves just twelve films opening wide over the five weekends in June. This does include six films that have a real shot at earning $100 million or more at the box office, and three of those have a shot at $200 million. Prometheus is earning a ton of buzz and there are some that think it will be the biggest hit of the month. It might even be a $300 million hit. However, you can't count out Brave in the race to become the biggest hit of the month, as Pixar's average is over $250 million and $300 million is also not out of the question. It's hard to compare last June, because there were only four weekends last June, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened on the Wednesday before the July 1st long weekend, which throws off the numbers. If you consider Dark of the Moon a June release, then there were six $100 million movies and one $300 million this month last year. We will need nearly every film to match expectations in order for 2012 to continue to strengthen its lead on 2011.
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