January 16th, 2007
2007 continues its slow start with little in the way of quality first run releases.
The only one that is worth picking up is The Protector - Buy from Amazon, but the quality of the movie is a little low for it to be DVD Pick of the Week.
On the TV on DVD front the best of the best was Doctor Who - The Complete Second Series - Buy from Amazon, but here the price is a little high, which lowers its appeal.
To find the DVD Pick of the Week you have to dig really deep and come up with Purgatory House, which can be purchased through Amazon or direct from their official site.
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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 27th, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. The week after Christmas is usually a real letdown when it comes to quality for two reasons, firstly, it's the week after the biggest gift giving season of the year and if the studio had any real confidence in the film they would have released it last week. And secondly, its just over four months after the worst time and just over four months is the average time between theatrical release and DVD release. So it comes as a real surprise that
Garden State -
Buy from Amazon, one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the year is being released this week.
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November 17th, 2004
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason opened in a mere half a dozen international markets over the weekend, but what an opening it was. Despite place on fewer than 1000 screens the film was able to pull in an amazing $26.7 million, the lion's share coming from the U.K. where the film took in $19.1 million on 496 screens, (including $5.9 million from sneak peaks.) That was the best opening for a Working Title film smashing the previous record of $11.1 million for
Love Actually. In each market the film broke the record for Working Title films and more than doubled the
original's debut. And even with legs that are expected to be much lower, it should be able to break $300 million internationally, although it may have trouble hitting $50 million domestically.
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November 10th, 2004
It's a rare feat for a non-Hollywood film to top the international charts, but that's just what the German spoof, Seven Dwarfs, did this week. Playing in just three markets the film took in $10.6 million on under 1,000 screens. In its home market of Germany the film eased just 19% to $9.2 million; the result was not quite as good in Austria where it dropped a respectable 30% to $915,000, but it was in Switzerland where it shined -
increasing 4% to $500,000. Overall the film has now made $29.0 million so far but the real test comes with increased competition from holiday fare and the ability to find an audience in non-German speaking markets.
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November 3rd, 2004
Holidays throughout Europe, and a $1.5 million, first place finish in Russia helped
Shark Tale remain in top spot for the fourth straight week, although it was a much closer contest this week. Highlights include $4.3 million in the U.K., off just 24% compared to its sophomore weekend, $4.0 million in France, which was
up 47% from last weekend for a $15.5 million in 4,300 theatres in 27 markets weekend. Its international running total topped $100 million, the 13th film to do so this year, and now sits at $109.6 million.
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October 27th, 2004
Despite a 45% drop in its weekend haul,
Shark Tale was able easily able to earn it third first place finish on the international charts. Still early in its run, the film took home $16.2 million in 4,368 theatres in 24 markets pushing its total to $80.3 million internationally. Without any openings the film relied on strong holdovers like in the U.K. where it drop 39%, in France it was off 32% and 35% in Germany.
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October 20th, 2004
Thanks to mostly unopposed openings several more markets,
Shark Tale was able to repeat as the international box office champ this week. Not only that, but its $29.6 million more than doubled its international tally prior to the start of the weekend as the film now sits at $56.2 million. The best opening of the weekend, and most likely of its international run, was in the U.K. where the film managed to take in $9.1 million, ($13.6 million if you include last week's previews.) In France the result was strong with $4.2 million but in the face of local competition, it could only manage $3.4 million in Germany.
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October 13th, 2004
With openings in nearly a dozen new markets,
Shark Tale was able to take top spot on the international charts with $9.4 million in 16 markets, pushing its early total to $19.2 million internationally and over $100 million worldwide. Highlights include $4.4 million in the U.K., (including previews) and $2.05 million in Mexico. How happy the studio is with these results depends on their expectations. Compared to the average film,
Shark Tale is a massive hit. But compared to
Dreamworks previous
digitally animated film,
Shrek 2, it is a large drop.
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October 6th, 2004
Collateral finished first on the international charts breaking
The Village's five week run on top. Although, with a weekly take of only $9.4 million in 28 markets, it has as much to do with the weakness of the competition as it does with the strength of the film itself. The largest chunk of that box office came from France, where the film earned $3.8 million.
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September 29th, 2004
For the fifth week in a row
The Village finished in first place with $14.0 million on 4000 screens in 38 markets. The biggest opening of the week was $5.2 million in Spain, but suffered another collapse in Mexico dropping 55% during its second weekend there. Its international total hit $100 million over the weekend, the fifth
Disney film to do so this year, and the 17th overall.
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September 27th, 2004
Normally September starts out slow with Labor Day Weekend and drops a bit the weekend after, but then rebounds. But this September it started out weak, and just kept on getting weaker. The drop from last weekend was severe at nearly 9.5%, but the drop from last year was a hefty 24%. With $6.803 billion so far, 2004 still leads the year to date comparison by over 4%, but if October is half as bad as September that will change very quickly.
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September 21st, 2004
The Village once again top took spot on the international scene, but by a very narrow margin. Still being plagued by sharp drop-offs, the film earned $11.2 million on 3,500 screens in 34 markets. So far the film has taken it $117 million internationally, higher than its $113 million it earned domestically. Although, it is much lower than
M. Night Shyamalan's previous movie
Signs.
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September 20th, 2004
None of the new films could live up to expectations, but the holdovers held up better than expected, especially as you went farther down the list. This helped the box office remain relatively flat from last weekend, down just 1.3% from last weekend, hardly worth noting. The yearly comparison is not as bright with 2004 down more than 25% from the same weekend last year. With the Fall box office stumbling, 2004's lead over 2003 is shrinking. As of last weekend this year is ahead $6.712 billion to $6.450 billion, just 4% ahead.
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September 17th, 2004
This weekend is a little busier than most with 4 movies opening wide and another film having a preview. Most of the films are also earning better than average reviews, especially for this time of year. This should give a little boost to the box office, but don't expect to see any major breakout hits or records broken along the way.
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September 14th, 2004
The Village again was the weekend champ in the international box office with $15.3 million on nearly 3,500 screens in 31 markets. Highlights for the weekend include and impressive debut in Germany at $5.5 million and a less spectacular $3.1 million in Japan. The film also suffered a 55% drop-off in its second weekend in Australia while it held up much better in Brazil. So far the film has earned $63.2 million internationally and is well on its way to matching its $112 million domestic total.
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September 13th, 2004
There were very few surprises over the weekend, however, the box office as a whole was slightly depressed compared to expectations. This led to a 10.3% drop from last weekend, and more importantly a 9.4% drop from last year. After a summer that can best be described as mixed, Fall 2004 is getting off to a dubious start. Year to date 2004 has brought in $6.607 billion in ticket sales, up 4.8% from this time last year, inline with estimated ticket price increases.
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September 10th, 2004
Historically speaking, the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend tends to be the slowest weekend of the year. But this year looks to buck the odds, as we should see a slight bounce from last weekend. And this increase should be thanks entirely to
one movie, while this week's other
new release will have to settle for a distant second place. The rest of the top five, and indeed the top ten, will finish way back but within a couple million of each other.
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September 9th, 2004
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
A Dirty Shame -
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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September 1st, 2004
Yikes. September has historically been a dumping ground for bad films and this year looks no different. September is also a very hard month to write a preview for; there are more than a dozen films, but very few of them have received any advanced buzz, good or bad, making predicting their chances very hard indeed.
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August 12th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Silver City -
Official Site - sort of. 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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May 27th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Baadasssss! -
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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May 20th, 2004
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. It was another deceptively slow week as there are lots of site on the list, but none stood out as an award winning site. Many were simple placeholders, others had just minor updates, and the only three flash sites to launch were mostly marked coming soon. I was even tempted to not give out an award or maybe even bring in a
ringer. But in the end I went with
The Incredibles -
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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May 13th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
The Chronicles of Riddick -
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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