March 30th, 2004
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 and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It was a much richer week in terms of choices, but for me choosing a DVD pick of the week was easy, (
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!.) Although I also picked up
House of Sand and Fog - (
Buy from Amazon) as a rental.
More...
March 16th, 2004
Without an international breakout hit, the domestic slowdown is still affecting the international box-office. This week a single massive opening in a major market could have put a film in the top five. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. But a string of strong openings helped push
Along Came Polly into first place with $12.4 million. It's still early in its international run, but with $40.2 million so far and with some big markets left it should beat its domestic total.
More...
March 9th, 2004
The earlier domestic box office slow down is starting to affect the international box office as no movie could manage $10 million or more at the box office. Compare that to
last week when three movies managed that feat. Even winning 11 Oscars didn't help
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King's international box office as it dropped 15% to $9.4 million, although that was enough for it to reclaim the weekly crown. Overall its international total is now just shy of $680 million while its worldwide total is nearing $1.05 billion.
More...
March 2nd, 2004
When
Scary Movie 3 was released domestically during the past fall, many analysts predicted it would fail to attract a sizeable audience. After all, there was a massive 55% drop-off between the
first two installments. But the movie out-preformed expectations domestically, and now it's doing the same internationally. Scary Movie 3 earned $12.3 million and a first place finished this past weekend. Its international total is nearing $75 million and it should cross $200 million worldwide relatively soon.
More...
March 1st, 2004
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of last nights Oscars was the lack of surprises. Even the sweep by
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King wasn't that big of a shock.
More...
February 24th, 2004
It took a couple days longer than expected, but
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King crossed the $1 billion mark over the weekend. The weekend total of $13.9 million was also good enough for first place on the international charts. Internationally it is still in third place behind
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but that should change by the weekend.
More...
February 18th, 2004
February 10th, 2004
After crossing $250 million international some time during the mid-week,
The Last Samurai opened in another 10 markets pushing its weekend total to $17.7 million. Most impressive is the film's run in Japan; it was first in its 10th week of release and it crossed the $100 million mark in that nation. If
Ken Watanabe wins the Oscar it should outperform its domestic run in Japan. It is very unusual for a Hollywood film to earn more in a single international market than it earned domestically.
More...
January 27th, 2004
Nominations for the 76the Annual Academy Awards were announced today. As always, here is a list of the nominations, plus reactions below.
More...
January 26th, 2004
Recapping last nights Golden Globes ceremony, here are the winners with a brief reaction below.
More...
January 25th, 2004
With the awards ceremony only hours away, here's one last look at the theatrical nominations for tonight's 61st annual Golden Globes awards.
More...
January 21st, 2004
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is usually celebrated by the movie industry by dumping movies that the studios have little faith in, in hopes that the holiday crowds will give it an undeserved boost. This year two of the three new releases beat expectations (at least for the 3-day weekend) and the one that didn't had the best reviews for the week. (I really must stop basing my prediction on quality.) The 3-day total box office was 7% above last weekend, but down 8% from last year. The 4-day yearly decline was about the same.
More...
January 18th, 2004
On Thursday the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards(R) Nominations were announced. Here is a list of all the nominations in theatrical categories as well as a brief reaction to them.
More...
January 16th, 2004
With three new movies opening wide this weekend, we should finally have a new number one at the box office. But don't expect it to be number one in the minds of the critics. With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday we should see a sizeable increase at the box office.
More...
January 12th, 2004
None of the wide releases were able to mount much of an attack on last weekend's top five. And with the exception of a limited release going wide there was little change. The lack of a dominate opener helped push the total box office lower by more than 25% from last week and 6% from last year. So much for last weekend's strong start to 2004.
More...
January 9th, 2004
January is usually the time when studios dump movies that looked like a good idea on paper, but didn't pan out. This year looks like no exception as the two new movies are getting destroyed by the critics. In fact, the only film that looks capable of challenging
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for the lead is the wide expansion of
Big Fish.
More...
January 5th, 2004
2004 started off with a bang as all movies in the top five beat expectations, although mostly by just a million or two. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King continues to lead and may yet have one more win up its sleeve for next week. This allowed 2004 to get an early jump improving upon last year's pace by more than 9%. There was a considerable drop from last week, but this was not surprising given the return to work / school on Monday. A drop of just 24% was the best week to week drop-off to start the year since 2000 when the box office dropped a mere 14%.
More...
January 2nd, 2004
This week there are no new wide openings, so the top five should look a lot like last weekend. This includes another winning weekend for
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The lack of new releases is not uncommon for this time of the year, nor is the number of potential $100 million movies. Of the top five, one has already crossed $100 million and three more could follow.
More...
December 29th, 2003
No one was surprised that Lord of the Ring: Return of the King remained on top for the second weekend in a row, but most of the new entries did surprise at the box office. It is also not surprising that the box office shot up from last week by over 30%, but the yearly increase was a much more modest 4%. That is less than the average increase in ticket prices.
More...
December 24th, 2003
There's really no doubt Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will remain number one over Christmas / the weekend. The only real question is how much of last weekend's record breaking performance will it maintain and how well will the other movies fare.
More...
December 22nd, 2003
Expectations for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King were huge, but unlike so many other movies with huge expectations that opened this year Return of the King didn't disappoint. A record-breaking performance lead to a huge 59% jump in the box office from last week. But the major letdown in other films led to a 2.3% drop from last year.
More...
December 19th, 2003
While there are two major and a few smaller releases, only one movie is getting talked about this weekend.
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will crush all competition, but there still is some question if records can be broken and how well the other competition will fare.
More...
December 15th, 2003
While the weekend after Thanksgiving is usually soft, the weekend after that usually sees a bit of a rebound. Last year, for instance, we saw a nearly 20% week-to-week increase at the box office. This year we weren't so lucky. No movie in the top five beat box office expectations, while a couple did place higher on the charts due to weaker than expected competition. This led to a drop of nearly 9% from last week and 13% from last year.
More...
December 12th, 2003
It's a two-way race for top spot this weekend with Something's Gotta Give targeting a mature audience while Stuck on You goes for the decidedly immature. A third movie, Love Don't Cost a Thing is also opening wide but it might have trouble just making the top five.
More...
