July 4th, 2012
There were four new releases to reach the top ten on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, but none of them were able to unseat Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. That film remained in first place with 444,000 units / $11.08 million for the week lifting its totals to 1.90 million units / $44.59 million after two.
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July 4th, 2012
None of the new releases were able to overtake Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for top spot on the DVD sales chart. It repeated in first place with 497,000 units / $7.44 million for the week giving it totals of 1.75 million units / $26.14 million after two. It is already the fifth best selling DVD released in 2012.
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June 18th, 2012
There are a trio of wide releases coming out on the home market this weekend; however, two of them were box office bombs, while the only one that did reasonably well at the box office was absolutely eviscerated by critics. Project X will likely be the best selling new release of the week, but that's not a good sign, as it made just over $50 million in theaters. Additionally, according to Amazon.com, the top ten best selling new releases include a trio of catalogue titles making their Blu-ray debut. We are not talking about classics that are finally making the leap to high definition. We are talking about films like Newsies, which earned less than $3 million during its original theatrical run. As for potential Pick of the Week winners, there were a few contenders. Jeff, Who Lives At Home is an excellent film, but the DVD and the Blu-ray have absolutely no extras. Wilfred: Season One could be a winner, but I didn't get a chance to see the show when it first aired, and the DVD / Blu-ray is late. The screener is also late for Louie: Season Two, but at least I've seen season one and the DVD or Blu-ray is the best bet for Pick of the Week.
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March 5th, 2012
Nearly everyone expected Doctor Seuss' The Lorax to top the box office chart this weekend, but very few people saw it doing this well. It opened so well that The Hunger Games could have trouble topping it for biggest hit of the month. The overall box office rose to $168 million, which was 26% above last week's pace, as well as the same weekend last year. And here I was worried the streak might end. Year-to-date, 2012 has now pulled in $1.82 million, which is 19% higher than last year's pace. Hopefully this winning streak will continue, and it will if The Lorax has strong legs.
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February 28th, 2012
There was a surprise winner at the box office this weekend as Act of Valor opened on the very high end of expectations while Good Deeds did the opposite. Overall, more films missed expectations than met them and this led to a 14% drop-off from last week. However, the total haul of $134 million was still 23% higher than the same weekend last year, which stretches the winning streak to eight weeks. Or to put it another way, every single weekend this year has been higher than the corresponding weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2012 is ahead of last year's pace by 18% at $1.62 billion to $1.38 billion. There is some bad news going forward, as I don't think March 2012 is as strong as March 2011.
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February 26th, 2012
This weekend's box office charts will feature two hits and two misses, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. Very much in the hit column, and leading the weekend overall, is Act of Valor, a reality-tinged actioner from Relativity that is set to open with around $24.7 million, which is on the high end of expectations. With a $13 million acquisition cost and $30 million committed to marketing, Relativity should see a profit from the film after several recent misses. In second place, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds will pick up around $16 million for the weekend, which is on the low side for Perry -- in fact it will most likely be his worst opening weekend ever -- but will still earn money in the end thanks to a low production and marketing budget.
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February 23rd, 2012
While this weekend is one of the most important weekends of the year for movies, it's not because of the films in theaters. Oscar weekend is generally not a good time to release a film, as a lot of fans will be distracted. To emphasize that, there are four films opening wide this weekend, but three of them are opening in barely more than 2,000 theaters. Expectations for most films are in the mid teens, or lower, and there's a chance that no film will come close to $20 million over the weekend. Obviously this is not good news; however, this weekend last year was a disaster as Hall Pass led the way with just $13.54 million. There's a chance that every film in the top five will earn more than that this year. Granted, that's on the optimistic side of expectations, but even the low end of expectations has 2012 continuing its streak.
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February 1st, 2012
2012 got off to a great start, with January earning four wins in a row in the year-over-year comparison and finishing the month with a double-digit lead over 2011's pace. This has made me very hopeful going forward. That said, there are fourteen films opening wide or being re-released wide in February, and I don't think there's a $100 million hit in the group. In fact, I don't think any will get all that close to the century mark. There are several that should be solid mid-level hits and with a little luck, half of them could reached $50 million and there are five that could reach $75 million. Last February, Just Go With It topped $100 million while Gnomeo and Juliet came within $33,000 of doing the same. We won't replicate that this year, so we have to hope for a lot more depth. If films like Safe House, Journey 2, Ghost Rider 2, The Phantom Menace: 3D and The Vow all meet expectations, then perhaps 2012 will continue its hot start.
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