November 6th, 2007
Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas shopping season has (un)officially started and there is a flood of DVDs coming out this week, so much so that we again had to split the list into two parts. (And looking at next week's list, we might have to do it again.) Despite this long list, it was an easy choice for DVD Pick of the Week: Cars - Blu-Ray Release. Although when the other two Blu-Ray Pixar screeners show up, I might have to revise that choice.
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June 25th, 2005
Despite an amazing performance by
Hitch, the home market is still suffering. This is no real surprise since the home market mirrors the theatrical market, just with a roughly four-month delay. Opening as a clear number one,
Hitch brought in $12.62 million in combined rentals split $11.54 million / $1.09 million DVD / VHS. Saleswise, the film also finished first, but no sales figures were published.
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June 18th, 2005
Be Cool opened atop a depressed home market $9.61 million in combined rentals. The film also topped the DVD sales charts, which is welcome relief to the studio after the film's disappointing theatrical box office.
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June 11th, 2005
It was a
slow week for new releases and what little competition there was couldn't stop
The Aviator from holding onto top spot on the Home Rental Charts. Its combined total of $7.76 million was a sharp drop-off from
last week, but even so the film is doing well enough on the home market that is will soon show modest profit.
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June 4th, 2005
The
multi-Oscar winning movie,
The Aviator won the week at the home market, which really surprised no one. The film topped both the DVD rentals with $10.14 million and the VHS rentals with $1.21 million for a combined total of $11.36 million. On the other hand, it came in second on the sales charts to the record breaking The
Chappelle Show
Season 2.
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May 23rd, 2005
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, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It's another great week with several great choices,
NewsRadio - The Complete First & Second Seasons -
Buy from Amazon and
The Job - The Complete Series -
Buy from Amazon, for instance.
The Aviator -
Buy from Amazon will please most people, it just left me cold while
Chappelle's Show - Season 2 - Uncensored -
Buy from Amazon will please many, and offend even more.
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April 24th, 2005
Hitch is just coasting on holdovers now, and will be until it opens in Japan at the beginning of June. This week it added $5.1 million from 3000 screens in 55 markets to its already impressive $170.4 million international total and with soft week to week drop-offs and a good showing in Japan and it will have a $200 million future. This week the film added $643,359 in its fifth weekend in France for a $12,785,670 total in the market, $110,000 in its second weekend in Argentina, (rising to first place in the meantime) as well as other, smaller markets.
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April 17th, 2005
The Pacifier finally debut across Australia after playing in Queensland and Victoria for the past two weeks; the massive expansion allowed the film to climb to first place with $1.125 million on 267 screens. That lifted its total in the market to $3.41 million so far and the film should have strong legs. Add to that its $1.75 million opening in Spain and $590,000 in Belgium and the film managed $4.1 million over the weekend, which doubled its early total to $8.1 million.
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April 10th, 2005
It was a slow week at the international box office, the slowest of the year, and without much activity at the box office hit there were little in the way of details published by the studios. Therefore this week's column is much shorter than usual. Leading the best of the rest was
Be Cool with an estimated $5 million for a disappointing $12.7 million international tally. Its best single market was the U.K. where the film finished second with $2.2 million on 336 screens after an exclusive engagement last weekend. The film also did well in the Netherlands with $190,000 on 43 screens but really struggles in Germany opening in fifth place with just $930,000 on 321 screens, a result mirrored in Austria, (fifth place, $165,948.)
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 27th, 2005
Million Dollar Baby has again slipped off the radar screen, but we do know it hit $52 million internationally, which means it made $9 million during the week. The film didn't earn $1 million in any single market, but is still doing strong in South Korea, ($970,000), Spain, ($840,000), Italy, ($600,000) and Australia, ($350,000.) Best estimate has the film earning just shy of $5 million of that over the weekend and taking sixth place on the international box office charts.
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March 21st, 2005
With neither of the new films meeting expectations and the holdovers falling short too, all in all it was a rather disappointing weekend at the box office.
Week-to-week the box office was essentially flat - up less than 0.9% - while compared to last year it was down 2.2%.
And at $1.72 billion, 2005 is now almost 1% behind 2004.
But 2004 entered a prolonged slump at this point, so 2005 should have ample opportunity to regain a sizeable lead.
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March 13th, 2005
Shark Tale finished its international run with a second place $2.08 million opening in Japan on 485 screens. Its $4,296 per screen average it quite low for the market and generally means the film won't have the usual legs films in Japan have. The film performed much better in Italy where it finished first again with $3.0 million, down just 23% during its sophomore stint. Overall it took in $5.2 million to raise its international total to $181 million, but without any more openings it might struggle to hit $200 million.
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March 8th, 2005
A dozen films took home
Oscars a little over a week ago, and while this usually results in a significant bounce at the box office, this year the returns were less than impressive.
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March 6th, 2005
The Aviator beat weekend estimates by a substantial margin leading to a $5.9 million box office on 3000 screens in 34 markets. The multi-
Oscar winning movie has hit $86.2 million internationally and will cross $200 million worldwide before too long. The film dropped a spot to fifth place in South Korea with $834,660 for the week and slipped to second in Australia with $798,000. The only market the film opened it was Argentina, where it easily took top spot with $232,000.
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February 27th, 2005
The Aviator started out Oscar evening extremely well, but it was Million Dollar Baby that won the biggest prizes at the 77th annual Academy Awards.
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February 27th, 2005
February 23rd, 2005
Aided by number one debuts in 8 markets, Meet the Fockers easily topped the international box office with $28.1 million on 3,750 screens in 33 markets for a total of $153.7 million internationally, which tops the original's $139.6 million total.
The film debuted in two major markets, bringing in $5.8 million on 629 screens in Germany and $4.3 million on 591 in France.
The film also had $1 million openings in Austria ($1.1 million on 110 screens) and Belgium (an incredible $1.3 million on just 51 screens).
In holdovers, the film was equally impressive, dropping just 25% during its second weekend in Italy and 36% in its fourth weekend in the U.K., where it remained in first place.
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February 20th, 2005
The Annual Writers Guild Awards held their 57th annual awards on Saturday. Among the more than a dozen awards handed out were three for theatrical releases, including the inaugural award for best
documentary, (which had been handed out earlier.)
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February 16th, 2005
Meet the Fockers easily topped the international marketplace while surpassing the $100 million milestone internationally. The film's biggest box office was in Italy where the film brought in $5.9 million on 497 screens, more than double what the
original opened with. The film is also opened well in several mid-level markets like Greece where the film took in $650,000 on 59 screens and $790,000 on 94 screens in Holland. Add in strong holdovers in the U.K. ($5.6 million down just 36%) and Spain, ($3.4 million down just 27%) and it all adds up to a $20.2 million on 2500 screens in 25 markets for an international total $114 million.
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February 9th, 2005
A higher than expected opening in Spain and a lower than expected decline in the U.K. allowed
Meet the Fockers to retain top spot on the international charts. The film opened first in a handful of markets, including a $4.7 million opening in Spain on 356 screens, $377,000 in Denmark, $352,000 in Taiwan and $275,000 in Israel. Its most prolific market continues to be the U.K. where the film brought in $8.5 million during its second weekend there; that's a 42% drop-off, which is a little high for the market, but not as high as expected given its huge start last weekend. That one market represented more than half of its weekend total of $16.3 million on 1700 screens in 28 markets for a running tally of $82.9 million.
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February 5th, 2005
More than a dozen awards were handed tonight in Los Angeles at the Shrine Exposition Center, and with only five theatrical awards there were more than a few surprises.
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February 5th, 2005
The 11th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are handed out tonight and while there are numerous awards only five are for theatrical releases.
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February 4th, 2005
Super Bowl weekend is usually a horror story for theaters as most people stay at home to watch the game, or at least soak in the hype surrounding the game.
The big game is such a threat to the box office that the Super Bowl Weekend is historically the third worst weekend of the year, (the Post Labor Day and Post Thanksgiving weekends being numbers one and two respectively).
This year, two films are being released with two different strategies for success.
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February 2nd, 2005
Meet the Fockers open in the U.K. over the weekend with an astounding $14.8 million on 456, which is more than four times the
original's earnings there in 2000.
That figure was also more than 8 times the second place film , and more than half the market's total box office.
Add in a handful of openings in other, mostly smaller markets and the film brought in $19.2 million on 1,700 screens in 15 markets for a $58.8 million total so far.
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February 1st, 2005
Oscar Nominations gave a box office boost to many films this past weekend while other films are too far into their runs for it to make a difference, (
The Motorcycle Diaries) or out of theatres completely, (
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.) But of the 35 films that received
Oscar Nominations, 17 saw increases in either their overall box office, per theatre average or both.
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January 31st, 2005
On Saturday, the Directors Guild of America celebrated their 57th annual awards. And while there were many winners, only two awards were for theatrical releases.
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January 28th, 2005
Two new Horror movies open this weekend.
However, the scariest part about the films could be their Rotten Tomatoes scores, as they are currently earning just 13 and 65.
On the plus side, several Oscar Nominated films are earning serious expansions and should figure in the top five.
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January 27th, 2005
Hide & Seek makes the biggest debut this weekend, opening in an impressive 3,005 theaters.
Whether that's enough to secure top spot depends largely on the performance of The Aviator.
The Oscar front-runner expands into 2,503 theaters, and should get a nice bounce from its nominations earlier this week.
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January 26th, 2005
The International Box Office Race is certainly interesting, as Ocean's Twelve recaptured the lead this weekend with $14.4 million on 4,600 screens in 58 markets and now sits at $170.4 million internationally and $292.8 million worldwide. A large chunk of that total came from Japan, where the film earned $6.8 million (including sneak peaks) on 510 screens, while ending Howl's Moving Castle's nine week reign on top.
While this was a strong performance, it was 20% lower that the original's debut in the same market.
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January 25th, 2005
Over the weekend The Producers Guild of America handed out their 15th Annual awards with The Aviator taking top prize for Darryl F. Zanuck as Producer of the Year Award - Theatrical Motion Pictures. This is the first of four Guild Awards that will be handed out over the next few weeks leading up to the Oscars on February 27th.
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January 25th, 2005
Of the eight films that won Golden Globes last weekend, only a handful saw their box office take increase this weekend.
This can be partially explained by the snowstorm, and partially by how late in the film's run it was by the time the awards were announced.
However, it may also be an indication of the declining influence the awards ceremony has.
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January 25th, 2005
The Oscar Nominations were announced this morning and at first glance it appears that most of the nominations went to films with smaller budgets and box office results.
Box office hits were nearly shut out of the major nominations.
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January 19th, 2005
After a massive opening last week in Spain,
Alexander took top spot on the international charts thanks to a strong opening in Italy, Brazil and Hong Kong. The film managed first place in all three markets with $3.87 million on 446 screens in Italy, $906,900 on 193 screens in Brazil and $275,244 on 30 screens in Hong Kong. Holdovers were not as kind to the
Sword and Sandal epic as it dropped nearly 50% in the U.K., Spain and France. Overall the film brought in $14.5 million on 3600 screens in 51 markets for a running tally of $88 million. And while the film will easily cross $100 million internationally, which is roughly 3 times its domestic figure, it has to be looked at as a disappointment financially.
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January 17th, 2005
The Golden Globe were handed out tonight with no one film really dominating the night.
The Aviator led the night with three awards with a few others films taking home two apiece.
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January 12th, 2005
The race for first in the international marketplace continued to be close with three films within a couple million of each other. Leading the way was
Ocean's Twelve with $17.5 million on 5200 screens in 54 markets; the film's international total now sits at $137 million, slightly more than half of what
Ocean's Eleven finished with. The
heist film did open well in several markets, which mostly balances out severe drop-offs due to the post-holiday. For instance, the film opened well in South Korea with $2.1 million on 150 screens and debuted in first place in Argentina, ($500,000), Portugal, (with $720,000) and in the Philippines, ($370,000.)
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January 10th, 2005
2005 got off to a slow start and was off 19% from last weekend and 16% from the first weekend of 2004. This despite the one new release beating all expectations. Next weekend should really turn things around, on the other hand.
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January 7th, 2005
The weekend after Christmas is historically a very poor weekend to release a new film, as is the first weekend of the new year. Of course, normally these are the same weekend, but not this year. So by stretching out this down time we get two weekends in a row where's there's not much new to get bodies into theatres.
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January 3rd, 2005
Meet the Fockers dropped just 9.5% to $41.7 million and will easily make $200 million before its theatrical run is over. When it does it will become the six film from 2004 to do so, but at just
39% positive it will be the lowest rated film in that club.
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December 31st, 2004
It's the last day of 2004 tonight so you could either call this the last weekend of 2004 or the first weekend of 2005. There needed to be roughly $264 million in box office business since Sunday for 2004 to beat 2003, and while Monday's figures were ok, they've been slipping during the week and will most likely put 2003's $9.158 billion out of reach. As for the predictions this weekend, there should be almost no change in the top five but the overall box office should climb from last weekend.
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December 29th, 2004
Ocean's Twelve opening in another two markets, (Mexico and Belgium) helped the
heist film finish first on the international charts with $22.6 million on 5,183 screens in 46 markets. The film opened well in Belgium where it easily took first place with $1.2 million on just 75 screens. That's up nearly 40% compared to the the
original, but down nearly 10% in Euros. In Mexico the film could only manage $1.8 million on 550 screens for a rather limp per screen average. However, in most markets the film is not holding up as well as the studio would have liked. For instance, in Germany the film dropped by more than 50%, in France the decline was 44%. The only exception appears to be Italy where holidays and a serious boost to screen count helped the film climb 33% to $2.9 million over the weekend.
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December 27th, 2004
Despite records set for biggest Christmas Day box office, the total box office over the weekend was down significantly from last year.
This is partially due to Christmas Eve falling on a Friday, but also has to do with the poor selection of films being released.
The weekend was up by 27% from last weekend, but down 28% from last year, leaving 2004 just 0.4% up on 2003 with $8.894 billion to $8.854 billion.
With a lead of just $40 million going into the final stretch, 2004 will most likely finish slightly ahead of 2003 in terms of total box office, but will finish behind in term of ticket sales.
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December 24th, 2004
The busiest weekend of the year starts off with Christmas Eve, one of the slowest holiday nights of year. Because of this, it make predicting the weekend results much more difficult. Also adding to the difficulty, several films only open / go wide on Saturday.
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December 21st, 2004
During its second weekend of release,
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou saw its per theatre average drop just 12.6% to land at $49,394, easily the best result this weekend. Next on the list are two new award season hopefuls,
Million Dollar Baby with $22,494 in 8 theatres and
The Aviator with $21,451 in 40 theatres. The second returning member of the $10,000 club rounds out the list as
Bad Education earned an average of $12,816 to spend its fifth week on the list.
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December 17th, 2004
The limited releases this weekend have combined for more than a dozen
Golden Globe nominations and could come close to matching that when Oscars nominations are announced late in January.
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December 16th, 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
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site and all subsidiaries. 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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December 14th, 2004
Golden Globe Nominations were announced on Monday and as with the
IFP Independent Spirit Awards,
Sideways lead the pack with 7 nominations. This does not mean it is the favorite in any particular category, but it does help its chances of taking home some hardware on January 16th.
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December 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
In Good Company -
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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December 1st, 2004
December is a huge month at the box office, but also a very unique one. Massive blockbusters are released side by side with smaller films with only Oscar on their minds.
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August 5th, 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,
Saints and Soldiers. 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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December 5th, 2003
This week sees new release dates announced for Taking Lives, Godsend, Laws of Attraction, The Notebook, A Sound of Thunder, Beyond the Sea and The Aviator.
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