January 6th, 2008
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem opened in sixth place internationally with $16.43 million on 1877 screens in 20 markets. The film opened in second place in Germany with an impressive $4.64 million on 553 screens, while it debuted in fourth place in Australia with $1.86 million on just 182 screens over the weekend and $2.95 million since Boxing Day.
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December 31st, 2007
There were plenty of new releases to chart this week, but most did not live up to expectations. This includes the number one film, The Simpsons Movie, which sold 2.76 million units during its first week for total sales of $48.14 million.
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December 31st, 2007
There were 12 new releases to chart this week, including 6 in the top ten alone; however, The Bourne Ultimatum remained in first place with $12.76 million in rentals for the week and $28.20 million in total.
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December 23rd, 2007
For many people reading this, it is December 24th. Christmas Eve. If you haven't got all of your Christmas shopping done, may I offer a word of advice... AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! But don't worry, you are not along. December 24th is the busiest shopping day of the year. Granted, a lot of it is people buying food for the next day, but at least a few people are looking for last minute gifts. This week we are looking at the... well... anything. Anything that pops into my head that I think would make a good gift. And there are some that might not, but we are getting into desperation time.
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December 18th, 2007
Another deceptively weak week for DVDs.
Sure, there appear to be plenty to choose from, but it feels like half the top 20 are Blade Runner releases.
In fact, one of the two DVD Picks of the Week are for that movie.
For those who are big fans of Blade Runner, grab the Four-Disc Collector's Edition - DVD, or 5-Disc Collector's Edition - Blu-Ray or 5-Disc Collector's Edition - HD-DVD if you can.
(Given the choice between those last two, pick 5-Disc Collector's Edition - Blu-Ray.)
For those who are huge fans of Blade Runner, and I mean stupid level fans of the movie, grab 5-Disc Ultimate Edition - DVD, 5-Disc Ultimate Edition - Blu-Ray, or 5-Disc Ultimate Edition - HD-DVD.
But good luck, I pre-ordered mine months ago and there are reports they are sold out in many places. The second DVD Pick of the Week goes to The Simpsons Movie - Blu-Ray.
The light extras are disappointing, but that transfer is immaculate.
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September 11th, 2007
The weekend after Labor Day is often the worst weekend of the year. Let's hope that's true this year as the overall box office was down to just $80 million, which was a drop-off of 32% from last weekend. On the other hand, it was up $10 million from the same weekend last year, which is a great sign for 2007's chances at breaking more records.
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September 4th, 2007
The summer ended on a strong note, including a record-breaking opening by Halloween. Overall the box office earning $118 million over the 3-day weekend, which was up 8% from last weekend and 16% from the same weekend last year. Over 4 days, the box office total was $149 million, up 15% from last year. With records broken for total box office, number of $300 million movies, number of $200 million movies, and more, this is a summer most movie executives will deeply miss.
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September 3rd, 2007
Opening Halloween at the beginning of September wasn't such a bad move after all.
The horror flick beat expectations to earn a record $26.5 million over the 3-day portion of the Labor Day weekend, and $31 million over four days, according to studio estimates released on Monday.
That left the rest of the movie field in the dust, although Superbad earned a respectable $12.5 million Friday-Sunday and $15.6 million over the four day holiday weekend, and Balls of Fury made a decent start with $11.3 million (3-day)/$13.8 million (4-day).
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September 1st, 2007
As we enter the slowest month of the year, the number and quality of website updates has slowed to a crawl as well. I suspect that within a few weeks we will start getting website launches for films opening during the holidays, and that will again give us plenty of award-worthy sites.
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August 30th, 2007
The Labor Day long weekend is the final weekend of the summer, but it is not the strongest. In fact, it is widely considered the weakest long weekend of the year and the three films opening this weekend are unlikely to change that perception.
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August 29th, 2007
Balls of Fury tries to get a head start on the weekend box office race by opening tonight, but will the midweek release help or hurt its box office chances?
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August 25th, 2007
After a few busy weeks in a row, there was a total collapse in the number of sites on this week's list. Not only are there only a couple dozen sites this week, nearly half of them are films that are coming out this week and most of those had no updates to report. This leaves us with no sites that are award-worthy, and precious few that have to potential to make it there in the coming weeks.
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August 24th, 2007
The box office prediction contest this week has an unusual twist as the target film, Balls of Fury, opens on Wednesday not Friday.
But, while the movie opens on Wednesday, the contest continues until Friday, which gives you a day of box office numbers to help guide your prediction.
It is also a long weekend next weekend, but we are only interested in the film's Friday to Sunday numbers.
To win, one must simply predict the box office opening for Balls of Fury.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Balls of Fury prize pack (T-shirt, sticker, pin, etc.).
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win the second Balls of Fury prize pack, which has slightly different prizes (poster, sticker, etc.).
In addition, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of the poster for Dedication signed by Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup.
Dedication starts tonight while, Balls of Fury starts next Wednesday.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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August 18th, 2007
Busy week with more than 30 sites featured on the list. However, none really stand our as award-worthy; in fact, most only stand because of a lack of style. Hopefully as the fall season progresses and we near the holidays, we will get bigger and better sites launching.
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August 12th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Bucket List, Be Kind Rewind, Charlie Bartlett and more.
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August 12th, 2007
Another good week for movie sites with a few sites that either won in the past or could win in the future. This includes this weeks winner, The Brothers Solomon - Official Site.
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August 5th, 2007
Another big list of movie sites, but not much in the way of top-notch entries. For a movie site to be an award winner, I expect it to have all of the usual features, extras like clips, something interactive like a game, and background sound and animation. The film that best exemplifies that criteria is Stardust - Official Site, which is the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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August 1st, 2007
August marks the unofficial end of the lucrative summer box office season. The only question is when will it end. Studios usually hope for two summer-like weekends, and sometimes they can squeeze in three.
Other times they can only get one, or none.
Sadly, this year the August offerings are not particularly strong with only two that have a real shot at $100 million or more, and three or four others that should earn good reviews (and one of those has since been pulled from the schedule).
Most of the rest are films that probably seemed like a good idea at the time but didn't work out and those that were a mistake from day one.
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July 29th, 2007
Server upgrades went... less smoothly than anticipated, which delayed this column, but at least there are a huge number of sites to check out. Many of these sites are making their first appearance on the list while quite a few are making their last appearance. Unfortunately, while it's a big list, there are not many that are even close to being award worthy at the moment. 30 Days of Night - Official Site comes the closest, but I'm waiting for the missing features to be added before I make that decision.
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July 21st, 2007
Big list in terms of numbers, not so much in terms of quality. In fact, the best film in terms of updates this week was The Simpsons Movie - Official Site, which has already won the Weekly Website Award. Because of that, there are no new winners this week.
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June 24th, 2007
One of the most anticipate films of the summer became the best site of the week. The Simpsons Movie - Official Site is finally here and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 17th, 2007
There weren't as many websites on this week's list as in the past few weeks, but there were at least three that earned some consideration for the Weekly Website Award. In the end, that honor went to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Official Site.
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June 2nd, 2007
A busy week for new sites with roughly a dozen making their first appearance on this week's list. However, it was a site making its last appearance, Knocked Up - Official Site, that was judged best-of-the-best.
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May 13th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for 1408, Illegal Tender, Mr. Woodcock and more.
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April 21st, 2007
There were a few new flash sites to launch this week, but while there might be a couple future winners among those sites, it was a long time resident on this week's list that walked away with top honors. That site was Hot Fuzz - Official Site, which probably could have won several weeks ago if the features were added all at once. However, it's much better to spread the updates out in order to get people coming back week after week.
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February 11th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Indiana Jones 4, The Mummy 3, Hellboy 2 and more.
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December 28th, 2006
Currently I am taking a vacation and because of that the release dates update will be irregular at best. Things should be back to normal (weekly updates on Sunday) starting Sunday January 21. If I have some time, like today on a rainy day in Singapore, I will try to make updates.
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December 9th, 2006
Good week for websites with a number of candidates for the top spot. In the end I went with
Ghost Rider -
Official Site, but there's a few others here that will undoubtedly win in the coming weeks.
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November 18th, 2006
A lot of trailers on this week's list of websites. Not only were there a lot of site with just trailers, there were a few trailers without sites. On the other hand, there were also a few contenders for the Weekly Website Award. In the end it was
The Children of Men -
Official Site that took home that prestigious award.
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November 12th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Halloween, Saw 4, The Incredible Hulk and more.
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November 5th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for National Treasure 2, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, some DreamWorks digital animation movies and more.
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