July 20th, 2010
It has been a full month since we had any real activity on the sales chart, and this is starting to take its toll on the overall numbers. New releases were almost nonexistent at the box office, but one of them, Brooklyn's Finest, still managed to top the sales chart this week, albeit with just 297,000 units sold and $4.63 million in consumer spending at retail.
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July 13th, 2010
A trio of new releases led the way on the sales chart this week with Percy & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief topping the chart.
It sold 823,000 units over its opening week for consumer spending at retail of $13.99 million.
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July 7th, 2010
Only a handful of new releases reached the top 30 on the sales chart this week, and none of them were able to dethrown The Book of Eli. The DVD sold an additional 291,000 units for the week to lift its total to 1.08 million units and $24.04 million in consumer spending at retail.
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June 29th, 2010
Few new releases reached the top 30 on the sales chart this week, but one of them, The Book of Eli, led the way with 789,000 units / $17.62 million in opening week consumer spending at retail.
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June 14th, 2010
As it usually this time of year, the selection of first run releases on the home market is rather weak, with only one certified hit: The Book of Eli. That's not to say there are not a lot of interesting releases, as we have many summer TV series hitting the home market ahead of their premieres. However, looking for the Pick of the Week we have to dig deep to find a mostly undiscovered gem: Mary & Max. Both the DVD and the Blu-ray are worth buying, but the latter is the better deal.
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May 2nd, 2010
Date Night fell out of the top five, but added $7.47 million on 3120 screens in 48 markets for a total of $28.31 million. The film opened in first place in the U.K., but only made $1.97 million on 400 screens, which is about the same as $11 million here. That's not a great start and there's little hope that the film will match its domestic total overseas, but it is still a solid midlevel hit and should show a profit by the time it reaches the home market.
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April 25th, 2010
There were more than a dozen foreign releases to reach the top 30 on the international chart, starting with Go Lala Go!. This Chinese film opened in first place in its native market and sixth place overall with $6.44 million on 655 screens.
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April 18th, 2010
Date Night started its international run in sixth place with $7.05 million on 1616 screens in 34 markets. While it is playing in a large number of markets, these were mostly of the smaller variety. The largest was Australia, where it placed third with $1.99 million on 304 screens. It also placed third in Brazil with $1.02 million on 174. It managed second place in Mexico, but with only $863,000 on 305 screens.
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April 11th, 2010
Shutter Island fell to sixth place with $6.64 million on 2870 screens in 39 markets for a total of $135.53 million internationally and $258.97 million worldwide. With a debut in Japan this weekend, it could climb back into the top five. Even if it doesn't, it still has to be considered a financial success.
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April 4th, 2010
The Bounty Hunter slipped a spot to sixth place with $6.33 million on 1671 screens in 29 markets for a total of $17.04 million. It opened in a number of markets, mostly on the smaller side. Its largest new market was Mexico, where it debuted in fourth place with $656,000 on 300 screens. Meanwhile, it added $1.49 million on 393 screens during its second weekend in the U.K. for a two-week total of $5.86 million. It was right behind in Russia with $1.40 million on 445 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.52 million after two.
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March 28th, 2010
Just Another Pandora's Box started its international run in sixth place with $7.57 million on 417 screens in 2 markets. These two markets include Hong Kong, where it placed third with $333,000 on 33 screens.
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March 14th, 2010
The Princess and the Frog remained in sixth place with $5.18 million on 3019 screens in 35 markets for a total of $149.82 million internationally and $253.53 million worldwide. This past week it opened in Japan, struggling into fifth place with $1.02 million on 363 screens. Even with that disappointing result, it should do well enough on the home market to show a profit relatively soon.
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March 7th, 2010
The Princess and the Frog may have slipped out of the top five internationally, but it still added $8.32 million on 3053 screens in 28 markets for a total of $143.18 million. It had no major market openings again this week, but it added $2.84 million on 689 screens over the weekend in France for a total of $27.30 million after a month of release there. This weekend the film debuted in Japan, which could help it return to the top five. Regardless, it has made enough money that it should show a profit, eventually.
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February 28th, 2010
Shutter Island started its international run with a sixth place finish this past weekend, earning $9.28 million on 1229 screens in 9 markets. The film opened in first place in Spain with $3.25 million on 406 screens. It had to settle for second place in Australia, in a virtual tie with Valentine's Day at $2.50 million on 250 screens. It's way too early to tell where the film will end up, but matching its domestic run internationally is a solid goal.
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February 14th, 2010
For the first time during its international run, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel missed the top five and placed sixth with $7.10 million on 3,699 screens in 42 markets for a total of $200.87 million internationally and $413.03 million worldwide.
With no major market openings left, the film will likely fall further down the chart over the coming weeks, but it has already made a huge profit, so Fox will be more than happy.
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February 8th, 2010
Oceans opened in its native France and that helped it climb into sixth place with $9.52 million on 888 screens in 4 markets for a total of $16.98 million. It earned third place in its native market with $5.39 million on 542 screens while it was down just 7% during its sophomore stint in Japan with $3.48 million on 303 screens over the weekend for a total of $10.81 million after two.
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February 2nd, 2010
It was a good new / bad news weekend at the box office. On the one hand, Avatar continued to set records and that helped 2010 start with the highest-grossing January of all time.
On the other hand, new releases continue to under-perform, leading the overall box office to slump to $125 million.
That was 13% lower than last weekend, but more importantly 1.1% lower than the same weekend last year, which is the third weekend in a row that 2010 was below 2009's pace.
Granted, year-to-date 2010 is still ahead of 2009 by 5.5% at $1.06 billion to $1.00 billion, but if new releases are not stronger in February, that could change.
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January 31st, 2010
It's Complicated saw its weekend haul climb 16%, but it still fell out of the top five.
It added $10.37 million over the weekend on 2,665 screens in 32 markets for a total of $50.92 million after a month of release.
The film opened in third place in Germany with $2.40 million on 552 screens over the weekend and $2.74 million in total.
Meanwhile in the U.K. it added $1.84 million on 431 screens over the weekend for a total of $8.72 million after three weeks of release.
With debuts in Japan, South Korea, and Italy still ahead of it, it could reach $100 million internationally to go with its $100 million domestic total.
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January 28th, 2010
The consensus among box office trackers has Avatar remaining in top spot, again.
The real question is whether or not the new releases will pull their weight and help 2010 stop its mini-slump.
The best new release from last year was Taken, which didn't start like a movie destined to reach nearly $150 million, but it is unlikely either of the new releases will come that close to its nearly $25 million opening.
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January 26th, 2010
January is coming to a close and we've yet to have a new release top the charts as Avatar reigned at multiplexes again this week. The weakness in the new releases is starting to take its toll, as the overall box office slumped to $144 million, which was 15% lower than last weekend and 10% lower than the same weekend last year. 2010 is still ahead of last year's pace by 9.7% at $888 million to $810 million, so there's little reason to panic at this point.
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January 24th, 2010
Up in the Air started its international run in sixth place with $5.83 million on 936 screens in 9 markets. This includes a fifth place debut in the U.K. where it earned $2.13 million on 325 screens while it also managed fifth in Australia with $1.61 million on just 173 screens. While it is hard for films to open in limited release domestically and expand wide, it is usually a lot harder for these films to thrive internationally. After all, many international markets are simply too small to have a thriving limited release marketplace. It will be interesting to see if this film will be able to take its performance during Awards Season and turn it into a successful international run despite this.
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January 21st, 2010
There are a few new releases hitting theaters tomorrow, but most people are still talking about Avatar and whether or not it can stay on top one more week, and perhaps set a few more records in the process.
The other major question of the weekend is whether or not it will top last year and end 2010's one-week losing streak.
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January 20th, 2010
The winners of our Prizes Worth Guarding contest were determined and they are...
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January 20th, 2010
The Last Station started its run on top of the per theater chart with an average of $24,574 in three theaters, which was nearly double its nearest competitor. That film was Crazy Heart, which remained in second place with an average of $13,776. That was a decline of just 1.6% from last weekend despite some significant expansion. With a couple of Golden Globe wins, there's little doubt it will remain in theaters for some time to come.
Fish Tank was in a virtual tie with an average of $13,750 in two theaters; in fact, since that is still an estimate, it might climb into second place.
On the other hand, since Avatar was right behind with $13,025, it could slip a spot.
The final film in the $10,000 club was The Book of Eli with an average of $10,540, which was better than expected.
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January 19th, 2010
It was a record breaking Martin Luther King long weekend, as Avatar remained in top spot at least for three out of the four days, and for the weekend as a whole.
Its record-breaking weekend helped the overall box office hit $170 million over three days and $210 million over four.
This was down compared to last year by 12% over three days and 9% over four, which makes it the first down weekend in two months.
Even so, year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009's pace by nearly 15%, $707 million to $616 million, but this is the first bit of bad news we've had so far.
Perhaps next weekend will be strong and this will be nothing but a minor blip.
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January 17th, 2010
Avatar was pushed from top spot for a day, but came back to comfortably win its fifth straight weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
With another $41.3 million in the bank, Avatar was down just 18% from last weekend (helped somewhat by the MLK long weekend), and will pass $500 million on Monday after just 32 days in release, easily beating the record held by The Dark Knight (see chart).
It also tops Titanic's record for the biggest fifth weekend at the box office (see chart).
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January 14th, 2010
It's Martin Luther King long weekend, the first long weekend of the year, but not the biggest.
It is also the weekend the Golden Globe awards will be handed out and that could have a larger effect on the box office in the long term.
However, it might have a negative effect in the short term as people stay home to watch the awards.
This could prevent the new releases from keeping up with last year's crop, which included the first $100 million movie of 2009 — a feat that is very unlikely to happen again this year.
In fact, Avatar will probably continue to rule to box office as it overtakes yet another film on the All-Time Chart.
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January 8th, 2010
Next week the widest release of the week is Book of Eli, which may or may not top the charts. (After all, I'm not willing to discount the possibility that Avatar will still be pull in more than $20 million next weekend.) However, while it might not finish first, it will definitely be the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Book of Eli.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a 10 Things I Hate About You - Volume One on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Make It Or Break It - Volume One on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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January 1st, 2010
2009 ended breaking lots of records, so 2010 starts both on a high note, and with a bit of trepidation.
On the one hand, there are several holdovers that should continue to be major players at the box office for the next few weeks, which can only help.
On the other hand, there's almost no chance 2010 will get off to as strong a start as 2009 did, since some of what happened at the box office during January of 2009 was unprecedented.
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