February 9th, 2015
New releases helped the overall Blu-ray sales grow this past weekend. Lucy, The Boxtrolls, and Annabelle were the big trio and they helped the overall Blu-ray numbers grow to 1.11 million units / $23.82 million. This was week-to-week growth of 40% in terms units and 41% in terms of revenue, which is excellent for one weeks growth. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sold 41% more units and generated 35% more revenue. This helped the overall Blu-ray share grow to 44%.
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February 9th, 2015
New releases scored four of the top five spots on the DVD sales chart this week. This includes Lucy, which opened with 367,000 units / $5.39 million.
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February 9th, 2015
New releases dominated the Blu-ray Sales Chart earning the top three spots. This includes Lucy, which opened in first place with 425,000 units / $8.71 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 54%. Action films tend to do really well on Blu-ray, so this result isn't too much of a surprise.
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February 4th, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Animated Film. For a while, it looked like The LEGO Movie would be the favorite to win the Oscar, then it wasn't even nominated. Because of that, it is a little hard to know what will happen going forward. There is one film that looks to be the favorite, but that was true before the nominations and nearly every expert got it wrong before.
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February 2nd, 2015
A couple of new releases, Gone Girl and A Walk Among the Tombstones, were able to take the top two spots on the Blu-ray sales chart and that helped the overall sales of Blu-ray grow 22% to 852,000 units and 21% to $17.92 million compared to last week. Unfortunately, this was 19% fewer units and 25% less revenue from the same week last year. This is less of an issue with the Blu-ray market and more of an issue with the weakness in the theatrical numbers. In fact, the overall Blu-ray share rose to 37% in terms of units and 43% in terms of revenue.
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January 21st, 2015
It is another very shallow week on the home market with only a few releases that are really worth considering. The biggest release is Lucy, which is absolutely worth picking up the Blu-ray Combo Pack, assuming you are willing to ignore the bad science. Likewise, The Boxtrolls the second biggest hit and the 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack is worth picking up, if you like stop-motion animation. As for Pick of the Week Contenders, there are a trio of such films: Coherence on DVD, The Drop on DVD or Blu-ray, and The Mule on DVD or Blu-ray. In the end it was a coin toss and Coherence won.
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January 18th, 2015
The Boxtrolls was a September release that earned good reviews, especially for a September release. However, it failed to meet expectations at the box office. On the other hand, it has done very well with Awards Season voters. Is it as bad as its box office would indicate? Is it as good as its Oscar nomination would indicate? Or is it somewhere in-between?
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January 17th, 2015
The Oscar nominations were announced early in the morning, when all sensible people were asleep. There were some surprises, as well as some results that would have been surprises had it not been for the previous Awards Season nominations. Seventeen films earned two or more nods, led by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, both of which picked up nine nominations, while The Imitation Game was right behind with eight.
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January 11th, 2015
The BAFTA nominations were announced yesterday and unlike most other Awards Season voters, the BAFTA voters gave us some real surprises. For instance, Birdman didn't lead the way. In fact, it was a comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, that earned the most nominations at 11. Granted, Birdman and The Theory of Everything were tied for second place with ten each, but it is still strange to see a comedy leading the way.
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January 10th, 2015
The Producers Guild of America nominations were announced and there's not a lot of surprises among the three categories. Birdman, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and others continue to get accolades, but there are also some films that are being passed over too often.
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December 11th, 2014
The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, at three in the morning, because the people at Golden Globes are under the delusion that news announced at 3:00 a.m. is somehow more important if it is announced before anyone is awake. As for the actual nominations, like with the Independent Spirit Awards and the SAG nominations, Birdman led the way. It earned seven nominations, while Boyhood and The Imitation Game tied for second with five apiece. Starting to notice a pattern here? This could be a really dull Awards Season with very few surprises. On the other hand, predictable means less work for me. Plus, predictable probably means the Awards Season voters are making the right choices, as surprises usually mean someone made the wrong choice.
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October 28th, 2014
As expected, Ouija won the race for first place, but it finished on the very low end of expectations. On the other hand, John Wick beat expectations earning second place. Overall, these two results balanced out, but this still resulted in the box office falling 12% from last weekend to $116 million. More importantly, it was 13% higher than the same weekend last year. 2014 is still behind 2013, but it is chipping away at the deficit, which has fallen to under $300 million at $8.20 billion to $8.49 billion. 2014 is still behind last year's pace by 3.4%, but if it can close that gap by the same amount in November and December, then at least by the end of the year, it will have closed the gap enough to call it a spiritual victory.
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October 21st, 2014
The weekend box office was a little softer than expected, with Fury earning first place, but with much less than some were expecting. I was a little more conservative and I was still off by close to $10 million. The rest of the top five, on the whole, were also not quite as strong as expected, so the overall box office fell 11% from last weekend. However, it was 26% higher than the same weekend last year, which is the much more important figure. 2014 is still behind 2013 by more than $300 million, or 3.6%, at $8.05 billion to $8.36 billion, but if we can close the gap a little bit each week, we can at least make it a respectable race in the end.
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October 16th, 2014
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Three wide releases are trying to fight for box office dollars, including Fury, which could be the biggest hit of the month. Its reviews are excellent and the buzz is strong enough that is should have no trouble earning first place. The Book of Life is a family friendly animated horror film opening near Halloween. That should be a combination that spells box office success, but while the reviews are strong, the buzz is not as loud as I would like. Finally, there's The Best of Me, the latest from Nicholas Sparks, but I think the shine has come off his career. Its early reviews are terrible, which isn't surprising. The buzz is rather quiet, which is a little more surprising. This weekend last year, Gravity completed the hat-trick earning just over $30 million. I think Fury will top that. The best new release last year was Carrie, which earned just over $16 million earning third place in the process. It looks like there are a couple of films that will earn a similar amount this year. Additionally, the depth again appears to be better than last year, so 2014 should find itself on top of the chart, again. This is a surprise, as at the beginning of the month, it looked like 2014 would be in an extended slump by this point.
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October 9th, 2014
This weekend there are four new wide releases; however, none of them are expected to be big hits. In fact, Gone Girl is widely expected to repeat in first place, while Annabelle might have a shot at second place. Three of the new releases will likely finish in the midteens with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day currently on track to become the best of the bad bunch of new films. The Judge has taken a huge tumble as far as analysts are concerned. Dracula Untold is in the mix and might earn second place, but it might also earn fifth. Regardless, it won't do well enough for a film that cost $100 million to make. Then there's Addicted, a movie whose buzz is so quiet I forgot it was opening this week. This weekend last year, Gravity again led the way with $43.19 million, while Captain Phillips opened in second place with $25.72 million. There's no chance any film will match Gravity. In fact, the top film this week will very likely be behind Captain Phillips. On the other hand, last year only one other film earned more than $4 million, so the depth was terrible. I think the depth this week should be enough to eke out a win.
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October 9th, 2014
Breakup Buddies led the way in China and overall with a weekend total of $38.0 million over the weekend for a six-day total of $94.13 million. That's fantastic start for a local film in this market.
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October 7th, 2014
As expected, Gone Girl won the race for top spot on the box office chart this weekend. However, while it earned more than expected, Annabelle still managed to make it a really close race. These two films, as well as the rest of the top five, all beat predictions and this lead to the overall box office growing 38% to $147 million. More impressively, this was 16% better than the same weekend last year. I was not expected 2014 to come out ahead on the year-over-year comparison, which makes this win so much more spectacular. Year-to-date, 2014 is still behind 2013 by a substantial margin of $370 million or 4.6% at $8.05 billion to $7.68 billion.
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October 2nd, 2014
The first weekend in October promises to be better than the average weekend in September was, but then again, it would practically have to. Gone Girl is aiming for first place and most analysts think it will get there. On the other, Annabelle has an outside shot at top spot over the weekend. That seems unlikely, but thanks to its genre, it has a better shot at earning first place on Friday's daily chart. The final wide release of the week is Left Behind, which as it turns out isn't opening truly wide. The buzz is so bad that some expect the film to open below the Mendoza Line. This weekend last year, Gravity opened in first place with $55.79 million. No film is going to open with that much money. In fact, all three wide releases combined might not make that much. 2014 is going to lose in the year-over-year comparison, but frankly we should all be used to that by now.
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October 1st, 2014
The Maze Runner easily won the race for top spot on the international chart with $28.8 million in 62 markets for a three-week total of $92.4 million. This is already enough to cover its production budget, so the studio should be very, very happy. The film remained in first place in South Korea with $4.37 million on 655 screens over the weekend for a total of $11.94 million after two weeks of release. It also topped the charts in Russia with $3.13 million on 1,486 screens for a two-week total of $10.49 million. The film has yet to open in Italy, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, and others. It should surpass $200 million internationally and $300 million worldwide before it is done. That is excellent for a film that cost $34 million to make.
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September 30th, 2014
The Equalizer easily won the race for the top of the box office chart this weekend earning almost as much as the next two films combined. Those next two films were The Maze Runner and The Boxtrolls, both of which exceeded expectations, albeit by tiny margins. The strength of these three films helped the overall box office reach $106 million, which is 4% higher than last weekend. On the other hand, this was 2% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2014 has pulled in $7.51 billion, which is a massive amount when you look at it without context. However, it is nearly $400 million or 4.9% lower than last year's pace, which is also a massive amount. It is technically possible for 2014 to catch up to 2013 before the end of the year, but only if October is a really strong month at the box office. It won't be.
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September 25th, 2014
The Equalizer and The Boxtrolls opens wide this week. They are an action film and a family flick and the last weekend of September has been kind to both genres. The Equalizer could become the fastest opening film of the month, which might be enough to get it all the way to $100 million during its entire run. The Boxtrolls, on the other hand, is a Stop-motion animated film, which rarely rises above the midlevel hit. This weekend last year, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opened with $34.02 million, which is right in the middle of the expected range for The Equalizer, plus the depth is better this year, so 2014 should win the year-over-year competition.
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September 19th, 2014
Next weekend is the last weekend of September and there are two wide releases that are trying to avoid the September doldrums. The Boxtrolls and The Equalizer should both do relatively well at the box office, but The Equalizer has the best chance at being a breakout hit and because of that, it is the best choice for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Equalizer.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of SpongeBob ScaryPants Collection on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win Dora the Explorer: Celebrate With Dora 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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September 1st, 2014
August was a great month, it is as simple as that. Not only did Guardians of the Galaxy break records, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a surprise hit as well. These early gains led to an extended winning streak in the year-over-year comparison. Granted, 2014 is still more than $300 million behind 2013, but this is substantially less than the gap was before the month. Can September maintain this run? I'm not sure. Last September was strong compared to most Septembers with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 earning more than $100 million while Insidious Chapter 2 came relatively close. This year, there likely won't be any $100 million hits, but I think The Equalizer should at least come close. Meanwhile, there are some who think The Maze Runner will be the biggest hit of the month, but I'm not among them. There have been too many similar releases that have struggled to think this one will be a hit. I think September will get off to a terrible start, but overall I think it will be close to last year.
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