December 19th, 2008
This week on our annual Holiday Gift Guide we look at limited releases and foreign imports, including a bit of
Canadian content. This list was supposed to be online on Wednesday, but it is winter and I live in
Canada, and a storm came by and took out the power. I don't know how long it lasted, because as soon as I powered down my computer (battery back-up rocks) I went to bed. I figure if I can't check my e-mail, there's no point in being conscious. Hopefully part four will be online on Sunday. Although there is another storm heading in for that day as well.
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July 8th, 2008
It was a new release, 10,000 B.C., that led the way on the rental chart beating last week's number one film, Fool's Gold, by a health margin.
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June 23rd, 2008
There was a sharp drop-off in the number of releases this week, but while the numbers were down overall, there were several releases that I can enthusiastically recommend: Charlie Bartlett - Buy from Amazon, Definitely, Maybe - Buy from Amazon, Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs - Buy from Amazon, The Hammer - Buy from Amazon, and In Bruges - Buy from Amazon. However, while all those movies, and a few others, are worth picking up, the best of the best is Persepolis and either the DVD or the Blu-ray is worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week.
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March 4th, 2008
Good news, 2008 is still ahead of 2007's pace by a substantial margin. Bad news, the lead is shrinking. Over the past three days, overall box office earnings were $97 million, which was 12% lower than last weekend. More importantly it was 22% lower than the same weekend last year. 2008 still has an 8% lead over last year, $1.54 billion to $1.43 billion, but at this pace, that lead won't last until the end of the month.
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February 25th, 2008
It was a rather predictable weekend with none of the films missing or beating expectations by huge margins. This led to $110 million in overall box office takings, which was down 21% from last weekend and 6% from the same weekend last year. It is not time to panic as 2008 is still leading 2007, but after a couple weeks of declines, the margin has been cut to 9%.
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February 24th, 2008
Rambo climbed five spots just missing the top five with $6.96 million on 1989 screens in 25 markets for a total of $25.63 million. The film opened in second place in Germany with $2.78 million 405 screens while it managed third in Mexico with $704,000 on 300. Next up is the U.K., Australia, and Italy, where it opens this weekend, while it enters South Korea next weekend.
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February 23rd, 2008
Only nine movies were releases this week, and there were only six sites to review (not counting the one that crashed my browser). The three other wide releases each had respectable sites, but nothing that is really amazing and the flashier the site, the weakest content. Charlie Bartlett - Official Site was a previous award-winning site, and I see no reason to change that now.
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February 22nd, 2008
Our box office prediction contest returns this week and we have lots to give away, but first the target movie, which is Semi-Pro. In order to win, one must simply predict Semi-Pro's three-day, opening weekend box office.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a poster from Charlie Bartlett, as well as a poster and CD soundtrack to City of Men.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a poster from Charlie Bartlett and King of California on DVD
Additionally, two other lucky participants will be chosen randomly and each will win a poster from Charlie Bartlett.
Charlie Bartlett opens in theaters nationwide today, City of Men opens in limited release next Friday, while King of California came out on DVD at the end of January.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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February 21st, 2008
There's only one truly wide release this week, but there are three other films aiming for a spot in the top ten. This means there's not much of a battle for top spot, and there will likely be a sizable drop-off at the box office. And even with last year showing some weakness during the weekend, it is not likely that 2008 will get back to its winning ways.
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February 13th, 2008
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 Animated Feature Film and Best Feature Length Documentary.
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February 1st, 2008
2008 got off to a faster than expected start with January helping the year to a 17.5% lead over 2007. It seems unlikely that February will be able to keep up that pace, but there are still enough releases that most avid moviegoers should find something to get excited about. Granted, this is partially due to the combination of the lead year and February 29th landing on a Friday. This means we have five weekends in February this year, something that only happens approximately once every 28 years, which explains the number of films.
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December 16th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains not only the general weekly update, but also an a number of release updates we had missed earlier.
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October 14th, 2007
Quite a few full sites launched this week, but as is the case most times, there were pretty Spartan at the moment and it will take a few more updates before we can tell if they are award-worthy or not. That said, it was a site for a movie that opens this week, Lars and the Real Girl - Official Site, that won the top prize as it finished adding all the material marked coming soon this week.
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October 6th, 2007
We are starting to get full websites for some of the massive holiday season releases, which should mean there will be at least one award worthy website on each week's list. As for this week, there were a few that have potential assuming the sections marked coming soon live up to the rest of the site. But just one site, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising - Official Site, that was worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
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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 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 29th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Hellboy 2, The Mummy 3, The Pink Panther 2 and more.
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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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July 7th, 2007
The list returns to its normal busy self, in fact, we have several sites making their first appearance this weekend. In addition, there were a couple of older sites that saw massive updates, including this week's winner, Charlie Bartlett - Official Site.
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May 6th, 2007
Among the more than two-dozen films on this week's list, there were a few that came very close to winning the Weekly Website Award. Of the three, Spider-Man 3 - Official Site was probably the closest to winning, but in the end was brought down by high expectations.
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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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January 15th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Breaking and Entering, Two Weeks, Case 39 and more.
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January 9th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains the announcement for Indiana Jones 4 and more.
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