May 25th, 2010
While this week's collection of new releases was less than impressive, there were still a number of bright spots on this week's DVD Sales Chart. Firstly, we had a new number one, as Legion led the way with 457,000 units sold. However, in terms of total dollars, it was second with $8.21 million in sales.
More...
May 11th, 2010
With a lot of competition from summer blockbusters, it comes as no surprise that the quality and quantity of releases is way down this week. The best selling release is Daria: The Complete Series, which is also clearly the Pick of the Week.
More...
May 9th, 2010
I've said it many times in the past and I will say it many, many times more in the future: January is arguably the worst time of year to release a movie. Not only are the holidays over, meaning the box office potential is sharply down, but also the competition is extreme on both ends of the spectrum. You have massive blockbusters that are still going strong, as well as Oscar contenders that opened in limited release and are just now expanding wide. Into this, Daybreakers was thrown. In fact, it was the first wide release of the year. So how well does it fare?
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
January 17th, 2010
More than half the films on this week's International Details column were international films, starting with sixth place Io, loro E Lara. That film placed first in Italy with $7.56 million on 608 screens over the weekend, giving it $12.91 million in total.
More...
January 15th, 2010
The winners of our Getting Back To Normal contest were determined and they are...
More...
January 11th, 2010
There were few major surprises over the weekend, but the biggest was Avatar's unbelievable hold, as the film again beat expectations.
The overall box office also beat expectations with $162 million.
This was 27% lower than last weekend, but, more importantly, it was up 9.5% compared to the same weekend last year.
It's very early in the year, but 2010 already has more than a $100 million lead over 2009's pace, leading $447 million to $341 million.
More...
January 10th, 2010
It was another weekend of total box office domination for Avatar, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
With $48.5 million, the alien adventure movie was down just 29% from New Year's weekend, and shot past $400 million.
Fox estimates it will have $429 million by the end of the day on Sunday.
The new releases were never going to compete at that level, but Daybreakers had a decent opening with a 3-day estimate of $15 million, enough only for 4th place behind Sherlock Holmes ($16.1 million for $165.2 million cume) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel) ($16.3 million for $178.2 million).
More...
January 7th, 2010
It's tough to be a studio releasing a new film this weekend, as all the hype is going to the holdovers, almost all of which is going to Avatar's massive box office run.
None of the new releases have any real hope of making a dent in that films' box office dominance, while it is possible that none of the new releases will reach the top three over the weekend.
That said, there's a chance that Avatar will make more money this weekend than the combined openings of last year's two biggest releases, while there's little doubt the year-over-year comparison will continue to impress.
More...
January 1st, 2010
After a one week absence caused by the total lack of activity at the box office, the box office prediction contest is back. The target film this week is Daybreakers, which could be the first big hit of the year. Or it could be crushed by three holdovers. Regardless, in order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Daybreakers.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Paranormal Activity prize pack, which includes a backpack, ouija board kit, and more.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
More...
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.
More...
June 27th, 2009
This week, we're starting a new feature on the site: a weekly round-up of movie trailers added to the site. For your convenience, the trailers are added to the movie's page, along with cast and crew information, and, of course, box office data once the movie goes into release.
More...
