August 30th, 2010
New releases this week were dominated by The Last Song, which outsold the second place film on this week's sales chart by a two-to-one margin. It won the week with 761,000 units and $13.69 million in revenue.
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August 24th, 2010
Only three new releases managed to reach the top 30 on the DVD sales chart this week, led by Date Night.
The DVD sold an estimated 623,000 units, and generated $10.58 million in consumer spending at retail during its first week of release.
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August 18th, 2010
It was a strange week on the sales chart with one new release dominating DVD sales, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and another dominating the Blu-ray sales chart, Kick Ass. Diary of a Wimpy Kid sold 733,000 units generating $12.46 million in revenue.
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August 16th, 2010
The dog days of summer continue on the home market, but it is the calm before the storm. In this case the storm is a flood of TV on DVD releases, which we are starting to see show up in earnest. This is both good news and bad news. On the one hand, there are plenty of top notch releases coming out over the next few weeks. On the other hand, reviewing a full-season TV on DVD release takes a long time, which means my schedule will be packed for the next month or so. At least I get screeners for free, while consumers will see their wallet under assault week after week. The best selling release of the week is Dexter: Season Four, which is also the easy choice for Pick of the Week. I'm not sure if the DVD or the Blu-ray is the better deal, but regardless which format you choose, it is worth picking up.
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August 11th, 2010
Diary of a Wimpy Kid made its debut in mid-March, which is a bit of a no man's land as far as release dates go. It didn't exactly have a massive marketing push, nor is there a lot of star power, but it opened with over $20 million and became a solid mid-level hit. That's even more impressive when you look at the competition that opened the week before. But will it appeal to fans of the book only, or does it have a more general appeal?
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August 3rd, 2010
A good week with a number of interesting releases but no real blockbusters.
Kick-Ass, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Escape from New York, and Bull Durham are all coming out this week and I will get a chance to review them. ... Note the future tense.
None of the screeners have arrived yet, but hopefully they all will get here soon.
I am always hesitant to award the Pick of the Week to a release when the screener is late, as I prefer to take the opportunity to delve further into the DVD / Blu-ray.
Fortunately, one of the prime candidates did arrive on time and Road to Perdition on Blu-ray is worthy of Pick of the Week honors.
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March 30th, 2010
How to Train Your Dragon became the third 3D film to top the box office this year, but its opening didn't match my lofty expectations. Additionally, the rest of the box office wasn't able to compensate and that left the overall box office a little on the soft side. On a positive note, it did rise 1.7% from last weekend to $129 million. On the negative side, that represents a 12% decline from the same weekend last year, ending 2010's winning streak at four weeks. Year-to-date, 2010 has pulled in $2.59 billion at the box office. This figure is still 8.9% higher than the same point last year, which is fantastic.
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March 25th, 2010
After three weeks on top, there's really no doubt that Alice in Wonderland will surrender its crown to How to Train Your Dragon this weekend.
The real question is whether or not the newcomer can earn more than Monsters vs. Aliens did last year.
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March 22nd, 2010
For the third weekend in a row, Alice in Wonderland topped the chart at the box office. The number one new release was also bigger than expected. However, the rest of the chart failed to live up to expectations, which led to a total weekend of $126 million, a nearly 14% drop-off from the previous weekend. That said, this was a 20% increase from the same weekend last year, which is obviously a much more important number. Year-to-date, 2010 has pulled in $2.42 billion, 9.0% higher than the same pace last year. It's still way too early to crack open the champagne, but this is a great start.
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March 21st, 2010
Alice in Wonderland is enjoying a third straight win on the box office charts this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
With another $34.5 million or so in the bank, Alice will have rung up over $265 million by the end of the day.
After Avatar's domination at the beginning of the year, 2010 is really shaping up to be the year of 3D movies.
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March 18th, 2010
After Alice in Wonderland held on better than expected last weekend, almost all analysts think it will repeat on top again this weekend.
The three new releases should at least come close to matching last year's new releases, and with Alice leading the way, it should be another strong week on a year-to-year basis.
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March 1st, 2010
February was a stronger than expected month, for the most part, but 2010 continued to lose ground to 2009. Hopefully this trend will reverse itself, but it could be tough. Last March started with Watchmen, which earned just over $100 million at the box office. The month ended with Monsters vs. Aliens, which earned nearly $200 million. Granted, between these two releases there were a fair number of bombs, but it might be hard for this year to match last year at the top.
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