June 16th, 2009
A strangely busy week for spotlight reviews with ten of them representing nine DVDs and seven Blu-rays. It would have been a bigger list, but several are late. As for the best of the best, I'm giving an tentative DVD Pick of the Week rating to Transformers - Generation One - 25th Anniversary Edition - Season One. However, those will to wait for the retail version of Matrix of Leadership - Complete Series, or willing to spend more on the limited release will want to give this one a pass. Additionally, we have a DVD Puck of the Week, as the Canadian release, Murdoch Mysteries - Season One, is a must have for all loyal Canucks. With the number of spotlight reviews, the column had to be split into to, with the second part found here
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April 22nd, 2006
Fun with Dick and Jane started its home market run off with a first place, $10.27 million run for the week but was unable to top the DVD sales chart.
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April 10th, 2006
It's a slow week for DVD releases, and next week looks even slower.
After searching hard for a hidden gem, there's nothing here I would deem a must have, and none rate as a DVD "Pick of the Week."
The Newsroom - The Complete Third Season tops this week's list, and even then I'd recommend you go back and buy the First Season.
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October 3rd, 2005
The mini-winning streak the box office was on came to a crashing end this weekend as the total box office was only $88 million, down 11.4% from last weekend and a stunning 21.7% from last year. Of course, this time last year was the first weekend in October, so the year-to-year drop-off is to be expected. Year-to-date, 2005 is behind 2004 by 6.6% at $6.479 billion to $6.934 billion. But at least the Fall is still ahead by 7.7% at $453 million, and at this point you have to take whatever good news you can find.
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September 30th, 2005
Today is the last day of a very successful September. Unfortunately, this does mean the year-to-year gains we've been seeing will come to an end.
This time last year was the first weekend in October and all three wide releases combined won't top the debut of Shark Tale.
But hopefully that will be a momentary setback for an otherwise healthy Fall box office.
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September 29th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
The Greatest Game Ever Played -
Official Site.
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September 1st, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Serenity -
Official Site.
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September 1st, 2005
September is the prime dumping ground for movie studios, where the films that just didn't work get ditched to die an undignified death. So why are there no less than five movies opening wide that look like they should be reasonably good? Either the studios are trying to counteract the poor reputation September has, or I have really bad taste in movies.
This month is very difficult to predict for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fluidity of the release schedule with several films on the bubble for wide releases.
In fact, there are almost as many films that may or may not open wide in September than there are films with a solid release schedule.
Predicting what a film will earn without knowing if it will open wide is tricky because you have to figure out how much it would earn if it opens wide, how much it will earn if it goes the limited route, and what are the odds it will open wide versus a limited release.
This resulting weighted average is lower than a similar prediction for a movie that is known to be opening wide, which makes the month look even worse that it otherwise would.
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