November 29th, 2011
It's another relatively slow week on the home market. The two biggest release of the week don't come out till Friday, while there are few other releases to pick up the slack. As for the search for best and not necessarily the biggest, there are a few contenders. Cave of Forgotten Dreams earned Oscar-worthy reviews and the 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack is a clear contender for Pick of the Week. But in the end I went with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil on DVD or Blu-ray.
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November 29th, 2011
Helmed by first time writer / director Gavin Wiesen, The Art of Getting By had a great cast and very strong pre-release buzz. There was talk that the film would open wide, which would have been a rare feat for Fox Searchlight. However, while many people were bullish over the film's box office chances, the reviews were well below expectations and the film's semi-wide release was a disaster. Was this a fair result? Or does it deserve to find an audience on the home market?
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June 29th, 2011
Not only did Cars 2 win the overall box office race, but it also won the race on the per theater chart with an average of $16,072. A Better Life and PASSIONE: A Musical Adventure were right behind with $15,522 and $15,377 respectively. The final film in the $10,000 club was Bad Teacher, which was a surprise entrant with $10,365.
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June 21st, 2011
A trio of documentaries led the way on the per theater chart starting with Buck. This filmed earned an average of $16,887 in four theaters, which is better than expected. Page One: Inside the New York Times opened with an average of $14,456 in two theaters, while JIG was right behind with an average of $14,086 in five. The overall box office leader, Green Lantern, also topped $10,000 on the per theater chart with an average of $13,935. The Tree of Life barely managed to stay ahead of the $10,000 mark with an average of $10,121; however, it is in its fourth week of release and it is playing in more than 100 theaters, so this is a fantastic result.
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June 20th, 2011
The overall box office box office this past weekend was as expected, more or less. A few of the films did a little bit better, a few missed expectations, but not by a lot. This helped the box office grow by 11% from last weekend to $153 million. Unfortunately, this weekend last year saw the release of Toy Story 3, which made $110 million by itself, so year-over-year there was a 23% drop-off. Year-to-date, 2011 is behind 2010 by 8% at $4.65 billion to $5.03 billion, but perhaps we can close that gap a little bit this coming weekend.
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June 19th, 2011
As expected, Green Lantern led the way at the box office this weekend, based on studio estimates released on Sunday, but a weak performance on Saturday and an expected further decline on Sunday will leave it with a fairly modest $52.69 million weekend, according to Warner Bros.' estimate. That puts it behind X-Men: First Class ($55 million) and Thor ($66 million) so far as opening weekends for superhero movies are concerned, and its reviews suggest it won't have the legs of the other two. Mr. Popper's Penguins also under-performed compared to original expectations, although its $18.2 million debut is in line with the numbers Fox was expecting going in to the weekend.
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June 16th, 2011
After a strong start to the summer, which actually began in late April, we could hit a real roadblock this weekend. The only film earning any kind of buzz is Green Lantern, and not all of that buzz is good. Additionally, this weekend last year was dominated by Toy Story 3, which opened with $110 million. There is a chance the top five films won't make that much this year.
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