April 2nd, 2014
The winners of our It's Raining Prizes contest were determined and they are...
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September 27th, 2011
It's another incredibly busy week on the home market with over 400 new releases on Amazon.com. However, again there were only a few that were worth mentioning with a whole lot of filler. The biggest release of the week is Transformers: Dark of the Moon on Blu-ray, but it doesn't come out till Friday. Looking at some of the other top selling releases and it's clear how weak the selection is. There's a stand-up comedy DVD, a couple catalog titles being released on Blu-ray, Anime, a couple TV on DVD releases, and the first DVD release of Adventure Time. Adventure Time on DVD? Pick of the Week.
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September 22nd, 2011
Lionsgate has been releasing a series of catalog titles of Blu-ray. On the 23rd of August, three more such films were released: Hostage, Rounders, and Swingers. The screeners arrived late, so let's get right to it.
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August 23rd, 2011
Summer is winding down, and while that means weaker box office numbers, it also means stronger home market releases. We are still a little early for summer blockbusters; however, TV on DVD releases are really heating up and will begin to dominate the scene. There are a few of those worth checking out, including NCIS: Season Eight, which is a contender for Pick of the Week. However, that honor goes to Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension. (An honorable mention also goes to Reboot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition, which finally arrived last week. It was worth the wait.)
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February 17th, 2009
This felt like a slow week to me, but looking at the list there were 15 spotlight reviews, which is a huge amount for one week. There are a large number of DVDs worth checking out, but looking at the top of the list, I think Christopher Titus - Love is Evol is the best DVD coming out this week, and the winner of the DVD Pick of the Week. As has happened pretty much every week this year, there are so many DVDs on this week's list that is had to be split into two. The second part can be found here.
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November 20th, 2005
The Corpse Bride missed the top five by the narrowest of narrow margins losing out to
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit $5.50 million to $5.45 million. The film earned its $5.45 million on 2586 screens in 28 markets pushing its total to $53.4 million total at the international box office. In South Korea the film fell 43% to $753,000 on 114 screens, which is better than average for the market. And the film is also doing well in Italy adding $764,000 on 268 screens to its $2.67 million running tally there, $700,000 in France for a $8 million box office, and $462,000 in Japan for a $7.0 million box office.
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November 13th, 2005
Chicken Little started its international run with day-and-date debuts in 9 markets earning $5.54 million on 900 screens, just missing the top five in the process. Its best market was kid-friendly Mexico with $3.1 million on 600 screens, which is about on par with its opening domestically. On the other hand, the film broke records in Malaysia with $477,000 on 40 screens. Other results include a first place debuts in Russia with $1.1 million on 197 screens and in Taiwan with $463,000 on 18 screens, (including previews).
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November 6th, 2005
With
The Legend of Zorro earning a nearly worldwide release this past weekend, and the imminent release of another
juggernaut, there was little room for other releases this weekend on the international scene.
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October 9th, 2005
Company 9 opened in its native market of Russia with a stunning $5.0 million over the weekend and $6.25 million including the midweek numbers, which is better than Revenge of the Sith's opening in that market.
This also means there were two films that did so well in their local markets that they managed to place in the top five overall.
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October 2nd, 2005
Red Eye added another $3.7 million on 2,057 screens in 37 markets to its $22 million international total. The film opened in second place in both Spain with $850,000 on 215 screens and in the Netherlands with $250,000 on 59 ($300,000 including previews).
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September 25th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of
South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like
last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out
Pride and Prejudice.
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July 23rd, 2005
To call Million Dollar Baby's debut on the home market a knockout is very apt.
Perhaps too apt.
Not only did the film easily win the week with $12.42 million in combined rentals, every other film in the top five saw serious drop-offs, sending the overall market sharply downwards.
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July 16th, 2005
It looks like the home market is starting to recover from its extended slump as
Hide & Seek was the number one with $11.71 million in combined rentals, $10.55 million from DVDs and $1.16 million from VHS. The film was also the number one selling DVD this week, but no figures were released.
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July 9th, 2005
The Pacifier took the lead on the Rental Charts on the Home Market and was the only new release in the to five.
Vin Diesel's first foray into
comedies led the DVD charts with $9.48 million, the VHS charts with $1.29 million, and the combined charts with $10.77 million. It was also the best selling DVD for the week, but as usual there were no sales numbers released.
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July 2nd, 2005
Hitch held onto top spot on the rental charts this week despite four new releases making the top five, and it wasn't even a close contest. The film added $10.58 million in combined rentals, down just 16% from
last week for a $23.21 million two-week total.
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June 20th, 2005
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It's another bad week for first-run releases; this is hardly surprising when you consider the low quality of wide releases earlier in the year. But unlike
last week there's little in the way of older releases, special editions and TV on DVD to pick up the slack. Just one release stood out as a must have, the fantastic Degrassi The Next Generation - Season 2 -
Buy from Amazon making this the third week in a row I've picked a release from this long running series as my DVD pick of the week. That's a record that probably won't be broken for a long, long time.
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June 19th, 2005
Just when the International Details column was getting back to normal we have another film dominating the international scene. Mr. and Mrs. Smith led in nearly every major / midlevel market and those it didn't were mostly owned by Revenge of the Sith. Because of that there isn't as much news to tell as usual, and with Batman Begins opening worldwide this weekend and in two weeks, War of the Worlds doing the same, this trend will last until mid-July at the earliest.
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June 12th, 2005
The Longest Yard opened in second place in Australia with $2.5 million. On the other hand, the film could only manage $750,000 on 260 screens in Mexico, not surprising since
Adam Sandler has never been a big draw internationally, especially outside English speaking markets.
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June 5th, 2005
It was a slightly busier weekend as several studios were brave enough, or foolhardy enough to try and sandwich their film between the worldwide release of
Revenge of the Sith and
Batman Begins, which debuts in just 10 days. With
War of the Worlds' worldwide release just two weeks after that, there's very little room for smaller films to survive.
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May 29th, 2005
Revenge of the Sith dominated nearly every market it opened in and in most of them it was the only new film in the top ten. Because of this there's almost no international details to report and those details that are available are single market releases.
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May 22nd, 2005
It was another slow weekend for international details as few studios were brave enough, or foolish enough to try and squeeze in a release between
Kingdom of Heaven and
Revenge of the Sith. It was hard to find many films that earned more than $1 million over the weekend and most of the activity came from smaller releases in midlevel markets. Next weekend there could be even fewer details as
Revenge of the Sith should dominate every market, but after that the summer blockbuster season should be in full swing and things should pick up.
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May 16th, 2005
The summer got off to a really, really slow start international this week and while
Kingdom of Heaven didn't wasn't quite the blockbuster most people were looking for, it did cannibalized what little box office there was. There were a few local films to make noise, including Negotiator: Bayside Shakedown 3, which easily topped the Japanese market with $5,275,685 on just 280 for a huge $18,842 per screen average.
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May 8th, 2005
Golden Week helped
Shall We Dance? climb 19% to $2,250,195 for the weekend and $7,270,348 during its run. The film now has $90.3 million internationally and could break $100 million if it continues to show strong legs in Japan.
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May 1st, 2005
It was a good news, bad news kind of weekend for
Constantine. The film remained in top spot in Japan with $2,330,027 on 349 screens for a $9,011,671 running tally in the market. Bad news, it dropped 37% during its second weekend in the market, which is really steep for Japan. Overall the film brought in $3 million on 1,200 screens in 40 markets for a international box office of $136.4 million.
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April 24th, 2005
Hitch is just coasting on holdovers now, and will be until it opens in Japan at the beginning of June. This week it added $5.1 million from 3000 screens in 55 markets to its already impressive $170.4 million international total and with soft week to week drop-offs and a good showing in Japan and it will have a $200 million future. This week the film added $643,359 in its fifth weekend in France for a $12,785,670 total in the market, $110,000 in its second weekend in Argentina, (rising to first place in the meantime) as well as other, smaller markets.
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 27th, 2005
Million Dollar Baby has again slipped off the radar screen, but we do know it hit $52 million internationally, which means it made $9 million during the week. The film didn't earn $1 million in any single market, but is still doing strong in South Korea, ($970,000), Spain, ($840,000), Italy, ($600,000) and Australia, ($350,000.) Best estimate has the film earning just shy of $5 million of that over the weekend and taking sixth place on the international box office charts.
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March 18th, 2005
It's a model weekend for releases, as we have one high profile release and a counter-programming film.
They shouldn't interfere with each other's box office, as their target audiences don't overlap in any significant way.
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March 14th, 2005
The best word to describe this week's predictions is "Overcompensation."
After getting skunked underestimating how well certain films have done in the past many, many analysts overestimated their appeal this weekend. This in part led to a 6.3% drop-off from last weekend and more importantly, a 1.7% drop-off from last year. After sporting a double digit lead just a couple of weeks ago, the Year-to-Date race is a virtual tie at $1.56 billion each.
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March 10th, 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,
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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March 1st, 2005
March is a transitional month that lacks the huge hits that get people excited, and also lacks the real obvious train-wreck movies that get released during the various dumping grounds during the year.
Because of that, it's a month that's hard to predict - the releases all seem so average.
There are three films that have a reasonable shot at $100 million, but probably only one of those films will make it there.
And that will be helped out dramatically by the Easter holidays, which falls in March this year.
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January 20th, 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,
Fantastic Four -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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