December 14th, 2016
After dealing with first-run releases and TV on DVD releases, we come to the instalment of our Holiday Gift Guide that deals with limited releases, classics, and foreign imports. This list should be longer than last week, but hopefully I won’t go overboard.
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February 2nd, 2010
It's still a slow time of year for home market releases. It's too late for the Christmas shopping rush, while it is still too early for Awards Season releases to come out. There are a few limited releases, direct-to-DVD releases, TV on DVD releases, and catalogue titles that are of interest, but the best of the best is Zombieland. While both formats are worth checking out, the Blu-ray is the Pick of the Week.
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December 26th, 2007
This week's a mess when it comes to DVD releases. Since Christmas lands on a Tuesday and no stores are open that day, the regular releases are coming out on Wednesday. However, several releases are hitting shelves on Sunday as a last minute Christmas gift, some of which I mentioned last week. Because of this, this is literally the weakest week I've seen in a long time, perhaps since I've been doing this job. It did give me a chance to catch up on a couple of DVDs that arrived late, and there is one DVD on this week's list worthy of a DVD Pick of the Week. The best of the bunch is Pan's Labyrinth and I would have to give the Blu-Ray the nod for DVD Pick of the Week.
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December 2nd, 2007
It's the first of December. (At least it was when I was writing this intro the first time. I was only going to do a dozen or so releases, but the list ballooned well out of control.) This week kicks off our second annual Holiday Gift Guide with a look at some high definition releases, because nothing says holidays like a format war.
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June 16th, 2007
Even though new releases were able to take the top two spots on the rental and sales charts this week, it won't be remember fondly for their strength. In fact, Notbit's winning tally of $4.65 million was the lowest weekly total for any number one rental this year and wouldn't have been enough to reach the top five half the time.
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June 8th, 2007
It was a slow, slow week for new releases at not one was able to crack the top ten on the rental chart. This left Apocalypto with the easy win grabbing $4.86 million for the week and $10.88 after two.
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June 2nd, 2007
It was a mixed week for new releases as they were able to take three of the top four spots on the rental chart, including number one, but were practically shut out of the remainder of the chart. Also, while Apocalypto finished first, its opening week total of $6.02 million was less Pan's Labyrinth opened with last week. In fact, it was not that much ahead of the $5.58 million Pan's Labyrinth earned this week.
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May 25th, 2007
New releases took top spot on both the rental and the sales charts, but there were different films. On the rental chart Pan's Labyrinth was this week's champion after earning $6.48 million.
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May 14th, 2007
It's another slow week for top level DVD releases, but I should probably stop saying that as practically every week from May until the end of summer is going to be somewhat slow.
The third quarter is historically the slowest time of year for DVD sales as people who rather go to the cinema and watch the latest blockbuster rather that sit at home.
That is not to say there isn't any DVD worth picking up this week, and the DVD Pick of the Week, Pan's Labyrinth - 2-Disc Platinum Series, would have earned that designation regardless of how busy the week was.
Also earning that distinction this week is Robson Arms - The Complete First Season, a great Canadian TV series.
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March 7th, 2007
The Oscars proved to be little help at the box office with no film seeing a real Oscar bounce. Only a handful of films saw any growth in overall box office or per theater average, and none had both. For most films, however, the Oscars came too late in their run to have any effect.
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February 26th, 2007
Last night's Oscars were a interesting mix of clear favorites and surprising upsets.
There were enough surprises to keep people talking for a while while enough favorites won that most will be satisfied with the overall outcome.
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February 25th, 2007
The Oscars have all been handed out, but that's not the end of our coverage. Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts as well as next week when we look at the Oscar bounce. And later on we'll announce the winners of our contest,
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February 25th, 2007
While the Independent Spirit Award announces their nominations earlier than anyone else, they only handed the awards last night.
The two big winners were Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson, but both have to be seen as underdogs for tonight's Oscars.
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February 21st, 2007
Avenue Montaigne intersected with the per theater chart in first place with an average of $14,689 in its two theaters.
Second place went to the overall box office leader as Ghost Rider averaged $12,542 in its 3,619 theaters.
Next up was last week's winner, The Lives of Others, which showed very strong potential for mainstream success as it expanded.
Despite seeing its theater count grow from 13 to 32, it per theater average fell just 33% to $10,965.
The final film to top $10,000 was Bamako, which barely made it with $10,183.
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February 13th, 2007
Discussion about the Best Foreign Language Oscar has so far been dominated by Pan's Labyrinth, but this weekend The Lives of Others made the case that it shouldn't be ignored.
The film opened with more than $200,000 in 13 theaters for an average of $16,430.
It is still a long shot to expand beyond 100 theaters, but this is a good beginning.
In second place was the overall box office leader, Norbit, which pulled in an average of $10,904 in more than 3,000 theaters, much to the chagrin of movie critics everywhere.
Finally, last week's winner, Factory Girl placed third, earning an average of $10,872 in its 18 theaters.
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February 6th, 2007
There was only one member of the $10,000 club this week as Factory Girl pulled in nearly $90,000 in 3 theaters for an average of $29,159.
However, An Unreasonable Man came awfully close with $9,813 in its lone theater.
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January 30th, 2007
Mafioso narrowly topped the Per Theater Chart this weekend in second weekend of re-release with an average of $11,118.
Salaam-e-Ishq - A Tribute to Love was right behind it, with just under $1 million in 86 theaters for an average of $11,035.
Early reports actually had Salaam-e-Ishq topping the chart, but its total gross to date includes $60,000 earned on Thursday.
Without that money, it wasn't quite able to hold on to top spot.
The only other film to top $10,000 was Breaking and Entering with an average of $10,580 in two theaters.
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January 24th, 2007
Just the one film in the $10,000 Club this weekend, but it was a real stand up movie, if you know what I mean. The re-release of Mafioso took in nearly $30,000 in 2 theatres for an average of $14,983.
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.
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January 23rd, 2007
The lone wide release of the weekend struggled to find an audience and even though most of the rest of the top five were able to beat expectations, the weekend box office was still way down.
At just $100 million, the weekend was down 22% from last week and 17% from the same weekend last year.
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January 17th, 2007
Seven films made it into the $10,000 club at the weekend, but none of them were able to earn much more than $11,000.
Pan's Labyrinth continues to show very strong legs on the per theater chart despite expanding ever wider.
This weekend the film earned nearly $2.2 million in 194 screens for an average of $11,180.
Comedy of Power grew by nearly 9% to $10,945 in its lone theater, placing it second, less than $20 ahead of God Grew Tired of Us.
Next up was Guru, which earned an estimated $760,000 in 71 theatres for a preliminary average of $10,704.
The overall box office leader, Stomp the Yard, was next with an average of $10,645 in its 2,051 theaters.
Long-term resident, Letters from Iwo Jima saw its first expansion this past weekend, growing from 5 theaters to 35 while its average remained strong at $10,464.
Venus grew by more than 11% this week to reenter the $10,000 club with an average $10,079.
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January 9th, 2007
Pan's Labyrinth saw its theater count more than double this past weekend, but it was still able to win the race on the Per Theater Chart with $17,359 in 44 venues.
Letters from Iwo Jima climbed to second place with $15,859, which represents a less than 10% drop-off from the weekend before.
Notes of a Scandal showed amazingly strong resilience on the chart, as it dipped just 36% to $12,100, this despite quadrupling its theater count.
Two other films just managed to top $10,000: Dreamgirls with $10,168 and Comedy of Power with $10,061.
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January 4th, 2007
The last weekend of the year normally brings with it several Oscar contenders, and this year it was no different. With the sheer number of high profile Oscar hopefuls, there's no surprise that so many were able to top $10,000 on the per theater.
Leading the way was Pan's Labyrinth with more than $500,000 in just 17 theaters for an average of $33,449.
Children of Men was just behind with an average of $31,313 during its first full weekend of release.
Notes on a Scandal was well back but still performed very well with more than $400,000 in 22 theaters for an average of $18,840.
Letters from Iwo Jima slipped a mere 1.31% to $17,586 and is shaping up to be a bigger hit than its companion film, Flags of Our Fathers.
Dreamgirls expanded into a semi-wide release and earned more than $14 million in 852 theaters for an average of $16,549; this is better than Chicago ever did, but that film showed better legs.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer did well with an average of $12,360; it expands into more than 250 theaters this Friday, but that could be as far as it goes if it shows any sign of weakness at the box office.
The final film to top $10,000 was Venus, which dipped less than 4% to $11,443.
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January 2nd, 2007
It is the beginning of a new year. A time to start fresh. So why do most of the new releases smell so stale? It's the January dumping ground, home to films that looked promising on paper but just didn't pan out.
That doesn't mean there are no films that could be worth checking out.
Out of the twelve new films opening wide this month (that's opening, not expanding), Smokin' Aces looks great and so does ... no, that's about it.
Almost all of the new releases are likely to struggle at the box office and with critics alike.
And to make matters worse, six of these new releases are going wide on the same weekend.
This is complete madness and guarantees that at least two films that would otherwise succeed are going to fail.
On the other hand, there are nearly a dozen films that have previously opened and are expanding wide (Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, for example), or are being re-released to grab some last minute Oscar buzz,
(The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, among others).
This makes for an incredibly busy month, but not one that will likely produce many hits.
Two additional notes...
Firstly, Letters from Iwo Jima is expanding throughout the month but likely won't go wide until February.
Secondly, The Dead Girl has a planned expansion on the 19th, but after struggling in limited release since opening last weekend, this seems unlikely.
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December 30th, 2006
Another abridged list with just the sites for movies opening this week, and two others. While there is less than a dozen films on this week list, the first one,
Arthur and the Invisibles -
Official Site, is worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
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December 29th, 2006
Another busy week for new releases with eight films coming out, more than half that were obviously made for Oscar glory. While it is unlikely that any will be the big winner on Oscar night, I could see four of the films at least earning some nominations.
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December 17th, 2006
Open Season solidified its chances to reach $100 million with a first place debut in Italy. Over the weekend the film just managed to beat
Happy Feet $1.68 million to $1.66 million over the weekend, (with midweek numbers
Open Season earned $1.82 million on 430 screens). The film was not as successful in Japan with just $968,000 on 441 screens; with such a small per theatre average, it will likely disappear quickly from charts. Overall it earned $4.97 million on 3451 screens in 51 markets for a total of $87.16 million; and even with no major markets left to open in, it does have a great shot at $100 million before its run is over.
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December 16th, 2006
The end of year big movie rush continues, the last few big movies are launching their sites. And one such movie,
Night at the Museum -
Official Site, is the winning of the Weekly Website Award.
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December 15th, 2006
Babel led the way when the
Golden Globe nominations were announced today with seven nominations while
The Departed was close behind with six.
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December 11th, 2006
Saw III slipped another spot to sixth with $4.46 million on 1518 screens in 29 markets for an international total of $54.27 million. Its best opening of the weekend came in South Korea where it placed third with $1.08 million on 144 screens, which is the last major opening for the film this year.
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December 10th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Virgin Territory, Pan's Labyrinth and more.
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December 3rd, 2006
Open Season only has a few more markets to open in and is starting to shed screens and markets; however, it sill managed sixth place with $4.08 million on 3489 screens in 49 markets for a two-month total of $76.58 million. This week the film opened in first place in both South Africa with $257,000 on 77 screens and in the Czech Republic with $79,000 on 23 screens.
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November 29th, 2006
As always, Award Season officially begins with the announcing of the
Independent Spirit Award nominations. While this is the first major awards to announce their nominations, they are one of the last to hand them out so the nominees have a long wait ahead of them.
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November 19th, 2006
Desu Noto 2, a.k.a., Death Note 2: The Last Name held on strong adding $5.12 million on 397 screens in 2 markets for a two week total of $20.85 million. In
Japan the film remained in top spot with $4.66 million on 346 screens for a two week total of $19.34 million.
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November 12th, 2006
Desu Noto 2, a.k.a., Death Note 2: The Last Name opened in two market last weekend taking in a total of $7.29 million on 393 screens including finishing first in
Japan with $6.50 million on 342 screen over the weekend and $10.33 million in total. In the mean time, the film opened in second place in South Korea with a respectable total of $1.37 million, which includes more than just the weekend, obviously.
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November 5th, 2006
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals saw impressive growth this week up 52% to $4.26 million on 2035 screens in 20 markets for an international total of $16.58 million. The film opened in a handful of markets including placing first in Mexico with $927,000 on 310 screens, but that's a little low for this type of film in that market. Also, it missed the top five in Spain opening in sixth place with $651,000 on 220 screens. The film's biggest market of the weekend was the U.K. where it was down just 27% to $1.41 million on 446 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.66 million after two.
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October 30th, 2006
Not much in terms of international details this week and what little details there are, are based on studio estimates.
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October 22nd, 2006
The
German soccer film, Deutschland. Ein Sommermarchen, remained in first place in Germany and sixth overall this weekend. It managed this feat by falling just 25% to $5.41 million on 671 screens for a two-week total of $14.67 million.
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