December 10th, 2015
The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning and we are already beginning to see a trend for this year's Awards Season. For the most part, the same films are coming up over and over again. Carol led the way with five awards, while there was a three-way tie for second place with The Big Short, The Revenant and Steve Jobs each picking up four.
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November 25th, 2015
Awards Season begins with the Independent Spirit Awards nominations. There were definitely some surprise nominees this year, but that also meant there were some unfortunate snubs as well. The overall leader was Carol, which just opened this past weekend. This is great timing and should help its box office numbers, as well as its chances throughout Awards Season. Its six nominations were one ahead of Beasts of No Nation and Spotlight. (One of Spotlight's was the Robert Altman Award, which has no nominations, just one winner.)
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October 10th, 2015
Six new releases from the week of September 15th reached the top 30 on the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for September 20th. This includes four in the top five and a new number one. Furious 7 earned first place with 1.87 million units / $31.89 million on the single release for an opening week Blu-ray share of 64%. Impressive. Meanwhile the second Fast and Furious Franchise Box Set released this year earned fifth place with 62,000 units / $3.46 million. While the film very nearly earned twice that of its nearest competitor, it was still almost exactly 40% lower than Fast and Furious 6 opened with. This decline is huge, but all packaged media is down. Some of the slack is going to VOD, but a lot of home market revenue now goes to subscription streaming services like Netflix or Crunchyroll. Personally, I like packaged media, I still buy CDs, so this is bad news for me.
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September 22nd, 2015
The winners of our Lovely Prizes contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials opening weekend were...
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September 16th, 2015
This week's home market releases are insane, so I'm going to have to be a lot more judicious in pruning the list. If I were to include all releases that are big enough to include, if they were released during a slow week, there would be more than 100 releases on this week's list (including secondary Blu-rays, but not VOD releases). I have to pare that back to a more reasonable number. Why are there so many releases? Firstly, it is the beginning of the Christmas Shopping season and we have two monster hits on this week's list. Secondly, it is the last week before the fall season begins in earnest, so it is the last week for a lot of shows to come out on DVD before they are running into competition from the new season. It should come as no surprise that the best releases on this week's list are in the TV on DVD categories, including Marvel's Agent Carter: Season 1 and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 2. Both of which are co-winners of the Pick of the Week.
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September 14th, 2015
Love and Mercy is a movie about a real life person dealing with adversity. It's a movie about a real life famous person dealing with adversity. This movie practically screams Oscar bait. However, while it won over a lot of critics, Oscar bait movies can't always translate critical acclaim into mainstream appeal. Is that the case here? Is it worth checking out for fans of the The Beach Boys? Will those with limited knowledge of their music enjoy the film?
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September 11th, 2015
There are three wide releases coming out next week, but everyone expects The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials to dominate the box office. As such, it is the only real choice for the target film for this week's Box Office Prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Love and Mercy on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a second copy of Love and Mercy on DVD.
Finally, we will be choosing an entrant from the group of people who haven't won, or haven't won recently, and they will win the final copy of Love and Mercy on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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September 9th, 2015
The winners of our Give the Wheel a Spin contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for The Transporter Refueled opening weekend were...
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July 8th, 2015
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Only one film was in the $10,000 club this week. Amy earned an average of $37,083 in six theaters. That's amazing for a documentary, but this genre rarely expands truly wide. Let's see what happens next weekend and maybe I will be proven wrong.
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June 24th, 2015
The top two films on the per theater chart were also the top two films on the overall box office chart. Jurassic World led the way with an average of $24,840, while Inside Out was close behind with an average of $22,919. The best new limited release was The Overnight, with an average of $17,674 in three theaters. The final film in the $10,000 club was The Tribe, which earned $11,094 in its lone theater.
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June 18th, 2015
It's a strange week on the theater averages chart. The number one film was Jurassic World with an average of $48,855. This is the best average for a wide release in 2015 and the third best average for a film released in 2015 and the fifth best average during 2015. Second place went to The Wolfpack with an average of $21,960 in two theaters. This is amazing for a documentary. The only other film in the $10,000 club was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which debuted in 15 theaters, a lot for a limited release, and earned an average of $13,100. This suggests room to expand over the coming weeks.
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June 9th, 2015
There was only one film in the $10,000 club, Testament of Youth, which opened with $13,252 in four theaters. There was one other film, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, which earned an average of $8,699 in two theaters over the weekend. However, it was a Wednesday release and its average over five days was $12,657.
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June 7th, 2015
Going into the weekend, any one of three films could conceivably win at the box office, with a fourth wide release having the potential to act as a spoiler by pulling away some of the audience from the others. In the event, the right film won, if one goes by the reviews, with Spy! pulling in $30 million to take the prize. That’s basically a par score for Melissa McCarthy, compared to Bridesmaids’ $26 million start, the $34.5 million debut of Identity Thief, The Heat’s $39 million, and Tammy’s $21.5 million. Paul Feig directed McCarthy in Bridesmaids, The Heat and now Spy!, so it’s a par score for him too.
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June 5th, 2015
In another improvement to our news this week, the Limited Releases column is expanding to cover both limited and VOD releases. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “aren't you already talking about VOD on the Home Market Releases column?” Yes. However, those are for VOD releases for films that already played in theaters some time ago. This column will include films that debut on VOD either before, or simultaneously with, their theatrical release. We think this it an important change, as too often the Limited Release column was “Limited Releases Playing in New York City and Possibly Los Angeles.” For people in most of the rest of the country, there were no films on the list playing anywhere near them. This week, there are at least a few films worth checking out, including We Are Still Here, which is playing on VOD and Love and Mercy and Testament of Youth, which are theatrical-only releases that both have a shot at mainstream success.
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