May 27th, 2006
It was a very close race for the top of the rental charts between two new releases.
The Ringer won that race with a surprising $6.32 million while
When a Stranger Calls had to settle for second best with $6.18 million.
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May 20th, 2006
It was crazy busy on the rental charts this week with three new films in the top five and six in the top ten. Leading the way was
Big Momma's House 2 with $6.92 million during its first week of release, which can best be described as average.
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May 8th, 2006
It's been a while since there was a DVD release that I was literally counting down the days for.
But this week there is such a release: Scrubs - The Complete Third Season.
That is not to say that is the only DVD I'll be picking up tomorrow, as my shopping list includes Masters of Horror - Chocolate / Incident on and off a Mountain Road, That '70s Show - The Complete Fourth Season and If Only.
(That last one is only worth it if you are a big Jennifer Love Hewitt fan.)
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March 12th, 2006
A fourth place, $1.63 million debut on 250 screens in France helped
Memoirs Of A Geisha leap up the charts this weekend. Overall the film finished in sixth place on the international charts with $3.98 million on 1723 screens in 47 markets for an international total of $88.34 million. The film placed higher during its opening in Finland with $79,000 on 12 screen over the weekend and $95,000 in total while it had to settle for ninth place in Belgium with $200,000 on 29 screens.
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March 5th, 2006
On the weekend before the Oscars are announced,
Brokeback Mountain climbed a couple of spots to sixth with $4.44 million on 1368 screens in 30 markets for an international total of $53.89 million. New openings include Belgium where the filmed debuted in second place with $312,000 on a mere 27 screens for the best per screen average in the market. It wasn't as potent in Poland where it had to settle for fourth place with $194,000 on 40 screens over the weekend and $217,000 in total. The film also benefited from soft in the U.K. where it slipped just 5% to $442,000 on 245 screens for a very impressive total of $15.83 million so far. It was even better during its second weekend in Holland where it rose 1% to $210,000 for the weekend and $562,000 in total.
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March 1st, 2006
With the
Oscars less than a week away and our
contest well under way, there's no better time to take a closer look at some of the nominees. Today we'll look at the most prestigious award, Best Picture.
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February 25th, 2006
With the
Oscars just over a week away and our
contest well under way, there's no better time to take a closer look at some of the nominees. Today we'll look at the Best Achievement in
Directing.
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February 22nd, 2006
For the third weekend in a row, The
French film, Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, topped the international charts. This week it made $11.28 million on 1019 screens in three markets for a total of $62.48 million. It goes without saying that its best market was France where it made another $9 million on 950 screens for a $57.8 million running tally there.
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February 15th, 2006
The
French film, Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, fell 40% this weekend, but that was still more than enough to finish first on the overall box office charts with $15.68 million on 1019 screens in three markets for an international total of $47.05 million so far. It earned the vast majority of that amount in France where it finished first with $14.37 million on 950 screens over the weekend for a running tally of $43.16 million. The film also finished first in Belgium with $805,000 on 39 screens and in Switzerland with $505,000 on 30 screens; so far it has earned $2.32 million and $1.57 million in those two markets respectively.
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February 8th, 2006
Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, which is the latest film in a trilogy that started in the late 70s, opened in its native
France and dominated the market. The film made $24.26 million over the weekend, which was more than 60% of the overall French box office. The film also finished first in Belgium with $1.25 million on 41 screens and in Switzerland with $734,000 on 30 over the weekend and $882,000 in total. This film cost 35 million Euros to make, which at today's exchange rate would about $42 million American, and the film should have no trouble showing a profit in its native markets even if it has shorter legs than most films there have.
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February 7th, 2006
With most of the nominations in the more prestigious categories going to smaller films, the famed Oscar bounce is very important this year. However, the first weekend's results were mixed.
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February 1st, 2006
Munich had the widest international opening in a long time and that helped it reach the top of the charts with $15.34 million on 2911 screens in 30 markets. Its biggest market was France at $2.5 million on 437 screens and it did similar business in the U.K. with $2.15 million on 383 screens. Other million dollar markets include Germany at $1.69 million on 394 screens, Spain at $1.67 million on 218, Italy at $1.63 million on 296, and Australia at $1.34 million on 211. While those numbers are acceptable, the film wasn't able to top any of the markets. On the other hand, it finished first is Israel with $151,000 on 30 screens.
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January 31st, 2006
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece,
Crash,
Good Night and Good Luck, and
Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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January 9th, 2006
Nearly every film on Friday's column was able to meet or beat expectations this weekend, and that really helped ease the post-holiday transition.
Granted, on a week-to-week basis the box office was down 14.2% to $128 million, but that was still 7.7% higher than the same weekend last year.
Last year the box office got off to a great start, so this is either are really good sign for 2006, or symptoms of a significant change in behavior that could make the January dumping grounds a thing of the past.
Either way, it's good news.
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January 6th, 2006
The first full weekend of 2006 brings us three wide releases, two of which were not screened for critics. The only film that is being reviewed is the latest sadistic horror film from Lionsgate. But while the overall box office will suffer, there is quite a race for top spot brewing, with three films having a legitimate shot at winning the box office crown.
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January 3rd, 2006
Match Point was the clear winner on this week's per theatre average charts, as it earned nearly $400,000 in just 8 theatres for an average of $49,824.
The second placed film, The New World, was well back with an average of $19,383 during its first full weekend of release. The Matador, which was the only other new film of the weekend, earned $69,000 in 4 theatres for a per theatre average of $17,275.
Last week's number one film, Cache (Hidden), slipped to fourth place with a still healthy $14,532.
Brokeback Mountain climbed back above the $10,000 market with $3.6 million in 269 theatres for an amazing average of $13,455 during its fourth week of release.
Lastly, Casanova made $400,000 in 37 theatres during its first full weekend of release for an average of $10,963.
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January 2nd, 2006
It's the beginning of a new year, January 1st, 2006 (or at least it was when I wrote this).
The good news is 2005 is finally over.
The bad news is 2006 again starts with the month of January, which is always a really slow way to start the year.
This is a real dead month when it comes to new releases, in fact, of the 10 new releases coming out this month, I'm excited about seeing... none.
(There are a few movies that could be popular among their target demographic, but I'm just not in those groups.)
But at least there are a few Oscar contenders that opened in limited release last month that are looking to go wide sometime during the month and that is the only real saving grace.
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December 27th, 2005
Christmas wishes went unanswered this year as almost every film missed expectations, some by large margins.
This led to a 14.4% drop-off from last weekend, but more importantly, a 18.0% drop-off from last year.
Granted, the fact that Christmas fell on a Saturday helps explain some of that, but not all. Year-to-date, 2005 is still down 6% from last year and with less than one week left, that's roughly where it will end up.
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December 22nd, 2005
This week's list of movie site is abridged and only contains the films that are opening this week, unfortunately, of those eleven films, only one had any significant updates this week. That site was
Munich -
Official Site, but I can't say its an award-winning site. I guess that means the Weekly Website Award is taking a vacation over the holidays.
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December 21st, 2005
Over the next five days a total of eight movies will either open wide or expand wide. With that much competition, there is literally zero chance that all the films will succeed. In fact, chances are none will be able to unseat King Kong as the box office champ. Further complicating the prediction process, there are three groups of releases with two movies opening wide tonight, three more on Friday and three on Sunday. This column will deal with all of them.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today as Golden Globe nominations were announced. With seven nods, it led all films, which is an important Oscar indicator.
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November 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,
Aeon Flux -
Official Site
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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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