March 4th, 2008
The first week of the month, but it's not very strong both in terms of raw numbers and in terms of high-profile releases. (There are a surprising number of spotlight reviews, on the other hand.) There are a few releases worth picking up, like 101 Dalmatians - Two-Disc Platinum Edition - Buy from Amazon and My Kid Could Paint That - Buy from Amazon, but none that screamed to be DVD Pick of the Week.
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February 25th, 2008
There were eight new releases to reach the top 30 on the sales chart this week, and this includes Why did I get Married? with 842,000 units sold for opening week revenue of $14.78 million. In comparison, it missed the top 10 on the rental charts by quite a margin, which is the sign of a serious Fanboy Effect.
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February 25th, 2008
Like on the sales chart, there were eight new releases to chart this week, but not the same eight releases, nor did they finish in the same order. For instance, Gone, Baby, Gone topped the charts with $8.87 million.
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February 12th, 2008
It is still early in the year, and, once more, most first run releases this week come from the second tier. That is not to say there are no quality releases, but there are no big box office hits. For instance, Gone, Baby, Gone is certainly the best movie on this week's list, and the DVD is certainly worth picking up, as is the Blu-ray to a lesser extent. However, the best of the best and the DVD Pick of the Week is the Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - Winners & Nominees.
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October 21st, 2007
Bhool Bhulaiyaa became the latest in a long line of Indian films to strike it rich on the international box office as it scored sixth place with $4.59 million on 756 screens in 17 markets. The supernatural comedy even scored a top ten finish in Britain with $600,000 on 45 screens topping a few major Hollywood releases that week.
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October 14th, 2007
The Heartbreak Kid missed the top five by less than $20,000 over the weekend earning $5.74 million on 819 screens in 4 markets during its opening weekend on the international charts. This includes openings in to major markets including the U.K. where it opened in first place with $2.52 million on 409 screens, but this was still a disappointing debut, much like it was domestically. Conversely, the film opened in second place in Russia with $2.31 million on 360 screens, but this is a much better performance compared to the overall box office size of the marketplace.
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October 7th, 2007
Hairspray managed to climb into sixth place by the narrowest of margins earning $4.59 million on 2073 screens in 37 markets for a running tally of $54.35 million. This includes a third place, $1.36 million opening on 302 screens in Italy, which is close to its opening domestically, when you take into account the relative size of the two markets. On the other hand, many muscials prove to be difficult to market internationally and it was never likely that this film would match its domestic run. However, it has already made enough to be considered a financial success.
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September 30th, 2007
Ratatouille opening in first place in South Africa this weekend earning $298,000 on 40 screens, which is very close to what The Simpsons Movie made in its opening there a few weeks ago. Its best market of the weekend remains France where it was down a mere 4% to $1.67 million on 655 screens over the weekend for a total of $58.63 million. At this pace, the film will reach $60 million by this time next week while topping Finding Nemo's total of nearly $65 million is increasingly in reach. Overall Ratatouille added $4.66 million on 2535 screens in 27 markets for a total of $216.42 million, which is more than Cars managed, and this film still has openings in Germany, U.K., Italy, and Scandinavia.
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September 23rd, 2007
Rush Hour 3 missed spending its fifth week in fifth place by less than $4000 at $5.69 million on 2443 screens in 31 markets for a total of $69.71 million. This weekend the film opened in first place in Russia with $2.28 million on 385 screens while it had to settle for second place in Denmark with $485,000 on 41 screens over the weekend and $517,000 in total.
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September 16th, 2007
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry soared into sixth place with $4.72 million on 1521 screens in 21 markets for a total of $14.61 million internationally. The film finally hit big in a non-English speaking market earning first place with $1.27 million on 364 screens in Russia, but was soft in its debuts in South Korea and Italy. In Italy it managed $683,000 on 198 screens, but that was a tiny fraction of the first place film, while in South Korea it managed just ninth place with $275,000 on 123 screens over the weekend and $312,000 in total.
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September 9th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix may have fallen out of the top five, but it was able to cross $900 million worldwide since last week making it only the tenth film to do so. Over the weekend the film added $7.08 million on 4486 screens in 53 markets for a total of $626.30 million internationally, which places the film sixth place on that chart just $16 million behind Dead Man's Chest. There's not much to report for individual markets with the film down 43% during its second weekend in Greece adding $612,000 on 129 screens for a total of $2.91 million. Its best market remains Japan at $1.67 million on 605 screens over the weekend for a total of $75.18 million after seven weeks. Meanwhile, the film continues to march towards $100 million in the U.K. and after earning $796,000 on 306 screens over the weekend it now sits at $97.89 million in total.
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September 2nd, 2007
Knocked Up went from barely making the top 30 to nearly hitting the top five after adding $6.89 million on 1628 screens in 19 markets. The film now has a total of $25.54 million internationally while its worldwide total hit $173.34 million. To put this into perspective, The 40-Year Old Virgin earned $177.34 million and Knocked Up has yet to open in France, Spain, Italy, and many other significant markets. This week it did open in two major markets, the U.K. and Germany. In the former it had to settle for second place with $3.08 million on 423 screens while in the later it topped the charts with $2.11 million on 597 screens. In both markets this represents a small drop-off from The 40-Year Old Virgin, but the movie has already covered its total cost, so there's little reason to complain.
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August 26th, 2007
The Transformers fell out of the top five but still cracked 8 digits with $11.10 million on 54.92 screens in 52 markets for a total of $354.33 million. The film is mostly coasting on holdovers at the moment, but it did top the Polish market with $664,000 on 106 screens while its best market was Japan where it added $2.49 million on 592 screens over the weekend for a total of $23.98 million.
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August 19th, 2007
D-War slipped to sixth place overall, but remained in first place in South Korea with $10.19 million on 623 screens over the weekend and $37.81 million in total.
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August 7th, 2007
The Bourne Ultimatum helped 2007 continue its record setting pace and helped the overall box office hit $178 million over the past weekend. That was down 4% from last weekend, but the summer is slowing down and these declines and expected. On the other hand, it was up an amazing 27% from the same weekend last year.
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August 5th, 2007
No, this is not a repeat, May 18 is the name of a South Korean film that opened last weekend with $7.40 million on 534 screens over the weekend and $9.66 million in total. This was enough for first place finish in its native market and a sixth place finish internationally.
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July 30th, 2007
Practically every film in the top five beat expectations, including The Simpsons Movie, which crushed expectations. This helped push the overall box office to $185 million over the weekend and that was roughly 19% higher than the last weekend and a stunning 40% higher than the same weekend last year. With one or two more summer releases that could top $200 million, this has been a very lucrative season and one that helped to put 2007 in the record books.
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July 29th, 2007
Server upgrades went... less smoothly than anticipated, which delayed this column, but at least there are a huge number of sites to check out. Many of these sites are making their first appearance on the list while quite a few are making their last appearance. Unfortunately, while it's a big list, there are not many that are even close to being award worthy at the moment. 30 Days of Night - Official Site comes the closest, but I'm waiting for the missing features to be added before I make that decision.
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July 29th, 2007
The Simpsons Movie ended its long journey to the big screen this weekend with a resounding "Ay Carumba" from moviegoers.
The animated featured earned $71.85 million, according to Fox's Sunday estimate, making it comfortably one of the top five July openers of all time.
The other wide releases had a tougher time of it, with none of them averaging over $5,000 per theater.
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July 27th, 2007
One of the most important and anticipated films of modern times opens in theaters this weekend.
The Simpsons Movie looks to change how we look at culture and perhaps change the very way we humans interact.
OK, probably not, but it should make a boatload of money at the box office this weekend.
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July 20th, 2007
One of the most difficult films to predict we've had in a long while opens this coming weekend.
The Simpsons Movie could break records, it could bomb, or it could fall anywhere in-between.
It is fortunate that we have three prizes then, as it allows us to give away one to a randomly chosen entrant as well.
The prizes are posters for No Reservations, which not only opens next Friday but has a sneak peak this Saturday.
To win, one must simply predict the box office opening for The Simpsons Movie.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a poster from No Reservations.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win another poster from No Reservations.
And finally, one additional lucky winner will be picked to win the last No Reservations.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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July 19th, 2007
The buddy comedy with Adam Sandler and Kevin James opens this weekend, and while it won't be seen as one of the major hits of the summer, it should still be in a relatively close battle with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for top spot on the charts this weekend.
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July 7th, 2007
The list returns to its normal busy self, in fact, we have several sites making their first appearance this weekend. In addition, there were a couple of older sites that saw massive updates, including this week's winner, Charlie Bartlett - Official Site.
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July 1st, 2007
After a record-breaking start, the summer has slowed down considerably. Granted, it is still hot with a number of big, big blockbusters coming out. In fact, every week in July there's at least one potential $100 million movie. But that's nothing compared to what we saw in May when we have three films open with $100 million. Even worse, outside the four main releases, none of the counter-programming releases look like they will become hits and that will hurt the overall box office.
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May 26th, 2007
Another slow week. If this keeps up I'm going to have to rethink my methodology. Not only were there not as many sites as I would like, there were none that really stood out as award-worthy. The best was Stardust - Official Site, but here I will wait for more of the content to be added before I make a final decision.
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May 6th, 2007
Among the more than two-dozen films on this week's list, there were a few that came very close to winning the Weekly Website Award. Of the three, Spider-Man 3 - Official Site was probably the closest to winning, but in the end was brought down by high expectations.
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April 14th, 2007
Even with the extra day, it was a slow week for websites. There were a couple films to have their full sites go live this week, but in both cases there was a lack of features. The best of the list is Pathfinder - Official Site, but it's not up to the level of an award winner.
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October 15th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Jumper, Kung Fu Panda, Charlie Wilson's War and more.
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September 3rd, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains new release dates 300, James Bond 22 and more.
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