May 6th, 2008
A slow week for top-of-the-line releases and there are no first-run, wide releases that look even remotely interesting enough to buy. There are a few limited releases and older releases to fill the gap. It was also a slow week for spotlight reviews, but that gave me a chance to completely catch up to all the screeners that arrived late. ... That is until the next batch of late arrivals show up. As for the best of the best, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Buy from Amazon is high on that list, except technically it was released a couple of weeks ago. Teeth - Buy from Amazon also impressed, but the extras are a little too light. For the DVD Pick of the Week, I'm going with The Passion of Greg the Bunny: Best of the Film Parodies - Volume 2.
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December 9th, 2007
Bee Movie returned to the charts in sixth place with $6.71 million on 1288 screens in 11 markets for an early international total of $19.43 million after a month of release. This includes a pair of first place debuts in Spain and Mexico. In the former it earned $2.81 million on 421 screens while in the latter is earned $2.60 million on 389 screens. While Spain is the larger marker, I thought the family friendly nature of Mexico would give it the edge. Even so, there are great openings for the film.
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December 3rd, 2007
Lions for Lambs climbed a spot to sixth place with $4.34 million on 2453 screens in 53 markets for a total of $25.97 million, while only managing $1 million or more in one market this past weekend, ($1.40 million on 390 screens during its sixth place debut in France). It opens in Italy later this month and Japan in the spring of '08, but there's almost no chance the film will show a profit at this point. Normally one movie losing money isn't a big issue because the studio can rely on one or two monster hits to pay for their misses, (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made enough money to pay for the entire budgets of half-a-dozen misses for Warner Bros. this year, and that's before the home market). However, United Artists is a newly relauched studio and they don't have a war chest built up from past victories. Stumbling out of the gate like this hurts.
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November 27th, 2007
Starting Out in the Evening earned first place on the per theater chart with and average of $10,888 in seven theaters. This should be enough for it to expand over the holidays, but probably not enough to get noticed during award season.
Margot at the Wedding was in second place with and average of $10,767 after increasing its theater count to 35.
Finally, the re-re-re-release of The Polar Express added just over $150,000 in 15 theaters for an average of $10,024 and a total of $338,000 during its latest round in theaters.
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November 21st, 2007
Beowulf was able to come out on top on the international charts just as it did domestically, but it was by a lot closer margin of victory. During its first weekend of release, the film pulled in $17.41 million on 2432 screens in 13 markets, including a first place debut in South Korea where it earned $2.91 million on 365 screens over the weekend and $3.92 million in total. Beowulf opened in other major markets but had to settle for second in the U.K. with $4.51 million on 485 screens, and in Germany with $2.12 million on 698 screens while it could do no better than third place in Italy with $2.09 million on 368. Like its domestic debut, these results could be described as disappointing when placed next to its $150 million production budget.
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November 20th, 2007
Margot at the Wedding won the race on the per theater chart with just over $80,000 in two theater for an average of $40,518. No Country for Old Men was pushed into second place, but it managed seventh place on the overall chart with over $3 million in just 148 theaters, giving the film an impressive average of $20,782. The only other film to top $10,000 was Holly with $12,442 in its lone theater.
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November 14th, 2007
For the first time in a while we have a Hollywood film releases day-and-date internationally in more than 40 markets, so it comes as a huge surprise that the number one film this weekend is Om Shanti Om.
It is true that Bollywood films have been performing better as of late and the overall market is typically slow during the fall, but earning $18.17 million on 1,048 screens in 17 markets is still a fantastic start by any measure.
Most of that figure came from India, but unfortunately that market generally doesn't release final numbers till much later in the week, if not the following week.
We have read reports of record openings on the vast majority of the 600 screens it opened on in its native market, and expectations are for strong legs there.
Meanwhile, the film placed seventh in the U.K. with $1.07 million on just 52 screens for a per screen average of over $20,000.
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November 13th, 2007
No Country for Old Men was the latest Oscar hopeful to hit theaters, and while so many have failed to live up to expectations, this was not the case here.
Despite opening in 28 theaters, it pulled in more than $1 million over the weekend and led the per theater chart with an average of $43,798.
The only other film to come close was Holly with an opening of $32,406 in one theater.
Finally, Om Shanti Om was the second limited release to crack $1 million over the weekend, earning an average of $15,475 in its 114 theaters.
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November 11th, 2007
A soft week for movie sites with only a few that stand out and none that are award-worthy. Next week should be different.
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November 9th, 2007
An even dozen limited releases this week and strangely they are even divided between the films playing in just a few theaters or less, and those playing in a couple dozen theaters or more. Included in the latter group is Saawariya, the first Bollywood film released by a major studio, and No Country for Old Men, a serious Oscar contender.
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November 6th, 2007
This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!
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November 4th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Diary of the Dead, Sleepwalking, The X-Files 2 and more!
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