April 16th, 2007
For the second weekend in a row I had to dig hard to find some of the DVDs on this week's list. But unlike last weekend, there are a number of DVD releases that jumped out as contenders for DVD Pick of the Week including the gritty La Haine - Criterion Collection - Buy from Amazon and the Oscar winning The Last King of Scotland - Buy from Amazon. But in the end I went with sublime humor of The Venture Bros. - Season Two - Buy from Amazon, which may seem like a lowbrow choice compared to the others above, but it earns the title of DVD Pick of the Week.
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February 24th, 2007
Despite having seven new releases to chart this week, only one of them made it to the top five. However, that film was The Departed and it dominated both the rental and the sales chart. It took in $9.86 million in rentals during its first week of releases pushing Flags of Our Fathers into second place with $6.33 million.
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February 12th, 2007
In terms of raw numbers, this isn't as busy a week as last, but there are a lot more releases worthy of discussing, including several that I rate highly.
The short-lived series Grosse Pointe - The Complete Series - Buy from Amazon gets its wide release after being an Amazon exclusive since November.
Half Nelson - Buy from Amazon comes up just in time for Oscar buzz to reach its peak.
Meanwhile, ... So Goes the Nation - Buy from Amazon should get the political junkies all worked up.
However, the clear winner of the DVD Pick of the Week is The Departed - 2-Disc Special Edition.
My only concern is the likelihood of a super special edition coming out after it wins several Oscars.
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October 10th, 2006
October officially washed away the stench that is September with the overall box office beating expectations at a total of $110 million.
That is just shy of 10% higher than last weekend and 5% higher than the same weekend last year.
Almost all of this growth can be attributed to The Departed, helped by its amazing reviews.
The question now is whether it will have better legs than last year's number one film?
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October 3rd, 2006
The weekend box office was a little softer that expected, but not so much so that one needs to worry about a continuing slump.
In fact, the overall box office hit $100 million over the weekend and that was slightly higher than last weekend (by slightly, I mean less than 1%).
However, that was up a huge 12.1% from the same weekend last year and that is the much more significant number.
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September 30th, 2006
It's a very, very short list this week with only the movies opening this weekend on the list. The reason for this is simple, I have come down with a rather nasty cold and after four or five days of cold medication have taken their toll. Fortunately, although the quantity is low, the quality is high including this winner of the Weekly Website Award:
Open Season -
Official Site.
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September 29th, 2006
This week we have three films opening wide. Not only are they opening wide, but they are all opening at saturation levels (3000 or more theatres).
Fortunately, the three films share little in the way of target demographics, but even so, at least one of them is going to be squeezed out by the competition.
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September 23rd, 2006
Slow week with just over half a dozen sites on the list. Of them,
Renaissance -
Official Site is clearly the best with a few others showing promise.
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September 21st, 2006
The September dumping ground continues this weekend with only one real wide release with the other three new films opening in 1,500 to 2,100 theatres.
On the other hand, the one film that is opening wide has a shot at becoming the biggest film of the month.
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September 16th, 2006
High quantity on sites this week, but many of them were for new releases, most of which haven't had any updates in a while. Those that did have updates were generally quite small, but one site stood above them all,
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny -
Official Site, which is easily the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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September 1st, 2006
I've said it before and I'll say it again, September is the worst month of the year for movies.
Not only are there usually very few hits released at this time of year, but the average is dragged way down by the large number of movies simply dumped on the market.
This year the September dumping ground doesn't look quite as bad as years past.
In fact, several low-level hits and maybe even an Oscar contender are opening wide.
However, those few bright spots will be buried due to the sheer number of releases -- an average of 3 and a half films are opening wide each week.
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August 26th, 2006
It's another busy week with nearly three dozen films being represented here. Taking top prize is
Invincible -
Official Site, although there were a few others that could take that claim before all is said and done.
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August 11th, 2006
The torrid pace of website updates continues with more than 30 films on this week's list. There were a few sites that really caught my eye, but it was
Trust the Man -
Official Site and its interactive map of New York City and its more than 2 dozen clips that won the Weekly Website Award.
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