March 1st, 2011
President's Day sales boosted a number of holdovers back into the top 30 on this week's sales chart. However, it was a new release, Unstoppable, that led the way with 796,000 units sold for opening week sales of $12.73 million.
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December 22nd, 2010
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader remained in top spot over the weekend, but it fell more than 50% to $31.53 million on 10,107 screens in 61 markets for a total of $126.02 million internationally. Over the weekend it opened in Germany, but only managed second place with $2.46 million on 893 screens, which is about 40% less than Prince Caspian made during its opening weekend and less than half of what the original opened with. It was down 50% in Russia, but still going strong with $3.89 million on 1284 screens over the weekend for a total of $16.29 million after two. In France it held well, down just 40% to $3.10 million on 739 screens over the weekend and $8.77 million in total. It will not match its predecessors at the box office, but it should make enough internationally that it will break even, eventually.
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December 21st, 2010
A couple of very high profile new releases hit the home market this week, but despite this, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse was able to top the DVD sales chart during its first full week of release with 3.15 million units / $56.62 million for a running tally of 5.54 million units / $99.68 million. This is practically identical to the sales of the first two films at the same point.
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December 17th, 2010
The final installment of our Holiday Gift Guide is here. Part I dealt with first run releases, Part II dealt with box sets and TV on DVD releases, while Part III dealt with limited releases, foreign releases, and classics. This week we look at everything else, including a few that I missed before. This will be far less organized than previous installments, which is saying something. However, at this point, with just a week until Christmas, we are getting close to panic levels when it comes to shopping.
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December 6th, 2010
It's the first Tuesday of December, and the last real week with multiple major releases. After this, the next few weeks are rather shallow in terms of first run releases. This week there are a number of titles that are worth adding to you collection, including the Pick of the Week, Inception on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack. Restrepo is also worthy of consideration for that honor, as was either of the Criterion Collection releases, Cronos and Videodrome.
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September 8th, 2010
It was a busy week for Inception, as it rose to top spot on the international chart and crossed two major milestones in the process: $400 million internationally and $700 million worldwide. Over the weekend, it earned $21.00 million on 7,785 screens in 61 markets for a total of $425.15 million internationally and $702.30 million worldwide. Much of this was due to its debut in China, where it placed first with $13.6 million. It has yet to open in Italy, but it will likely start falling off at an accelerated pace from now till its premiere in that market at the end of the month.
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September 1st, 2010
The Expendables held on to top spot on the international chart with $24.70 million on 4823 screens in 38 markets for a total of $101.46 million after just three weeks of release. It had a few openings over the weekend, most notably in Germany where it placed third with $2.94 million on 531 screens. Meanwhile, it fell from first to fourth in the U.K., but still added $2.02 million on 453 screens over the weekend for a total of $10.52 million after two. With openings in Italy and Japan ahead, the film will have no trouble getting to $250 million worldwide, which is more than enough to ensure a profit.
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August 25th, 2010
Powered by openings in a trio of major markets, The Expendables climbed into top spot with $35.49 million on 4501 screens in 30 markets for a still early international total of $60.30 million. At this point, reaching $100 million internationally and $200 million worldwide is practically a given. The film's best opening of the weekend came from the U.K. where it debuted in the top spot with $6.08 million on 453 screens, while it was also triumphant in France with $4.75 million on 445 screens. On the other hand, it had to settle for fifth place in South Korea with $1.25 million on 298 screens over the weekend and $1.52 million in total. Next up for the film is Germany this weekend, while it opens in Italy next month and in Japan in October.
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August 11th, 2010
Inception remained in top spot on the international box office, with $47.70 million on 7287 screens in 59 markets for a total of $259.27 million internationally and $486.90 million worldwide. It won't have to wait till the weekend to get to $500 million. It opened in first place in Spain with $4.55 million on 491 screens, but had to settle for second place in Brazil with $2.03 million on 313. It also added $3.83 million on 418 screens over the weekend in Australia for a total of $20.64 million after three. While in the U.K., it made $3.60 million on 468 screens over the weekend for a total of $41.02 million after four. With openings in China and Italy ahead of it, $600 million worldwide is virtually guaranteed, while $700 million isn't out of the question.
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August 8th, 2010
Over the past weekend, Toy Story 3 fell to second place on the international chart with $38.69 million on 7806 screens in 42 markets. However, it rose to second place for 2010 on the international chart with $436.65 million overtaking Shrek Forever After. The only 2010 release that has made more internationally is Alice in Wonderland. Worldwide it now has $826.41 million and it has very likely already surpassed Finding Nemo to become Pixar's biggest hit. The film's only major release of the week came in Germany over the weekend, where it made $4.03 million on 740 screens, bringing the total to $4.35 million. While this is a good result, its not great, and prior to this the film had been doing great. It also remained in the top spot in the U.K. over the weekend, with $12.81 million on 564 screens, for a two week total of $62.82 million. It has likely overtaken Alice in Wonderland to become the biggest hit of 2010 released in that market. As for the film's future, it has yet to open in South Korea and Scandinavia. If it does well in those markets, $1 billion worldwide is still within reach.
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August 1st, 2010
After opening in a few markets last weekend, Inception got its international run off in earnest last weekend and climbed into second place with $56.78 million on 5,177 screens in 36 markets for a still early total of $87.86 million.
It opened in a number of major markets and debuted in first place in most of them.
The biggest was Japan with $7.86 million on 525 screens over the weekend and $8.94 million in total.
France was also a lucrative market for the film with $8.01 million on 626 screens, while in South Korea it made $6.01 million on 583 screens over the weekend and $7.89 million in total.
Russia added $7.08 million on 895 screens to its weekend haul, while Australia produced $6.67 million on 413.
The film only managed seventh in Mexico with just $467,000 on 152 screens, but this was a low screen count.
In the U.K. the film was down just 29% to $6.47 million on 456 screens over the weekend for a total of $22.01 after two.
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July 21st, 2010
Shrek Forever After rose to top spot for the first time during its international run with $56.38 million on 7,572 screens in 44 markets for a total of $297.92 million over the weekend and $532.31 million worldwide.
Unless the film cost an irresponsibly huge amount to market, it is well on its way to showing a profit before it reaches the lucrative home market.
In fact, depending on how much it cost to market and how large a share the studio is getting from the box office, it might have already broken even.
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July 18th, 2010
Shrek Forever After remained in second place with a hearty $56.42 million on 6,987 screens in 41 markets for a total of $209.55 million internationally and $443.33 worldwide.
There was some excellent news this week, as the film opened in first place in Brazil with $6.86 million on 658 screens, which is an all-time record in that market for an animated film.
Meanwhile in Spain it opened with $4.12 million on 748 screens over the weekend and $4.97 million in total, but Shrek the Third made more than $7.5 million during its opening three years ago. Finally, it opened atop Poland with $2.73 million on 235 screens. Poland isn't normally considered a major market, but when it comes to animated films, it usually is. As far as holdovers go, it held on extremely well in South Korea, down just 20% to $4.66 million on 566 screens over the weekend for a total of $12.81 million after two.
On the other hand, it was down nearly 50% in the U.K. To $6.88 million on 537 screens over the weekend and $25.81 million after two.
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July 11th, 2010
In an age of day-and-date global releases, Shrek Forever After is taking the slow route. This week it opened in a number of major markets, which propelled it into second place with $42.57 million on 4,484 screens in 25 markets for a total of $137.12 million internationally and $369.40 million worldwide.
In the U.K. it opened with $13.56 million on 539 screens, which was easily enough for first place.
However, its predecessor made $33.45 million during its opening three years ago. Ouch. In France it made $10.77 million on 842 screens, down from $13.05 million. South Korea produced $6.37 million on 627 screens, including midweek numbers, down from $10.74 million. Finally, in Germany it made $5.11 million on 767 screens, down from $7.84 million. The film is still a major hit and will have no trouble earning a profit; however, it is still the weakest in the franchise when you look at ticket sales.
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July 4th, 2010
Knight and Day started its international run in second place with $12.42 million on 2241 screens in 12 markets. It opened in first place in Russia with $3.33 million on 949 screens, while it also took top spot in South Korea with $3.04 million on 565 screens over the weekend and $3.76 million in total. Next up for the film is the U.K. this weekend, while it has major market openings right till October when it debuts in Japan.
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June 26th, 2010
The A-Team climbed to second place with $13.97 million on 4929 screens in 48 markets for a total of $34.74 million. New openings this past weekend include France, where it made $3.05 million on 621 screens. On the one hand, that was enough for first place. On the other hand, that's not a particularly strong start, especially for a summer blockbuster. It was only half has much as Prince of Persia opened with, for instance. In Italy it had a similar result with a first place, $1.11 million opening on 354 screens. That said, if it can earn half of what Prince of Persia does, then The A-Team will end its run with more than $100 million internationally and close to $200 million worldwide. As long as it is a hit on the home market, that will be enough to show a profit eventually, particularly if you take into account increased DVD sales for the TV series it is based on.
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June 21st, 2010
It has been 15 years since Pixar essentially created the digital animation market.
In that time, it has proven to be the most consistent studio both in terms of quality and box office success.
That was reinforced this weekend, as Toy Story 3 easily won the box office race, setting a few records along the way.
Overall, the box office brought in $199 million, which was the best weekend of 2010 since the first weekend of the year (when Avatar was still dominating the chart). Box office was up nearly 32% from last weekend, and more importantly, up just over 32% from last year. 2010 has now earned an impressive $4.95 billion, which is is 4% higher than last year's pace. However, a lot of this is due to the inflated 3D ticket prices and attendance is still down more than 2% from last year.
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June 20th, 2010
For the third weekend in a row, Robin Hood remained in fourth place. This time it pulled in $7.19 million on 5742 screens in 54 markets for a total of $183.71 million internationally and $283.17 million worldwide. This week it opened in China and India, two countries that rarely release box office numbers in a timely fashion.
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June 20th, 2010
As expected, Toy Story 3 is dominating this weekend at the box office, and it is heading for a record opening for Pixar.
Disney is projecting a $109 million opening weekend, which is significantly ahead of the $70 million opening posted by The Incredibles back in 2004.
3D tickets sales and general ticket price inflation helped the cause, of course, but it's still a very impressive result, to go with Disney's success with Alice in Wonderland earlier in the year.
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June 17th, 2010
Pixar releases its eleventh feature-length film this weekend. And considering its previous ten have all opened in first place (assuming you discount prestige limited releases) this is reason for Disney to celebrate.
In fact, it could be reason for the industry as a whole to celebrate, considering more than 10 million tickets could be sold for this movie, which means more than 10 million people watching trailers for upcoming releases, seeing posters for new movies, etc.
Compared to last year, Toy Story 3 could make more than the top five combined, which should help boost 2010's lead over 2009.
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June 14th, 2010
It turns out that the battle of the 80s superstars was a one-sided affair, as The Karate Kid easily took the top spot. Overall, the box office brought in $151 million over the weekend, which was 18% higher than last weekend and nearly 10% higher than the same weekend last year. It will take a few more weekends like this before the exuberance from earlier in the year returns, but this is a welcome result. Year-to-date, 2010 has now made $4.68 billion compared to last year's running tally of $4.53 billion, but its lead is due to much higher ticket prices. Attendance is down by 3%.
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June 13th, 2010
The Karate Kid won the battle of the '80s revivals over the weekend with a solid $56,000,000, well ahead of The A-Team, which could only manage $26,000,000.
In what has been a very disappointing Summer so far, a $50 million plus opening for a franchise revival has to be considered a success, and it will almost certainly give Sony their first $100 million hit of the year.
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June 13th, 2010
Rajneeti was the second Indian film within a few weeks to open strong on the global scene. Internationally, it earned third place with $11.01 million on 925 screens in 16 markets, which is an excellent start for this type of film. After Kites opened respectively well, it quickly collapsed. Thanks to a higher than average production budget, it will end up costing the studio money. However, this film is already well on its way to profitability and hopefully it will show much better legs.
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June 10th, 2010
It's The A-Team vs. The Karate Kid in a battle of 1980s cultural icons. Analysts seem to be evenly split on which of these will spawn the box office champion this weekend, but most expect both of them to at least be mid-level hits. Almost all of them expect them to both top last year's two new releases, probably combined. They might even do well enough to help 2010 end its slump.
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June 8th, 2010
Well, that was bad. After the worst Memorial Day long weekend in nearly two decades (at least in terms of tickets sold) we had another weekend full of disappointing new releases. The overall box office was $129 million, which was down 15% from last weekend. Since it is a post-holiday weekend, this drop-off is not surprising. However, it was also down 22% from the same weekend last year, which is the third weekend in a row where we've seen double-digit declines year-over-year. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009, but the lead has shrunk to less than 4% at $4.47 billion to $4.31 billion.
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June 6th, 2010
Sex and the City 2 started its international run in second place with $23.98 million on 2739 screens in 18 markets for a total opening of $27.11 million. The film's biggest opening came in the U.K., where it made $8.93 million on 530 screens, 24% more than the original's opening. It had the biggest opening of the year in Germany with $5.90 million on 736 screens over the weekend for a total of $7.72 million. This was 23% higher than the original managed. On the other hand, it only saw 4% growth in Italy, with $2.4 million on 499 screens. This is not enough to keep pace with inflation. However, it is still better than it managed here.
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June 3rd, 2010
With May over and not a single wide release beating expectations, the beginning of June can be looked upon with joy or trepidation. On the one hand, maybe we can put May behind us and move on. On the other hand, perhaps the slump will just continue and make matters worse. It is unlikely that any of the new releases will keep up with last year's champion, The Hangover. But perhaps the combined efforts of all four new releases will top the combined efforts of the three wide releases from last year.
While there is no likely breakout hit like we had last year, four films have a legitimate shot at top spot.
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June 2nd, 2010
May is over, and not a moment too soon. I remember at the beginning of last month that a lot of people were suggesting this was going to be the highest grossing summer of all time and that May was going to be the highest grossing month of all time. Since this summer is a weekend shorter than most and this missing weekend was at the beginning of May, this was never going to happen. However, now that the month is over, we can see just how unrealistic those predictions were. Even Memorial Day long weekend wasn't enough as the total box office take was $152 million over three days and $193 million over four. Compared to last week, this was up just over 1%. While any increase is welcome, this it hardly a reason to celebrate. Compared to last Memorial Day, this was down 14% over three days and 13% over four. Not good. Year-to-date, 2010 is still ahead of 2009, but the lead has been cut to 4.7% at $4.30 billion to $4.10 billion. Perhaps it's not quite time to hit the panic button, but I'm starting to do warm up exercises for when running around in a panic will be required.
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May 30th, 2010
A weaker-than-expected debut by Sex and the City 2 will leave Shrek Forever After the comfortable winner over Memorial Day Weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Shrek's 3-day projected gross is $43.345 million, which takes it to $133.1 million after ten days.
That's not, in itself, a spectacular result, since it's a decline of 39% from a soft-ish opening weekend on one of the biggest box office weekends of the year, but it puts the ogre movie over $10 million ahead of Sex over three days -- a lead that will get bigger once Monday's numbers are in.
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May 28th, 2010
Memorial Day long weekend started early with the midnight release of Sex and the City 2, but it's not the only saturation level release debuting this weekend. With the weakness shown last weekend by Shrek Forever After, the industry is looking forward with a bit of trepidation. Should both of these stumble, the narrative going forward will be quite negative, as none of the May releases will have excelled. This time last year, Up opened with close to $70 million. I don't think either film will match that, especially over three days. But their combined strength will hopefully give 2010 a boost at the box office.
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May 27th, 2010
Robin Hood remained in the top spot on the international chart, hitting the century mark over the weekend. It did show weakness in a lot of major markets and overall fell 57% to $30.09 million on 7,073 screens in 56 markets for a total of $125.37 million internationally and $191.53 million worldwide. Granted, it had no major openings this past weekend, but this is still troubling. Additionally, it only has two major openings left (China and Japan) so it is not like it has a lot of markets left to draw from. That said, it has made more globally than it cost to make, and it should add another $100 million or so to that final tally. It should eventually break even.
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May 26th, 2010
The winners of our Prizes Forever contest were determined and they are...
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May 25th, 2010
Shrek Forever After opened in 194 IMAX theaters over the weekend, which was a record theater count. It made $4.8 million during its opening weekend. However, it is hard to be too enthusiastic about this beginning. Granted, it does represent about 7% of the film's opening weekend on just 2% of the film's screens, but it is only half of what Iron Man 2 opened with a couple weeks ago. It was stronger internationally, earning $750,000 on 12 screens with scheduled openings in more than 30 international IMAX theaters ahead of it.
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May 25th, 2010
Solitary Man led the way on the per theater chart with nearly $100,000 in 4 theaters for an average of $23,734. Placing second was Shrek Forever After, as the overall box office leader earned an average of $16,251. Holly Rollers opened with $40,000 in 3 theaters for an average of $13,228. The final film in the $10,000 club was The Father of My Children, which opened with $10,414 in one theater.
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May 25th, 2010
I'm starting to get a little concerned about summer. Granted, we are only three weeks in, but so far we have had two films that came short of high expectations and another that was expected to struggle at the box office and did. This time around, the number one movie failed to meet even the low end of expectations and the overall box office managed just a hair under $150 million. This was 8% more than last weekend, but 15% lower than the same weekend last year. Granted, this time last year was Memorial Day long weekend, so the comparison isn't entirely fair. But still troubling. Year-to-date, 2010 has amassed $4.04 billion, which is 4.8% higher than last year, but the boom in 3D films and the higher ticket prices that go with it means that attendance is down 1.7%.
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May 23rd, 2010
Perhaps DreamWorks Animation saw the writing on the wall before anyone else, but their decision to make Shrek Forever After the last film in the series is looking wise after the Ogre comedy/adventure posted what has to be considered a very ordinary opening.
Paramount's weekend estimate is $71.25 million, over $50 million less than Shrek the Third's debut in 2007, and it will take incredible legs through the Summer for the movie to deliver the kind of box office enjoyed by previous movies in the franchise.
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May 20th, 2010
It's the first long weekend of the summer; at least it is up here in Canada. What effect will this have on the box office? Not a whole lot, but Canada does represent about 10% of the total domestic box office and every little bit will help. This time last year saw the debut of two box office hits and we only have Shrek Forever After this time around. Granted, even the low end estimates have the pseudo-final chapter in the Shrek franchise crushing either Night at the Museum or Terminator, individually. The question is, can it top their combined opening? It might need to if 2010 is to keep pace with 2009.
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May 14th, 2010
It's the end of an era for Shrek with the release of Shrek Forever After next week. (Okay, it's not really the end.) The film is the only saturation-level release of the week, and more importantly it is this week's target film. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Shrek Forever After.
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 Daria: The Complete Series on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Dirt: The Complete Second Season 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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May 1st, 2010
It's summertime! April started off okay, but ended with a thud. In fact, How to Train Your Dragon was arguably the biggest box office draw of the month, and it opened in March. That said, it's May, and that means there's a clean slate for the box office, as even under the best of circumstances holdovers mean very little at the beginning of the month. As long as the overall box office is healthy, we should be fine. And given the number of $100 million hits that have opened in 2010 so far, plus the $300 million hit that is Alice in Wonderland, I think it is fair to say that we will be fine. The real question is how well May 2010 will compare to last year, when we had six $100 million movies including two that reached $200 million. This time around there's one less weekend, so we will need help from some of the counter programming to match that number. Since there are only three films that you could call counter programming, this could be a problem.
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April 20th, 2010
During the past week, the IMAX corporation released further details on Avatar's IMAX run. The film reached $100 million internationally from 85 international screens to go with its more than $125 million domestic IMAX total. Worldwide it has now made $228 million on 262 screens. All these numbers are records, the international box office, the worldwide box office, the screen counts, everything.
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December 19th, 2007
I Am Legend became the latest hit on IMAX screens worldwide as it pulled in $3.2 million on 77 screens domestically and $3.4 million including 6 international screens. This is not record-breaking territory, but a strong start nonetheless.
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August 5th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Fame, Watchmen, Shrek 4 and more.
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November 5th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for National Treasure 2, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, some DreamWorks digital animation movies and more.
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