DVD Sales: Eight is Enough for DVD

March 8th, 2015

Every single film in the top five of the DVD sales chart were new releases, as were eight of the top ten films. Game of Thrones: Season Four earned first place with 241,000 units / $7.23 million during its first week of release. It is hard to be upset about that start. More...

Blu-ray Sales: Game of Thrones is Not Playing Around

March 8th, 2015

The top four films on this week's Blu-ray sales chart and nine of the top twenty were new releases. The number one release was Game of Thrones: Season Four, which sold 286,000 units and generated $9.98 million in sales. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 54%, which is incredible compared to the average TV on DVD release. Then again, Game of Thrones isn't the average TV show. More...

DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 17th, 2015

February 16th, 2015

This is the best week on the home market in a long time. Game of Thrones is one of the best TV shows on at the moment, if not the best TV show, and its DVD and Blu-ray is Pick of the Week material. Additionally, there are a few potential Oscar winners hitting the home market this week as well. On the down side, there is not a lot of depth. Birdman, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and The Theory of Everything are all up for Oscars next weekend and all of them are worth picking up. Life Itself was snubbed by Oscar voters, but it too is a must have. However, in the end, I went with Game of Thrones for Pick of the Week. More...

2014 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Nominations

December 11th, 2014

The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning, at three in the morning, because the people at Golden Globes are under the delusion that news announced at 3:00 a.m. is somehow more important if it is announced before anyone is awake. As for the actual nominations, like with the Independent Spirit Awards and the SAG nominations, Birdman led the way. It earned seven nominations, while Boyhood and The Imitation Game tied for second with five apiece. Starting to notice a pattern here? This could be a really dull Awards Season with very few surprises. On the other hand, predictable means less work for me. Plus, predictable probably means the Awards Season voters are making the right choices, as surprises usually mean someone made the wrong choice. More...

2014 - Awards Season: SAG - Nominations

December 10th, 2014

The Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced Wednesday morning. Are there surprises worth mentioning? Is the Oscar picture beginning to take shape? Like with the Independent Spirit Awards, Birdman led the way this time earning four nominations from six categories, while Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything had three nods each.

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Weekend Estimates: Mockingjay Sets 2014 Record with Disappointing Debut

November 23rd, 2014

If you could sum up 2014 at the box office in one sentence, this weekend’s headline probably comes close. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 is the film we’ve been waiting for all year: the third film in a franchise that has already topped $150 million on each of its previous two opening frames, with the weekend before Thanksgiving all to itself, and reviews that, if not stellar, are at least very respectable for a franchise tentpole. A weekend of $150 million plus seemed a very good bet, and something bigger still couldn’t be ruled out. But, come Sunday, Lionsgate is projecting a $123 million weekend, down about 20% from previous installments. That is, of course, a fantastic weekend by most measures: it’s the 15th-best weekend of all time, and easily the biggest opening weekend in 2014. But this will now be the first year since 2010 without a $150m+ weekend, and the debate about the waning influence of theater-going on the industry will undoubtedly be re-opened. More...

Weekend Estimates: Big Hero Tops Interstellar

November 9th, 2014

With studios cutting down on tentpole releases, and ever-more careful grooming of release schedules, it’s getting rarer to have a genuine head-to-head battle for top spot at the box office. But that’s exactly what we had this weekend, and, although both studios will rightly claim to be very happy with the outcome, execs at Disney will have the slightly bigger grins this Sunday. They are predicting a $56.2 million opening weekend for Big Hero 6, making it a clear winner over Interstellar, which Paramount says will post a round $50 million. More...

Weekend Predictions: Halloween Scares Away New Releases

October 30th, 2014

Tomorrow is Halloween, which is one of the worst days of the year as far as box office numbers are concerned. I would argue only Christmas Eve is worse. Nightcrawler is the only truly wide release of the week, but it is not expected to be a hit. It will likely earn first place, but with only around $10 million. There are two other films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and the tenth anniversary release of Saw. Before I Go to Sleep is the third release from Clarius Entertainment whose first two releases bombed horribly. This one is expected to finish somewhere in-between the first two at the box office. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror franchise of all time, but will people really go to theaters to see it? I would assume fans of these movies likely own the film on Blu-ray, so staying at home would be more appealing. Worse still, this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and it shows. There were five films that earned more than $10 million, led by Ender's Game. This year, we might have no movies earning more than $10 million. Ouch.

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Weekend Wrap-Up: Ouija Wins, But Stars Softer Than Expected

October 28th, 2014

As expected, Ouija won the race for first place, but it finished on the very low end of expectations. On the other hand, John Wick beat expectations earning second place. Overall, these two results balanced out, but this still resulted in the box office falling 12% from last weekend to $116 million. More importantly, it was 13% higher than the same weekend last year. 2014 is still behind 2013, but it is chipping away at the deficit, which has fallen to under $300 million at $8.20 billion to $8.49 billion. 2014 is still behind last year's pace by 3.4%, but if it can close that gap by the same amount in November and December, then at least by the end of the year, it will have closed the gap enough to call it a spiritual victory. More...

Weekend Estimates: Ouija Tops Wick

October 26th, 2014

Teen horror movie Ouija will win this weekend at the box office with a solid $20 million debut and $7,000 theater average. With a budget reported at just $5 million, the movie is a sure-fire money maker for Universal, even with a shelf life of exactly eight days. By comparison, John Wick, which marks a return to form for Keanu Reeves, should have a longer run, based on its current reviews and word of mouth, but will have some ground to make up after opening with around $14 million. More...

Weekend Predictions: Ouija Will Win, But By How Much?

October 23rd, 2014

It is not a good week at the box office for new releases. There are only two films opening wide, one of which is earning terrible reviews and the other is earning terrible buzz. At the moment, Ouija's Tomatometer Score is barely in the double-digits. That said, it is a horror film opening the week before Halloween, so it should make at least $20 million at the box office. On the other hand, John Wick's reviews are Award-worthy... but the buzz is so quiet, I doubt many award voters will see it. This weekend last year was led by Bad Grandpa, which opened in first place with $32.06. Maybe if Ouija is a surprise hit, it will match that figure. However, while 2013 looked better at the top, it had really weak depth beyond the top five, so 2014 will likely win in the year-over-year comparison. More...

Weekend Estimates: Fury an Unspectacular First

October 19th, 2014

Fury will top the box office chart this weekend with a solid, but unspectacular, $23.5 million, according to Sony’s Sunday morning estimate. Pre-weekend projections had the film closer to $30 million, and with an $80 million price tag, and Brad Pitt starring, the film is really underperforming at this point. By way of comparison, Gone Girl opened with $37.5 million three weeks ago. Fury will need really good legs, or a really strong performance overseas, to post a profit. More...

Per Theater Chart: Whiplash has a Saintly Opening

October 15th, 2014

There were a trio of new limited releases topping the per theater chart, led by St. Vincent with an average of $27,470 in four theaters. Whiplash was close behind with an average of $22,565 in six theaters. The final film in the $10,000 club was Awake: The Life of Yogananda with an opening of $18,885 in one theater. More...

Weekend Estimates: Dracula Nearly Gets Girl

October 12th, 2014

What was largely expected to be a fairly comfortable win for Gone Girl this weekend turned out to be a bit of a squeaker, thanks to a better-than-expected $23.46 million estimated opening for Dracula Untold. The vampire actioner won the day on Friday, but couldn’t maintain its pace, with $8.7 million on Saturday, against Gone Girl’s $11.3 million. Projections for today have it potentially falling into third place behind Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on Sunday, which doesn’t bode well for its legs long-term. More...

Limited Releases: Whipped into Shape

October 10th, 2014

We have a rather long list of limited releases this week, but sadly only three of them are earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Unfortunately, two of these films will likely not do well in theaters. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead is a horror film, which is one strike against it, while it is also playing on Video on Demand. I Am Ali is a documentary, so it could do well in art house circuits, but its chances of expanding significantly are very limited. Finally there's Whiplash, which could lead the way on the Per Theater Chart. More...