May 26th, 2009
It's a slow week, not that you can tell from the number of spotlight reviews. Over the past week, I received close to a dozen DVDs that were late. Fortunately, I was able to get to all of them, at least I until this afternoon when a couple more arrived late. (It never ends.) As for the DVD / Blu-rays coming out this week, there's not much of a selection. The best is Jeeves & Wooster - The Complete Series, but the lack of extras prevents it from being awarded the DVD Pick of the Week. On the other hand, the best on this week's list is Star Trek - Original Motion Picture Collection, which actually came out a couple of weeks ago. Even so, it is deserving of the DVD Pick of the Week. A slow week plus a lot of late reviews still results in a list so long it had to be spit into two. The second part can be found here.
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February 15th, 2006
With the
Oscars less than a month away and our
contest well under way, there's no better time to take a closer look at some of the nominees. Today we'll look at the Best Supporting Roles for both Actor and Actress.
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January 31st, 2006
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece,
Crash,
Good Night and Good Luck, and
Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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January 29th, 2006
There were 5 theatrical awards handed out tonight by the
Screen Actors Guild, and five different films won.
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January 6th, 2006
The
Writers Guild of America announced its nominations this week, and while there are plenty of awards, only three are for theatrical releases.
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January 6th, 2006
Of the 13 awards the Screen Actors Guild will hand out on January 29th, 2006, five will be awarded to theatrical releases. And like past awards nominations,
Brokeback Mountain again led the way, with four in total.
However, this time there were two films close behind as
Crash and
Capote each received three nominations.
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December 17th, 2005
Fantastic Four was the movie that stopped the massive box office slump this summer, and it is continuing that strong performance on the home market. It topped the home market with a combined total of $11.26 million, $10.47 million from DVDs and $800,000 from VHS.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today as Golden Globe nominations were announced. With seven nods, it led all films, which is an important Oscar indicator.
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December 5th, 2005
The rush for last minute gift ideas continues with plenty of DVD releases this week. The best movie coming out this week is Cinderella Man - Collector's Edition, but the DVD Pick of the week goes to Star Wars - Clone Wars - Volume 2.
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November 20th, 2005
The Corpse Bride missed the top five by the narrowest of narrow margins losing out to
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit $5.50 million to $5.45 million. The film earned its $5.45 million on 2586 screens in 28 markets pushing its total to $53.4 million total at the international box office. In South Korea the film fell 43% to $753,000 on 114 screens, which is better than average for the market. And the film is also doing well in Italy adding $764,000 on 268 screens to its $2.67 million running tally there, $700,000 in France for a $8 million box office, and $462,000 in Japan for a $7.0 million box office.
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November 13th, 2005
Chicken Little started its international run with day-and-date debuts in 9 markets earning $5.54 million on 900 screens, just missing the top five in the process. Its best market was kid-friendly Mexico with $3.1 million on 600 screens, which is about on par with its opening domestically. On the other hand, the film broke records in Malaysia with $477,000 on 40 screens. Other results include a first place debuts in Russia with $1.1 million on 197 screens and in Taiwan with $463,000 on 18 screens, (including previews).
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November 6th, 2005
With
The Legend of Zorro earning a nearly worldwide release this past weekend, and the imminent release of another
juggernaut, there was little room for other releases this weekend on the international scene.
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October 30th, 2005
Oliver Twist opened in two major markets over the weekend, placing second in both France with $2.4 million on 547 screens and Italy with $1.3 million on 301 screens.
Other markets include $360,000 in the U.K. for a $3.6 million total there and $140,000 in Poland for $1.1 million. Add it up and you have $4.2 million for the weekend and $9.6 million in total.
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October 23rd, 2005
The Brothers Grimm dropped just 35% during its second weekend in France adding $2.1 million to its $5.7 million total there. In Germany, the film performed a nearly the same level falling 36% to $950,000 over the weekend and $2.9 million during its run. Overall the film made $4 million for a $27.8 million runny tally and that places it fourth on this week's charts. While the film struggled domestically, it is doing quite a bit better on the international scene, and could show a profit sometime during its home market run.
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October 16th, 2005
Company 9 remained in first place in Russia, its home market, down just 13% to $4.3 million for a running total of $14.3 million, which is well ahead of Revenge of the Sith's final box office in the market (which was just shy of $10 million).
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October 5th, 2005
Too much chocolate is bad for your health, but try telling that to the international box office.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has topped the international box office for the fourth weekend in a row and the sixth during its run this weekend adding $10.2 million on 3,200 screens in 52 markets. Its best market of the weekend was again Japan where it finished first, again, with $3.1 million for the weekend on 360 screens and $28.7 million during its run. It was also first in Italy with $2.4 million on 282 screens for a $6.5 million running tally and in Norway with $740,000 on 92 screens, and in New Zealand with $314,000 on 80. With no more major markets, and precious little midlevel ones as well, the film is just wrapping up its international run, a run that has earned the film $219 million so far.
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September 28th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory finished first on the international charts for the third weekend in a row and the fifth time in its international run, reaching a major milestone along the way.
Over the weekend the film added $13.7 million on almost 4,000 screens in 55 markets for an international box office of $201.1 million.
Highlights include amazing holdovers in Japan where it was down just 12% to $4.1 million over the weekend and $22 million in total and in South Korea where the film was down a phenomenal 6% to $1.5 million for a $5 million total.
New openings include first place debuts in both Italy at $2.8 million on 402 screens and $333,000 on 64 screens in Denmark, which represents its last two major or midlevel markets.
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September 21st, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to remain in top spot on the international charts with $11.5 million on 4,113 screens in 53 markets for a running tally of $175 million internationally. Highlights this weekend include a trio of first place premieres in South Korea with $1.57 million on 106 screens, in Norway with $1.15 million on 97, and in Sweden with $534,000 on 125. Still, its best market in terms of raw dollars remains Japan where the film repeated at number one with $3.17 million on 359 screens, which was down 25% from last weekend, about average for the market.
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September 14th, 2005
After almost a month in second place, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to recapture first thanks primarily to a strong start in Japan and a relatively strong holdover in Australia.
In Japan, the film opened in first place with $4.3 million on 338 screens, well ahead of the competition.
In Australia, the film remained in second place with $3.2 million on 463 screens, down 41% from last weekend and almost five times the second placed film.
It also opened in New Zealand, easily taking first place with $875,000 on 80 screens and remains a major player in the U.K. with $975,000 on 422 screens during its seventh weekend of release in that market.
Overall Charlie and the Chocolate Factory earned $11.3 million on 4,100 screens in 49 markets this weekend for a $155.7 million running tally.
Assuming the studio's share of the domestic box office was 66% and 50% of the international, which are fair assumptions, then the movie is just now starting to show a profit.
However, this is better than many films, which have to wait until the home market before the studio recoups their costs, or in fact fail to recoup their costs.
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June 13th, 2005
Despite the number one film beating expectations by $10 million, the box office is still struggling.
First the good news: the weekend numbers were 9.6% higher than last weekend.
But more importantly they were 9.7% lower than the same weekend last year.
Overall 2005 is 10.3% lower for the Summer at $1.121 billion, and 7.2% lower for the year at $3.621 billion.
One bit of good news: should Batman Begins meet market expectations we should see the first weekend of yearly growth in almost four months.
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June 10th, 2005
It's another crowded weekend with four wide releases, well, four if you stretch the definition of wide slightly.
There's only one saturation level release (3,000 or more theaters), and two of the new films couldn't crack 2,000.
To top things off, at the moment not one of these films is earning overall positive reviews.
Even so, we should see a significant increase in the total box office compared to last weekend, but there is likely going to be another drop-off on a year-to-year basis.
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June 6th, 2005
This past weekend was arguably the worst weekend at the box office all year, maybe not in terms of raw dollars, but certainly in terms of drop-offs. None of the new films could match expectations, which helped lead to a 28.38% drop-off from last weekend. Now a post-holiday drop-off is expected, but 28.38%! Even worse, the weekend was down 30.25% from the same time last year. 30.25%! Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $3.43 billion at the box office, which is 6.7% behind 2004 during the same time frame. And with the later half of 2005 looking weaker, there's little hope it will turn things around.
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June 3rd, 2005
At the risk of being run through with a lightsabre, let me say that, finally, 2005 has delivered a great
movie.
Ron Howard's Cinderella Man delivers
on all levels, with stand out performances by Russell
Crowe and Paul Giamatti, some beautiful
technical work, and a knockout screenplay by Cliff Hollingsworth and Akiva Goldsman.
Good
word-of-mouth should keep this movie in theaters for a long time.
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June 3rd, 2005
Three new wide releases enter a crowded marketplace this week, but it's unlikely any of them will unseat current champ, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
The biggest box office hit of the year has more to worry about from fellow holdover Madagascar than any of the new films.
On a sad note, despite the number of strong contenders at the box office, analysts expect another drop-off from this time last year when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban set records.
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June 2nd, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Perfect Man - Official Site.
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June 1st, 2005
June's a great month for movies, even though it doesn't have a major long weekend like May (Memorial Day), or July (Independence Day).
There are a couple of films that have real potential to become monster hits, plus lots of $100 million contenders.
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May 27th, 2005
Ah, Memorial Day Long Weekend, the busiest weekend at the movies in the whole year. Last year nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were spent on tickets during the four days and its economic impact is even greater. More than 30 million people will check out a movie this weekend, and each and every one of those will be inundated by ads for upcoming movies, trailers, posters, standees, ads on the popcorn bucket, ads on the drinks, etc. All that advertising will be a huge boost to upcoming films and will undoubtedly help jumpstart the summer.
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May 26th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Cinderella Man -
Official Site.
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March 31st, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Longest Yard - Official Site.
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