January 31st, 2005
On Saturday, the Directors Guild of America celebrated their 57th annual awards. And while there were many winners, only two awards were for theatrical releases.
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November 18th, 2004
October 20th, 2004
Thanks to mostly unopposed openings several more markets,
Shark Tale was able to repeat as the international box office champ this week. Not only that, but its $29.6 million more than doubled its international tally prior to the start of the weekend as the film now sits at $56.2 million. The best opening of the weekend, and most likely of its international run, was in the U.K. where the film managed to take in $9.1 million, ($13.6 million if you include last week's previews.) In France the result was strong with $4.2 million but in the face of local competition, it could only manage $3.4 million in Germany.
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October 4th, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section, including the co-winners of the DVD Pick of the Week
Fahrenheit 9/11 -
Buy from Amazon. This may be a controversial choice for DVD pick of the week, but it is the
top seller for the week and had a record breaking box office and
excellent reviews.
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September 21st, 2004
The Village once again top took spot on the international scene, but by a very narrow margin. Still being plagued by sharp drop-offs, the film earned $11.2 million on 3,500 screens in 34 markets. So far the film has taken it $117 million internationally, higher than its $113 million it earned domestically. Although, it is much lower than
M. Night Shyamalan's previous movie
Signs.
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September 14th, 2004
The Village again was the weekend champ in the international box office with $15.3 million on nearly 3,500 screens in 31 markets. Highlights for the weekend include and impressive debut in Germany at $5.5 million and a less spectacular $3.1 million in Japan. The film also suffered a 55% drop-off in its second weekend in Australia while it held up much better in Brazil. So far the film has earned $63.2 million internationally and is well on its way to matching its $112 million domestic total.
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September 8th, 2004
The weekend on the international scene was very much the same as last weekend, just a little bit slower.
The Village was again the champ, thanks to seven openings in mostly mid-ranged markets. A $2.2 million debut in Australia was the top money earner as the film took in $9 million in 23 markets. It's international total is now $45 million and should be headed to $100 million before it is done.
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August 24th, 2004
A trio of new openings pushed
King Arthur into first place this week with $13 million in 33 markets. The film now sits at $88 million internationally, and should break $100 million by next weekend. Worldwide it looks headed for $200 million.
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August 10th, 2004
With the summer juggernauts mostly wrapping up their runs, and very little in the way of new competition,
I, Robot easily finished first on the international box office charts. Its weekend earnings of $31.3 million on more than 6,000 screens in 29 markets was nearly triple what the nearest competitor could take in. The film opened number one in the U.K. (8.7 million), Germany ($5.3 million) and Russia ($2.4 million) as well as strong holdovers in France ($2.6 million) and other nations. The film has already earned $71.2 million internationally, and should top its domestic numbers within a few weeks.
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August 3rd, 2004
I, Robot first major expansion into the international markets proved very profitable for
20th Century Fox. Big openings Europe, $5 million in France and $4.7 million in Spain; Asia, $2.5 million in South Korea, $1.8 million in Taiwan; and in $1.9 million in Mexico help it earn $20.5 million over the weekend. Still early in its run, the
Sci-Fi action film has earned $29.6 million in just 17 markets so far.
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July 27th, 2004
Despite a severe, nearly 50% drop at the box office,
Spider-man 2 remained on top with $31.6 million, including a record $1.6 million in India, the biggest opening for a Hollywood film in that market. However, the news isn't all good as big drop-offs continue to plague the
Marvel web-slinger, 56% in France, 50% in the U.K. and 59% in Spain. But it is still earning immense figures thanks to record-breaking openings and should cross $600 million worldwide early in the mid-week and $300 million internationally during next weekend.
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July 26th, 2004
The weekend results were much better than expected, at least overall. Both new films took in more than expected, while all but one the holdovers beat our prediction. Even so, the week-to-week change was again very flat with a miniscule 0.37% drop from last weekend, but was 3.57% smaller than the same weekend last year.
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July 23rd, 2004
Just two wide releases this week, but unfortunately they share a lot of the same target audience. This could result in ticket splitting making both films suffer at the box office. But it is more likely that one film will simply crush the other. With the sheer contrast between their critical reception, one of them certainly deserves to crush the other.
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July 20th, 2004
Another 11 openings, mostly in European markets, helped
Spider-man 2 swing to new heights this week on the international charts. This week it earned $62.3 million on roughly 9,400 screens in 61 markets, which pushed it international total to $200.1 million and in just 19 days. Highlights include $15.7 million in the U.K., $11.6 million in France and $7.7 million in Spain. The news was less impressive in Northern Europe where a heat wave hurt the industry as a whole; specifically, this lead to smaller than expected openings in Belgium and Holland and a steep drop in Germany. Worldwide the film has topped $500 million, just the fifth film to do so this year, and the 35th all-time. With Italy the only remaining major opening left, and it doesn't open there till mid-September, the weekly numbers have most likely peaked. However, it should still quickly climb the charts.
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July 19th, 2004
The number one movie this week was right on target with moviegoers, beating almost all predictions, but it may have come at the expense of others films. This kept the box office relatively flat both from last week (up 3.13%) and last year (up 1.95%). Year-to-date still has 2004 up by 6% over 2003, $5.16 billion to $4.86 billion.
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July 16th, 2004
Just two wide releases this week, but together they make almost the perfect duo, the potential blockbuster and the counter-programming smaller film. Hopefully, this will result in both films maximizing their box office. However, with neither film likely to win many awards their maximized profits are unlikely to be particularly impressive.
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July 13th, 2004
With openings in more than 20 markets,
Spider-man 2 took top spot on the international charts this week with $50.9 million on 6,723 screen in 50 markets. Most of this week's openings were like its domestic opening, huge, but not record breaking. So far the film has earned $113.9 million and is ahead of the
first's film pace, in fact, it has already topped Spider-Man's total in five markets: Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Turkey. Worldwide the film has earned nearly $400 million and with very impressive legs it should more double that before its run is over.
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July 12th, 2004
No real surprises this weekend, at least none of them pleasant. The box office was a little slow compared to predictions and that lead to a serious decrease of 10.5% from last weekend. The year-to-year comparison and not bad, but are starting to show signs of serious weakness; the weekend box office was up, but at just 2.65% it's below ticket price inflation. With a year-to-date box office increase of only 6.5% so far, it won't take much to see this year's gains drop below ticket price inflation.
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July 9th, 2004
A trio of newcomers open wide this week, but it will be unlikely that any of them will unseat the current box office champ,
Spider-man 2.
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July 8th, 2004
A trio of films topped $10,000 over the 3 day weekend, and if you add in Monday's results, that numbers goes up to five. Topping the list was the overall box office champ,
Spider-Man 2 with $21,232 per theatre average. Close behind was
De-Lovely with an average of $18,310 in 16 theatres, while
Before Sunset with $10,971 average in 20 theatres.
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July 7th, 2004
Most analysts were expecting
Spider-man 2 to crush many records; that didn't work out. In fact, none of the films met expectations over the weekend. Fortunately, while reality couldn't keep up with expectations, it was still enough to post big increases both from last weekend (11.4%) and last year (21.5%.) However, the increase from last year is a bit misleading as July 4th fell on the Friday, which has historically hurt the box office.
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July 2nd, 2004
Just the one film opening this weekend, but it's a monster. It's also going to suck all the box office away from the other movies. Last weekend we had seven films break $10 million, this weekend even with the 4th of July boost we might only have three or four films do the same.
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June 30th, 2004
There was just one film that managed to make it to the $10,000 per theatre milestone this weekend but it was a huge film. Fahrenheit 9/11 played in 868 theatres over the weekend taking in an amazing $23.9 million for an unbelievable average of $27,558, almost quadruple the second place film. Next week the film should expand to more than double the current number of theatres, so if it can remain about $10,000 per theatre it will be a monster hit.
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June 28th, 2004
There was a new movie on the top of the charts this weekend, but it wasn't the film most analysts were predicting. Also good news: every film in the Top Ten beat expectations, albeit by the narrowest of margins in some cases. This led to a serious increase of 9% compared to last weekend and a massive increase of 22% from last year.
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June 25th, 2004
Three new films open wide this week, or four new films if you really stretch the definition of wide. Even so, there's a good chance there won't be a change at top spot on the charts.
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June 24th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Suspect Zero -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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June 23rd, 2004
Two new films,
White Chicks and
Fahrenheit 9/11 open tonight, but you'd be hard pressed to find any other similarity between them.
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June 21st, 2004
Bit of a mixed week: we had a surprise hit at number one, but the two bigger budget films both struggled. This led to the second really big drop-off in the weekend box office in a row, this time 14.7%. And it that in turn led to the first year-to-year drop in some weeks, and it was a pretty serious decline of 9.4%. With next week looking less than impressive as well, the industry will need Spider-Man 2 to really soar to avoid a prolonged slump.
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June 17th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Around the World in 80 Days -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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May 28th, 2004
According to CBS MarketWatch.com, Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein have obtained the rights to Michael Moore's new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11". Walt Disney Co. had held the authorization but have declined to allow Mirimax to distribute the film.
The Weinsteins bought the rights through their company 'The Fellowship Adventure Group', reportedly reimbursing to Miramax all costs of the film.
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