June 17th, 2006
It was another incredibly busy week with three new films occupying the top three spots and four of them in the top five. Leading the way on the rental charts was
Underworld: Evolution with $8.68 million in DVD rentals.
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June 5th, 2006
It's like the week of the
Western with that genre making appearances in nearly every category, Special Edition, Box Sets, TV on DVD. But while there are certainly some that were in the running for DVD Pick of the Week, (
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -
2-Disc Collector's Edition, for instance), it was a limited release that is the DVD Pick of the Week. And that film is
Sarah Silverman - Jesus is Magic -
Buy from Amazon, but I fully admit my pro-
Sarah Silverman bias has something to do with this decision.
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January 15th, 2006
The King and the Clown did something most films in
South Korea can't, it showed strong legs. In fact, in grew by 22% to $5.76 million on 369 screens over the weekend and $16.82 million in total.
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January 8th, 2006
With openings in the U.K. and Australia,
Just Like Heaven shot back up the charts with $4.70 million on 3173 screens in 32 markets for an international total of $32.33 million so far. In the former market is finished third with $2.06 million on 298 screens while in the latter it struggled to a sixth place finish with $932,000 on 168 screens over the weekend and $1.87 million in total.
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January 7th, 2006
For the third week in a row,
The 40-Year Old Virgin was the leader on both the rental and the sales charts. It ended the year on top with $8.51 million over the week, which was down just 1% from last week and enough to push its total to $27.48 after three weeks.
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December 31st, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin remained it top spot on both the rental and the sales charts showing its domestic run was no fluke. The film have the best week-to-week drop-off in the top ten as it slipped just 16% to $8.60 million over the week and $18.97 million during its two week run.
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December 23rd, 2005
Chicken Little fell out of the top five with $6.81 million on 3697 screens in 32 markets for a $66.03 million running tally. The film had no major openings while holdovers varied from strong in France, (down just 29% to $3.03 million on 910 screens for the weekend and $7.75 million in total) to very poor in Italy, (down 59% to $658,000 on 367 for a $6.39 million total). The film has yet to open in several major markets including the U.K., Japan, and Germany and when it does it should have no trouble topping its domestic total since it is already more than halfway there.
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December 23rd, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin not only did it lead the way on the rental chart bringing in $10.18 million in combined rentals, ($9.82 million from DVDs and $370,000 from VHS), but it also led the way in sales with 3.7 million units sold. Sales totaled $65 million in its opening week. To put this in perspective, the home market release made more than $75 million during its opening week, which is more than the film earned during its first three weeks of theatrical release.
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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 14th, 2005
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire took a bit of a tumble at the international box office this weekend, but that is understandable since it only had one new opening and the competition was much steeper this weekend. Overall the film added $53.13 million on nearly 11,000 screens in 58 markets for a running tally of $415 million internationally and $659 million worldwide.
Both of those figures represent the second best for the year, and the film is now in 17th place internationally and 23rd worldwide all-time.
In the film's only opening, it did break industry records, earning $837,000 on 37 screens in Israel, including previews.
Other big takes include $11 million on 950 screens during its second weekend in France for a $32.9 million total in the market.
It dropped just 13% during its sophomore stint in South Korea, which is a nearly unheard of drop-off; the film made $4.5 million on 486 screens over the weekend and $12.9 million overall.
The U.K. is still the film's best market with just shy of $70 million so far, including $3.5m on 1,050 screens this weekend.
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December 10th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith won the race to the top of the weekly rental charts and nearly had the same total as
last week's winner. Over the week the film pulled in $15.44 million in combined rentals, just $100,000 behind
War of the Worlds opening.
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December 7th, 2005
For the third week in a row, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire expanded on the international scene, and that allowed its overall box office to remain nearly flat with $92.6 million on more than 11,600 screens in 57 markets.
Its total has now reached $330.6 million, putting it fourth for the year, just behind Madagascar, and just outside the top thirty all-time, while its worldwide total of $560 million is third for the year and 30th all-time.
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November 28th, 2005
This week the we have dueling documentaries looking to score the coveted DVD Pick of the Week title: March of the Penguins - Buy from Amazon and Murderball - Buy from Amazon.
While the former was the bigger hit at the box office, it is the latter than is the DVD Pick of the Week.
On a side note, it feels like a really slow week.
Perhaps studios were unwilling to release a movie the Tuesday after the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Paradoxically, there are a lot of box sets coming out tomorrow, most of which are re-releases of previous DVDs and are not worth the upgrade, but were designed to be the perfect gift.
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October 9th, 2005
Company 9 opened in its native market of Russia with a stunning $5.0 million over the weekend and $6.25 million including the midweek numbers, which is better than Revenge of the Sith's opening in that market.
This also means there were two films that did so well in their local markets that they managed to place in the top five overall.
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October 2nd, 2005
Red Eye added another $3.7 million on 2,057 screens in 37 markets to its $22 million international total. The film opened in second place in both Spain with $850,000 on 215 screens and in the Netherlands with $250,000 on 59 ($300,000 including previews).
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September 25th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of
South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like
last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out
Pride and Prejudice.
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September 18th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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September 11th, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin topped the U.K. marked with an impressive $3.26 million on 394 screens in the U.K., but this is probably not indicative of its potential in other international markets. The film should do well in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but will likely struggle in non-English speaking markets. (Germany may be an exception.)
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September 4th, 2005
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but
War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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August 24th, 2005
The Island again topped the international charts with a rather tepid $12.4 million on nearly 5000 screens in 44 markets over the weekend. With this week's haul the
Sci-Fi flick has reached $84.8 million internationally, which is nearly $50 million more than it earned domestically, allowing it to top $100 million worldwide. This weekend the film opened in a couple of French speaking markets in Europe earning the number one spot in France with $3.4 million on 640 screens and $694,000 on 64 screens in Belgium. Holdovers were generally weak including a 45% tumble in both the U.K. to $1.37 million on 412 screens and Germany to $859,500 on 725. On the other hand, the film is still performing well in South Korea adding another $511,000 to its $20.47 million total in that single market, which would be like earning more than $300 million domestically given the relative size of the two markets.
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August 21st, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where
Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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August 14th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in Belgium with $1.7 million on 80 screens, easily enough for first place and had a similar result with $480,000 in Poland. It also remained in first place in France with $2.88 million, (despite falling 54% there) and in the Netherlands with $740,000. In Germany the film remained in second place for the third straight week with $3.06 million for a $17.06 million running tally. The film now have $140 million in territories where
Fox is handling the distribution and $192 million overall.
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August 3rd, 2005
Thanks almost entirely to a massive opening in the U.K.,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to top the international box office charts with $19.8 million on 2300 screens in 15 markets over the weekend. It's biggest draw was in the U.K. at $14.1 million on 531 screens, which was more than the total made by the
second place movie. That is on par with
War of the Worlds's opened a couple of weeks ago and should lead to a $40 million to $45 million total in that market alone. And that should come as a bit of a relief to the
studio since the film was monstrously expensive to make and it will need a strong showing internationally to make a profit. Other openings this weekend include a first place, $1.43 million debut in just 47 theatres in Mexico, which was more than double its
nearest competitor. Holdovers continued to help
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's international campaign adding $2.37 million during its third weekend in France to its $12.8 million running tally there. Overall the film now has $36.3 million internationally and could finish its run north of $300 million.
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July 27th, 2005
It was a close race for top spot on the international charts this weekend but
Madagascar just managed to pull ahead when the final figures were announced. The film added $24.6 million this weekend to its $190 million international total, including an incredible performances in both Germany and South Korea. The film was down just 14% during its second weekend adding $7.5 million to its $20.5 million running tally, if the film continues to show strong legs is could beat
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in the market. In south Korea the film rose by 14% to $2.65 million for the week and $5.41 million during its tun. Things weren't quite as rosy in the U.K. where the film dropped by 40% to $5.7 million for a total of $19.7 million so far. The film remained in first place in both Hong Kong, ($574,000) and Taiwan, ($375,000) while its only opening was in Venezuela where the film earned $360,000.
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July 24th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened in three French speaking markets over the weekend and while it didn't finish first, it still had a great start.
In France the film earned $3,741,793 in 670 theaters for the best per theater average in the top ten.
The result was similar in Belgium ($250,000) and Switzerland ($190,000), giving the film $4.2 million for the weekend.
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July 17th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith continues its excellent run in Asia with a $2.2 million opening in 450 theatres in China. The film also added $1.8 million in South Korea for an $18 million running total in that market, (although it was pushed out of the top spot in that market. Overall the film made $4 million pushing its total to $117 million internationally and $275 million worldwide.
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July 11th, 2005
The Slump is dead.
After 19 weeks, it has finally ended.
It has been more than four months since the last time 2005 topped 2004 in the yearly comparison, but that's just what happened this weekend.
Before we start celebrating too much, note that the margin of victory was tiny at just over $500,000.
But at this point a victory is a victory and the movie industry will take them anyway they can get them.
On a week-to-week basis we actually saw pretty good growth, rising by 5.2%, which is strange for a post-holiday weekend.
Year-to-date, 2005 is still off by 8% $4.523 billion to $4.934 billion while the summer is down 11% $2.023 billion vs. $2.281 billion.
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July 8th, 2005
The Fantastic Four battle Dr. Doom and
invading aliens this weekend. But the real competition comes from
last year when
Spider-Man 2 took home $45 million during its second weekend of release. And while no film will top that figure, the combination of strong starts and healthy holdovers could stop The Slump, but I wouldn't bet on it.
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July 6th, 2005
War of the Worlds made its worldwide debut on Wednesday bringing in $13.35 million on that day alone and $102.5 million on 8000 screens in 78 markets in its first five days. Compared to
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith,
War of the Worlds made almost 30% less over the same period, and nearly 20% lower than the earlier 5-day record of $125.7 million set by
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Its best single market was Japan where the film made $15.5 million on 765, but the U.K. was close behind with $15.2 million on 507 screens.
War of the Worlds beat
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in a few markets, (Hong Kong, $1.7 million vs. $1.2 million) Taiwan, ($1.0 million vs. $500,000) and Russia, ($3.7 million vs. $3.2 million.) However, in many other major markets the film was far behind including Spain ($9.7 million vs. $7.7 million), Australia, ($10.4 million vs. $5.9 million), and Germany, ($17.8 million vs. $7.3 million.)
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July 5th, 2005
It was a very predictable weekend at the box office as four of the top five films finished within $1 million or so within expectations, at least over the first 3 days.
Monday was another story as several films missed predictions.
And as expected, the overall box office was down again on a year-to-year comparison -- and that's now for 19 weeks in a row.
But first some good news, the 3-day portion of the weekend saw an 11.1% increase from last weekend, which is not all that great taking into account the holiday on Monday.
On a yearly comparison the 3-day weekend was down 14.6% while the 4-day weekend was down an incredible 23%.
Year-to-date 2005 has now brought in $4.313 billion, 8.4% behind 2004, while the summer is down 11.7% at $1.813 billion so far.
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July 4th, 2005
As with all long weekends, July Fourth will cause a one day delay in both Weekend Wrap-up and the Per Theatre Charts. They will be published on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. In the meantime, here are the studio estimates for the Top Ten, both over the 3-day weekend and the 4-day weekend.
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July 1st, 2005
The Independence Day long weekend is one of the most important weekends on the calendar.
However, there will likely be little celebrating once the numbers start coming in.
Simply put, the target needed to break The Slump is too high and there's almost no chance of breaking it this weekend.
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June 29th, 2005
Batman Begins didn't see the sharp drop-off many had feared after its soft opening
last weekend slipping by a reasonable 36%. Its best market continued to be the U.K. where the film added $5.1 million on 516 screens to its $16.7 million running tally. Other strong holdovers include Australia at $2.1 million, France at $1.96 million, and Mexico with $1.94 million. The film had a few openings over the weekend managing second place in South Korea with $2.1 million on 201 screens, $430,000 in Indonesia, and $388,000 in Portugal. Overall
Batman Begins made $26.7 million on 8,350 screens in 85 markets for an international tally of $83.4 million, while its worldwide box office climbed above $200 million. That's not up to initial expectations, but still impressive.
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June 27th, 2005
The slump continued this weekend, marking the 18th weekend in a row that the overall box office was lower than the same weekend last year.
That's the longest such slump since detailed box office data was kept (1982).
To add insult to injury, it wasn't even close; the yearly comparison showed a 14.5% drop-off from the last year.
This weekend the box office really should have stopped the streak, and now it looks like it could continue until August, and possibly longer.
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June 24th, 2005
Three new films aim to break the box office out of its 17-week slump this weekend.
It's been more than four months since the box office gained any ground on 2004, and the chances of breaking the slump this weekend are not that bad.
This time last year wasn't a particularly strong weekend, but none of this year's three opening films are all that strong either.
In fact, it is unlikely that Batman Begins will be dethroned over the next three days.
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June 22nd, 2005
Batman Begins opened worldwide in a day-and-date release but it's international fortunes were no better than its domestic. The film was easily the number one movie on the international scene with $41.7 million on 8,000 screens in 73 markets. Compared to other international hits this year,
Batman Begins' debut is softer than
Kingdom of Heaven, ($53.8 million on 6500 screens in 100 markets) and not that much above
last week's champ,
Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which wasn't even a worldwide release, ($32 million on 3,600 screens in 35 markets.) It's best market was the U.K. at $7.8 million, but the film also did well in Mexico, ($4.2 million over five days) and France, ($3 million.) On the other hand, in Australia the film finished in second place to
Madagascar, ($3,223,600 to $3,578,000) and the same happened in both Spain and Holland, but box office numbers from those markets are unavailable at the moment. Overall the film performed below expectations, but well enough that it should show a profit before it reaches the home market.
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June 20th, 2005
With both new films failing to live up to expectations, we saw yet another weekend with lower box office numbers.
The total box office was down by 5.67% compared to last weekend.
Early predictions had the comparison to the same weekend last year almost too close to call, and final results didn't clear matters up.
Right now, we have this weekend down from the comparable weekend last year by a mere 0.82%.
However, late numbers from limited releases that are not tracked by the big companies will push this weekend's number higher, but probably not the $1.2 million it needed lift it above last year.
That makes this the 17th weekend in a row of declines on the year-to-year comparison, a new and dubious record. Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $3.841 billion in box office revenue, down 6.6% from the same time last year.
The Summer numbers are even worse at $1.34 billion; that's the worst start since 2001 and down 8.1% from last year.
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June 17th, 2005
It looks like the near universal enthusiasm for this weekend's box office needs to be toned down a bit after Wednesday's disappointing opening by Batman Begins. Even so, the weekend should still be strong enough to break the slump the year-to-year comparisons are struggling with.
Which means for the first time in nearly four months 2005 will gain ground on 2004.
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June 15th, 2005
We have a new champion atop the International Box Office charts as
Mr. and Mrs. Smith overtook
Revenge of the Sith with $32 million on 3,600 screens in 35 markets. The film best market was the U.K. at $7.1 million on 448 screens, which was slightly below
Hitch's debut earlier in the year. In Australia it brought in $4.7 million on 356 screens, as well as $3.6 million in both Mexico and Taiwan. Other million dollar markets include Brazil, ($1.6 million on 401 screens); Hong Kong, ($1.2 million on 68) and Thailand, ($1.2 million on 250.)
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June 14th, 2005
The overall box office champ also took top spot on the Per Theater Charts.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith earned a surprising $50 million at the box office for an average of $14,703.
The only other film to reach the $10,000 milestone was Howl's Moving Castle, which performed admirably with $11,889; but that's not as strong a start as Hayao Miyazaki's previous film, Spirited Away.
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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 9th, 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,
Stealth -
Official Site.
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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 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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May 5th, 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. Slow week with most of the sites being merely average or too early in their development to tell if the film is an award winning site or not. So in the end I decided not to hand out the award to any site. Hopefully next week things will pick up.
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January 20th, 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,
Fantastic Four -
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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December 30th, 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 this week's winner
The Ring 2 -
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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