April 27th, 2007
New releases went one-two-three on the rental charts with Smokin' Aces leading the way after taking in $6.68 million.
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April 21st, 2007
It was a slow week for new releases with only one able to make the top ten on the rentals charts. This left The Good Shepherd free to remain in top spot with $7.15 million for the week and $15.81 during its run so far.
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April 14th, 2007
The Good Shepherd led a flock of new releases earning $8.66 million. This was only a small, small margin ahead of the second place Pursuit of Happyness, which added $8.48 million to its two-week total of $18.43 million.
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April 7th, 2007
New releases were a source of happiness on the home market as they first one - two this week. Leading the way was Pursuit of Happyness with an impressive $9.95 million while fellow happy release, Happy Feet, placed second with $8.26 million.
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April 1st, 2007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started its international run this past weekend and just missed the top five on debut.
It did manage $3.92 million on 1,004 screens in 8 markets over the weekend and $4.53 million including previews.
Of this box office, nearly half of it came from a pair of third place openings in England ($1.27 million on 368 screens over the weekend and $1.86 million in total), and Australia ($379,000 on 58 screens).
The film also opened in Russia where the strong mutant demographic helped the film capture second place with $1.38 million on 360 screens.
(That was a Chernobyl joke, by the way.)
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March 26th, 2007
Yikes! It's a busy week for DVD releases with closing in on 50 DVDs on this week's list. Not only are there are a lot of films worth checking out, there's a very close race for the DVD Pick of the Week. It came down to Children of Men - Buy from Amazon and The Shield - The Complete Fifth Season - Buy from Amazon. It's practically a coin flip here, but I'm giving the DVD Pick of the Week to Children of Men - Buy from Amazon, after all, I couldn't let the film get passed over for yet another award. That would be just too cruel.
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March 25th, 2007
The French film, Taxi 4, just missed the top five with $3.94 million on 1255 screens in 7 markets for a total of $49.56 million. Obviously, most of that has come from France, $35.70 million in fact, but the film is also doing well in Russia with $10.63 million so far, including $2.22 million on 466 screens over the weekend.
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March 18th, 2007
There was quite an international flavor on the charts this past weekend with five local hits charting, and one more just missing that mark. The best of these was Lubov Morkov, which opened in sixth place with $5.38 million on 492 screens in 4 markets over the weekend and $6.28 million in total. Of this amount, $4.90 million on 427 screens was earned over the weekend in Russia while it managed $5.80 million including midweek numbers.
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March 7th, 2007
Ghost Rider was relatively flat this week as it earned $16.63 million on 4008 screens in 47 markets for a total of $61.49 million internationally. Its biggest market in terms of raw dollars was the U.K. with $3.56 million on 342 screens, but it could only managed second place behind local smash hit, Hot Fuzz. On the other hand, it opened in first place in Brazil with $1.8 million on 278 screens and remained in first place in Germany with $1.44 million on 369 screens for a two-week total of $4.25 million. On the opposite end was its opening in Japan; there the film could do no better than fourth with $1.16 million on 256 screens and will likely disappear very quickly after this weekend.
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February 25th, 2007
The Blood Diamond fell from second to sixth this past weekend, mainly due to the lack of new openings. The film still pulled $8.52 million on 3409 screens in 59 markets for a total of $77.51 million and is still on pace for $100 million internationally, but that's the last milestone in its future.
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February 14th, 2007
The Pursuit Of Happyness's reign on top of the international charts was short lived as
Night at the Museum reclaimed the crown. Over the weekend the film pulled in $14.01 million on 4559 screens in 43 markets for a total of $231.50 million so far. Topping this week's markets was France where the film opened in first place with $4.3 million on 676 screens while it fell just 33% during its second weekend in Italy adding $2.45 million on 463 screens for a total of $9.51 million. Even if the film had no further markets to open in, $250 million internationally and $500 million worldwide would be virtual guarantees. However, it has yet to open in Japan as well as midlevel markets like Belgium and the Netherlands.
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February 7th, 2007
The Pursuit Of Happyness won the weekend race for the first time in its four-week international run. The film played in roughly two-dozen markets over the weekend earning $16.47 million on 3177 screens for a running tally of $72.50 million. Much of the weekend earnings came from a trio of new openings led by Spain where it placed second with $2.44 million on 285 screens. The film also opened second in France with $2.2 million on 322 screens and in Mexico with $1.34 million on 300. One of its best markets of the weekend was Japan where it slipped just 18% to $2.39 million on 271 screens for a total of $8.81 million. Meanwhile, the film's best total so far has come from Italy where it has made $17.71 million in total, including $1.57 million on 339 screens this past weekend.
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January 31st, 2007
Night at the Museum has been in first place on the international charts for a month now and shows little sign of slowing down. This week the film added $15.21 million on 4422 screens in 48 markets for an international total of $194.88 million. Openings include first place debuts in Spain, ($5.67 million on 473 screens), and the Philippines, ($798,000 on 96). On the other hand, it had to settle for third in Brazil with $977,000 on 461 screens. Its best holdover of the week was the U.K. where it is in fourth place during its fifth week of release with $2.28 million on 458 screens over the weekend and total of $39.23 million.
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January 24th, 2007
Night at the Museum remained in first place, as it has since it opened four weeks ago, but this time it was involved in a relatively close race. The film added $14.84 million on 4391 screens in 45 markets for a total of $173.86 million. The film only had one new opening this weekend and that was in Uruguay where it opened with $38,000 on 13 screens; that may not seem like much, but it represents the fifth biggest opening ever in the market.
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.
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January 23rd, 2007
The lone wide release of the weekend struggled to find an audience and even though most of the rest of the top five were able to beat expectations, the weekend box office was still way down.
At just $100 million, the weekend was down 22% from last week and 17% from the same weekend last year.
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January 19th, 2007
Just the one new wide release this weekend, which is surprising since there are five films opening or expanding wide next weekend.
This weekend could handle one or two more wide releases and take some of the pressure off next weekend.
But as it is now, The Hitcher will have little competition this weekend while next weekend at least two films will be squeezed out at the box office.
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January 18th, 2007
While
Night at the Museum saw its weekend haul drop by more than a third this weekend, it still took first place with $20.16 million on 5193 screens in 34 markets for a total of $151.34 million. In Brazil the film earned an estimated $3 million on 502 screens and if that holds up it would be
Fox's third biggest opening ever in that market. Other strong markets include $2.71 million on 803 screens in Germany for a total of $17.24 million after three weeks. At this pace the film will have no trouble reaching $200 million, and that's not taking into account markets it has yet to open in, markets including France, Spain, Italy, and Japan.
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January 17th, 2007
Martin Luther King Jr. long weekend saw a new film take top spot while several films in the top five outperformed expectations.
However, overall the box office was 3% lower from last weekend at $128 million and just 2% higher than the same weekend last year.
That's likely not enough to keep up with ticket price inflation.
Obviously it is too early to panic, or even make predictions, but this is not the start the industry was hoping for.
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January 12th, 2007
The weekend prospects are pretty weak, with none of the wide releases / expanding films looking like they have what it takes to top the box office charts.
This is not particularly surprising, as the Martin Luther King long weekend is not known as a powerhouse at the box office.
With a returning champion and a selection of new and expanding films, moviegoers have a lot of choice, but come Tuesday, there won't be a lot of celebrating in the movie studios.
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January 9th, 2007
There were a couple of pleasant surprises this week, including a generally stronger than expected performance by the holdovers. Better than expected still resulted in an 18% drop-off from last weekend to $133 million, but that's 3.5% better than 2006's start.
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January 5th, 2007
The
Screen Actors Guide handed out their nominations yesterday and of the 5 theatrical categories, there were more than a dozen films to pick up at least one nomination.
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January 5th, 2007
The first weekend of the year is not known for producing many hits. In fact, perhaps only the first weekend after Labor Day is worse.
This year is no exception: the three wide releases are not earning strong reviews, only one new film is able to crack 2,000 theaters, and none of them have a real shot at first place.
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January 3rd, 2007
It was a fairly predictable weekend as far as box office numbers go. No film really beat expectations by a wide margin, nor did any fail to do so.
This meant nearly every film in the top ten showed significant growth (the lone exception was Rocky Balboa), while the only film in the top twenty to see a serious drop-off was the Christmas film, The Nativity Story, which plummeted more than 67%.
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December 29th, 2006
It's the New Year's Day long weekend, and not surprisingly, there are no new wide releases this week.
There are, on the other hand, two movies that are playing their first weekend, Dreamgirls and Black Christmas.
However, it looks as if neither has what it takes to wrestle top spot from Night at the Museum.
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December 28th, 2006
Most films missed expectations this weekend and that hurt the overall box office, which was off 8% compared to last year.
But there were still reasons to celebrate with Pursuit of Happyness and Rocky Balboa matching their production budget over the weekend while Dreamgirls exploded on Christmas Day.
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December 21st, 2006
Christmas is one of the busiest times of year and this year is no exception with five films opening wide from now to the 25th and another expanding. Because of the crowd, at least one or two will be lost, squeezed out by the competition. However, there are also two or three films that are aiming at $100 million, or more.
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December 19th, 2006
After weeks of mediocre box office results, the box office finally started to show some life this past weekend, but even so, only one of the three wide releases beat expectations and the overall box office was still down more than 6% from the same weekend last year.
However, with an overall box office of $121 million there was still growth of 25% from last weekend and we'll take the good news where we can find it.
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December 16th, 2006
The end of year big movie rush continues, the last few big movies are launching their sites. And one such movie,
Night at the Museum -
Official Site, is the winning of the Weekly Website Award.
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December 15th, 2006
Babel led the way when the
Golden Globe nominations were announced today with seven nominations while
The Departed was close behind with six.
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December 15th, 2006
Three new releases hope to put a bit of cheer into the box office, a box office that has been far from impressive the last couple weeks. Not since Happy Feet and Casino Royale opened has any film really been able to set the box office on fire.
Or even just beat expectations by a significant margin.
This week should have given us the first $40 million film of the month, but the tracking numbers are just not there.
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December 1st, 2006
Looking at my calendar I see that it's March 11th. ... March 11th, 2003. This means it's time for me to get a new calendar, but more importantly, it's time for the December preview. December is an insanely busy time of year with studio release major blockbusters in hopes of cashing in on the holidays, as well as a ton of Oscar bait movies hoping to remain fresh in voters' minds by the time the ballots are handed out. On a side note, this is the first time in several years that's there not an obvious Must See movie opening during the month. Sure, there are quite a few that should crack $100 million at the box office, maybe even $200 million, but nothing like
The Lord of the Rings. In addition to the ton of wide releases and limited releases scheduled to open wide this month, there are several more movies opening in limited release this month before expanding in the new year. Movies like
Home of the Brave,
Arthur & the Invisibles,
The Painted Veil,
Letters from Iwo Jima,
Children of Men,
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,
Fast Track, and
Pan's Labyrinth, and possibly some others.
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November 18th, 2006
A lot of trailers on this week's list of websites. Not only were there a lot of site with just trailers, there were a few trailers without sites. On the other hand, there were also a few contenders for the Weekly Website Award. In the end it was
The Children of Men -
Official Site that took home that prestigious award.
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August 4th, 2006
Third week in a row where the number of sites featured on this list has topped 30. With such a busy week it would take something different to win the award, and that's something
Michel Gondry excels at delivering giving
The Science of Sleep -
Official Site the Weekly Website Award.
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