June 1st, 2011
While The Mechanic had to settle for second place on this week's DVD Sales Chart, it led the way with ease on the Blu-ray Sales Chart with 230,000 units / $3.90 million. Its Blu-ray sales ratio of 37% is strong for a decidedly second-tier release.
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May 31st, 2011
It's not like there were no new releases, but Justin Bieber: Never Say Never didn't have a lot of trouble keeping top spot on the DVD sales chart to itself. During its first full week of release it sold an additional 476,000 units, lifting its totals to 967,000 units / $17.26 million after two. Given its target demographic, Fangirls, it's not exactly surprising that it is selling so well on DVD.
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May 16th, 2011
It's kind of an odd week for DVD / Blu-ray releases. While it is a busier week than average when it comes to first run releases, none of them did well with critics and I don't think any of them will be big sellers. There are a few limited releases, TV on DVD releases, and catalogue titles that are vying to make up the difference. As far the best, there's not a lot here that can even compete with The Hustler's Blu-ray debut.
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March 23rd, 2011
The international box office is as weak as the domestic box office is with very few films worth talking about. We do have a new number one, as Battle: Los Angeles earned first place with $28.74 million on 8,384 screens in 52 markets for a running tally of $51.70 million after just two weeks of release. The film debuted in first place in Australia with $2.58 million on 328 screens, while it also placed first during its debut in Brazil with $1.51 million on 263 screens. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place in France with $2.07 million on 295 screens. The number one film was a local hit, so there is a mitigating factor. As for its long-term chances, it was down 51% in the U.K. to $1.42 million on 417 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.61 million after two. This is not a great start there and will likely ends its run with the equivalent of $50 million to $60 million here.
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February 7th, 2011
The Super Bowl turned out to be a rather good game and it broke ratings records with 111 million people turning in to watch at least part of it. On the other hand, the box office was anything but record-breaking. Overall the box office was down 20% from last weekend to $87 million. Even worse, that was 24% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2011 is already $310 million behind 2010 with a total of $988 million. 2011 is almost two full weeks behind 2010's pace, and I don't think things will get a whole lot better next weekend.
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February 2nd, 2011
The winners of our Rite or Wrong contest were determined and they are...
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January 31st, 2011
Twelve. The year-over-year slump has reached twelve weeks, and it won't be long before that story becomes the biggest news in the industry. (Thank goodness for Oscars, otherwise that would already be the case.) The final weekend of January pulled in $109 million, which was 6% higher than last weekend, but it was also 13% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2011 has managed $872 million, but that pales compared to the $1.15 billion 2010 had earned at this point. 2011 is already nearly $300 million behind last year's pace after just one month. And sadly, I'm not seeing a lot of reason for optimism over the next month either.
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January 30th, 2011
It looks like another slow weekend at the box office, based on studio estimates released on Sunday, but there are some signs of improvement, thanks to a couple of decent openings and some healthy performances by Oscar hopefuls.
The Rite debuted with an estimated $15 million, about in line with expectations, while The Mechanic posted $11.5 million, which is a little ahead of the consensus going into the weekend.
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January 27th, 2011
It's the last weekend of January, so it's one last chance for 2011 to avoid a catastrophic start. At the beginning of the month I thought that if January 2011 was 20% lower than January 2010, it would be bad news.
As of the end of last weekend, that figure was closer to 30%.
This weekend, there's almost no chance things will improve, as this time last year Avatar earned more than $30 million, while this year the top two films combined likely won't earn that much.
Hopefully the two wide releases this weekend will be competitive with last year's two wide releases, but even that doesn't seem particularly likely.
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January 27th, 2011
Our daily charts are updated every day by 1pm (with early studio reports) and 3pm (with complete final numbers).
On Thursdays, we publish early studio theater counts by 1.30pm, and the complete list by 5pm.
- Wednesday Daily Numbers
- Weekend Theater Counts
Trailers for this week's openers:
- The Mechanic
- The Rite
- From Prada to Nada
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January 21st, 2011
It should be a close race between the two wide releases next weekend. The Rite is opening in slightly more theaters than The Mechanic, which might give it the edge at the box office. However, it was definitely the tiebreaker when it came to becoming the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Rite.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), regardless if they go over or not, will win a copy of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XIX on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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January 1st, 2011
Well, 2010 is over and while it started amazingly, it ended on a real down note. I'm not saying December was a disaster. ... Actually I am. There were only ten wide releases, and of those, eight missed expectations, some by very wide margins. Despite having a $200 million lead going into the month, 2010 still managed to lose out to 2009. The bad news continues in 2011, as Avatar made $300 million during January alone. With no strong holdovers to help power the box office, and only one or two potential solid hits among the new releases, 2011 will likely get off to a very weak start.
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