January 14th, 2008
Not a single DVD sold a million units or more this week, but there were three new releases to reach the top five on this week's sales chart.
This includes Resident Evil: Extinction, which sold 856,000 units to place first with opening week revenue of $16.03 million.
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December 31st, 2007
There were 12 new releases to chart this week, including 6 in the top ten alone; however, The Bourne Ultimatum remained in first place with $12.76 million in rentals for the week and $28.20 million in total.
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December 24th, 2007
New releases earned the top three spots on the sales chart this week, including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which sold 5.26 million units for a total of $108.48 million in opening week revenue.
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December 24th, 2007
New releases lead the way on the rental chart but it was The Bourne Ultimatum that came out in first place with $15.44 million in rentals, which is one of the best opening weeks this year.
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December 17th, 2007
Only five new releases landed on the sales chart this week, but that included the top two sellers.
Leading the way was Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End with a year's best weekly sales of 7.35 million units and total revenue of $145.06 million, which crushes The Transformers' opening week by nearly 2 million units.
In fact, after just one week, At World's End is in fourth place for the whole year.
At this pace, it could be the biggest seller of the year by next week.
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December 17th, 2007
Like it was on the sales chart, new releases took the top two spots on the DVD rental chart.
However, they finished in the opposite order as Superbad beat out Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End $13.97 million to $9.54 million.
Superbad's performance here compared to its performance on the sales chart may be explained either as a clear case of Try-Before-You-Buy, or it may be a lot of people interested in seeing it are expecting to get it for Christmas.
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December 4th, 2007
This week was not as busy as I was expecting. Perhaps the thought of going against Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 2-Disc Collector's Edition or on Blu-Ray was enough to scare away the competition.
However, while that is a formidable release, it is not this week's DVD Pick of the Week.
For that, we have Superbad - Unrated 2-Disc Edition or Unrated Blu-Ray Edition.
If you have a Blu-Ray player, that edition is worth the extra money, but it is not the kind of release worth upgrading for.
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December 2nd, 2007
It's the first of December. (At least it was when I was writing this intro the first time. I was only going to do a dozen or so releases, but the list ballooned well out of control.) This week kicks off our second annual Holiday Gift Guide with a look at some high definition releases, because nothing says holidays like a format war.
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November 18th, 2007
Stardust fell out of the top five, but still added $5.80 million on 2327 screens in 48 markets lifting its running tally to $83.50 million. Its best market remained the U.K. where it climbed a spot to second place with $2.66 million on 459 screens for a total of $23.59 million. The film has no major openings left, but $100 million internationally is still within reach.
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November 11th, 2007
Surf's Up grew by 77% in France adding $3.44 million on 628 screens over the weekend for a total of $7.36 million in total. This growth was due to the Toussaint holiday while it was enough to lift the film's weekend box office to $5.84 million on 1996 screens in 32 markets for a total of $72.34 million. The film has yet to open in Scandinavia as well as Japan and should hit $100 million internationally before it is done, which is significantly more than the $58.87 million it earned domestically, but not enough to show a profit just yet.
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November 4th, 2007
The Orphanage may have fallen out of the top five internationally, but it remained the top draw in Spain with $4.11 million on 373 screens over the weekend for a three-week total of $20.78 million. This is more than Ratatouille has earned in that market after three months of release and equivalent to $200 to $300 million here. It won't make $200 to $300 million here, in fact, it might not make $20 million here. It all depends on how well it does with critics and award committees.
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October 28th, 2007
Superbad climbed into sixth place with $4.26 million on 1836 screens in 27 markets for a total of $31.79 million. Most of that growth came from Spain where the film debuted in second place with $2.24 million on 350 screens while it also opened in Brazil with $511,000 on 192 screens. The film doesn't have many major markets left to open in, but it has already earned more than most comparable films do during their entire run.
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October 21st, 2007
Bhool Bhulaiyaa became the latest in a long line of Indian films to strike it rich on the international box office as it scored sixth place with $4.59 million on 756 screens in 17 markets. The supernatural comedy even scored a top ten finish in Britain with $600,000 on 45 screens topping a few major Hollywood releases that week.
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October 14th, 2007
The Heartbreak Kid missed the top five by less than $20,000 over the weekend earning $5.74 million on 819 screens in 4 markets during its opening weekend on the international charts. This includes openings in to major markets including the U.K. where it opened in first place with $2.52 million on 409 screens, but this was still a disappointing debut, much like it was domestically. Conversely, the film opened in second place in Russia with $2.31 million on 360 screens, but this is a much better performance compared to the overall box office size of the marketplace.
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October 7th, 2007
Hairspray managed to climb into sixth place by the narrowest of margins earning $4.59 million on 2073 screens in 37 markets for a running tally of $54.35 million. This includes a third place, $1.36 million opening on 302 screens in Italy, which is close to its opening domestically, when you take into account the relative size of the two markets. On the other hand, many muscials prove to be difficult to market internationally and it was never likely that this film would match its domestic run. However, it has already made enough to be considered a financial success.
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September 26th, 2007
This week, three of the top five films were not in the top five last week, but despite all of the changes, The Bourne Ultimatum still earned an easy win. Over the weekend the spy thriller added $14.16 million on 3902 screens in 49 markets for a total of $145.59 million. The film had very few openings this past weekend, but did come out in first place in Portugal with $364,000 on 56 screens. The film was able to remain in first place in a number of markets, including France at $2.60 million on 510 screens for a total $7.53 million and Germany at $1.68 million on 717 screens for a total of $11.09 million. The film does have a few more markets to open in, (including Italy and Japan), and given its strong holds, it should hit $200 million before long and should earn more than the previous two installments of the franchise combined.
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September 17th, 2007
The weekend was, for the most part, very predictable with The Brave One opening a little softer that expected while D-War opened a little stronger. However, overall there are not many surprises worth talking about. This includes the overall box office, which brought in $79 million over the weekend. This was 1% lower than last weekend, but 1% above the same weekend last year. However, at this pace the box office's winning streak over last year will end next weekend.
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September 13th, 2007
The September slump continues as none of the three wide releases look all that promising. The best of the bunch, The Brave One, is earning only average reviews, and we could have not a single film topping 50% positive.
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September 11th, 2007
The weekend after Labor Day is often the worst weekend of the year. Let's hope that's true this year as the overall box office was down to just $80 million, which was a drop-off of 32% from last weekend. On the other hand, it was up $10 million from the same weekend last year, which is a great sign for 2007's chances at breaking more records.
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September 6th, 2007
The weekend after Labor Day. There are few times in the year where the box office is weaker. Strangely, this year we have not one, but two films coming out that are earning overall positive reviews and both have a shot at the top spot.
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September 4th, 2007
The summer ended on a strong note, including a record-breaking opening by Halloween. Overall the box office earning $118 million over the 3-day weekend, which was up 8% from last weekend and 16% from the same weekend last year. Over 4 days, the box office total was $149 million, up 15% from last year. With records broken for total box office, number of $300 million movies, number of $200 million movies, and more, this is a summer most movie executives will deeply miss.
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September 3rd, 2007
Opening Halloween at the beginning of September wasn't such a bad move after all.
The horror flick beat expectations to earn a record $26.5 million over the 3-day portion of the Labor Day weekend, and $31 million over four days, according to studio estimates released on Monday.
That left the rest of the movie field in the dust, although Superbad earned a respectable $12.5 million Friday-Sunday and $15.6 million over the four day holiday weekend, and Balls of Fury made a decent start with $11.3 million (3-day)/$13.8 million (4-day).
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August 30th, 2007
The Labor Day long weekend is the final weekend of the summer, but it is not the strongest. In fact, it is widely considered the weakest long weekend of the year and the three films opening this weekend are unlikely to change that perception.
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August 27th, 2007
Holdovers went one-two-three on the box office chart this week, which is not a completely uncommon event.
However, with six wide or wide-ish releases, you would think at least one could finish in the top three.
The collapse of the new releases helped keep the overall box office down to $108 million, which was 17% lower than last weekend.
However, that is still 4% higher than the same weekend last year and keeps summer 2007 on a record-setting pace.
In fact, it has hit $4 billion for the first time ever, so there's plenty of reasons to celebrate.
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August 26th, 2007
Three holdovers took the top three spots on the box office chart this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Top of the pack was Superbad, which dropped a very respectable 45% in its second weekend in release, to earn approximately $18 million.
Second was The Bourne Ultimatum, which fell only 38% in its fourth weekend to earn $12.4 million.
That was a rounding error ahead of Rush Hour 3, which took an estimated $12.25 million.
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August 24th, 2007
As the summer ends, there is a rush to dump failed projects on the market.
This weekend there are five films opening up in various degrees of wide release from a few hundred to a couple of thousand.
However, while there's a lot of competition, Superbad has the inside track to repeat on top.
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August 21st, 2007
A handful of films crossed the $10,000 mark this past weekend led by The 11th Hour with just over $60,000 in 4 theaters for an average of $15,213. This is an impressive, but well below the opening of An Inconvenient Truth, which averaged more than The 11th Hour made in total. Send a Bullet was second with an estimated $13,000 in one theater. The overall box office leader, Superbad, placed third, averaging $11,212 in just under 3,000 theaters. The King of Kong was the only other film to top $10,000 and the third documentary to reach that milestone this weekend.
It earned just over $50,000 in 5 theaters for an average of $10,299.
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August 20th, 2007
Summer abruptly ends during August, sometimes before the month even really begins.
Even in the best years, you only get Summer-like openings during the first two weeks.
However, this year we got a third Summer weekend, as Superbad opened with more than Evan Almighty's debut figure in late June.
Granted, the overall box office dropped to $130 million, which was 15% decline from last weekend.
However, that's still a softer decline than expected, an 18% improvement from last year, and enough to say it is still summertime.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
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August 19th, 2007
The Summer season might be winding down, but Superbad proved this weekend that there's still good money to be made by the right movie.
It opened with an estimated $31.2 million, putting it on par with the opening of Evan Almighty back in June, while playing in 700 fewer theaters.
With decent word of mouth, it should comfortably top $100 million at the box office.
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August 18th, 2007
Busy week with more than 30 sites featured on the list. However, none really stand our as award-worthy; in fact, most only stand because of a lack of style. Hopefully as the fall season progresses and we near the holidays, we will get bigger and better sites launching.
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August 16th, 2007
This weekend we will have the weakest number one film since at least June 22nd when Evan Almighty opened, and mostly likely since before the summer started.
But there are still some interesting stories to follow and possibly the last $100 million film to open until November.
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August 1st, 2007
August marks the unofficial end of the lucrative summer box office season. The only question is when will it end. Studios usually hope for two summer-like weekends, and sometimes they can squeeze in three.
Other times they can only get one, or none.
Sadly, this year the August offerings are not particularly strong with only two that have a real shot at $100 million or more, and three or four others that should earn good reviews (and one of those has since been pulled from the schedule).
Most of the rest are films that probably seemed like a good idea at the time but didn't work out and those that were a mistake from day one.
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June 30th, 2007
One of the slowest weeks I can remember for this list, but at least we have a top-notch site to give the Weekly Website Award to: Ratatouille - Official Site.
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April 29th, 2007
It's a slow week in terms of the cream-of-the-crop sites. There are a few that look like they could be award-worthy once they have a few more updates, but for the most part this week we have a collection that is rather average. There was one stand-out site, Evan Almighty - Official Site, and it was the only choice for the Weekly Website Award.
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April 7th, 2007
It's the Saturday after Good Friday, which explains why this column was delayed one day. But while the Friday was good, this week's sites were mediocre, at least they were compared to high expectations. If this was January, it would be a great list. However, at this point of the year I'm expecting one potential summer blockbuster to have a major website launch each week, and that didn't happen this time. We still had an award-worthy effort with Grindhouse - Official Site.
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November 5th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for National Treasure 2, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, some DreamWorks digital animation movies and more.
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