July 12th, 2011
While it's not common for a box set to lead the way on the Blu-ray sales chart, it is also no real surprise that Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy managed to do just that, as it was clearly the biggest new release of the week. It took top spot with sales of 336,000 units, and thanks to its premium pricing, it generated $25.21 million in opening week consumer spending.
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July 7th, 2011
The Adjustment Bureau led the way on this week's Blu-ray sales chart, but with just a fraction of last week's winning total. It sold 122,000 units and generated $2.87 million in consumer spending, which is very low for the number one film. However, its Blu-ray ratio was 35%, which is good for this type of film. (At its heart it is a romance, with a slice of science fiction thrown in.)
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July 6th, 2011
Several new DVD releases charted this week, and new releases even earned the top three spots on the chart. However, sales were very weak and they only placed that well due to the lack of substantial competition. The number one film on this week's DVD sales chart was Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodick Rules with just 255,000 units sold and $5.01 million in opening week consumer spending at retail. To put this into perspective, that's on par with the original film's second week on the home market.
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June 29th, 2011
Battle: Los Angeles was just able to squeak ahead of True Grit on this week's Blu-ray sales chart with 375,000 units sold for opening week sales of $8.71 million. Its opening week Blu-ray sales ratio was 47% in terms of units and 54% in terms of dollars. It won't be long before visual effects laden blockbusters commonly sell more Blu-rays than DVDs.
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June 27th, 2011
While three new releases reached the top five, none were able to sell as many DVDs as True Grit. That film sold 446,000 units over the week for a total of 1.36 million after two, lifting its total revenue to $20.95 million.
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June 25th, 2011
While True Grit opening in first place on the Blu-ray sales chart this week was no surprise, its dominance was. During its first week of release it sold 737,000 units and generated $13.41 million in sales, which is close to half the total Blu-ray market. Compared to DVD, Blu-rays represented 42% of total units and 46% of revenue. Normally Westerns tend to skew a little older when it comes to age demographics, so I was expecting a slightly weaker than average Blu-ray ratio, closer to 30% than 40%.
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June 21st, 2011
There were seven new releases on this week's DVD Sales Chart, and six of those reached the top ten. Leading the way was True Grit with 1.02 million units / $15.91 million during its opening week on the home market. It is already in 30th place for 2011 and should quickly climb much further up.
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June 7th, 2011
The summer is usually a really weak time for home market releases, but this week is amazing. Not only are there two $100 million hits coming out on DVD / Blu-ray this week, but there are also half-a-dozen TV on DVD releases, a few limited releases, direct-to-DVD releases, and catalog titles, many of which are worth picking up, or even contenders for Pick of the Week. I tried to narrow the list of contenders down to one, but I couldn't do it. In the end I went with Leverage: Season Three on DVD and True Grit on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack as co-winners of the Pick of the Week.
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June 6th, 2011
When it was learned that True Grit, the film that earned John Wayne his only Oscar, was going to be remade, a lot of people were upset. I read the term, "sacrilege", more than once in connection to the remake. However, buzz began to grow for True Grit and in the end it became the Coen Brothers' biggest hit. But how well does it compare to the original?
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March 2nd, 2011
For the third weekend in a row, Black Swan led the way on the international chart, pulling in $17.50 million on 3,950 screens in 45 markets for a total of $123.37 million internationally and $226.95 million worldwide. In Spain it remained in first place with $2.52 million on 319 screens over the weekend for a total of $6.47 million after two. It added $2.81 million on 363 screens over the weekend for a total of $13.74 million after three. It doesn't have many markets left to open in, but the film has already made nearly a quarter billion dollars on a production budget of just $13 million, so it is fantastically profitable.
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February 23rd, 2011
As I've stated in the past, it is quite rare for a film that opened in limited release in the United States to go on and have success internationally. Most markets are simply too small to have the infrastructure to support limited releases. So it's quite a pleasant surprise to find two such films atop the international box office. Leading the way for the second weekend in a row is Black Swan, this time earning $17.60 million on 3,699 screens in 39 markets. In total it has $98.24 million and it has likely already reached the century mark. It opened in first place in Spain with $2.91 million on 296 screens, but it was not as strong in Italy with $1.50 million on 257 screens, which was only enough for third place. Oscar contenders tend to perform really well in Italy, so this is a bit of a disappointment. As far as holdovers are concerned, the film was down just 18% in France, adding $3.82 million on 338 screens over the weekend for a total of $9.77 million after just two weeks of release.
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February 20th, 2011
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which nominees should just feel honored to be nominated. This weekend we wrap things up and the final category is the most prestigious, Best Picture. With ten nominations, it's a crowded field; however, all but a couple of those are clearly long shots.
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February 20th, 2011
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which nominees should just feel honored to be nominated. This weekend we wrap things up with our final two categories, starting with Best Director, which looks to be a two-horse race. But what a race!
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February 13th, 2011
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which nominees should just feel honored to be nominated. This weekend we will look at the four acting categories, continuing with Best Lead Actor, which is possibly the least competitive of the four acting races.
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February 13th, 2011
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. This weekend we will look at the four acting categories, starting with Best Supporting Actress, which is possibly the most competitive of the four acting races. Even though there's definitely a favorite.
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February 6th, 2011
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Adapted Screenplay, which is one the categories that I think could give us a surprise. There's a favorite, and one or two that could pull off an upset.
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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 25th, 2011
The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, thus ending months of speculation. Along with a (very) few surprises, the list of nominees is mostly a case of Deja Vu. Leading the way, as it has so often this year, was The King's Speech, with 12 nominations, including six in seven of the most prestigious categories (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and the four acting categories). But it was far from the only multi-nominated film on the list.
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January 24th, 2011
It's getting harder and harder to to spin the weekend numbers, as this time around the overall box office was down significantly, even if you ignore Avatar. The total box office was $103 million, which was 21% lower than last weekend and a stunning 29% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date 2011 is already almost $250 million behind $2010 at $730 million to $979 million. Granted, it's far too early in the year to panic, but we haven't seen year-over-year growth for nearly three months.
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January 20th, 2011
There's only one wide release this week, and it has a clear path to first place at the box office. However, while No Strings Attached will have little trouble winning, the real question box office watchers are asking is: How well will 2011 do compared to 2010? So far the answer to that question as been, "Disastrously." That trend will continue. This weekend last year, Avatar earned close to $35 million, while no new release will make that much. In fact, the top two films will barely earn more than that. If both No Strings Attached and The Green Hornet can earn more than Legion opened with last year, then I'll be willing to call it a victory, of sorts. Not a true victory, but at least we can look at things with some optimism.
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January 18th, 2011
2011 continues its trend of performing pretty well against 2010, if you ignore Avatar. This time last year, Avatar earned just over $40 million at the box office over the three-day weekend. This weekend 2011 was behind 2010 by just under $40 million over the same period. (You get a similar result if you look at the four-day numbers.) One could look at this as a small victory, as Avatar is such a rare commodity that it is unfair to expect the box office to compensate for that. However, there are a number of points that makes that thinking dangerous. First of all, even taking out Avatar, 2011's growth is not enough to keep pace with inflation. Secondly, without Avatar as competition, The Book of Eli probably would have earned at least a few million more, as would the rest of the box office. Thirdly, 2011 lost over the four-day weekend by a margin of $210 million to $159 million, which means there were about 7 million fewer people at theaters this weekend, which means there were 7 million fewer people seeing trailers, posters, etc. for upcoming films, and the box office can hardly afford missing out on that much free advertising. Finally, already 2011 is behind 2010 by nearly $200 million, at $798 million to $601 million, and if the conventional wisdom becomes, "2011 will be a disaster at the box office", it will take something special to overcome that negative buzz. And quite frankly, I don't see anything really special hitting theaters till the fall, and by then it will be too late.
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January 13th, 2011
Two wide releases this week look to bring in the green and return the overall box office to the black. The wider of the two, The Green Hornet, is even looking to earn more than Avatar did this time last year, which would be a major victory for 2011. I'm not saying its going to, but it is a real possibility. And if it can't, it appears it is more likely than not that it will match The Book of Eli's opening from last year, which would at least be some positive news for the box office.
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January 10th, 2011
It was quite a depressing weekend, as almost no film in the top five topped expectations. Worst still, it wasn't expected to be a good weekend to begin with. This left the overall box office down just over 30% from last weekend to $112 million. More importantly, that was nearly 30% less than the same weekend last year. If you want to really search for good news, you could point to the fact that if you take out Avatar out of the equation, then 2011 would have beaten 2010 over the weekend, but even here the margin of victory would have been lower than the ticket price inflation. It is way too early to judge how well 2011 will do compared to 2010, but so far it is 23% off of last year's pace at $281 million to $365 million. I expect that gap will grow in terms of raw dollars, but by the time Memorial Day rolls around, 2011 could start rattling off some wins.
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January 9th, 2011
The post-Holiday hangover at the box office began in earnest this weekend, with the week's new wide release, Season of the Witch, and wide expansion, Country Strong both unable to gain much traction, allowing holdovers to dominate the chart.
True Grit will end the weekend on top with an estimated $15 million, according to Paramount, and a running total of $110 million.
Little Fockers will finish second with about $13.8 million, per Universal's estimates.
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January 6th, 2011
So, will holdovers bewitch the box office?
The answer to that is almost guaranteed to be yes.
There is almost no chance either the one wide release, Season of the Witch, or the major expansion, Country Strong, will top the chart. In fact, one could argue there's a better chance neither will reach the top five. This is really bad news for the start of 2011. We knew the holdovers wouldn't be as strong as they were last year, no with Avatar earning $50 million over the weekend, but if the new releases can't keep pace with last year's new releases, we could be in trouble.
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January 4th, 2011
Producers Guild of America announced the nominations in seven categories, three of which are for theatrical releases. Like last year, there was only one repeat nominee, and again like last year, it was a Pixar release.
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January 4th, 2011
WGA nominations were announced this week, and there were some strange results, as the guild is sticking to their rules, which resulted in a number of possible Oscar contenders being ruled ineligible. That said, of the non-documentary films, only one hasn't picked up a single nomination previously, so it is hard to say this list is too out there.
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January 3rd, 2011
2011 has begun but it didn't get off to a strong start. It didn't even get off to a better than expected start, as only one film in the top five really topped expectations. Overall, the box office grew by 10% from last week hitting $159 million, but that's not great given Christmas Eve landed on a Friday. It was also down 28% from the same weekend last year, so 2011 is off to a bad start. Granted, it's incredibly early, but there are not a lot of hopeful signs for the rest of the month and double-digit declines will likely be the norm.
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January 2nd, 2011
With no new wide releases over New Year's weekend, this week's was a battle of the holdovers at the box office, and thanks to the fact that Christmas Eve (a slow day at the box office) fell on a Friday in 2010, the weekend-to-weekend comparison for each movie generally looked good.
Curiously, though, the top three movies all declined from last weekend while all the other movies in the top 20 saw increases.
With plenty of films to choose from, audiences spent over $4 million on at least 13 different films, seven of which topped $10 million.
That's not quite a record (no less than nine movies earned over $10 million over MLK weekend in 2001), but it is unusual.
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December 30th, 2010
The New Year's weekend normally has no wide releases, and that's the case this year. This means last weekend's three big hits will finish one-two-three this weekend, although they could finish in a different order. Meanwhile, all three combined might not make as much as Avatar earned this time last year, meaning 2010 will end and 2011 will begin on a sour note.
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December 27th, 2010
It was a good news, really bad news weekend. Let's start with the good news. The overall box office for the year reached $10 billion for only the second time in history. Bad news, the box office this past weekend was so bad that 2010 lost its lead over 2009. It did rise from last weekend by 8% to $145 million, but that's 47% lower than the same weekend last year. Granted, Christmas Eve landing on a Friday did have a lot to do with that, but this is still a terrible result. Year-to-date, 2010 has now earned $10.33 billion, which is about $50 million behind last year's pace. It won't get better next weekend, so 2010 won't be setting the record.
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December 22nd, 2010
This weekend could be a disaster at the box office. Not only is it likely that the biggest release will under-perform, but Christmas Eve lands on the Friday. Christmas Eve is a black hole at the box office and it basically cuts nearly a full day off the weekend. Worse still, last year was incredibly strong and it is very possible that the number one movie this year won't make as much as the third place film did last year.
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December 17th, 2010
The SAG nominations were handed out this week, and while there were a couple of interesting notes, overall there was a decided lack of surprises. The King's Speech and The Fighter led the way with four nominations each, while Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right were right behind with three. All four have been considered Awards Season players for a long time, so their success with SAG merely confirms that and is not shocking in the least.
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December 1st, 2010
It's the end of the year and there are certainly some question marks that will be answered over the next 31 days. Are there any monster hits left for 2010? Will 2010 manage to stay ahead of 2009? Will it actually start winning again at the box office? Unfortunately, the answer to all three of those questions might be no. First of all, of the November wide releases, only two will really match expectations, with a couple of others coming close. So December starts on the weak side. Additionally, last December saw the release of Avatar, the biggest box office hit of all time. There's no film coming out this month that will match that movie. In fact, there's a chance no movie coming out this month will match last December's second place film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. This means that even though 2010 had a $300 million lead over 2009 just a few weeks ago, by the end of the year, 2010 might fail to break last year's record.
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