January 7th, 2010
It's tough to be a studio releasing a new film this weekend, as all the hype is going to the holdovers, almost all of which is going to Avatar's massive box office run.
None of the new releases have any real hope of making a dent in that films' box office dominance, while it is possible that none of the new releases will reach the top three over the weekend.
That said, there's a chance that Avatar will make more money this weekend than the combined openings of last year's two biggest releases, while there's little doubt the year-over-year comparison will continue to impress.
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May 20th, 2008
There were more than half a dozen new releases to chart this week, including to top two sellers, although none of them were particularly strong sellers. P.S., I Love You led the way with sales of $11.88 million from 743,000 units while First Sunday placed second with 468,000 units sold and opening week revenue of $7.94 million.
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May 12th, 2008
It was a close race on top of the DVD sales chart this week as 27 Dresses topped His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, 1.29 million units to 1.05 million units. However, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass came out on top in terms of dollars, $21.97 million to $20.92 million.
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May 11th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Spirit, Iron Man 2, The Avengers and more!
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May 5th, 2008
There were only a handful of new releases to chart this week, but we did have a new number one seller. Cloverfield started its home market run with $16.64 million in revenue from 1.04 million units sold.
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April 27th, 2008
Like it did on the rental chart, Juno led a large group of new releases on the sales chart and earned first place overall. During its first week of release, the film sold 1.44 million units for opening week sales of $25.37 million.
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April 27th, 2008
Doing what it couldn't do during its theatrical run, Juno finished first during its opening week on the rental charts. It led all movies with $8.38 million in rentals.
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April 21st, 2008
Despite numerous new releases that charted this week, seven in fact, Alvin and the Chipmunks remained in top spot on the DVD sales chart. It's rare for a film to repeat on top of the charts, but Alvin was able to do so despite a 72% drop-off from its opening and added 872,000 units and $14.38 million in spending. This lifts its total to 4.02 million units / $66.34 million making it the third best selling DVD of the year so far.
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April 21st, 2008
Like on the sales chart there were plenty of new releases. However, there was a new number on film on the rental chart as There Will Be Blood opened in first place with $8.54 million. I did find it strange that a critically acclaimed, Oscar winning movie would do better on the rental charts than the sales charts. Usually this happens when people want to try before they buy, but this doesn't seem the type of movie that would happen with.
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April 14th, 2008
Only three new releases charted this week, but this includes the two top-selling DVDs. Leading the way was Alvin and the Chipmunks with an impressive 3.15 million units for opening week sales of $51.96 million. The movie is already in the top five for 2008.
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April 14th, 2008
There were only two new releases to reach the top 30 on the rental chart, but they placed one - two on the charts. Alvin and the Chipmunks led the way with $8.74 million while Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Baker Street was right behind with $8.08 million.
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April 7th, 2008
It was a good week for top-notch releases with plenty that are worth picking up. But there were two films that were obvious choices for DVD Pick of the Week: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Adventures of Baron Munchausen. In both cases, I would recommend the Blu-ray versions over the DVD. (On a side note, there were a few late spotlight reviews this week, and next week there will be a few more. Hopefully I will catch up by then, but there's always a chance that more screeners will arrive late in the meantime.)
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April 1st, 2008
A mixed week when it comes to top-notch releases and there were very few that caught my eye. There are several that are worth picking up, but only Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Baker Street - 2-Disc Special Edition was a contender for DVD Pick of the Week.
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March 21st, 2008
Next week we don't have a wide release that screams number one, so to choose a target film for our ongoing box office prediction contest, we simply picked the widest release, which happens to be Superhero!. In order to win, one must simply predict Superhero!'s three-day, opening weekend box office.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a prize pack from Alvin and the Chipmunks that includes the DVD, soundtrack, etc., as well as Bratz Kidz - Fairy Tales on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win Legend of the Black Scorpion on DVD and P.T.U. on DVD.
Additionally, both the above winners will also take home 30 Days of Night 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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March 9th, 2008
Meet the Spartans made its first major push into the international market this past weekend earning sixth place with $7.94 million on 1653 screens in 14 markets for an early total of $12.90 million. Its biggest opening came in Germany where it scored second place with $3.01 million on 304 screens, however, it earned first place in both Mexico with $1.35 million on 543 screens and in Australia with $1.29 million on 211 screens. On the other hand, it fell by 59% during its second weekend in Russia pulling in $526,000 on 275 screens over the weekend for a total of $2.27 million after two.
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March 2nd, 2008
Juno nearly climbed into the top five with $7.08 million on 1745 screens in 25 markets for a total of $39.17 million. This includes a surprise first place opening in Brazil with $808,000 on 146 screens over the weekend and $1.26 million in total. On the other hand, it struggled in South Korea with $222,000 on 203 screens over the weekend and $283,000 in total. As for holdovers, the film was down just 7% in Mexico to $454,000 on 150 screens over the weekend for a two-week total of $1.37 million while it added $2.11 million on 368 screens in the U.K. for a total of $13.41 million there.
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February 24th, 2008
Rambo climbed five spots just missing the top five with $6.96 million on 1989 screens in 25 markets for a total of $25.63 million. The film opened in second place in Germany with $2.78 million 405 screens while it managed third in Mexico with $704,000 on 300. Next up is the U.K., Australia, and Italy, where it opens this weekend, while it enters South Korea next weekend.
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February 17th, 2008
Thanks to an opening in the U.K., Juno shoot up the charts nearly reaching the top five with $8.28 million on 1111 screens in 15 markets for a still early total $17.15 million. In the U.K. the film placed second with $3.91 million on 363 screens, but had the best per screen average in the top 10 there. It also opened in France scoring sixth place with $1.22 million on 149 screens, which gave it the second best per screen average in the top ten there. Meanwhile in Spain the film grew by 5% to $1.03 million on 170 screens over the weekend and a total of $2.34 million after two.
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February 10th, 2008
National Treasure: The Book of Secrets slipped out of the top five, again, earning $6.94 million on 2702 screens in 34 markets for a total of $169.62 million. This includes a first place finish in Germany with $3.42 million on 641 screens for a total of $10.03 million after two there. The film opens in the U.K. this weekend and should have little trouble reaching $200 million before long.
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February 4th, 2008
The Italian movie, Scusa Ma Ti Chiamo Amore, opened in first place in Italy with $7.55 million on 491 screens, which was more than double its nearest competition.
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January 29th, 2008
We are one month into 2008 and so far there are a lot more positives than negatives at the box office.
On the negative side, the box office was down 7% from last weekend to $144 million. But on the positive side, that was an increase of 21% from the same weekend last year and year-to-date 2008 has a 16% lead on 2007.
Granted, it is early and it is unlikely the box office will remain this hot for long, but it is still good news.
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January 24th, 2008
I Am Legend has become the third film in Will Smith's career to top $500 million worldwide, which is a very impressive milestone.
It was able to reach that mark in part thanks to the film's first place finish on the international charts with $28.12 million on 5,369 screens in 49 markets and now has $260.89 million.
The film opened in first place in Mexico with $4.10 million on 450 screens and in Brazil with $2.81 million on 423 screens.
In the latter, it earned more than the rest of the top five combined, while in the former it earned more than the top ten combined.
While those were impressive starts, the film's best market of the weekend was Germany where it remained in first place with $5.12 million on 717 screens for a total of $17.68 million while in Italy it added $4.26 million on 506 screens for a total of $15.24 million.
I Am Legend has yet to open in Russia and a few other markets and should have little trouble hitting $300 million before long.
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January 16th, 2008
I Am Legend is getting ready to wrap up its international run, but it isn't slowing down. This weekend it grew by 32% to $40.18 million on 4951 screens in 44 markets for a total of $221.52 million topping $200 million internationally, just as it did domestically. Openings this week including a couple major markets led by Germany where it pulled in $10.89 million on 713 screens and easily taking first place, which is not a real shock as Will Smith is a huge draw in that market. On the other hand, it performed surprisingly strong in Italy where it also captured first place with a very impressive opening weekend of $8.52 million on 486 screens. Meanwhile in Australia the film fell 63%, but that was still enough to retain first place with $3.19 million on 338 screens over the weekend and $14.79 million in total.
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January 15th, 2008
It's the second weekend of January and we still haven't seen a January release top the charts.
This time the biggest hit was a wide expansion from December, which not only finished first, but also helped the overall box office reach $130 million.
This is about 7% lower than last weekend, but roughly 1% more than the same weekend last year, and this weekend last year was Martin Luther King Weekend, which helped boost the numbers.
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January 10th, 2008
This week, we have three new wide release and there are also a couple of expansions.
Add in several strong holdovers, and there could be quite a logjam on the top of the charts.
Not every new release / wide expansion will take part in this bounty, with In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which could turn out to be the worst movie of the year, likely to miss out.
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January 10th, 2008
There wasn't a single new release in the top five; in fact, there wasn't a single new release to chart this week. This left I Am Legend in first place with $30.51 million on 3492 screens in 33 markets for a total of $167.97 million internationally. The film has million dollar openings in a trio of markets, the largest of which was Australia where it pulled in $8.41 million on 338 screens over the weekend and $8.58 million in total. In Greece it earned $1.30 million on 79 screens over the weekend and $1.88 million in total while in New Zealand it opened with $1.04 million on 65. Meanwhile it was down 43% in the U.K. to $7.39 million on 458 screens over the weekend for a total of $36.50 million after two weeks.
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January 8th, 2008
The first weekend of 2008 was stronger than expected with the overall box office earning $140 million. This is 25% lower than last weekend, but that's to be expected. More importantly, it's 6% more than the same weekend last year and that's a great start to the new year.
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January 6th, 2008
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem opened in sixth place internationally with $16.43 million on 1877 screens in 20 markets. The film opened in second place in Germany with an impressive $4.64 million on 553 screens, while it debuted in fourth place in Australia with $1.86 million on just 182 screens over the weekend and $2.95 million since Boxing Day.
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January 4th, 2008
With only one new release this weekend, and a sub-par one at that, holdovers will dominate the box office this weekend, just like they dominated the box office last weekend.
The same group of holdovers might dominate the box office next weekend as well.
2008 is starting off really slow.
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January 2nd, 2008
2007 ended on a high note. Whole not every film was able to meet expectations, there was a trio of films that hit milestones, either just before the weekend, on the weekend, or just after the weekend ended. Overall the box office added $186 million over the weekend, which was up 16% from last weekend. More importantly, it was up 15% from the same weekend last year given 2007 a total box office of $9.68 billion, which was 4% more than 2006 and 2% more than 2004's record. Ticket sales, on the other hand, was flat down less than 0.1% from last year and this is the fourth down year out of five for this vital stat.
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December 28th, 2007
It's the final weekend of 2007 and, like most years, there are no wide releases to deal with.
However, there are three films that opened wide on Christmas Day, as well as five films from the weekend, and two others from the weekend before that.
All in all, there's plenty to discuss.
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December 27th, 2007
Over five days, 8 wide releases debuted in theaters, which is an insane amount of competition. It comes as no surprise that only a couple excelled while almost half failed to find a real audience. Overall the three-day weekend brought in $160 million, which is within a rounding error of last weekend. Comparing it to last year, on the other hand, is moot since December 24th landed on the weekend, and it is one of the worst days at the box office. Without that issue, 2007 was up by 34% from 2006, but that is a misleading number.
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December 20th, 2007
The weekend before Christmas sees five films opening in wide release, by varying degrees. We have has a record-setting holdover and a surprisingly strong kids film to deal with, not to mention the three films opening on Christmas day. This will make for a very, very crowded marketplace and it is hard to imagine all films earning a place with moviegoers. However, figuring out which films will be squeezed out is very difficult.
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December 19th, 2007
Despite expanding from 7 theaters to 40, Juno remained in first place on the per theater chart with an average of $35,686. The number one overall film, I Am Legend, had to settle for second place with a still very impressive $21,412.
Another holdover, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, remained nearly flat, earning an average of $18,855 in three theaters, but it better expand soon before it's too late.
Atonement earned nearly $2 million over the weekend in just 117 theaters for an average of $15,443.
Despite weaker than expected reviews, The Kite Runner opened with nearly $500,000 in 35 for an average of $13,478.
The final film in the $10,000 club was the second wide release to reach that mark this weekend; Alvin and the Chipmunks opened with an average of $12,750 in nearly 3,500 theaters over the weekend.
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December 18th, 2007
We finally got some really good news this weekend as I Am Legend smashed all expectations and broke records along the way.
Overall, the box office pulled in $161 million over the weekend, which was almost double last weekend's number.
More importantly, it was 35% more than the same weekend last year.
Hopefully this isn't the last positive surprise of the holiday season and 2008 can end on a high note.
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December 16th, 2007
I Am Legend broke a weak spell at the box office in spectacular fashion over the weekend, earning a massive $76.5 million, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
If that number holds up, Legend will be the biggest opener ever in raw dollars in December (see full chart), beating the $72.6 million earned by Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in December 2003.
It's also comfortably the biggest opening weekend of Will Smith's career, topping the $52.2 million earned by I, Robot in its first outing.
Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, however, Legend is slightly behind Return of the King, and is Smith's second-biggest opening behind Independence Day.
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December 15th, 2007
Only two sites with an intense amount of flash, sadly the bigger of these two sites features some of the worst music I have heard in a long, long time. This left I Am Legend - Official Site - as the clear winner for the Weekly Website Award.
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December 15th, 2007
December 13th, 2007
This weekend promises to give us the biggest opening box office for a film since August when The Bourne Ultimatum opened with nearly $70 million. I Am Legend won't earn that much, but it will easily win the box office race.
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December 13th, 2007
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Julie & Julia, A Plumm Summer, Yes Man, and more!
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December 1st, 2007
It's been a while since we went into the final month of the year on such a down note.
Since mid-September the box office has been down on a year-to-year comparison every weekend but two.
There is some good news, including a competitive Oscar race and a strong group of films aiming for box office glory.
While there are no films that appear to be heading for the monster hits territory, there are also no films that look like outright bombs.
(Although a couple would be there if it weren't for the holidays.)
Every week at least one Oscar contender and one box office giant are being released.
This means that every weekend there is at least one film that should hit $100 million, or more.
If five or more can reach that milestone, 2007 will set the record for most $100 million films in a year.
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August 5th, 2007
Another big list of movie sites, but not much in the way of top-notch entries. For a movie site to be an award winner, I expect it to have all of the usual features, extras like clips, something interactive like a game, and background sound and animation. The film that best exemplifies that criteria is Stardust - Official Site, which is the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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July 29th, 2007
Server upgrades went... less smoothly than anticipated, which delayed this column, but at least there are a huge number of sites to check out. Many of these sites are making their first appearance on the list while quite a few are making their last appearance. Unfortunately, while it's a big list, there are not many that are even close to being award worthy at the moment. 30 Days of Night - Official Site comes the closest, but I'm waiting for the missing features to be added before I make that decision.
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January 21st, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for I am Legend, Angels & Demons and more.
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