January 9th, 2013
There were quite a few new releases to chart on the November 18th edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. In fact, there were five in the top ten. Leading the way was Brave with 1.16 million units and $23.97 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 35%, which is lower than expected. Granted, it is a kids movie, but it is a 3D animated kids movie.
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January 8th, 2013
There were half-a-dozen new releases to chart on the November 11th edition of the Blu-ray sales chart. This includes The Amazing Spider-Man, which earned first place with 641,000 units / $14.37 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 54%, which is impressive, but one has to assume the studio was hoping for more. Then again, the film is more than profitable enough to ensure a sequel.
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December 9th, 2012
It was a soft week for new releases on the DVD sales chart and the holdovers were not a lot of help. The Amazing Spider-Man did earn first place, but with an unimpressive opening of 536,000 units / $9.62 million. There are two mitigating factors here. Firstly, the film will likely perform much better on Blu-ray. Secondly, it was released on Friday, so it had a shortened opening week.
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November 6th, 2012
It's a mixed week on the home market. Granted, there are about a dozen Amazing Spider-man releases coming out this week, but not till Friday. The second best selling new release is Arthur Christmas, which missed expectations last year. Another major release of the week is The Muppets Christmas Carol, which is making its Blu-ray debut, but it is a catalogue title and likely won't sell a huge number of units. On a side note, the screener is late, but I've seen the film so many times that seeing it one more time likely won't change my opinion of the film, but I'm not sure if it is Pick of the Week material. On the other hand, I'm very sure Sunset Boulevard's Blu-ray debut is worthy of that title.
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December 21st, 2011
New releases dominated the international chart starting with Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which debuted in first place with $69.49 million on 6,693 screens in 42 markets. It debuted in first place in Japan with $7.35 million on 636 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $9.32 million. It also placed first in neighboring South Korea with $7.18 million on 948 screens over the weekend and $8.67 million in total. Other first place openings included Australia with $4.23 million on 414 and Spain with $2.64 million on 528. It had to settle for second place in Russia, but still managed $6.08 million on 1099 screens and in France with $5.03 million on 616. The final major market release of the week was Germany, where it earned second place with $3.48 million on 577 screens over the weekend for a total of $4.00 million. The film has yet to open in Brazil, the U.K., Italy and Scandinavia, among other markets, and should finish in a similar range to the other films in the franchise.
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December 16th, 2011
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations and the Awards Season picture started to look a whole lot clearer. The Artist led the way with six nominations, while The Descendents and The Help were right behind with five apiece.
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December 15th, 2011
For the first time in four weeks, we had a new number one film on the international chart, as Puss In Boots continued its climb reaching top spot. It expanded into 16 additional markets, including a handful of major ones. This propelled it into first place with $47.06 million on 6,749 screens in 40 markets for a total of $143.72 million, which is just over what it has made domestically. The film's biggest debuted was Germany, where it earned top spot with $6.88 million on 680 screens, including previews. It was even more impressive in Brazil with $5.56 million on 738 screens, also including previews. Brazil is more of an emerging market than a major market, so the fact that it generated more revenue than its openings in either Australia ($4.03 million on 507 screens, including previews) or in the U.K. ($3.07 million on 510) is quite stunning. With debuts in Italy, Japan, and other markets ahead of it, not to mention the Christmas holiday, it could double what it currently has internationally, which would lift its worldwide total over $400 million.
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December 13th, 2011
After an extended slump with only a few bright spots over the past couple months, expectations for this weekend were lowered. Unfortunately, the new releases managed to fail to live up to lowered expectations and we had the worst weekend of the year. That can't be right. It's the worst weekend in three years. The overall box office was down 7% from last weekend to just $75 million, while it was down 18% when compared with last year. With only a few weeks left in the year, 2011 is down by 4% to 2010 at $9.57 billion to $9.95 billion. At this point, 2011 has virtually no chance of catching up to 2010. In fact, the box office is so weak, I think it is wise to reduce all predictions by at least 10%. ... Maybe 20%.
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December 11th, 2011
A dismal weekend is predicted all round this weekend, and the total box office is set to record its poorest score in three years, and its worst December weekend in over a decade. With Breaking Dawn, Part 1 continuing its rapid decline, and no hits coming out since, the top of the chart has a decidedly anemic look to it. New Year's Eve will be top with around $13.7 million, a number that is miles behind last year's $56.3 million debut for Valentine's Day. The Sitter will come second with $10 million, which is less of an embarrassment, given its edgier nature, but still well below par.
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December 7th, 2011
For the third weekend in a row, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 earned top spot on the international chart, this time with $40.2 million on 9,000 screens in 73 markets. It now has totals of $341 million internationally and $588 million worldwide. Its biggest opening of the weekend came from South Korea, where it made $3.22 million on 706 screens for a total opening of $5.12 million. Its biggest running tally comes from the U.K. where it has made $42.76 million, including $2.61 million on 523 screens this past weekend.
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December 5th, 2011
Well that was depressing. No one was expecting a huge boom at the box office this weekend, but the overall results were even weaker than expected. In fact, at just $81 million it was the worst weekend of the entire year. Needless to say, the box office was down on a week-to-week basis plummeting 51%. Year-over-year there were also declines, albeit by a softer margin of 6%. Year-to-date, 2011 has pulled in $9.47 billion and it is now 4% behind last year's pace. There's almost no chance to close the gap in just four weeks and the only hope we have is to build momentum over the next four weeks, so that 2012 doesn't continue the year-over-year declines we've been suffering through for most of 2011.
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December 1st, 2011
There are no wide releases opening this week, but that doesn't mean there definitely won't be a change at the top of the box office. The Fangirl Factor for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 will likely eat away at its box office much more than the three family films, and this could leave The Muppets on top over the weekend. This is what happened last year with Tangled. Unfortunately for this year, Tangled started out much better and even if The Muppets holds on better as a percentage of its opening, that likely won't be enough to for the total box office to earn a win in the year-over-year comparison.
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November 30th, 2011
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 remained in top spot on the international chart with $76 million on 10,500 screens in 68 markets for a total of $268 million internationally and $489 million worldwide. It has already topped the first film in the franchise and by the end it should improve upon the franchise's international average. Its best new market was Germany, at $10.89 million on 789 screens over the weekend, for a total opening of $13.70 million. Meanwhile, its best holdover was the U.K., where it added $7.11 million on 546 screens to its two-week total, which sits at $36.24 million.
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November 28th, 2011
November ended the same way it began, on a losing note. Of the three wide releases, only The Muppets really made an impact at the box office. Hugo was able to top expectations and it was the only film in the top five to do so, but it was also the smallest of the three new releases in the top five. This meant the overall box office was down 26% from last weekend to $164 million. That was behind last year's haul by 9% leaving 2011 further behind last year's pace. At the moment, the gap is close to 4% at $9.35 billion to $9.71 billion.
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November 27th, 2011
In spite of a hefty 70% weekend-to-weekend decline, Breaking Dawn, Part 1 will run out an easy winner at the box office over Thanksgiving, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. Its $42 million Friday-Sunday performance is exactly in line with the $42 million earned by New Moon during its Thanksgiving weekend, but it is currently running about $9 million behind the second film in the franchise, suggesting a total gross of around $285 million. A bevy of family-friendly new releases will be unable to come all that close to the vampire film, although all studios involved are projecting strong business for the films in question throughout the Holiday Season.
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November 23rd, 2011
It's the Thanksgiving long weekend and that means families should be flooding theaters. Fortunately, there's plenty of choices, as there are three family films opening tonight: The Muppets, Arthur Chrstmas, and Hugo. Unfortunately, this direct competition will likely mean one or two of them won't be able to match their box office potential and the studio will end up disappointed. Also, it will be nearly impossible for any of them to top The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 over the weekend. This weekend last year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 was the number one film, but Tangled came very, very close to overtaking it as both films came within $2 million of $50 million. I don't think any film will do that well this year, so we will likely see a sharp decline on the year-over-year comparison.
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November 16th, 2011
Immortals opened in first place internationally with an estimated $38 million in three dozen theaters. (Because the film's international run is being handled by multiple studios, getting exact numbers was delayed.) Its biggest market was Russia, where it earned first place with $8.68 million on 1,236 screens, while it earned $5.5 million in China. The film also debuted in first place in South Korea with $3.99 million on 633 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $4.95 million. It took top spot in the U.K. with $3.45 million on 428 screens and in Germany with $2.63 million on 440. On the other hand, it bombed in Japan earning just $1.26 million on 462 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $1.69 million.
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November 1st, 2011
October was a bit of a write-off. After the last weekend of September, the 2011 box office was about $280 million behind 2010's pace, but after the final weekend in October, that gap increased to $340 million. November will obviously bring in more box office dollars than October did. After all, it has one of the most important long holiday weekends of the year, Thanksgiving. However, the important question is not, "Can this November top last month?" It's, "Can this November top last year?" The biggest hit of last November was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, which earned just shy of $300 million. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 should match that figure. Tangled reached $200 million and maybe Happy Feet 2 will match that figure, but that's far less certain. There's a chance The Muppets will match Megamind while Tower Heist should top Due Date. If Jack and Jill and / or Hugo can become surprise $100 million hits and one of the limited releases can become a monster hit, like The King's Speech was able to, then suddenly the box office looks whole lot rosier going into the final month of the year. It's possible, but it's kind of like getting a backdoor full house in Texas Hold'em to beat a straight. I wouldn't bet on it. On the other hand, there doesn't appear to be many Skyline, The Next Three Days or Faster films that bombed at the box office. So while we might not be as strong at the top, there is better depth this year and hopefully that will be enough.
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