September 30th, 2007
Ratatouille opening in first place in South Africa this weekend earning $298,000 on 40 screens, which is very close to what The Simpsons Movie made in its opening there a few weeks ago. Its best market of the weekend remains France where it was down a mere 4% to $1.67 million on 655 screens over the weekend for a total of $58.63 million. At this pace, the film will reach $60 million by this time next week while topping Finding Nemo's total of nearly $65 million is increasingly in reach. Overall Ratatouille added $4.66 million on 2535 screens in 27 markets for a total of $216.42 million, which is more than Cars managed, and this film still has openings in Germany, U.K., Italy, and Scandinavia.
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May 25th, 2007
New releases took top spot on both the rental and the sales charts, but there were different films. On the rental chart Pan's Labyrinth was this week's champion after earning $6.48 million.
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May 14th, 2007
It's another slow week for top level DVD releases, but I should probably stop saying that as practically every week from May until the end of summer is going to be somewhat slow.
The third quarter is historically the slowest time of year for DVD sales as people who rather go to the cinema and watch the latest blockbuster rather that sit at home.
That is not to say there isn't any DVD worth picking up this week, and the DVD Pick of the Week, Pan's Labyrinth - 2-Disc Platinum Series, would have earned that designation regardless of how busy the week was.
Also earning that distinction this week is Robson Arms - The Complete First Season, a great Canadian TV series.
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April 1st, 2007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started its international run this past weekend and just missed the top five on debut.
It did manage $3.92 million on 1,004 screens in 8 markets over the weekend and $4.53 million including previews.
Of this box office, nearly half of it came from a pair of third place openings in England ($1.27 million on 368 screens over the weekend and $1.86 million in total), and Australia ($379,000 on 58 screens).
The film also opened in Russia where the strong mutant demographic helped the film capture second place with $1.38 million on 360 screens.
(That was a Chernobyl joke, by the way.)
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February 25th, 2007
The Blood Diamond fell from second to sixth this past weekend, mainly due to the lack of new openings. The film still pulled $8.52 million on 3409 screens in 59 markets for a total of $77.51 million and is still on pace for $100 million internationally, but that's the last milestone in its future.
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February 18th, 2007
Charlotte's Web's return to the international charts was a successful one as it just missed the top five with $6.37 million on 2192 screens in 40 markets. However, its international tally of $32.57 is still a terrible result given the film's production budget, which has been estimated to be north of $100 million. The film has one strong opening this weekend as it earned second place in the U.K. with $3.69 million on 489 screens. On the other hand, the film flopped in France missing the top ten with $762,000 on 347 screens and that was for the full week. It did little better in South Korea with $872,000 on 150 screens over the weekend and $969,000 in total while scoring $218,000 on 54 screens over the weekend in Belgium and $271,000 in total.
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February 11th, 2007
Babel just missed the top five this past weekend and showed that
Oscar nods still meant something at the box office, at least internationally. The film added $5.16 million on 1467 screens for a total of $61.31 million so far. It was aided by a first place, $1.23 million opening on 256 screens in Russia, but that is one of the film's last significant openings.
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February 4th, 2007
For the second weekend in a row
Apocalypto earned sixth place on the international charts, this time pulling in 7.03 million on 2308 screens for a total of $47.42 million. Its best market of the weekend was Mexico where it had an easy first place finish with $2.43 million on 502 screens over the weekend and $2.66 million including previews. It was also strong during its second weekend in Spain as it was down 40% to $1.17 million on 284 screens for a total of $3.64 million.
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January 28th, 2007
Apocalypto climbed into sixth place despite dropping 13% to $6.72 million on 2072 screens for a total of $37.90 million. Its best market of the week was Spain where it opened in first place with $1.94 million on 283 screens.
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January 23rd, 2007
The lone wide release of the weekend struggled to find an audience and even though most of the rest of the top five were able to beat expectations, the weekend box office was still way down.
At just $100 million, the weekend was down 22% from last week and 17% from the same weekend last year.
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January 21st, 2007
The Holiday slipped out of the top five this week, but still has plenty of reason to celebrate as the film hit $100 million on the international scene. Over the weekend it added $8.16 million on 3104 screens in 45 markets to its running tally of $102.54 million. This includes Mexico where the film opened with a respectable third place earning $711,000 on 230 screens while it took fourth place in Argentina with $153,000 on 40.
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January 17th, 2007
Martin Luther King Jr. long weekend saw a new film take top spot while several films in the top five outperformed expectations.
However, overall the box office was 3% lower from last weekend at $128 million and just 2% higher than the same weekend last year.
That's likely not enough to keep up with ticket price inflation.
Obviously it is too early to panic, or even make predictions, but this is not the start the industry was hoping for.
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January 12th, 2007
The weekend prospects are pretty weak, with none of the wide releases / expanding films looking like they have what it takes to top the box office charts.
This is not particularly surprising, as the Martin Luther King long weekend is not known as a powerhouse at the box office.
With a returning champion and a selection of new and expanding films, moviegoers have a lot of choice, but come Tuesday, there won't be a lot of celebrating in the movie studios.
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January 8th, 2007
Although it doesn't come out on DVD until next week, Purgatory House is the featured film on this week's box office prediction contest with signed copies of both the DVD and the Poster available.
In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office of Arthur and the Invisibles, which is expected to be the widest release of the week.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a signed copy of Purgatory House on DVD, a signed copy of the poster, and a copy of History Boys CD soundtrack.
While the person who comes the closest to the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday, without going under, will win a signed copy of Purgatory House on DVD, a signed copy of the poster, and a copy of Broken Bridges 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 2nd, 2007
It is the beginning of a new year. A time to start fresh. So why do most of the new releases smell so stale? It's the January dumping ground, home to films that looked promising on paper but just didn't pan out.
That doesn't mean there are no films that could be worth checking out.
Out of the twelve new films opening wide this month (that's opening, not expanding), Smokin' Aces looks great and so does ... no, that's about it.
Almost all of the new releases are likely to struggle at the box office and with critics alike.
And to make matters worse, six of these new releases are going wide on the same weekend.
This is complete madness and guarantees that at least two films that would otherwise succeed are going to fail.
On the other hand, there are nearly a dozen films that have previously opened and are expanding wide (Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, for example), or are being re-released to grab some last minute Oscar buzz,
(The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, among others).
This makes for an incredibly busy month, but not one that will likely produce many hits.
Two additional notes...
Firstly, Letters from Iwo Jima is expanding throughout the month but likely won't go wide until February.
Secondly, The Dead Girl has a planned expansion on the 19th, but after struggling in limited release since opening last weekend, this seems unlikely.
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December 30th, 2006
Another abridged list with just the sites for movies opening this week, and two others. While there is less than a dozen films on this week list, the first one,
Arthur and the Invisibles -
Official Site, is worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
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December 29th, 2006
Another busy week for new releases with eight films coming out, more than half that were obviously made for Oscar glory. While it is unlikely that any will be the big winner on Oscar night, I could see four of the films at least earning some nominations.
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December 29th, 2006
Eragon remained in first place on the international charts with $21.9 million on 6,300 screens 52 markets for a total of $63.9 million. While the film has won the weekend race two weekends in a row, its running tally is far below studio expectations given its $100 million budget. The film opened in first place in France, ($4.4 million on 754 screens), and Belgium ($579,000 on 90), but had to settle for second place in Italy, ($2.1 million from 477). Holdovers were mixed; the film rose to first place in Russia with $1.1 million on 490 screens, but that was still nearly 50% lower than last weekend. It held on better in the U.K. down 37% to $1.64 million, but that was barely enough for fifth place and lifted its total to just $5.94 million.
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December 20th, 2006
There was a new winner on the international box office charts as
Eragon claimed top spot with $30.09 million on 6,195 screens in 76 markets. This included first place finishes in nearly three dozen markets, but finished third or worse in half, including some major markets. For instance, the film placed fourth in the U.K. with just $2.26 million on 431 screens. Its best market was Spain where it pulled in $4.2 million at 500 while Germany was close behind with $3.88 million on 781 screens. Other million dollar markets include Mexico, ($2.28 million on 807 screens); Russia, ($2.2 million on 490); Japan, ($2.16 million on 558); Australia, ($1.67 million on 321); and Thailand, ($1.1 million on 220). The film has yet to open in France, Italy, Brazil, and smaller markets, but there's little room to expand beyond this point and while it did claim first place, it was not a dominate display especially considering its
competition has been in release for a month.
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October 1st, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Teenage Mutant Ninje Turtles, Resident Evil: Extinction and more.
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