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.
More...
July 12th, 2011
While plenty of new releases reached the top of this week's sales chart, none were exactly burning up the chart. Leading the way was Sucker Punch, but with only 275,000 units / $4.13 million during its opening week on the chart. Season of the Witch could claim a share of first place with $4.28 million in opening week sales from 265,000 units sold.
More...
June 27th, 2011
It's a bit of a madhouse in terms of DVD and Blu-ray releases this week: Amazon.com has more than 400 listed. That said, a lot of them are catalogue titles that would barely warrant a mention during a slow week. The most intriguing first run release is Sucker Punch on Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy Combo Pack, but while I think it's worth picking up, it's appeal is limited enough that it is not worthy of the Pick of the Week honors. Fortunately, one of the catalogue titles is clearly Pick of the Week material. In fact, Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Extended Edition - Blu-ray is one of the most anticipated releases in the history of Blu-ray.
More...
March 14th, 2011
While Battle: Los Angeles easily won the race at the box office this weekend, that was practically the only bit of good news, as it was the only film in the top five to top expectations. Overall the box office pulled in $129 million, which was 3% lower than last weekend and 12% lower than the same weekend last year. On the other hand, this is actually better than average for the year so far. Year-to-date, 2011 is just over 20% behind last year's pace at $1.85 billion to $2.33 billion.
More...
March 7th, 2011
There's very little good news at the box office this weekend, but we will start with some happy thoughts. Rango had the best opening weekend of the year, which helped the box office climb 23% from last weekend to $134 million. On the other hand, this time last year Alice in Wonderland opened with $116 million by itself, which means 2011 lost the year-over-year comparison by 32%. Year-to-date, 2011 now has $1.69 billion compared to last year's pace of $2.13 billion and it's not like it's going to get better over the coming weeks.
More...
March 3rd, 2011
So far 2011 has been a bit of a bust with only one weekend winning the year-over-year comparison and not a single film opening with more that $40 million. Hopefully one of those records will change this weekend, as Rango looks to become the biggest hit of the year so far. Unfortunately, this time last year saw the release of Alice in Wonderland, the biggest March opening of all time. I can't imagine a scenario where 2011 doesn't lose even more ground on 2010.
More...
March 1st, 2011
This is going to suck. February wasn't exactly a banner month at the box office and 2011 is already roughly $400 million behind 2010's pace. To make matters worse, last March broke records starting with the release of Alice in Wonderland. There is no movie coming out this month that will come close to Alice in Wonderland's performance; in fact, the number one film this March will likely not do as well as the second best film from last March. The best case scenario has the month producing three $100 million movies, plus a number of midlevel hits, while still failing to match last year's pace by about $100 million. The worst case scenario has two of the three potential $100 million hits missing that mark, plus the midlevel hits also struggling. In that case, we could end March about $300 million further behind 2010's pace. (Hopefully things will start to turn around in April.)
More...