May 29th, 2005
Revenge of the Sith dominated nearly every market it opened in and in most of them it was the only new film in the top ten. Because of this there's almost no international details to report and those details that are available are single market releases.
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May 22nd, 2005
It was another slow weekend for international details as few studios were brave enough, or foolish enough to try and squeeze in a release between
Kingdom of Heaven and
Revenge of the Sith. It was hard to find many films that earned more than $1 million over the weekend and most of the activity came from smaller releases in midlevel markets. Next weekend there could be even fewer details as
Revenge of the Sith should dominate every market, but after that the summer blockbuster season should be in full swing and things should pick up.
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May 16th, 2005
The summer got off to a really, really slow start international this week and while
Kingdom of Heaven didn't wasn't quite the blockbuster most people were looking for, it did cannibalized what little box office there was. There were a few local films to make noise, including Negotiator: Bayside Shakedown 3, which easily topped the Japanese market with $5,275,685 on just 280 for a huge $18,842 per screen average.
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May 14th, 2005
Just one new film managed to finish in the top five on the rental charts, but it easily took top spot.
National Treasure was more than 50% higher than its nearest rival with $10.57 million in DVD rentals and $1.46 million in VHS rentals for $12.03 million total. The film also finished first in DVD sales and second in VHS sales, (behind
The Incredibles.)
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May 7th, 2005
There were three new films in the top five rentals this week but
Meet the Fockers held them off taking top spot. The film added $9.39 million in DVD rentals and $1.54 million in VHS rentals for a combined $10.93 million, down just 11% from last weekend.
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April 25th, 2005
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. There are quite a few DVDs that piqued my interest this week, but there was only one that jumped out as a must buy: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - 2-Disc Special Collector's Edition
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April 24th, 2005
Hitch is just coasting on holdovers now, and will be until it opens in Japan at the beginning of June. This week it added $5.1 million from 3000 screens in 55 markets to its already impressive $170.4 million international total and with soft week to week drop-offs and a good showing in Japan and it will have a $200 million future. This week the film added $643,359 in its fifth weekend in France for a $12,785,670 total in the market, $110,000 in its second weekend in Argentina, (rising to first place in the meantime) as well as other, smaller markets.
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April 17th, 2005
The Pacifier finally debut across Australia after playing in Queensland and Victoria for the past two weeks; the massive expansion allowed the film to climb to first place with $1.125 million on 267 screens. That lifted its total in the market to $3.41 million so far and the film should have strong legs. Add to that its $1.75 million opening in Spain and $590,000 in Belgium and the film managed $4.1 million over the weekend, which doubled its early total to $8.1 million.
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April 10th, 2005
It was a slow week at the international box office, the slowest of the year, and without much activity at the box office hit there were little in the way of details published by the studios. Therefore this week's column is much shorter than usual. Leading the best of the rest was
Be Cool with an estimated $5 million for a disappointing $12.7 million international tally. Its best single market was the U.K. where the film finished second with $2.2 million on 336 screens after an exclusive engagement last weekend. The film also did well in the Netherlands with $190,000 on 43 screens but really struggles in Germany opening in fifth place with just $930,000 on 321 screens, a result mirrored in Austria, (fifth place, $165,948.)
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 27th, 2005
Million Dollar Baby has again slipped off the radar screen, but we do know it hit $52 million internationally, which means it made $9 million during the week. The film didn't earn $1 million in any single market, but is still doing strong in South Korea, ($970,000), Spain, ($840,000), Italy, ($600,000) and Australia, ($350,000.) Best estimate has the film earning just shy of $5 million of that over the weekend and taking sixth place on the international box office charts.
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March 20th, 2005
After gathering in all the data the winner for the race for fifth place is
Million Dollar Baby, I think. It would need to lost more than 40% from last week's total and that's not taking into account its openings in South Korea at $1,515,672 and second place, its $110,000, third place debut in Finland, $86,000 in Russia, $50,000, second place debut in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, exact weekend totals are unknown but it is estimated at $6 million raising its international total to $43 million so far.
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March 16th, 2005
Not only is
Hitch the undisputed champion of 2005 for the domestic market, it is also the new number one worldwide, topping
Howl's Moving Castle $216.5 million to $211.9 million. And with $28.1 million this weekend on 4,600 screens in 40 markets, the film sits at $66.0 million internationally and could become the first film from 2005 to reach the $100 million milestone on the international scene.
The film's biggest opening of the weekend came from the U.K., where it racked up $8.1 million including sneak peaks, which represented more than 50% of total box office in the market.
Add in first place debuts in Italy with $2.5 million on 300, Belgium with $820,000 on 57, Netherlands with $670,000 on 93 and $225,000 on 16 screens in the U.E.A. The film also performed admirably in South Korea with a third place, $1.4 million weekend on 175 screens. Notable holdovers include its $6.3 million in Germany, down less than 30% to $17.2 million in that market alone and $1.83 million in Australia, down 34% and still first place in both markets. The film was also first place in Scandinavia, but exact numbers are currently unavailable.
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March 13th, 2005
Shark Tale finished its international run with a second place $2.08 million opening in Japan on 485 screens. Its $4,296 per screen average it quite low for the market and generally means the film won't have the usual legs films in Japan have. The film performed much better in Italy where it finished first again with $3.0 million, down just 23% during its sophomore stint. Overall it took in $5.2 million to raise its international total to $181 million, but without any more openings it might struggle to hit $200 million.
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March 6th, 2005
The Aviator beat weekend estimates by a substantial margin leading to a $5.9 million box office on 3000 screens in 34 markets. The multi-
Oscar winning movie has hit $86.2 million internationally and will cross $200 million worldwide before too long. The film dropped a spot to fifth place in South Korea with $834,660 for the week and slipped to second in Australia with $798,000. The only market the film opened it was Argentina, where it easily took top spot with $232,000.
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February 27th, 2005
Ocean's Twelve may have dropped out of the top five, but it is still going strong with $4.5 million on 1400 screens in 35 markets for an international box office of $225.8 million so far. No new openings means the
heist film had to rely on holdovers likes its $2.5 million during its third weekend in the U.K. and $1.4 million during its fifth week of release in Japan, finishing second in both those markets.
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February 20th, 2005
Iznogoud: Calife a la place du calife, a movie based on a Asterix and Obelix
spin off of sorts, dominated the French box office taking in $7.1 million, more than double the second place film and more than a third of the top ten total. It is also enough to push it into the
Top Five on the international scene, dropping
Finding Neverland into sixth place. Unfortunately, like the several films made in the Asterix and Obelix series, this one is unlikely to make much of an impact outside the French speaking markets.
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February 9th, 2005
A higher than expected opening in Spain and a lower than expected decline in the U.K. allowed
Meet the Fockers to retain top spot on the international charts. The film opened first in a handful of markets, including a $4.7 million opening in Spain on 356 screens, $377,000 in Denmark, $352,000 in Taiwan and $275,000 in Israel. Its most prolific market continues to be the U.K. where the film brought in $8.5 million during its second weekend there; that's a 42% drop-off, which is a little high for the market, but not as high as expected given its huge start last weekend. That one market represented more than half of its weekend total of $16.3 million on 1700 screens in 28 markets for a running tally of $82.9 million.
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February 2nd, 2005
Meet the Fockers open in the U.K. over the weekend with an astounding $14.8 million on 456, which is more than four times the
original's earnings there in 2000.
That figure was also more than 8 times the second place film , and more than half the market's total box office.
Add in a handful of openings in other, mostly smaller markets and the film brought in $19.2 million on 1,700 screens in 15 markets for a $58.8 million total so far.
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January 26th, 2005
The International Box Office Race is certainly interesting, as Ocean's Twelve recaptured the lead this weekend with $14.4 million on 4,600 screens in 58 markets and now sits at $170.4 million internationally and $292.8 million worldwide. A large chunk of that total came from Japan, where the film earned $6.8 million (including sneak peaks) on 510 screens, while ending Howl's Moving Castle's nine week reign on top.
While this was a strong performance, it was 20% lower that the original's debut in the same market.
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January 12th, 2005
The race for first in the international marketplace continued to be close with three films within a couple million of each other. Leading the way was
Ocean's Twelve with $17.5 million on 5200 screens in 54 markets; the film's international total now sits at $137 million, slightly more than half of what
Ocean's Eleven finished with. The
heist film did open well in several markets, which mostly balances out severe drop-offs due to the post-holiday. For instance, the film opened well in South Korea with $2.1 million on 150 screens and debuted in first place in Argentina, ($500,000), Portugal, (with $720,000) and in the Philippines, ($370,000.)
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December 22nd, 2004
For the first time in many weeks there was a real race for top spot on the international charts, also, for the first time in many weeks
The Incredibles didn't win that race. Boosted by debuts in 22 additional markets,
Ocean's Twelve took top spot with $28.9 million on 3900 screens in 27 markets for a early total of $35.2 million. Compared to the
original the results are mixed. IN many places it is a lot lower when compared in local currency, but thanks to the Dollar's extended losing streak, it's much higher in American funds. For instance, the film opened in first place in France with 5.7 million Euros, down 16% from its predecessor, however, that's $7.5 million in American funds, a increase of 28%. Other highlights include $5.3 million in Germany, $3.5 million in Spain, $2.2 million in Italy and $1.4 million in both Holland and Switzerland and just shy of $1 million in Sweden. The film remained in first place in Australia despite dropping 50% at the box office to just $1.8 million.
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December 20th, 2004
This weekend was the first year anniversary of the last of the Lord of the Rings movies, and the box office really missed its impact. The weekend was almost exactly flat with last weekend, but down 24.6% from last year. However, if you discount the top movie for each, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events this year and Return of the King for last year, then 2004 is up by more than 11%. The year-to-date comparisons have 2004 up by a mere 1.4% at $8.66 billion.
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December 17th, 2004
The look for this weekend is much different than it was at the beginning of the month as a few films had their release dates shuffled. That won't change what film will take first place, but the rest of the top five might be affected.
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December 15th, 2004
Several films made their international debuts this weekend, but that didn't stop
The Incredibles from taking top spot on the international box office, again. This weekend the film brought in an addition $32.1 million on 6,343 screens in 37 markets to lift its international tally to $152.1 million so far. The films busiest weekend in terms of raw dollars was the $5.7 million it earned in Germany, but with a theatre count of more than 1000, that wasn't as strong as the
studio would have liked. The film did break the record for biggest opening for an
animated movie with $1.7 million in Brazil. The film also opened first in Switzerland with $1.2 million, Austria with $931,000 and South Africa with $310,000.
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December 13th, 2004
The two wide openings fell short of expectations, but by a combined margin just several million dollars, even so, this weekend was nearly 23% ahead of last weekend. And comparing it to last year's trio of disappointing wide releases results in a 19% increase. And while 2004 now sits 2.4% ahead of 2003 with $8.52 billion, that margin could evaporate as there's no sure thing, $300 million monster hit left to be released this year.
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December 10th, 2004
Two movies open wide this weekend, both looking to attract the same audience. In the end both films will suffer because of this, but both films should also do well enough to earn a profit while jumpstarting the box office.
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December 9th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
In Good Company -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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December 8th, 2004
The final installment in the
Blade Trilogy, aptly sub-titled
Trinity, gets a jump on the weekend opening tonight.
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December 2nd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Ocean's Twelve -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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December 1st, 2004
December is a huge month at the box office, but also a very unique one. Massive blockbusters are released side by side with smaller films with only Oscar on their minds.
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November 18th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Electra -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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November 8th, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section, including the nominees for the DVD Pick of the Week, which we'll get to in a second. This was a strange week, there was only one first run release, a few limited releases, several nearly re-releases complete with ads for upcoming movies and more than a couple really old movies mostly sold in sets. Even the best of the bunch is going to have a really narrow appeal, so instead of naming a Pick of the Week, I'll name the best of each group. Best Limited Release:
Ju-On: The Grudge -
Buy from Amazon. Best Ad for A Sequel:
Bridget Jones's Diary - Collector's Series -
Buy from Amazon. Best Box Set Containing Movies Made Before I was Born: Fritz Lang Epic Collection -
Buy from Amazon.
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November 4th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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October 21st, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Blade: Trinity -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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September 30th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Shark Tale -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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September 23rd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
I ♥ Huckabees -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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September 16th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Shaun of the Dead -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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August 5th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Saints and Soldiers. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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July 2nd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Spider-Man 2 -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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June 24th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week,
Suspect Zero -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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February 28th, 2004
Screenwriter David S. Goyer wrote the first two movies of the
Blade Trilogy. But a couple of scenes he wrote were cut for time and budgetary reasons. But now that he's writing
and directing
Blade Trinity, he's able to put those scenes back in.
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