January 18th, 2011
A total of four new releases reached the top 30 on the sales chart this week. One of those films, Machete, topped the charts with 691,000 units sold and $11.05 million in opening week sales.
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January 3rd, 2011
The first week of the year and this year starts the same way last year ends, without a whole lot of must have choices. Machete is topping the chart, and it's a good movie, but there are not enough extras on the DVD / Blu-ray to rate as Pick of the Week material. On the other hand, Howl's DVD and Blu-ray are loaded with extras, but the movie didn't live up to expectations with critics. After going over the list for a third time, I have to conclude that there are no Pick of the Week releases this time around. That should change next week.
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January 1st, 2011
Wow. Two "Demons vs. Little Girl" movies in a row. Case 39 was originally made in the paleolithic era and had been sitting on a shelf for the better part of two epochs. That's exaggerating things a little, but it was filmed in 2006 for a scheduled 2008 release, then pushed back about half-a-dozen times and was removed from the schedule entirely at least once. When it finally did come out in theaters, it wasn't a complete disaster, but close, earning just over $13 million at the box office. So was the film just mishandled? Or was it destined to flop.
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October 11th, 2010
The race for top spot was pretty close this weekend with the first and second place films finishing within $1 million of each other. On the other hand, combined there were significantly weaker than last year's number one film, Couples Retreat. Because of this, it should come as no surprise that the overall box office was down, falling 2% from last weekend to $93 million and 15% from last year. 2010 still has a massive lead over 2009 at $8.31 billion to $8.04 billion, but year-over-year declines like this mean that lead is not safe.
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October 4th, 2010
October started in such a way that it feels like September was extended a weekend. The top film wasn't bad, but the other two wide releases bombed. Overall the box office brought in $95 million, which was down 6% from last week and 11% from the same weekend last year. 2010 is still ahead of 2009 by 4% at $8.19 billion to $7.90 billion, but if it were to lose 11% each weekend, that lead would evaporate by the end of the year.
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October 3rd, 2010
The Social Network connected with about three million moviegoers this weekend to top the box office chart with an estimated $23 million, according to Sony's Sunday estimate.
While that's a very respectable start, interest in the movie was mainly concentrated in urban areas, particular on the coasts, and the movie was soft in the central United States.
While stellar reviews should lead to good word-of-mouth, the film's limited demographic appeal certainly seems to have held it back from being a huge success.
That said, this weekend's other openers are looking on in envy.
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October 1st, 2010
September is nearly over and the Fall box office season is about to begin in earnest.
September wasn't too bad this year, with more films matching or exceeding expectations than missing them, and we managed to keep pace with last year, more or less.
Can October do the same? Well, last year there was only one $100 million hit, Couples Retreat (not counting Paranormal Activity, which opened in September). We might not see any film hit $100 million this time around.
In fact, we might not even see any that come all that close.
On the other hand, there were also five wide releases that clearly bombed last year, and on that end, 2010 looks a lot better.
Not every film that opens over the next five weekends will be a mid-level hit or better, but most should get there.
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September 30th, 2010
It's the beginning of October, so it should come as no surprise there are a couple of horror films are coming out. More surprisingly, a couple of films released this week are also earning Oscar- or near Oscar-worthy reviews.
(There's only three films, so there's some crossover.)
Direct competition between the films could hurt, but hopefully not so much that 2010 falls behind last year's pace.
It's not like last year was explosive at the box office, as Zombieland just missed $25 million at the box office, and it was the clear winner.
Will any of the wide releases top that figure? And will the overall box office help 2010 maintain its lead over 2009?
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September 12th, 2009
The Proposal had massive gains this past weekend and just failed to reach the top five with $5.83 million on 2160 screens in 42 markets for a total of $124.60 million internationally and $285.57 million worldwide. It is now the biggest worldwide hit for Sandra Bullock, and it still has a chance to overtake Speed internationally. This week it debuted in third place in Italy with $1.43 million on 354 screens over the weekend for a total of $1.86 million during its opening, which is much weaker than its performance here. It has yet to open in France, which is key in its quest to overtake Speed, but even if it bombs there and in Japan, it will still hit $300 million worldwide.
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September 5th, 2009
G-Force just missed the top five with $7.09 million on 2964 screens in 30 markets for a total of $67.97 million. The film had no major market openings this week, but it did add $2.17 million on 409 screens in Russia for a total of $8.93 million after two weeks there. Up next is Spain this weekend, which means it could climb back into the top five, if it performs well there.
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February 17th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Four Christmases, Star Trek XI and more!
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October 7th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Case 39, Inkheart, Four Christmases and more!
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August 5th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Fame, Watchmen, Shrek 4 and more.
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April 22nd, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Things We Lost in the Fire, Mama's Boy, Pride and Glory and more.
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January 15th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Breaking and Entering, Two Weeks, Case 39 and more.
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