September 3rd, 2012
This week is again loaded with TV on DVD releases, including several in the top best sellers according to Amazon.com. The best TV on DVD release in terms of comedy is 2 Broke Girls: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray, while Person of Interest: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray is the best TV on DVD release as far as the dramas are concerned. Both are contenders for Pick of the Week, but neither quite gets there. The Five-Year Engagement on Blu-ray Combo Pack comes a little close, but in the end I went with Headhunters on DVD or Blu-ray. Just keep an eye on the price of the Blu-ray.
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August 12th, 2011
It was a slow week on the home market, especially on Blu-ray, where it was a rare week suffering from year-over-year declines. But more on that in a bit. The number one selling Blu-ray was Source Code with 189,000 units. It was a little disappointing on DVD and its opening week Blu-ray ratio was just under 33%, acceptable, but not great. It was visual enough that upgrading to High Definition wasn't a bad choice, but second-tier enough that I would understand if a lot of people just didn't want to bother with the extra price.
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July 21st, 2011
With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 off to a record-breaking start, the biggest-earning franchise at the worldwide box office is nearing its end. A few records are still to fall (notably, it will overtake Star Wars in a day or two to become the biggest domestic franchise), but we thought now would be good time to look back at how Harry Potter has shaped the movie industry, and the financial records it has broken along the way. For each film, we look at both the box office receipts and domestic spending on DVD, Blu-ray and video rentals. Warning: some readers may find the large numbers presented disturbing.
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June 13th, 2011
It's actually a rather busy week for DVD / Blu-ray releases, at least for the summertime, with four first run releases coming out. Granted, those four films averaged just 21% positive reviews, so it is certainly a matter of quantity over quality. Unfortunately, the quantity of first run releases appears to have scared away quality alternatives and there are not a lot of top notch releases. There are a few that are with picking up, some of which are for limited audiences, but as far as Pick of the Week contenders go, there are none. However, True Blood: Season Three arrived late, and I'm giving the Pick of the Week honor to the Blu-ray.
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July 30th, 2009
There were not a lot of new releases to chart this week, and only one of them made it into the top five. However, that one film was A Haunting in Connecticut, which earned first place earning $8.76 million on 439,000 units sold.
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July 15th, 2009
Variety reports that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince grossed an estimated $20 million at midnight screenings last night.
If that number holds, it will set a new record for the biggest gross from midnight screenings, topping the $18 million earned by The Dark Knight last year.
It's also streets ahead of the $12 million picked up by The Order of the Phoenix two year ago.
If the new release maintains this pace, it should comfortably top $200 million by the end of the weekend, and beat Dark Knight's five-day record of $203.7 million.
We'll keep you posted on news as we get it.
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January 28th, 2008
New releases were not plentiful on the this week's sales chart, but while only three charted, those that did grabbed all but one of the top four spots.
This includes the new number one, Good Luck Chuck, which sold 587,000 units for opening week revenue of $9.98 million.
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January 7th, 2008
Since most new releases were released on Sunday, it comes as no real surprise that The Simpsons Movie remained in first place on this week's DVD sales chart.
This time around, the film sold 1.05 million units for a two-week total of 3.81 million units while it generated $16.84 million in revenue for a total of $64.98 million.
This is a very good start, but lower than expected after its phenomenal theatrical debut.
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December 31st, 2007
There were plenty of new releases to chart this week, but most did not live up to expectations. This includes the number one film, The Simpsons Movie, which sold 2.76 million units during its first week for total sales of $48.14 million.
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December 31st, 2007
There were 12 new releases to chart this week, including 6 in the top ten alone; however, The Bourne Ultimatum remained in first place with $12.76 million in rentals for the week and $28.20 million in total.
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December 24th, 2007
New releases earned the top three spots on the sales chart this week, including Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which sold 5.26 million units for a total of $108.48 million in opening week revenue.
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December 24th, 2007
New releases lead the way on the rental chart but it was The Bourne Ultimatum that came out in first place with $15.44 million in rentals, which is one of the best opening weeks this year.
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December 11th, 2007
There's a deceptively weak selection of releases this week. Sure, we have DVDs from Harry Potter, Lost, High School Musical, and The Bourne Identity.
However, outside of those four franchises, there are no releases in the top ten at Amazon.
In fact, you have to get to 17th place on Amazon's charts to find a new release that isn't related to the big four.
That said, all four are worth picking up, for different audiences, and three of the four are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week.
It took a bit to narrow it down to one selection, but that is Harry Potter Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set - Blu-Ray.
Not only is this release worth getting in High Definition, it is worth upgrading to Blu-Ray for.
(Although I still suggest waiting a little while longer for the first 2.0 Players to come out.)
Also, I got to give out the rare DVD Puck of the Week to The Rocket - Buy from Amazon.
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October 7th, 2007
Hairspray managed to climb into sixth place by the narrowest of margins earning $4.59 million on 2073 screens in 37 markets for a running tally of $54.35 million. This includes a third place, $1.36 million opening on 302 screens in Italy, which is close to its opening domestically, when you take into account the relative size of the two markets. On the other hand, many muscials prove to be difficult to market internationally and it was never likely that this film would match its domestic run. However, it has already made enough to be considered a financial success.
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October 1st, 2007
Well, that was predictable. Nearly every film finished the weekend within $1 million of Thursday's predictions, and the one that missed the mark by the biggest margin was still off by just $3 million.
On the one hand, I'm happy our predictions were accurate.
On the other hand, it makes it difficult to find something interesting to add.
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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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September 25th, 2007
The Transformers opened on IMAX screens over the weekend and pulled in $1.44 million over the weekend up against $474,000 the weekend before. Because of this, we can assume The Transformers earned roughly $1 million on IMAX screens over the weekend. Unfortunately, all we can do is assume since IMAX rarely releases numbers, usually when records are broken.
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September 23rd, 2007
Rush Hour 3 missed spending its fifth week in fifth place by less than $4000 at $5.69 million on 2443 screens in 31 markets for a total of $69.71 million. This weekend the film opened in first place in Russia with $2.28 million on 385 screens while it had to settle for second place in Denmark with $485,000 on 41 screens over the weekend and $517,000 in total.
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September 16th, 2007
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry soared into sixth place with $4.72 million on 1521 screens in 21 markets for a total of $14.61 million internationally. The film finally hit big in a non-English speaking market earning first place with $1.27 million on 364 screens in Russia, but was soft in its debuts in South Korea and Italy. In Italy it managed $683,000 on 198 screens, but that was a tiny fraction of the first place film, while in South Korea it managed just ninth place with $275,000 on 123 screens over the weekend and $312,000 in total.
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September 9th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix may have fallen out of the top five, but it was able to cross $900 million worldwide since last week making it only the tenth film to do so. Over the weekend the film added $7.08 million on 4486 screens in 53 markets for a total of $626.30 million internationally, which places the film sixth place on that chart just $16 million behind Dead Man's Chest. There's not much to report for individual markets with the film down 43% during its second weekend in Greece adding $612,000 on 129 screens for a total of $2.91 million. Its best market remains Japan at $1.67 million on 605 screens over the weekend for a total of $75.18 million after seven weeks. Meanwhile, the film continues to march towards $100 million in the U.K. and after earning $796,000 on 306 screens over the weekend it now sits at $97.89 million in total.
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August 29th, 2007
The top five on this week's international charts was the same as last week, only in a slightly different order. For instance, The Bourne Ultimatum was able to climb into top spot with $15.17 million on 2059 screens in 24 markets for a total of $52.55 million so far. The film had a number of openings, including Russia where it opening in first place with $2.57 million on 453 screens and New Zealand where it top the box office with $666,000 on 60 screens. However, it had to settle for second place in Brazil with $976,000 on 196 screens, but that was still the best per screen average in the top ten there. The film's biggest market overall was the U.K. where it remained in first place with $5.77 million on 456 screens for a two-week total of $27.86 million, which is more than either of the previous
films made in that market. In fact, The Bourne Ultimatum is on track to top the $33.94 million the first two films made in total in the U.K.
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August 27th, 2007
Holdovers went one-two-three on the box office chart this week, which is not a completely uncommon event.
However, with six wide or wide-ish releases, you would think at least one could finish in the top three.
The collapse of the new releases helped keep the overall box office down to $108 million, which was 17% lower than last weekend.
However, that is still 4% higher than the same weekend last year and keeps summer 2007 on a record-setting pace.
In fact, it has hit $4 billion for the first time ever, so there's plenty of reasons to celebrate.
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August 22nd, 2007
The Simpsons Movie topped the charts for the fourth weekend in a row, the first film do win four weeks in a row on the international chart this summer. However, it was very, very close with $22.30 million on 3128 screens in 49 market for a total of $267.62 million internationally while its worldwide total is now $432.89 million. The film opened in first place in Russia with $3.66 million on 545 screens while in Brazil it took in $2.73 million on 442 screens. Its final significant opening of the weekend came in the Netherlands where it also took first place with $844,000 on 190 screens including the biggest opening day for an animated film at just under $222,000. The film is already $100 million ahead of its domestic pace on the international scene and should hit $300 million before long, while worldwide it could be headed to $500 million.
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August 15th, 2007
For the third weekend in a row, The Simpsons Movie topped the charts, but it was a close race as the TV adaptation pulled in $24.12 million on 6,629 screens in 55 markets for a total of $232.02 million, just beating Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which clocked in with $23.87 million.
The Simpsons' nearly 50% drop-off can be explained by they lack of new openings and the film is still performing strongly in several major markets, including the U.K. where it added $4.39 million on 506 screens to its running tally of $60.41 million.
Meanwhile in Mexico, the film was down 64% during its second weekend of release, although that's typical of the film's performance so far and it was still able to earn first place with $1.95 million on 986 screens for a total of $11.10 million so far.
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August 8th, 2007
Full numbers are not in, so we are stuck with studio estimates for this week's international top five round-up.
That means a couple of films could switch places when the final numbers are in.
However, it is certain that The Simpsons Movie will take top spot as it pulled in an estimated $47.3 million on 6,627 screens in 75 markets for a two-week total of $187 million.
This week's numbers include several new releases, including Mexico, where the family friendly film dominated the box office taking in $5.46 million on 842 screens over the weekend and $6.84 million in total.
Holdovers were mixed with the film down 70% in the U.K. and 64% in Germany, however, it still made $8.18 million on 519 screens in the former market and $5.15 million on 816 screens in the latter for running tallies of $24.96 million and $49.14 million respectively.
It fell more than 50% in almost all major markets, but with a worldwide total of more than $300 million after the weekend, the studio should be very happy with the results.
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August 7th, 2007
The Bourne Ultimatum helped 2007 continue its record setting pace and helped the overall box office hit $178 million over the past weekend. That was down 4% from last weekend, but the summer is slowing down and these declines and expected. On the other hand, it was up an amazing 27% from the same weekend last year.
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August 2nd, 2007
What could be the last major opening this summer debuts today.
The Bourne Ultimatum opens in more than 3,600 theaters.
The summer has been an overwhelming success to date, up 8% from last year and 3% from 2004's record-setting run.
If Bourne can maintain the winning streak, and most analysts agree that it will, then a new record is almost guaranteed.
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August 1st, 2007
The Simpsons Movie started its international run with a bang -- a nuclear powered bang.
The film earned $82.49 million over the weekend on 5,527 screens in 71 markets and now has $96.85 million including midweek numbers and previews.
This is an unbelievably huge opening and one that would have floored analysts not too long ago.
However, it is less than half way to what At World's End opened with earlier in the year and just over half of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Spider-Man 3's openings, leaving it in fourth place for the year.
The film's best individual market was the U.K., where it earned a massive $27.67 million opening on 499 screens, which helped pave the way for the largest weekend ever in that market.
Other major markets include $14.22 million on 754 screens in Germany, $11.32 million on 442 screens in Australia, $9.47 million on 716 screens in France, and $7.57 million on 672 screens in Spain.
The film has also yet to open in Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Italy, Russia, and other significant markets.
I'm a little concerned by the Fanboy Effect and what it could do to the film's legs, but no matter what happens from now on, the film is a financial success, and one that practically demands a sequel.
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July 30th, 2007
Practically every film in the top five beat expectations, including The Simpsons Movie, which crushed expectations. This helped push the overall box office to $185 million over the weekend and that was roughly 19% higher than the last weekend and a stunning 40% higher than the same weekend last year. With one or two more summer releases that could top $200 million, this has been a very lucrative season and one that helped to put 2007 in the record books.
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July 27th, 2007
One of the most important and anticipated films of modern times opens in theaters this weekend.
The Simpsons Movie looks to change how we look at culture and perhaps change the very way we humans interact.
OK, probably not, but it should make a boatload of money at the box office this weekend.
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July 25th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix maintained its $100 million international pace over the weekend, adding $100.37 million on 11,647 screens in 56 markets for a two-week total of $353.55 million.
Staying in the 9-digit range was even more impressive considering the film only earned $148.77 million of last week's opening total of $185.22 million during the weekend and that works out to a drop-off of just 33%.
Additionally, the film only had two major openings this weekend, taking first place in both Japan with $17.11 million on 919 screens over the weekend and $18.85 million in total, and in Russia with $7.32 million on 534 screens.
This was significantly more than The Goblet of Fire earned in either market.
It also had number one openings in a handful of smaller markets including Israel with $655,000 on 33 screens and Romania with $94,000 on 7, among others.
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July 24th, 2007
As expected, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix traded spots during the weekend.
However, they both finished lower than expected in raw dollars.
Fortunately Hairspray and the rest of the films were able to compensate.
The overall box office was down 14% from last weekend to $155 million, but that was still up close to 3% compared to the same weekend last year.
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July 22nd, 2007
One of the closest battles at the box office this Summer ended with a narrow win for I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which carved out a decent $34.78 million opening, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
That was just a couple of million dollars more than the $32.19 million earned by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which fell a thumping 58% from its opening weekend.
Potter's box office take was almost certainly significantly hurt by the release of the final book in the series on Saturday, so its week-to-week performance is still hard to discern.
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July 19th, 2007
The buddy comedy with Adam Sandler and Kevin James opens this weekend, and while it won't be seen as one of the major hits of the summer, it should still be in a relatively close battle with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for top spot on the charts this weekend.
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July 18th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out on top of the international chart this week with $190.3 million on more than 12,000 screens in 61 markets, placing first in all of them.
This includes $33.58 million on 567 screens in the U.K., which is just ahead of Shrek the Third's record breaking debut a couple of weeks ago, and The Order of the Phoenix didn't have three days worth of previews to help boost its opening weekend numbers.
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July 17th, 2007
The overall box office leader, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was also the leader on the per theater chart with an impressive $17,995 in over 4,000 theaters.
My Best Friend was reasonably close behind with an average of $15,082 in three theaters.
Meanwhile, Talk to Me exploded on the scene with more than $400,000 in 33 theaters for an average of $12,182.
This should be more than enough to earn some mainstream success.
Speaking of mainstream success, Rescue Dawn just missed the $10,000 club this week despite growing from 6 theaters to 38 and maintained an average of $9,555.
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July 17th, 2007
There were even more records falling this weekend as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix broke several IMAX records during its opening. This includes the largest number of screens (91 domestically and 35 internationally); biggest Wednesday ($1.9 million); the largest 5-day domestic total ($7.4 million); largest domestic per screen average ($80,500); and the largest worldwide opening ($9.4 million). And because of massive pre-sales and sold out showings, the film should show stronger legs on IMAX screens that it will as a whole.
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July 17th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix burst onto screens on Wednesday but proved the old adage that the fire that burns brightest burns the shortest as it fell off its record breaking pace immediately. That said, the weekend was still one worth celebrating as the overall box office took in $181 million, which was a small increase (4.3%) from last weekend, and a substantial increase (14%) from the same weekend last year.
And there are still five more films to come that should have little trouble topping $100 million and a couple that could reach $200 million.
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July 15th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix hit box office gold over the weekend, earning an estimated $77.41 million according to Warner's Sunday estimate.
The movie's five day gross, including Wednesday and Thursday, is now just over $140 million.
That's the best five-day start in the history of the franchise (see Harry Potter box office history), and gives the movie a good shot at reaching $300 million during its run.
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July 14th, 2007
One of the last summer blockbusters launched its full site this week. This means two things, The Bourne Ultimatum - Official Site is the clear winner of the weekly website award. And secondly, there will likely be a slowdown in top-notch sites as we approach the dog days of summer, and the even worse days of September.
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July 12th, 2007
Well, the numbers are in for Wednesday and it looks like we are in for a very good weekend. In fact, 2007 is back to re-writing the history books and we have at least a few more records that will be set before long.
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July 12th, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix made a record-breaking $44,232,338 on Wednesday.
That's a new benchmark figure for a Wednesday, beating the opening of Spider-Man 2 on June 30, 2004.
The number includes $12 million from midnight preview screenings, which was already a record for a Tuesday night.
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July 11th, 2007
Another week and another movie trying to get the jump on the weekend. This time around it's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film of the franchise, but in a summer of steep drop-offs for sequels, there is definitely some concern going into tonight's opening.
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July 7th, 2007
The list returns to its normal busy self, in fact, we have several sites making their first appearance this weekend. In addition, there were a couple of older sites that saw massive updates, including this week's winner, Charlie Bartlett - Official Site.
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July 7th, 2007
We have a shorter entry period for this week's box office prediction contest because our target film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens on a Wednesday. (Also, the contest is starting one day late due to the holidays.) To win To win one must simply predict the box office opening for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of the yet to be released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of the yet to be released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Wednesday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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July 1st, 2007
After a record-breaking start, the summer has slowed down considerably. Granted, it is still hot with a number of big, big blockbusters coming out. In fact, every week in July there's at least one potential $100 million movie. But that's nothing compared to what we saw in May when we have three films open with $100 million. Even worse, outside the four main releases, none of the counter-programming releases look like they will become hits and that will hurt the overall box office.
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June 24th, 2007
One of the most anticipate films of the summer became the best site of the week. The Simpsons Movie - Official Site is finally here and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 9th, 2007
There are a lot of movies on this week's list, but many have just the synopsis, image gallery, and the trailer, and many don't even have that. There were very few that stood out, but at least Speed Racer - Official Site got off to a great start. Perhaps it will win the award before it hits theaters.
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June 3rd, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and more.
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May 19th, 2007
Either it was a really slow week or my Google-Fu is way off, because there's a short list this week. Not only were there very few new / updated sites, but there was nothing that jumped out as award winners. I was tempted to give the award to The Transformers - Official Site just for the new trailer, but I already geeked-out over that site when the first trailer came out. In the end there just wasn't a site worthy of the award this week.
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May 8th, 2007
Spider-Man 3 broke several IMAX records over the weekend, starting with biggest single day at $2.2 million.
The film also has the biggest domestic weekend at $4.8 million and the biggest worldwide weekend at $6.3 million.
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April 29th, 2007
It's a slow week in terms of the cream-of-the-crop sites. There are a few that look like they could be award-worthy once they have a few more updates, but for the most part this week we have a collection that is rather average. There was one stand-out site, Evan Almighty - Official Site, and it was the only choice for the Weekly Website Award.
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December 2nd, 2006
Good week with plenty of strong site, but there was not a whole lot of competition at the very top as
The Good Shephard -
Official Site took home the Weekly Website Award.
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