June 15th, 2011
True Blood: Season Three was able to lead the way on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, and while the margin was closer than it was on the DVD sales chart, it was still dominant. It started its Blu-ray run with sales of 199,000 units / $7.09 million, which is amazing for a TV on Blu release, although the comparison is difficult, as most TV on DVD releases don't have a Blu-ray release. Likewise, its 20% Blu-ray ratio seems impressive for this type of release; however, there are so few TV on Blu releases that it's hard to judge.
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June 14th, 2011
It's not common for a TV on DVD release to top the sales chart, but that's what True Blood: Season Two did. It led all new releases and holdovers during its first week of release with 786,000 units, and generated $23.92 million in consumer spending at retail. To put this into perspective, Season Two took about a month to sell that many units.
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June 8th, 2011
Two films could make legitimate claims for top spot on this week's Blu-ray Sales Chart. Gnomeo and Juliet topped I Am Number Four if you rank them by units at 271,000 units to 241,000 units; however, the pair finished in opposite order if you rank by dollars at $6.02 million to $5.42 million. As far as opening week ratios are concerned, Gnomeo managed 29%, which is in line with expectations for a family film, while Number Four was stronger at 34%, but that's not quite what you would want for a visual effects heavy film.
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June 7th, 2011
New releases took the top two spots on this week's DVD sales chart with Gnomeo and Juliet leading the way with 666,000 units sold while generating $10.74 million in opening week sales. This is not a bad result, for this time of year.
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May 24th, 2011
While we have two first run releases coming out this week, the number one seller according to Amazon.com is a specialty release, and the bulk of the interesting titles are Blu-ray catalog releases. Granted, one of the first run releases nearly hit $100 million at the box office, but this is still a really bad sign in terms of overall sales. As far as the best of the best, that's a race between The Kids in the Hall: Complete Series Megaset and Platoon on Blu-ray. I'm going with the former for Pick of the Week, but make sure to check the price, as buying Death Comes to Town and the old Megaset might be cheaper.
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May 22nd, 2011
Harry Potter changed the box office world and ever since the boy wizard made the successful transition from page to screen, studios have been eagerly trying to find the next mega-franchise. A film series that can last a decade and pull in billion after billion at the worldwide box office. I Am Number Four is the latest in the long line of contenders for the next big franchise, but so far only a handful have done well enough to justifying even talk of a sequel. None have challenged Harry Potter's dominance at the box office. Will I Am Number Four finally break that streak? Or will it be just another wannabe?
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March 10th, 2011
This week is was Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Wednesday, and now it's the beginning of Lent. Because of this, a lot of international numbers were not as timely as I would like. And we are still stuck with a lot of studio estimates. Leading the way was The King's Speech with $18.9 million over the weekend for a total of $183.5 million internationally and just over $300 million worldwide. It grew by 31% in Japan to $1.61 million on 124 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.32 million after two. Meanwhile it was down just 11% in the U.K. to $1.76 million on 470 screens over the weekend for a total of $68.45 million after two months of release.
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March 2nd, 2011
For the third weekend in a row, Black Swan led the way on the international chart, pulling in $17.50 million on 3,950 screens in 45 markets for a total of $123.37 million internationally and $226.95 million worldwide. In Spain it remained in first place with $2.52 million on 319 screens over the weekend for a total of $6.47 million after two. It added $2.81 million on 363 screens over the weekend for a total of $13.74 million after three. It doesn't have many markets left to open in, but the film has already made nearly a quarter billion dollars on a production budget of just $13 million, so it is fantastically profitable.
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February 28th, 2011
February ended in the same position it has been for nearly the entire year, on the losing end of the comparison to 2010. The post-holiday drop-off was steep at 25% leaving the weekend box office at just $109 million. This was 9% lower than the same weekend last year. Normally, a 9% drop-off year-over-year would be devastating, but that's actually better than 2011 has averaged so far. Year-to-date it is now 21% lower than 2010's pace at $1.53 billion to $1.93 billion.
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February 24th, 2011
It's the end of the month and considering how poorly the year has started, for a lot of people it's good riddance. We are coming off of the first win in several months, but that streak could be over before it really starts. Firstly, the win was mainly due to President's Day long weekend coming a week later than it did last year. Secondly, the two films coming out this week are rather weak. The only good news is that this time last year wasn't exactly big at the box office either.
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February 23rd, 2011
The winners of our Three for Four contest were determined and they are...
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February 23rd, 2011
I Am Number Four wasn't able to earn top spot on the overall chart, but it did quite well on IMAX, earning $3 million on 228 screens. It's per screen average wasn't as high as some recent blockbusters, or even a second tier release like The Green Hornet, which earned the same amount, but on about 30% fewer screens. But IMAX continues to prove it can offer substantially higher revenue regardless of how good or bad the film's overall performance is.
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February 22nd, 2011
It was a good news / bad news situation this weekend as a number of films missed expectations. However, the overall box office was still enough for 2011 to secure its first win, topping last year's box office $145 million to $134 million. Granted, this is not exactly a fair comparison, as it was President's Day long weekend this year and it wasn't last year, but when you've had a 14-week losing streak, you will take any win that you can. Year-to-date, 2011 is still behind 2010's pace by nearly $400 million at $1.39 billion to $1.78 billion and there's little you can do to spin that into a positive.
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February 17th, 2011
We need a win. It has been more than three months since we've seen a victory in the year-over-year comparison, and with last year's Alice in Wonderland looming ahead on the comparisons, if we don't get a win soon, we might not get one for another couple of months. There is some good news this weekend. It's President's Day long weekend, which actually happened one weekend earlier last year. This means we have a holiday weekend this year going up against the post-holiday weekend from last year. Granted, Shutter Island opened with more than $40 million and I don't think any film will repeat that feat this year. However, last year's second place film, Valentine's Day made under $17 million, and each of the top five films this year could make that much. In order words, depth could be the key to the first victory of the year.
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February 11th, 2011
Next weekend there are three wide releases, all three of which have at least some chance at opening in first place. That said, I Am Number Four will likely finish number one and thus is this week's target film. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for I Am Number Four.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Unstoppable on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of Unstoppable on DVD.
Finally, one additional entrant will be chosen and they will win the final copy of Unstoppable 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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February 1st, 2011
January got off to about as bad a start as I feared, and already 2011 is behind 2010 by about $275 million. Even worse, last February was better than expected. Not only did Avatar add another $200 million to its coffers during the month, the new releases collectively topped expectations every week (even if some individual releases failed to do so). What does this mean going forward? It means 2011 will likely continue to lose ground on 2010. By the time March rolls around, the only thing box office watchers will be talking about is the slump.
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January 4th, 2011
IMAX released their 2010 numbers and they had a lot of reasons to celebrate, more than 500 million of them. Total worldwide revenues doubled from their previous record of $270 million in 2009 to $546 million in 2010. This is partially due to increased market penetration, especially internationally (international revenue tripled from $70 million to $212 million) but their per theater revenue also grew by an impressive 50%. Revenue for the fourth quarter was also up compared to last year, but by a tiny margin at $102 to $101 million. However, this should be considered a solid result, as last year was boosted by Avatar, and there was nothing that came close to matching its box office this year.
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December 21st, 2010
Tron: Legacy may not have been a monster hit overall, but it was another story on IMAX, as it earned $10.45 million in 234 theaters. That's almost a quarter of all its box office revenue from less than 7% of its theaters. Internationally is was also strong, pulling in $2.2 million in 54 IMAX theaters, or about 10% of its total international debut. That is a much lower percentage than it managed stateside, but IMAX penetration is also quite a bit lower internationally.
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