February 26th, 2007
Last night's Oscars were a interesting mix of clear favorites and surprising upsets.
There were enough surprises to keep people talking for a while while enough favorites won that most will be satisfied with the overall outcome.
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February 25th, 2007
The Oscars have all been handed out, but that's not the end of our coverage. Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts as well as next week when we look at the Oscar bounce. And later on we'll announce the winners of our contest,
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January 28th, 2007
Apocalypto climbed into sixth place despite dropping 13% to $6.72 million on 2072 screens for a total of $37.90 million. Its best market of the week was Spain where it opened in first place with $1.94 million on 283 screens.
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.
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January 7th, 2007
Since New Years Eve fell on a Sunday this year, there was precious little in terms of international box office numbers released this week. We have some studio estimates, some box office information for major markets, and some updated totals. But for the most, there's little to share.
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December 19th, 2006
This is the last week before Christmas and there are a lot of DVDs on this week's list that would make perfect last minute Christmas gifts. There are also a lot of DVDs that feel like they are being dumped on the home market in the hopes that they will be scooped up by ever desperate shoppers. Of the contenders, Jackie Chan's Police Story - Special Collector's Edition and The Simpsons - The Complete Ninth Season - Collectable Lisa Head Packaging came close to taking home the honor. But in the end I went with When the Levees Broke.
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December 17th, 2006
Open Season solidified its chances to reach $100 million with a first place debut in Italy. Over the weekend the film just managed to beat
Happy Feet $1.68 million to $1.66 million over the weekend, (with midweek numbers
Open Season earned $1.82 million on 430 screens). The film was not as successful in Japan with just $968,000 on 441 screens; with such a small per theatre average, it will likely disappear quickly from charts. Overall it earned $4.97 million on 3451 screens in 51 markets for a total of $87.16 million; and even with no major markets left to open in, it does have a great shot at $100 million before its run is over.
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December 17th, 2006
With just a week till Christmas and with hard to shop for people still on the list desperation is probably setting in. With all the stress everyone's judgment is questionable so here is another selection or random gifts that may are may not be perfect for someone on your list.
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December 3rd, 2006
There was a
new number one this week as
Ice Age: The Meltdown led both the sales and the rental charts. In the latter it took in $10.26 million for the week, less than $1 million above
The Da Vinci Code's $9.35 million haul.
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November 26th, 2006
Late numbers for the international weekend meant there was a shakeup in the top five with
Saw III trading places with
The Devil Wears Prada.
Saw III took fourth with $6.54 million on 1912 screens in 20 markets for a total of $37.18 million. Meanwhile,
The Devil Wears Prada fell to sixth with $5.87 million on 2452 screens in 23 markets for a total of $172.54 million. It was also the first time in nearly two months that the film didn't place in the top five on the international box office.
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November 21st, 2006
The official start of the Christmas shopping season is just ahead and while this week is not as busy as last in terms of quantity, the quality is still very high with several contenders for DVD Pick of the Week. Narrowing it down to the short list gives us three films, An Inconvenient Truth - Buy from Amazon, Seinfeld - Season 7 - Buy from Amazon, and Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek - Buy from Amazon. And if I was forced to pick just one, it would have to be An Inconvenient Truth - Buy from Amazon.
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November 19th, 2006
Desu Noto 2, a.k.a., Death Note 2: The Last Name held on strong adding $5.12 million on 397 screens in 2 markets for a two week total of $20.85 million. In
Japan the film remained in top spot with $4.66 million on 346 screens for a two week total of $19.34 million.
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November 5th, 2006
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals saw impressive growth this week up 52% to $4.26 million on 2035 screens in 20 markets for an international total of $16.58 million. The film opened in a handful of markets including placing first in Mexico with $927,000 on 310 screens, but that's a little low for this type of film in that market. Also, it missed the top five in Spain opening in sixth place with $651,000 on 220 screens. The film's biggest market of the weekend was the U.K. where it was down just 27% to $1.41 million on 446 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.66 million after two.
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October 30th, 2006
Not much in terms of international details this week and what little details there are, are based on studio estimates.
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October 22nd, 2006
The
German soccer film, Deutschland. Ein Sommermarchen, remained in first place in Germany and sixth overall this weekend. It managed this feat by falling just 25% to $5.41 million on 671 screens for a two-week total of $14.67 million.
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October 1st, 2006
Ye Yan, a.k.a., The Banquet opened in third place in South Korea with $1.04 million on 183 screens over the weekend and $1.24 million in total. That helped the
Chinese film place sixth overall with $5.52 million on 734 screens in 6 markets lifting its international total to $15.94 million, which is just above its production budget.
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September 24th, 2006
Little Man shot up the charts into sixth place with $5.97 million on 1597 screens in 23 markets for a total of $22.63 million internationally. The film had million dollar debuts in both Spain, ($2.06 million on 250 screens), and Mexico, ($1.04 million on 352), while came reasonably close in Russia, ($960,000 on 217 screens, including midweek numbers). In all three markets, the film placed second on the charts. More amazingly is the film's performance in the U.K. as it dipped just 17% to $1.05 million on 315 screens over the weekend and a three-week total of $5.75 million.
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September 10th, 2006
No new openings left
Garfield's A Tail of Two Kitties down 40% to $5.87 million on 3779 screens in 32 markets for a total of $90.08 million. It was reported that the film broke a record for an
animated film in China with $6.7 million putting it ahead of
The Lion King, which is a strange thing to report since the movie isn't
animated. Sure, it has a
CG lead, but that's not the same. As for the film's prospects for the future, hitting $100 million internationally is academic at this point and with several openings to go, including previews in Australia this weekend, the film could finish with close to the $125 million earned by the
original.
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August 1st, 2006
Little Miss Sunshine earned $370,000 over the weekend and nearly $500,000 since its Wednesday debut, all in just 7 theatres for an outstanding per theatre average of $52,969. Another Gay Movie overcame terrible reviews to finish in second place with an average of $16,658 in two theatres. Both 13 Tzameti and Wondrous Oblivion finished within $100 of each other with $10,805 and $10,740 respectively, both in 1 theatre.
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July 11th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continued its record-breaking ways on the per theater charts, earning an average of $32,817, which is the highest average ever for Saturation Level release (defined as 3,000 or more theatres).
Second place went to A Scanner Darkly; the intellectually challenging Science Fiction film started its run with nearly $400,000 in just 17 theatres for an average of $23,040. This is more than enough to ensure expansion, but probably not enough to earn much mainstream success.
The same can be said for the third place film, Heading South, and indeed last week's winner, Strangers With Candy.
The latter film saw significant expansion this week, going from just 2 theaters to 21, and its per theater average held up remarkably at $10,660.
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July 6th, 2006
Strangers With Candy easily led the per theatre charts this weekend with just over $43,000 in 2 theatres for an average of $21,571. Since it debuted on Wednesday, the film has made almost $70,000. Second place went to the overall box office champ, Superman Returns, which pulled in a solid average $12,924 of over the three-day weekend. Last week's winner was the only holdover to reach $10,000 average as Wassup Rockers brought in nearly $35,000 on 3 screens for an average of $11,570.
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June 20th, 2006
Wordplay not only topped the Per Theatre Charts with and average of $16,424, it was also the only film to crack $10,000 this week. However, the re-release of
Pandora's Box came awfully close with $9,950 in its lone theatre.
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June 13th, 2006
Cars not only won the overall box office title, but was one of only two films to top $10,000 on the per theatre charts this weekend earning $15,086.
The other film was last week's winner, An Inconvenient Truth, which managed an average of $12,334 in 122 theatres during its third weekend of release.
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June 6th, 2006
An Inconvenient Truth repeated on top of the per theatre charts despite a massive expansion this past weekend. Overall the film managed 9th place with $1.4 million in total and a $17,615 per theatre average.
Second place again went to the overall box office champion, The Break-Up, with $12,760.
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June 5th, 2006
The post-holiday weekend hit the box office hard as the total fell to $135.8 million, down a massive 30.5% from last weekend.
But more importantly it was up by 3.3% from the same weekend last year, which is in line with the year-to-date gains.
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June 1st, 2006
For the second weekend in a row there's only one wide release to deal with.
However, unlike last weekend, there is no chance records will be broken, at least not the good kind.
The weekend should keep pace with 2005, which saw the all three wide releases struggle.
In fact, the one wide release this week could make more than all three did last year.
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May 31st, 2006
During a weekend where records were set at the top of the box office, it was a
documentary that won the race on the Per Theatre Charts.
An Inconvenient Truth set a record for highest per theatre average for a
documentary with more than $280,000 in 4 theatres for an average of $70,333; also, since its debut last Wednesday the film has earned nearly $500,000. Second place when to the aforementioned chart-topping
X-Men: The Last Stand, which earned a very impressive average of $27,846 in 3,690 theatres. The final film to top $10,000 was
Fanaa, which just missed the top ten on the overal charts with $753,067 in 72 theatres for an average of $10,459. This is much better than expected, but as a niche market film, it is unlikely to have strong legs.
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May 26th, 2006
Not much this week in terms of new sites or updates and all the ones that are award-worthy have already won the weekly website award. The best of the rest is
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift -
Official Site, but it certainly doesn't deserve to win the awards.
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May 25th, 2006
While there are only four films on this week's list, one of them could have the biggest documentary to come out since Fahrenheit 9/11. But An Inconvenient Truth isn't the only limited release worth checking out.
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May 18th, 2006
It's a depressing week for limited releases and not only because none of the films really won over the critics. The four films all deal with subject matters that are bound to depress, or revolt moviegoers. Things are bound to pick up next week when An Inconvenient Truth opens.
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April 28th, 2006
The first of the new Friday edition Weekly Website Review column is here, but not without a hitch. We had a bit of a power outage early in the day so I did what any modern man would do when faced with the prospects of going without the Internet for an undetermined amount of time, I took a nap. Fortunately, I was mostly done before the power went out so there was no real affect on this week's list, but I am starting to this that this column is cursed. As for the list, its pretty average with the best of the bunch being
A Scanner Darkly -
Official Site.
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