November 29th, 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 winners of the DVD Pick of the Week,
Spider-Man 2 -
Special Edition and Tru Calling - The Complete First Season -
Buy from Amazon.
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November 17th, 2004
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason opened in a mere half a dozen international markets over the weekend, but what an opening it was. Despite place on fewer than 1000 screens the film was able to pull in an amazing $26.7 million, the lion's share coming from the U.K. where the film took in $19.1 million on 496 screens, (including $5.9 million from sneak peaks.) That was the best opening for a Working Title film smashing the previous record of $11.1 million for
Love Actually. In each market the film broke the record for Working Title films and more than doubled the
original's debut. And even with legs that are expected to be much lower, it should be able to break $300 million internationally, although it may have trouble hitting $50 million domestically.
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November 10th, 2004
It's a rare feat for a non-Hollywood film to top the international charts, but that's just what the German spoof, Seven Dwarfs, did this week. Playing in just three markets the film took in $10.6 million on under 1,000 screens. In its home market of Germany the film eased just 19% to $9.2 million; the result was not quite as good in Austria where it dropped a respectable 30% to $915,000, but it was in Switzerland where it shined -
increasing 4% to $500,000. Overall the film has now made $29.0 million so far but the real test comes with increased competition from holiday fare and the ability to find an audience in non-German speaking markets.
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October 27th, 2004
Despite a 45% drop in its weekend haul,
Shark Tale was able easily able to earn it third first place finish on the international charts. Still early in its run, the film took home $16.2 million in 4,368 theatres in 24 markets pushing its total to $80.3 million internationally. Without any openings the film relied on strong holdovers like in the U.K. where it drop 39%, in France it was off 32% and 35% in Germany.
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October 20th, 2004
Thanks to mostly unopposed openings several more markets,
Shark Tale was able to repeat as the international box office champ this week. Not only that, but its $29.6 million more than doubled its international tally prior to the start of the weekend as the film now sits at $56.2 million. The best opening of the weekend, and most likely of its international run, was in the U.K. where the film managed to take in $9.1 million, ($13.6 million if you include last week's previews.) In France the result was strong with $4.2 million but in the face of local competition, it could only manage $3.4 million in Germany.
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October 13th, 2004
With openings in nearly a dozen new markets,
Shark Tale was able to take top spot on the international charts with $9.4 million in 16 markets, pushing its early total to $19.2 million internationally and over $100 million worldwide. Highlights include $4.4 million in the U.K., (including previews) and $2.05 million in Mexico. How happy the studio is with these results depends on their expectations. Compared to the average film,
Shark Tale is a massive hit. But compared to
Dreamworks previous
digitally animated film,
Shrek 2, it is a large drop.
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October 6th, 2004
Collateral finished first on the international charts breaking
The Village's five week run on top. Although, with a weekly take of only $9.4 million in 28 markets, it has as much to do with the weakness of the competition as it does with the strength of the film itself. The largest chunk of that box office came from France, where the film earned $3.8 million.
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September 13th, 2004
There were very few surprises over the weekend, however, the box office as a whole was slightly depressed compared to expectations. This led to a 10.3% drop from last weekend, and more importantly a 9.4% drop from last year. After a summer that can best be described as mixed, Fall 2004 is getting off to a dubious start. Year to date 2004 has brought in $6.607 billion in ticket sales, up 4.8% from this time last year, inline with estimated ticket price increases.
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September 10th, 2004
Historically speaking, the weekend after the Labor Day long weekend tends to be the slowest weekend of the year. But this year looks to buck the odds, as we should see a slight bounce from last weekend. And this increase should be thanks entirely to
one movie, while this week's other
new release will have to settle for a distant second place. The rest of the top five, and indeed the top ten, will finish way back but within a couple million of each other.
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September 7th, 2004
Labor Day Weekend is generally the second slowest weekend of the year (the slowest weekend of the year is usually the weekend after Labor Day). This year we saw more films open than usually do, but none of them opened well enough to be considered a real success. This resulted in a serious drop-off from last weekend of 14.4%. The year-to-year comparisons are a little off since Labor Day occurred a week earlier last year. Compared to Labor Day 2003, 2004 was off 13.5% for the 3-day frame and 14.4% for the 4-days.
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September 3rd, 2004
It's another weekend with lots of movies, but again the average theatre count is under 2000. But unlike last weekend when three of the four films were brutally attacked by critics, this week we have a perfect record, all four films are being brutally attacked by critics. At least the ones the critics got to see. I figure this weekend one film will do enough to be considered a success, or sorts, two will fail, and one will fail spectacularly.
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August 30th, 2004
We had a
surprise number one at the box office this weekend, and add to that a few holdovers that held up better than expected and the weekend wasn't as bad as it could have been. It was still down by 12.1% from last weekend, but was nearly flat with last year up just 1.24%. Granted, this time last year it was the Labor Day Long Weekend, which even as the slowest long weekend of the year will throw off the comparison by a little bit. Year to date 2004 continues to see its lead shrink and it now sits at just over 4%, barely more than ticket price inflation.
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August 27th, 2004
While it may look like a busy weekend at first glance as there are four wide releases, their average theatre count is under 2000. Also, three of the four are receiving some of the harshest responses from the critics seen this summer. Because of that, there should be a real drop at the overall box office this weekend, a downturn that won't end till mid-October, give or take a week.
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August 26th, 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,
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site, which won also for
CountOlaf.com. 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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May 20th, 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. It was another deceptively slow week as there are lots of site on the list, but none stood out as an award winning site. Many were simple placeholders, others had just minor updates, and the only three flash sites to launch were mostly marked coming soon. I was even tempted to not give out an award or maybe even bring in a
ringer. But in the end I went with
The Incredibles -
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 13th, 2004
This week's batch of new movie release dates is highlighted by MGM announcing the release date of the as-yet-untitled 21st James Bond Movie,
a confirmed release date for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,
a curious move for the
Bridget Jones sequel and the usual shuffling about as studios try to position their movies for the greatest chance of success.
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