December 28th, 2010
There were seven new releases to chart this week, including the new number one. In fact, that new number one dominated in a surprising way and none of the other new releases managed to make much of an impact at the box office. Despicable Me led the way with 3.75 million units sold and $62.70 million. If there were any doubts about a sequel, this ended them, as the film is already in the top ten for the year.
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November 26th, 2010
This weekend is Thanksgiving and that means Black Friday and Cyber Monday plus 48 hours of shopping in between. Personally, I've done my Christmas shopping, and I have been for weeks; in fact, I've even finished wrapping everything. For the rest of you, here is the first part in our annual Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will look at some of the major first-run releases, but we start with a short talk on...
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August 24th, 2010
Only three new releases managed to reach the top 30 on the DVD sales chart this week, led by Date Night.
The DVD sold an estimated 623,000 units, and generated $10.58 million in consumer spending at retail during its first week of release.
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August 18th, 2010
It was a strange week on the sales chart with one new release dominating DVD sales, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and another dominating the Blu-ray sales chart, Kick Ass. Diary of a Wimpy Kid sold 733,000 units generating $12.46 million in revenue.
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August 3rd, 2010
A good week with a number of interesting releases but no real blockbusters.
Kick-Ass, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Escape from New York, and Bull Durham are all coming out this week and I will get a chance to review them. ... Note the future tense.
None of the screeners have arrived yet, but hopefully they all will get here soon.
I am always hesitant to award the Pick of the Week to a release when the screener is late, as I prefer to take the opportunity to delve further into the DVD / Blu-ray.
Fortunately, one of the prime candidates did arrive on time and Road to Perdition on Blu-ray is worthy of Pick of the Week honors.
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May 16th, 2010
For the fourth weekend in a row, Alice in Wonderland remained in second place, this time adding $13.28 million on 3843 screens in 54 markets for a total of $630.30 million internationally and $961.15 million worldwide. Since last week it has crossed the $600 million milestone on the international scene, making it just the 13th film to do so. It is now the seventh highest grossing film of all time. The film's per screen average has declined enough that it will likely shed screens and markets rather quickly. That said, if the worst thing you can say about a movie's box office run is, "It might not make it to $1 billion!" then the film is a massive success.
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May 9th, 2010
With Iron Man 2 debuting over the past weekend, Alice in Wonderland had one last gasp before the onslaught of summer blockbusters. It remained in second place with $23.54 million on 4263 screens in 54 markets over the weekend for a total of $592.23 million after two months of release. Worldwide, the film now has $921.92 million, which means that over the weekend it became just the 14th film to cross the $900 million milestone. It has already overtaken Shrek 2 for 13th place. By now, it is likely already in the top ten all-time and has a nominal shot at $1 billion worldwide.
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May 9th, 2010
A prime launch date, inflated ticket prices, and the unbeatable formula of a superhero sequel combined to give Iron Man 2 a massive opening weekend, according to Paramount's estimate, released on Sunday.
Their projected $133.6 million would make the movie the fifth-biggest opener of all time, and cements Iron Man's place among the industry's mega-franchises, alongside Batman, Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, Twilight and Harry Potter.
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April 28th, 2010
Clash of the Titans remained in first place with $34.12 million on 9703 screens in 63 markets for a total of $244.18 million internationally and $389.74 million worldwide. Since last week, the film crossed $200 million internationally. It will cross $400 million worldwide before the weekend. It opened in Japan over the weekend, earning fourth place with $3.01 million on 479 screens, including previews, while it debuted in first place in the United Arab Emirates with $1.1 million on 54 screens. Meanwhile, it added $3.67 million on 992 screens in Mexico for a total of $13.69 million after two weeks of release, which is more than How To Train Your Dragon has earned there in a month... and Mexico tends to reward family films. At this point, $300 million internationally is practically guaranteed, while it might reach $500 million worldwide, if Iron Man 2 doesn't steal away too many screens.
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April 27th, 2010
It was not a particularly strong week at the box office, but that should surprise few people. Four of the top five films reached expectations or at least came within a rounding error of doing so. The overall box office brought in $100 million. This is 17% lower than last weekend and 12% lower than the same weekend last year. That said, 2010 still has a large lead over 2009 at $3.32 billion to $3.06 billion.
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April 25th, 2010
There were more than a dozen foreign releases to reach the top 30 on the international chart, starting with Go Lala Go!. This Chinese film opened in first place in its native market and sixth place overall with $6.44 million on 655 screens.
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April 22nd, 2010
While there are three wide releases coming out this week, including one debuting on Thursday, most box office analysts think that it will be a holdover, How to Train Your Dragon, that will take top spot. This is partially due to that film's strong holds so far, but also partially due to weakness in the three new releases. Expect a sizable drop-off from last weekend, but more importantly, a large drop-off from the same weekend last year.
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April 21st, 2010
The winners of our And Taking Names contest were determined and they are...
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April 19th, 2010
New releases were not able to live up to expectations over the weekend, but at least the holdovers were able to compensate. In fact, there were five films that earned more than $15 million at the box office over the weekend. So while the top film might have missed expectations, there was a lot of strength further down the list. The overall box office was down 5.8% from last weekend to $120 million, but that is still 10.7% higher than the same weekend last year. Meanwhile, year-to-date 2010 has made $3.19 billion and it is still 9.4% higher than last year's pace.
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April 18th, 2010
Date Night started its international run in sixth place with $7.05 million on 1616 screens in 34 markets. While it is playing in a large number of markets, these were mostly of the smaller variety. The largest was Australia, where it placed third with $1.99 million on 304 screens. It also placed third in Brazil with $1.02 million on 174. It managed second place in Mexico, but with only $863,000 on 305 screens.
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April 18th, 2010
Another impressive hold from How to Train Your Dragon combined with a lacklustre opening for Kick-Ass to produce a second consecutive weekend where Sunday's estimates are too close to declare a weekend winner.
Paramount's estimate for Dragon is $20 million, while Lionsgate has Kick-Ass pegged at $19.75 million.
Lionsgate's second place position now may simply be because they've posted a more precise estimate.
Remarkably, there are three more movies within $5 million of top spot: Death at a Funeral opened with $17 million, which is just behind Date Night's second weekend $17.3 million (down just 31%), and Clash of the Titans did pretty well in its third weekend with an estimated $15.77 million.
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April 15th, 2010
A pair of new releases come out this week and almost all analysts expect them to finish one-two. There is some debate over which will take the top spot, with Kick-Ass holding a nominal but hardly insurmountable lead over Death at a Funeral. The same can be said when comparing Kick-Ass to 17 Again, which won the box office race last year. There's a chance that neither new release will be able to start faster than last year's champ, but there's also a chance that both will.
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April 11th, 2010
Shutter Island fell to sixth place with $6.64 million on 2870 screens in 39 markets for a total of $135.53 million internationally and $258.97 million worldwide. With a debut in Japan this weekend, it could climb back into the top five. Even if it doesn't, it still has to be considered a financial success.
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April 9th, 2010
The widest release of next week is Kick-Ass, which is the film I'm looking forward to the most this month. More importantly, it's the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Kick-Ass.
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 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans on DVD, as well as a signed copy of The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell. Patricia Cornwell is the author of many books, including At Risk and The Front, the first of which airs on Lifetime tomorrow, while the second airs next week.
Meanwhile, 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 Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans 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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April 1st, 2010
March was a mixed month, with only three films surpassing expectations.
On the other hand, Alice in Wonderland will beat expectations by more than $200 million, so it alone makes up for a lot of the disappointing films.
On a more troubling note, the final big release, How to Train Your Dragon didn't get off to as fast a start as I would have liked, which could affect the box office going forward. Last year April got off to a fast start and that should happen this month as well. It better, as the quality of films quickly declines as the prospect of May blockbusters begins to loom large on the horizon.
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October 2nd, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Paper Man, Sherlock Holmes, Kung Fu Panda 2, and more!
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August 23rd, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Extract, Gnomeo and Juliet, My Life in Ruins, and more!
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August 20th, 2008
This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!
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August 16th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Chilled in Miami, Dorian Gray, Surfer Dude, and more!
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