November 30th, 2011
The Harry Potter franchise held three of the top four spots on this week's Blu-ray sales chart with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 earning top spot with 1.29 million units / $28.83 million during its first full week of release for totals 3.40 million units / $76.27 million.
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November 30th, 2011
New releases this week were a little strange. While there were two massive releases, both were in fact released on Blu-ray a month ago. The weak new releases helped Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 lead the way on the DVD sales chart selling 2.38 million units, while generating $35.57 million in revenue. After just two weeks of release, the film has sold 5.21 million units and generated $77.79 million in revenue, placing it third for the year.
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November 16th, 2011
It's a really soft week for releases. Granted, Harry Potter came out last week and it is likely still going to be selling quite well this week. But the best release of Tuesday, at least according to Amazon.com, is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on DVD. Normally this would be a huge release, but it came out on Blu-ray weeks ago. The same is true of the second best selling release, The Lion King. The most of the next several best selling releases are Blu-ray catalog titles. Granted, many are worth picking up, but it could still be a really slow week in terms of overall sales. That doesn't mean it is a slow week in terms of high quality releases. West Side Story is coming out on Blu-ray, My Fair Lady is also making its Blu-ray debut. There are several more catalogue titles getting a Blu-ray double-dip, like Evil Dead II: 25th Anniversary Edition, or the latest Blu-ray for Metropolis. TV on DVD is well represented with Farscape: The Complete Series (Blu-ray), Being Human: Season One on Blu-ray, and Awkward: Season One. Beginners on Blu-ray is also a Contender for Pick of the Week, as is Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume One: Blu-ray Ultimate Collector's Edition. In the end I went with Evil Dead II: 25th Anniversary Edition. It is a double-dip, but there are major improvements over the previous release, plus it is a bargain price at just $11, and given the number of prime releases coming out this week, a bargain price is certainly welcome.
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July 11th, 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon led the way for the second weekend in a row and overall the top five films were a little stronger than expected, but sadly that wasn't enough for 2011 to score a win. It didn't even come close. The overall box office was just $156 million, which was 23% lower than last weekend, but the post-holiday slump mostly explains that. However, it was 19% lower than the same weekend last year and there's no excuse for that. The bad news continues as 2011 has fallen more than $500 million behind 2010's pace, while attendance is just down close to 10%. Unless Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is an exceptional hit at the box office, the summer of 2011 could have the worst ticket sales in more than a decade.
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July 6th, 2011
There was mostly good news over the Independence Day long weekend, with the number one film topping expectations. However, while Transformers: Dark of the Moon set records, it was the only film to surpass Thursday's predictions by any serious degree. The total box office take was $202 million over three days and $241 million over four, but the lower-than-expected Monday numbers meant that, while the combined take from Friday to Sunday for all films was up 15% from last weekend and 7% from last year, over four days, 2011 was down 4% compared to last year. I think we can conclude 4th of July fireworks had a lot to do with this.
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June 30th, 2011
It's Independence Day long weekend, which is generally one of the busiest weekend of the year. School kids are all out of school for summer, adults have Monday off, and it is the perfect time to celebrate by going to an air conditioned movie theater. Unfortunately, while there's a lot of hype surrounding the megawide release of the week, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the reality might not live up to the hype. It's already off to a slow start compared to last year's number one film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and since 2011 is still $400 million behind 2010, we can't afford a major loss this weekend.
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June 28th, 2011
July starts with one of the most important holidays of the year, which is good news for the industry, as June was a little weaker than expected, at least on average. None of the films were shockingly bad at the box office, even if a few missed early predictions by significant degrees. But conversely, none really shocked analysts with their box office prowess. As such, 2011 continued to slide a little further behind 2010's pace, a trend the movie industry hopes will end this month. Fortunately, that is a reasonable goal. Last July was home to two $100 million movies, two $200 million movies, and a one $300 million movie, assuming you count The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as a July film. This time around, we could see two films top $300 million, assuming you count Transformers: Dark of the Moon as a July release. Meanwhile, there are several potential $100 million films. I count up to six films with a statistically significant shot at reaching the century mark, but I would be amazed if more than half of them got there.
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