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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December 13th, 2010
This week we have the last of the major summer blockbusters hitting the home market, and not only did Despicable Me earn $250 million domestically and more than $500 million worldwide, it also earned amazing reviews. This makes it an obvious contender for Pick of the Week. Unfortunately, the screener is late, and I hate to award that honor to a release when this is the case. As far as its competition is concerned, there are two main releases vying for that title: The Quintessential Guy Maddin! on DVD and The Town on Blu-ray. Despite my well-documented pro-Canada bias, I'm giving it to the latter.
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November 3rd, 2010
Thanks in part to holidays in France, Despicable Me was able to return to top spot with $21.65 million on 4511 screens in 44 markets for a total of $234.58 million internationally and $482.46 million worldwide. By this time next week, it will have more internationally than domestically and a total of more than half-a-billion worldwide. Its top market was France, where school holidays helped it more than double its take at $6.17 million on 657 screens, but that's for the 5-day weekend. Overall it has made $19.80 million in that market. It opened in second place in Japan with $2.93 million on 225 screens over the weekend and $3.12 million in total. It was flat in the U.K. adding another $4.15 million on 532 screens for a three week total of $24.21 million.
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October 27th, 2010
Mirroring its domestic debut, Paranormal Activity 2 opened in first place internationally with $22.32 million on 2752 screens in 21 markets. The film opened in first place in the U.K. with $5.92 million on 389 screens, while it also topped the charts in Australia with $2.68 million on 185 screens and in Mexico with $1.86 million in 452. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place in South Korea with $1.05 million on 218 screens over the weekend and $1.18 million in total. While in Italy it could do no better than fourth place with $1.55 million on 250.
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October 26th, 2010
Paranormal Activity 2 opened in $2.4 million on 151 IMAX screens domestically giving it an average of $16,000 per IMAX screen. That's not that much better than its overall per theater average. It managed $120,000 on just 5 IMAX screens in France, its first international market, which is a much better result. Meanwhile, it was announced that Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole has earned $7 million on IMAX screens worldwide, including $5.3 million domestically.
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October 20th, 2010
Despicable Me completed its climb to the top of the international chart with $27.03 million on 4751 screens in 40 markets for totals of $170.27 million internationally and $417.32 million worldwide. This week's openings include the U.K., where it topped the chart with $5.81 million on 522 screens, which is a good result, but not a great result. It placed second in Italy with less money at $4.86 million on 544 screens, but ironically, this is a better result due to the relative size of the two markets and it only placed second due to a massive local hit. Meanwhile, the film was down just 23% in France adding $3.57 million on 657 screens for a two-week total of $8.82 million. It was down 35% in Spain, but remained in first place with $2.25 million on 542 screens over the weekend and $8.27 million in total. The film is running out of places to open in, but by this time next week it should have $200 million internationally, while $500 million worldwide is still the main goal.
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October 13th, 2010
Eat Pray Love rose to top spot on the international chart with $18.47 million on 4289 screens in 55 markets for a total of $64.81 million internationally. By this time next week, the film should have more revenue internationally than it had domestically, and it was a solid midlevel hit here. The film opened in first place in Australia with $3.42 million on 328 screens over the weekend and $3.63 million in total. On the other hand, it had to settle for fourth place in Russia with $1.74 million on 223 screens.
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October 11th, 2010
The race for top spot was pretty close this weekend with the first and second place films finishing within $1 million of each other. On the other hand, combined there were significantly weaker than last year's number one film, Couples Retreat. Because of this, it should come as no surprise that the overall box office was down, falling 2% from last weekend to $93 million and 15% from last year. 2010 still has a massive lead over 2009 at $8.31 billion to $8.04 billion, but year-over-year declines like this mean that lead is not safe.
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October 7th, 2010
There could be a real tight race for top spot at the box office this week, which is good news as it gives us something to talk about while we avoid the year-over-year comparison. There are three wide releases coming out this week; however, it is very possible that their combined opening weekend results will be less than last year's number one film, Couples Retreat. Even if 2010 avoids that fate, there's almost no chance it will keep up with last year's pace.
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October 6th, 2010
Resident Evil: Afterlife was in a close race for top spot on the international chart, but lost out to Detective Dee: Mystery Of The Phantom Flame, a Chinese film. That film opened with $16.42 million on 650 screens in 4 markets over the weekend for a total opening on $17.63 million. Most of this likely came from its native market, unfortunately, China is not a market that releases box office number in anything close to a timely fashion, so exact numbers there will likely remain a mystery for a while.
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October 4th, 2010
October started in such a way that it feels like September was extended a weekend. The top film wasn't bad, but the other two wide releases bombed. Overall the box office brought in $95 million, which was down 6% from last week and 11% from the same weekend last year. 2010 is still ahead of 2009 by 4% at $8.19 billion to $7.90 billion, but if it were to lose 11% each weekend, that lead would evaporate by the end of the year.
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October 3rd, 2010
The Social Network connected with about three million moviegoers this weekend to top the box office chart with an estimated $23 million, according to Sony's Sunday estimate.
While that's a very respectable start, interest in the movie was mainly concentrated in urban areas, particular on the coasts, and the movie was soft in the central United States.
While stellar reviews should lead to good word-of-mouth, the film's limited demographic appeal certainly seems to have held it back from being a huge success.
That said, this weekend's other openers are looking on in envy.
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September 30th, 2010
It's the beginning of October, so it should come as no surprise there are a couple of horror films are coming out. More surprisingly, a couple of films released this week are also earning Oscar- or near Oscar-worthy reviews.
(There's only three films, so there's some crossover.)
Direct competition between the films could hurt, but hopefully not so much that 2010 falls behind last year's pace.
It's not like last year was explosive at the box office, as Zombieland just missed $25 million at the box office, and it was the clear winner.
Will any of the wide releases top that figure? And will the overall box office help 2010 maintain its lead over 2009?
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September 28th, 2010
The winners of our Singing a Happy Tune contest were determined and they are...
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September 28th, 2010
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole opened on 193 IMAX screens domestically, but only managed about $1.7 million. Its per screen average on IMAX was nearly twice its overall per theater average, but it was still a soft opening. After three weeks of release, Resident Evil: After Life has reached $8.3 million worldwide, which is impressive, as IMAX hasn't managed the same market penetration internationally as it has domestically, and this film is definitely a bigger international hit than it is domestically. However, with success stories like Inception, which crossed the $50 million mark on the global IMAX box office over the weekend, that is changing.
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September 27th, 2010
While none of the three new releases were able to live up to expectations, the holdovers did more than just hold their own, which helped the overall box office pull in $101 million over the weekend. This was nearly identical to last week, while it was higher than the same weekend last year by 4.5% and that helped 2010 maintain its lead over 2009. Currently 2010 is ahead of 2009 by a nearly 4% margin at $8.07 billion to $7.76 billion. Losing a $300 million lead in just three months would be impressive in its ineptitude, but we can't be too quick to claim victory. After all, Avatar made almost as much during the last two weeks of 2009 and there's nothing opening for the rest of 2010 that can compensate for that much at the box office.
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September 26th, 2010
Twenty-three years after the opening of the original, Wall Street 2 marked the successful return of Gordon Gecko this weekend with a good (though hardly blockbusting) $19 million opening.
Intervening years of inflation and radical changes in theatrical distribution make a comparison between the openings of the two movies virtually meaningless, but it is noteworthy that the first Wall Street was more a of cultural icon than a box office hit.
It earned $43,848,100 - very respectable for the time, but less than, for example, Outrageous Fortune, Dragnet or La Bamba, which were all also released in 1987.
Wall Street 2 looks headed for similar respectability.
Whether it'll catch the national mood in the same way is more doubtful.
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September 23rd, 2010
It's the final weekend of September and there are three and a half new releases this week looking to cash in. We could have a race for the top, as two films, Legend of the Guardians and Wall Street 2 are both vying for top spot. It might be close enough that one could win Friday night at the box office, while the other wins the weekend as a whole. Or perhaps one will win opening weekend, while the other will finish its box office run with more. Either way, combined they should help 2010 keep pace with last year, which didn't exactly have a strong crop of new releases.
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September 17th, 2010
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole should have little trouble leading the box office next weekend and should be the biggest hit of the month. More importantly, it is the target film this week. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Legend of the Guardians.
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 SpongeBob SquarePants: 10 Happiest Moments on DVD, as well as Lets Hear It for the Laurie Berkner Band on DVD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Dora the Explorer: Dora's Slumber Party on DVD, as well as Dora the Explorer: Dora's Big Birthday Adventure 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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September 1st, 2010
Summer has ended and while there were some bigger than expected hits in August, this trend is unlikely to continue in September. There are four weekends this September and nearly a dozen films opening wide, plus a few more that may or may not open wide. Of all of those films, maybe three of four will be midlevel hits, while only one film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole 3D, has a real shot at reaching the $100 million milestone. This is compared to last year when we had two $100 million hits, although one of those was Paranormal Activity, which didn't expand truly wide till Halloween. Hopefully 2010 can gain ground on 2009 overall, even if it doesn't have as many $100 million hits.
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September 14th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Box, Hangover, The Fast and the Furious 4 and more!
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July 5th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Appaloosa, Bad Lieutenant, Night at the Museum 2, and more!
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July 2nd, 2008
This week another number of upcoming movies, new stars and directors have been added to our archive!
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June 29th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Pride and Glory, Final Destination 4, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and more!
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