October 30th, 2005
Oliver Twist opened in two major markets over the weekend, placing second in both France with $2.4 million on 547 screens and Italy with $1.3 million on 301 screens.
Other markets include $360,000 in the U.K. for a $3.6 million total there and $140,000 in Poland for $1.1 million. Add it up and you have $4.2 million for the weekend and $9.6 million in total.
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October 23rd, 2005
The Brothers Grimm dropped just 35% during its second weekend in France adding $2.1 million to its $5.7 million total there. In Germany, the film performed a nearly the same level falling 36% to $950,000 over the weekend and $2.9 million during its run. Overall the film made $4 million for a $27.8 million runny tally and that places it fourth on this week's charts. While the film struggled domestically, it is doing quite a bit better on the international scene, and could show a profit sometime during its home market run.
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October 22nd, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven was able to capture top spot on the home market rental numbers with $7.24 million in DVD rentals and $540,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $7.78 million. However, while these numbers were enough for the film to finish in first place, it was still not a great start, especially when taking into account the film's massive production budget.
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October 16th, 2005
Company 9 remained in first place in Russia, its home market, down just 13% to $4.3 million for a running total of $14.3 million, which is well ahead of Revenge of the Sith's final box office in the market (which was just shy of $10 million).
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October 15th, 2005
The Amityville Horror won the race for top spot on the rental charts with $8.78 million in DVD rentals and $520,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $9.30 million. This result, plus the rest of the competition, helped pull the rental market out of its extended slump.
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October 9th, 2005
Company 9 opened in its native market of Russia with a stunning $5.0 million over the weekend and $6.25 million including the midweek numbers, which is better than Revenge of the Sith's opening in that market.
This also means there were two films that did so well in their local markets that they managed to place in the top five overall.
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October 8th, 2005
The Longest Yard again won the race on the home market with $9.11 million in DVD rentals and $800,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $9.91 million for the week. That's down a miniscule 4% from its opening weekend and strong enough for a $20.46 million two-week total.
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October 2nd, 2005
Red Eye added another $3.7 million on 2,057 screens in 37 markets to its $22 million international total. The film opened in second place in both Spain with $850,000 on 215 screens and in the Netherlands with $250,000 on 59 ($300,000 including previews).
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October 1st, 2005
The Longest Yard easily won the weekly race to the top of the Rental Charts with $9.54 million in DVD rentals and $810,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $10.35 million.
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September 25th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of
South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like
last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out
Pride and Prejudice.
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September 19th, 2005
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, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. There were a few first run releases this week and more than a couple from the TV on DVD category, but the DVD pick of the week goes to a Special Edition release, Mallrats - 10th Anniversary Extended Edition - Buy from Amazon.
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September 18th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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September 4th, 2005
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but
War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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August 28th, 2005
The Skeleton Key opened in 10- more markets over the weekend and in now playing on 1400 screens, however, it still hasn't found the success the studio was hoping for. It did open in first place in Germany, but it still had a very soft opening with $1.6 million. It also opened in first place in Russia with $625,000 over the weekend and $780,000 since Thursday, but in Australia and New Zealand it had to settle for a distant second place with $760,000 and $110,000 respectively.
The Skeleton Key also open in Austria with $230,000 for the week, but its placing is unknown at the moment. Add in holdovers in France, ($250,000 for $2.2 million) and the U.K., ($130,000 for $4.5 million) and you have roughly $4 million for the weekend and $16.5 million so far.
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August 21st, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where
Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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August 14th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in Belgium with $1.7 million on 80 screens, easily enough for first place and had a similar result with $480,000 in Poland. It also remained in first place in France with $2.88 million, (despite falling 54% there) and in the Netherlands with $740,000. In Germany the film remained in second place for the third straight week with $3.06 million for a $17.06 million running tally. The film now have $140 million in territories where
Fox is handling the distribution and $192 million overall.
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August 7th, 2005
The Island managed a couple of first place finished over the weekend, but the results were still less than impressive. In Australia the film opened with $1.404 million for a close victory while in Hong Kong it earned a disappointing $490,000 over the weekend and $520,000 including previews. It's best market continued to be South Korea with $3.167 million, down 38% from last weekend dropping to second place along the way. On the other hand, no wide openings and a mere 23% drop-off allowed the film to rise to first in New Zealand. Overall the film added $7.64 million to its $24.1 million running tally on the international scene and will opens in several markets this weekend including the U.K., Germany and Spain.
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July 31st, 2005
Early numbers had
Mr. and Mrs. Smith taking fifth place on the overall international box office charts, but better than expected results has
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overtaking them $6.7 million to $5.4 million. It's biggest single market continues to be France where the film dipped just 6% during its second weekend there earning $3,533,857 for a $9,034,141 running tally. But it was even more impressive in Belgium where the film shot up by 68% to $400,000 for the weekend and $785,000 in total. The film also opened in first place in three markets, Brazil with $1.1 million on 200 screens, Holland with $625,000 on 124 screens, and South Africa with $275,000 on 41 screens.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has $13.3 million so far and opens in a couple of important markets this weekend, (The U.K. and Mexico.)
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July 24th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened in three French speaking markets over the weekend and while it didn't finish first, it still had a great start.
In France the film earned $3,741,793 in 670 theaters for the best per theater average in the top ten.
The result was similar in Belgium ($250,000) and Switzerland ($190,000), giving the film $4.2 million for the weekend.
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July 17th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith continues its excellent run in Asia with a $2.2 million opening in 450 theatres in China. The film also added $1.8 million in South Korea for an $18 million running total in that market, (although it was pushed out of the top spot in that market. Overall the film made $4 million pushing its total to $117 million internationally and $275 million worldwide.
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July 10th, 2005
With the last of this summer's worldwide releases opening last weekend, the international details are once again dominated by smaller films. And to compound matters, most of those are only making noise in one of two markets. However, over the next few weeks there are plenty of big films opening in big markets and the International Details column should start showing signs of life soon.
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July 5th, 2005
It was a very predictable weekend at the box office as four of the top five films finished within $1 million or so within expectations, at least over the first 3 days.
Monday was another story as several films missed predictions.
And as expected, the overall box office was down again on a year-to-year comparison -- and that's now for 19 weeks in a row.
But first some good news, the 3-day portion of the weekend saw an 11.1% increase from last weekend, which is not all that great taking into account the holiday on Monday.
On a yearly comparison the 3-day weekend was down 14.6% while the 4-day weekend was down an incredible 23%.
Year-to-date 2005 has now brought in $4.313 billion, 8.4% behind 2004, while the summer is down 11.7% at $1.813 billion so far.
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July 4th, 2005
As with all long weekends, July Fourth will cause a one day delay in both Weekend Wrap-up and the Per Theatre Charts. They will be published on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. In the meantime, here are the studio estimates for the Top Ten, both over the 3-day weekend and the 4-day weekend.
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July 3rd, 2005
Summer blockbusters continue to squeeze out the competition, so much so that the only real news is about such blockbusters. For instance,
War of the Worlds managed $13.35 million during its first day of release on the international scene, which is good, but below expectations. On the other hand,
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith broke another record earning $4.96 million during its preview in Japan.
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June 26th, 2005
The international box office is suffering even more than the domestic box office is. In Germany the first six months of 2005 are down 14% compared to the same period in 2004 and Australia also saw double digit decline slipping by 12%. In Spain the total box office is down 8% and it was little better in France at 6%. The U.K. also fell, but at a much more reasonably 1.9%.
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June 20th, 2005
With both new films failing to live up to expectations, we saw yet another weekend with lower box office numbers.
The total box office was down by 5.67% compared to last weekend.
Early predictions had the comparison to the same weekend last year almost too close to call, and final results didn't clear matters up.
Right now, we have this weekend down from the comparable weekend last year by a mere 0.82%.
However, late numbers from limited releases that are not tracked by the big companies will push this weekend's number higher, but probably not the $1.2 million it needed lift it above last year.
That makes this the 17th weekend in a row of declines on the year-to-year comparison, a new and dubious record. Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $3.841 billion in box office revenue, down 6.6% from the same time last year.
The Summer numbers are even worse at $1.34 billion; that's the worst start since 2001 and down 8.1% from last year.
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June 20th, 2005
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, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It's another bad week for first-run releases; this is hardly surprising when you consider the low quality of wide releases earlier in the year. But unlike
last week there's little in the way of older releases, special editions and TV on DVD to pick up the slack. Just one release stood out as a must have, the fantastic Degrassi The Next Generation - Season 2 -
Buy from Amazon making this the third week in a row I've picked a release from this long running series as my DVD pick of the week. That's a record that probably won't be broken for a long, long time.
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June 19th, 2005
Just when the International Details column was getting back to normal we have another film dominating the international scene. Mr. and Mrs. Smith led in nearly every major / midlevel market and those it didn't were mostly owned by Revenge of the Sith. Because of that there isn't as much news to tell as usual, and with Batman Begins opening worldwide this weekend and in two weeks, War of the Worlds doing the same, this trend will last until mid-July at the earliest.
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June 13th, 2005
Despite the number one film beating expectations by $10 million, the box office is still struggling.
First the good news: the weekend numbers were 9.6% higher than last weekend.
But more importantly they were 9.7% lower than the same weekend last year.
Overall 2005 is 10.3% lower for the Summer at $1.121 billion, and 7.2% lower for the year at $3.621 billion.
One bit of good news: should Batman Begins meet market expectations we should see the first weekend of yearly growth in almost four months.
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June 12th, 2005
The Longest Yard opened in second place in Australia with $2.5 million. On the other hand, the film could only manage $750,000 on 260 screens in Mexico, not surprising since
Adam Sandler has never been a big draw internationally, especially outside English speaking markets.
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June 10th, 2005
It's another crowded weekend with four wide releases, well, four if you stretch the definition of wide slightly.
There's only one saturation level release (3,000 or more theaters), and two of the new films couldn't crack 2,000.
To top things off, at the moment not one of these films is earning overall positive reviews.
Even so, we should see a significant increase in the total box office compared to last weekend, but there is likely going to be another drop-off on a year-to-year basis.
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June 6th, 2005
This past weekend was arguably the worst weekend at the box office all year, maybe not in terms of raw dollars, but certainly in terms of drop-offs. None of the new films could match expectations, which helped lead to a 28.38% drop-off from last weekend. Now a post-holiday drop-off is expected, but 28.38%! Even worse, the weekend was down 30.25% from the same time last year. 30.25%! Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $3.43 billion at the box office, which is 6.7% behind 2004 during the same time frame. And with the later half of 2005 looking weaker, there's little hope it will turn things around.
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June 3rd, 2005
Three new wide releases enter a crowded marketplace this week, but it's unlikely any of them will unseat current champ, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
The biggest box office hit of the year has more to worry about from fellow holdover Madagascar than any of the new films.
On a sad note, despite the number of strong contenders at the box office, analysts expect another drop-off from this time last year when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban set records.
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June 1st, 2005
Repeating on top on the Per Theater Charts is tough, especially for a saturation level release like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
This week the overall chart topper earned an average of $15,071 in its 3,663 theaters, which put it ahead of the third place film, The Longest Yard, which managed $13,100.
The only limited release to crack the $10,000 club was Saving Face with $75,000 in 6 theaters for a $12,517 average. Lastly, we have Madagascar with $11,432.
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May 31st, 2005
It was a good Memorial Day Long Weekend.
Good, but not great.
The four-day weekend saw $230 million in total ticket sales, 7.2% below the record $248.7 million sold last year.
The three-day weekend was even worse at $183 million, 12.5% below 2004.
Year-to-date 2005 has brought in $3.248 billion in total box office revenue, which is 5.6% behind 2004's pace.
On a positive note, weekday numbers are ahead of last year, which is mitigating the problem.
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May 27th, 2005
Ah, Memorial Day Long Weekend, the busiest weekend at the movies in the whole year. Last year nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were spent on tickets during the four days and its economic impact is even greater. More than 30 million people will check out a movie this weekend, and each and every one of those will be inundated by ads for upcoming movies, trailers, posters, standees, ads on the popcorn bucket, ads on the drinks, etc. All that advertising will be a huge boost to upcoming films and will undoubtedly help jumpstart the summer.
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May 26th, 2005
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 this week's winner,
Cinderella Man -
Official Site.
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May 1st, 2005
May! The beginning of the lucrative Summer Box Office Season! I know what you're thinking, summer doesn't really begin till mid-June, but for the movie industry summer official begins on the Memorial Day long weekend, and just between you and me, it unofficial begins on the first full weekend of the month. So that means every weekend there's a monster release - one that has people excited since it was first announced.
This month such films include
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and ... hold on a second, I'll think of another ... Nope. That's pretty much the only monster film being released this May. Don't get me wrong, every week there's a potential $100 million hit being released, but that's nothing compared to
2003 when 4 films released in May hit $200 million and two others made $100 million.
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March 31st, 2005
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 this week's winner, The Longest Yard - Official Site.
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December 30th, 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 this week's winner
The Ring 2 -
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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June 24th, 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,
Suspect Zero -
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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January 30th, 2004
This week's new batch of movie release dates sees the studios start to position themselves for blockbuster performances in Summer 2005, and do some shuffling around of less ambitious releases in 2004.
Among movies with new or moved dates: a remake of The Longest Yard,
a revival of The Pink Panther, an adaptation of TV's Bewitched, Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 2 and many more.
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