September 24th, 2007
The prime window for TV on DVD is closing, and the summer releases are starting to come out, so it is appropriate that the DVD Pick of the Week co-winners are one of each. This includes , Knocked Up - Unrated Collector's Edition and a belated win for Corner Gas - Season 4 - Buy from Amazon.ca.
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April 15th, 2006
Narnia opened in first place on the home market with a lower than expected $8.73 million in rentals, and it did even better on the sales charts. But more on that in a bit.
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April 9th, 2006
With
Ice Age: The Meltdown dominating the international box office, the rest of the charts were weaker than usual with several films in the top 30 this week that would not have charted last week.
Failure to Launch had its best weekend haul on the international scene taking in $4.17 million on 1300 screens in 14 markets for a running tally of $13.61 million. Much of that came from the film's opening in two major markets, the U.K. and Italy. In the former is finished second with $1.88 million on 352 screens while in the latter it managed just fourth with $686,000 on 220 screens. It's best market in total is Germany, despite the fact that it fell out of the top five there; so far the film has pulled in $4.10 million after three weeks there, including $841,000 on 354 screens this weekend.
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April 8th, 2006
King Kong was the best of
this week's batch as it easily took top spot on the rental charts with $10.31 million in DVD rentals. This is higher than expected as I had assumed the vast majority of people who were interested in seeing it would buy it, but instead the buyers lead the renters by only a 2 - 1 margin.
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April 2nd, 2006
Two openings in two major markets helped
Hostel climb into sixth place with $4.03 million on 1120 screens in 27 markets for a running tally of $15.42 million. Its best opening was in the U.K. where it debuted in second place with $2.12 million on 304 screens while it struggled in Spain with just $1.01 million on 250. The film has already earned enough to show a profit even after taking into account P&A budget, exhibitor's share, etc. and should be able to double its current international total before its run is over.
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March 27th, 2006
Pretty good list this week with several contenders for the DVD Pick of the Week. The obvious one is
King Kong 2-Disc Special Edition, but I think there will be a super-special edition coming out in November, so you might want to hold off. The Masters of Horror -
package deal, Robot Chicken - Volume 1 -
Buy from Amazon, and others were also in contention, but in the end I went with Degrassi The Next Generation -
Season 3.
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March 26th, 2006
The only opening of note for
Syriana over the weekend was Turkey where the film placed third with $211,000 on 62 screens. Without a major opening, the film fell 35% to $3.68 million on 1992 screens in 43 markets and now has $27.35 million, which is still a disappointing total.
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March 19th, 2006
A number one opening in France, as well as a slew of smaller debuts, pushed
Underworld: Evolution into sixth place on the international charts with $4.98 million on 1473 screens in 20 markets for a running tally of $36.12 million after nearly two months in release. In France the film earned $1.84 million on 346 screens while it managed the same feat in a trio of Asian markets: Taiwan with $600,000 on 75 screens, Malaysia with $310,000 on 45, and Hong Kong with $290,000 on 25. Interestingly, the
original was banned in Malaysia.
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March 14th, 2006
Famed Oscar Bounce failed to materialize this year partially because the
awards were spread out over many difference films and partially because many winners were well into their releases.
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March 12th, 2006
A fourth place, $1.63 million debut on 250 screens in France helped
Memoirs Of A Geisha leap up the charts this weekend. Overall the film finished in sixth place on the international charts with $3.98 million on 1723 screens in 47 markets for an international total of $88.34 million. The film placed higher during its opening in Finland with $79,000 on 12 screen over the weekend and $95,000 in total while it had to settle for ninth place in Belgium with $200,000 on 29 screens.
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March 5th, 2006
The
Oscars were handed out tonight and while there were a handful of multiple winners, no single movie stood out.
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March 5th, 2006
On the weekend before the Oscars are announced,
Brokeback Mountain climbed a couple of spots to sixth with $4.44 million on 1368 screens in 30 markets for an international total of $53.89 million. New openings include Belgium where the filmed debuted in second place with $312,000 on a mere 27 screens for the best per screen average in the market. It wasn't as potent in Poland where it had to settle for fourth place with $194,000 on 40 screens over the weekend and $217,000 in total. The film also benefited from soft in the U.K. where it slipped just 5% to $442,000 on 245 screens for a very impressive total of $15.83 million so far. It was even better during its second weekend in Holland where it rose 1% to $210,000 for the weekend and $562,000 in total.
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February 26th, 2006
Casanova opened in several major markets more than doubling its screen count, and that helped it climb to sixth place over the weekend. Its best market was Italy where the film came in third place with $1.05 million on 243 screens over the weekend and $1.14 million in total while it also managed a third place finish during a very close race in Spain with $919,000 on 250 screens. Its other major market debut was the U.K., but there it had to settle for fifth with $959,000 on 351 screens. Overall the film made $5.17 million on 1699 screens in 18 markets for an international total of just $11.68 million so far.
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February 19th, 2006
Fun with Dick and Jane added an handful of new markets this week and that allowed the film to remain in sixth place with $6.00 million on 2645 screens in 49 markets for a running tally of $63.30 million. The film opened in first place in Spain with $1.54 million on 316 screens and in the Netherlands with $475,000 on 75 screens over the weekend and $520,000 in total. It took first place in Argentina as well with $136,000 on 48. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place during its debut in Denmark with $319,000 on 45 screens over the weekend and $335,000 in total. Holdovers include the U.K. where the film was down 56% to $699,000 over the weekend and $10.44 million in total and Italy with a 55% decline to $594,000 over the weekend and $4.83 million in total.
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February 8th, 2006
Les Bronzes Amis Pour la Vie, which is the latest film in a trilogy that started in the late 70s, opened in its native
France and dominated the market. The film made $24.26 million over the weekend, which was more than 60% of the overall French box office. The film also finished first in Belgium with $1.25 million on 41 screens and in Switzerland with $734,000 on 30 over the weekend and $882,000 in total. This film cost 35 million Euros to make, which at today's exchange rate would about $42 million American, and the film should have no trouble showing a profit in its native markets even if it has shorter legs than most films there have.
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February 7th, 2006
With most of the nominations in the more prestigious categories going to smaller films, the famed Oscar bounce is very important this year. However, the first weekend's results were mixed.
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February 1st, 2006
Munich had the widest international opening in a long time and that helped it reach the top of the charts with $15.34 million on 2911 screens in 30 markets. Its biggest market was France at $2.5 million on 437 screens and it did similar business in the U.K. with $2.15 million on 383 screens. Other million dollar markets include Germany at $1.69 million on 394 screens, Spain at $1.67 million on 218, Italy at $1.63 million on 296, and Australia at $1.34 million on 211. While those numbers are acceptable, the film wasn't able to top any of the markets. On the other hand, it finished first is Israel with $151,000 on 30 screens.
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January 31st, 2006
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece,
Crash,
Good Night and Good Luck, and
Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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January 25th, 2006
Narnia took another tumble this weekend, but without much in the way of competition it was still able to win the international box office race with $13.3 million on 7,067 screens in 48 markets.
So far the film has amassed $342.6 million at the international box office with openings in Hong Kong (this weekend) and Japan (Match 4th), yet to come.
Its best market of the weekend was France where the film added $1.8 million on 820 screens to take its total to $31.6 million after five weeks.
Its best market overall continues to be the U.K. where the film has $73.50 million, including $1.66 million this past weekend.
Worldwide the film now has $615 million, just ahead of The Passion of the Christ's final tally and into 26th place on the All-Time Charts.
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January 24th, 2006
The weekend after the Golden Globe Awards proved to profitable for several of the winners.
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January 22nd, 2006
A few more markets helped Fun with Dick and Jane remain flat last weekend at the international box office with $5.25 million on 1,458 screens in 18 markets for an early total of $18.09 million.
Its best market was Mexico where it opened in first place with $1.87 million on 418 screens while in Germany the film added $1.47 million on 478 screens for a two-week total of $4.39 million.
The film's biggest running total still came from Australia, where the film has managed $7.39 million after three weeks, including $710,000 over this past weekend.
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January 16th, 2006
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today at the Golden Globes taking home four of the seven statuettes it was up for. The film is still expanding into more and more theatres, so these awards couldn't have come at a better time.
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January 15th, 2006
The King and the Clown did something most films in
South Korea can't, it showed strong legs. In fact, in grew by 22% to $5.76 million on 369 screens over the weekend and $16.82 million in total.
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January 8th, 2006
With openings in the U.K. and Australia,
Just Like Heaven shot back up the charts with $4.70 million on 3173 screens in 32 markets for an international total of $32.33 million so far. In the former market is finished third with $2.06 million on 298 screens while in the latter it struggled to a sixth place finish with $932,000 on 168 screens over the weekend and $1.87 million in total.
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January 6th, 2006
Of the 13 awards the Screen Actors Guild will hand out on January 29th, 2006, five will be awarded to theatrical releases. And like past awards nominations,
Brokeback Mountain again led the way, with four in total.
However, this time there were two films close behind as
Crash and
Capote each received three nominations.
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December 27th, 2005
Christmas wishes went unanswered this year as almost every film missed expectations, some by large margins.
This led to a 14.4% drop-off from last weekend, but more importantly, a 18.0% drop-off from last year.
Granted, the fact that Christmas fell on a Saturday helps explain some of that, but not all. Year-to-date, 2005 is still down 6% from last year and with less than one week left, that's roughly where it will end up.
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December 23rd, 2005
Chicken Little fell out of the top five with $6.81 million on 3697 screens in 32 markets for a $66.03 million running tally. The film had no major openings while holdovers varied from strong in France, (down just 29% to $3.03 million on 910 screens for the weekend and $7.75 million in total) to very poor in Italy, (down 59% to $658,000 on 367 for a $6.39 million total). The film has yet to open in several major markets including the U.K., Japan, and Germany and when it does it should have no trouble topping its domestic total since it is already more than halfway there.
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December 21st, 2005
Over the next five days a total of eight movies will either open wide or expand wide. With that much competition, there is literally zero chance that all the films will succeed. In fact, chances are none will be able to unseat King Kong as the box office champ. Further complicating the prediction process, there are three groups of releases with two movies opening wide tonight, three more on Friday and three on Sunday. This column will deal with all of them.
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December 20th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain remained in top spot on the per theatre charts despite a massive expansion in its theatre count.
It went from five theatres to 69 while its per theatre average remained amazing at $36,355.
Second place went to The Producers with an average of $25,765 in five theatres, which is a good start, but perhaps not as good as Universal was hoping for.
Memoirs of a Geisha slipped to third with $25,045 in 52 theatres; it's not holding up as well as Brokeback Mountain did, but that's hardly a reason for Sony to be upset.
The overall box office champ, King Kong, came in fourth with an average of $14,050 in its 3,568 theatres.
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December 18th, 2005
Just Like Heaven dipped at the box office falling out of the top five with $4.53 million on 1609 screens in 30 markets over the weekend for an early total of $18.04 million internationally. Its best opening was in Belgium where it debuted in second place with $252,000 on 40 screens over the weekend and $290,000 in total. It also had debuts in Holland with $139,000 on 57 screens over the weekend and $167,000 overall, and in Greece with $116,000 on 24 and Norway with $113,000 on 26. Holdovers include Germany where the film dropped 24% to $890,000 on 273 screens for a total of $2.41 million so far, while in Spain the film fell 39% to 718,000 on 200 screens for a two-week total of $3.09 million.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain was the big winner today as Golden Globe nominations were announced. With seven nods, it led all films, which is an important Oscar indicator.
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December 13th, 2005
Brokeback Mountain had the best per theatre average of the year, and the best for a Live Action film of all time.
The film earned an unbelievable $547,425 in 5 theatres for an average of $109,485.
If that was the only film on this week's chart it would have been an impressive week; however, Memoirs of a Geisha also had a stellar start, earning nearly $700,000 in 8 theatres for an average of $85,313.
Other members of the $10,000 club include the overall box office leader, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with $18,130 and Transamerica, which just manage to earn a spot with $10,686, which was more than 50% lower than last weekend.
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December 9th, 2005
Oscar is clearly the word of the day as four of the seven limited releases on this week's list are obvious Oscar bait. It is unlikely that all will be winners, but all could earn at least one nomination and more than a dozen in total.
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December 8th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Despite being there being two weeks between updates, this was not a very strong week. Sure, there were plenty of websites updated, but not a lot that really stood out as being award worthy. In the end it was
Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks -
Official Site that was the best of the bunch and hopefully it will continue to grow and earn that award.
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December 1st, 2005
After Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire saved last month, we have two potential monster hits leading the way this month. However, both will be compared to Lord of the Rings, and neither will be able to live up to that high standard.
Even so, it should be a better month than December last year, but will it be too little, too late to save 2005's box office?
Since this is the heart of award season, there are plenty of films that are first opening in limited release.
Some will get a wide release later in the month, while others, like Munich, The New World and Match Point, don't open wide untill after the new year, and will appear in January's preview.
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November 10th, 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,
Aeon Flux -
Official Site
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September 22nd, 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. This week's list is a little shorter than usual partially because I'm moving today and had to complete the list on Wednesday. Because of this there was no site that really stood out as deserving the Weekly Website Award; perhaps next week there will be two winners.
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July 28th, 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,
Sky High -
Official Site.
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