September 21st, 2011
The dry season continues at the box office with the last of the summer blockbusters fading away while the first of the fall hits is a long way off. This has left The Smurfs without any real competition and for six weeks it has topped the international box office. During its eighth week of release, the film pulled in $17.93 million on 6,404 screens in 69 markets for totals of $345.44 million internationally and $483.04 million worldwide. The film opened in first place in Italy with $3.55 million on 542 screens, while it also placed first in Australia with $2.56 million on 458 screens over the weekend and $3.59 million in total.
More...
June 25th, 2011
While True Grit opening in first place on the Blu-ray sales chart this week was no surprise, its dominance was. During its first week of release it sold 737,000 units and generated $13.41 million in sales, which is close to half the total Blu-ray market. Compared to DVD, Blu-rays represented 42% of total units and 46% of revenue. Normally Westerns tend to skew a little older when it comes to age demographics, so I was expecting a slightly weaker than average Blu-ray ratio, closer to 30% than 40%.
More...
June 21st, 2011
There were seven new releases on this week's DVD Sales Chart, and six of those reached the top ten. Leading the way was True Grit with 1.02 million units / $15.91 million during its opening week on the home market. It is already in 30th place for 2011 and should quickly climb much further up.
More...
June 7th, 2011
The summer is usually a really weak time for home market releases, but this week is amazing. Not only are there two $100 million hits coming out on DVD / Blu-ray this week, but there are also half-a-dozen TV on DVD releases, a few limited releases, direct-to-DVD releases, and catalog titles, many of which are worth picking up, or even contenders for Pick of the Week. I tried to narrow the list of contenders down to one, but I couldn't do it. In the end I went with Leverage: Season Three on DVD and True Grit on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack as co-winners of the Pick of the Week.
More...
February 16th, 2011
Black Swan rose to top spot with $19.41 million on 3041 screens in 34 markets for a total of $72.90 million internationally. The film is about to cross $100 million domestically, and it looks assured at repeating that feat internationally, which is very impressive for an art house film. It opened in France scoring second place with $4.58 million on 300 screens, giving it the best per screen average in the market. It also opened in Russia earning fourth place with $1.34 million on 329 screens over the weekend and $1.73 million in total. Over the weekend, it earned twice as much as True Grit opened with, despite opening in fewer theaters. On the other hand, even including Wednesday and Thursday, it made less than The Eagle made from Friday to Sunday. This makes it hard to judge its opening. In the meantime, the film added $1.71 million on 481 screens in the U.K. for a total of $20.47 million in that country. It will have little trouble overtaking Dawn Treader in that market, possibly as early as this time next week.
More...
February 15th, 2011
On the one hand, we are only six weeks into the year, which means it is far too early to push the panic button. On the other hand, there's everything else. It was yet another disappointing weekend at the box office with the top two films barely earning more than last year's number one movie. In fact, even if you ignored last year's number one movie, this year was still weaker in terms of ticket sales. The total box office was $149 million, which was 71% higher than last weekend, but while that seems impressive, it was still 27% lower than last year. 2011 is already closing in on $400 million behind 2010 at $1.17 billion to $1.54 billion. Maybe this coming weekend we can catch a break and finally turn things around.
More...
February 9th, 2011
Tangled's international run is coming close to an end, but it has a couple of major milestones left to reach. Over the weekend it added $23.90 million on 5186 screens in 42 markets for a total of $288.33 million internationally and $479.40 million worldwide. At this point next week it will have $300 million internationally and $500 million worldwide. In order to reach profitability before it hits the home market, it will need to get past the $600 million mark worldwide, which is likely out of reach. However, assuming it does well on the home market, reaching profitability is inevitable at this point. This week it opened in Spain with $5.61 million on 650 screens, which was enough for first place over the weekend and the third best Disney debut in that market. Meanwhile, the film was down just 11% during its second weekend of release in the U.K., adding $7.38 million on 448 screens over the weekend for a running tally of $17.35 million. And, it has yet to open in Japan, so it is not done yet.
More...
February 9th, 2011
Sanctum struggled in theaters during its opening weekend, and that included IMAX, where it made $1.6 million on 178 screens. On the one hand, a sub-$10,000 per screen average is weak for IMAX. On the other hand, that was roughly three times its per screen average, so one can call it a success on IMAX, at least compared to its overall take.
More...
February 7th, 2011
The Super Bowl turned out to be a rather good game and it broke ratings records with 111 million people turning in to watch at least part of it. On the other hand, the box office was anything but record-breaking. Overall the box office was down 20% from last weekend to $87 million. Even worse, that was 24% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2011 is already $310 million behind 2010 with a total of $988 million. 2011 is almost two full weeks behind 2010's pace, and I don't think things will get a whole lot better next weekend.
More...
February 3rd, 2011
It's a new month and the industry is hoping for a fresh start, as January was not a month that will remembered fondly. Unfortunately, a fresh start likely won't be the case. There are two wide releases coming out this week, but they are best described as middling. Conversely, this time last year, Dear John opened with more than $30 million, and there's almost no chance that will happen this weekend, so 2011 will fall further behind 2010.
More...
February 1st, 2011
January got off to about as bad a start as I feared, and already 2011 is behind 2010 by about $275 million. Even worse, last February was better than expected. Not only did Avatar add another $200 million to its coffers during the month, the new releases collectively topped expectations every week (even if some individual releases failed to do so). What does this mean going forward? It means 2011 will likely continue to lose ground on 2010. By the time March rolls around, the only thing box office watchers will be talking about is the slump.
More...
