November 3rd, 2014
Halloween is over and the box office took a real hit. Ouija was the only film that was a pleasant surprise topping expectations and earning first place. Nightcrawler matched expectations, but due to the competition, landed in second place. The other two films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and Saw, were... well, the less said the better. Overall, the box office fell 18% to just $95 million. Worse still, this was 25% lower than the same weekend last year. There is mitigating circumstances, as this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and didn't have to suffer with Halloween landing on the Friday. Next weekend will bounce back, obviously, but 2014 is running out of time to catch up to 2013. Currently it is down by 3.3% at $8.33 billion to $8.62 billion.
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November 2nd, 2014
Halloween weekend will be fought to the finish at the box office, with newcomer Nightcrawler and horror flick Ouija neck and neck, based on Sunday’s projections. Open Road’s 3-day projected number for Nightcrawler is $10,909,000, which technically gives it the edge over Universal’s $10,900,240 prediction for Ouija, but Ouija as of this morning, so it will all come down to whether Nightcrawler can win Sunday by a large enough margin to steal the race at the end. The tracking we’re seeing suggests that Ouija will just squeak out a win, but it could still go either way.
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October 30th, 2014
Tomorrow is Halloween, which is one of the worst days of the year as far as box office numbers are concerned. I would argue only Christmas Eve is worse. Nightcrawler is the only truly wide release of the week, but it is not expected to be a hit. It will likely earn first place, but with only around $10 million. There are two other films of note: Before I Go to Sleep and the tenth anniversary release of Saw. Before I Go to Sleep is the third release from Clarius Entertainment whose first two releases bombed horribly. This one is expected to finish somewhere in-between the first two at the box office. The Saw franchise is the highest grossing horror franchise of all time, but will people really go to theaters to see it? I would assume fans of these movies likely own the film on Blu-ray, so staying at home would be more appealing. Worse still, this weekend last year was the first weekend of November and it shows. There were five films that earned more than $10 million, led by Ender's Game. This year, we might have no movies earning more than $10 million. Ouch.
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June 26th, 2006
It's an absolutely horrid week for DVD releases with six or seven contenders for DVD Pick of the Week, I have no idea how I'm going to afford to buy them all. But I will buy them all. Oh yes, I will buy them all. While the latest
Masters of Horror collection was high on my list, as was
Why We Fight -
Buy from Amazon and
Imagine Me & You -
Buy from Amazon, (but for widely different reasons), I went with the criminally underrated
Yellowbeard -
Buy from Amazon as my DVD Pick of the Week. Maybe one day it will get the Special Edition treatment it so richly deserves.
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October 29th, 2005
While Batman Begins had the best start in a long time, that wasn't enough for the video market to keep up with last year's pace.
It brought in $10.38 million in DVD rentals and $970,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $11.34 million.
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October 17th, 2005
Every week, films get a second chance at success on the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success.
This week is deceptively weak for releases; while there are plenty of DVDs coming out tomorrow, many of them are re-releases, double-dips and the like. The best of the bunch is Lifeboat - Special Edition, with Batman Begins - Buy from Amazon close behind.
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April 3rd, 2005
Million Dollar Baby performed brilliantly this week earning $8.8 million for an international total of $60 million, placing fourth on the international box office charts. In France the film dominated the marketplace with $4.94 million on 450 screens and in Germany the film earned $760,000 in semi-limited release (120 screens) for the best per screen average in the market. On the other hand, the film flopped in Slovakia where it missed the top ten in its debut. On the holdover front, the multi-
Oscar winning front saw its weekend haul climb by 20% in Spain to $980,000 and it's still doing well in Australia, Italy and South Korea.
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March 27th, 2005
Million Dollar Baby has again slipped off the radar screen, but we do know it hit $52 million internationally, which means it made $9 million during the week. The film didn't earn $1 million in any single market, but is still doing strong in South Korea, ($970,000), Spain, ($840,000), Italy, ($600,000) and Australia, ($350,000.) Best estimate has the film earning just shy of $5 million of that over the weekend and taking sixth place on the international box office charts.
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March 20th, 2005
After gathering in all the data the winner for the race for fifth place is
Million Dollar Baby, I think. It would need to lost more than 40% from last week's total and that's not taking into account its openings in South Korea at $1,515,672 and second place, its $110,000, third place debut in Finland, $86,000 in Russia, $50,000, second place debut in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, exact weekend totals are unknown but it is estimated at $6 million raising its international total to $43 million so far.
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March 12th, 2005
Flight of the Phoenix was clearly a disappointment when it was release in theatres last December, but it's fortunes turned around at the home market. Opening week of release saw the
remake bring in $7.27 million in DVD rentals and $1.23 million in VHS rentals. Combined they represent nearly half the film's $21.0 million domestic box office.
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March 5th, 2005
Thanks in part to a slow week for DVD releases,
Saw remained the top DVD rental on this weeks charts with $6.80 million this week, a drop of 28% from last week, and a two week total of $16.27 million so far. On the VHS side, the film dropped first to third with $1.09 million, down 38% for a total of $2.83 million.
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February 24th, 2005
The low-budget
horror movie,
Saw was the top rental this week bringing in $9.47 million in DVD rentals and $1.75 on the VHS side.
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February 14th, 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 and a few from the growing TV on DVD section including this week's winner,
Angel - Season Five -
Buy from Amazon. However, there are also two other, limited releases worth picking up, but I recommend renting first. They are
Donnie Darko - The Director's Cut -
Buy from Amazon and
The Motorcycle Diaries -
Buy from Amazon.
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November 8th, 2004
The
top film on the charts wasn't as impressive as predicted, but that helped some of the holdovers hold up better. Overall, there was a massive leap from last weekend at 43.8%, but a troubling 5.8% drop from last year. This extended pseudo-slump the box office has been in has cut 2004's lead over 2003 to just 2.1%, $7.641 billion to $7.480 billion. Unless 2004 can close strong, we will see the second year in a row with declining ticket sales.
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November 5th, 2004
Predicting which movie will finish on top of the charts this weekend is a simple matter. The real question is will
The Incredibles break records, and if so, how many.
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November 1st, 2004
With four of the films in the top five beating expectations, this Halloween wasn't as bad as predicted. It was still down about 5.0% from last weekend and 1.5% from last year, but that's not as bad as it could have been. At first glance that's not too bad, however, last year Halloween was on a Friday and there were no new wide releases, which undoubtedly lead to last year under-performing.
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October 29th, 2004
Traditionally, Halloween is not a good day for the movies, with kids and families staying away from the theatres in order to trick or treat. The only films that really benefit from Halloween are
horror films aimed at High School and College students.
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October 28th, 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 Kung Fu Hustle -
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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October 27th, 2004
Despite a 45% drop in its weekend haul,
Shark Tale was able easily able to earn it third first place finish on the international charts. Still early in its run, the film took home $16.2 million in 4,368 theatres in 24 markets pushing its total to $80.3 million internationally. Without any openings the film relied on strong holdovers like in the U.K. where it drop 39%, in France it was off 32% and 35% in Germany.
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October 20th, 2004
Thanks to mostly unopposed openings several more markets,
Shark Tale was able to repeat as the international box office champ this week. Not only that, but its $29.6 million more than doubled its international tally prior to the start of the weekend as the film now sits at $56.2 million. The best opening of the weekend, and most likely of its international run, was in the U.K. where the film managed to take in $9.1 million, ($13.6 million if you include last week's previews.) In France the result was strong with $4.2 million but in the face of local competition, it could only manage $3.4 million in Germany.
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October 13th, 2004
With openings in nearly a dozen new markets,
Shark Tale was able to take top spot on the international charts with $9.4 million in 16 markets, pushing its early total to $19.2 million internationally and over $100 million worldwide. Highlights include $4.4 million in the U.K., (including previews) and $2.05 million in Mexico. How happy the studio is with these results depends on their expectations. Compared to the average film,
Shark Tale is a massive hit. But compared to
Dreamworks previous
digitally animated film,
Shrek 2, it is a large drop.
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October 6th, 2004
Collateral finished first on the international charts breaking
The Village's five week run on top. Although, with a weekly take of only $9.4 million in 28 markets, it has as much to do with the weakness of the competition as it does with the strength of the film itself. The largest chunk of that box office came from France, where the film earned $3.8 million.
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October 1st, 2004
October is generally a transition month. Not the dumping ground that September is, but without a major holiday, it's not as prosperous as November. Also, the month is usually good to horror movies for the obvious reason. One last note, the movie industry as a whole is in a bit of a slump right now, of the 11 films that opened wide in September, only 2 will beat expectations by any reasonable degree. This has caused me to downgrade some of my predictions, especially for earlier in the month.
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September 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
Shark Tale -
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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August 26th, 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,
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site, which won also for
CountOlaf.com. 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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August 19th, 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,
Vanity Fair -
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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