May 18th, 2011
Few new releases were able to make a real impact on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, but we did have a new number one. The Green Hornet earned top spot by selling 291,000 units and generating $5.82 million in opening week sales. By units, 38% of its market share was in High definition, which is quite strong.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I slipped to second place with 166,000 units for the week and 2.70 million after a month of release. It remains the best-selling Blu-ray of the year, so far.
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May 12th, 2011
While no new release made much of an impact on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I was still able to show some strength on top with 313,000 units sold for the week and 2.62 million units sold after three. Its total revenue is now $60.37 million and by comparison, only Avatar has been able to crack $100 million in Blu-ray sales.
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May 10th, 2011
No new release reached the top five on the DVD sales chart this week. This left Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I in first place with 636,000 units / $9.62 million for the week and 4.93 million units / $70.01 million after three. It's not quite the best selling DVD of 2011, but its solidly in second place.
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May 3rd, 2011
The combination of factors ranging from the Fanboy Effect to Easter sales were in relative balance, and this helped Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I remain strong. It led all new releases to earn first place on the DVD sales chart this week with sales of 1.99 million units / $27.89 million for the week for totals of 4.43 million units / $62.35 million.
Tangled grew more than 100% thanks to Easter sales, selling an additional 1.04 million units for the week to give the film total sales of 5.59 million units / $85.30 million after a month of release. The King's Speech opened in third place with 893,000 units / $13.39 million, which is great for a limited release, but a little soft for the big Oscar winner.
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April 26th, 2011
Despite coming on out on Friday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I easily won the race on the DVD sales chart this week defeating new releases and holdovers alike. It sold 2.66 million units for total sales of $37.55 million. It will be interesting to see how well it holds up during its first full week of release.
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April 19th, 2011
Despite having to deal with several new releases, Tangled was able to remain on top of the sales chart this week, albeit in a close race. It sold an additional 807,000 units over the week for a total of 4.27 million units, while its revenue rose to $65.17 million.
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April 5th, 2011
It's Tron week with at least seven releases related to Tron and Tron: Legacy. This appears to have scared away the competition, because outside of those releases, there's not much of a selection. Actually, there are three $100 million hits coming out this week; however, one doesn't come out till Friday, so I'll likely deal with it next week after the screener arrives, and the other is so bad it's best to pretend it doesn't exist. Those two films are clearly the Pick of the Week, but depending on where you buy your DVDs, the Combo Pack may or may nor be less expensive than buying the two films separately, so double-check before you buy.
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April 4th, 2011
According to Amazon.com, there are 280 DVD and Blu-rays being released or re-released this week. Of those, 273 are related to Tron and Tron: Legacy. I'm exaggerating, obviously, but there are so many Tron releases that I may has missed one or two in the list above. The key release for me is this one, as it's the one Disney sent over my way. Tron: Legacy was the biggest hit of last December, at least so far. (True Grit is inching its way along and it has a slim chance of eventually topping it.) It might be the biggest, but the correlation between box office revenue and quality is sadly rather weak. So is it worth checking out? Perhaps it is worth picking up. If so, is it worth spending the extra cash for High Definition?
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March 15th, 2011
Mars Needs Moms opened in 211 IMAX screens over the weekend, but given its box office struggles, to be polite, it should come as no surprise that no official numbers were released for its IMAX run. On the other hand, it was announced that Tron: Legacy reached $60 million worldwide, while The Green Hornet hit $10 million, also worldwide. Up next for IMAX is Sucker Punch at the end of March, while in April IMAX theaters will play host to Born to be Wild 3D.
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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.
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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.
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February 3rd, 2011
Tangled opened in first place in the U.K. and that helped it climb back into first place internationally this weekend. In the U.K., it earned $8.11 million on 445 screens, which is roughly equivalent to its opening here. It's a little complicated comparing the two, as it opened on a Wednesday domestically, and it also opened on a major holiday. It was a better opening than Despicable Me, and that film earned just over $30 million in the U.K. along and almost $300 million internationally. Overall Tangled added $17.34 million on 4,534 screens in 37 markets for totals of $256.54 million internationally and $446.12 million worldwide. At this pace, $500 million worldwide is practically a lock.
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January 25th, 2011
The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, thus ending months of speculation. Along with a (very) few surprises, the list of nominees is mostly a case of Deja Vu. Leading the way, as it has so often this year, was The King's Speech, with 12 nominations, including six in seven of the most prestigious categories (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and the four acting categories). But it was far from the only multi-nominated film on the list.
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January 20th, 2011
There were a trio of news items relating to IMAX this past week, starting with box office numbers for The Green Hornet, which were good, but not great. The film managed $3.0 million on 173 screens over four days, which gave it a per screen average significantly higher than in regular theaters, but not by as much as some other releases. I think this was because it was a better than expected marginal release. There were likely two groups of people who were on the fence about this movie: those that wanted to see it, but weren't willing to pay IMAX prices, and those who wanted to see it, but were willing to wait for the home market. Better than expected reviews are more likely to change the minds of the latter group than the former, resulting in a higher than expected overall box office, but not as much change in IMAX. That said, this is still a good result, especially for this time of year.
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January 20th, 2011
International numbers were a day late due to the holiday, but there were some interesting stories to report. Firstly, Tangled climbed to top spot with $16.01 million on 4187 screens, in 38 markets, for a total of $214.02 million internationally and $395.03 million worldwide. It was able to climb to the top, despite no major market openings. It did add $3.33 million on 432 screens during its second weekend in Australia. That was enough for second place in that market over the weekend, while it lifted its total there to $13.23 million. In Brazil it remained in first place with $2.69 million on 447 screens over the weekend and $12.98 million after two. Up next is the U.K., while it has yet to open in Spain, Scandinavia, and Japan and by the time its done, it could have $500 million worldwide.
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January 12th, 2011
We are again stuck with studio estimates, which is a bit troubling, as I was hoping the schedule would have returned to normal. Also, this has resulted in a bit of confusion with Tangled and The Tourist finishing in a very close race for the number one position. Tangled led the way according to the studio estimate with $26.3 million on 3,636 screens in 43 markets for a total of $179.3 million internationally and $355.1 million worldwide. This week it debuted in first place in Australia with $5.74 million on 462 screens over the weekend, for a total opening of $6.08 million. Meanwhile in Brazil it topped the charts with $4.53 million on 446 screens over the weekend and $5.98 million in total. In both cases the film opened better than it did here.
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January 10th, 2011
It was quite a depressing weekend, as almost no film in the top five topped expectations. Worst still, it wasn't expected to be a good weekend to begin with. This left the overall box office down just over 30% from last weekend to $112 million. More importantly, that was nearly 30% less than the same weekend last year. If you want to really search for good news, you could point to the fact that if you take out Avatar out of the equation, then 2011 would have beaten 2010 over the weekend, but even here the margin of victory would have been lower than the ticket price inflation. It is way too early to judge how well 2011 will do compared to 2010, but so far it is 23% off of last year's pace at $281 million to $365 million. I expect that gap will grow in terms of raw dollars, but by the time Memorial Day rolls around, 2011 could start rattling off some wins.
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January 6th, 2011
So, will holdovers bewitch the box office?
The answer to that is almost guaranteed to be yes.
There is almost no chance either the one wide release, Season of the Witch, or the major expansion, Country Strong, will top the chart. In fact, one could argue there's a better chance neither will reach the top five. This is really bad news for the start of 2011. We knew the holdovers wouldn't be as strong as they were last year, no with Avatar earning $50 million over the weekend, but if the new releases can't keep pace with last year's new releases, we could be in trouble.
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January 5th, 2011
The Christmas break is just ending, but as it is normally the case, international numbers are late. We do have studio estimates for a few films, as well as last week's final numbers, which had a surprise change at the top. We'll start with this week's possible number one film. Gulliver’s Travels led the list of studio estimates with $24.9 million on 3,964 screens in 33 markets for a total of $48.9 million. This includes a massive $10.98 million opening on 497 screens in the U.K. That's like a $50 to $60 million opening here; granted, that was since boxing day, but since it won't make that much in total domestically, it is still an impressive opening. On the other hand, it opened in second place in Australia with $2.85 million on 411 screens. Still better than its opening here, but more inline with expectations.
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January 3rd, 2011
2011 has begun but it didn't get off to a strong start. It didn't even get off to a better than expected start, as only one film in the top five really topped expectations. Overall, the box office grew by 10% from last week hitting $159 million, but that's not great given Christmas Eve landed on a Friday. It was also down 28% from the same weekend last year, so 2011 is off to a bad start. Granted, it's incredibly early, but there are not a lot of hopeful signs for the rest of the month and double-digit declines will likely be the norm.
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December 30th, 2010
The New Year's weekend normally has no wide releases, and that's the case this year. This means last weekend's three big hits will finish one-two-three this weekend, although they could finish in a different order. Meanwhile, all three combined might not make as much as Avatar earned this time last year, meaning 2010 will end and 2011 will begin on a sour note.
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December 29th, 2010
With Christmas just behind us and New Year's Day just ahead, a lot of studios are on vacation, so there are not a lot of details when it comes to box office numbers and we are stuck with studio estimates for the most part. According to these estimates, Little Fockers took top spot with $27 million on 3933 screens in 37 markets during its opening. However, it was such a tight race that once final figures are in, it might slip to second, or even third. Its biggest market was the U.K., where it opened in first place with $7.3 million on 487 screens. By comparison, Meet the Parents made twice that during its debut in 2005. Ouch.
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December 27th, 2010
It was a good news, really bad news weekend. Let's start with the good news. The overall box office for the year reached $10 billion for only the second time in history. Bad news, the box office this past weekend was so bad that 2010 lost its lead over 2009. It did rise from last weekend by 8% to $145 million, but that's 47% lower than the same weekend last year. Granted, Christmas Eve landing on a Friday did have a lot to do with that, but this is still a terrible result. Year-to-date, 2010 has now earned $10.33 billion, which is about $50 million behind last year's pace. It won't get better next weekend, so 2010 won't be setting the record.
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December 22nd, 2010
This weekend could be a disaster at the box office. Not only is it likely that the biggest release will under-perform, but Christmas Eve lands on the Friday. Christmas Eve is a black hole at the box office and it basically cuts nearly a full day off the weekend. Worse still, last year was incredibly strong and it is very possible that the number one movie this year won't make as much as the third place film did last year.
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December 22nd, 2010
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader remained in top spot over the weekend, but it fell more than 50% to $31.53 million on 10,107 screens in 61 markets for a total of $126.02 million internationally. Over the weekend it opened in Germany, but only managed second place with $2.46 million on 893 screens, which is about 40% less than Prince Caspian made during its opening weekend and less than half of what the original opened with. It was down 50% in Russia, but still going strong with $3.89 million on 1284 screens over the weekend for a total of $16.29 million after two. In France it held well, down just 40% to $3.10 million on 739 screens over the weekend and $8.77 million in total. It will not match its predecessors at the box office, but it should make enough internationally that it will break even, eventually.
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December 22nd, 2010
The winners of our An Early Present contest were determined and they are...
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December 21st, 2010
Tron: Legacy may not have been a monster hit overall, but it was another story on IMAX, as it earned $10.45 million in 234 theaters. That's almost a quarter of all its box office revenue from less than 7% of its theaters. Internationally is was also strong, pulling in $2.2 million in 54 IMAX theaters, or about 10% of its total international debut. That is a much lower percentage than it managed stateside, but IMAX penetration is also quite a bit lower internationally.
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December 21st, 2010
It was a good week for The King's Speech, as it led the way for Golden Globe nominations and SAG nominations, while retaking top spot on the per theater chart. Despite expanding from 19 theaters to 43 theaters, its average fell just 20% to $25,515. This was twice as much as Tron: Legacy, which placed second with $12,758. The only other film to reach the $10,000 mark was Rabbit Hole at $10,756. This is not bad, but given the Awards Season Buzz, I was expecting more.
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December 20th, 2010
The weekend numbers were mixed with only one film performing really well and a few more pulling in middling numbers for this time of year. Overall the box office was up 47% from last weekend adding $135 million to its running tally, meaning it crossed the $10 billion mark over the weekend. The good news is this was a weekend faster than that milestone was reached last year and the second highest in history. The bad news is that it was down 2% from last year, while the year-to-date race now has 2010 up by just 1.2% at $10.07 billion to $9.94 billion. There is a chance that by this time next week, 2010 will have surrendered its lead.
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December 19th, 2010
The weekend before Christmas brought little cheer to the movie industry, with Tron: Legacy posting a fairly ordinary $43.6 million opening, and the weekend's two other wide openers and one wide expansion missing the mark.
Since Avatar was released this weekend last year, the year-on-year comparisons look bad for the industry as a whole, and 2010 looks certain to lag 2009 in tickets sold, and possibly in total revenue.
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December 16th, 2010
Early in the year, after the fantastic success of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, it looked like 2010 would see more tickets sold than 2009, and it could crush the total box office record.
That seems like a long, long time ago.
Memorial Day was a disaster and, despite a few bright spots here and there, the box office has never regained its early shine.
Now the question is not whether 2010 will see more tickets sold; it won't.
The question is whether or not 2010's total box office can remain above 2009's pace.
If Tron: Legacy is a monster hit, it could go along way to helping save a win for 2010.
It's going to need to be a monster hit to keep pace with last year and the only shred of good news I can think of for 2010 is that Avatar was a relatively slow starter, when compared to its eventual run.
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December 10th, 2010
It's the last chance to get yourself a Christmas gift from our box office prediction contest. Of course, while the winners will be announced before Christmas, the prizes won't get to you till after. Next week has a trio of wide releases, but only one of them, Tron: Legacy, has a shot at top spot and it is this week's target film. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Tron: Legacy.
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 Cyrus 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 also win a copy of Cyrus on DVD.
Finally, a third person will be chosen from all eligible entries and that person will win the final copy of Cyrus 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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December 1st, 2010
It's the end of the year and there are certainly some question marks that will be answered over the next 31 days. Are there any monster hits left for 2010? Will 2010 manage to stay ahead of 2009? Will it actually start winning again at the box office? Unfortunately, the answer to all three of those questions might be no. First of all, of the November wide releases, only two will really match expectations, with a couple of others coming close. So December starts on the weak side. Additionally, last December saw the release of Avatar, the biggest box office hit of all time. There's no film coming out this month that will match that movie. In fact, there's a chance no movie coming out this month will match last December's second place film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. This means that even though 2010 had a $300 million lead over 2009 just a few weeks ago, by the end of the year, 2010 might fail to break last year's record.
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