December 15th, 2010
The best new release of the week didn't actually come out this week. This is because The Twilight Saga: Eclipse wasn't released on Tuesday like the rest of the new releases, but on the weekend. Despite having fewer days to sell DVDs, it still topped the sales chart with 2.39 million units / $43.06 million; however, this was lower than the opening sales of its predecessors, both of which had the same release strategy.
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November 29th, 2010
This is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which means it is the day after Cyber Monday and the end of the busiest gift buying weekend of the year. So it should come as no surprise that there's a bit of a lull when it comes to DVD / Blu-ray releases. In fact, the biggest selling film of the week doesn't come out till Saturday. There are still more than a few releases that are worth checking out, including this week's Pick of the Week, Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 on Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack. However, there is no real depth to this week's list and the drop from top tier to second tier is fast and steep.
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September 22nd, 2010
It took just two weeks for Resident Evil: Afterlife to become the first film in the franchise to reach $100 million on the international scene. It earned $39.61 million on 6235 screens in 47 markets for a total of $103.58 million internationally and $147.48 million worldwide. Its biggest opening came in Germany where it earned $5.38 million on 434 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $5.85 million. It also took top spot in Mexico with $4.38 million on 658 screens, in South Korea with $3.88 million on 367, and in Brazil with $2.96 million on 298. It did fall 62% during its second weekend in Japan, which is tragic for that market; however, it still managed $5.00 million on 634 screens over the weekend for a total of $27.71 million after two. With debuts in France, Australia, and other markets still ahead of it, this film will have no trouble getting to $200 million worldwide, while $200 million internationally is a solid goal.
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August 30th, 2010
There was an upset at the box office with Takers pulling out a last minute win. However, it wasn't enough for the overall box office, as that sunk 12% from last weekend to $113 million. More importantly, it was down nearly 10% from last year. 2010 still has a $300 million lead over 2009 at $7.53 billion to $7.23 billion and I'm not concerned about the big picture, yet.
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August 23rd, 2010
If it wasn't for The Expendables, there would be very little good news to report this weekend. None of the five new releases were major hits at the box office, but on the other hand, none were complete bombs either and even the weakest of them had some reason for optimism. The overall box office was down 11% from last weekend to $128 million, but that was close to 1% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2010 has a $300 million lead on 2009 at $7.36 billion to $7.05 billion.
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August 22nd, 2010
Five openers with a decidedly end-of-Summer feel to them all posted so-so numbers this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning, which left The Expendables as the weekend winner.
The ensemble action movie was down 53% in its second weekend to $16.5 million and has now earned a respectable $64.89 million.
Vampires Suck topped the openers with $12.2 million Friday to Sunday.
The spoof movie is projected to finish the weekend with $18.56 million since its opening on Wednesday.
Perhaps surprisingly, none of the openers has completely disastrous weekends.
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August 19th, 2010
Five new releases should enter the top ten this weekend, including a few that at least have a reasonable chance at top spot.
But there's also a reasonable chance that The Expendables will squeak out another win.
Regardless, there's almost no chance the box office will keep up with last year's pace when Inglourious Basterds opened with nearly $40 million.
We will be lucky if any film makes half of that this weekend.
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August 18th, 2010
The latest Friedberg / Seltzer film, Vampires Suck, opened tonight trying to get a jump on the weekend traffic. And there's a lot of traffic at multiplexes this weekend. But will this strategy work, or will it just result in bad box office numbers coming out sooner?
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August 1st, 2010
July started out rather well, and while there was a little weakness in the end, four films surpassed $100 million, and another could join them soon.
That said, there don't appear to be any $100 million movies opening in August; in fact, there is a chance none will come close.
Worse still, August of last year saw three $100 million movies open in the first three weeks.
There's almost no chance that will happen this year, so 2010 will likely lose ground to 2009 in the yearly box office race.
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