July 14th, 2020
It is a deceptively slow week for DVDs and Blu-rays, with only five major new releases. However, while there are few releases compared to historical norms, and none of them are poised to be massive hits on the home market, all five are worth picking up and two are contenders for Pick of the Week. Those are from Criterion Collection: Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits (Blu-ray) and The Lady Eve (Blu-ray). Both are worthy contenders, but while I went with the Bruce Lee box set, its price might scare away some potential customers.
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October 18th, 2015
The Vatican Tapes is a horror film that includes elements of found footage. (It was actually originally written to be entirely found footage, but that was changed early in the production.) This genre is well off its peak in terms of popularity and even the fact that it had some connection to found footage was enough to kill its buzz. It also opened in "select cities", which is a terrible release strategy in general, and especially bad for horror films. It opened below the Mendoza Line (earning less that $2,000 per theater) before disappearing from theaters. Is it really that bad? Or did it struggle because of genre overload?
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July 24th, 2015
Every once and a while, I feel the need to apologize for the pun in the headline. This is one of those weeks. It is also one of those weeks where I can't find a limited release that has a good chance at earning some mainstream success. Unexpected is the biggest release, but its reviews suggest it will do better on Video on Demand than in theaters. There are a few documentaries that might do well on the art house circuit, but it is unlikely that any have what it takes to find mainstream success.
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May 2nd, 2015
The Barber came out at the end of March and failed to find an audience in theaters. It was the wrong genre for limited release, but the reviews didn't help. Now that it is out on the home market, is it worth checking out? Were the critics unjustly harsh?
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April 1st, 2014
March was stronger than expected when compared to 2013 with four films earning $100 million or more, led by Divergent. (Not all of them have gotten there yet, but they are certain to reach that milestone before they are done their box office runs.) It wasn't a blow-out victory, on the other hand, as a few weekends the ticket sales were lower in 2014 than they were during the same weekend in 2013. April looks really strong with Captain America: The Winter Soldier leading the way. This film should top $200 million over the weekend, while it isn't the only film that should crack the century mark, as Rio 2 is also on track for $100 million. This is great news, as no film last April reached $100 million. Granted, 42 came close and Oblivion wasn't far behind, but The Winter Soldier should earn more than those two films earned combined giving 2014 a comfortable lead over 2013 over the full month.
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October 16th, 2012
It's a mixed week on the home market. Granted, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is coming out, which made more than $200 million domestically and should sell quite well on the home market. On the other hand, the second biggest first run release is That's My Boy, which failed to make an impact at the box office. There is also a flood of weaker releases, secondary Blu-ray releases, and Christmas releases, much of which I would consider filler. The signal to noise ratio is a little off. As for the best releases of the week, there are some great TV on DVD releases like Mad Men: Season Five and Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2. There are also some limited releases, like Moonrise Kingdom on Blu-ray Combo Pack and even some Direct-to-DVD releases, like Excision on Blu-ray. All of these were contenders for Pick of the Week. In the end I went with Mad Men: Season Five for Pick of the week, while Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2 earned Puck of the Week.
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