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Monday, November 23, 2009
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2009-04-17
The last weekend in April brings us four wide releases, sort of. Half of the new films are opening in fewer than 2,000 theaters, while none of them appear to be a lock for box office success, and this could make predictions this week a little trickier. The widest release, Obsessed, may or may not finish in first place, but it is this week's target film. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office of Obsessed.
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 City of Ember on DVD, as well as Nickelback: Live at Sturgis 2006 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 City of Ember 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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2009-02-03
New releases were all over the top 30 this week, including Max Payne, which took first place with 543,000 units sold for the week and $12.92 million in sales.
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2009-02-03
New releases were just as spread out on the rental chart as they were on the sales chart, including taking the top two spots with Max Payne generating about 25% more revenue than Saw V.
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2009-01-20
A terrible week for first run releases. There are five such releases on this week's list, but they has a combined haul of around $130 million, and nearly $100 million of that came from two films. With no big releases, we had to look other places for the DVD Pick of the Week. Repo! The Genetic Opera on Blu-ray is a clear contender for that title, but its lack of mass appeal is troublesome. This American Life - Season Two is a safer pick, but it is a Borders Exclusive release. Regardless of these issues, both releases are worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week. Despite the weakness at the top, there are still more than enough total releases to cause this column to stretch into two parts. The second part can be found here.
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2008-10-20
It was a mixed weekend at the box office. The new releases were not able to match modest expectations, which caused the overall box office to drop 2% to $100 million compared to last weekend. However, this was close to 4% higher than the same weekend last year. Even better, year-to-date, 2008 has now just over $7.51 billion in ticket sales while at the same point in 2007, total receipts were just under $7.51 billion. With High School Musical 3 and Saw V opening this Friday, we could see continued growth at the box office.
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2008-10-13
With four wide releases this past weekend, I knew not all of them would be hits, but I also didn't expect all of them to be misses. Perhaps that's not entirely fair, and given the production budgets involved, not all films flopped at the box office, but enough did that overall box office receipts dropped 10% to $102 million. Compared to the same week last year, that still represents an increase, albeit by less than 3%, which is more or less in line with ticket price inflation. Year-to-date, 2008 and 2007 have both brought in $7.38 billion, but 2008 has had the edge the past few weeks and could retake the lead this upcoming weekend.
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2008-10-12
Beverly Hills Chihuahua came out on top on another weekend where new releases failed to gain significant traction.
Disney's family movie earned an estimated $17.5 million, a fall of 40% from its opening, and passed $50 million after two weekends in theaters.
The big surprise of the weekend was Quarantine, which won the day on Friday and finished with an estimated $14.2 million.
Body of Lies was a big disappointment, earning just $13.1 million to finish 3rd.
That, however, was good compared to the weekend's other openers.
Overall, the weekend looks like it will beat last year by about 6%.
Given the current state of the economy, that's an encouraging sign (as is impressive opening sales numbers for Iron Man on DVD and Blu-ray). Growth is being driven more by the number of new releases than the strong performance of any individual movie -- whether that's good or bad probably depends on one's perspective.
Certainly, executives at Universal and Fox won't be feeling happy today.
U's inspirational sports movie, The Express mustered only $4.7 million over its opening weekend, while Fox's City of Ember turned in just $3.2 million, and may find itself outside the top ten once full figures are published.
This week's wide expansion, The Duchess fared a little better, earning an estimated $3.3 million.
A per theater average of $2,750 suggests that it won't expand muc
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2008-10-12
There are plenty of sites on this week's list, but the best of these sites are only above average and none of them rise to the level of an award worthy site. Hopefully next week will be better.
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2008-10-09
The truth is that we have too many movies right now.
It's hard enough for most films to thrive at the box office, and it is nearly impossible for them to do it when they have to deal with so much competition.
This week we have four films opening wide, which is half as many new openers as last week.
However, all four are opening in more in 2,000 theaters, which is twice as many as last week.
Despite this onslaught of new films, we might have a holdover come out on top, as Beverly Hills Chihuahua has a decent shot at repeating at number one.
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2008-10-02
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Paper Man, Sherlock Holmes, Kung Fu Panda 2, and more!
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2008-10-01
September ends, and for that we are all very grateful. However, while we are entering the final push for 2008 at the box office, things don't look too rosy for the upcoming month. First of all, there are way too many films opening, including eight that are opening or expanding on the first weekend. Of those two, maybe three will thrive. Most will sink without being noticed, which could negatively affect the overall box office going forward. On the other hand, there are a few films opening this month that could be players come Awards Season, which is just around the corner. Perhaps this will help a few mid-level hits rise above the crowd.
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2008-08-28
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for City of Ember, Flash of Genius, Toy Story 3, and more!
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2008-08-23
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Extract, Gnomeo and Juliet, My Life in Ruins, and more!
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2007-05-20
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Game Plan, Prom Night, Ice Age 3 and more.
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