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Thursday, November 26, 2009
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2008-06-03
This was a bad week for big movies, with not a single first run release is even worth rating a solid purchase, never mind being a contender for DVD Pick of the Week. There were a few other contenders for the title, including Dirty Harry Collection on DVD or Blu-ray. However, I found it impossible to decide which format was the better deal. Had the Blu-ray provided anything more than High Definition, or been a more reasonable price compared to the DVD, it would have been an easier choice. One of them is the DVD Pick of the Week, I just don't know which one. On a side note, there is an immense flood of Blu-ray releases, including a few I thought were coming out previously.
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2008-05-20
P.S., I Love You led the new releases and the overall rental chart with $7.16 million during its opening week.
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2008-05-12
It was a close race on top of the DVD sales chart this week as 27 Dresses topped His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, 1.29 million units to 1.05 million units. However, His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass came out on top in terms of dollars, $21.97 million to $20.92 million.
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2008-05-12
There were five new releases to reach the top 30 on the rental chart this week, including the overall leader, 27 Dresses. That film started its home market run with in $7.35 million in rentals, which was as expected, given its domestic box office.
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2008-05-05
There were only a handful of new releases to chart this week, but we did have a new number one seller. Cloverfield started its home market run with $16.64 million in revenue from 1.04 million units sold.
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2008-05-05
Cloverfield landed on top of the rental charts leading a group of five new releases with $7.52 million in rentals.
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2008-04-21
It's a slow week by nearly every measure: big releases, overall quality, overall quantity, spotlight reviews, etc. This is great news for me since recently a package arrived with several DVDs, all of which were late. I'm not quite completely caught up, but I am very close. As for this week's releases, there were only a handful of releases that were even in contention for DVD Pick of the Week. Both The Savages - DVD and The Orphanage - DVD or Blu-ray earned excellent reviews, but their home market releases were only average. Cloverfield - DVD wasn't as good a movie, but the DVD had the best combination of movie quality and special features. The specter of a Blu-ray release notwithstanding, it is the DVD Pick of the Week.
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2008-04-13
No new openings left 10,000 B.C. tumbling from second to sixth, but it still pulled in $5.83 million on 4302 screens in 61 markets for a total of $155.16 million. This is substantially more than it made stateside while it is about a week away from $250 million worldwide.
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2008-03-02
Juno nearly climbed into the top five with $7.08 million on 1745 screens in 25 markets for a total of $39.17 million. This includes a surprise first place opening in Brazil with $808,000 on 146 screens over the weekend and $1.26 million in total. On the other hand, it struggled in South Korea with $222,000 on 203 screens over the weekend and $283,000 in total. As for holdovers, the film was down just 7% in Mexico to $454,000 on 150 screens over the weekend for a two-week total of $1.37 million while it added $2.11 million on 368 screens in the U.K. for a total of $13.41 million there.
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2008-02-24
Rambo climbed five spots just missing the top five with $6.96 million on 1989 screens in 25 markets for a total of $25.63 million. The film opened in second place in Germany with $2.78 million 405 screens while it managed third in Mexico with $704,000 on 300. Next up is the U.K., Australia, and Italy, where it opens this weekend, while it enters South Korea next weekend.
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2008-02-13
Asterix At The Olympic Games remained on top of the charts with $24.52 million on 3925 screens in 25 markets for a total of $72.49 million after just two weeks. The film opened in first place in Spain with $2.75 million on 385 screens while it had to settle for second place in Italy with $1.86 million on 357 screens. Meanwhile it was down just 22% in Germany adding $2.29 million on 600 screens for a total of $6.76 million. In Russia it was down 51% during its second weekend, which is better than average for the market, as it picked up $2.19 million on 549 screens for a total of $7.58 million. As for its native market of France, the film was down 58%, but it still earned an easy first place with $9.80 million on 1078 screens for a total of $35.19 million. At this rate, it will take at least a week for the film to match its production budget, while it will likely have to wait till the home market for it to show a profit, but that should still make the studio happy.
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2008-02-06
Asterix at the Olympic Games, the latest adaptation of the popular comic series, opened in first place on the international charts thanks to a number of big debuts.
This included a first place opening in its native market of France where it pulled in $23.35 million on 1,078 screens.
Meanwhile, it earned a very, very close second place in Russia with $4.45 million on 550 screens.
On the other hand, the film opened in limited release in the U.K. earning just under $20,000 on 3 screens. It also opened in second place in Germany with $2.99 million on 600 screens while it slipped to second place in Poland with $609,000 on 136 screens for a total of $1.94 million. Overall it now has $38.30 million on 3,002 screens in 19 markets for a total of $39.76 million, which is a great start, but unless it does well in many other markets, it will have trouble making back its budget of nearly $100 million, which makes it the most expensive French film.
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2008-01-30
There was another record-breaking homegrown release in Russia as The Very Best Film earned topped spot on the international charts with $17.82 million on 790 screens in 2 markets. Of that, $16.48 million on 702 screens came from its home market, which is a record opening in that market.
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2008-01-29
We are one month into 2008 and so far there are a lot more positives than negatives at the box office.
On the negative side, the box office was down 7% from last weekend to $144 million. But on the positive side, that was an increase of 21% from the same weekend last year and year-to-date 2008 has a 16% lead on 2007.
Granted, it is early and it is unlikely the box office will remain this hot for long, but it is still good news.
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2008-01-27
National Treasure: The Book of Secrets fell from second to sixth, but it was relatively close with $8.37 million on 3883 screens in 36 markets for a total of $143.30 million. Even if the film had no more markets left to open in, it would reach $150 million and beyond. However, it has yet to open in Germany, the U.K., and France and should top its domestic total before it is done.
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2008-01-24
It's the final weekend in January and so far the month has been stronger than expected.
Hopefully that will continue this weekend, and at the very least there should be a good battle at the top between, Rambo and Cloverfield.
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2008-01-23
The re-release of L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad opened in first place on the per theater chart with $15,496 in its lone theater. Still Life was close behind with $12,744, also in one theater. The overall box office leader, Cloverfield, was the only other film to top $10,000 on the per theater chart with an average of $11,744 over the three-day portion of the weekend.
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2008-01-22
Records fell this week as Cloverfield became the biggest film ever to debut on Martin Luther King long weekend, as well as setting a few other records (including topping Star Wars long standing January opening record).
This helped the weekend bring in $155 million over three days, which was 19% more than last weekend.
It was also 56% more than the same weekend last year.
However, since Martin Luther King long weekend was a week earlier that isn't a fair comparison.
Compared to last year's Martin Luther King long weekend, 2008 was ahead by 21% over three days and 19% over four.
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2008-01-19
It's the busiest week of the year for new releases, which means it's the busiest week of the year for websites. However, while there is relatively high quantity, the quality is low. There are a few good sites, but there are more releases this week that are without sites and even none stand out as award-worthy.
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2008-01-17
A 2008 release finally looks like it will win a weekend. The first two weeks of the year have brought us wins by holdovers, but the super-hyped Cloverfield should end that streak. Or it could turn into another Snakes on a Plane, I'm still not sure which way it will go.
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2008-01-01
It's the beginning of a new month, and a new year. This new beginning brings with it a sense of hope and exhilaration for many people, but this does not extend into the movie world. January is dominated by films from last year. Not only are holdovers going to overwhelm new releases at the box office for the next couple weeks, but with the award season heating up, most buzz is about who will win what. In fact, only Cloverfield seems to be able to rise above the award season buzz, but this is not a sure sign that the film will survive at the box office.
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2007-12-20
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Four Christmases, My Sister's Keeper, Quarantined, and more!
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2007-09-29
Another slow week, but at least we have a clear contender for the Weekly Website Award. That site is The Kingdom - Official Site, which combines all the usual features with a good mix of extras as well as enough sound and animation to keep surfers interested.
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2007-09-01
As we enter the slowest month of the year, the number and quality of website updates has slowed to a crawl as well. I suspect that within a few weeks we will start getting website launches for films opening during the holidays, and that will again give us plenty of award-worthy sites.
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2007-08-05
Another big list of movie sites, but not much in the way of top-notch entries. For a movie site to be an award winner, I expect it to have all of the usual features, extras like clips, something interactive like a game, and background sound and animation. The film that best exemplifies that criteria is Stardust - Official Site, which is the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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2007-07-29
Server upgrades went... less smoothly than anticipated, which delayed this column, but at least there are a huge number of sites to check out. Many of these sites are making their first appearance on the list while quite a few are making their last appearance. Unfortunately, while it's a big list, there are not many that are even close to being award worthy at the moment. 30 Days of Night - Official Site comes the closest, but I'm waiting for the missing features to be added before I make that decision.
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2007-07-21
Big list in terms of numbers, not so much in terms of quality. In fact, the best film in terms of updates this week was The Simpsons Movie - Official Site, which has already won the Weekly Website Award. Because of that, there are no new winners this week.
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2007-07-21
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Big Stan, Valkyrie, Monsters vs. Aliens and more.
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2007-07-14
One of the last summer blockbusters launched its full site this week. This means two things, The Bourne Ultimatum - Official Site is the clear winner of the weekly website award. And secondly, there will likely be a slowdown in top-notch sites as we approach the dog days of summer, and the even worse days of September.
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2007-07-07
The list returns to its normal busy self, in fact, we have several sites making their first appearance this weekend. In addition, there were a couple of older sites that saw massive updates, including this week's winner, Charlie Bartlett - Official Site.
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