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2008-07-31
Five of the top six films on this week's sales chart were new releases, including the overall number on film, Step Up 2 The Streets. That film sold 604,000 units for opening week sales of $10.50 million.
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2008-07-23
Gotham Knight landed direct-to-DVD and directly on top of this week's sales chart with revenue of $4.86 million from 230,000 units.
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2008-07-15
Meet the Browns led all new releases on its way to capturing the number one spot on this week's sales chart. However, its opening week sales of $8.75 million from 474,000 units were not strong to say the least and were behind the $10.64 million in sales generated by Vantage Point. It is important to note that the latter film sold only 407,000 units and only earned more thanks to a higher per unit price.
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2008-07-07
Another week without a first-run release that deserves serious consideration for the DVD Pick of the Week award. This means we are left looking at special editions, limited releases, and TV on DVD sets for the best of the week. Sadly there are not a lot of contenders here either. Batman Begins on Blu-ray Standard Edition or Limited Edition is certainly worth picking up, but it is mostly just a port of the HD DVD release and I was hoping for more (like having the extras in High Definition). The Monk / Psych two-pack offers two great shows for a reasonable price, but I'm not sure it's award-worthy. The best this week has to offer is Stargate Atlantis - Season Four - Buy from Amazon, and it is this week's DVD Pick of the Week.
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2006-11-25
The Da Vinci Code led a large group of new releases, taking top spot on the charts with $11.05 million in rentals while it also topped the sales chart with ease.
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2006-11-19
Cars led a group of new releases that dominated the sales charts this week, however, it had to settle for a very close second place on the rental charts. Leading the way was Mission: Impossible: III with $9.31 million while Cars took in $9.24 million.
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2006-10-10
The Thanksgiving long weekend signifies the start of the holiday shopping season... Of course, that's the American Thanksgiving, which occurs sometime in November. The Canadian Thanksgiving, which occurred this weekend, is most closely associated with the start of Hockey season. (Have I mentioned how much I hate the New York Rangers? I have. Good.) However, just because shopping season has officially started, doesn't mean it's a slow week.
Far from it.
This week there was a bumper crop of contenders for the DVD Pick of the Week.
I narrowed the list to two TV on DVD releases (Scrubs - The Complete Fourth Season - Buy from Amazon and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law - Volume 2 - Buy from Amazon) and two limited releases, (Twelve and Holding - Buy from Amazon and A Prairie Home Companion - Buy from Amazon).
If I was forced at gunpoint to choose just one, it would be Scrubs - The Complete Fourth Season - Buy from Amazon, but I can all but guarantee all four, and a few others, will end up in my DVD collection.
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2006-01-31
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, and Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
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2006-01-11
While the overall domestic box office dropped by an estimated 6% this year, IMAX had a record breaking year for total ticket sales (although exact figures were not released).
Much of this success was due to DMR releasing of blockbuster Hollywood films like Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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2005-11-22
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won the overall box office race, the per theatre charts, and also topped the IMAX charts.
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2005-11-12
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was able to take first place on the rental charts this weekend, but its $7.64 million in DVD rentals was rather anemic. However, this is all part of the Fanboy Effect, those that were interested in seeing the movie bought it instead of renting, which kept the rental figures low but boosted the sales figures. Combined sales for the DVD and game were $210 million worldwide in its first week of release, but there were no breakdowns given either by market or the split between DVD and Game sales.
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2005-11-05
Despite suffering a 34%, second week drop-off, Batman Begins was still able to retain its hold on the home market crown, which is just further proof of the weakness in the rental market. This week the film added $7.85 million to its $19.88 million, two-week total.
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2005-10-29
While Batman Begins had the best start in a long time, that wasn't enough for the video market to keep up with last year's pace.
It brought in $10.38 million in DVD rentals and $970,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $11.34 million.
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2005-10-17
Every week, films get a second chance at success on the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success.
This week is deceptively weak for releases; while there are plenty of DVDs coming out tomorrow, many of them are re-releases, double-dips and the like. The best of the bunch is Lifeboat - Special Edition, with Batman Begins - Buy from Amazon close behind.
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2005-10-02
Red Eye added another $3.7 million on 2,057 screens in 37 markets to its $22 million international total. The film opened in second place in both Spain with $850,000 on 215 screens and in the Netherlands with $250,000 on 59 ($300,000 including previews).
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2005-09-25
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out Pride and Prejudice.
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2005-09-18
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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2005-09-11
The 40-Year Old Virgin topped the U.K. marked with an impressive $3.26 million on 394 screens in the U.K., but this is probably not indicative of its potential in other international markets. The film should do well in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but will likely struggle in non-English speaking markets. (Germany may be an exception.)
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2005-09-04
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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2005-08-28
The Skeleton Key opened in 10- more markets over the weekend and in now playing on 1400 screens, however, it still hasn't found the success the studio was hoping for. It did open in first place in Germany, but it still had a very soft opening with $1.6 million. It also opened in first place in Russia with $625,000 over the weekend and $780,000 since Thursday, but in Australia and New Zealand it had to settle for a distant second place with $760,000 and $110,000 respectively. The Skeleton Key also open in Austria with $230,000 for the week, but its placing is unknown at the moment. Add in holdovers in France, ($250,000 for $2.2 million) and the U.K., ($130,000 for $4.5 million) and you have roughly $4 million for the weekend and $16.5 million so far.
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2005-08-21
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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2005-08-17
There hasn't been much news lately with IMAX releases since the last IMAX only release opened January. There have been a few IMAX Experiences of major Hollywood releases, but they only announce those box offices when a record is broken. Like now.
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2005-08-14
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in Belgium with $1.7 million on 80 screens, easily enough for first place and had a similar result with $480,000 in Poland. It also remained in first place in France with $2.88 million, (despite falling 54% there) and in the Netherlands with $740,000. In Germany the film remained in second place for the third straight week with $3.06 million for a $17.06 million running tally. The film now have $140 million in territories where Fox is handling the distribution and $192 million overall.
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2005-08-12
Three films open wide this weekend, with another opening in roughly 800 theatres. Of the wide releases, there's a strange pattern with the wider the release the weaker the reviews leading to a battle of quality vs. quantity. Normally quality means little to the overall box office, but hopefully this weekend will be different.
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2005-08-07
The Island managed a couple of first place finished over the weekend, but the results were still less than impressive. In Australia the film opened with $1.404 million for a close victory while in Hong Kong it earned a disappointing $490,000 over the weekend and $520,000 including previews. It's best market continued to be South Korea with $3.167 million, down 38% from last weekend dropping to second place along the way. On the other hand, no wide openings and a mere 23% drop-off allowed the film to rise to first in New Zealand. Overall the film added $7.64 million to its $24.1 million running tally on the international scene and will opens in several markets this weekend including the U.K., Germany and Spain.
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2005-07-31
Early numbers had Mr. and Mrs. Smith taking fifth place on the overall international box office charts, but better than expected results has Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overtaking them $6.7 million to $5.4 million. It's biggest single market continues to be France where the film dipped just 6% during its second weekend there earning $3,533,857 for a $9,034,141 running tally. But it was even more impressive in Belgium where the film shot up by 68% to $400,000 for the weekend and $785,000 in total. The film also opened in first place in three markets, Brazil with $1.1 million on 200 screens, Holland with $625,000 on 124 screens, and South Africa with $275,000 on 41 screens. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has $13.3 million so far and opens in a couple of important markets this weekend, (The U.K. and Mexico.)
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2005-07-25
I guess analysts got caught up in the recent bit of good news at the box office because nobody was able to predict this weekend's disaster.
Only one film in the top five was able to beat expectations by any real margin and every new film came up short.
Speaking of coming up short, the overall box office fell by 16% from last weekend and 8.8% from last year.
However, strong weekday numbers helped on the year-to-date comparison with 2005 at $4.983 billion, down 7.7% from 2004 while the summer season is 9.6% below last year's pace.
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2005-07-20
Unlike so many day-and-date worldwide openings, Madagascar went the few markets at a time route, but still managed to reach the top of the international charts this weekend with $31 million on 5,100 screens. Most of that came from openings in both the U.K. ($9.7 million on 505 screens) and Germany ($8.5 million on 800).
The film also opened in South Korea, but failed to topple War of the Worlds, finishing second with $2.375 million in 301 theaters over the weekend and $2.69 million overall.
The film led in a couple of other Asian markets, taking in $1.35 million on 80 screens in Taiwan and in Hong Kong it brought in $1.2 million on 50 screens since its release on Thursday.
Overall the film now has brought in $143 million internationally and $327 million worldwide.
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2005-07-18
The weekend box office was even busier than expected, despite the incredible competition on Saturday from the release of the latest Harry Potter novel.
Every film in the top ten topped Sunday estimates and landed within a couple million of predictions, leading to a 10.5% increase from last week, and more importantly, a 7.1% increase from last year.
Year-to-date things are not as rosy: 2005 is still down 8.1% from last year with $4.751 billion, while the summer is down by 10.5% at $2.25 billion.
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2005-07-15
Now that The Slump is over, the movie industry is looking to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to make sure the box office doesn't start a new slump.
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2005-07-13
War of the Worlds again finished on top of the international charts this weekend, but fell further than one would expect in many markets, mostly major markets. In the U.K. it dropped 51% to $7.49 million, down 49% in Spain to $2.9 million, down 47% in Australia to $2.68 million, 46% in Italy to $2.3 million, and down 44% in Germany to $3.7 million. The film also fell 37% in Japan to $5.2 million, which is very high for the market even taking into account the new competition. War of the Worlds also had a few new releases this weekend and overall they were very impressive, especially in South Korea where the film made $8.5 million in 300 theatres since its release on Thursday; compare that to the $3.8 million Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith opened with. On the other hand, War of the Worlds only brought in $11 million in 848 theatres in France, less than half the $22.3 million Sith made and the same was true in Sweden, ($2.7 million on 130 screens vs. $1.1 million on 88.) The film also opened in Belgium with $1.5 million in 85 theatres and Portugal earning $750,000 in 70, both on par with the summer's other blockbuster. Overall War of the Worlds added $60.5 million in 6,300 theatres pushing its international total to $201 million.
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2005-07-11
The Slump is dead.
After 19 weeks, it has finally ended.
It has been more than four months since the last time 2005 topped 2004 in the yearly comparison, but that's just what happened this weekend.
Before we start celebrating too much, note that the margin of victory was tiny at just over $500,000.
But at this point a victory is a victory and the movie industry will take them anyway they can get them.
On a week-to-week basis we actually saw pretty good growth, rising by 5.2%, which is strange for a post-holiday weekend.
Year-to-date, 2005 is still off by 8% $4.523 billion to $4.934 billion while the summer is down 11% $2.023 billion vs. $2.281 billion.
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2005-07-08
The Fantastic Four battle Dr. Doom and invading aliens this weekend. But the real competition comes from last year when Spider-Man 2 took home $45 million during its second weekend of release. And while no film will top that figure, the combination of strong starts and healthy holdovers could stop The Slump, but I wouldn't bet on it.
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2005-07-06
War of the Worlds made its worldwide debut on Wednesday bringing in $13.35 million on that day alone and $102.5 million on 8000 screens in 78 markets in its first five days. Compared to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds made almost 30% less over the same period, and nearly 20% lower than the earlier 5-day record of $125.7 million set by The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Its best single market was Japan where the film made $15.5 million on 765, but the U.K. was close behind with $15.2 million on 507 screens. War of the Worlds beat Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in a few markets, (Hong Kong, $1.7 million vs. $1.2 million) Taiwan, ($1.0 million vs. $500,000) and Russia, ($3.7 million vs. $3.2 million.) However, in many other major markets the film was far behind including Spain ($9.7 million vs. $7.7 million), Australia, ($10.4 million vs. $5.9 million), and Germany, ($17.8 million vs. $7.3 million.)
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2005-07-05
It was a very predictable weekend at the box office as four of the top five films finished within $1 million or so within expectations, at least over the first 3 days.
Monday was another story as several films missed predictions.
And as expected, the overall box office was down again on a year-to-year comparison -- and that's now for 19 weeks in a row.
But first some good news, the 3-day portion of the weekend saw an 11.1% increase from last weekend, which is not all that great taking into account the holiday on Monday.
On a yearly comparison the 3-day weekend was down 14.6% while the 4-day weekend was down an incredible 23%.
Year-to-date 2005 has now brought in $4.313 billion, 8.4% behind 2004, while the summer is down 11.7% at $1.813 billion so far.
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2005-07-04
As with all long weekends, July Fourth will cause a one day delay in both Weekend Wrap-up and the Per Theatre Charts. They will be published on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. In the meantime, here are the studio estimates for the Top Ten, both over the 3-day weekend and the 4-day weekend.
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2005-07-01
The Independence Day long weekend is one of the most important weekends on the calendar.
However, there will likely be little celebrating once the numbers start coming in.
Simply put, the target needed to break The Slump is too high and there's almost no chance of breaking it this weekend.
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2005-06-29
Batman Begins didn't see the sharp drop-off many had feared after its soft opening last weekend slipping by a reasonable 36%. Its best market continued to be the U.K. where the film added $5.1 million on 516 screens to its $16.7 million running tally. Other strong holdovers include Australia at $2.1 million, France at $1.96 million, and Mexico with $1.94 million. The film had a few openings over the weekend managing second place in South Korea with $2.1 million on 201 screens, $430,000 in Indonesia, and $388,000 in Portugal. Overall Batman Begins made $26.7 million on 8,350 screens in 85 markets for an international tally of $83.4 million, while its worldwide box office climbed above $200 million. That's not up to initial expectations, but still impressive.
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2005-06-27
The slump continued this weekend, marking the 18th weekend in a row that the overall box office was lower than the same weekend last year.
That's the longest such slump since detailed box office data was kept (1982).
To add insult to injury, it wasn't even close; the yearly comparison showed a 14.5% drop-off from the last year.
This weekend the box office really should have stopped the streak, and now it looks like it could continue until August, and possibly longer.
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2005-06-24
Three new films aim to break the box office out of its 17-week slump this weekend.
It's been more than four months since the box office gained any ground on 2004, and the chances of breaking the slump this weekend are not that bad.
This time last year wasn't a particularly strong weekend, but none of this year's three opening films are all that strong either.
In fact, it is unlikely that Batman Begins will be dethroned over the next three days.
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2005-06-22
Batman Begins opened worldwide in a day-and-date release but it's international fortunes were no better than its domestic. The film was easily the number one movie on the international scene with $41.7 million on 8,000 screens in 73 markets. Compared to other international hits this year, Batman Begins' debut is softer than Kingdom of Heaven, ($53.8 million on 6500 screens in 100 markets) and not that much above last week's champ, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which wasn't even a worldwide release, ($32 million on 3,600 screens in 35 markets.) It's best market was the U.K. at $7.8 million, but the film also did well in Mexico, ($4.2 million over five days) and France, ($3 million.) On the other hand, in Australia the film finished in second place to Madagascar, ($3,223,600 to $3,578,000) and the same happened in both Spain and Holland, but box office numbers from those markets are unavailable at the moment. Overall the film performed below expectations, but well enough that it should show a profit before it reaches the home market.
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2005-06-21
Me You and Everyone We Know easily took top spot on the Per Theater Charts with $30,801 in its lone theater.
This strong start is not particularly useful in predicting the film's further success, since it was undoubtedly helped out by debuting during the opening of the new IFC Center.
Coming in second was the overall box office champ, Batman Begins, with $12,635.
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2005-06-20
With both new films failing to live up to expectations, we saw yet another weekend with lower box office numbers.
The total box office was down by 5.67% compared to last weekend.
Early predictions had the comparison to the same weekend last year almost too close to call, and final results didn't clear matters up.
Right now, we have this weekend down from the comparable weekend last year by a mere 0.82%.
However, late numbers from limited releases that are not tracked by the big companies will push this weekend's number higher, but probably not the $1.2 million it needed lift it above last year.
That makes this the 17th weekend in a row of declines on the year-to-year comparison, a new and dubious record. Year-to-date, 2005 has brought in $3.841 billion in box office revenue, down 6.6% from the same time last year.
The Summer numbers are even worse at $1.34 billion; that's the worst start since 2001 and down 8.1% from last year.
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2005-06-17
It looks like the near universal enthusiasm for this weekend's box office needs to be toned down a bit after Wednesday's disappointing opening by Batman Begins. Even so, the weekend should still be strong enough to break the slump the year-to-year comparisons are struggling with.
Which means for the first time in nearly four months 2005 will gain ground on 2004.
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2005-06-16
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Official Site.
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2005-06-15
It's been eight years since the monstrosity that was Batman & Robin killed the successful movie franchise. And now with Batman Begins the studio hopes that the franchise will be born again.
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2005-06-09
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Stealth - Official Site.
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2005-06-01
June's a great month for movies, even though it doesn't have a major long weekend like May (Memorial Day), or July (Independence Day).
There are a couple of films that have real potential to become monster hits, plus lots of $100 million contenders.
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2005-05-05
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates. Slow week with most of the sites being merely average or too early in their development to tell if the film is an award winning site or not. So in the end I decided not to hand out the award to any site. Hopefully next week things will pick up.
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2005-04-28
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Unleashed - Official Site.
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2005-03-24
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Official Site.
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2005-02-10
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Jacket - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2005-02-08
The Summer Season Shuffle continues today with the news that Fantastic Four will be pushed back a week to July 8, avoiding a July 4 showdown with Dreamwork's War of the Worlds.
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2005-01-20
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Fantastic Four - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-12-16
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Official Site and all subsidiaries. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-12-09
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner In Good Company - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-11-04
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-10-28
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner Kung Fu Hustle - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-07-29
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, The Manchurian Candidate - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-07-08
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, The Bourne Supremacy - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-05-06
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, Shrek 2 - >Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-04-01
During the past week promotional websites for several movies
were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, Hellboy - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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2004-03-25
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
