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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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2006-07-01
As I suggested when it came out, people rented Syriana to the amount of $7.93 million during its first week of release. That was enough to put it in first place during a close three-way race.
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2006-06-24
16 Blocks shared the top of the charts with The Pink Panther. 16 Blocks led on the rental charts $6.85 million to $6.55 million, but the two films finished in opposite order on the sales charts.
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2006-06-19
It may seem like a really slow week for DVD releases, but this is because several releases were grouped together. I have one section for the five Alfred Hitchcock releases instead of spreading them out and padding the word count. Taking that into account, the week is about average in terms of quantity, and quality. There were a handful of contenders this week, and a few that looked good in advance but the special feature were a let down. In the end I went with NewsRadio - The Complete Fourth Season as the best of the best while Married With Children - The Complete Fifth Season earns and honorable mention. ... "Go with him." (If you get that reference, you probably already have the latter release pre-ordered.)
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2006-06-17
It was another incredibly busy week with three new films occupying the top three spots and four of them in the top five. Leading the way on the rental charts was Underworld: Evolution with $8.68 million in DVD rentals.
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2006-06-05
It's like the week of the Western with that genre making appearances in nearly every category, Special Edition, Box Sets, TV on DVD. But while there are certainly some that were in the running for DVD Pick of the Week, (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - 2-Disc Collector's Edition, for instance), it was a limited release that is the DVD Pick of the Week. And that film is Sarah Silverman - Jesus is Magic - Buy from Amazon, but I fully admit my pro-Sarah Silverman bias has something to do with this decision.
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2006-04-02
Two openings in two major markets helped Hostel climb into sixth place with $4.03 million on 1120 screens in 27 markets for a running tally of $15.42 million. Its best opening was in the U.K. where it debuted in second place with $2.12 million on 304 screens while it struggled in Spain with just $1.01 million on 250. The film has already earned enough to show a profit even after taking into account P&A budget, exhibitor's share, etc. and should be able to double its current international total before its run is over.
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2006-03-26
The only opening of note for Syriana over the weekend was Turkey where the film placed third with $211,000 on 62 screens. Without a major opening, the film fell 35% to $3.68 million on 1992 screens in 43 markets and now has $27.35 million, which is still a disappointing total.
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2006-03-19
A number one opening in France, as well as a slew of smaller debuts, pushed Underworld: Evolution into sixth place on the international charts with $4.98 million on 1473 screens in 20 markets for a running tally of $36.12 million after nearly two months in release. In France the film earned $1.84 million on 346 screens while it managed the same feat in a trio of Asian markets: Taiwan with $600,000 on 75 screens, Malaysia with $310,000 on 45, and Hong Kong with $290,000 on 25. Interestingly, the original was banned in Malaysia.
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2006-03-12
A fourth place, $1.63 million debut on 250 screens in France helped Memoirs Of A Geisha leap up the charts this weekend. Overall the film finished in sixth place on the international charts with $3.98 million on 1723 screens in 47 markets for an international total of $88.34 million. The film placed higher during its opening in Finland with $79,000 on 12 screen over the weekend and $95,000 in total while it had to settle for ninth place in Belgium with $200,000 on 29 screens.
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2006-03-05
On the weekend before the Oscars are announced, Brokeback Mountain climbed a couple of spots to sixth with $4.44 million on 1368 screens in 30 markets for an international total of $53.89 million. New openings include Belgium where the filmed debuted in second place with $312,000 on a mere 27 screens for the best per screen average in the market. It wasn't as potent in Poland where it had to settle for fourth place with $194,000 on 40 screens over the weekend and $217,000 in total. The film also benefited from soft in the U.K. where it slipped just 5% to $442,000 on 245 screens for a very impressive total of $15.83 million so far. It was even better during its second weekend in Holland where it rose 1% to $210,000 for the weekend and $562,000 in total.
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2006-02-26
Casanova opened in several major markets more than doubling its screen count, and that helped it climb to sixth place over the weekend. Its best market was Italy where the film came in third place with $1.05 million on 243 screens over the weekend and $1.14 million in total while it also managed a third place finish during a very close race in Spain with $919,000 on 250 screens. Its other major market debut was the U.K., but there it had to settle for fifth with $959,000 on 351 screens. Overall the film made $5.17 million on 1699 screens in 18 markets for an international total of just $11.68 million so far.
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2006-02-19
Fun with Dick and Jane added an handful of new markets this week and that allowed the film to remain in sixth place with $6.00 million on 2645 screens in 49 markets for a running tally of $63.30 million. The film opened in first place in Spain with $1.54 million on 316 screens and in the Netherlands with $475,000 on 75 screens over the weekend and $520,000 in total. It took first place in Argentina as well with $136,000 on 48. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place during its debut in Denmark with $319,000 on 45 screens over the weekend and $335,000 in total. Holdovers include the U.K. where the film was down 56% to $699,000 over the weekend and $10.44 million in total and Italy with a 55% decline to $594,000 over the weekend and $4.83 million in total.
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2006-02-12
Fun with Dick and Jane fell to sixth place with $6.45 million on 2487 screens in 43 markets for an running international total of $53.27 million so far, which is less than half of what it earned domestically. The film opened in Singapore with $450,000 from 30 screens and managed to repeat in first place in Italy with $1.33 million on 314 screens over the weekend and a $3.96 million total after two weeks. Meanwhile in the U.K. the film fell from first to third, but it still earned $1.59 million on 374 screens for a three-week total of $9.34 million.
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2006-02-05
Jey Li's latest Hong Kong production, Fearless, (a.k.a. Huo Yuan Jia) started its international run in sixth place with $7.35 million on 596 screens in 6 markets. The film finished first in four Asian markets including China with $1.39 million, Taiwan with $630,000, Singapore with $605,000 and Malaysia with $590,000. Paradoxically, the film's best market was its home market of Hong Kong, where it had to settle for a close second place with $2.03 million on just 48 screens over the full week. So far there is still no North American release date, but with this start, that should change soon.
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2006-01-30
Practically every film in the top five was able to beat, or at least meet expectations, and that helped the month end on a strong note.
Overall the weekend box office take was $126 million, up 5.1% from last weekend and more importantly, up 2.2% from last year.
So far 2006 has brought in $662 million, which 1.4% ahead of last year's pace.
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2006-01-29
Late updates have changed some of the results on in International Top Five this week as My Boss, My Student crushed the competition in South Korea with $7.59 million on 450 screens over the weekend and $9.31 million in total. This meant that despite Brokeback Mountain earning a better than initially reported $7.39 million, it was pushed out of the top five and into sixth place.
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2006-01-27
Three more films open wide this weekend, but only one of them will crack the 2,000 theater mark.
This means that, while January will likely end on a soft note, there could be an interesting race or two in the top five.
On a side note, this column was unfortunately delayed because I am really, really sick.
How sick am I?
Too sick to come up with a punch line for that joke.
But I am starting to like the taste of NyQuil, if you can imagine.
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2006-01-23
Nearly every film in the top five beat expectations over the weekend, which helped soften the post-holiday drop-off to just 3.9%, and push the overall box office to $121 million. The weekend was up a massive 23.2% over the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2006 has overtaken 2005 by 2%, which is even more impressive when you remember that 2005 got off to a strong start.
However, as history shows us, it is far too soon to tell how well this year will go.
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2006-01-20
Just the one real wide release this weekend, but there are three other films either opening or expanding into what some might consider a wide release. Only the one film has any shot at the number one spot, and two might not even make the top ten.
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2006-01-19
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It's busier on this week's list than it has in a while, but there was only one site that was in contention to win the award, Underworld: Evolution - Official Site.
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2006-01-12
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. I can't say that it was a particularly busy week, but at least we had a site that was well deserving of recognition in Nanny McPhee - Official Site.
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2006-01-02
It's the beginning of a new year, January 1st, 2006 (or at least it was when I wrote this).
The good news is 2005 is finally over.
The bad news is 2006 again starts with the month of January, which is always a really slow way to start the year.
This is a real dead month when it comes to new releases, in fact, of the 10 new releases coming out this month, I'm excited about seeing... none.
(There are a few movies that could be popular among their target demographic, but I'm just not in those groups.)
But at least there are a few Oscar contenders that opened in limited release last month that are looking to go wide sometime during the month and that is the only real saving grace.
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2005-12-15
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. We've hit another slow patch for movie websites, which is not unexpected since the most of the new site on this list are for films that open months from now so there's hardly any content, or open during the dead zone that is January. I would say the best of the rest would be King Kong - Official Site, but it is not strong enough to win the Weekly Website Award.
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2005-11-17
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, however, it was a slow week for updates and I've decided not to award any site with the Weekly Website Award.
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2005-08-11
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 40-Year-Old Virgin - Official Site.
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2005-07-21
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, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Official Site.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
