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2006-09-10
No new openings left Garfield's A Tail of Two Kitties down 40% to $5.87 million on 3779 screens in 32 markets for a total of $90.08 million. It was reported that the film broke a record for an animated film in China with $6.7 million putting it ahead of The Lion King, which is a strange thing to report since the movie isn't animated. Sure, it has a CG lead, but that's not the same. As for the film's prospects for the future, hitting $100 million internationally is academic at this point and with several openings to go, including previews in Australia this weekend, the film could finish with close to the $125 million earned by the original.
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2006-09-09
A ton of new releases to chart this week led by The Sentinel with $8.34 million. That's a reasonable start compared to its theatrical total, but weak given its production budget.
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2006-09-02
It was a relatively slow week for new releases, but without much competition there were two newcomers finishing atop the standings. In first place was Poseidon as the disaster flick hopes to save its run on the home market; the $8.97 million it was able to bring in put it in first place comfortably, but it won't be enough to help it show a profit any time soon.
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2006-08-14
One of the most hotly anticipated releases of the summer opens this Friday as Snakes on a Plane finally hits theatres after what seems like years of hype. Because of this we have three prizes that will be awarded to both winners this weekend. To win you just have to predict Snakes on a Plane's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday). Whoever comes closest, without going over, and whoever comes closest, without going under with both win The Lost City on DVD, Half Nelson CD Soundtrack, and... most importantly, a handful of rubber snakes. And since these prizes will be airmailed to the winners, there really will be Snakes on a Plane. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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2006-08-06
Over the Hedge may have slipped out of the top five landing in sixth place this week, but it is still bringing in plenty at the box office. After earning $7.12 million on 3877 screens in 33 markets the film now has $121.76 million internationally and is closing in on its domestic total with several more markets left to open in. Its biggest market was again Germany with $1.49 million on 743 screens over the weekend for a four-week total of $14.26 million. Should it perform well in Japan and Italy, it will have no trouble reaching $300 million worldwide. And while that is low compared to the historical averages for digitally animated films, but is still a great result.
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2006-07-30
A first place debut in China lifted Mission: Impossible 3 into sixth place overall with $5.74 million on 838 screens in 21 markets for a total of $239.82 million. In China it earned $2.8 million on 394 screens while in Japan it managed $2.50 million on 540 for a total of $29.92 million after three weeks of release.
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2006-07-23
A South Korean film, Hanbando, a.k.a. The Korean Peninsula, topped its native market with a huge $6.14 million on 520 screens over the weekend and a total of $9.85 million overall. That was good enough for sixth place on the international charts.
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2006-07-16
The Da Vinci Code slipped out of the top five with $3.85 million on 3037 screens in 55 markets for a total of $515.15 million. This is the 11th best international total ever, while its worldwide mark of $728.36 million places it 23rd on the all-time worldwide chart.
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2006-06-11
The final weekend before the start of World Cup saw Volver become the latest best of the rest finishing sixth with $4.46 million on 863 screens in 5 markets for a total of $27.25 million. The film was again led by its performance in France where it grew for the second week in a row up 14% to $3.02 million on 404 screens for a total of $9.09 million while in Italy it grew by 28% to $1.44 million on 268 screens for a total of $5.61 million after three weeks. In both of those markets the film is on pace to top such worldwide blockbusters as Mission: Impossible 3, something nobody would have predicted before the start of the summer. Even more impressively, it is about a week away from France becoming the film's most lucrative market topping the $11.94 million it made in its native Spain.
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2006-06-04
The one major change from the studio estimates was in fourth place as the Spanish film, Volver, grew by 15% to $4.55 million on 835 screens in 5 markets for a total of $21.33 million. The big surprise came in France where the film was up a massive 41% from its opened taking in $2.64 million on 333 screens for a two-week total of $5.53 million. Meanwhile, in Italy is was down a mere 16% to $1.11 million on 309 screens for a total of $3.30 million.
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2006-05-28
Mission: Impossible 3 was knocked out of first place by The Da Vinci Code, but that was not a surprise to anyone. What was a surprise is the lack of staying power Mission: Impossible 3 has exhibited so far; this week the film fell a further 43% o $23.22 million on 6392 screens in 57 markets for a total of $164.32 million. Its best market of the weekend was the U.K. where it added $3.44 million on 445 screens to its total of $23.70 million. However, South Korea is close behind with $3.19 million on 330 screens for a total of $23.22 million. The film only as a few openings left and Japan is the only major player out there so unless a minor miracle happens Mission: Impossible 3 won't reach the heights that its predecessors did.
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2006-05-21
Silent Hill's weekend numbers were better than earlier estimates and that helped place the film fourth overall with $4.99 million on 1398 screens in 11 markets. The film finished first in Russia with $1.45 million on 213 screens over the weekend and $1.61 million in total while it had to settle for second in Germany with $1.10 million on 308 screens. It also opened in second place in Hong Kong with $462,000 on 34 screens and $580,000 including the previews mentioned last week. So far the film has earned $18.92 million at the international box office, the largest single chunk coming from the U.K.; in that market the film has made $6.32 million including $439,000 on 285 screens this week.
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2006-05-14
With Mission: Impossible 3 dominating the international charts, most films saw a serious drop-off and those that didn't were able to climb the charts, or at least remain stable. For instance, Eight Below fell 27% to $3.67 million on 1951 screens in 27 markets, but despite there being two new releases in the top five, it was able to remain in sixth place on the overall charts. The film was not able to crack $1 million in any single market, but did perform well in Spain with $587,000 on 225 screens and that lifted its total box office to $2.15 million in the market, $30.35 million internationally, and $111.42 million worldwide.
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2006-05-03
For the fifth week in a row, Ice Age: The Meltdown top the international charts earning a still impressive $30.01 million on 8374 screens in 57 markets for an international total of $379.61 million after a month of release. The film is starting to lose both theatres and markets and won't be able to top the charts next weekend, but it has already managed more than enough to show a very healthy profit and should reach $600 million worldwide within a couple of weeks. Its best market of the weekend was Italy where it was down a mere 4% to $5.17 million on 544 screens over the weekend and already has $15.31 million in that market. Its best market overall is Germany where the film has earned $54.00 million in four weeks, including $3.47 million on 1093 screens this past weekend.
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2006-05-01
The last weekend in April is generally not a good time to open a new movie since the first weekend in May is the unofficial start of the Summer Blockbuster season. Movies that open now generally only get one weekend of release before being crushed by the competition. Because of this, studios tend to dump films that have lowered expectations during this weekend. So there's little surprise that the total box office was down 6.6% from last week to $102 million. But more importantly, that represents a 12.6% increase from the same weekend last year despite the fact that last year's number one film earned nearly $5 million more than this year's number one film did. This surge had helped the year-to-date figure grow to $2.603 billion, up 4.7% over last year's pace. This is significant because it puts ticket sales on the rise as well as total box office.
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2006-04-30
The Wild added a few more markets but still fell out of the top five down 54% to $4.37 million on 2868 screens in 27 markets for a two week total of $17.77 million. Its best market was Spain where the film was down just 43% to $875,000 on 382 screens over the weekend and $3.49 million in total. It had a hard time in family friendly Mexico where it was down 59% to $702,000 on 501 screens over the weekend and $3.60 million in total while in Italy it plummeted an unheard of 84% to just $216,000 on 343 screen for a two-week total of $2.75 million.
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2006-04-27
It's a busy week for wide releases with four such films coming out, although none of them look like breakout hits.
In fact, only one of the films is opening in significantly more than 2,000 theatres.
Continuing the overriding trend of the year, the film that is earning the worst reviews of the weekend should also top the charts.
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2006-04-25
There were no new releases to top $10,000 on the per theatre charts this weekend, but there were two holdovers to manage that feat. Hard Candy repeated on the top of the per theatre chart despite falling 35% to $18,901, which is a steep drop-off for a limited release.
Second place went to Sir! No, Sir!. That film, which had been playing in San Francisco and Oakland for the past two weeks, opened at the IFC Center earning $11,930 during its first weekend there.
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2006-04-24
It was a mixed week with the total box office hitting just $110 million, down 9.0% from last week.
On the other hand, that was up an impressive 17.4% from the same weekend last year and year-to-date 2006 is now leading 2005 by 4%.
On an interesting side note, of the three new releases, the film that earned the worst reviews earned the best box office while the film that earned the of best reviews earned the weakest box office.
Further proof that high quality is detrimental to a film's box office potential.
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2006-04-21
A trio of new films tackle Scary Movie 4 this weekend, looking to become the next box office champ.
None of the films are winning over the critics, and one of them was not even screened, but that isn't necessarily the huge warning sign that it usually signifies.
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2006-04-21
A trio of new films tackle Scary Movie 4 looking to become the next box office champ. None of the films are winning over the critics with one of them not even being screened, but that doesn't seem to be the huge warning sign that it usually signifies.
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2006-04-20
Another slow week and either I've lost my mojo for finding new and updated sites, or this is the calm before the storm that is the summer box office season. And speaking of Storm, the best of the bunch this week is X-Men: The Last Stand - Official Site.
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2006-04-01
March wasn't as strong as expected and April doesn't seem to have what it takes to turn things around. IMDb has a poll they run every month on what film you are looking forward to the most. This time the number one film is Silent Hill was in first with 16.5% of the vote. Number two went to 'Other' at 13.0% of the vote. This is a really, really bad sign. With no advanced buzz, many films will have a hard time attracting an audience, which not only means less people are seeing the movies, but also less people are seeing the trailers for the big summer releases, which means less buzz about the summer releases... On the other hand, there are several limited releases that look promising including Friends with Money, Hard Candy, The Notorious Bettie Page, and Kinky Boots. Unfortunately, all but the first are being released on April 14th.
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2006-03-23
This week's list is shorter than expected, but at least there's a site that clearly deserves to be the winner of the Weekly Website award: The Inside Man - Official Site.
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2006-03-16
Pretty average week with all best sites being previous award winners. The best of the rest was Silent Hill - Official Site, and even though this week's update wasn't huge, it was enough to make the overall site award-worthy.
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2006-03-02
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. There was a three way race for top spot this week with Slither - Official Site taking home the award. However, it won based on equal parts what it is and what it should become once all the content marked coming soon is added to the site.
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2006-02-16
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It's another busy week as the winter slump starts to subside. As for the best site on this week's list, it came down to the interactive feature of Freedomland - Official Site and the atmosphere of Night Watch - Official Site. After looking over the sites a few times, I still can't decided which one should get the award, so I'm giving it to both.
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2006-01-26
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. The winner this week was Curious George - Official Site, which was extremely well done, although it is aimed at a very young audience.
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2005-12-08
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Despite being there being two weeks between updates, this was not a very strong week. Sure, there were plenty of websites updated, but not a lot that really stood out as being award worthy. In the end it was Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks - Official Site that was the best of the bunch and hopefully it will continue to grow and earn that award.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
