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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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2007-12-02
It's the first of December. (At least it was when I was writing this intro the first time. I was only going to do a dozen or so releases, but the list ballooned well out of control.) This week kicks off our second annual Holiday Gift Guide with a look at some high definition releases, because nothing says holidays like a format war.
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2007-08-12
New releases made their presence felt this week, earning five spots on the DVD sales chart, including the first two places.
The battle for first place wasn't even close, though, as
300 made a dominant debut, selling 5.10 million units, which was 2 million more than the rest of the top 30 combined.
Its opening week sales of $115 million was double the rest of the top 30.
Second place went to Hot Fuzz with a very respectable 676,000 units; you must remember, this is a film that only cost 8 million Pounds to make, roughly, which is about $17 million American.
The film made more than that in just one week on the home market in combined rentals and sales, so everyone involved must be very, very happy indeed.
Pathfinder's sales were stronger than its rentals as it moved 562,000 units for a total of $10.10 million in sales, which was more than it earned theatrically.
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2007-07-30
We finally got some wide releases worth picking up this week, which have been in tight supply most of the summer.
It's been rare to find one first-run release worth picking up in any given week, but this week we have two that are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week: 300 - 2-Disc Special Edition and Hot Fuzz - Buy from Amazon.
I was a little worried that a special edition for the latter might be around the corner, but that wasn't enough to prevent me from naming it as the DVD Pick of the Week.
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2007-04-16
The weekend box office numbers were mixed. On the one hand, there was a small drop in the overall box office numbers with the total ticket sales coming in at $119 million, which was 4% lower than last weekend and 1% lower than the same weekend last year. However, while that's hardly a reason to worry, there were six wide releases meaning the merely average box office numbers had to divided up amongst a crowded field and that really hurt a lot of the new releases. In fact, only one of the six had any real reason to celebrate.
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2007-04-09
No new release made much noise at the box office this weekend and, even with the holdovers holding on better than expected, the overall box office still slipped to $124 million.
That's roughly 3% lower than last weekend, but still 8% higher than the same weekend last year. Hopefully the new releases going 0 for 4 this weekend is a momentary blip and not a sign of weakness in the marketplace.
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2007-04-07
It's the Saturday after Good Friday, which explains why this column was delayed one day. But while the Friday was good, this week's sites were mediocre, at least they were compared to high expectations. If this was January, it would be a great list. However, at this point of the year I'm expecting one potential summer blockbuster to have a major website launch each week, and that didn't happen this time. We still had an award-worthy effort with Grindhouse - Official Site.
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2007-04-05
While there are four wide releases opening this Easter weekend, only one of them, Grindhouse, is given much of a shot at first place. The rest of the new releases are tracking for a middling start, a weak opening and a disastrous debut.
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2007-04-04
It's Easter weekend and while that isn't the greatest long weekend of the year in terms of the box office, there are still four wide releases trying to take advantage of it. Three of these films are opening early: Are We Done Yet?, Firehouse Dog, and The Reaping.
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2007-04-01
April is an interesting month to open a movie. Interesting, but not a particularly good month. This year it does start with Easter, but that's traditionally not a strong long weekend. Only one movie has topped $40 million over that weekend and only one other has cracked $30 million. Worst still, it's jammed right up against May, the start of the summer blockbusters season.
Ironically, the closer you get to this most lucrative time of year, the tougher it is for films to make a buck.
No movie wants to open the weekend before Spider-man 3, for instance.
Overall, there are a few hits to be found in the month, and a few misses, but nothing that really stands out above the pack.
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2007-03-31
Awesome. We are finally getting some major updates to the summer blockbuster movies. The ones people are watching to see if they break records. This includes the first half of the massively interactive website for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Official Site. And while the site isn't done yet, it is still more than enough to win the Weekly Website Award.
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2007-03-24
Good week for trailers with several on the list, including a trio of major summer blockbusters. However, while those site will obviously generate the most traffic, they are not award-worthy sites, (at least not yet). The best site this week is Pathfinder - Official Site.
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2007-03-17
We are starting to get some serious updates on the websites for the summer blockbusters, however, it will be a few more weeks before this list is dominated by such films. In the meantime, it is a website for a new release, Dead Silence - Official Site, that is the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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2007-01-21
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for I am Legend, Angels & Demons and more.
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2007-01-06
Big list as I try to catch up after the holidays. I think I caught all the updates. Not only are there a lot of sites on this week's list, several of them are potential award winners with the best of the best being Smokin' Aces - Official Site.
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2006-10-23
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for In the Land of Women, Firehouse Dog, Foodfight! and more.
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2006-09-24
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Horton Hears a Who, Black Snake Moan and more.
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