September 8th, 2008
TV on DVD is at its peak for the year, just in time for the new season to start. However, because last season was cut short by the writers' strike, and so many studios are not taking that into account in the pricing, there are fewer releases at are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week. But we do have a worthy recipient of the award, Fist of Legend - Buy from Amazon, the latest release from Dragon Dynasty. Also, while the week was slow on top, it was busy overall, so much so that we had to split the week's list into two parts again. Part I can be found here.
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December 2nd, 2007
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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June 8th, 2007
It was a slow, slow week for new releases at not one was able to crack the top ten on the rental chart. This left Apocalypto with the easy win grabbing $4.86 million for the week and $10.88 after two.
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May 22nd, 2007
It's the first busy week of the month, and it won't get this busy again for the rest of summer. There is literally a hundred releases mentioned on this week's list, roughly half of which are coming out to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Wayne. However, while there were plenty of those releases coming out, it was another classic movie to win the DVD Pick of the Week. That classic film is The Third Man - Criterion Collection - 2-Disc Edition - Buy from Amazon.
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February 25th, 2007
The Oscars have all been handed out, but that's not the end of our coverage. Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts as well as next week when we look at the Oscar bounce. And later on we'll announce the winners of our contest,
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.
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January 20th, 2007
There were plenty of
new releases this week, but all but two missed the top 10. However, those two DVDs finished one-two on the charts.
Crank topped
The Illusionist $6.09 million to $5.59 million.
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January 13th, 2007
A slow week for
new releases helped
Little Miss Sunshine climb from third to first on the rental charts. Over the week the film earned $5.46 million for a three-week total of $20.95 million.
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January 7th, 2007
None of half-a-dozen
new releases were able to make a big splash on rental charts, but that doesn't mean there wasn't anything interesting to report. Every film in the top five was within $540,000 on each other with
The Devil Wears Prada claiming top spot with $6.87 million.
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December 30th, 2006
There were nearly a dozen
new releases to chart this week, but it was a holdover that took top spot in an extremely close race.
The Devil Wears Prada beat out
Little Miss Sunshine at $8.88 million to $8.80 million.
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December 22nd, 2006
The Devil Wears Prada was the best of a
new bunch winning out in a very, very close race with
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at $10.74 million to $10.67 million.
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December 16th, 2006
There were a boatload of
new releases to chart this week led by
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with $12.93 million, which was just a hair lower than
Superman Returns's open week rentals from a week ago. This week that film placed second with a still impressive $10.71 million.
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December 15th, 2006
Babel led the way when the
Golden Globe nominations were announced today with seven nominations while
The Departed was close behind with six.
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December 5th, 2006
The first week of the month is often the busiest, and that's the case here.
However, while there are a lot of big releases, there's not much in the way of quality to be found.
The best of the recent releases is Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest, but that was weak compared to the original (although a fun ride nonetheless).
In order to find the DVD Pick of the week one must travel deeper... into the list of box sets (The Premiere Frank Capra Collection - Buy from Amazon), special editions (Black Christmas - Special Edition - Buy from Amazon), and TV on DVD (Dungeons & Dragons - The Complete Series - Buy from Amazon).
Of those three, I'm giving the honor to The Premiere Frank Capra Collection - Buy from Amazon, but all three could end up in my DVD collection before long.
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October 22nd, 2006
The
German soccer film, Deutschland. Ein Sommermarchen, remained in first place in Germany and sixth overall this weekend. It managed this feat by falling just 25% to $5.41 million on 671 screens for a two-week total of $14.67 million.
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October 15th, 2006
The
German Film, Deutschland. Ein Sommermarchen, which could translate into English as Germany, A Summer March, but I wouldn't bet money on it. ... Moving on, The film took top spot in its native market with $7.19 million on 584 screens and that was enough for sixth place overall.
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October 8th, 2006
Indigenes, a.k.a. Days of Glory, opened in first place in its native
France with $5.53 million on 460 screens while it managed ninth in Switzerland with $76,000 despite opening on only 8 screens. The film opened on Wednesday in Belgium before expanding to other European market in the coming weeks.
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September 27th, 2006
The
German film,
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, was the surprise winner at the international box office, taking in $10.79 million on 1,600 screens in 6 markets for a total of $31.62 million.
Its best market remained Germany where it was down just 32% to $6.72 million on 773 screens; that was half the total box office in Germany, more than four times its
nearest competition, and enough to lift its running tally in the market to $20.22 million.
The film also managed to top $1 million during its second weekend in Russia (first place with $1.59 million on 310 screens for a $6.43 million total), and in its debut in Italy (third place with $1.05 million on 335).
The film opens in France next weekend, in Spain at the end of November and in the U.K. at the beginning of December.
One must assume the studio is happy with its run so far.
However, with a production budget of 50 million Euros (about $65 million American), it is the most expensive German film ever and will need a strong run in several non-German speaking markets to show a profit.
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September 20th, 2006
A record-breaking opening in Italy pushed
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest into first place for the tenth time in 11 weeks. The film easily finished first with $9.49 million on 877 screens over the weekend and $12.13 million in total, which was more than six times what its
nearest competition earned. That was the majority of the film's $18.39 million weekend haul, a haul that was earned on 4361 screens in 42 markets and that pushed its international total to $613.26 million. This made
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest just the sixth film to cross the $600 million mark internationally and by the end of the weekend put it ahead of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for fifth place on the all-time chart.
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September 13th, 2006
For the first time in 10 weeks we have a new winner atop the international box office with Cars finally overtaking Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to win the prize.
The Pixar powerhouse spent its first weekend on top of the international charts with $8.00 million on 3,704 screens in 31 markets for a total of $184.24 million.
Its biggest market was Germany where it topped the charts with $3.05 million on 814 screens; this was more than three times what its nearest competitor earned, but less than a quarter of what Finding Nemo opened with back in 2003.
The film only has two other openings of note, Greece and Turkey, and they both happen this weekend.
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September 6th, 2006
Last weekend I assumed
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's time on top of the international charts was over. It had no new openings, the competition was getting tighter and it just seemed like its time was done. However, when the numbers came in the film easily won the weekend race as it was the only film able to top $10 million over the weekend. The
Pirate pic pulled in $11.99 million on 5378 screens in 43 markets for an international total of $581.55 million while its worldwide was $994.43 million as of Sunday. The film should become only the third film to reach $1 billion
worldwide and could do so as early as Thursday. After that there are a few milestones the film will be aiming for like $600 million internationally, which it should have no trouble doing especially with the film opening in Italy on the 15th.
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August 30th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned yet another record this weekend by topping the international charts for the eighth straight weekend surpassing the old record of seven set by
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. This weekend the swashbuckler took in $18.61 million on 6579 screens in 49 markets lifting its international total to $556.07 million and its worldwide haul to $963.61 million. Looking at the all-time charts, the film is now eighth place and should top
Jurassic Park by this time next week while worldwide it is in fourth place
all-time and should have no trouble tracking down
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone during the weekend. This weekend the film managed to set a record in Greece opening with $2.6 million while it took in $100,000 in Lebanon for the highest opening of the year in that market. Next week the film will likely fall out of top spot but should continue to perform well as it wraps up its International run in Italy on the 15th of September.
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August 29th, 2006
As summer slowly winds down, there was the predictable decline from last weekend's box office. In total, ticket sales managed $102 million, down 7.9%, but more importantly up 4.6% from the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2006 is still ahead of 2005, but the lead has shrunk to 5% and we will need a strong fall season to maintain overall ticket sales growth.
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August 23rd, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is starting to shed screens and that was part of the reason it fell 43% this weekend, however, it still earned more than the next two films combined while crossing the $500 million milestone. Over the weekend it added $24.82 million on 7014 screens in 51 markets to its international total of $521.46 million while its worldwide total hit $922.72 million. This is the seventh week in a row that the film has topped the international charts tying the previous record set by
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl back in 2003. On the all-time international charts, the film is now in 12th place all-time, just a few million behind
Finding Nemo and is now fifth place
Worldwide. Where does it go from here? It has yet to open in Italy and by the time it does it could reach $1 billion in total ticket sales, but odds are
Return of the King's second place is safe.
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August 22nd, 2006
The weekend box office was surprisingly subdued given the amount of hype the number one film was generating. Overall the box office made $110 million, which was down 14.9% from last week and 3.5% from last year. The week-to-week decline is to be expected at this time of year, but the year-to-year drop-off is more troubling. Even so, 2006 is still maintaining a 6% lead over last year's pace and that's well above ticket price inflation.
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August 14th, 2006
It is another insanely busy week with 1,250 DVDs coming out, at least according to Amazon.
However, like last week, the majority of those are episodes of Charlie Rose.
(I really wish the studio released them as full season sets and not flood the market with individual titles that most people will skip over without a second thought.)
Three releases immediately jump out as the best of the best, Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier, Masters of Horror - Dario Argento - Jenifer, and The Simpsons - The Complete Eighth Season - Collectable Maggie Head Edition.
I could have spent hours trying to determine which of those was the best, but instead I will just award all three the title of DVD Pick of the Week.
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August 9th, 2006
For the fifth week in a row,
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest dominated the international box office earning nearly five times what its nearest competition took in. Over the weekend it brought in $57.32 million on 8208 screens in 50 markets for a total of $392.22 million internationally and $771.92 million worldwide, (at the end of the weekend). A large chunk of this weekend's haul come from new openings, including a phenomenal $17.8 million on 700 screens in France. Other debuts include Hong Kong, ($1.6 million on 35 screens), and South Africa, ($670,000). The film is already the highest grossing movie of the year worldwide, and with strong holds and openings in Spain and Italy still to go, it could top
The Da Vinci Code's international total as well, a total that currently sits at $530.38 million.
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August 7th, 2006
It's August, but the weekend box office didn't miss a beat.
In fact the overall box office climbed 6.3% to $140 million. That was up 21.6% from the same weekend last year, lifting 2006's lead over 2005 to 6%.
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August 5th, 2006
There were only two
new release to reach the top five this week but they finished 1-2 with
The Benchwarmers leading the way with $9.98 million in DVD rentals.
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August 3rd, 2006
It's the first weekend in August and studios are hoping the dog days of summer can be pushed back at least one more week.
This shouldn't be a problem as the odds-on favorite to win the weekend race is tracking better and better by the day, while we also have one of the best reviewed wide releases of the year hitting theatres tomorrow.
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August 2nd, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest may have lost its box office crown domestically, but it is still rules the international markets. This week it earned $55.34 million while playing on 7,610 screens in 44 markets, lifting its totals to $301.90 million internationally and $660.39 million worldwide.
After the weekend it was sitting in 40th place on the international charts and 26th worldwide. The film opened in first place in Germany with an outstanding $17.34 million on 1,330 screens while Curse of the Black Pearl re-entered the charts in fifth place with just over $500,000.
The film also had million dollar openings in Austria at $2.8 million on 105 screens, Belgium at $2.06 million on 127, and Switzerland at $1.57 million on 101.
Meanwhile, the film was down a jaw-dropping 64% in its second weekend in Japan, earning a still impressive $6.11 million on 764 screens for a total of $32.44 million after just two weeks.
The reason for this steep, nearly vertical drop-off is simple, the Japanese hate cliffhanger endings in movies. They like movies that are individual units and if they feel the film is just a two-hour setup to the next installment, it will suffer at the box office.
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July 31st, 2006
First of all, I don't think there's enough geography humor in entertainment reporting, so I'm glad to help correct that with my headline.
As for the box office, there were a few surprises this week, split evenly between the good and the bad.
This did help push the overall box office down to $131 million over the weekend and that's down 13.2% from last weekend.
But more importantly that was still 6.1% higher than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date 2006 has extended its lead to 5%, well above ticket price inflation meaning for the first time since 2002 we could see growth in that area.
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July 27th, 2006
We should have a new film atop the box office charts this week with Miami Vice the odds-on favorite to finish first.
However, there are some questions regarding how well it, and the other two wide releases, will do.
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July 26th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest added another 10 markets to its international run as it again top the charts with $60.10 million on 6079 screens for a total of $214.10 million internationally. The film became the fifth film of the year to earn $200 million internationally and the third to cross $500 million worldwide. Among the host of number one openings this week were Japan at $16.65 million on 761 screens and Mexico with $5.67 million on 791 screens. Other impressive debuts include Brazil, ($3.1 million), Argentina ($1.3 million), Poland ($1.17 million), and Chile ($1.1 million). Its biggest market overall continues to be the U.K. where it added $7.19 million on 520 screens to its running tally of $58.48 million while it has topped $20 million on both Australia, ($21.68), and Russia, ($20.51). The film opens in Germany, France, and Spain in consecutive weekends before closing its international run with its Italian debut in September.
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July 24th, 2006
Every single new release missed expectations, some by huge margins, and this pushed the overall box office down 5.6% to $150 million. That figure was still 7.2% higher than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date, 2006 has earned a total of $5.27 billion and that is up 5% from 2005's but 2% below 2004's record setting run.
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July 20th, 2006
For the first time in a few weeks there's a real race for top spot on the box office charts, with a tight contest between Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Lady in the Water.
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July 19th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opened in another 17 markets over the weekend taking first place in all of them while adding $58 million on 3,336 screens. This gave it a two-week international total of $125 million and helped it become the seventh film this year to top $100 million internationally. The film's best opening of the week was in Russia where it captured 85% of the market while scoring a record-breaking $9.24 million on 552 screens over the weekend and $10.87 million in total. It also broke records in a trio of smaller markets: Singapore with $1.8 million on 65 screens, Malaysia with $1.1 million on 70 and in the Ukraine with $1 million on 125. Other multi-million dollar openings were Sweden, ($3.49 million on 127), Denmark, ($2.58 million on 85), and Netherlands, ($2.22 million on 132). Holdovers remained strong led by the U.K. at $11.14 million on 514 screens for a total of $49.23 million, but that was down 47% from its opening. On the other hand, the film was down just 32% in South Korea to $3.84 million on 396 screens over the weekend and $13.55 million in total and 37% in Australia to $5.31 million on 490 screens for a two-week total of $17.32 million.
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July 18th, 2006
Changing Times led the way on the per theatre charts this weekend.
The French film scored $31,702 in its lone theatre.
Second place went to Heading South, which saw its per theatre average decline by just 22% to $16,798.
Both Gabrielle and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were very close behind with $15,338 and $15,085 respectively while no other film made it into the $10,000 club.
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July 17th, 2006
The news was mostly good over the weekend with practically every film in the top five beating expectations, and the only one that didn't, Pirates of the Caribbean, missing by a rounding error.
However, the overall box office was still down a huge 27% from last weekend to $159 million.
More significantly, it was down 4% from the same weekend last year breaking 2006's eight-week winning streak.
Even so, strong midweek numbers allowed 2006 to stretch its lead over 2005 to a very healthy 6%.
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July 13th, 2006
There are a lot of questions about this weekend's box office; which film will finish in first place is not one of them. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will repeat as overall box office champion, but there is a question of how far it will fall during its second weekend of release. Also, the two new wide releases are tracking with nearly identical numbers and that should set up a real race for second place.
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July 12th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest started its international run with day-and-date releases in seven markets and on 1552 screens earning an astounding $46.64 million. Over half of that total came from the U.K. where it debuted in first place with $21.21 million on 514 screens over the weekend and $25.41 million in total. That was the film's only 8-figure opening, but it also did well in Australia with $8.33 million on 489 screens and New Zealand with $1.17 million on 95 screens. The film set a record for top opening for a Hollywood film in South Korea with $8.4 million on 450 screens while topping the market in Taiwan with $1.9 million on 18, Thailand with $1.4 million on 110, and an estimated $100,000 in Uruguay. In most markets the film earned double what its
predecessor made. However, if one were to look for a downside, you'd quickly notice that the film didn't break nearly as many records internationally as it did domestically. It was a top ten all-time opening in many markets, but not the colossal it was here.
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July 11th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continued its record-breaking ways on the per theater charts, earning an average of $32,817, which is the highest average ever for Saturation Level release (defined as 3,000 or more theatres).
Second place went to A Scanner Darkly; the intellectually challenging Science Fiction film started its run with nearly $400,000 in just 17 theatres for an average of $23,040. This is more than enough to ensure expansion, but probably not enough to earn much mainstream success.
The same can be said for the third place film, Heading South, and indeed last week's winner, Strangers With Candy.
The latter film saw significant expansion this week, going from just 2 theaters to 21, and its per theater average held up remarkably at $10,660.
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July 10th, 2006
We finally had a blockbuster live up to, and exceed its expectations. And with the record-destroying run of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest the total box office exploded to nearly $220 million, which was up 42% from last year and more than 46% from the same weekend last year. This total is the largest ever for a weekend breaking the previous record of $188 million, which was earned in June of 2004 when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opened. And overall, 2006's lead over 2005 grew from 3% to 5%, easily more than ticket price inflation.
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July 8th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean has sailed to a spectacular opening day of $54.5 million, according to The Numbers' estimate.
If that number holds up (never a certainty with early estimates), then Pirates will have comfortably set a new record for a single day at the box office, beating the $50,013,859 earned by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith when it opened in May last year.
Even assuming a big drop-off in box office over the weekend, Pirates looks certain to break the all-time weekend record.
That figure currently stands at $114,844,116, earned by Spider-Man back in 2002.
To give an idea of how massive Dead Man's Chest opening day was: if it continues at this pace, it would earn over $150 million over the weekend (based on a comparison with Spider-man).
That seems very unlikely, but we're truly in uncharted territory here, m'laddies, arrrrr.
(Sorry.)
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July 8th, 2006
Failure to Launch wasn't the only new DVD release to chart this week, but it was far and away the best. The film took first place with $10.42 million, which was nearly double its nearest competition.
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July 7th, 2006
After the busiest week in more than a month, we have the slowest. While there are several good sites on this week's list, they are either a bit below the award-worthy level, or they are all award winners. So the Weekly Website Award is taking a vacation this week.
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July 6th, 2006
The latest "Sure Thing" openings tomorrow.
But this Summer seven previous "Sure Things" have already come out and only one or two have actually lived up to expectations.
Both The Da Vinci Code and X-Men: The Last Stand managed to do so, more or less, but with The Da Vinci Code my expectations were somewhat lower than the industry average and its final box office is still looked at as a disappointment by many.
Will Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest break this trend, or will it be the latest victim in a summer of over-hyped misses?
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July 3rd, 2006
With what could be the biggest hit of the year opening in just a few days, how many times are we going to say that before we actually have the biggest hit of the year? Anyhoo, with
Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opening in just a few days, it is the latest film to be featured in our box office prediction contest. The rules are simple, the person who comes closest to predicting the opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday),
without going over, will win a copy of the
original movie on a
Special Edition - 3-Disc Gift Set. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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July 1st, 2006
Neither of June's potential monster hits lived up to expectations, and that's a trend that everyone hopes doesn't continue into July. There is only one real monster hit in the making this month, and it opens right away. But while the rest of the month is decidedly weaker, there are still several other movies that should earn more than $100 million.
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June 30th, 2006
It seems a lot of people are starting their holidays early, but not this column as it's the busiest it's been in more than a month. Including in this list are a few newly released teaser trailers and a handful of flash sites, most of which are worth checking out. But the best of the best is the
Running With Scissors -
Official Site.
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June 23rd, 2006
Just an average week with
You, Me and Dupree -
Official Site taking the prize for the best of the week.
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June 2nd, 2006
There were a few major updates for a few major movie sites this week, and it was one such site that walked away with the Weekly Website Award -
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -
Official Site.
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May 5th, 2006
It was not a great week when it comes to new websites with most of the really interesting updates coming in the form of new trailers. However, it was one of those sites,
Casino Royale -
Official Site, that was awarded the Weekly Website Award. I just hope when the site goes live in two weeks by Fanboy enthusiasm is rewarded.
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February 9th, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It was the busiest week in more than a month, but there weren't many big launches or massive updates, so it is the slow-growing
V For Vendetta -
Official Site that earns the Weekly Website Award.
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December 15th, 2005
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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April 19th, 2004
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section.
It was a special edition that caught my eye this week,
A League of Their Own - (
Buy from Amazon) and it is my DVD pick of the week.
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January 3rd, 2004
The New Year makes for an interesting time to look at how last year's blockbusters have affected our All Time Top Box Office Stars list.
As usual, there are some familiar names doing well, and some surprise new entries.
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