November 26th, 2010
This weekend is Thanksgiving and that means Black Friday and Cyber Monday plus 48 hours of shopping in between. Personally, I've done my Christmas shopping, and I have been for weeks; in fact, I've even finished wrapping everything. For the rest of you, here is the first part in our annual Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will look at some of the major first-run releases, but we start with a short talk on...
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November 23rd, 2010
Toy Story 3 remained on top of the sales chart this week with 934,000 units / $16.53 million for the week and 4.79 million units and $89.63 million after two. It is now the fourth-best-selling DVD of 2010 in terms of units and dollars, while it could climb another spot by the time Black Friday is over.
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November 8th, 2010
It's a week of box office disappointments on the home market with Charlie St. Cloud, Ramona and Beezus, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World coming out. (There is one box office hit coming out this week, but given its reviews, the less said the better.) However, while none of them really found audiences during their theatrical releases, two of the three earned excellent reviews, and Scott Pilgrim's Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack is worthy of the Pick of the Week honors.
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November 7th, 2010
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World began its life is Scott Pilgrim, an independent comic back in 2004. This comic book, and the other volumes that followed, earned high praise and a number of awards. So when it was being turned into a movie, with Edgar Wright at the helm, there was a lot of excitement, especially online. However, as it has been shown in the past, online chatter doesn't translate into box office success, and the film struggled to find an audience during its theatrical run. Now that it is coming out on the home market, is it worth checking out? And has the studio given us a Blu-ray worth picking up, or are they cutting their losses.
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August 23rd, 2010
If it wasn't for The Expendables, there would be very little good news to report this weekend. None of the five new releases were major hits at the box office, but on the other hand, none were complete bombs either and even the weakest of them had some reason for optimism. The overall box office was down 11% from last weekend to $128 million, but that was close to 1% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2010 has a $300 million lead on 2009 at $7.36 billion to $7.05 billion.
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August 18th, 2010
The winners of our Scott Pilgram vs. You contest were determined and they are...
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August 16th, 2010
Two of the three wide releases that opened this past weekend were able to score at the box office and that was enough to lift the total box office to $144 million. This was 8% higher than last weekend and 1% higher than the same weekend last year. Granted, that 1% improvement is well below the rate of inflation, but a win is a win. Year-to-date, 2010 has earned $7.15 billion compared to 2009's pace of $6.85 billion. As we transition into fall, we are in an excellent position to top $10 billion for the second year in a row and set yet another record. Granted, the lack of a Avatar-like megahit coming out could be an issue, but I think 2010 has built up enough of a lead that it won't prevent the yearly box office from reaching 10 digits.
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August 12th, 2010
There are three wide releases this week, but fortunately they are all aimed at widely different audiences, which means they might all reach their potential.
However, that potential might not be enough for the market as a whole to keep pace with last year.
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August 5th, 2010
While there are three wide releases next weekend and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World appears to be the one opening in the fewest theaters, it is the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. Why? Because we have Scott Pilgram prizes. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World T-shirt and a hat. (It's a red T-shirt with the full full Scott Pilgrim logo.)
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a different Scott Pilgrim vs. The World T-shirt and a hat. (It's a black ladies with the lighting Bomb logo.)
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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August 1st, 2010
July started out rather well, and while there was a little weakness in the end, four films surpassed $100 million, and another could join them soon.
That said, there don't appear to be any $100 million movies opening in August; in fact, there is a chance none will come close.
Worse still, August of last year saw three $100 million movies open in the first three weeks.
There's almost no chance that will happen this year, so 2010 will likely lose ground to 2009 in the yearly box office race.
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