July 7th, 2010
Only a handful of new releases reached the top 30 on the sales chart this week, and none of them were able to dethrown The Book of Eli. The DVD sold an additional 291,000 units for the week to lift its total to 1.08 million units and $24.04 million in consumer spending at retail.
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June 21st, 2010
We have reached the slowest time of the year on the home market. The biggest first-run release coming out this week is Green Zone, which was a box office disappointment. The second biggest first-run release is She's Out of My League, which was also a box office disappointment, as was Remember Me. Worst still, there are very few limited releases, TV on DVD releases, or classics to make up the difference. However, many releases are worth picking up for certain target demographics, although very few that will likely sell a lot of units. For instance, Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Book 1: Collector's Edition is a must have if you don't own the series on DVD yet, but there's not enough new material to make the upgrade. Cinematic Titanic: Danger on Tiki Island continues the tradition started with MST3K, but either you love you show or you're simply not interested in the DVD. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs makes its 3D Blu-ray debut, but the number of people who have made the leap to 3D is so small that it can't really be pick of the week material. To find the Pick of the Week, I'm instead going with two films that couldn't be more dissimilar if it were a contest. Death Race 2000 and The Last Station. Both are worth owning, but in both cases the Blu-ray release is not the obvious better deal.
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June 17th, 2010
She's Out of My League represents Jay Baruchel's first starring role in a major movie, having previously had supporting roles in hits like Tropic Thunder and Knocked Up, as well as starring roles in smaller films like I'm Reed Fish. There was a real possibility that this would be his break-out hit. However, the film wasn't able to become a big hit at the box office. Was this because its stars didn't have enough drawing power, or was the film flawed in some way?
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April 18th, 2010
Date Night started its international run in sixth place with $7.05 million on 1616 screens in 34 markets. While it is playing in a large number of markets, these were mostly of the smaller variety. The largest was Australia, where it placed third with $1.99 million on 304 screens. It also placed third in Brazil with $1.02 million on 174. It managed second place in Mexico, but with only $863,000 on 305 screens.
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April 11th, 2010
Shutter Island fell to sixth place with $6.64 million on 2870 screens in 39 markets for a total of $135.53 million internationally and $258.97 million worldwide. With a debut in Japan this weekend, it could climb back into the top five. Even if it doesn't, it still has to be considered a financial success.
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March 22nd, 2010
For the third weekend in a row, Alice in Wonderland topped the chart at the box office. The number one new release was also bigger than expected. However, the rest of the chart failed to live up to expectations, which led to a total weekend of $126 million, a nearly 14% drop-off from the previous weekend. That said, this was a 20% increase from the same weekend last year, which is obviously a much more important number. Year-to-date, 2010 has pulled in $2.42 billion, 9.0% higher than the same pace last year. It's still way too early to crack open the champagne, but this is a great start.
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March 16th, 2010
The box office results were mostly fantastic over the weekend, thanks almost entirely to one film, Alice in Wonderland. The movie was able to hold on better than almost everyone predicted, but the rest of the new releases failed to connect. This resulted in a 26% drop from last weekend, as the overall market pulled in $147 million. However, this was 45% higher than the same weekend last year. Meanwhile, year-to-date 2010 has now pulled in $2.24 billion, which is nearly 9.0% higher than last year's pace.
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March 14th, 2010
Alice in Wonderland comfortably held top spot at the box office this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
In these days of 60% drops for big releases, its decline of 47% can be considered a victory for Disney and earned it an impressive $62 million in its second outing.
Its total cume to date passed $200 million, and the movie is already Tim Burton's second-highest grossing movie after 1989's Batman.
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March 11th, 2010
There are three or four new wide releases coming out this week (depending on your definition of wide) but it appears that none of them have a real shot at taking top spot away from Alice in Wonderland.
This is true despite the overwhelming majority of analysts who are predicting that the film will suffer at least a 55% drop-off this weekend. Fortunately for the box office as a whole, this should still be more than enough to keep pace with last year, even if none of the new releases match the best of last year's crop.
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March 1st, 2010
February was a stronger than expected month, for the most part, but 2010 continued to lose ground to 2009. Hopefully this trend will reverse itself, but it could be tough. Last March started with Watchmen, which earned just over $100 million at the box office. The month ended with Monsters vs. Aliens, which earned nearly $200 million. Granted, between these two releases there were a fair number of bombs, but it might be hard for this year to match last year at the top.
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