October 29th, 2005
While Batman Begins had the best start in a long time, that wasn't enough for the video market to keep up with last year's pace.
It brought in $10.38 million in DVD rentals and $970,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $11.34 million.
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October 22nd, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven was able to capture top spot on the home market rental numbers with $7.24 million in DVD rentals and $540,000 in VHS rentals for a combined total of $7.78 million. However, while these numbers were enough for the film to finish in first place, it was still not a great start, especially when taking into account the film's massive production budget.
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October 10th, 2005
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, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section.
This week there are four first-run releases, but not one is worthy of being the DVD Pick of the Week, so again it is the TV on DVD category comes to the rescue.
Arrested Development - The Complete Second Season - Buy from Amazon is the best bet this week but Veronica Mars - The Complete First Season - Buy from Amazon is also well worth picking up.
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September 25th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 again led its native market of
South Korean with $4.81 million over the weekend and $12.78 million during its two-week run. And like
last week, this was enough for the film to secure a place in the top five overall just beating out
Pride and Prejudice.
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September 18th, 2005
Marrying the Mafia 2 is the latest local film to lead the South Korean box office as it opened with $5.555 million on 449 screens, $7.515 million including Thursday.
Not only was that easily enough for first place in its home market, but also put the film in third place on the overall international box office charts.
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September 11th, 2005
The 40-Year Old Virgin topped the U.K. marked with an impressive $3.26 million on 394 screens in the U.K., but this is probably not indicative of its potential in other international markets. The film should do well in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but will likely struggle in non-English speaking markets. (Germany may be an exception.)
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September 4th, 2005
War of the Worlds opened in its last international market over the weekend making $3.0 million on 583 screens in China. That's about 10% more money that
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned, but
War of the Worlds needed nearly double the number of screens. Overall the film added $4.5 million to its $345 million international total, easily the second best of the year so far.
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August 28th, 2005
The Skeleton Key opened in 10- more markets over the weekend and in now playing on 1400 screens, however, it still hasn't found the success the studio was hoping for. It did open in first place in Germany, but it still had a very soft opening with $1.6 million. It also opened in first place in Russia with $625,000 over the weekend and $780,000 since Thursday, but in Australia and New Zealand it had to settle for a distant second place with $760,000 and $110,000 respectively.
The Skeleton Key also open in Austria with $230,000 for the week, but its placing is unknown at the moment. Add in holdovers in France, ($250,000 for $2.2 million) and the U.K., ($130,000 for $4.5 million) and you have roughly $4 million for the weekend and $16.5 million so far.
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August 21st, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in first place in both the Czech Republic with $180,000 on 20 screens and in Slovakia with $50,000 on 8 screens. The film also remained in first place in France with $2.675 million, Belgium with $635,000, The Netherlands with $490,000 and Poland with $266,000. Strangest of all, the film stayed in second place for the fourth weekend in a row in Germany adding $2.12 million to its $20.6 million running tally in the market. Overall the film has made $143 million in markets where
Fox is handling the distribution and may have hit $200 million overall, but there's no conformation on that yet.
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August 14th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in Belgium with $1.7 million on 80 screens, easily enough for first place and had a similar result with $480,000 in Poland. It also remained in first place in France with $2.88 million, (despite falling 54% there) and in the Netherlands with $740,000. In Germany the film remained in second place for the third straight week with $3.06 million for a $17.06 million running tally. The film now have $140 million in territories where
Fox is handling the distribution and $192 million overall.
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August 7th, 2005
The Island managed a couple of first place finished over the weekend, but the results were still less than impressive. In Australia the film opened with $1.404 million for a close victory while in Hong Kong it earned a disappointing $490,000 over the weekend and $520,000 including previews. It's best market continued to be South Korea with $3.167 million, down 38% from last weekend dropping to second place along the way. On the other hand, no wide openings and a mere 23% drop-off allowed the film to rise to first in New Zealand. Overall the film added $7.64 million to its $24.1 million running tally on the international scene and will opens in several markets this weekend including the U.K., Germany and Spain.
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July 31st, 2005
Early numbers had
Mr. and Mrs. Smith taking fifth place on the overall international box office charts, but better than expected results has
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overtaking them $6.7 million to $5.4 million. It's biggest single market continues to be France where the film dipped just 6% during its second weekend there earning $3,533,857 for a $9,034,141 running tally. But it was even more impressive in Belgium where the film shot up by 68% to $400,000 for the weekend and $785,000 in total. The film also opened in first place in three markets, Brazil with $1.1 million on 200 screens, Holland with $625,000 on 124 screens, and South Africa with $275,000 on 41 screens.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has $13.3 million so far and opens in a couple of important markets this weekend, (The U.K. and Mexico.)
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May 31st, 2005
It was a good Memorial Day Long Weekend.
Good, but not great.
The four-day weekend saw $230 million in total ticket sales, 7.2% below the record $248.7 million sold last year.
The three-day weekend was even worse at $183 million, 12.5% below 2004.
Year-to-date 2005 has brought in $3.248 billion in total box office revenue, which is 5.6% behind 2004's pace.
On a positive note, weekday numbers are ahead of last year, which is mitigating the problem.
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May 27th, 2005
Ah, Memorial Day Long Weekend, the busiest weekend at the movies in the whole year. Last year nearly a quarter of a billion dollars were spent on tickets during the four days and its economic impact is even greater. More than 30 million people will check out a movie this weekend, and each and every one of those will be inundated by ads for upcoming movies, trailers, posters, standees, ads on the popcorn bucket, ads on the drinks, etc. All that advertising will be a huge boost to upcoming films and will undoubtedly help jumpstart the summer.
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May 23rd, 2005
Wow, what a difference a week makes. What could have been the slowest summer in many, many years finally turned around thanks to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The total box office was more than $160 million, up 60% from last weekend, but with the 13th week in a row there was a year-to-year decline, this time at 4.8%. Year to date, 2005 has now brought in $2.951 billion, which is 6% lower than the same time last year.
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May 18th, 2005
Summer finally begins tonight at midnight with the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which should be the biggest movie of the year. The real question is how big will the movie be?
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May 16th, 2005
Friday the 13th proved to be an unlucky omen as the box office continued its slump. We did see a massive 17.3% increase from last weekend, but more importantly 9.5% drop-off from the same time last year, which is the 12th down weekend in a row.
As for year-to-date, 2004 has brought in $2.715 billion, off 7% from the same time last year.
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May 13th, 2005
Summer is officially starting ... in 6 days. That's when Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith begins. In the meantime we have to suffer through another sub-par weekend, which could result in a record-breaking slump. On the other hand, there are four films opening wide, or at least wide enough to make it into the top ten, but only two of those films have a shot at top spot.
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May 12th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Layer Cake -
Official Site.
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May 5th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates. Slow week with most of the sites being merely average or too early in their development to tell if the film is an award winning site or not. So in the end I decided not to hand out the award to any site. Hopefully next week things will pick up.
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May 1st, 2005
May! The beginning of the lucrative Summer Box Office Season! I know what you're thinking, summer doesn't really begin till mid-June, but for the movie industry summer official begins on the Memorial Day long weekend, and just between you and me, it unofficial begins on the first full weekend of the month. So that means every weekend there's a monster release - one that has people excited since it was first announced.
This month such films include
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and ... hold on a second, I'll think of another ... Nope. That's pretty much the only monster film being released this May. Don't get me wrong, every week there's a potential $100 million hit being released, but that's nothing compared to
2003 when 4 films released in May hit $200 million and two others made $100 million.
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April 21st, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Kicking and Screaming - Official Site.
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March 10th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
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February 8th, 2005
Focus Features' specialty arm, Rogue Pictures has announced a new release date for the Jet Li action/drama Unleashed.
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