December 2nd, 2009
As always, the Independent Spirit Awards represent the unofficial start of Awards Season with the announcement of their nominations.
This year The Last Station and Precious topped the list of nominees with five each.
For the former, it should help build buzz for its 2010 release.
For the latter, it is the first step towards possible Awards Season glory and further enhances its already lofty box office potential.
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September 15th, 2009
Just as it did on the sales chart, State of Play topped all new releases finishing first on this week's rental chart.
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September 9th, 2009
Despite an onslaught of ten new releases to reach the top 30 on the sales chart this week, and seven in the top ten, Hannah Montana the Movie remained in top spot for the second week in a row. During its second weekend of release the film sold 408,000 units to lift its total to 1.64 million after two, while it consumer spending at retail was $7.04 million for the week and $27.63 million after two.
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September 9th, 2009
There were five new release to reach the top 30 on the rental chart this week, led by a pair that took the top two spots. Duplicity came out ahead with roughly 40% more rentals than Fighting, which opened in second place.
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August 25th, 2009
As is usual this time of year, TV on DVD dominates the list of this week's releases. This includes two of the three DVD Pick of the Week contenders: Samantha Who? - Season Two and NCIS - Season Six. The best High Definition release is Adventureland on Blu-ray, while all three are worth of the DVD Pick of the Week honors. It was a pretty busy week, especially in terms of spotlight reviews, and the list had to be split into two with the first part found here.
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August 25th, 2009
As is usual this time of year, TV on DVD dominates the list of this week's releases. This includes two of the three DVD Pick of the Week contenders: Samantha Who? - Season Two and NCIS - Season Six. The best High Definition release is Adventureland on Blu-ray, while all three are worth of the DVD Pick of the Week honors. It was a pretty busy week, especially in terms of spotlight reviews, and the list had to be split into two with the second part found here.
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April 14th, 2009
Records fell over Easter weekend, as the overall box office pulled in $133 million, which was the best ever for an Easter Weekend. It was 14% lower that last weekend when Fast and Furious beat records. On the other hand, it was it was 15% higher that last Easter and 41% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2009 has earned $2.57 billion, which is 14.3% higher than the 2008's pace.
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April 7th, 2009
Fast and Furious broke records over the weekend and helped take the overall box office to $155 million.
That's 6% more than last weekend, and 62% than the same weekend last year.
Stunning.
Overall, 2009 has managed $2.57 billion, which is 14% ahead of last year's pace.
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April 5th, 2009
This is a weekend to remember for Universal, thanks to a huge opening for Fast & Furious.
The fourth movie in the action series smashed all projections with a $72.5 million opening, according to the studio's Sunday estimate, making it the biggest weekend ever in April by the small matter of $30 million (Anger Management used to hold the record with a modest-looking $42.2 million -- see full list of April weekends).
It's also Universal's biggest non-holiday opening, and the biggest weekend of the year so far.
Friday's $30 million day is the biggest day in 2009, and also a record for April (see list).
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April 4th, 2009
This was a better than average week in terms of websites with only one movie not having a site, and only one site being below average. At the top, Adventureland's Official Site had all the usual feature, plus lots of extras, and did the best job of selling me on the movie.
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April 2nd, 2009
April starts off with what could be one of the biggest openings of the year, as well as one of the best reviewed movies of the year. Sadly, these are two separate movies. Even if the top film misses expectations, it should still earn more than the combined total of last year's set of wide releases, and help 2009 maintain its record setting pace.
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April 1st, 2009
April is a transition month. At the beginning it is strong, but as we near May, the looming competition is just too great and that scares away the big-ticket releases. That said, there are still a few films that could reach the century mark this month, and it does look stronger than last April and that will help 2009 extend its lead in the box office race.
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March 1st, 2009
2009 got off to such a great start that I didn't think February would continue winning, but so far that has proven to be the case, for the most part. Now March has a great chance of continuing that run with several big hits, including three potential $100 million movies. At the beginning of the year, I didn't think there would be so many hits in March, but a high tide lifts all boats, and the more people see movies, the more trailers they see in theaters, and the more likely they are to watch the upcoming movies.
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