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.
More...
January 23rd, 2007
Business is starting to pick up again for DVD releases. It's still not up to the level of the pre-Christmas boom, or even the yearly average, but at least it's not a desolate wasteland either. There were a couple releases that were contenders for DVD Pick of the Week, but in the end I went with This Film is Not Yet Rated - Buy from Amazon, but since I work in the industry, at least tangentially, my enjoyment of the movie may have been increased somewhat.
More...
October 8th, 2005
The Longest Yard again won the race on the home market with $9.11 million in DVD rentals and $800,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $9.91 million for the week. That's down a miniscule 4% from its opening weekend and strong enough for a $20.46 million two-week total.
More...
October 1st, 2005
The Longest Yard easily won the weekly race to the top of the Rental Charts with $9.54 million in DVD rentals and $810,000 in VHS rentals for a total of $10.35 million.
More...
September 24th, 2005
Crash repeated on top of the home market this weekend despite falling 27% during its second week to $6.50 million in combined rentals. This was not a particularly strong performance and further underscores the depth of the slump we're in.
More...
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.
More...
September 12th, 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. For the first time in a long, long time there's a first run release that's worthy of being a DVD Pick of the Week -
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -
Buy from Amazon. . Granted, we've had a few films that opened with a limited release before going wide, but that film is the first wide release of the year to be chosen as a DVD Pick of the Week. Another film that should be in everyone's collection is
Ben-Hur - Four-Disc Collector's Edition -
Buy from Amazon.
More...
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.)
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
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.
More...
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.)
More...
July 24th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened in three French speaking markets over the weekend and while it didn't finish first, it still had a great start.
In France the film earned $3,741,793 in 670 theaters for the best per theater average in the top ten.
The result was similar in Belgium ($250,000) and Switzerland ($190,000), giving the film $4.2 million for the weekend.
More...
July 17th, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Smith continues its excellent run in Asia with a $2.2 million opening in 450 theatres in China. The film also added $1.8 million in South Korea for an $18 million running total in that market, (although it was pushed out of the top spot in that market. Overall the film made $4 million pushing its total to $117 million internationally and $275 million worldwide.
More...
July 10th, 2005
With the last of this summer's worldwide releases opening last weekend, the international details are once again dominated by smaller films. And to compound matters, most of those are only making noise in one of two markets. However, over the next few weeks there are plenty of big films opening in big markets and the International Details column should start showing signs of life soon.
More...
July 3rd, 2005
Summer blockbusters continue to squeeze out the competition, so much so that the only real news is about such blockbusters. For instance,
War of the Worlds managed $13.35 million during its first day of release on the international scene, which is good, but below expectations. On the other hand,
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith broke another record earning $4.96 million during its preview in Japan.
More...
June 26th, 2005
The international box office is suffering even more than the domestic box office is. In Germany the first six months of 2005 are down 14% compared to the same period in 2004 and Australia also saw double digit decline slipping by 12%. In Spain the total box office is down 8% and it was little better in France at 6%. The U.K. also fell, but at a much more reasonably 1.9%.
More...
June 15th, 2005
We have a new champion atop the International Box Office charts as
Mr. and Mrs. Smith overtook
Revenge of the Sith with $32 million on 3,600 screens in 35 markets. The film best market was the U.K. at $7.1 million on 448 screens, which was slightly below
Hitch's debut earlier in the year. In Australia it brought in $4.7 million on 356 screens, as well as $3.6 million in both Mexico and Taiwan. Other million dollar markets include Brazil, ($1.6 million on 401 screens); Hong Kong, ($1.2 million on 68) and Thailand, ($1.2 million on 250.)
More...
June 12th, 2005
The Longest Yard opened in second place in Australia with $2.5 million. On the other hand, the film could only manage $750,000 on 260 screens in Mexico, not surprising since
Adam Sandler has never been a big draw internationally, especially outside English speaking markets.
More...
June 5th, 2005
It was a slightly busier weekend as several studios were brave enough, or foolhardy enough to try and sandwich their film between the worldwide release of
Revenge of the Sith and
Batman Begins, which debuts in just 10 days. With
War of the Worlds' worldwide release just two weeks after that, there's very little room for smaller films to survive.
More...
May 29th, 2005
Revenge of the Sith dominated nearly every market it opened in and in most of them it was the only new film in the top ten. Because of this there's almost no international details to report and those details that are available are single market releases.
More...
May 17th, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven couldn't maintain its opening weekend numbers as it plummeted 49% to $27.2 million on 6700 screens in 98 markets for a two week total of $88.9 million. Had the film earned that during its first weekend of release its future would have looked rather rosy, but as it is now it was have a real hard time making back its production budget. The film's biggest market continues to be Germany, where the film fell 46% to $3.4 million on 848 screens, it fell 40% in the U.K. to $2.9 million on 446 screens and 33% in Spain to $3.3 million on 435 screens.
Kingdom of Heaven had only one opening over the weekend, a $2.4 million debut in Japan on 492 screens and only has one more opening to go in China. The film's international run is a lot closer to
Van Helsing's than
Troy's, which should result in a $150 million to $200 million international total.
More...
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.
More...
May 11th, 2005
The summer box office season got off to a decidedly ambivalent start this weekend with the nearly worldwide launch of Kingdom of Heaven; the film opened in 100 markets on 6,500 screens and pulled in a middling $53.8 million.
The obvious comparison is with fellow historical epic, Troy; that film brought in $54.7 million 6,722 screens in 47 markets in its first foray on the international scene. Kingdom of Heaven's biggest debut came in Germany where the film earned $6.4 million on 842 (including sneak peaks), while the film also did solid business in Spain ($4.9 million on 435 screens), U.K. ($4.8 million on 443), France ($4.5 million), South Korea ($4 million on 333 screens) and Italy ($3.1 million on 616).
While the film will almost assuredly repeat as international champion next weekend (there are no massive openings scheduled), the future isn't that rosy for Kingdom of Heaven. It only has two significant markets left to open in, China and Japan, and should quickly fall down the charts as more summer blockbusters hit the international markets. The film needs about $350 million worldwide to show a profit for its theatrical release, but that seems unlikely at this point. Not out of the question, just unlikely.
More...
May 9th, 2005
So much for Summer beginning during the first full weekend of May.
To say Summer started slowly is an understatement of Epic proportions.
The weekend box office was down by 3.8% on a week-to-week basis while last year saw a 7.2% increase over the same time period.
And even worse, the weekend was down 21.7% from 2004; it was also the eleventh weekend in a row that the box office saw a yearly decline, tying the old record set in 2000.
Total box office was just $87 million, the fifth weekend in a row that the box office was sub-$100 million, the longest such stretch since fall 2001.
Year-to-date, 2005's box office has hit $2.582 billion, 7% behind the same 2004 and it might not get much better next weekend.
More...
May 6th, 2005
After a long, slow Spring we're finally in the prime summer box office season. There's two conflicting forces at work this weekend, both of which are fueled by the slump the box office is in. There's a palatable sense of ennui the moviegoers have; they aren't excited about movies since there's been very little to be excited about. This will keep some of them away this weekend because they stopped paying attention to the movies and don't know what's playing. This will also mean there's a pent-up desire to see a big summertime movie and some will flock to the cinemas regardless of their interest in the particular movie. Which force wins out will have a large effect this weekend, and will impact the rest of the summer.
More...
May 4th, 2005
While XXX: State of the Union easily took top spot on the international charts, its numbers were clearly lower than anticipated. The film opened in 64 markets, finishing first in 20 of them, but its per screen average was tiny at $14.8 million on 4,800 screens.
It did have a few bright spots, mostly in Asia.
For instance, the film's best single market performance came in South Korea where it brought in $1.3 million on just 174 screens, but was still a distant second to a local flick. The film did finish first in Thailand with nearly $390,000 on 60 screens ($500,000 including sneak peaks), $240,000 from 50 in the Philippines, $225,000 on 30 in Singapore and $170,000 on 19 in Taiwan.
The rest of the film's run was nearly uniformly awful.
XXX: State of the Union finished first in Spain with $950,000 on 400 screens, which was a pyrrhic victory at best. The film managed $1.8 million in the U.K. on 493 screens finishing a distant second to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the result was the same in Australia where the film took in $930,000 on 246 screens. Worst of all, the film opened in second place in Germany with $1.19 million on 598 screens, nearly 80% lower than the original managed.
The film had similar results in Latin America, $540,000 in Mexico, off more than 75% from the original; Brazil at $360,000 lower by more than 70%, etc. No one was expecting the film to reach the same level as the original, but at this pace the film won't hit $100 million worldwide.
More...
May 2nd, 2005
It's not summer yet. Anyone who has read the May Preview knows Summer doesn't begin until the first full weekend in May, but a lot of people got caught up the in the hype and were predicting a Summer-like box office.
Even my more subdued predictions were too high, as no film was able to top expectations by more than a rounding error and both new films missed expectations by nearly $20 million combined.
That led the box office downward by 3.00% from last weekend and 13.0% from last year. Year-to-date the numbers are hardly better with 2005 behind 2004 by nearly 6% at $2.475 billion to $2.628 billion.
More...
April 29th, 2005
For the first time in a couple of weeks there's an actual race for first place between two movies that have very different target audiences.
The first is a straight up action flick targeting the prime demographic of adolescent males from 18 to 35.
The second is a quirky comedy that should have wide, across the board appeal. Combined, they should bump up the box office ahead of the lucrative summer season.
More...
April 28th, 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,
Unleashed -
Official Site.
More...
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.
More...
April 14th, 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, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants - Official Site.
More...
April 7th, 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,
Yes -
Official Site.
More...
April 1st, 2005
April gets off to a fast start with the mostly highly anticipated film of the month debuting tonight. It should win, and win big - more than doubling its nearest competitor.
More...
April 1st, 2005
April is one of the weakest months of the year because it is so close to the massive summer box office season. A film released in late April only has one or two weeks at the box office before being crushed by the competition, so studios tend to be wary of what they release at this time. On the plus side, they tend not to dump too many duds either and it doesn't take much for any of these films to please the studios since expectations are low to begin with.
More...
March 31st, 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, The Longest Yard - Official Site.
More...
March 24th, 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,
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -
Official Site.
More...
March 17th, 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, Ice Princess - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
March 3rd, 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, Tidelands - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
February 17th, 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 a few updates, including this week's winner, Sin City - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
February 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,
The Jacket -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
January 20th, 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,
Fantastic Four -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
December 16th, 2004
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
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site and all subsidiaries. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
November 24th, 2004
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
Christmas with the Kranks -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
November 18th, 2004
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
Electra -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
September 16th, 2004
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
Shaun of the Dead -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
September 2nd, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
The Spongebob Squarepants Movie -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
August 26th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site, which won also for
CountOlaf.com. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
August 5th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Saints and Soldiers. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
July 29th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
The Manchurian Candidate -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
June 24th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Suspect Zero -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
June 10th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Garfield -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
June 3rd, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Two Brothers -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
May 27th, 2004
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 the winner for the week,
Baadasssss! -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
May 20th, 2004
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. It was another deceptively slow week as there are lots of site on the list, but none stood out as an award winning site. Many were simple placeholders, others had just minor updates, and the only three flash sites to launch were mostly marked coming soon. I was even tempted to not give out an award or maybe even bring in a
ringer. But in the end I went with
The Incredibles -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
