March 1st, 2015
There were a lot of new releases in the top 30 of the DVD sales chart. However, there were only two new releases in the top five. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day earned first place, as it sold 345,000 units and generated $5.98 million during its first week of release.
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March 1st, 2015
The Blu-ray sales chart was led by a very old new release. 101 Damlatians made its Blu-ray debut earning first place with 339,000 units / $7.69 million. This is a little lower than The Jungle Book opened with last year.
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February 11th, 2015
I can't wait till the winter blockbusters start coming out, because I've run out of ways to say, "It is a slow week on the home market." without repeating myself. There are some releases that are certainly worth picking up, like the Blu-ray debut for 101 Dalmatians, but there are also releases that I would call filler on the first page of Amazon.com's list of new releases. There are a number of releases that are worth picking, including Force Majeure (DVD or Blu-ray); Laggies (DVD or Blu-ray); Nightcrawler (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack); and Rosewater (DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack). However, the only real contender for Pick of the Week was 101 Dalmatians.
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February 5th, 2015
Alexander and the I hate movies with long names cost only $28 million to make, which is low compared to the average film. It did do well enough to become a midlevel hit, which is better than most live action kids movies. Will it also be a hit on the home market? Or did it thrive due to a lack of competition in theaters?
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October 28th, 2014
As expected, Ouija won the race for first place, but it finished on the very low end of expectations. On the other hand, John Wick beat expectations earning second place. Overall, these two results balanced out, but this still resulted in the box office falling 12% from last weekend to $116 million. More importantly, it was 13% higher than the same weekend last year. 2014 is still behind 2013, but it is chipping away at the deficit, which has fallen to under $300 million at $8.20 billion to $8.49 billion. 2014 is still behind last year's pace by 3.4%, but if it can close that gap by the same amount in November and December, then at least by the end of the year, it will have closed the gap enough to call it a spiritual victory.
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October 21st, 2014
The weekend box office was a little softer than expected, with Fury earning first place, but with much less than some were expecting. I was a little more conservative and I was still off by close to $10 million. The rest of the top five, on the whole, were also not quite as strong as expected, so the overall box office fell 11% from last weekend. However, it was 26% higher than the same weekend last year, which is the much more important figure. 2014 is still behind 2013 by more than $300 million, or 3.6%, at $8.05 billion to $8.36 billion, but if we can close the gap a little bit each week, we can at least make it a respectable race in the end.
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October 16th, 2014
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Three wide releases are trying to fight for box office dollars, including Fury, which could be the biggest hit of the month. Its reviews are excellent and the buzz is strong enough that is should have no trouble earning first place. The Book of Life is a family friendly animated horror film opening near Halloween. That should be a combination that spells box office success, but while the reviews are strong, the buzz is not as loud as I would like. Finally, there's The Best of Me, the latest from Nicholas Sparks, but I think the shine has come off his career. Its early reviews are terrible, which isn't surprising. The buzz is rather quiet, which is a little more surprising. This weekend last year, Gravity completed the hat-trick earning just over $30 million. I think Fury will top that. The best new release last year was Carrie, which earned just over $16 million earning third place in the process. It looks like there are a couple of films that will earn a similar amount this year. Additionally, the depth again appears to be better than last year, so 2014 should find itself on top of the chart, again. This is a surprise, as at the beginning of the month, it looked like 2014 would be in an extended slump by this point.
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October 14th, 2014
There were four new releases in the top ten, plus another that just missed that mark. Despite the competition, Gone Girl remained in first place and it earned a little more than expected. The biggest surprise was Dracula Untold, which earned first place on Friday and nearly took first place over the weekend. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day grabbed third place, while there were other reasons to celebrate lower on the chart as well. Overall, the box office was on par with last weekend at $147 million. It was technically higher, but by 0.2%. Compared to last year, the box office was 26% higher, which was much better than anticipated. 2014 is still well behind 2013 by more than $300 million at $7.87 billion to $8.18 million, but every little bit helps. At this point, we are more concerned about limiting the losses than we are worried about completing the comeback.
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October 12th, 2014
What was largely expected to be a fairly comfortable win for Gone Girl this weekend turned out to be a bit of a squeaker, thanks to a better-than-expected $23.46 million estimated opening for Dracula Untold. The vampire actioner won the day on Friday, but couldn’t maintain its pace, with $8.7 million on Saturday, against Gone Girl’s $11.3 million. Projections for today have it potentially falling into third place behind Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on Sunday, which doesn’t bode well for its legs long-term.
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October 11th, 2014
Dracula Untold enjoyed a better-than-expected opening day, and will top the chart for Friday. Saturday morning reports have it doing $8.9 million, well ahead of Gone Girl, which will land on $8.15 million. Dracula looks set for a weekend between $20 million and $25 million, which won’t be enough for an overall win. Gone Girl should end up between $25 million and $27 million for the weekend, down just 30% from its opening frame, and will be close to $80 million by Monday morning.
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October 9th, 2014
This weekend there are four new wide releases; however, none of them are expected to be big hits. In fact, Gone Girl is widely expected to repeat in first place, while Annabelle might have a shot at second place. Three of the new releases will likely finish in the midteens with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day currently on track to become the best of the bad bunch of new films. The Judge has taken a huge tumble as far as analysts are concerned. Dracula Untold is in the mix and might earn second place, but it might also earn fifth. Regardless, it won't do well enough for a film that cost $100 million to make. Then there's Addicted, a movie whose buzz is so quiet I forgot it was opening this week. This weekend last year, Gravity again led the way with $43.19 million, while Captain Phillips opened in second place with $25.72 million. There's no chance any film will match Gravity. In fact, the top film this week will very likely be behind Captain Phillips. On the other hand, last year only one other film earned more than $4 million, so the depth was terrible. I think the depth this week should be enough to eke out a win.
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October 3rd, 2014
It appears there will be a two-way race for top spot next weekend between The Judge and Alexander and the Movie with the Really Long Name. I'm not 100% sure which film will earn first place, but I'm absolutely choosing The Judge as the target film for this week's box office prediction contest, because I don't want to type out Alexander and the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog several times in the rules. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for The Judge.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of one of the three Perry Mason Movie Collection Double Feature from the Volume Two collection. Normally I would never take a single DVD from a collection like this and give it away, but there are two mitigating factors. Number one, they are sold separately as well as in a three-disc set. Number two, the individual DVDs are cheaper than the collections, so there's no reason to buy the collections.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy one of the three Perry Mason Movie Collection Double Feature from the Volume Two collection.
Meanwhile, one other valid entrant will be chosen and they will win the final copy of one of the three Perry Mason Movie Collection Double Feature from the Volume Two collection.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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September 30th, 2014
September is over and while it got off to a bad start, a really, really, truly terrible start, it actually ended on a bit of a strong note. Granted, no film has yet to reach $100 million, but The Maze Runner and The Equalizer both could get there in the end. As for October, we might go another month without a $100 million hit. There are a couple of films that have the potential to reach the century mark, Gone Girl and Fury. Hopefully they will get there, but given the recent box office woes, it is probably best to keep expectations low. Last October, there were two films that earned more than $100 million. Bad Grandpa just made it passed that mark. On the other hand, Gravity was a monster hit earning nearly $275 million. It you compare its run to this year's batch of films, it only ranks behind Guardians of the Galaxy. ... There's no way any film opening this month is going to match that. ... There no way the top two films will match that. ... The top three films might not match that. ... 2014 is going to get crushed in the year-over-year comparison and by the end of the month, it will be safe to say its chances of ever catching up to 2013 will be over. It is going to be a depressing month.
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