October 16th, 2012
It's a mixed week on the home market. Granted, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is coming out, which made more than $200 million domestically and should sell quite well on the home market. On the other hand, the second biggest first run release is That's My Boy, which failed to make an impact at the box office. There is also a flood of weaker releases, secondary Blu-ray releases, and Christmas releases, much of which I would consider filler. The signal to noise ratio is a little off. As for the best releases of the week, there are some great TV on DVD releases like Mad Men: Season Five and Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2. There are also some limited releases, like Moonrise Kingdom on Blu-ray Combo Pack and even some Direct-to-DVD releases, like Excision on Blu-ray. All of these were contenders for Pick of the Week. In the end I went with Mad Men: Season Five for Pick of the week, while Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2 earned Puck of the Week.
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October 13th, 2012
Everybody's Fine was one of the last films released by Miramax. It came out on the home market just as Blu-ray was taking over. However, it was only released on DVD. This week, the Blu-ray comes out, so I can update my previous review for its high definition debut. Is it worth the upgrade?
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March 19th, 2010
While there were plenty of new releases reaching the top 30 on the sales chart this week, a holdover, Law Abiding Citizen, remained in top spot. During its second week of release it sold an additional 353,000 units, lifting its total to 1.18 million units sold and $11.97 million in total sales.
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February 23rd, 2010
We're still in that no-man's land for the home market: it's way too late to take advantage of the Christmas shopping season and it's still too early for most Awards Season releases to be on shelves.
There are a few wide releases coming out this week, but only one of them, The Informant!, is worth buying on either DVD or Blu-ray. The best release of the week, and the winner of our Pick of the Week honor, is The Damned United, which is worth picking up on DVD or Blu-ray. Meanwhile, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day - Blu-ray earns the coveted and rarely-awarded Puck of the Week.
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February 20th, 2010
Miramax started in 1979 and over the years became one of the premiere distributors of independent and foreign films. In 1993 they were bought out by Disney, but remained mostly independent for more than a decade. However, while Miramax has released some of the most successful independent films of all time (including Clerks, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, etc.) their box office numbers recently started to suffer, especially after the Weinstein brothers left in 2005. Since that time, the best they've managed was No Country for Old Men. They've also produced a couple midlevel hits that played well to awards season voters like The Queen and Doubt. But for the most part, over the last five years they've had nothing but box office disappointment after box office disappointment, so much so that is came as no real surprise when Disney announced it was shutting them down. This means Everybody's Fine will be one of the last movies released under the Miramax label, barring a sale to another party. This film was a box office failure, like so many recent Miramax movies, but did the studio at least go out on a high note in terms of quality?
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December 16th, 2009
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations this week, but looking over the list of films chosen, it is hard to declare any one film as the big winner. Up in the Air did pick up six Golden Globe nominations, including several of the most prestigious nominations, but it is far from the only major player.
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December 14th, 2009
The box office was a little mixed this weekend with good news balancing the bad news. For instance, the two new releases in the top five both disappointed, but all three holdovers topped expectations.
Overall business was down 2.3% from last weekend, but up 6.0% from the same weekend last year, which is always the more important number.
Year-to-date, 2009 has now pulled in $9.79 billion, which is 8.6% higher than the same pace last year and more than $100 million more than the previous record.
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December 9th, 2009
The winners of our Everybody (Hearts) Prizes contest were determined and they are...
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December 7th, 2009
It was one of those good news / bad news weekends; however, the bad news was minor compared to the overwhelming positive stories to talk about. Yes, the overall box office plummeted 47% from last weekend to $99 million, but that was expected for a post-holiday weekend and it was still 20% higher than the same weekend last year. Also, total ticket sales for the year now sit at $9.66 billion, which is not only 8.5% higher than last year's pace, it is within a rounding error of 2007's record-setting total.
That means it is possible that 2009 has already set the record for biggest yearly box office with three weeks left in the year.
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December 6th, 2009
The Blind Side rode tremendous word of mouth to a 3rd weekend victory at the box office, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Although the movie fell nearly 50% from its Thanksgiving performance, that was better than any other movie in the top ten, and gave the drama a safe $5 million lead over second place New Moon.
Blind Side is estimated at $20.44 million for the weekend, New Moon will come in around $15.7 million.
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December 3rd, 2009
While there's no scientific basis for blaming Tryptophan for post-Thanksgiving dinner lethargy, there's ample evidence that the post-Thanksgiving weekend fills moviegoers with apathy. This weekend will be no different and despite there being four films that at least have a shot at placing in the top ten, none really have a shot at first place. That said, three of the four should top last year's number one new film and December should begin on a strong note.
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December 1st, 2009
November turned out to be a good month with more films meeting or exceeding expectations that missing.
We also saw records broken as 2009 marches closer to the all-time record, and the possibility of becoming the first year to hit $10 billion in total ticket sales growing.
It won't need that much to get there, and even if just one or two of the predicted $100 million hits this month get to that milestone, we will still finish the year by breaking records.
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November 27th, 2009
We're looking at a slow week for wide releases, with Everybody's Fine probably the widest release of the week in just 2,200 theaters.
It will definitely be the target film in this week's box office prediction contest.
In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office of Everybody's Fine.
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 Paper Heart on DVD.
Meanwhile, 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 of Paper Heart on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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