December 29th, 2011
Rise of the Planet of the Apes led the way on the Blu-ray sales chart, but with only a few new releases that managed to chart, the overall sales were weak. Planet of the Apes sold 675,000 units generating $15.59 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 49%, which was good compared to the average of the format, but weak for the genre. Last minute Christmas sales may have resulted in deeper discounts for DVDs than Blu-rays, at least as a percentage, which could be a mitigating factor.
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December 27th, 2011
Only a trio of new releases were able to reach the top 30 on this week's DVD sales chart. However, this includes the top two spots. Rise of the Planet of the Apes earned first place with 716,000 units / $13.46 million. It's opening was a little weaker than we would like to see when compared to its theatrical run, but it should be better on Blu-ray.
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December 12th, 2011
It is a surprisingly strong week on the home market with two $100 million hits, Kung Fu Panda 2 on Blu-ray Combo Pack or Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-ray, both of which are contenders for pick of the week. There are also several smaller releases that are also contenders for that title like The Guild: Season Five on DVD. But in the end, I gave that honor to Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame on Blu-ray.
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December 11th, 2011
Fright Night came out in 1985 and earned tremendously positive reviews and has a cult following. The remake was treated with a lot of trepidation, as a lot of fans of the first movie were worried this one would be a mockery. It went nowhere at the box office, but did that mean it deserved this fate? Or should it find a wider audience on the home market?
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August 29th, 2011
Hurricane Irene battered the east coast, which may have had a bigger impact at the box office than some were expecting, but at least it wasn't worst case scenario levels. The overall box office plummeted 25% to just $93 million. That wasn't the worst weekend of the year, but it came uncomfortably close. Compared to last year, the box office was down down 19%, meaning the year-to-date decline worsened. With 2011 down by 4.3% at $7.28 billion to $7.60 billion, the year is running out of time to make up the difference. If we go into the holiday season down by $320 million, it might be impossible to make up the ground, no matter how strong the Christmas releases are.
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August 22nd, 2011
Yuck. That's really all that needs to be said about the weekend box office. Outside of The Help, there are practically no positive stories to report. All four wide releases that opened this week missed expectations, some by significant margins, which led to a 20% collapse from last weekend. There was also a decline from last year, albeit by just 3%, which is actually an improvement on 2011's average. Year-to-date, 2011 is behind 2010 by just over 4% at $7.13 billion to $7.43 billion. There's little hope things will turn around next weekend.
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August 21st, 2011
Four weak debut weekends has gifted The Help a win at the box office as the historical drama posted an impressive 21% decline from last weekend to earn an estimated $20.479 million. The decline in percentage terms was helped by the fact that the film opened on a Wednesday, but it's still an impressive performance. Rise of the Apes help on to second place with $16.3 million in its third weekend, which is perhaps an even better indication of the level of disinterest in the new releases.
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August 19th, 2011
Four wide releases open this week, or three wide and one semi-wide, depending on how you define those terms. However, none of them look to be legitimate threats for top spot, as most analysts are predicting The Help will win the weekend. Rise of the Planet of the Apes has a pretty good shot at second place, so we could have the new releases battling for third place. That's kind of sad, but not without precedent. This time last year five films opened wide or semi-wide, but not a single one of them reached the teens at the box office. (Vampires Suck led the way with $12.20 million.) So there's a good chance that 2011 will come out ahead in the year-over-year comparison despite the rather weak selection of new releases.
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August 1st, 2011
It's that time of year again, the time where we try to guess when Summer ends. According to the real world, Summer ends on the 22nd of September, but in the movie business, summer ends suddenly one weekend in August, and it's never really predictable which weekend that will be. There is some reason to be optimistic, as July ended on a relatively strong note. Both films that were predicted to be monster hits, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, were monster hits. And for every potential $100 million hit that missed expectations, there was another film that topped them. If this momentum can carry forward, then perhaps summer can be extended for for one or two more weeks. August of 2010 was a good end to the Summer with two $100 million movies and a few mid-level hits. I'm not sure if 2011 will be able to replicate that performance, but Summer could end on a high note.
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