July 4th, 2012
After a run of several good weeks, it is a complete disaster on the home market this week. The best selling first run release will be... nothing. This is because there is no first run release coming out this week. According to Amazon.com, the best selling new release of the week is Midsomer Murders: Set 20, while the top ten is dominated by limited releases and Blu-ray catalogue titles. This makes choosing a Pick of the Week difficult, because there are so few prime releases. Rocko's Modern Life: Season Three is on the short list for contenders, as is The Hunter on Blu-ray. But in the end, I went with God Bless America on either DVD or Blu-ray. It's a great movie and there's a surprising number of extras on the DVD.
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July 1st, 2012
Disney's animation department had a resurgence in the late 1980s through the mid to late 1990s. However, by the time the year 2000 rolled around, they were struggling again. Digital animation was taking off and their attempts to combine 2D and 3D animation were not greeted fondly by moviegoers. Of such attempts, Treasure Planet, is arguably their biggest box office flop to date. Home on the Range was a 2D film, in fact, it was announced to be their last 2D film, but moviegoers still stayed home. This week they are both coming out on Blu-ray. Are either of them better than their box office records? Or is there a reason the films flopped?
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September 13th, 2004
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 and a few from the growing TV on DVD section, including the winner of the DVD Pick of the Week. This week was a strong week for independent films with
Baadasssss! -
Buy from Amazon, THX 1138 - The George Lucas Director's Cut -
Buy from Amazon and
Slacker - The Criterion Collection -
Buy from Amazon all coming out on DVD. All worth picking up, but if I have to limit myself to just one of them, (and after
last week's spending spree, I have to) it would be THX 1138 - The George Lucas Director's Cut -
Buy from Amazon.
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August 3rd, 2004
I, Robot first major expansion into the international markets proved very profitable for
20th Century Fox. Big openings Europe, $5 million in France and $4.7 million in Spain; Asia, $2.5 million in South Korea, $1.8 million in Taiwan; and in $1.9 million in Mexico help it earn $20.5 million over the weekend. Still early in its run, the
Sci-Fi action film has earned $29.6 million in just 17 markets so far.
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July 27th, 2004
Despite a severe, nearly 50% drop at the box office,
Spider-man 2 remained on top with $31.6 million, including a record $1.6 million in India, the biggest opening for a Hollywood film in that market. However, the news isn't all good as big drop-offs continue to plague the
Marvel web-slinger, 56% in France, 50% in the U.K. and 59% in Spain. But it is still earning immense figures thanks to record-breaking openings and should cross $600 million worldwide early in the mid-week and $300 million internationally during next weekend.
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June 1st, 2004
After a rather mediocre May, June looks a lot stronger with two films that should break $300 million. Not surprisingly, these monster hits are being released unopposed during their respective weeks. And also not surprisingly, they are being released at opposite ends of the month. The rest of the films are unlikely to make much of an impact, although a few should cross the increasingly irrelevant $100 million plateau.
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April 26th, 2004
This was a weird weekend. We had a record-breaking event when two movies opened with $20 million and that's the first time that's ever happened in April. However, the total box office was still down more than 5% from last weekend. It was up 6% from the same time last year, sort of. It's getting really confusion doing the yearly comparisons because last year April had four weekends, while this year it has five.
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April 19th, 2004
With just two movies opening wide this should have been a good week, and while the wide releases did ok, the holdovers really suffered. In the end the weekend was down 10.6% from last weekend, and even more telling was its 3.5% drop from last year. Granted, it was Easter this time last year, but it's not that important of a holiday to make a large enough difference.
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April 5th, 2004
April started like a lion, especially compared to last year. The week-to-week increase was an respectable 6.1% while the box office was up an stupendous 28.2% from last year. Year to date 2004 is now up 7% on 2003 with an excellent chance of earning an even bigger lead during the rest of the month since 2003 had a poor April.
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April 2nd, 2004
April starts out like a lion as four movies open wide, two of them are opening mega-wide, (theatre counts over 3000.) And with the box office humming along at double digit increases from last year we could see records broken this week.
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April 1st, 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,
Hellboy -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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March 28th, 2004
With summer just around the corner ... Yes I know Spring started a week ago, but this is the movie industry, we do things differently. So with Summer just around the corner it's time for the Summer Movie Preview, Part 1 - April. In April we have nearly 20 films opening wide over 5 weekends, or almost 4 per weekend. That much variety should please moviegoers, but that much competition will kill the chances of half the movies released.
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March 19th, 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,
Connie and Carla -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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March 11th, 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 Ladykillers -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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March 4th, 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 Prince & Me -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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February 19th, 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,
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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November 27th, 2003
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here's a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
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