September 8th, 2008
TV on DVD is at its peak for the year, just in time for the new season to start. However, because last season was cut short by the writers' strike, and so many studios are not taking that into account in the pricing, there are fewer releases at are contenders for DVD Pick of the Week. But we do have a worthy recipient of the award: Fist of Legend - Buy from Amazon, the latest release from Dragon Dynasty. Also, while the week was slow on top, it was busy overall, so much so that we had to split the week's list into two parts again. Part II can be found here.
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May 11th, 2004
In addition to the $51.7 million Van Helsing earned at the domestic box office, the monster movie made $55.3 million on 5,254 screens in 41 markets internationally. Not only was that easily the largest box office this weekend, but it was the best we've seen this year. Some highlights were the $9.9 million in the U.K. and $7 million in Germany. And while a $107 million opening weekend seems spectacular, this is a very expensive film to get to theatres. Combine the production budget, domestic P&A budgets, translations / dubbing / subtitles, etc. and the final cost is nearing $250 million. A strong home market will be needed before Universal sees a profit.
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May 4th, 2004
After a huge start in the international market, there was a series a steep drops for
Kill Bill: Volume 2 that all but guarantees it won't earn as much as
the original. Drops like 51% in Germany, 46% in Italy helped push the weekend total down to just $10 million in 27 markets.
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April 27th, 2004
Kill Bill: Volume 2's first foray into the foreign markets proved very profitable. The film earned $18.5 million in 21 markets and increases compared to the debut of the
original in all but one market. Many of those increases were in the double-digit range so it's an impressive start. Unfortunately, one of the largest markets for the first film, Japan, saw a huge 47% drop for Volume 2. This can easily be explained by the fact that half of Volume 1 took place in Japan.
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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 23rd, 2004
Just the two wide releases this week targeting two entirely different audiences. So we could have two break out hits this week. Then again, probably not. April started out ok, but it has really started to suffer and it doesn't look better next weekend. Summer can't start too soon.
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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 12th, 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. There was a bumper crop of smaller releases this week with half a dozen of them on the list and it is one of those,
Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed, that is my DVD pick of the week.
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January 25th, 2004
With the awards ceremony only hours away, here's one last look at the theatrical nominations for tonight's 61st annual Golden Globes awards.
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November 25th, 2003
November 18th, 2003
November 12th, 2003
November 4th, 2003
October 28th, 2003
October 24th, 2003
October 21st, 2003
October 20th, 2003
October 17th, 2003
October 13th, 2003
October 13th, 2003
October 10th, 2003
October 9th, 2003
October 2nd, 2003
September 24th, 2003
September 3rd, 2003
January 5th, 2003
