November 2nd, 2011
The winners of our Cat-Like Reflexes are Needed to Win contest were determined and they are...
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November 2nd, 2011
While the new releases were terrible on DVD, the Blu-ray sales chart was incredibly active thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. This film sold 1.71 million units and generated $48.50 million in opening week sales; however, the DVD only release doesn't come out till the 15th of November, so it is not quite fair to compare this result to other concurrent Blu-ray sales. That said, the strategy appears to have worked.
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November 1st, 2011
The top of the DVD sales chart was the weakest it's been since August, as Bad Teacher was the number one selling DVD with just 265,000 units sold and $4.71 million in opening week revenue.
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October 21st, 2011
Puss in Boots moved up a week and it should crush the competition and should earn more than the other two wide releases combined. More importantly, it is the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Puss in Boots.
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 Monte Carlo on Blu-ray.
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 Monte Carlo on Blu-ray.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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October 18th, 2011
The winners of our Prizes are Fancy Free contest were determined and they are...
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October 18th, 2011
It should be a relatively good week in terms of DVD and Blu-ray sales with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides leading the way. However, it's not a particularly deep week in terms of home market releases. Nor is it really strong when it comes to contenders for Pick of the Week. Degrassi: Season Ten is in competition, but in the end I went with Robotech: The Complete Series.
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October 17th, 2011
Monte Carlo played counter-programming to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which is not an enviable position to be in. In addition, it was aimed at teen and preteen girls, which is a target demographic that is arguably the most difficult to sell to. This certainly proved to be the case with this film, as it missed the top five during its opening and quickly disappeared from theaters. It did top its $20 million production budget domestically, so if it can find a receptive audience on the home market, it could still break even. Is this likely?
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July 11th, 2011
Transformers: Dark of the Moon led the way for the second weekend in a row and overall the top five films were a little stronger than expected, but sadly that wasn't enough for 2011 to score a win. It didn't even come close. The overall box office was just $156 million, which was 23% lower than last weekend, but the post-holiday slump mostly explains that. However, it was 19% lower than the same weekend last year and there's no excuse for that. The bad news continues as 2011 has fallen more than $500 million behind 2010's pace, while attendance is just down close to 10%. Unless Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 is an exceptional hit at the box office, the summer of 2011 could have the worst ticket sales in more than a decade.
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July 6th, 2011
There was mostly good news over the Independence Day long weekend, with the number one film topping expectations. However, while Transformers: Dark of the Moon set records, it was the only film to surpass Thursday's predictions by any serious degree. The total box office take was $202 million over three days and $241 million over four, but the lower-than-expected Monday numbers meant that, while the combined take from Friday to Sunday for all films was up 15% from last weekend and 7% from last year, over four days, 2011 was down 4% compared to last year. I think we can conclude 4th of July fireworks had a lot to do with this.
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June 30th, 2011
It's Independence Day long weekend, which is generally one of the busiest weekend of the year. School kids are all out of school for summer, adults have Monday off, and it is the perfect time to celebrate by going to an air conditioned movie theater. Unfortunately, while there's a lot of hype surrounding the megawide release of the week, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the reality might not live up to the hype. It's already off to a slow start compared to last year's number one film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and since 2011 is still $400 million behind 2010, we can't afford a major loss this weekend.
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June 28th, 2011
July starts with one of the most important holidays of the year, which is good news for the industry, as June was a little weaker than expected, at least on average. None of the films were shockingly bad at the box office, even if a few missed early predictions by significant degrees. But conversely, none really shocked analysts with their box office prowess. As such, 2011 continued to slide a little further behind 2010's pace, a trend the movie industry hopes will end this month. Fortunately, that is a reasonable goal. Last July was home to two $100 million movies, two $200 million movies, and a one $300 million movie, assuming you count The Twilight Saga: Eclipse as a July film. This time around, we could see two films top $300 million, assuming you count Transformers: Dark of the Moon as a July release. Meanwhile, there are several potential $100 million films. I count up to six films with a statistically significant shot at reaching the century mark, but I would be amazed if more than half of them got there.
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