July 19th, 2011
New releases were dead on arrival on this week's DVD sales chart. None reached the top five, while only three reached the top 30. This left Sucker Punch in top spot, but with only 105,000 units / $1.58 million units for the week giving it totals of 381,000 units / $5.71 million after two.
More...
July 12th, 2011
While it's not common for a box set to lead the way on the Blu-ray sales chart, it is also no real surprise that Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition Trilogy managed to do just that, as it was clearly the biggest new release of the week. It took top spot with sales of 336,000 units, and thanks to its premium pricing, it generated $25.21 million in opening week consumer spending.
More...
July 7th, 2011
The Adjustment Bureau led the way on this week's Blu-ray sales chart, but with just a fraction of last week's winning total. It sold 122,000 units and generated $2.87 million in consumer spending, which is very low for the number one film. However, its Blu-ray ratio was 35%, which is good for this type of film. (At its heart it is a romance, with a slice of science fiction thrown in.)
More...
July 6th, 2011
Several new DVD releases charted this week, and new releases even earned the top three spots on the chart. However, sales were very weak and they only placed that well due to the lack of substantial competition. The number one film on this week's DVD sales chart was Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Rodick Rules with just 255,000 units sold and $5.01 million in opening week consumer spending at retail. To put this into perspective, that's on par with the original film's second week on the home market.
More...
June 21st, 2011
It's another busy week for DVD / Blu-ray with four first-run releases coming out this week. Five if you include Cedar Rapids, which was had surprisingly brisk ticket sales in limited release. Cedar Rapids is also the only one of the big releases that I would consider for Pick of the Week honors. Despite the number of wide releases on this week's list, I'm going with an unorthodox choice for Pick of the Week, "Weird Al" Yankovic - Alpocalypse, but Louie: Season One on Blu-ray earns an honorable mention.
More...
March 23rd, 2011
The international box office is as weak as the domestic box office is with very few films worth talking about. We do have a new number one, as Battle: Los Angeles earned first place with $28.74 million on 8,384 screens in 52 markets for a running tally of $51.70 million after just two weeks of release. The film debuted in first place in Australia with $2.58 million on 328 screens, while it also placed first during its debut in Brazil with $1.51 million on 263 screens. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place in France with $2.07 million on 295 screens. The number one film was a local hit, so there is a mitigating factor. As for its long-term chances, it was down 51% in the U.K. to $1.42 million on 417 screens over the weekend for a total of $5.61 million after two. This is not a great start there and will likely ends its run with the equivalent of $50 million to $60 million here.
More...
February 28th, 2011
February ended in the same position it has been for nearly the entire year, on the losing end of the comparison to 2010. The post-holiday drop-off was steep at 25% leaving the weekend box office at just $109 million. This was 9% lower than the same weekend last year. Normally, a 9% drop-off year-over-year would be devastating, but that's actually better than 2011 has averaged so far. Year-to-date it is now 21% lower than 2010's pace at $1.53 billion to $1.93 billion.
More...
February 24th, 2011
It's the end of the month and considering how poorly the year has started, for a lot of people it's good riddance. We are coming off of the first win in several months, but that streak could be over before it really starts. Firstly, the win was mainly due to President's Day long weekend coming a week later than it did last year. Secondly, the two films coming out this week are rather weak. The only good news is that this time last year wasn't exactly big at the box office either.
More...
February 22nd, 2011
It was a good news / bad news situation this weekend as a number of films missed expectations. However, the overall box office was still enough for 2011 to secure its first win, topping last year's box office $145 million to $134 million. Granted, this is not exactly a fair comparison, as it was President's Day long weekend this year and it wasn't last year, but when you've had a 14-week losing streak, you will take any win that you can. Year-to-date, 2011 is still behind 2010's pace by nearly $400 million at $1.39 billion to $1.78 billion and there's little you can do to spin that into a positive.
More...
February 17th, 2011
We need a win. It has been more than three months since we've seen a victory in the year-over-year comparison, and with last year's Alice in Wonderland looming ahead on the comparisons, if we don't get a win soon, we might not get one for another couple of months. There is some good news this weekend. It's President's Day long weekend, which actually happened one weekend earlier last year. This means we have a holiday weekend this year going up against the post-holiday weekend from last year. Granted, Shutter Island opened with more than $40 million and I don't think any film will repeat that feat this year. However, last year's second place film, Valentine's Day made under $17 million, and each of the top five films this year could make that much. In order words, depth could be the key to the first victory of the year.
More...
February 1st, 2011
January got off to about as bad a start as I feared, and already 2011 is behind 2010 by about $275 million. Even worse, last February was better than expected. Not only did Avatar add another $200 million to its coffers during the month, the new releases collectively topped expectations every week (even if some individual releases failed to do so). What does this mean going forward? It means 2011 will likely continue to lose ground on 2010. By the time March rolls around, the only thing box office watchers will be talking about is the slump.
More...