November 22nd, 2010
This Friday is Black Friday, but there's a lull on the home market with not a whole lot of great releases.
(This is the usual pattern for Thanksgiving.)
The biggest hit coming out is The Expendables, which should top the chart, while there are a number of smaller releases that are in contention for Pick of the Week. The best of these is Metropolis: The Complete Metropolis, which comes out on Blu-ray this week after being released on DVD last week.
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February 3rd, 2007
It was good news / bad news for
Saw III. Good news: Not only was it the best
new release it also top the overall rental charts with $7.62 million. Bad news: That was down significantly from
Saw II's debut
last year.
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January 27th, 2007
New releases dominated both charts on the home market with
Employee of the Month taking top spot on the rental charts with just $5.31 million during its first week of release.
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January 20th, 2007
There were plenty of
new releases this week, but all but two missed the top 10. However, those two DVDs finished one-two on the charts.
Crank topped
The Illusionist $6.09 million to $5.59 million.
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January 8th, 2007
It's a strange week for DVD releases. On the one hand, there's not a big selection of releases coming out this week. On the other hand, half the ones on this list are worth adding to your DVD collection.
Back to the original hand, none are really worthy of DVD Pick of the Week. Idiocracy - Buy from Amazon is a good movie, but has no where near the extras needed.
The Illusionist - Buy from Amazon comes close but still falls just short.
MI-5 - Volume 4 - Buy from Amazon is a great package, but at a price that will scare off casual fans.
In the end, while I rated a lot of DVDs as buys, none are worth the DVD Pick of the Week.
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October 22nd, 2006
The
German soccer film, Deutschland. Ein Sommermarchen, remained in first place in Germany and sixth overall this weekend. It managed this feat by falling just 25% to $5.41 million on 671 screens for a two-week total of $14.67 million.
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October 1st, 2006
Ye Yan, a.k.a., The Banquet opened in third place in South Korea with $1.04 million on 183 screens over the weekend and $1.24 million in total. That helped the
Chinese film place sixth overall with $5.52 million on 734 screens in 6 markets lifting its international total to $15.94 million, which is just above its production budget.
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September 12th, 2006
The second weekend in September is quite often the slowest weekend of the year, and that appears to be the case here. Overall the total box office was a mere $71 million.
To put that into perspective, if that was earned by just one film this weekend, it would only place fourth on the list of 2006's biggest openings.
Needless to say, the overall box office was down this weekend, by a massive 31.3% from the last weekend.
Compared to the same weekend last year the decline was smaller at 18.2%, but that was a more devastating result in the overall scheme of things.
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September 10th, 2006
No new openings left
Garfield's A Tail of Two Kitties down 40% to $5.87 million on 3779 screens in 32 markets for a total of $90.08 million. It was reported that the film broke a record for an
animated film in China with $6.7 million putting it ahead of
The Lion King, which is a strange thing to report since the movie isn't
animated. Sure, it has a
CG lead, but that's not the same. As for the film's prospects for the future, hitting $100 million internationally is academic at this point and with several openings to go, including previews in Australia this weekend, the film could finish with close to the $125 million earned by the
original.
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September 6th, 2006
Labor Day long weekend is the official end of the movie summer season and this year it ended on a high note. While the 3-day total was 1.4% lower than last weekend, the $102 million it earned was 8.7% better than the same weekend last year. Adding in Monday and the box office reached $129 million, up 9.2% from last year.
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September 4th, 2006
It's the Labor Day today, which means there will be a one day delay in a few regular columns including the weekend wrap up and the per theatre charts. The DVD release column will be published late tonight, very late tonight. Perhaps even in the early morning hours of tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the studio estimates for the weekend numbers...
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September 2nd, 2006
Another busy week with plenty of top-notch films to chose from In the end, however, it was a two-way race between
The Black Dahlia -
Official Site and
Stranger than Fiction -
Official Site with the former site winning out by a narrow margin.
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September 1st, 2006
I've said it before and I'll say it again, September is the worst month of the year for movies.
Not only are there usually very few hits released at this time of year, but the average is dragged way down by the large number of movies simply dumped on the market.
This year the September dumping ground doesn't look quite as bad as years past.
In fact, several low-level hits and maybe even an Oscar contender are opening wide.
However, those few bright spots will be buried due to the sheer number of releases -- an average of 3 and a half films are opening wide each week.
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September 1st, 2006
It's the Labor Day weekend, the weakest long weekend in the movie business.
There are a trio of new releases trying to take on Invincible's undefeated record (current winning streak: 1), but the odds of there being a new winner this weekend are 50 / 50.
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August 28th, 2006
It's the Labor Day Long Weekend, but out box office predictions contest won't be taking a holiday. This week we ask you to predict the opening 3-day weekend of
Crank. Whoever comes closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday),
without going over, will win
When Do We Eat? on
DVD. While whoever comes closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday),
without going under, will win
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Original Series - Volume 5. Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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August 4th, 2006
Third week in a row where the number of sites featured on this list has topped 30. With such a busy week it would take something different to win the award, and that's something
Michel Gondry excels at delivering giving
The Science of Sleep -
Official Site the Weekly Website Award.
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July 28th, 2006
Another big week for movie sites with several excellent entries. In this crowded field there were a lot of sites that showed promise and could be just one big update away from winning the award. But this week the best of the best was
World Trade Center -
Official Site. Let's hope that the movie can live up to the site.
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July 21st, 2006
Another busy week, but unlike last week there was no massive blockbuster launching its flash site. Two sites stood out this week, (not counting past winners), and they are wildly different both in terms of style and in terms of the movie they are selling:
Accepted -
Official Site and
World Trade Center -
Official Site. The former is goofy and seriously immature, while the latter is one of the most emotional sites I've ever seen. In was nearly a coin flip, but in the end I went with
Accepted -
Official Site, but I would be willing to bet the other site will win before the movie comes out.
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June 30th, 2006
It seems a lot of people are starting their holidays early, but not this column as it's the busiest it's been in more than a month. Including in this list are a few newly released teaser trailers and a handful of flash sites, most of which are worth checking out. But the best of the best is the
Running With Scissors -
Official Site.
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