June 3rd, 2008
This was a bad week for big movies, with not a single first run release is even worth rating a solid purchase, never mind being a contender for DVD Pick of the Week. There were a few other contenders for the title, including Dirty Harry Collection on DVD or Blu-ray. However, I found it impossible to decide which format was the better deal. Had the Blu-ray provided anything more than High Definition, or been a more reasonable price compared to the DVD, it would have been an easier choice. One of them is the DVD Pick of the Week, I just don't know which one. On a side note, there is an immense flood of Blu-ray releases, including a few I thought were coming out previously.
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September 24th, 2007
The prime window for TV on DVD is closing, and the summer releases are starting to come out, so it is appropriate that the DVD Pick of the Week co-winners are one of each. This includes , Knocked Up - Unrated Collector's Edition and a belated win for Corner Gas - Season 4 - Buy from Amazon.ca.
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June 10th, 2007
With no worldwide opening this weekend, several studios tried to open / expand smaller films hoping to take advantage of the lull. Despite this influx of competition, Fracture was able to hold strong dipping just one place with sixth with $2.25 million on 1018 screens in 16 markets for a total of $22.33 million internationally. The film wasn't able to top $1 million in any single market, but came closest in France with $671,000 over the weekend for a $7.20 million running total.
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June 3rd, 2007
Spider-Man 3 earned a comfortable second place earning almost as much as the rest of the films on this list with $21.07 million on 10,365 screens in 76 markets for a total of $501.00 million. It is only the 14th film to reach that milestone while it became the 16th film to top $800 million worldwide and has already climbed into 14th place overall. The U.K. regained the lead as the best market for the film adding $2.58 million on 460 screens for a total of $61.09 million. Japan took in $2.36 million on 630 screens while France made $2.31 million on 866 screens as the only other two markets to top $2 million over the weekend and the film now has $47.79 million and $48.55 million respectively. There were a quartet of led by Brazil, ($1.29 million for the weekend and $21.55 million in total); Spain, ($1.29 million / $22.49 million); Mexico, ($1.22 million / $32.90 million); and Germany, ($1.01 million / $27.16 million).
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May 27th, 2007
Mr. Bean's Holiday fell one spot out of the top five this weekend despite showing some significant growth. The film did have a few openings, including a third place $165,000 debut on 56 screens in Turkey, but its biggest market was Germany where it grew 44% to $651,000 on 577 screens for the weekend and $22.52 million in total. Overall the film added $3.47 million on 2634 screens in 43 markets for a total of $176.19 million internationally with debuts in South Korea, Japan, and China, yet to come, (and of course it doesn't open here till August).
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May 20th, 2007
The competition is still being pushed down by Spider-Man 3 and although there were half a dozen new releases to chart this week, it was still impossible to fill out a top 30 chart with any real details. For instance, Next had no major openings and its best midlevel was a second place debut in Malaysia with $115,000 on 30 screens. However, it was still able to remain in sixth place with $2.45 million on 1347 screens in 19 markets while its running total has grown to $18.94 million.
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May 13th, 2007
With Spider-Man 3 dominating the global market last weekend, there was very little else happening on the international charts that was newsworthy. With little in the way of new releases, or even expansion for holdovers, it was impossible just to fill out a top 30 chart. And with several films expected to attempt a worldwide opening over the next couple months, it will likely be that way till mid-August.
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May 6th, 2007
300 was knocked out of the top five this week but still added $3.82 million on 3,537 screens in 52 markets for a total of $223.77 million.
The film has yet to open in Japan, but that's about it at this point and there's little hope that the movie will hit any more milestones from now until then.
However, it is already a massive hit and a huge financial boon for the studio, so everything it does earn will be pure gravy.
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March 17th, 2007
There was only three new releases to chart on the home market this week; however, they included the top rental this week, Borat. While it was absolutely no surprise that the film opened in first place, it was a bit of a surprise that it only managed $9.18 million while doing so.
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March 11th, 2007
Music and Lyrics remained in sixth place with $5.64 million on 1645 screens in 18 markets for a total of $32.01 million internationally. The film disappointed domestically, but it appears to be making up for that softness on the international scene. The film's best opening of the weekend came from South Korea where it placed second with $2.06 million on 144 screens while it also grabbed second place in Brazil with $490,000 on 140. Holdovers were led by the U.K. where the film earned $1.09 million on 364 screens during its fourth week of release for a total of $15.71 million in that market alone. That's close to a $100 million run here, taking into account the relative sizes of the two markets.
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March 10th, 2007
There was only one new release in the top five on the rentals charts this week but that new release was Stranger Than Fiction, which took first place with $6.77 million.
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March 3rd, 2007
New releases dominated the top five including taking the number one spot with Babel. Babel opened with $8.73 million, just a fraction ahead of last week's winner, The Departed, which pulled in $8.58 million during its second week of release.
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February 26th, 2007
Last night's Oscars were a interesting mix of clear favorites and surprising upsets.
There were enough surprises to keep people talking for a while while enough favorites won that most will be satisfied with the overall outcome.
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February 25th, 2007
The Oscars have all been handed out, but that's not the end of our coverage. Tune in tomorrow for more thoughts as well as next week when we look at the Oscar bounce. And later on we'll announce the winners of our contest,
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February 25th, 2007
The Blood Diamond fell from second to sixth this past weekend, mainly due to the lack of new openings. The film still pulled $8.52 million on 3409 screens in 59 markets for a total of $77.51 million and is still on pace for $100 million internationally, but that's the last milestone in its future.
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February 20th, 2007
It's not a great week for DVD releases.
While there are plenty worth talking about, few combine a high quality movie with top-notch extras.
Because of this, it was hard to pick a DVD Pick of the Week.
Sure, the two spotlight films on this week's list, Shut Up and Sing - Buy from Amazon and The Prestige - Buy from Amazon, are great, but the DVDs leave a lot to be desired.
So were the two Canadian entries, Trailer Park Boys - Buy from Amazon.ca and C.R.A.Z.Y. - Buy from Amazon.
In many ways Gandhi - Two-Disc Special Edition - Buy from Amazon was the best choice on this week's list, but I'm going with Trailer Park Boys - Buy from Amazon.ca (and I also recommend the massive box set as well).
You may call this is a result of a pro-Canada bias, and you would be right.
But at least I'm up front about it.
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February 18th, 2007
Charlotte's Web's return to the international charts was a successful one as it just missed the top five with $6.37 million on 2192 screens in 40 markets. However, its international tally of $32.57 is still a terrible result given the film's production budget, which has been estimated to be north of $100 million. The film has one strong opening this weekend as it earned second place in the U.K. with $3.69 million on 489 screens. On the other hand, the film flopped in France missing the top ten with $762,000 on 347 screens and that was for the full week. It did little better in South Korea with $872,000 on 150 screens over the weekend and $969,000 in total while scoring $218,000 on 54 screens over the weekend in Belgium and $271,000 in total.
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February 13th, 2007
Discussion about the Best Foreign Language Oscar has so far been dominated by Pan's Labyrinth, but this weekend The Lives of Others made the case that it shouldn't be ignored.
The film opened with more than $200,000 in 13 theaters for an average of $16,430.
It is still a long shot to expand beyond 100 theaters, but this is a good beginning.
In second place was the overall box office leader, Norbit, which pulled in an average of $10,904 in more than 3,000 theaters, much to the chagrin of movie critics everywhere.
Finally, last week's winner, Factory Girl placed third, earning an average of $10,872 in its 18 theaters.
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February 11th, 2007
Babel just missed the top five this past weekend and showed that
Oscar nods still meant something at the box office, at least internationally. The film added $5.16 million on 1467 screens for a total of $61.31 million so far. It was aided by a first place, $1.23 million opening on 256 screens in Russia, but that is one of the film's last significant openings.
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February 4th, 2007
For the second weekend in a row
Apocalypto earned sixth place on the international charts, this time pulling in 7.03 million on 2308 screens for a total of $47.42 million. Its best market of the weekend was Mexico where it had an easy first place finish with $2.43 million on 502 screens over the weekend and $2.66 million including previews. It was also strong during its second weekend in Spain as it was down 40% to $1.17 million on 284 screens for a total of $3.64 million.
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January 28th, 2007
Apocalypto climbed into sixth place despite dropping 13% to $6.72 million on 2072 screens for a total of $37.90 million. Its best market of the week was Spain where it opened in first place with $1.94 million on 283 screens.
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Oscar nominations were handed out today and for the most part they've followed the script written by previous awards committees fairly closely.
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January 23rd, 2007
The
Golden Globes were handed out last week, but the real winners were rewarded this weekend as the Golden Globe Bounce was in full effect.
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January 21st, 2007
The Holiday slipped out of the top five this week, but still has plenty of reason to celebrate as the film hit $100 million on the international scene. Over the weekend it added $8.16 million on 3104 screens in 45 markets to its running tally of $102.54 million. This includes Mexico where the film opened with a respectable third place earning $711,000 on 230 screens while it took fourth place in Argentina with $153,000 on 40.
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January 16th, 2007
Only two films were repeat winners on tonights
Golden Globes,
Dreamgirls with three wins and
The Queen with two. There were a few surprises along the way and some troubling signs for Oscar hopefuls.
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January 15th, 2007
Apocalypto was the best of the rest this weekend pulling in $8.3 million over the weekend for a running tally of $20 million on the international scene. Its biggest single market was the U.K. where the film opened in third place with $2.62 million on 385 screens, (including very limited previews), which was a record for a
foreign language film. It did even better in Italy with $3.17 million on 316 screens placing second. Given the film's R-rating, it should outperform its domestic total giving it a target box office of over $100 million worldwide.
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January 12th, 2007
The
Writers Guild of America is the last of the guilds to hand out nominations, which they did so this week. And while there are 20 or so categories, only two of them are theatrical.
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January 9th, 2007
Pan's Labyrinth saw its theater count more than double this past weekend, but it was still able to win the race on the Per Theater Chart with $17,359 in 44 venues.
Letters from Iwo Jima climbed to second place with $15,859, which represents a less than 10% drop-off from the weekend before.
Notes of a Scandal showed amazingly strong resilience on the chart, as it dipped just 36% to $12,100, this despite quadrupling its theater count.
Two other films just managed to top $10,000: Dreamgirls with $10,168 and Comedy of Power with $10,061.
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January 7th, 2007
Since New Years Eve fell on a Sunday this year, there was precious little in terms of international box office numbers released this week. We have some studio estimates, some box office information for major markets, and some updated totals. But for the most, there's little to share.
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January 5th, 2007
The
Screen Actors Guide handed out their nominations yesterday and of the 5 theatrical categories, there were more than a dozen films to pick up at least one nomination.
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January 4th, 2007
The
PGA announced their nominations today, two of which deal with theatrical releases.
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December 15th, 2006
Babel led the way when the
Golden Globe nominations were announced today with seven nominations while
The Departed was close behind with six.
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December 11th, 2006
Saw III slipped another spot to sixth with $4.46 million on 1518 screens in 29 markets for an international total of $54.27 million. Its best opening of the weekend came in South Korea where it placed third with $1.08 million on 144 screens, which is the last major opening for the film this year.
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December 3rd, 2006
Open Season only has a few more markets to open in and is starting to shed screens and markets; however, it sill managed sixth place with $4.08 million on 3489 screens in 49 markets for a two-month total of $76.58 million. This week the film opened in first place in both South Africa with $257,000 on 77 screens and in the Czech Republic with $79,000 on 23 screens.
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November 28th, 2006
Volver returned to the top of the per theater charts for the third time in its four week run.
Over the 3-day portion of the weekend it earned an average of $17,071 in its 30 theaters and the movie is on pace to top Talk to Her as the biggest grossing film in Pedro Almodovar's career.
Second place went to Dhoom 2: Back in Action with a very impressive average of $15,540 in 63 theaters.
Even if the film sees the usual step drop-off for niche market films, the distributor has to be happy with its run. The History Boys didn't make history, but they did earn $100,000 in 7 theaters over the weekend for an average of $14,400.
The final film to make it into the $10,000 club was Two or Three Things I Know About Her with $10,764 in its lone theater.
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November 26th, 2006
Late numbers for the international weekend meant there was a shakeup in the top five with
Saw III trading places with
The Devil Wears Prada.
Saw III took fourth with $6.54 million on 1912 screens in 20 markets for a total of $37.18 million. Meanwhile,
The Devil Wears Prada fell to sixth with $5.87 million on 2452 screens in 23 markets for a total of $172.54 million. It was also the first time in nearly two months that the film didn't place in the top five on the international box office.
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November 21st, 2006
Bobby finished on top of the Per Theater Chart this weekend after taking in nearly $70,000 in two theaters for an average of $34,520.
That was more than $10,000 above its nearest competition, Volver, which pulled in an average of $24,095 during its third week of release.
For Your Consideration placed third on the charts with an average of $16,174, which is a really good start, but still well below the average opening for Christopher Guest's previous mockumentaries.
In fourth was the first of two wide release to top $10,000 as Casino Royale scored a very impressive $11,891 in 3,434 theaters.
The re-release of Two or Three Things I Know About Her earned $11,214 in its lone theater, while Flannel Pajamas brought in $11,069, also in one theater.
Finally we have the overall box office champ, Happy Feet, with an average of $10,918.
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November 19th, 2006
Desu Noto 2, a.k.a., Death Note 2: The Last Name held on strong adding $5.12 million on 397 screens in 2 markets for a two week total of $20.85 million. In
Japan the film remained in top spot with $4.66 million on 346 screens for a two week total of $19.34 million.
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November 14th, 2006
Volver fell a tiny 14.41% during its second weekend of release while it easily won the per theater race with an average of $33,842 in five theatres.
The only other movie to top $10,000 was the overall box office leader, Borat, with an average of $11,017 in its 2,566 theaters, which is simply amazing.
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November 14th, 2006
There were four new releases opening in varying degrees of wideness this past weekend, but none of them could live up to lowered expectations.
This left the overall box office at $127 million, which was down about 2% from last weekend while up less than 1% from the same weekend last year.
That's not a large enough increase to keep up with ticket price inflation, but any good news is still welcome at this point.
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November 12th, 2006
Desu Noto 2, a.k.a., Death Note 2: The Last Name opened in two market last weekend taking in a total of $7.29 million on 393 screens including finishing first in
Japan with $6.50 million on 342 screen over the weekend and $10.33 million in total. In the mean time, the film opened in second place in South Korea with a respectable total of $1.37 million, which includes more than just the weekend, obviously.
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November 10th, 2006
With Borat beating all expectations last weekend, all eyes are on it this weekend. Can it maintain this amazing pace? Will it be able to keep its momentum as it expands? Will it suffer a major drop-off? What about the competition? Can they handle the pressure?
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November 7th, 2006
Just a trio of films in the $10,000 club, but they are managed that feat by a huge margin. Leading the way was Volver with just under $200,000 on 5 theaters for an average of $39,541. This is actually lower than the opening per theater average for Pedro Almodovar's previous two films, but his biggest opening ever. Second place went to the overall number one film, Borat with $31,607 while last week's per theater average champion, Babel, came in third with $26,264 despite a huge increase in its theater count.
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November 1st, 2006
Note: Article updated 11/18/2006 with correct budget for Harsh Times
It's that time of the month again, a time to look forward, but it is also a time to look back.
October was a stronger month than expected and, while there are a lot of reasons for that, I think one must pay particular attention to the play of Taylor Pyatt.
The departure of Anson Carter to free agency over the summer was troublesome and many felt finding a right winger for the Sedin twins was a key in maintaining or even improving upon last year's numbers.
Without good chemistry, Daniel and Henrik might have taken a step back this year.
However, with a team leading 6 goals, Taylor Pyatt is more than proving he can play with the speedy Swedes. ...
What?
Oh right, movies.
It was a pretty good month for movies as well.
November sees the beginning of the most important time of year for the movie industry.
Not only do the holidays start with Thanksgiving, but this is also the time of year that award season really heats up.
This means there is an excellent mix of blockbusters, especially family films, and critically acclaimed films hoping that first impressions are lasting impressions.
It also means there are several limited releases that could expand wide later in their run; these include Fur, Bobby, For Your Consideration and others.
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October 31st, 2006
It was a busy week on the per theater charts with five films topping $10,000 and another coming awfully close.
Leading the way was Oscar bait, Babel with nearly $400,000 in 7 theaters for an average of $55,622, which was four times the next highest earner.
That film, The Queen, earned nearly $2 million in 152 for an average of $12,560 during its fifth week of release.
Shut Up and Sing was in a virtual tie for second place with an average of $12,526 in its four theaters, while The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D wasn't that far behind with $11,409.
The final film to top $10,000 was the overall box office leader, Saw III, which managed an average of $10,613 in its 3,167 theaters.
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October 29th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Blood Diamond, Dark Materials and more.
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October 28th, 2006
There was a good selection of sites this week in terms of updates, but unlike last week there were fewer contenders for the Weekly Website Award. That's not to say
Let's Go to Prison -
Official Site didn't deserve to win, it just had a lot less competition than it would have had if it launched last week.
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October 27th, 2006
This week, among the dozen limited releases making their theatrical debuts, are four documentaries and a mockumentary.
However, it is a drama, Babel, that has the best shot at break out success.
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October 7th, 2006
Good week for websites, but most were smaller updates or new sites with just a few features. Two sites,
Happy Feet -
Official Site and
The Prestige -
Official Site, stood out above the crowd, but both will need a few more update to take home the Weekly Website Award.
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