May 11th, 2008
The release of Iron Man hit The Forbidden Kingdom knocking it into second place with $9.63 million on 2062 screens in 11 markets for a total of $40.51 million. The film had no major openings, but it did make $1.10 million on 398 screens over the weekend in South Korea for a total of $5.63 million.
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April 27th, 2008
Bienvenue Chez les Ch'its, a.k.a. Welcome to the Sticks, remained in first place in France with $4.79 million on 867 screens over the weekend for a total of $175.67 million after 8. However, it fell out of the top five internationally with $5.33 million on 963 screens in 4 markets for a total of $187.13 million. In its native market, the film has ticket sales of 19.25 million putting it about three weeks away from topping Titanic's record of 20.64 million while it is closing in on $200 million internationally. Both of those are amazing records, and the film is hardly showing signs of slowing down.
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April 20th, 2008
Nim's Island made its first push onto the international chart landing in sixth place with $4.53 million on 970 screens in 7 markets for a very early total of $5.64 million. The film opened in first place in Italy with $1.71 million on 304 screens while it expanded into fourth place in Australia with $780,000 on 196 screens over the weekend for a total of $1.69 million after two. The film also made its debut in France with $1.65 million on 399 screens, which was only enough for fifth place. Nim's Island is using a graduated release schedule and doesn't have a major opening for the rest of the month. On the other hand, it has major openings practically every month right through till the end of summer.
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April 13th, 2008
No new openings left 10,000 B.C. tumbling from second to sixth, but it still pulled in $5.83 million on 4302 screens in 61 markets for a total of $155.16 million. This is substantially more than it made stateside while it is about a week away from $250 million worldwide.
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April 6th, 2008
Step Up 2 The Streets fell more than 40% last weekend while dropping out of the top five. This was mainly due to the lack of major openings, while its holdover results were merely average. In the U.K. it was down 42% to $2.74 million on 351 screens over the weekend for a total of $11.32 million and in Australia it was down 44% to $1.31 million on 188 screens lifting its total to $5.10 million after two. Overall it added $7.38 million on 1615 screens in 27 markets for a total of $53.21 million, which was enough to lift its worldwide total to more than $100 million.
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March 23rd, 2008
No Country For Old Men remained in sixth place with $4.92 million on 1660 screens in 44 markets for a total of $68.25 million. The film ended its international run in Japan where it earned $492,000 on 41, but it missed the top ten there. Perhaps it can expand there.
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March 16th, 2008
No Country For Old Men slipped out of the top five but still added $7.07 million on 1881 screens in 47 markets for a total of $60.56 million. It is on track to top its domestic box office shortly, which would give it $150 million worldwide.
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February 25th, 2008
Like on the sales chart, there were eight new releases to chart this week, but not the same eight releases, nor did they finish in the same order. For instance, Gone, Baby, Gone topped the charts with $8.87 million.
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February 18th, 2008
There were plenty of new releases to chart this week on the rental chart, but The Game Plan remained in first place for the third week in a row with $7.41 million for the week and $26.08 million after three.
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February 11th, 2008
There were no shortage of new releases last week, but The Game Plan remained on top of the DVD sales chart with 416,000 units sold for a two-week total of 1.58 million.
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February 11th, 2008
The Game Plan repeated as champion on the rental charts this week with $8.45 million for the week and $18.67 million in total.
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February 4th, 2008
The Game Plan led all new releases and all holdovers to top this week's sales chart with 1.16 million units sold for opening week revenue just a hair shy of $20.00 million.
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February 4th, 2008
Like it did on the sales chart, the new release, The Game Plan, was able to lead all rentals with an opening of $10.22 million.
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January 22nd, 2008
More than 40 releases made it on to this week's list, however, after reviewing the whole selection, there's a real weakness at the top. There are plenty worth renting a more than a few worth picking up, but none that leap out and demand to be chosen the DVD Pick of the Week. Hopefully that will change next week.
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November 25th, 2007
Elizabeth: The Golden Age nearly reached the top five with $5.79 million on 1579 screens in 12 markets for a total of $21.80 million. This includes a first place, $1.89 million opening on 470 screens in Russia, while the film added $933,000 on 394 screens in the U.K. for a total of $8.40 million so far.
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November 18th, 2007
Stardust fell out of the top five, but still added $5.80 million on 2327 screens in 48 markets lifting its running tally to $83.50 million. Its best market remained the U.K. where it climbed a spot to second place with $2.66 million on 459 screens for a total of $23.59 million. The film has no major openings left, but $100 million internationally is still within reach.
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November 11th, 2007
Surf's Up grew by 77% in France adding $3.44 million on 628 screens over the weekend for a total of $7.36 million in total. This growth was due to the Toussaint holiday while it was enough to lift the film's weekend box office to $5.84 million on 1996 screens in 32 markets for a total of $72.34 million. The film has yet to open in Scandinavia as well as Japan and should hit $100 million internationally before it is done, which is significantly more than the $58.87 million it earned domestically, but not enough to show a profit just yet.
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November 5th, 2007
November got the box office back on track as a record-breaking opening for Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, (and for that matter, Jerry Seinfeld), helped the overall box office earn $134 million over the weekend. That's 33% higher than the last weekend, but more importantly, it was 4% more than the same weekend last year. That growth doesn't even keep up with the growth in ticket prices, (although it is extremely close), however, it does stop the six-week slid we've been experiencing and hopefully this will mean bigger business over the holidays.
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October 29th, 2007
We finally had a massive box office hit at the box office this week as Saw IV lived up to expectations. This helped the overall box office grow to $102 million, which is 6% more than last weekend. However, it was weaker than the same weekend last year by 3%, which stretches the losing streak to 6 weeks.
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October 28th, 2007
Superbad climbed into sixth place with $4.26 million on 1836 screens in 27 markets for a total of $31.79 million. Most of that growth came from Spain where the film debuted in second place with $2.24 million on 350 screens while it also opened in Brazil with $511,000 on 192 screens. The film doesn't have many major markets left to open in, but it has already earned more than most comparable films do during their entire run.
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October 25th, 2007
It's the last chance for October to make a splash at the box office.
On the one hand, Saw IV is opening, and it should be the biggest hit of the Fall so far.
On the other hand, it is tracking more weakly than Saw III, which opened this weekend last year.
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October 22nd, 2007
It's been more than a month since we've seen the weekend box office numbers top last year's figures. This time around the overall box office was $97 million, which was down 2% from last weekend and 8% from the same weekend last year. So far this fall is behind lasts year's pace by more than 6%, 10% if you are using tickets sold and not dollars. Year to date, on the other hand, is still showing a 6% growth, and up more than $400 million on last year's pace. Even ticket sales are still up a strong 1.4%, so there's no reason to panic just yet, but the recent weakness is still a cause for concern.
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October 21st, 2007
Bhool Bhulaiyaa became the latest in a long line of Indian films to strike it rich on the international box office as it scored sixth place with $4.59 million on 756 screens in 17 markets. The supernatural comedy even scored a top ten finish in Britain with $600,000 on 45 screens topping a few major Hollywood releases that week.
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October 18th, 2007
I miss September. Sure, the box office was weak, but everyone expected it to be weak so it wasn't depressing like it is now. The overall box office has been in a slump the past few weeks, and so has my prediction record. To make matters worse, there are six films opening wide, or semi-wide, which complicates matters when you are trying to predict opening weekends. This level of competition will also hurt the individual films and it is very likely that at least four of them will fail to live up to potential.
Which four those are is the question.
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October 15th, 2007
October is turning into a nightmare at the box office as all but one new release failed to reach modest expectations. The overall box office did take in $100 million, which was a health 19% increase from the last week. However, that was still 10% lower than the same weekend last year. 2007 is still up 7% from last year, but the fall season is down 5% and if things don't turn around, and soon, it could cast a gloom on the important holiday box office market.
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October 11th, 2007
September continues.
At least it feels that way at the box office.
No one film seems destined for box office glory.
For that matter, no film is opening in 2,500 or more theaters, although one film, Michael Clayton is expanding that wide. Without one powerhouse film, there's a wide-open race for first place with three films in the running.
At least that should keep people interested in the numbers.
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October 8th, 2007
September was predictable almost to the point of boredom.
However, October got off to a rather shocking, near record-breaking start.
Granted, these weren't records that studios want to break, with the overall box office fell 7% from last weekend to just $84 million. Worse yet, that was 24% lower than the same weekend last year.
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October 4th, 2007
September may be over, but the box office isn't exactly heating up.
There are three wide releases this week (or two, depending on your definition of wide), but only one has a shot at any real box office success.
And even that is rather subdued given the film's pedigree.
I don't expect things to be significantly different next weekend, or the weekend after that.
In fact, the next true hit doesn't come till November.
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October 1st, 2007
Well, that was predictable. Nearly every film finished the weekend within $1 million of Thursday's predictions, and the one that missed the mark by the biggest margin was still off by just $3 million.
On the one hand, I'm happy our predictions were accurate.
On the other hand, it makes it difficult to find something interesting to add.
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September 29th, 2007
Another slow week, but at least we have a clear contender for the Weekly Website Award. That site is The Kingdom - Official Site, which combines all the usual features with a good mix of extras as well as enough sound and animation to keep surfers interested.
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September 27th, 2007
September ends with little fanfare, but there are a couple of films that should be battling for first place.
So while no movie really has a shot at superstardom, the race for first should at least be fun to watch.
That said, the overall box office appears weak and will likely not keep pace with last year, making it two weekends in the row of year-to-year declines.
Hardly reason to panic after the strong winning streak, but something to watch.
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September 21st, 2007
The last weekend in September brings us what could be the biggest hit of the month, The Game Plan, which is also the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. To win one must simply predict the box office opening for The Game Plan.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win Grindhouse - Death Proof.
Meanwhile, to celebrate The Transformers taking to IMAX cinemas, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win Transformers Armada - Battle for the Mini-Cons.
In addition, both winners will also win Broken on DVD, which doesn't come out till Tuesday.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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September 20th, 2007
September marches on but there are signs of weakness that we haven't really seen since before summer started. The recent winning streak on a year-to-year comparison is likely over as the margin of victory was just 1% last weekend and this week's batch of new releases are much weaker than last year's were.
However, it should be noted that 2007 is already a success on many levels and it would take a real collapse during the fall for studios to become worried.
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September 1st, 2007
After a record-breaking summer, we come to the worst month of the year. There are a few films that look promising, but for the most part the month is filled with projects that should probably never been given the greenlight to begin with. September is a dumping ground for failed projects, and like most similar times of the year, it is crowded with 20 movies that at least have a shot at opening or expanding wide over a period of just four weeks. Five new releases a week is far too many, even if they were all high quality at least half will fail just due to the competition.
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August 12th, 2007
Another good week for movie sites with a few sites that either won in the past or could win in the future. This includes this weeks winner, The Brothers Solomon - Official Site.
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June 17th, 2007
There weren't as many websites on this week's list as in the past few weeks, but there were at least three that earned some consideration for the Weekly Website Award. In the end, that honor went to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Official Site.
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May 26th, 2007
Another slow week. If this keeps up I'm going to have to rethink my methodology. Not only were there not as many sites as I would like, there were none that really stood out as award-worthy. The best was Stardust - Official Site, but here I will wait for more of the content to be added before I make a final decision.
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May 20th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for The Game Plan, Prom Night, Ice Age 3 and more.
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