November 30th, 2010
It was a rather slow week for new releases, as none topped 1 million units, but they still managed top two spots on this week's sales chart. Disney's A Christmas Carol opened in first place with 989,000 units / $16.81 million in consumer spending at retail, while The Last Airbender was second in terms of units sold with 751,000, but fourth in terms of dollars with $12.76 million.
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November 23rd, 2010
Toy Story 3 remained on top of the sales chart this week with 934,000 units / $16.53 million for the week and 4.79 million units and $89.63 million after two. It is now the fourth-best-selling DVD of 2010 in terms of units and dollars, while it could climb another spot by the time Black Friday is over.
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November 8th, 2010
It's a week of box office disappointments on the home market with Charlie St. Cloud, Ramona and Beezus, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World coming out. (There is one box office hit coming out this week, but given its reviews, the less said the better.) However, while none of them really found audiences during their theatrical releases, two of the three earned excellent reviews, and Scott Pilgrim's Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack is worthy of the Pick of the Week honors.
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September 29th, 2010
Another week, another milestone for Resident Evil: Afterlife, this time crossing $200 million worldwide, which makes it the first in the franchise to do so. Over the weekend it led the international box office with $25.20 million on 6519 screens in 55 markets for a total of $154.71 million internationally and $206.78 million worldwide. It managed top spot during its debut in France with $2.96 million on 408 screens, but that's below average for its run so far. Meanwhile, it added $2.87 million on 633 screens in Japan for a total of $38.51 million after three weeks of release there. That's almost as much as Inception has made in that market, and its been there for ten weeks.
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September 8th, 2010
It was a busy week for Inception, as it rose to top spot on the international chart and crossed two major milestones in the process: $400 million internationally and $700 million worldwide. Over the weekend, it earned $21.00 million on 7,785 screens in 61 markets for a total of $425.15 million internationally and $702.30 million worldwide. Much of this was due to its debut in China, where it placed first with $13.6 million. It has yet to open in Italy, but it will likely start falling off at an accelerated pace from now till its premiere in that market at the end of the month.
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September 1st, 2010
The Expendables held on to top spot on the international chart with $24.70 million on 4823 screens in 38 markets for a total of $101.46 million after just three weeks of release. It had a few openings over the weekend, most notably in Germany where it placed third with $2.94 million on 531 screens. Meanwhile, it fell from first to fourth in the U.K., but still added $2.02 million on 453 screens over the weekend for a total of $10.52 million after two. With openings in Italy and Japan ahead, the film will have no trouble getting to $250 million worldwide, which is more than enough to ensure a profit.
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August 25th, 2010
Powered by openings in a trio of major markets, The Expendables climbed into top spot with $35.49 million on 4501 screens in 30 markets for a still early international total of $60.30 million. At this point, reaching $100 million internationally and $200 million worldwide is practically a given. The film's best opening of the weekend came from the U.K. where it debuted in the top spot with $6.08 million on 453 screens, while it was also triumphant in France with $4.75 million on 445 screens. On the other hand, it had to settle for fifth place in South Korea with $1.25 million on 298 screens over the weekend and $1.52 million in total. Next up for the film is Germany this weekend, while it opens in Italy next month and in Japan in October.
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August 18th, 2010
As the summer blockbuster season comes to a close, there are few major releases in theaters worldwide. Regardless, there are still a few major milestones being reached, and a few more to come. For instance, Inception maintained its hold in first place with $35.51 million on 6879 screens, in 61 markets, for a total of $320.44 million internationally. It also reached a major milestone worldwide with $568.91 million, making it just one of 78 films to reach $500 million. It is still going strong in a number of major markets, including Spain, where it remained in first place with $2.72 million on 497 screens over the weekend, for a total of $10.15 million after two. It was down just 22% in Brazil adding $1.56 million on 292 screens over the weekend and $4.43 million after two. Its best market overall is the U.K. where it has made $45.53 million after a month of release, including $2.62 million on 472 screens this past weekend. By this time next week, it should have $600 million worldwide, with $700 million becoming a lot more likely.
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August 11th, 2010
Inception remained in top spot on the international box office, with $47.70 million on 7287 screens in 59 markets for a total of $259.27 million internationally and $486.90 million worldwide. It won't have to wait till the weekend to get to $500 million. It opened in first place in Spain with $4.55 million on 491 screens, but had to settle for second place in Brazil with $2.03 million on 313. It also added $3.83 million on 418 screens over the weekend in Australia for a total of $20.64 million after three. While in the U.K., it made $3.60 million on 468 screens over the weekend for a total of $41.02 million after four. With openings in China and Italy ahead of it, $600 million worldwide is virtually guaranteed, while $700 million isn't out of the question.
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August 8th, 2010
Over the past weekend, Toy Story 3 fell to second place on the international chart with $38.69 million on 7806 screens in 42 markets. However, it rose to second place for 2010 on the international chart with $436.65 million overtaking Shrek Forever After. The only 2010 release that has made more internationally is Alice in Wonderland. Worldwide it now has $826.41 million and it has very likely already surpassed Finding Nemo to become Pixar's biggest hit. The film's only major release of the week came in Germany over the weekend, where it made $4.03 million on 740 screens, bringing the total to $4.35 million. While this is a good result, its not great, and prior to this the film had been doing great. It also remained in the top spot in the U.K. over the weekend, with $12.81 million on 564 screens, for a two week total of $62.82 million. It has likely overtaken Alice in Wonderland to become the biggest hit of 2010 released in that market. As for the film's future, it has yet to open in South Korea and Scandinavia. If it does well in those markets, $1 billion worldwide is still within reach.
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August 1st, 2010
After opening in a few markets last weekend, Inception got its international run off in earnest last weekend and climbed into second place with $56.78 million on 5,177 screens in 36 markets for a still early total of $87.86 million.
It opened in a number of major markets and debuted in first place in most of them.
The biggest was Japan with $7.86 million on 525 screens over the weekend and $8.94 million in total.
France was also a lucrative market for the film with $8.01 million on 626 screens, while in South Korea it made $6.01 million on 583 screens over the weekend and $7.89 million in total.
Russia added $7.08 million on 895 screens to its weekend haul, while Australia produced $6.67 million on 413.
The film only managed seventh in Mexico with just $467,000 on 152 screens, but this was a low screen count.
In the U.K. the film was down just 29% to $6.47 million on 456 screens over the weekend for a total of $22.01 after two.
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July 25th, 2010
An impressive second weekend hold by Inception will give it a relatively comfortable win this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
With a decline of just 31%, Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller will end up with around $43.5 million, according to Warner Bros., $7 million ahead of Salt, which is set to open with about $36.5 million.
Both movies topped a per theater average of $10,000, and Sony won't be too disappointed with second place.
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July 11th, 2010
The long wait for an out and out hit is over for Universal this weekend, thanks to a great opening weekend for Despicable Me.
The kids comedy had been getting good reviews, and benefited from a great marketing campaign, but was going head-to-head with Toy Story 3, and had to fight for every screen (2D and 3D) that it played on.
So the studio will be delighted with its estimated $60.1 million opening.
With good word-of-mouth, the film can set its sights on $200 million, and strong video revenues to come.
With a production budget of $69 million, the studio will be reaping big profits on this one.
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July 6th, 2010
Independence Day long weekend may not have seen as many records fall as some were hoping, but every film in the top five topped expectations (albeit by tiny margins in some cases). Overall the box office pulled in $188 million over the three-day weekend, which was an increase of 15% from last weekend, and $250 million over the four-day weekend, which was up 16% from last year. Year-to-date, 2010 has now amassed $5.66 million in ticket sales, up close to 4% from last year's pace. Higher ticket prices for 3D movies does have something to do with that, but I think the studios should still be happy with these results.
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July 4th, 2010
Knight and Day started its international run in second place with $12.42 million on 2241 screens in 12 markets. It opened in first place in Russia with $3.33 million on 949 screens, while it also took top spot in South Korea with $3.04 million on 565 screens over the weekend and $3.76 million in total. Next up for the film is the U.K. this weekend, while it has major market openings right till October when it debuts in Japan.
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July 1st, 2010
Yesterday was the first of July, Canada Day! It was also the start of the CFL season. ... Oh yeah, and apparently there's a holiday in the United States. On a serious note, the Independence Day long weekend is usually the second most lucrative weekend of the year (only the Memorial Day long weekend tops it). The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will dominate the box office having already set a few records, while it isn't the only film that should pull in big bucks over the next four days. The overall box office should top last year's totals, even with the front-loaded nature of the top film.
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June 29th, 2010
Restrepo opened in top spot on the per theater chart with an average of $17,791 in two theaters. This was just a hair above Cyrus' average of $17,719 during its second weekend of release. Further expansion is all but assured, as are at least a couple of earning milestones. Toy Story 3 remained in top spot on the overall chart, earning an average of $14,731. Meanwhile, a fellow wide release, Grown Ups, was the only other film in the $10,000 club, opening with an average of $11,462.
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June 28th, 2010
It was no surprise that Toy Story 3 was able to remain on top of the box office chart for the second weekend in a row. Also, the new releases combined did about as well as expected. Unfortunately, "as well as expected" still left the box office down 17% from last weekend at $165 million. Coincidentally, it was also down 17% from last year. 2010 is still leading 2009, but its margin is slipping and, as of the end of the weekend, it is just 2.1% ahead at $5.22 billion to $5.11 billion.
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June 27th, 2010
As expected, Toy Story 3 won a second straight weekend at the box office, and its decline of 47% wasn't bad for a movie that opened with over $100 million -- in fact, it's slightly better than WALL-E managed in its second weekend.
The story of the weekend, however, is the $41 million opening for the critically mauled Grown Ups, which showed that Adam Sandler and gang still have an impressively loyal following.
The day-by-day performance of the movie doesn't look particularly strong though, and the weekend estimate might prove to be a little optimistic.
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June 24th, 2010
Two new wide releases look to unseat Toy Story 3 this weekend, including one that got its start on Wednesday.
There's good news, at least for Pixar, as it appears Toy Story 3 will walk away with the win.
There's bad news for the industry, as it appears both new releases could struggle to match earlier expectations.
And then there's the ugly news.
This time last year saw the release of Revenge of the Fallen, so the year-over-year comparison could be... well... ugly.
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June 1st, 2010
So far this summer the disappointments are outnumbering the pleasant surprises by a disturbing margin. Granted, we've only just finished May, but none of the May wide releases met expectations. None. Iron Man 2 was still a massive hit, but no film since then has come close to matching its box office prowess and we are coming close to hitting the panic button at the box office. Worse still, June of 2009 was better than expected with two massive hits that came out of nowhere. Plus, there was the release of the Revenge of the Fallen, which for much of the year looked like it would be the biggest hit of 2009. So, do we have any films likely to do as well as Revenge this June? Maybe. And hopefully we will have more depth, because outside those three films, the rest of June 2009 struggled.
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