July 4th, 2015
It was a busy week in real life, with the July Preview, Canada Day, and July 4th holidays messing with schedules. Because of that, the home market numbers were late this week. However, this week's numbers will be up in the next two days, so it was a very short disruption. That said, there's not much to talk about when it comes to new releases on the home video sales charts for the week ending June 14. Sure, The Kingsman: Secret Service earned first place on the home market chart, but there was only one other new release in the top five and only a few others in the top 30. The number one release of the week sold 591,000 units and generated $10.29 million in consumer spending. This includes an opening week Blu-ray share of 51%. Anything above 50% is worth celebrating; however, the overall numbers are still lower than anticipated.
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June 8th, 2015
It is a good week, but not a great week on the home market. There's really only one major release to talk about, Kingsman: The Secret Service. It is also one of the best releases of the week and one of a trio of Pick of the Week contenders that earned between 70% and 80% positive reviews. The other two are The Duff and The Sisterhood of Night. All three are worth picking up, but the winner of the Pick of the Week title is Red Army on DVD or Blu-ray / Video on Demand.
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February 9th, 2015
As expected, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water led the way at the box office; however, it did so in a much more explosive way. In fact, its opening was in the top five for February releases. The other two new releases, Jupiter Ascending and Seventh Son, did as well as expected, more or less, but that's not really a good thing. The overall weekend box office was $152 million, which was 51% more than last weekend. Compared to the same weekend last year, 2015 actually came out ahead, albeit by 0.3% margin. This is less than ticket price inflation, so fewer tickets were sold, but I don't really care. Considering I thought 2015 would lose by close to $20 million, I will take any victory and celebrate it. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled ahead of 2014 by nearly $100 million at $1.17 billion to $1.08 billion. Again, it is too soon to judge how well 2015 will do, but being ahead by 8.8% is still worth noting.
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February 2nd, 2015
Super Bowl weekend was rough at the box office with only one film topping $10 million. That film was American Sniper, which completed the hat trick, but with less than expected. Second place went to Project Almanac, again earning less than expected, while Paddington was right behind in third place. Overall the box office fell 36% from last weekend, down to just $102 million. This is still 18% higher than the same weekend last year, so we have that to focus on. Year-to-date, 2015 has pulled in $994 million, which is 7.0% more than last year's pace of $929 million. Again, it is way too early to judge and as we saw last year, things can fall apart really quickly. That said, I will take any good news I can get.
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February 1st, 2015
With only some relatively lightweight competition, American Sniper will cruise to another weekend win, with Warner Bros. projecting a $31.85m weekend, down 51% from last weekend thanks to an expected steep decline on Super Bowl Sunday. Without the big football game, the film would most likely be down closer to 40% in its third weekend in limited release.
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January 29th, 2015
There are three wide releases coming out this weekend, sort of. Project Almanac is the only film opening truly wide this weekend and it is easily the biggest of the three releases. The other two new releases, Black or White and The Loft, are both opening in below 2,000 theaters and neither has a real shot to open in the top five. This leaves American Sniper with an easy path to first place, but perhaps the Super Bowl will be bigger competition this weekend than any of the new releases were the last two weeks. This weekend last year, both new releases struggled and Ride Along was easily able to win, but with just $12 million. 2015 is going to crush 2014 in the year-over-year comparison.
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January 23rd, 2015
Next weekend is the last weekend of the January and there are three films being dumped into theaters. Of these, Project Almanac is earning the best buzz by far, but even then I think it will struggle just to become a midlevel hit. Since the other two wide releases might miss the top five, Project Almanac is the only real choice for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Project Almanac.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of the Open Windows on Blu-ray.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a previously reviewed Blu-ray.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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January 1st, 2015
2014 is over and for the most part, December was a soft ending to a weak year. This is bad news for two reasons. Firstly, it means the overall box office is still soft and it is unlikely that January will start strong. Secondly, last January was a great month, thanks in part to Frozen and other holdovers. The slump can't last forever and Taken 3 should help 2015 get off to a reasonably fast start and it even has a shot at $100 million. American Sniper got off to a really fast start in limited release, so it too could be a hit when it expands wide. By comparison, last January was led by Ride Along, but there were only two other films that didn't completely bomb. I want to say 2015 will start out on a winning note, but given the box office losing streak, it will likely pay to be pessimistic.
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