April 13th, 2011
Did summer start already? I ask because we have a summer-like result at the international box office this weekend. Rio crushed the competition with $54.94 million on 11,714 screens in 45 markets. Opening on more than 10,000 screens is usually a feat reserved for summer blockbusters. The film earned first place in nearly every market, although its individual results did vary considerably. For instance, it was stunning in Russia earning $9.28 million on 1,297 screens over the weekend for a total of $11.31 million. Perhaps more impressively, the film earned $8.77 million on 1,024 screens in Brazil. While Brazil is a very large country, it's still an emerging market and this is a great result there. The film was also strong in Mexico with $4.90 million on 1,521. On the other hand, it was more average in a number of other major markets. For instance, it earned $2.63 million on 724 screens in Germany, which is mediocre for a potential blockbuster. The same was true in the U.K. with $2.48 million on 522, in Australia with $2.42 million on 459, and in Spain with $2.21 million on 390.
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February 23rd, 2011
Due to a mixture of weak holdovers and depth in the new releases, we had seven DVDs debut in the top 30 sales chart this week. This includes a new number one, For Colored Girls, which sold 517,000 units and generated $8.41 million in consumer spending at retail.
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February 15th, 2011
Overall, new releases were rather weak, but we did see four films reach the top 30 on the sales chart this week, including a new number one. That film was Beverly Hill Chihuahua 2, which sold 712,000 units, generating $10.67 million in opening week revenue. Granted, this was half as many sales as the original, but that was a theatrical release and this was direct-to-DVD, so I think Disney has to be very happy with this release. In fact, they might be thinking franchise.
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February 8th, 2011
Among the new releases to reach the top 30 on the sales chart this week, there were two that were in a relatively close race for first place. At least it was close compared to the third place film. Coming out on top was Red with 1.12 million units sold for $15.07 million in opening week consumer spending.
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January 24th, 2011
It's bit of an oddball week on the home market. There are four first-run releases, if you include The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Granted, that film was a limited release, but it did earn more than $5 million, and it appears to be selling quite well, especially for a foreign language film. On the other hand, none seem like they will be particularly impressive in terms of sales. Of the four biggest releases, Red on Blu-ray is the best bet, but for Pick of the Week, I'm going with Broadcast News: Criterion Collection on Blu-ray.
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December 14th, 2010
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations early this morning, and there are some interesting surprises included in the mix. Leading the way was The King's Speech, which has long been seen as one of the major players this Awards Season. Meanwhile, The Fighter and The Social Network were right behind with six each. There were many, many other films nomination, including more than a few shocks. ... Mostly in one category.
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November 24th, 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I broke records on the international chart opening with a mind-blowing $192.98 million on 15,506 screens in 53 markets, for a total opening of $204.92 million internationally and $329.94 million worldwide. This is the largest worldwide opening ever, and it is enough to put the film in the top 200 after one weekend of release.
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November 17th, 2010
Unstoppable opened in first place on the international box office over the weekend. (It has likely already fallen to Harry Potter on the daily chart, which opened on Wednesday.) Its opening weekend haul was $18.72 million on 4137 screens in 39 markets giving it a total opening of $19.31 million. It earned first place in Spain with $1.56 million on 336 screens, but was not as potent in South Korea or Germany earning third place with $1.33 million on 323 screens and $1.20 million on 504 respectively. It only managed fourth place in France, with $2.63 million on 430 screens, while it barely squeezed into the top five in Italy with $755,000 on 251.
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November 10th, 2010
Unlike its domestic debut, Due Date was able to open in first place internationally with $21.69 million on 3572 screens in 32 markets. It was tops in Germany with $3.90 million on 519 screens, while it also led the way in the U.K. with $3.78 million on 449 screens. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place in Russia, but with $3.88 million on 543 screens, it was still a huge success there. In comparison, the cumulative opening weekend was nearly identical to The Hangover, which bodes well for the film's chances internationally, even if it likely won't have the same long legs.
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November 8th, 2010
While practically every film in the top five missed expectations, none of them were complete misses and all made enough that they could be considered victories. The overall box office was an incredibly healthy $151 million, which was 59% higher than last weekend and 26% higher than the same weekend last year. In fact, it came within $2 million of the record for the opening weekend of November. 2010 was able to put more distance between it and 2009 and it now leads the year-to-date race $8.97 billion to $8.66 billion. It would take a fairly major collapse for 2010 to not break the record for highest box office, although it will likely fail to top last year in terms of ticket sales.
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November 3rd, 2010
Thanks in part to holidays in France, Despicable Me was able to return to top spot with $21.65 million on 4511 screens in 44 markets for a total of $234.58 million internationally and $482.46 million worldwide. By this time next week, it will have more internationally than domestically and a total of more than half-a-billion worldwide. Its top market was France, where school holidays helped it more than double its take at $6.17 million on 657 screens, but that's for the 5-day weekend. Overall it has made $19.80 million in that market. It opened in second place in Japan with $2.93 million on 225 screens over the weekend and $3.12 million in total. It was flat in the U.K. adding another $4.15 million on 532 screens for a three week total of $24.21 million.
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November 2nd, 2010
As expected, Halloween hurt the overall box office, which plummeted 27% from last weekend to just $95 million from Friday to Sunday. However, the top film on the chart did do better than expected on Sunday, while the overall box office was 5% higher than the same weekend last year when Halloween fell on a Saturday. Year-to-date, 2010 still has a 3% lead over 2009 with a running tally of $8.78 billion, while there's very little time left to blow that lead. On the other hand, ticket sales are down 2%, so there's little hope to catch up in that regard.
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October 31st, 2010
With an estimated 92% of box office receipts coming from 3D shows, Saw 3D became the highest-grossing horror franchise in history this weekend, overtaking Friday the 13th.
Its $22.4 million opening is still down from the peak for the franchise, which topped $30 million on four occasions, but is up significantly from the disappointing $14.1 million debut of Saw VI last year.
(See full franchise history here.)
Paranormal Activity 2, meanwhile had a steep drop to $16.5 million in its second weekend, although 59% isn't terrible for the genre, and the low-budget sequel has racked up over $65 million in just 10 days.
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October 28th, 2010
Halloween falls on Sunday this year, and is generally a bad day at the box office, which will likely result in a massive drop-off for most films this weekend. However, there is one horror film opening wide, plus another that opened last weekend that could benefit. The overall effect will still likely be negative, but this time last year, Halloween fell on a Saturday, which is a lot worse for business. So 2010 could still come out on top in the year-over-year comparison, even if it is a close race.
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October 27th, 2010
Mirroring its domestic debut, Paranormal Activity 2 opened in first place internationally with $22.32 million on 2752 screens in 21 markets. The film opened in first place in the U.K. with $5.92 million on 389 screens, while it also topped the charts in Australia with $2.68 million on 185 screens and in Mexico with $1.86 million in 452. On the other hand, it had to settle for second place in South Korea with $1.05 million on 218 screens over the weekend and $1.18 million in total. While in Italy it could do no better than fourth place with $1.55 million on 250.
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October 25th, 2010
I'm not willing to say the slump is over after just one weekend, but we did finally see some real positive signs over the weekend. Not only did the number one film top expectations, but no film in the top five really flopped. In fact, only one film in the top ten fell more than 33.6%. Overall the box office was down 2% from last week earning $129 million; however, it was up by 12% over the same weekend last year, which is far more important. A double-digit increase in the year-over-year comparison was pretty commonplace earlier in the year, so hopefully this is a portent of things to come, and not just a momentary blip. Year-to-date 2010 has now earned $8.65 billion giving it a 3.4% lead over 2009's running tally of $8.37 billion.
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October 24th, 2010
Paramount enjoyed a second consecutive weekend at the top of the chart and another impressive opening, according to their estimates released on Sunday morning.
Paranormal Activity 2 showed that last year's hit wasn't a one-off by posting a $41.5 million opening, comfortably more than the first movie managed on any single weekend and the 5th-best weekend ever in October (see complete chart).
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October 21st, 2010
For much of the year, 2010 has been a banner year at the box office. We've already broken records for the most $300 million movies in the calendar year, 2010 is the first year where two films released during the same year, have reached $1 billion worldwide. We are currently nearly $300 million ahead of last year's pace. However, recently things have not been quite as rosy and we've seen declines on a year-over-year basis five of the past six weeks. Will that change this weekend? There are some positive signs. For instance, this time last year there were three or four wide releases. (It depends on your definition of "Wide".) All four failed to reach initial expectations, dramatically in some cases. This leaves a real opportunity for 2010 to expand its lead. There is only one movie opening wide, plus another expanding wide, but perhaps the lack of competition will be good for the two films.
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October 20th, 2010
Despicable Me completed its climb to the top of the international chart with $27.03 million on 4751 screens in 40 markets for totals of $170.27 million internationally and $417.32 million worldwide. This week's openings include the U.K., where it topped the chart with $5.81 million on 522 screens, which is a good result, but not a great result. It placed second in Italy with less money at $4.86 million on 544 screens, but ironically, this is a better result due to the relative size of the two markets and it only placed second due to a massive local hit. Meanwhile, the film was down just 23% in France adding $3.57 million on 657 screens for a two-week total of $8.82 million. It was down 35% in Spain, but remained in first place with $2.25 million on 542 screens over the weekend and $8.27 million in total. The film is running out of places to open in, but by this time next week it should have $200 million internationally, while $500 million worldwide is still the main goal.
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October 18th, 2010
After more than a few films missed expectations over the past few weeks, it is nice to see a film crush expectations so soundly. Jackass 3D slapped around the naysayers so thoroughly that it nearly helped turn around 2010's losing streak. It did help the overall box office grow 42% from last weekend to $132 million, but that was still roughly 5% lower than the same weekend last year. (This was due to better depth at the box office last year.) 2010 is still ahead of 2009 at $8.48 billion to $8.22 billion, but I'm a little concerned that lead won't last till the end of the year.
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October 17th, 2010
Jackass 3D is set to record the biggest October weekend ever, according to Paramount's Sunday estimate.
With $50 million over the weekend, the movie will also set a new mark for a factually-based movie, beating the record held by its predecessor in the series, Jackass: Number Two.
Although the debate on 3D's long-term future continues, this is a movie that seems to be perfectly suited to the medium.
Expect to see talk of Jackass 4D very soon.
We don't even dare to speculate what the 4th D will entail.
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October 14th, 2010
The past few weeks haven't exactly been kind to the box office, with more films struggling than soaring. The industry as a whole is obviously hoping things turn around this weekend and 2010 ends its losing streak against 2009. We've lost ground four of the past five weekends. Worse still, three of those times 2010 failed to get within 10% of 2009's weekend number. Turning things around might be more than a little difficult, as this time last year there were five films that earned $10 million or more, while this year we might not have three films do the same.
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October 8th, 2010
While Red is going to be opening in more theaters, and with better reviews, it is likely the Fanboys will rush out to see Jackass 3D giving it an edge at the box office. At least for the opening weekend. Regardless, the latter is the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Jackass 3D.
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 Dollhouse: Season Two on DVD.
Meanwhile, 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 copy of Dollhouse: Season Two on DVD.
Finally, a third person will be chosen from all eligible entries and that person will win the final copy of Dollhouse: Season Two on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday, Oct. 15 to be eligible, so don't delay!
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October 1st, 2010
September is nearly over and the Fall box office season is about to begin in earnest.
September wasn't too bad this year, with more films matching or exceeding expectations than missing them, and we managed to keep pace with last year, more or less.
Can October do the same? Well, last year there was only one $100 million hit, Couples Retreat (not counting Paranormal Activity, which opened in September). We might not see any film hit $100 million this time around.
In fact, we might not even see any that come all that close.
On the other hand, there were also five wide releases that clearly bombed last year, and on that end, 2010 looks a lot better.
Not every film that opens over the next five weekends will be a mid-level hit or better, but most should get there.
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