June 11th, 2006
The final weekend before the start of World Cup saw
Volver become the latest best of the rest finishing sixth with $4.46 million on 863 screens in 5 markets for a total of $27.25 million. The film was again led by its performance in France where it grew for the second week in a row up 14% to $3.02 million on 404 screens for a total of $9.09 million while in Italy it grew by 28% to $1.44 million on 268 screens for a total of $5.61 million after three weeks. In both of those markets the film is on pace to top such worldwide blockbusters as
Mission: Impossible 3, something nobody would have predicted before the start of the summer. Even more impressively, it is about a week away from France becoming the film's most lucrative market topping the $11.94 million it made in its native
Spain.
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June 3rd, 2006
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 opened its home market run with an easily win pulling in $7.24 million during its first week of release. That's probably enough for the film to show a profit, something it just missed doing during its worldwide theatrical run.
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May 28th, 2006
Mission: Impossible 3 was knocked out of first place by
The Da Vinci Code, but that was not a surprise to anyone. What was a surprise is the lack of staying power
Mission: Impossible 3 has exhibited so far; this week the film fell a further 43% o $23.22 million on 6392 screens in 57 markets for a total of $164.32 million. Its best market of the weekend was the U.K. where it added $3.44 million on 445 screens to its total of $23.70 million. However, South Korea is close behind with $3.19 million on 330 screens for a total of $23.22 million. The film only as a few openings left and Japan is the only major player out there so unless a minor miracle happens
Mission: Impossible 3 won't reach the heights that its
predecessors did.
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May 27th, 2006
It was a very close race for the top of the rental charts between two new releases.
The Ringer won that race with a surprising $6.32 million while
When a Stranger Calls had to settle for second best with $6.18 million.
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May 21st, 2006
Silent Hill's weekend numbers were better than earlier estimates and that helped place the film fourth overall with $4.99 million on 1398 screens in 11 markets. The film finished first in Russia with $1.45 million on 213 screens over the weekend and $1.61 million in total while it had to settle for second in Germany with $1.10 million on 308 screens. It also opened in second place in Hong Kong with $462,000 on 34 screens and $580,000 including the previews mentioned last week. So far the film has earned $18.92 million at the international box office, the largest single chunk coming from the U.K.; in that market the film has made $6.32 million including $439,000 on 285 screens this week.
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May 15th, 2006
It's a pretty average week for DVD releases with a handful of DVDs worth checking out. That said, there wasn't many that were in competition for DVD Pick of the Week and in the end
Home Movies - Season Four was the only one in serious contention. The only other DVD on this week's list than I would rate as a must have is
These Girls, but I admit, that is partially due to my pro-
Canada bias.
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May 14th, 2006
With
Mission: Impossible 3 dominating the international charts, most films saw a serious drop-off and those that didn't were able to climb the charts, or at least remain stable. For instance,
Eight Below fell 27% to $3.67 million on 1951 screens in 27 markets, but despite there being two new releases in the top five, it was able to remain in sixth place on the overall charts. The film was not able to crack $1 million in any single market, but did perform well in Spain with $587,000 on 225 screens and that lifted its total box office to $2.15 million in the market, $30.35 million internationally, and $111.42 million worldwide.
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May 7th, 2006
A pair of openings in major markets helped
Eight Below climb a spot to sixth with $5.05 million on 2129 screens in 24 markets for a total of $24.26 million so far. The film opened in France but could only manage sixth place with $1.85 million on 473 screens while in Spain it opened in first place, but only managed $981,000 on 224 screens. In the meantime, the film dipped just 4% during its second weekend in Australia adding $769,000 on 258 screens to its total of $2.29 million there.
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April 2nd, 2006
Two openings in two major markets helped
Hostel climb into sixth place with $4.03 million on 1120 screens in 27 markets for a running tally of $15.42 million. Its best opening was in the U.K. where it debuted in second place with $2.12 million on 304 screens while it struggled in Spain with just $1.01 million on 250. The film has already earned enough to show a profit even after taking into account P&A budget, exhibitor's share, etc. and should be able to double its current international total before its run is over.
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March 26th, 2006
The only opening of note for
Syriana over the weekend was Turkey where the film placed third with $211,000 on 62 screens. Without a major opening, the film fell 35% to $3.68 million on 1992 screens in 43 markets and now has $27.35 million, which is still a disappointing total.
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February 13th, 2006
Good news: every film in the top five either beat expectations, or at least came within a rounding error of matching them.
Bad news: the top two films combined didn't earn as much as Hitch opened with last year.
Good news: the overall box office saw gains, climbing to $121 million, 13.9% higher from last weekend and 0.3% higher than last year.
Bad news: this does mean that ticket sales were slightly lower compared to last year, but with the Winter Olympics starting, that is to be expected.
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February 10th, 2006
Four films open wide this weekend and all four pose serious questions to box office analysts. Can the winning streak by horror films continue? Will The Pink Panther or Harrison Ford make comebacks? Is 2-D Animation really dead? How much of an effect will the Olympics have? Will my nagging cough ever go away? By Monday we will know the answers to most of these questions, but my predictions are yes, no, no, yes, not a whole lot and I really hope so.
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February 6th, 2006
For the second weekend a row a critically panned film was able to beat expectations while topping the box office chart.
While most of the rest of the top five missed expectations, it was still a good weekend at the box office.
Granted, at $105 million, the overall box office was down 16.6% from last week, but that can be explained by the Super Bowl weekend.
However, it was up 2.7% from last year, which is much more important.
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February 3rd, 2006
January saw 2006 start on a positive note and everyone hopes February can continue the winning streak. While the two films opening this weekend don't have box office smash written all over them, and no one film seems as strong as Boogeyman, the overall box office could still top last year's, but it will be a close race.
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February 2nd, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. It was another slow week with nothing really grabbing my attention and nothing award-winning, (although there are a couple of sites that show promise). Hopefully some of the summer blockbusters will start launching flash sites so this slump can end.
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February 1st, 2006
Looking at the new crop of movies coming out this month, one has to wonder if January's dumping ground wasn't extended a month.
Of the roughly dozen movies on this list, none look like they have what it takes to be a major hit, although there should be a few midlevel ones.
There are also a couple of interesting stories to keep track of.
For instance, will Firewall be Harrison Ford's triumphant return to the top of the box office charts?
Will Night Watch earn a wide release?
Just how bad will The Pink Panther be?
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January 12th, 2006
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. I can't say that it was a particularly busy week, but at least we had a site that was well deserving of recognition in
Nanny McPhee -
Official Site.
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December 15th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. We've hit another slow patch for movie websites, which is not unexpected since the most of the new site on this list are for films that open months from now so there's hardly any content, or open during the dead zone that is January. I would say the best of the rest would be
King Kong -
Official Site, but it is not strong enough to win the Weekly Website Award.
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