May 8th, 2012
There were only two new releases to earn a spot on the Blu-ray sales chart, but one of them, Contraband, took top spot on the chart. The film sold 510,000 units / $10.19 million giving it an opening week Blu-ray share of 52%. At this point, any action film that doesn't open with a 50% Blu-ray share should be considered a disappointment.
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January 23rd, 2012
2012 has gone three for three in the year-over-year comparison. This weekend we have a couple films do a little better than expected and a couple films struggle a little bit, but the overall box office was up 1% from last weekend to $134 million. More importantly, the box office was up 30% from last year. Not only did we have better strength on top with Underworld: Awakening earning $25 million, but we also had much stronger depth. This bodes well going into next week and hopefully January will complete the sweep when compared to last year. Year-to-Date, 2012 now has a 15% lead over 2011 at $748 million to $653 million. It is still far too early to declare victory, but every dollar earned now puts us one dollar closer to matching last year's total.
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January 19th, 2012
It's very early in the year, but so far 2012 is on a winning streak. Will that streak continue this weekend? This weekend we have three wide releases, Underworld: Awakening, Red Tails, and Haywire, plus a wide expansion, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Conversely, last year there was only one wide release, No Strings Attached, plus only one holdover that earned more than $10 million, The Green Hornet. This year we should have five films earning more than $10 million and this depth should help 2012 earn a win in the year-over-year comparison.
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January 18th, 2012
The winners of our Start the Year on a Musical Note contest were determined and they are...
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January 18th, 2012
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day long weekend was mostly filled with good news, with all three films doing at least respectable business, while we had a couple holdovers which beat expectations. Contraband was surprisingly strong earning top spot with relative ease. And while it couldn't match The Green Hornet's debut from last year, the overall box office was very solid at $132 million over three days and $163 million over four. The three-day total was 5% lower than last weekend, but 1.5% higher than last year. The four-day total was 2.6% higher than last year. It's obviously way too early to judge 2012's box office run, but at the moment it is 14% higher than last year's pace at $483 million to $423 million.
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January 15th, 2012
With Beauty and the Beast disappointing slightly over the 3-day MLK frame, Contraband will take first place by a fairly comfortable margin, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. The action movie is set to pick up about $24.1 million, per Universal, while Disney pegs Beast's Friday-Sunday total at $18.5 million. Joyful Noise will bring in a solid, if slightly disappointing, $11.3 million for Warner Bros..
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January 12th, 2012
This weekend is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is not one of the biggest long weekends at the box office. (It is just too close to Christmas / New Year's to really help boost the box office significantly.) There are three films opening wide, Beauty and the Beast 3D, Contraband, and Joyful Noise, plus another film, The Iron Lady, which is expanding enough that it could reach the top ten. I don't think any of them will match last year's winner, The Green Hornet, which pulled in $33.53 million during its opening weekend. However, one can hope all three wide releases reach their potential and 2012 will come out ahead of 2011.
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January 6th, 2012
It's the first contest of the year, or possibly third, depending on how you look at things. It is definitely the first contest to start in 2012, but not the first involving a new release from 2012. Although, to be technically accurate, the target film isn't a new release, but a re-release. Beauty and the Beast is being re-released on 3-D next week and it should be the biggest hit of the weekend and it is 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 Beauty and the Beast 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 Dirty Girl: Soundtrack on CD.
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of Glee: The Concert Movie on Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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, 2012
2011 ended, and really that's the only good news we got from the entire month of December. That's not snark either. Of the eleven films opening or expanding wide that month, six will definitely miss expectations by significant margins and with the other five it is too soon to tell, (it depends on how well they hold up during the New Year's Day long weekend). Only Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol can be considered a pleasant surprise, and even then it might not match original expectations. Looking forward, the only really good piece of news for this January is that last January was a pretty bad as well. Only two films, The Green Hornet and No Strings Attached, beat expectations by significant margins, while The Dilemma bombed hard enough to nearly wipe out those gains. This time around, the biggest hit will likely be Beauty and the Beast's 3D re-release, but even then, I doubt it will do as well as The Lion King's 3D re-release. There's a good chance the year will start off on a sour note, just like 2011 ended.
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October 5th, 2011
It's a maddening week on the home market. There were more than a dozen featured reviews this week, and what seems like an equal number that are late. (And that's not mentioning the more than a dozen Blu-rays and DVDs that arrived late last week that I still haven't gotten to. At least I don't have to worry about not having enough to do for the next few weeks.) There were a number of contenders for Pick of the Week, including The Walking Dead: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray. But in the end I choose The Lion King Blu-ray Combo Pack.
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December 28th, 2010
There were seven new releases to chart this week, including the new number one. In fact, that new number one dominated in a surprising way and none of the other new releases managed to make much of an impact at the box office. Despicable Me led the way with 3.75 million units sold and $62.70 million. If there were any doubts about a sequel, this ended them, as the film is already in the top ten for the year.
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November 26th, 2010
This weekend is Thanksgiving and that means Black Friday and Cyber Monday plus 48 hours of shopping in between. Personally, I've done my Christmas shopping, and I have been for weeks; in fact, I've even finished wrapping everything. For the rest of you, here is the first part in our annual Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will look at some of the major first-run releases, but we start with a short talk on...
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November 9th, 2010
New releases again failed to make much of an impact on this week's sale chart with only three placing in the top 30. However, one of those, Sex and the City 2, did take top spot with 989,000 units and $16.81 million during its opening week. This is weaker than its predecessor opened with, but in line with expectations, more or less.
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November 2nd, 2010
New releases failed to make much of an impact on this week's DVD sales chart with only one placing in the top five and only two or three others in the top 30. This left How to Train Your Dragon on top with an easy win at 1.42 million units for the week. This gives it totals of 3.29 million / $70.40 million in consumer spending at retail, which makes it the third-best-selling DVD for any 2010 theatrical release and the eighth-best-selling DVD of the year.
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October 26th, 2010
We had a new number one release on this week's sales chart, with How to Train Your Dragon dominating with 1.87 million units sold / $39.63 million in opening week sales.
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October 5th, 2010
One of the busiest weeks on the DVD / Blu-ray release report; in fact, I set a record for most reviews in a single week. With so much competition, one might think it would be tough picking the Pick of the Week, but that was not the case, as Beauty and the Beast - Blu-ray / DVD Combo walked away with that distinction. The only other release that really came close to it was Phineas and Ferb: A Very Perry Christmas, while there are about a dozen or so other releases worth picking up on this week's list.
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October 4th, 2010
It is argued by some that Beauty and the Beast is the greatest Disney movie of all time. There is definitely an argument to be made, as it was the first animated movie to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Even if that might be overstating things, it still sets up very, very high expectations. I previously saw the movie, when it first came out on the home market, which means I haven't seen it in about a decade in a half. So with high expectations, will the film be able to live up to its reputation and my recollections?
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