March 3rd, 2015
This is not a great week for new releases on the home market. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 is by far the biggest new title and its DVD and Blu-ray Combo Pack is going to sell a ton of units. However, its reviews are not up to the level required to make it our Pick of the Week. Conversely, Foxcatcher is award-worthy, but the DVD and Blu-ray Combo Pack doesn't have enough extras to be a Pick of the Week. It seemed like every choice for Pick of the Week wasn't quite up to the level needed, so I'm going to go outside the box and pick To Write Love On Her Arms on DVD, which is a film I've been waiting to see for about three years.
More...
October 10th, 2006
The Thanksgiving long weekend signifies the start of the holiday shopping season... Of course, that's the American Thanksgiving, which occurs sometime in November. The
Canadian Thanksgiving, which occurred this weekend, is most closely associated with the start of
Hockey season. (Have I mentioned how much I hate the
New York Rangers? I have. Good.) However, just because shopping season has officially started, doesn't mean it's a slow week.
Far from it.
This week there was a bumper crop of contenders for the DVD Pick of the Week.
I narrowed the list to two TV on DVD releases (
Scrubs - The Complete Fourth Season -
Buy from Amazon and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law - Volume 2 -
Buy from Amazon) and two limited releases, (
Twelve and Holding -
Buy from Amazon and
A Prairie Home Companion -
Buy from Amazon).
If I was forced at gunpoint to choose just one, it would be
Scrubs - The Complete Fourth Season -
Buy from Amazon, but I can all but guarantee all four, and a few others, will end up in my DVD collection.
More...
January 31st, 2006
Brokeback Mountain again led the list of nominees as with 8 Oscar nods. There were three films with six nominations a piece,
Crash,
Good Night and Good Luck, and
Memoirs of a Geisha, (although for that last one, they were all the less prestigious technical awards.
More...
January 11th, 2006
While the overall domestic box office dropped by an estimated 6% this year, IMAX had a record breaking year for total ticket sales (although exact figures were not released).
Much of this success was due to DMR releasing of blockbuster Hollywood films like Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
More...
November 26th, 2005
New releases finished one, two, three on the rental charts this week with
Madagascar leading the way. The film earned $7.94 million in combined rentals, which was ahead of the second place film by just over half a million dollars.
More...
November 20th, 2005
The Corpse Bride missed the top five by the narrowest of narrow margins losing out to
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit $5.50 million to $5.45 million. The film earned its $5.45 million on 2586 screens in 28 markets pushing its total to $53.4 million total at the international box office. In South Korea the film fell 43% to $753,000 on 114 screens, which is better than average for the market. And the film is also doing well in Italy adding $764,000 on 268 screens to its $2.67 million running tally there, $700,000 in France for a $8 million box office, and $462,000 in Japan for a $7.0 million box office.
More...
November 19th, 2005
It was a busy week on the home market with three new releases in the top five including
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which came in first. The
re-
adaptation took top spot with a combined total of $8.39 million in rentals; however, there was no breakdown on how much of that was due to people rentign the
Deluxe Edition and how much went to
Single Disc Edition.
More...
November 13th, 2005
Chicken Little started its international run with day-and-date debuts in 9 markets earning $5.54 million on 900 screens, just missing the top five in the process. Its best market was kid-friendly Mexico with $3.1 million on 600 screens, which is about on par with its opening domestically. On the other hand, the film broke records in Malaysia with $477,000 on 40 screens. Other results include a first place debuts in Russia with $1.1 million on 197 screens and in Taiwan with $463,000 on 18 screens, (including previews).
More...
November 7th, 2005
Every week Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - Buy from Amazon gets a second chance at... I'm just kidding.
We're moving closer to the busy Christmas shopping season, and because of that there are a lot of prime DVDs worth picking up this week.
Leading the way is Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi - Unrated Edition while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 2-Disc Special Edition earns a honorable mention.
There are also... what's the philosophical term? ... a Metric Buttload of Christmas DVDs coming out this week, most of which should be ignored.
More...
November 6th, 2005
With
The Legend of Zorro earning a nearly worldwide release this past weekend, and the imminent release of another
juggernaut, there was little room for other releases this weekend on the international scene.
More...
October 26th, 2005
For the third weekend in a row Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit led the race on the international charts.
This time it added $15.75 million on 3,782 screens in 32 markets to its total of $63.7 million so far.
Slightly more than half of the film's weekend haul came from the U.K. where it added $8.3 million over the weekend, down 26.5% from its opening.
It now has $29.4 million in that market, which is nearly half of its international total.
Holdovers in other major markets were equally impressive as the film dropped just 19% in Germany to $1.86 million and 24% in France to $2.22 million.
On the other hand, the film doubled its opening weekend haul in the Netherlands, taking in $440,000 over the weekend and $960,000 during its run.
There was not much on the new openings front, but the film did take first place in Belgium with $427,000 on 86 screens, but that was since Wednesday.
More...
October 19th, 2005
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit crushed the competition on the international charts this weekend earning a stunning $26.4 million in just eight markets for an early international total of $40.3 million.
Unsurprisingly, the film's best market was the U.K., which is the home of Nick Park and Aardman Animations.
There, the film pulled in an amazing $11.3 million on 502 screens over the weekend ($16.2 million previews), and beat the nearest competition by a factor of nine.
The film also opened in first place in France with $2.88 million on 538 screens, Germany with $2.28 million on 680 screens, and in Austria with $225,000 on 94 screens.
As for holdovers, the film fell just 23% to $1 million in Mexico for a $2.65 million total there, and 17% in Spain with $830,000 for the weekend and $2.5 million in total.
It wasn't so fortunate in Australia and New Zealand, falling 54% and 78% respectively, but it was a post-holiday weekend there and large drop-off for a film of this type is expected.
More...
October 12th, 2005
The stop motion animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit not only won the domestic box office race, but it won the international one as well.
Overall it earned $9.23 million on 1,895 screens in 13 markets for a $11.4 million running tally.
Most of that came from the U.K., where the film earned $5 million from 487 previews.
It opened in second place in Mexico with $1.25 million on 353 screens, third place in Spain with $1.01 million on 225 screens and in Brazil it made $361,000 (placing unknown). Holdovers include $740,000 in Australia and $176,000 in New Zealand.
More...
October 5th, 2005
Too much chocolate is bad for your health, but try telling that to the international box office.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has topped the international box office for the fourth weekend in a row and the sixth during its run this weekend adding $10.2 million on 3,200 screens in 52 markets. Its best market of the weekend was again Japan where it finished first, again, with $3.1 million for the weekend on 360 screens and $28.7 million during its run. It was also first in Italy with $2.4 million on 282 screens for a $6.5 million running tally and in Norway with $740,000 on 92 screens, and in New Zealand with $314,000 on 80. With no more major markets, and precious little midlevel ones as well, the film is just wrapping up its international run, a run that has earned the film $219 million so far.
More...
September 28th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory finished first on the international charts for the third weekend in a row and the fifth time in its international run, reaching a major milestone along the way.
Over the weekend the film added $13.7 million on almost 4,000 screens in 55 markets for an international box office of $201.1 million.
Highlights include amazing holdovers in Japan where it was down just 12% to $4.1 million over the weekend and $22 million in total and in South Korea where the film was down a phenomenal 6% to $1.5 million for a $5 million total.
New openings include first place debuts in both Italy at $2.8 million on 402 screens and $333,000 on 64 screens in Denmark, which represents its last two major or midlevel markets.
More...
September 21st, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to remain in top spot on the international charts with $11.5 million on 4,113 screens in 53 markets for a running tally of $175 million internationally. Highlights this weekend include a trio of first place premieres in South Korea with $1.57 million on 106 screens, in Norway with $1.15 million on 97, and in Sweden with $534,000 on 125. Still, its best market in terms of raw dollars remains Japan where the film repeated at number one with $3.17 million on 359 screens, which was down 25% from last weekend, about average for the market.
More...
September 14th, 2005
After almost a month in second place, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to recapture first thanks primarily to a strong start in Japan and a relatively strong holdover in Australia.
In Japan, the film opened in first place with $4.3 million on 338 screens, well ahead of the competition.
In Australia, the film remained in second place with $3.2 million on 463 screens, down 41% from last weekend and almost five times the second placed film.
It also opened in New Zealand, easily taking first place with $875,000 on 80 screens and remains a major player in the U.K. with $975,000 on 422 screens during its seventh weekend of release in that market.
Overall Charlie and the Chocolate Factory earned $11.3 million on 4,100 screens in 49 markets this weekend for a $155.7 million running tally.
Assuming the studio's share of the domestic box office was 66% and 50% of the international, which are fair assumptions, then the movie is just now starting to show a profit.
However, this is better than many films, which have to wait until the home market before the studio recoups their costs, or in fact fail to recoup their costs.
More...
September 9th, 2005
The fall box office season begins today with what is historically one of the worst weekends of the year.
There's not much in the way of quality releases this week, but with only two widely different films going wide, at least they won't be stealing moviegoers away from each other.
More...
September 7th, 2005
Amazing openings in Italy and Scandinavia helped
Madagascar jump back into the lead on the international charts with $11.6 million in 47 markets, which pushed its box office total to $291.5 million. Its biggest market was Italy, where the film benefited from the end of the slow summer session; with most theatres open again the film was able to grab $5.91 million over the weekend and $7.29 million if you include previews. Other first place openings included $1.45 million on 112 screens in Norway, $645,000 on 114 screens in Sweden, $600,000 on 82 screens in Denmark and $340,000 on 52 screens in Finland. The film has just a couple more markets left to open in, Thailand and the end of this month and Greece at the end of next month, but by then the film will have topped $300 million internationally and $500 million worldwide.
More...
August 31st, 2005
With the summer box office session coming to a close, the overall international returns slowed. However, The Island was still able to come out on top of the sluggish box office with $9.7 million at more than 4,800 screens in 48 markets for a total of $101.6 million so far. The film had a trio of openings this weekend, the best in terms of raw dollars was in Italy where the film managed $1.144 million on 322 screens, less than $2000 out of first place. It didn't have to settle for second place in Greece with $625,000 on 73 screens or in Sweden with $295,000 on 88. Holdovers continue to be the bane of this film as it fell by 40% during its second weekend in France.
Even so, that was the best single market for the film at $2.1 million on 640 screens.
More...
August 24th, 2005
The Island again topped the international charts with a rather tepid $12.4 million on nearly 5000 screens in 44 markets over the weekend. With this week's haul the
Sci-Fi flick has reached $84.8 million internationally, which is nearly $50 million more than it earned domestically, allowing it to top $100 million worldwide. This weekend the film opened in a couple of French speaking markets in Europe earning the number one spot in France with $3.4 million on 640 screens and $694,000 on 64 screens in Belgium. Holdovers were generally weak including a 45% tumble in both the U.K. to $1.37 million on 412 screens and Germany to $859,500 on 725. On the other hand, the film is still performing well in South Korea adding another $511,000 to its $20.47 million total in that single market, which would be like earning more than $300 million domestically given the relative size of the two markets.
More...
August 17th, 2005
There are a lot of people at
Dreamworks breathing a sigh of relief over this weeks international box office numbers.
The Island, which was a huge bomb domestically, lead the international box office race with $13.9 million on 4200 screens in 33 markets. That's not a great result, but will probably save someone his or her job. Among its dozen or so debuts were second place finishes in the U.K. with $2.6 million on 413 screens, as well as a first place finish in Mexico with $1.91 million on 500 screens. Other openings include $1.2 million on 241 screens in Russia, $434,500 on 86 screens in the Netherlands, and $198,000 on 50 screens in Argentina. While holdovers were less impressive down 40% in Germany to $1.66 million, 55% in Spain to $1.13 million, and 55% in Australia to $435,000. Overall
The Island has brought in $63 million internationally, almost a third of which came from South Korea at $19 million, including another $1 million this weekend.
More...
August 10th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had a reasonable drop-off during its second weekend in the U.K., which helped it maintain its first place position on the international charts with $14.36 million on more than 2,500 screens in 23 markets. In the U.K. the film fell 42% to $7.91 million for the weekend and a $34.6 million running tally, which is about 10% more than
War of the Worlds's take during the same time period. There were no major opens this weekend, but it did score first place finishes in a handful of midlevel markets, Taiwan with $720,200 on 63 screens, Philippines with $330,000 on 30, and Argentina with $209,400 on 47. It is still very early in the film's run, but it has so far amassed $67.2 million internationally and $236 million worldwide and is quickly climbing the yearly charts.
More...
August 8th, 2005
The weekend unfolded almost exactly as predicted, and even though the number one film was the biggest opening at the box office since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory debuted, there was still a 6.5% drop-off from last weekend.
On the other hand, compared to last year the box office was up by 1.6%.
Year-to-date 2005 is still well back of 2004 by 7.5% at $5.369 billion and the summer session is faring even worse down 9.5% to $2.868 billion.
However, there is hope the overall box office will start to recover from this point on.
More...
August 5th, 2005
Due to a pretty last minutes scheduling change,
The Dukes of Hazzard is the only new film to open wide this weekend. And while this should help its opening box office, it's too soon to tell how it will affect the overall box office. On a positive note, this time
last year was really soft so the box office should recover on a year-to-year comparison.
More...
August 3rd, 2005
Thanks almost entirely to a massive opening in the U.K.,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was able to top the international box office charts with $19.8 million on 2300 screens in 15 markets over the weekend. It's biggest draw was in the U.K. at $14.1 million on 531 screens, which was more than the total made by the
second place movie. That is on par with
War of the Worlds's opened a couple of weeks ago and should lead to a $40 million to $45 million total in that market alone. And that should come as a bit of a relief to the
studio since the film was monstrously expensive to make and it will need a strong showing internationally to make a profit. Other openings this weekend include a first place, $1.43 million debut in just 47 theatres in Mexico, which was more than double its
nearest competitor. Holdovers continued to help
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's international campaign adding $2.37 million during its third weekend in France to its $12.8 million running tally there. Overall the film now has $36.3 million internationally and could finish its run north of $300 million.
More...
August 1st, 2005
It was the second weekend of massive declines at the box office with the overall total falling by 12.4% from last weekend and an astounding 21.4% from last year.
(Those figures are based on studio estimates and could change, slightly.)
Year-to-date 2005 has now brought in $5.183 billion, off of last year's pace by 8%, while summer is even softer at $2.683 billion down by 10%.
More...
July 31st, 2005
Early numbers had
Mr. and Mrs. Smith taking fifth place on the overall international box office charts, but better than expected results has
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory overtaking them $6.7 million to $5.4 million. It's biggest single market continues to be France where the film dipped just 6% during its second weekend there earning $3,533,857 for a $9,034,141 running tally. But it was even more impressive in Belgium where the film shot up by 68% to $400,000 for the weekend and $785,000 in total. The film also opened in first place in three markets, Brazil with $1.1 million on 200 screens, Holland with $625,000 on 124 screens, and South Africa with $275,000 on 41 screens.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has $13.3 million so far and opens in a couple of important markets this weekend, (The U.K. and Mexico.)
More...
July 29th, 2005
For almost a week it looked like the 2005 box office was recovering. Then last weekend we saw a massive drop-off at the box office and it doesn't look like this weekend will do much better. This time last year we had a $50 million opener and two more films that cracked $20 million. This year, on the other hand, there is a distinct possibility that no film will earn $20 million at the box office over the weekend. On the other hand, every film in the top five could finish with between $15 million and $20 million, so at least there should be some interesting races at the box office.
More...
July 25th, 2005
I guess analysts got caught up in the recent bit of good news at the box office because nobody was able to predict this weekend's disaster.
Only one film in the top five was able to beat expectations by any real margin and every new film came up short.
Speaking of coming up short, the overall box office fell by 16% from last weekend and 8.8% from last year.
However, strong weekday numbers helped on the year-to-date comparison with 2005 at $4.983 billion, down 7.7% from 2004 while the summer season is 9.6% below last year's pace.
More...
July 24th, 2005
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opened in three French speaking markets over the weekend and while it didn't finish first, it still had a great start.
In France the film earned $3,741,793 in 670 theaters for the best per theater average in the top ten.
The result was similar in Belgium ($250,000) and Switzerland ($190,000), giving the film $4.2 million for the weekend.
More...
July 22nd, 2005
It looks like there will be a hard fought contest at the box office this weekend, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has a good shot at remaining number one.
That's not to say there's no competition.
In fact, there are two films opening at saturation levels, two more opening semi-wide and a limited release expanding enough that it should reach the top ten.
More...
July 21st, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -
Official Site.
More...
July 19th, 2005
Not only did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory easily take top spot on the overall charts this week, it also set records on IMAX screens nationwide.
More...
July 19th, 2005
Wide releases finished first and second on the Per Theater Charts this weekend, with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory leading with $14,901 average in 3,770 theaters.
The Wedding Crashers didn't open in nearly as many theaters but its $11,590 average was impressive nonetheless.
While March of the Penguins did yield the crown on the Per Theater Charts to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it is still the big story on this week's chart.
The Documentary more than doubled its theater count, again, but its average dropped just 28% to $11,478.
More...
July 18th, 2005
The weekend box office was even busier than expected, despite the incredible competition on Saturday from the release of the latest Harry Potter novel.
Every film in the top ten topped Sunday estimates and landed within a couple million of predictions, leading to a 10.5% increase from last week, and more importantly, a 7.1% increase from last year.
Year-to-date things are not as rosy: 2005 is still down 8.1% from last year with $4.751 billion, while the summer is down by 10.5% at $2.25 billion.
More...
July 15th, 2005
Now that The Slump is over, the movie industry is looking to
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to make sure the box office doesn't start a new slump.
More...
July 14th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Skeleton Key -
Official Site.
More...
July 7th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Murderball -
Official Site.
More...
July 1st, 2005
July Starts with a bang, thanks to the long Independence Day weekend, but the rest of the month is solid, with a potential $100 million movie being released practically every weekend.
It is also the first full month where school children are free meaning weekday numbers are almost as important as weekend grosses.
On the other hand, the month isn't as strong as last year and there's a good chance the record breaking slump the box office is in will continue throughout the month.
More...
June 30th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Pretty Persuasion -
Official Site.
More...
June 20th, 2005
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases, classics and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. It's another bad week for first-run releases; this is hardly surprising when you consider the low quality of wide releases earlier in the year. But unlike
last week there's little in the way of older releases, special editions and TV on DVD to pick up the slack. Just one release stood out as a must have, the fantastic Degrassi The Next Generation - Season 2 -
Buy from Amazon making this the third week in a row I've picked a release from this long running series as my DVD pick of the week. That's a record that probably won't be broken for a long, long time.
More...
June 16th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -
Official Site.
More...
June 9th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Stealth -
Official Site.
More...
June 2nd, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Perfect Man - Official Site.
More...
May 26th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner,
Cinderella Man -
Official Site.
More...
March 17th, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Ice Princess - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...
December 23rd, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Hotel Rwanda -
Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
December 16th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -
Official Site and all subsidiaries. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
November 18th, 2004
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner
Electra -
Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to
e-mail me with the details.
More...
