June 16th, 2007
Even though new releases were able to take the top two spots on the rental and sales charts this week, it won't be remember fondly for their strength. In fact, Notbit's winning tally of $4.65 million was the lowest weekly total for any number one rental this year and wouldn't have been enough to reach the top five half the time.
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June 8th, 2007
It was a slow, slow week for new releases at not one was able to crack the top ten on the rental chart. This left Apocalypto with the easy win grabbing $4.86 million for the week and $10.88 after two.
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June 2nd, 2007
It was a mixed week for new releases as they were able to take three of the top four spots on the rental chart, including number one, but were practically shut out of the remainder of the chart. Also, while Apocalypto finished first, its opening week total of $6.02 million was less Pan's Labyrinth opened with last week. In fact, it was not that much ahead of the $5.58 million Pan's Labyrinth earned this week.
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May 22nd, 2007
It's the first busy week of the month, and it won't get this busy again for the rest of summer. There is literally a hundred releases mentioned on this week's list, roughly half of which are coming out to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Wayne. However, while there were plenty of those releases coming out, it was another classic movie to win the DVD Pick of the Week. That classic film is The Third Man - Criterion Collection - 2-Disc Edition - Buy from Amazon.
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May 13th, 2007
With Spider-Man 3 dominating the global market last weekend, there was very little else happening on the international charts that was newsworthy. With little in the way of new releases, or even expansion for holdovers, it was impossible just to fill out a top 30 chart. And with several films expected to attempt a worldwide opening over the next couple months, it will likely be that way till mid-August.
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May 6th, 2007
300 was knocked out of the top five this week but still added $3.82 million on 3,537 screens in 52 markets for a total of $223.77 million.
The film has yet to open in Japan, but that's about it at this point and there's little hope that the movie will hit any more milestones from now until then.
However, it is already a massive hit and a huge financial boon for the studio, so everything it does earn will be pure gravy.
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April 22nd, 2007
Sunshine climbed into sixth place with $5.20 million on 1866 screens in 30 markets for a total of $10.20 million. However, while it nearly doubled last week's opening, this was entirely due to the film's expansion. Its biggest market of the weekend was France where it placed fourth with $1.36 million on 339 screens while it placed eighth in its debut in Australia with just $611,000 on 161 screens. On the other hand, the film only managed $508,000 on 192 screens during its debut in Japan and while likely see a sharp drop-off next weekend given its weak per screen average. Meanwhile in the U.K. the film suffered the worst week-to-week drop-off in the top ten down 57% to $879,000 on 409 screens over the weekend and a total of $4.45 million in total.
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April 15th, 2007
Wild Hogs had its best performance of its run so far climbing into sixth place with $3.33 million on 817 screens in 8 markets for a total of $18.43 million after a month of release. About half of that came from the film's number one debut in Mexico where it earned $1.33 million on 355 screens over the weekend and $1.67 million including previews while the film did reasonable business in Taiwan with $345,000 on 40. Its best market to date has been Australia where the film has earned $11.30 million, including $907,000 on 263 screens this past weekend.
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April 8th, 2007
Norbit saw its weekend haul sliced neatly in half landing in sixth place with $4.09 million on 2270 screens in 39 markets for a total of $49.38 million. The film wasn't able to crack $1 million in any single market, but Italy came the closest with $940,000 on 263 screens for a two-week total of $3.19 million.
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April 1st, 2007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started its international run this past weekend and just missed the top five on debut.
It did manage $3.92 million on 1,004 screens in 8 markets over the weekend and $4.53 million including previews.
Of this box office, nearly half of it came from a pair of third place openings in England ($1.27 million on 368 screens over the weekend and $1.86 million in total), and Australia ($379,000 on 58 screens).
The film also opened in Russia where the strong mutant demographic helped the film capture second place with $1.38 million on 360 screens.
(That was a Chernobyl joke, by the way.)
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March 25th, 2007
The French film, Taxi 4, just missed the top five with $3.94 million on 1255 screens in 7 markets for a total of $49.56 million. Obviously, most of that has come from France, $35.70 million in fact, but the film is also doing well in Russia with $10.63 million so far, including $2.22 million on 466 screens over the weekend.
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March 18th, 2007
There was quite an international flavor on the charts this past weekend with five local hits charting, and one more just missing that mark. The best of these was Lubov Morkov, which opened in sixth place with $5.38 million on 492 screens in 4 markets over the weekend and $6.28 million in total. Of this amount, $4.90 million on 427 screens was earned over the weekend in Russia while it managed $5.80 million including midweek numbers.
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February 25th, 2007
The Blood Diamond fell from second to sixth this past weekend, mainly due to the lack of new openings. The film still pulled $8.52 million on 3409 screens in 59 markets for a total of $77.51 million and is still on pace for $100 million internationally, but that's the last milestone in its future.
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February 18th, 2007
Charlotte's Web's return to the international charts was a successful one as it just missed the top five with $6.37 million on 2192 screens in 40 markets. However, its international tally of $32.57 is still a terrible result given the film's production budget, which has been estimated to be north of $100 million. The film has one strong opening this weekend as it earned second place in the U.K. with $3.69 million on 489 screens. On the other hand, the film flopped in France missing the top ten with $762,000 on 347 screens and that was for the full week. It did little better in South Korea with $872,000 on 150 screens over the weekend and $969,000 in total while scoring $218,000 on 54 screens over the weekend in Belgium and $271,000 in total.
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February 11th, 2007
Babel just missed the top five this past weekend and showed that
Oscar nods still meant something at the box office, at least internationally. The film added $5.16 million on 1467 screens for a total of $61.31 million so far. It was aided by a first place, $1.23 million opening on 256 screens in Russia, but that is one of the film's last significant openings.
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February 8th, 2007
Two movies featuring characters with eating disorders open this weekend but there's a clear favorite, at least at the box office. Critically speaking, both are dogs, which is not surprising since we haven't seen a film open to even moderately good reviews since Freedom Writers earned 67% positive during the first weekend of the year.
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February 6th, 2007
The first weekend in February lived up to muted expectations with four of the top five meeting or exceeding Thursday's predictions.
However, this still led to a massive 22% drop-off from the previous weekend, with a total box office of just $93 million.
While the Superbowl certainly had something to do with that, it can't take all of the blame as the box office was down 12% from the same weekend last year, which also played host to the Superbowl.
So far, 2007 hasn't gotten off to a strong start, but it is way too early to push any panic buttons just yet.
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February 4th, 2007
For the second weekend in a row
Apocalypto earned sixth place on the international charts, this time pulling in 7.03 million on 2308 screens for a total of $47.42 million. Its best market of the weekend was Mexico where it had an easy first place finish with $2.43 million on 502 screens over the weekend and $2.66 million including previews. It was also strong during its second weekend in Spain as it was down 40% to $1.17 million on 284 screens for a total of $3.64 million.
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February 1st, 2007
It's February, but you can't tell by looking at the quality of the new wide releases.
Neither film is wowing critics and both look like mid-level hits at the most.
Granted, it's Superbowl weekend and that could explain why studios were hesitant to put out any top dollar films this weekend.
Even so, the two new releases should finish in first and second place.
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January 30th, 2007
Well, January is finally over and we survived.
The final four entries tried their luck this weekend and while two earned enough to be considered box office successes, none came close to wowing critics.
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January 26th, 2007
This year's crop of summer blockbusters still haven't started opening movies site in earnest yet, and until they do, this column will be lacking. It's yet another week without a truly award-winning site but
Catch & Release -
Official Site is the best of the rest.
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January 25th, 2007
The final weekend in January gives us plenty of new releases, but not much in terms of quality.
Of the four wide releases opening this week, two are earning roughly 30% positive reviews and the other two are not being screened for critics.
However, movie fans should not fret as several Oscar hopefuls are expanding this week and are giving moviegoers plenty of choice.
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January 2nd, 2007
It is the beginning of a new year. A time to start fresh. So why do most of the new releases smell so stale? It's the January dumping ground, home to films that looked promising on paper but just didn't pan out.
That doesn't mean there are no films that could be worth checking out.
Out of the twelve new films opening wide this month (that's opening, not expanding), Smokin' Aces looks great and so does ... no, that's about it.
Almost all of the new releases are likely to struggle at the box office and with critics alike.
And to make matters worse, six of these new releases are going wide on the same weekend.
This is complete madness and guarantees that at least two films that would otherwise succeed are going to fail.
On the other hand, there are nearly a dozen films that have previously opened and are expanding wide (Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, for example), or are being re-released to grab some last minute Oscar buzz,
(The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, among others).
This makes for an incredibly busy month, but not one that will likely produce many hits.
Two additional notes...
Firstly, Letters from Iwo Jima is expanding throughout the month but likely won't go wide until February.
Secondly, The Dead Girl has a planned expansion on the 19th, but after struggling in limited release since opening last weekend, this seems unlikely.
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December 9th, 2006
Good week for websites with a number of candidates for the top spot. In the end I went with
Ghost Rider -
Official Site, but there's a few others here that will undoubtedly win in the coming weeks.
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October 15th, 2006
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Jumper, Kung Fu Panda, Charlie Wilson's War and more.
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