March 21st, 2011
It's a deceptively slow week when it comes to DVD and Blu-ray releases. Have I mentioned how much I love the word, "deceptively"? It is worse than meaningless and actually reduces the amount of information given in any sentence it appears in. In this case, the first sentence could mean the week appears to be slow, but it is actually quite busy. Or it could mean the week appears busy, but is quite slow. Unfortunately, it's the latter. There are four first run releases coming out on the home market, which is more than most weeks, but all four missed expectations to one degree or another. Additionally, there's only one new release that I'm seriously considering for Pick of the Week, The Venture Bros.: Season Four on Blu-ray. In fact, there are a couple Blu-ray catalog titles that are more interesting than any of the first run releases. Leading the way there is Stand By Me, which is not only a great movie, but the Blu-ray isn't shovelware and includes Blu-ray exclusive extras like a Picture-in-Picture track. So which release is the Pick of the Week? I can't decide, so let's call it a tie.
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October 21st, 2006
Three of the top five renters this week were
new releases including the number one film,
Click with $11.34 million during its first week of release.
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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.
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October 8th, 2006
Indigenes, a.k.a. Days of Glory, opened in first place in its native
France with $5.53 million on 460 screens while it managed ninth in Switzerland with $76,000 despite opening on only 8 screens. The film opened on Wednesday in Belgium before expanding to other European market in the coming weeks.
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October 1st, 2006
Ye Yan, a.k.a., The Banquet opened in third place in South Korea with $1.04 million on 183 screens over the weekend and $1.24 million in total. That helped the
Chinese film place sixth overall with $5.52 million on 734 screens in 6 markets lifting its international total to $15.94 million, which is just above its production budget.
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September 24th, 2006
Little Man shot up the charts into sixth place with $5.97 million on 1597 screens in 23 markets for a total of $22.63 million internationally. The film had million dollar debuts in both Spain, ($2.06 million on 250 screens), and Mexico, ($1.04 million on 352), while came reasonably close in Russia, ($960,000 on 217 screens, including midweek numbers). In all three markets, the film placed second on the charts. More amazingly is the film's performance in the U.K. as it dipped just 17% to $1.05 million on 315 screens over the weekend and a three-week total of $5.75 million.
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September 17th, 2006
The Sentinel climbed into 6th place on the international charts, the best placing the film has earned. It had a few openings, the biggeset being a sixth place, $410,000 debut on 89 screens in South Korea over the weekend, and $469,000 in total. On the other hand, the film place first in Belgium with $197,000 on 36 screens over the weekend and $226,000 in total and third in Denmark with $102,000 on 32 screens over the weekend and $108,000 in total. Overall it earned $3.44 million on 1423 screens in 22 markets for a total of $31.96 million, which puts it about a week from topping its domestic total.
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September 10th, 2006
No new openings left
Garfield's A Tail of Two Kitties down 40% to $5.87 million on 3779 screens in 32 markets for a total of $90.08 million. It was reported that the film broke a record for an
animated film in China with $6.7 million putting it ahead of
The Lion King, which is a strange thing to report since the movie isn't
animated. Sure, it has a
CG lead, but that's not the same. As for the film's prospects for the future, hitting $100 million internationally is academic at this point and with several openings to go, including previews in Australia this weekend, the film could finish with close to the $125 million earned by the
original.
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August 30th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned yet another record this weekend by topping the international charts for the eighth straight weekend surpassing the old record of seven set by
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. This weekend the swashbuckler took in $18.61 million on 6579 screens in 49 markets lifting its international total to $556.07 million and its worldwide haul to $963.61 million. Looking at the all-time charts, the film is now eighth place and should top
Jurassic Park by this time next week while worldwide it is in fourth place
all-time and should have no trouble tracking down
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone during the weekend. This weekend the film managed to set a record in Greece opening with $2.6 million while it took in $100,000 in Lebanon for the highest opening of the year in that market. Next week the film will likely fall out of top spot but should continue to perform well as it wraps up its International run in Italy on the 15th of September.
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August 23rd, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is starting to shed screens and that was part of the reason it fell 43% this weekend, however, it still earned more than the next two films combined while crossing the $500 million milestone. Over the weekend it added $24.82 million on 7014 screens in 51 markets to its international total of $521.46 million while its worldwide total hit $922.72 million. This is the seventh week in a row that the film has topped the international charts tying the previous record set by
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl back in 2003. On the all-time international charts, the film is now in 12th place all-time, just a few million behind
Finding Nemo and is now fifth place
Worldwide. Where does it go from here? It has yet to open in Italy and by the time it does it could reach $1 billion in total ticket sales, but odds are
Return of the King's second place is safe.
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August 6th, 2006
Over the Hedge may have slipped out of the top five landing in sixth place this week, but it is still bringing in plenty at the box office. After earning $7.12 million on 3877 screens in 33 markets the film now has $121.76 million internationally and is closing in on its domestic total with several more markets left to open in. Its biggest market was again Germany with $1.49 million on 743 screens over the weekend for a four-week total of $14.26 million. Should it perform well in Japan and Italy, it will have no trouble reaching $300 million worldwide. And while that is low compared to the historical averages for
digitally animated films, but is still a great result.
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July 30th, 2006
A first place debut in China lifted
Mission: Impossible 3 into sixth place overall with $5.74 million on 838 screens in 21 markets for a total of $239.82 million. In China it earned $2.8 million on 394 screens while in Japan it managed $2.50 million on 540 for a total of $29.92 million after three weeks of release.
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July 23rd, 2006
A
South Korean film, Hanbando, a.k.a. The Korean Peninsula, topped its native market with a huge $6.14 million on 520 screens over the weekend and a total of $9.85 million overall. That was good enough for sixth place on the international charts.
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July 16th, 2006
The Da Vinci Code slipped out of the top five with $3.85 million on 3037 screens in 55 markets for a total of $515.15 million. This is the 11th best international total ever, while its worldwide mark of $728.36 million places it 23rd on the
all-time worldwide chart.
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July 9th, 2006
Last minute updates in weekend numbers showed that it was
The Da Vinci Code and not
Poseidon grabbing the final spot in the top five. It was an exceedingly close race with the former film topping the latter by less than $3000 both with $5.68 million.
The Da Vinci Code earned its box office on 4352 screens in 57 markets while
Poseidon needed just 3584 in 48. On the other hand, their running tallies are worlds apart with
The Da Vinci Code leading $507.68 million to $94.72 million. That film became just the 12th film to cross $500 million internationally and is less than $20 million from overtaking
Finding Nemo for 10th place on the international charts.
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July 2nd, 2006
Scary Movie 4 opened in first place in both France and Spain, helping the film into sixth place overall with $4.89 million on 1512 screens in 22 markets for a total of $74.72 million internationally. In Spain the film made $1.76 million on 400 screens over the weekend and $1.83 million in total, while in France it brought in $3.47 million on 571 screens, but that was for the full week.
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June 26th, 2006
Overall, there were little in the way of surprises this weekend with no film beating or missing expectations by more than a few million dollars.
But with no breakout hit, the overall box office slumped by 7.8% from last weekend to $140 million.
This did represent an increase of 9.8% over the same weekend last year.
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June 25th, 2006
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift started its international run last weekend but missed the top five with $7.93 million on 810 screens in 8 markets. The film took first place in five markets, including the U.K. with $3.35 million on 415 screens, in Australia with $2.28 million on 221 screens, and New Zealand with $444,000 on 53 screens. This is inline with what the
original opened with in those markets, but with shorter legs due to
Sequelitis it won't have as high a final box office.
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June 19th, 2006
Every film in the top five missed our Friday predictions this weekend and this led to a small 1.4% drop off from last weekend.
Overall, box office was in $152 million.
On the other hand, this was up by 11.6% from the same weekend last year.
Strangely, even though the weekend numbers were better this year, the 2006 summer season still slipped behind last year's pace $1.19 billion to $1.34 billion.
This was in part due to Batman Begins strong midweek opening.
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June 16th, 2006
This is actually a pretty busy week with more than two-dozen site on the list. That makes it the busiest week in a month. However, it was one of the site that had no real updates this week that won the Weekly Website Award this week and it was,
Nacho Libre -
Official Site.
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June 15th, 2006
There are enough new movies opening this weekend to cause a traffic jam, and none of them jump out as obvious box office smashes.
Then again, they all have a legitimate shot at $20 million, and along with last week's winner, Cars we could see 5 films top $20 million over the weekend.
The last time that happened was the weekend of June 11th, 2004 when the original Garfield opened.
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June 9th, 2006
It was a slow week it terms of major updates and that allowed the
Fanboy in me to grant
The Transformers -
Official Site the gloriously premature Weekly Website Award. Let's hope the full site lives up to this title.
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June 1st, 2006
May might have gotten off to a slow start, but it sure made up for it in the end. June looks to keep up the fast pace, but out of the dozen or so movies opening wide this month, only two look like they have to potential to be monster hits and after that there is a huge drop-off in box office potential. There are a few others that should earn their keep, and maybe one or two that will surprise, but most look average at best.
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May 26th, 2006
Not much this week in terms of new sites or updates and all the ones that are award-worthy have already won the weekly website award. The best of the rest is
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift -
Official Site, but it certainly doesn't deserve to win the awards.
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