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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May 28th, 2007
It's a slow week for top-notch releases, but strangely not one for spotlight reviews as we have four of them. Even weirder, three of those are martial arts movies. The best of this week's offerings is Shanghai Express with fellow Cynthia Rothrock release, Above the Law being an honorable mention.
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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 29th, 2007
The Reaping climbed into sixth place this past weekend with $5.98 million on 2634 screens in 39 markets for a total of just $20.38 million. The film had a couple respectable openings including South Korea where it made $1.17 million on 129 screens over the weekend and $1.34 million in total while it took in $335,000 in Brazil. However, in most markets the film stumbled, like in France where is placed seventh with $684,000 or the the U.K. where it placed eighth with $622,000 on 282 screens. The film debuted in ninth place in Australia, ($405,000 on 133 screens); in Russia, ($261,000 on 111); and in Germany, ($247,000 on 201). Mexico became the film's best market as it has pulled in $4.45 million in three weeks, including $589,000 on 350 screens this past weekend; this is just ahead of the $4.25 million the film has earned in Spain, but it only managed $334,000 on 299 screens this past weekend and will quickly disappear there.
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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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March 11th, 2007
Music and Lyrics remained in sixth place with $5.64 million on 1645 screens in 18 markets for a total of $32.01 million internationally. The film disappointed domestically, but it appears to be making up for that softness on the international scene. The film's best opening of the weekend came from South Korea where it placed second with $2.06 million on 144 screens while it also grabbed second place in Brazil with $490,000 on 140. Holdovers were led by the U.K. where the film earned $1.09 million on 364 screens during its fourth week of release for a total of $15.71 million in that market alone. That's close to a $100 million run here, taking into account the relative sizes of the two markets.
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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 21st, 2007
It was a record-breaking President's Day weekend as 2007 produced it first blockbuster.
Overall, total box office hit $158 million from Friday to Sunday, $188 million including Monday.
That 3-day figure represents a 40% increase over last week and 22% over the same weekend last year.
In addition, the 4-day portion was 20% higher than last year.
This is great news for a year that hasn't gotten off to a fast start.
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February 19th, 2007
It's President's Day today and that can only mean one thing, millions of Americans are celebrating by cutting down cherry trees and lying about it. I think. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure what people do to celebrate President's Day. But I do know it will cause a slight delay in a couple of weekly columns. For instance, the weekend wrap-up and the per theatre charts will both be pushed back one day while the DVD Release column will be a bit late. It might still be published late today, but it might not come out till sometime after midnight. In the meantime, here are the studio estimates for the weekend numbers...
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February 18th, 2007
Ghost Rider made a fiery box office debut this weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Its $44.5 million opening makes it the new record holder for the best President's Day opening weekend, and if the estimate holds, it will record the 3rd-best February weekend (see Best February weekends).
The opening was considerably ahead of most predictions, and the weekend as a whole looks very healthy.
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February 14th, 2007
The Pursuit Of Happyness's reign on top of the international charts was short lived as
Night at the Museum reclaimed the crown. Over the weekend the film pulled in $14.01 million on 4559 screens in 43 markets for a total of $231.50 million so far. Topping this week's markets was France where the film opened in first place with $4.3 million on 676 screens while it fell just 33% during its second weekend in Italy adding $2.45 million on 463 screens for a total of $9.51 million. Even if the film had no further markets to open in, $250 million internationally and $500 million worldwide would be virtual guarantees. However, it has yet to open in Japan as well as midlevel markets like Belgium and the Netherlands.
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February 13th, 2007
It was a predictable weekend at the box office, with the top five finishing in the exact order predicted and even though a few films beat predictions, none were wildly outside expectations.
Overall, box office receipts hit $112 million, which was 22% higher than last weekend.
But that was 7% lower than the same weekend last year.
However, while the dollars were flowing, the critics were complaining, again.
Six weeks into the month and we've only had one wide film that has impressed the majority of critics.
That should change by Friday with two new releases that look promising.
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February 9th, 2007
Still waiting sites for the big summer blockbusters to come online. In the meantime, this week is relatively busy, but with only a couple sites that look like they could be award-worthy once the features are added. The best of the best, and I use that term loosely, is
Norbit -
Official Site with a site that could be more entertaining than the movie it promotes.
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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 1st, 2007
February is the shortest month of the year, but not the slowest at the box office. It doesn't have the stigma of being a dumping ground, and with Valentine's Day fitting nicely in the middle,
romantic comedies have a leg up at the box office. However, for the most part, movies released during this month are aiming for midlevel hit and there are few, if any, that will become blockbusters.
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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 20th, 2007
Another slow week, but its been that way for a while. I'm hoping that will change when the summer blockbusters start launching their full sites soon, in fact,
Spider-Man 3's
Official Site did go live this week, but it is mostly marked coming soon and too soon to give it the award just yet.
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