September 1st, 2011
Despite only managing fourth place on the DVD sales chart this week, Priest opened on top of the Blu-ray sales chart with 187,000 units / $4.24 million. Its opening Blu-ray ratio was 49% and this is great news for upcoming summer blockbusters, as it suggests they could break 50%.
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August 30th, 2011
There were six new releases to chart this week, but none were able to push Rio out of top spot. The film sold an additional 361,000 units lifting its running tally to 2.58 million units / $38.67 million after three weeks of release.
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August 30th, 2011
Summer is officially over, both at the box office and on the home market. Granted, the theatrical releases are still really weak, but the TV on DVD releases are starting to become overwhelming. There are several such releases that are worth picking up, but none rise to the level of Pick of the Week. For that I went with The Coen Brothers Blu-ray Box Set. However, if you've made the leap to Blu-ray, then The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D Blu-ray Combo Pack is worth an honorable mention. Meanwhile, there's a film called Norwegian Ninja coming out on DVD that has cult classic written all over it. I really hope the screener arrives soon.
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August 25th, 2011
Hoodwinked wasn't a huge hit at the box office, but worldwide it was able to pull in $100 million on a production budget of less than $20 million. It was enough to warrant a a sequel, but there were some problems along the way. Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil was originally set for a 2008 release, but then it was pushed back, multiple times, before before finally coming out in April of this year. Sadly, the long wait didn't help the film's box office numbers and it was one of the biggest flops of the year. Was it really that bad? Or was it just hurt by the long time between installments.
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August 16th, 2011
It's a deceptively busy week, as there are several significant releases hitting the home market on Tuesday. However, most of these are wide releases that flopped, to one degree or another. In fact, one of the best selling releases of the week is Jane Eyre, an early success story in limited release. When a limited release could conceivably lead the way in sales... well, that's a sure sign of weakness in the overall market. As for the best release of the week, that would have to go to The Big Lebowski Limited Edition Blu-ray Digibook. The latest season of Dexter would come close, but while the show is great, the releases are not Pick of the Week material.
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May 9th, 2011
There were reasons to celebrate the opening weekend of summer, even if it didn't get off to the best opening in recent memory. Thor took top spot, but its opening weekend was the weakest for the start of summer since Mission: Impossible: III kicked things off in 2006. The overall box office was up 5% from last weekend to $167 million, but that was 7% lower than the same weekend last year. However, this time last year the biggest film was Iron Man 2, which had the biggest opening of the year, so falling being by just 7% is not a bad result. Year-to-date, 2011 is behind 2010 by 13% at $3.25 billion to $3.75 billion, but hopefully in a couple of weeks we can start seeing that gap close.
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May 2nd, 2011
There's finally reason to celebrate at the box office as Fast Five surpassed even the high end expectations and helped the overall box office numbers to their best levels of the year at $159 million. This was up 17% from last weekend and was a stunning 56% improvement over the same weekend last year. Granted, 2011 still lags behind 2010 by $500 million at $3.04 billion to $3.54 billion, but this is great news in the short term, and perhaps its a sign of strength to come.
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May 1st, 2011
After four months fretting about poor box office performance, we finally have an out-and-out success to celebrate. Fast Five has opened with an estimated $83.6 million, according to Universal's figures released on Sunday, which makes it not only the biggest opener of the year (with more than double the debut of the previous record-holder, Rio), but will take the record for the biggest weekend in April, topping the previous entry in the franchise, Fast & Furious (see top April weekends). Perhaps the message in all this is not so much that the industry is dying as that moviegoers haven't had anything to get excited about.
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April 28th, 2011
Analysts are optimistic this week, and for good reason. Not only is one of the most anticipated films of the spring opening this week, it is opening with better than expected reviews and with buzz that is growing at the right time. There's an outside chance that the number one film this year will earn more than the top ten films earned this weekend last year. Even if the top film misses expectations by a 50% margin, 2011 should still earn its third victory in a row in the year-over-year comparison.
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April 1st, 2011
Another month has gone by and 2011 has slipped further behind 2010's pace. March was a bit of an improvement over the first two months, but only in the most generous of terms. It still lost ground to 2010, but not at the same disastrous pace as January and February did. There is some good news, as last April was rather weak and there's a chance 2011 could actually gain ground. After all, only Clash of the Titans earned $100 million last year (although Date Night came awfully close). This year, there are three or four films that could hit the century mark. That would be welcome news indeed. On a side note, April is usually a bit of a dumping ground as studios fear going head-to-head with summer blockbusters opening in May. However, I get the feeling that this year they are hoping to extend summer by having it open a couple of weeks early. Maybe they'll succeed.
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October 2nd, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Paper Man, Sherlock Holmes, Kung Fu Panda 2, and more!
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June 15th, 2008
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for Transporter 3, Hoodwinked 2, The Green Hornet and more!
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February 24th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, Hoodwinked 2, Shanghai, and more!
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