April 17th, 2012
This week's list of DVD and Blu-ray releases is dominated by Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The Blu-ray Combo Pack is worth picking up, but you'll want the Best Buy exclusive, or perhaps you want to tell studios to stop doing retailer exclusives, as they are annoying. That added complication is the reason I'm not awarding the release Pick of the Week, but there are not a lot of other films worthy either. Shame has two amazing performances, but the Blu-ray Combo Pack doesn't have a lot of extras. Fans of nature documentaries might want Frozen Planet: The Complete Series on Blu-ray or IMAX: Born to be Wild on 3D Combo Pack. But in the end, I went with the underseen The Last Rites of Joe May on DVD.
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April 17th, 2012
Keeping Up with the Steins came out in limited release nearly six years ago and while it did well compared to other limited releases, it slipped beneath the radar of a lot of moviegoers. Now, like so many other Miramax releases, it's been picked up by Echo Bridge for a bargain release. Is it worth watching for those that missed it the first time? And is this version worth picking up or should you try and find the out of print edition?
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November 11th, 2006
New releases were nearly shut out of the charts this week, however, one new release that did make the charts was
Mission: Impossible: III, which earned top spot with $9.08 million.
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October 31st, 2006
Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year, and that is playing havoc with this week's DVD releases.
The only single day that messes with the movie industry more than Halloween is Christmas Eve.
That doesn't mean there are no DVDs worth picking up -- there are -- but they are few and far between.
There were only two real contenders for DVD Pick of the Week, Ghost Whisperer - The Complete First Season and Kids in the Hall - Complete Season 5, and if I were forced to choose just one I'd go with Ghost Whisperer - The Complete First Season.
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July 11th, 2006
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continued its record-breaking ways on the per theater charts, earning an average of $32,817, which is the highest average ever for Saturation Level release (defined as 3,000 or more theatres).
Second place went to A Scanner Darkly; the intellectually challenging Science Fiction film started its run with nearly $400,000 in just 17 theatres for an average of $23,040. This is more than enough to ensure expansion, but probably not enough to earn much mainstream success.
The same can be said for the third place film, Heading South, and indeed last week's winner, Strangers With Candy.
The latter film saw significant expansion this week, going from just 2 theaters to 21, and its per theater average held up remarkably at $10,660.
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June 13th, 2006
Cars not only won the overall box office title, but was one of only two films to top $10,000 on the per theatre charts this weekend earning $15,086.
The other film was last week's winner, An Inconvenient Truth, which managed an average of $12,334 in 122 theatres during its third weekend of release.
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June 6th, 2006
An Inconvenient Truth repeated on top of the per theatre charts despite a massive expansion this past weekend. Overall the film managed 9th place with $1.4 million in total and a $17,615 per theatre average.
Second place again went to the overall box office champion, The Break-Up, with $12,760.
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May 23rd, 2006
First of all, this headline represents the last of my Da Vinic Da puns, I promise. (On a side note, had the movie bombed I would have used Da Vinci Da Saster as the headline. Awful, isn't it?) Moving on...
The Da Vinci Code was the only film able to earn more than $10,000 per theatre over the weekend with an incredible $77.1 million in 3,735 for a per theatre average of $20,635. That was more than double the second place film, fellow wide release
Over the Hedge, which came close to making the $10,000 club with $9,475.
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May 16th, 2006
No films topped $10,000 on the per theatre charts, but there were three films in a very close race at the top of the list.
Stolen led the way with $8,829 in its single theatre, while Giuliani Time earned $8,661, also in just one theatre.
Easily the widest release of the three was Sketches of Frank Gehry, which played in a grand total of 2 theatres and pulled in an average of $8,620.
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May 12th, 2006
There's a better than average selection on this week's list, but for the vast majority of the sites, there are only minor changes. The best of the bunch is
Click -
Official Site but there are a several other sites on this week's list that are just a update or two away from being an award winning site.
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May 11th, 2006
A lot of theatres will be showing a new limited release this week, with two films opened in more than two dozen theatres and another opening in more that 100.
However, it is a couple of the smaller releases that are catching the eyes of critics.
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