August 7th, 2012
There was very little activity from the new releases on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, but slightly more than there was on the DVD sales chart. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight remained in the top two spots. Batman Begins added 253,000 units / $2.53 million over the week for totals of 2.1 million units / $26 million. That would be really good for a first run release, for a film that predates Blu-ray, it is awesome. The Dark Knight sold 213,000 units / $4.53 million over the week for totals of 7.5 million units / $121 million. It has likely sold more units than Avatar, but will need a few more weeks like this to top Avatar's total revenue.
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July 24th, 2012
There were only two new releases to chart this week, but one of them, American Reunion, led the way with 352,000 units / $7.04 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 46%, which is excellent for a comedy. On the other hand, it has missed expectations nearly every step of the way, so this isn't enough to make the studio really happy.
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July 23rd, 2012
New releases were not exactly plentiful this week on the DVD sales chart, but we did have a new film on top of the chart. American Reunion sold 411,000 units and generated $6.57 million in opening week sales. That's below expectations, but it also struggled theatrically, so it's not a surprise.
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July 18th, 2012
Like on the DVD sales chart, there were no new releases to reach the top ten on the Blu-ray sales chart. In fact, the best selling Blu-ray was Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which leapt up from fourth to earned first place with 156,000 units / $2.55 million for the week giving it totals of 2.22 million units / $51.32 million after four.
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July 18th, 2012
New releases were nearly absent from the DVD sales chart this week with none in the top ten. This left the top five pretty much the same as last week. 21 Jump Street remained in top spot with 280,000 units / $5.03 million for the week giving it totals of 1.01 million units / $17.47 million.
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July 10th, 2012
Wrath of the Titans led a trio of new releases on top of the Blu-ray sales chart. It sold 800,000 units and generated $18.37 million in revenue, giving the film an opening week Blu-ray share of 55%. A visually-intensive action movie opening with a Blu-ray share above 50% is no longer a noteworthy event.
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July 9th, 2012
New releases dominated the DVD sales chart with four of them placing in the top five. Things were led by 21 Jump Street, which sold 869,000 units while generating $14.77 million in opening week sales. This is a fine start, but given its theatrical run, it isn't a great start. On the other hand, it didn't need a great start to break even.
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July 4th, 2012
There were four new releases to reach the top ten on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, but none of them were able to unseat Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. That film remained in first place with 444,000 units / $11.08 million for the week lifting its totals to 1.90 million units / $44.59 million after two.
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July 4th, 2012
None of the new releases were able to overtake Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for top spot on the DVD sales chart. It repeated in first place with 497,000 units / $7.44 million for the week giving it totals of 1.75 million units / $26.14 million after two. It is already the fifth best selling DVD released in 2012.
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June 27th, 2012
It was a nearly record-breaking week on the Blu-ray sales chart this week, which is very strange for this time of year. Granted, we had the last of the winter blockbusters, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, leading the new releases, but it was still better than expected. That film sold 1.77 million units generating $40.71 million for a for an opening week Blu-ray share of 54%.
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June 26th, 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dominated the new releases and easily took top spot on top of the DVD sales chart this week. It sold 1.52 million units and generated $22.71 million in revenue, which is substantially more than its predecessor made during its opening week, despite selling fewer tickets while in theaters. It's hard to explain that.
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June 11th, 2012
It's another strong week at the home market, at least for this time of year. Usually at this time of year we are dealing with January and February releases, which tend to be rather bad and are rarely big hits at the box office. However, we have the last of the winter blockbusters coming out this Tuesday. The Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Blu-ray Combo Pack will be the best selling release of the week, and good enough to buy, but it is not Pick of the Week material. There were a couple others that came close, like Too Big to Fail on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack and In Darkness on DVD or Blu-ray. In the end, I went with Shallow Grave's Criterion Collection Blu-ray as the pick of the week, although Harold and Maude's Criterion Collection Blu-ray and Gold Rush's Criterion Collection Blu-ray are really close behind.
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February 15th, 2012
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island climbed into first place with $30.0 million on 8,580 screens in 30 markets for a total of $79.20 million. To put this into perspective, its predecessor made $140 million in total, which is a figure this film could match, even if it didn't have any additional markets left to open in. Its biggest opening this weekend was in China where it earned $9.5 million, while it was also a big hit in Russia with $6.97 million on 1,021 screens. The film debuts in France and Spain this weekend, and has yet to open in Italy, Germany, Japan, and other markets.
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February 8th, 2012
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol has reached two milestones since last week, reaching $400 million internationally and $600 million worldwide. It added $24.31 million on 6,259 screens in 51 markets over the weekend and now has $420.83 million internationally and $626.03 million worldwide. Of its weekend haul, $20 million came from China, which was $7 million more than last week's opening.
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February 1st, 2012
It was a good weekend for Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It crossed $200 million domestically and jumped back to first place on the international chart with $25.23 million on 6,411 screens in 56 markets. It now has $369.37 million internationally and $571.93 million worldwide, which is the best in the franchise. The film earned first place with $12.7 million on 3000 screens in China, but had to settle for second place in Italy with $3.01 million on 575. It will quickly cross $600 million worldwide, even though it has no more major markets left to open in.
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January 25th, 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was again the top film on the international box office, even though it fell significantly from last week. It generated an additional $18.3 million on 7,505 screens in 57 markets for totals of $261.3 million internationally and $439.6 million worldwide. Getting to $400 million worldwide is more than enough to show a profit, unless it cost a ridiculous amount for global prints and advertising. There were no major new markets to report on last weekend, but it did add $2.38 million on 422 screens over the weekend in Brazil, giving the film a total of $8.08 million after two. Up next is France this weekend, while it opens in Japan in March. $300 million internationally is pretty much a given, unless it bombs in those two markets, while if it does well, it could reach $500 million worldwide.
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January 18th, 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows remained on top of the international chart with $27.4 million in 57 markets for totals of $222.0 million internationally and $392.2 million worldwide. The film's only major market opening came in Brazil where it topped the chart with $3.37 million on 446 screens. With openings in France and Japan still ahead, Game of Shadows should top $300 million internationally, while it has a shot at $500 million worldwide.
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January 18th, 2012
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day long weekend was mostly filled with good news, with all three films doing at least respectable business, while we had a couple holdovers which beat expectations. Contraband was surprisingly strong earning top spot with relative ease. And while it couldn't match The Green Hornet's debut from last year, the overall box office was very solid at $132 million over three days and $163 million over four. The three-day total was 5% lower than last weekend, but 1.5% higher than last year. The four-day total was 2.6% higher than last year. It's obviously way too early to judge 2012's box office run, but at the moment it is 14% higher than last year's pace at $483 million to $423 million.
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January 12th, 2012
This weekend is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which is not one of the biggest long weekends at the box office. (It is just too close to Christmas / New Year's to really help boost the box office significantly.) There are three films opening wide, Beauty and the Beast 3D, Contraband, and Joyful Noise, plus another film, The Iron Lady, which is expanding enough that it could reach the top ten. I don't think any of them will match last year's winner, The Green Hornet, which pulled in $33.53 million during its opening weekend. However, one can hope all three wide releases reach their potential and 2012 will come out ahead of 2011.
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January 11th, 2012
It's clear that Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows won't surpass its predecessor domestically, while it will be difficult to avoid that fate internationally. That said, it did climb into first place on the international chart with $44.9 million in 51 markets over the weekend for a total of $180.6 million after four weeks of release, while its worldwide total reached $337.6 million. It debuted in first place in a couple major markets this past weekend. In Australia it earned $6.65 million on 386 screens, while in Spain it managed $4.67 million on 459. Even if it had no major markets left to open in, it still would get to $250 million internationally. With debuts in Brazil, France, and Japan ahead, it could reach north of $300 million.
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January 10th, 2012
Wow. That was a shock. The first weekend of 2012 was amazingly strong. Not only did the only new wide release start off much, much stronger than expected, but almost all of the holdovers also held on better than expected. Maybe a lot of people made New Year's resolutions to watch more movies. Compared to last week, the box office was down just shy of 10% to $139 million; however, it was a post-holiday weekend, so this dip was to be expected. In fact, it was rather shallow. Compared to last year, the overall box office was up 25%, which is fantastic. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come.
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January 5th, 2012
After the depressing box office results of 2011 (to be fair, the box office did reach $10 billion for the third time in a row, which is no small amount of money, but week after week we saw year-over-year declines) the industry is pretty desperate to turn things around and we do have some reasons to be hopeful this weekend, mainly because the comparable weekend last year was so bad. Most analysts think The Devil Inside will top last year's lone wide release, Season of the Witch, so if the holdovers can do their part, maybe we can start the year with a win. Then again, I've been hopeful before the weekend many, many times recently, only to be crushed when the box office numbers come in.
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January 5th, 2012
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol remained in first place on the international chart with $45.86 million on 7,342 screens in 50 markets for a total of $227.01 million internationally and $359.42 million worldwide. This includes a first place, $12.77 million opening on 509 screens in the U.K. It had to settle for second place in Mexico with $1.32 million on 1,065 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $6.64 million and in Brazil with $1.04 million on 501 screens over the weekend and a total opening of $6.02 million. The film has almost caught up with Mission: Impossible: III and is closing in on the average for the franchise.
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January 3rd, 2012
2011 ends and 2012 begins, but the new beginnings didn't change. The overall box office rose to $155 million over the weekend, $200 million if you include Monday. This is higher than last weekend, but since Christmas landed on the weekend, this was to be expected. It is troubling that for the three-day portion of the weekend, the box office was 3% lower than last year, which is weaker than expected. 2011 ended with $10.22 billion, which was 3% lower than 2010. Attendance was down 4%, meaning the year had the lowest tickets sales since 1995. We can only hope the next 52 weeks are better than the last 52 weeks were.
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December 29th, 2011
The New Year's Eve weekend is one of the most prosperous at the box office, but it also usually has no wide releases. This is the case this year, for the most part. War Horse and The Darkest Hour will have their first full weekends at the box office, but that's as close as we have to a new release. This means it is unlikely there will be many major changes in the ranking of the top five films and Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol has a clear shot at first place. Also, because Christmas Eve fell on Saturday, we should see strong growth across the board. Anything less than double-digit growth by any film will be considered a disappointment. This means we could actually end 2011 on a winning note compared to 2010. It wouldn't be enough to make a difference in the big picture, but a win is a win.
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December 27th, 2011
Due to the placement of Christmas Day, we are still dealing with mostly studio estimates for weekend numbers. However, while we wait for the final numbers, we can look at some of these early results and compare them to expectations and in some cases use them predict how these films will end their theatrical runs. (In some cases, there's not enough information to guess where it will go in the future.) As for the overall box office numbers, we don't know if the final tally will be higher or lower than last year, but I'm not optimistic.
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December 21st, 2011
This year Christmas is a mess, when it comes to the box office. There are six films opening or expanding wide spread over six days. This includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was bumped up at the last minute and opened on Tuesday. At the other end of the time frame, War Horse and The Darkest Hour don't open till Sunday. The number of films virtually guarantees at least two will struggle at the box office, but hopefully by spreading out the releases, moviegoers will be able to spread their daily movie contact among the new releases. That is if people will bother going to the movies. The longer the slump continues, the more likely it is due to a systemic issue. When people stop going to the movies, they don't see as many trailers and posters for upcoming releases and they are less excited about upcoming releases and, therefore, they are less likely to see movies in the future. It's a vicious cycle. Last year wasn't a great weekend at the box office, because Christmas Eve, which is a dead zone at the box office, landed on a Friday. This year it lands on a Saturday, so it could be even worse.
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December 21st, 2011
New releases dominated the international chart starting with Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which debuted in first place with $69.49 million on 6,693 screens in 42 markets. It debuted in first place in Japan with $7.35 million on 636 screens over the weekend for a total opening of $9.32 million. It also placed first in neighboring South Korea with $7.18 million on 948 screens over the weekend and $8.67 million in total. Other first place openings included Australia with $4.23 million on 414 and Spain with $2.64 million on 528. It had to settle for second place in Russia, but still managed $6.08 million on 1099 screens and in France with $5.03 million on 616. The final major market release of the week was Germany, where it earned second place with $3.48 million on 577 screens over the weekend for a total of $4.00 million. The film has yet to open in Brazil, the U.K., Italy and Scandinavia, among other markets, and should finish in a similar range to the other films in the franchise.
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December 19th, 2011
Well, serves me right for being optimistic. The box office was again filled with disappointments and both wide releases missed expectations, which is bad. They missed expectations by a combined $30 million, which is a disaster. I was going to say, "At least it wasn't as bad as last week!", but that's damning it with faint praise. The overall box office did grow by 57% to $118 million; however, since last weekend was the worse weekend in a few years, this not a reason to celebrate. Compared to last year, the drop-off was 12%. With two weeks left in the year, 2011 is behind 2010's pace by 4% at $9.71 billion to $10.12 billion with no hope of catching up. At this point, the only thing to do is looking forward to 2012 and hope the slump we are in now doesn't extend past the new year.
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December 18th, 2011
While openings of about $40 million for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and $23.5 million for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked are good in comparison to recent openings, both films will fall well below the openings of their predecessors. 2009's Sherlock Holmes posted an opening of $62.3 million and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel posted $48.9 million. So the two movies combined are off almost $50 million from their openings two year ago at a time when the industry badly needs a shot in the arm.
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December 16th, 2011
The box office has given us disappointment after disappointment for a long time. It is getting to the point where no matter how strong a film looks on paper, I expect it to struggle at the box office. This week, we have three or four major releases, depending on how you define things. Both Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows are opening in roughly 3,700 theaters, while Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol is opening in 400 theaters and Young Adult is expanding into nearly 1,000 theaters. All four films should place within the top five. They should also do well when compared to last year's batch of new releases / expansions. The best new release from this week last year was Tron: Legacy, which made $44 million. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows should top that with ease, and the combined strength of the rest should help 2011 earn a solid win. Then again, I've said that before recently and ended up being disappointed the following Monday.
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December 9th, 2011
There are two saturation level releases coming out next week, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Both have a shot at $200 million in total, but the latter should start much faster, so it is the target film in this week's contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a copy of Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame on DVD.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will also win a copy of Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame on DVD.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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December 1st, 2011
Well... game over. At the beginning of November, 2011's total box office was $340 million behind 2010's pace. We needed that gap to be closed significantly by the end of the month, but it actually grew wider. So now that there's virtually no chance that 2011 will avoid a year-over-year decline at the box office, not unless there's a surprise Avatar coming out this month. But is there at least some hope for the next four weeks? Last December six films reach $100 million, including one that opened in limited release and expanded wide, but none reached $200 million. This year, four are practically sure bets at $100 million, including one or two that could reach $200 million. Plus, there are four others that should make between $75 million and $100 million. I doubt all of them will reach the century mark, but if one did, it wouldn't be a shock. Then there's a couple of limited releases that should expand wide and, maybe, if one of them becomes the big play during Awards Season, it could reach $100 million as well. Even if every film beat expectations, 2011 won't come out ahead. But maybe if enough do, we can at least end the year on a high note. Unfortunately it has come down to that. Instead of talking about the box office record being broken, we are hoping 2011 doesn't end on yet another sour note.
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