December 10th, 2012
It's a terrible week on the home market from top to bottom, but for different reasons. There are a few really big releases at the top, Ted, Ice Age: Continental Drift, The Bourne Legacy, Girls: Season One, Futurama: Volume Seven. However, I am waiting for the final screener for all of them. (I did get a DVD screener for a couple.) After that glut of good releases, there's a sharp drop-off in sales potential. That doesn't mean there aren't other releases worth picking up, but I don't expect Following to sell 100,000 units on DVD or Blu-ray. It is the best release on this week's list and the winner of the Pick of the Week honor. On a side note, there are a ton of cheap releases with the word, "Django" in the title, obviously hoping to cash in on Django Unchained. There are also a lot of releases that I would describe as porn, or at least porn-lite. I assume those two trends are unrelated.
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February 9th, 2012
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Documentary, which is about as competitive as Best Animated Feature Film, for the same reasons. The two films I thought were most likely to win, Bill Cunningham New York and Project Nim, weren't even nominated. There are still favorites and long shots, but there should be a competitive race.
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January 24th, 2012
Yesterday was one of the biggest days during Awards Season as The Oscar nominations were announced in the morning. It was a two horse race for top spot as far as the big winners are concerned. Hugo earned the most nominations with eleven, while The Artist was right behind with ten. However, one could argue The Artist is the bigger winner, as more of its nominations were in the more prestigious categories.
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January 22nd, 2012
Producers Guild of America handed out the winners tonight and instead of solidifying Oscar prospects, they might have opened things up a bit more. At least in my mind there are more questions than answers after tonight. So what nominees took home the awards?
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January 12th, 2012
After previously announcing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film, the Directors Guild of America announced the nominations for the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary category. This is the final major award we track before the Oscars and, at this point, there are definitely favorites for the big night.
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January 4th, 2012
The nominees for this year's Producers Guild of America were announced and there were not a lot of surprises. For instance, nine of the ten nominees for Theatrical Motion Pictures also earned Golden Globe Nominations for either Best Drama or Best Musical / Comedy. Four of the five Animated films also did the same. It does make the Awards Season picture a lot clearer going forward, but it makes coming up with something to say much harder.
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November 30th, 2011
As it does every year, Independent Spirit Award nominations kick off the unofficial start of Awards Season. This year there were two films that topped the list of nominations: The Artist and Take Shelter. Both of those films earned five nominations, but they weren't the only films to be singled out.
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September 13th, 2011
It is an incredibly busy week on the home market with several major releases, including Thor on Blu-ray, as well as Star Wars The Complete Saga, which comes out this Friday. Unfortunately, neither of the screeners have arrived yet, so it is hard to tell if they are pick of the week material. I figured Star Wars would easily take that honor, but the changes made have pissed off enough people that I think it's best that I hold off making a judgment till after it arrives. After spending way too long trying to pick between the two, I'm going with Degrassi: Season Ten, Part Two instead.
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May 24th, 2011
Midnight in Paris had the best per screen average for the year so far and came within a rounding error of topping $100,000. The film opened with $599,003 in 6 theaters for an average of $99,834, which represents a career best for Woody Allen. Add in its Oscar-worthy reviews, and there's no telling where it could go. The overall number one film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, was the only other film to crack $10,000 on the per theater chart, as it opened with an average of $21,697.
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March 30th, 2011
Seven films topped the $10,000 mark on the per theater chart this week, but leading the way were last week's top two films: Bill Cunningham New York and Win Win. The former earned $21,786 in 3 theaters while the latter was right behind with $20,192 in 23. My Perestroika earned $17,680 in its lone theater over the weekend and $25,084 since its Wednesday opening. Mia and the Migoo and Miral were neck-and-neck at $16,975 and $16,561. They also share something else, bad reviews, so their futures are in doubt. Trophy Wife earned an average of $12,288 in seven theaters. Finally, Jane Eyre made nearly $1 million over the weekend in 90 theaters for an average of $10,778.
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March 27th, 2011
The last weekend in March have brought us another pair of movies opening in the high teens to low twenties. This time around Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was the low-twenties movie, picking up a very respectable $24.4 million on debut, which is a shade ahead of the $22 million earned by the first film in the franchise this time last year. Sucker Punch produced a slightly disappointing $19 million opening weekend, which is a drop in the bucket compared to its $75 million budget. It'll need good international numbers and a strong home market performance to recoup costs.
Overall box office will be down about 7% from last year, continuing 2011's losing streak, although that makes this one of the better weekends of the year so far.
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March 22nd, 2011
There were a quartet of strong performers on the per theater chart this past weekend with Bill Cunningham New York coming out on top with $33,677 in its lone theater. However, while Win Win came in second, it was close behind with $30,072 while it was playing in five theaters, instead of just one, so you could argue it had the better start. Jane Eyre remained potent with an average of $17,939, while its theater count grew from 4 to 26. It will start hitting major milestones very soon. Nostalgia for the Light was the final $10,000 film with $10,681 in one theater.
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March 20th, 2011
The North American box office showed further glimmers of hope this weekend, with no less than five movies vying for top spot on the chart, and Limitless handily beating expectations to finish first. Its $19 million debut is the best so far for Relativity Media's fledgling distribution organization. Overall, however, box office will be down around 10% from last year, continuing a losing streak that will almost certainly extend to cover the entire first quarter.
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March 18th, 2011
It's another rather busy week for limited releases, plus there are a few that have might expand wide enough to earn some measure of mainstream success. There are a few very impressive documentaries on this week's list, while hopefully narrative films like Win Win or The Music Never Stopped can continue the mini-winning streak limited releases have had.
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