May 17th, 2010
The best of the new releases couldn't place better than second, which meant Avatar remained on top of the DVD Sales Chart. This week it added $10.87 million from 581,000 units, giving it totals of 6.31 million units and $107.09 million. It is very close to overtaking New Moon for the top spot on the 2010 Yearly Chart.
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May 5th, 2010
We are entering summer, which is a great time of year for the box office, but a terrible time for home market releases. According to Amazon.com, the best-selling release of the week is Saving Private Ryan on Blu-ray, which is also arguably the best release of the week. But I'm awarding the Puck of the Week to Murdoch Mysteries: Season 2, which is a rare Canadian TV-on-DVD release.
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March 28th, 2010
Just Another Pandora's Box started its international run in sixth place with $7.57 million on 417 screens in 2 markets. These two markets include Hong Kong, where it placed third with $333,000 on 33 screens.
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March 14th, 2010
The Princess and the Frog remained in sixth place with $5.18 million on 3019 screens in 35 markets for a total of $149.82 million internationally and $253.53 million worldwide. This past week it opened in Japan, struggling into fifth place with $1.02 million on 363 screens. Even with that disappointing result, it should do well enough on the home market to show a profit relatively soon.
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March 5th, 2010
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 Supporting Actress, which is not a very competitive category.
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February 8th, 2010
Oceans opened in its native France and that helped it climb into sixth place with $9.52 million on 888 screens in 4 markets for a total of $16.98 million. It earned third place in its native market with $5.39 million on 542 screens while it was down just 7% during its sophomore stint in Japan with $3.48 million on 303 screens over the weekend for a total of $10.81 million after two.
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February 2nd, 2010
Oscar nominations were announced at 5:38 this morning, continuing a tradition that have never been adequately explained to me. (Why so early in the morning? Does earning an Oscar nomination become sweeter if people have to wake you up to congratulate you?) Leading the way in nominations were Avatar and The Hurt Locker, both of which pick up nine nods each, many of them in the same categories.
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January 31st, 2010
It's Complicated saw its weekend haul climb 16%, but it still fell out of the top five.
It added $10.37 million over the weekend on 2,665 screens in 32 markets for a total of $50.92 million after a month of release.
The film opened in third place in Germany with $2.40 million on 552 screens over the weekend and $2.74 million in total.
Meanwhile in the U.K. it added $1.84 million on 431 screens over the weekend for a total of $8.72 million after three weeks of release.
With debuts in Japan, South Korea, and Italy still ahead of it, it could reach $100 million internationally to go with its $100 million domestic total.
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January 10th, 2010
Black Lightning opened in sixth place internationally with $8.42 million on 798 screens in 5 markets.
Those markets include Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The latest from Timur Bekmambetov debuted in second place in his native Russia behind Avatar with an estimated $8 million on 700 screens.
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January 5th, 2010
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus topped the per theater chart this weekend, based on reports from theaters in the United States.
The film earned $128,000 in 4 theaters for an average of $31,909, which is roughly what it made last weekend.
It is also playing in many more theaters in Canada, but numbers have not been reported from those locations, at least so far this week.
The final figures may therefore, as last week, push the final average down considerably.
Second place went to to Lovely Bones, which climbed more than 54% to an average of $21,559 in three theaters.
This is excellent news for its planned expansion in a couple of weeks, assuming it doesn't fall by the same amount next week.
White Ribbon opened next with an average of $19,949, also in three theaters.
The overall number one film, Avatar, was just a fraction behind, earning an average of $19,789.
At this point, we've nearly run out of superlatives to describe the film's box office run and it is far from over.
Crazy Heart saw growth over the weekend, up 38% to an average of $18,416.
3 Idiots expanded somewhat and earned a very impressive average of $11,322 in 132 theaters.
A Single Man returned to the $10,000 club with an average of $10,586 in 46 theaters.
The final film in the $10,000 club was Sherlock Holmes, which fell sharply but still managed an average of $10,097.
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January 4th, 2010
2010 continued the record-breaking ways of 2009 thanks to incredible holds by most films in the top ten.
In fact, all but one film we talked about on Thursday topped expectations, sometimes by margins that are difficult to believe.
Overall ticket sales were $220 million, which is 21% lower than last weekend, but a stunning 44% higher than last year.
2009 ended the year with an estimated total of $10.60 billion, which was more than 10% higher than last year's final tally, and almost $1 billion more than the previous record.
Simply amazing.
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December 29th, 2009
As it did on the overall chart, Avatar led the way on the per theater chart, earning an average of $21,880.
Second place went to the overall second place film, Sherlock Holmes, which pulled in an average of $18,031.
3 Idiots did something most Bollywood films don't manage to do, namely top $10,000 on the per theater chart.
Additionally, it was a wider release than most of its compadres, which makes this opening even more impressive.
Crazy Heart expanded somewhat, but still remained strong with an average of $13,321 and this makes hitting milestones much more likely.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel was the third wide release to crack $10,000 with an average of $13,210.
Finally we get to Lovely Bones, which is down to an estimated average of $12,667.
This is roughly a third of its opening weekend average and it still hasn't expanded, which doesn't bode well.
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December 28th, 2009
The final weekend of 2009 turned into a record-breaker with two massive new releases and a holdover that still managed to come out on top.
Overall the box office pulled in an estimated $278 million over the weekend, which crushed the previous record for the biggest weekend by all movies combined.
Additionally, this was 39% higher than the same weekend last year and pushed 2009's running tally to $10.38 billion.
This is 9.2% higher than last year's pace and more than 7% more than the previous record, and there is another week left to go.
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December 23rd, 2009
It's Christmas on Friday, but one new release got the jump on the competition on Wednesday night. With three wide releases and two movies expanding wide, or at least wide-ish, this weekend will be just as busy as it was last year.
However, despite all of these new films, it looks like we could have a repeat on top as Avatar continues its strong run.
Meanwhile, the 2009 box office running tally surpassed the $10 billion mark early on Tuesday.
This is of course the first time the yearly box office total has hit eleven digits and there are more records remaining to be broken.
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December 22nd, 2009
Like last week, the number one film on the per theater chart managed that feat despite mixed reviews.
This week it was Nine, which opened with an average of $64,308, but I am concerned about its ability to expand, especially if its word-of-mouth match its reviews.
The number one film on the overall chart, Avatar, placed second with $22,313 while Crazy Heart was not that far behind with an average of $20,666.
Up in the Air's expansion continues but it remained strong on the per theater chart with an average of $18,344 in 175 theaters.
Finally, Lovely Bones saw its average plummet this weekend to $15,032, which is more than 60% lower than last weekend.
Had this been accompanied by an expansion this wouldn't be an issue, but it is still playing in just three theaters.
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December 18th, 2009
Just a few limited releases on this week's list; however, all three have Awards Season aspirations, and all three have already picked up at least a one major nomination. That said, the usual caveats with regards to limited releases expanding wide still apply. Even though they have a lot of buzz, they have even more competition.
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December 17th, 2009
The SAG nominations were announced this week, and the trend of the year continues with Up in the Air leading the way, but no one film dominating. This time around Up in the Air was in a three-way tie with Inglourious Basterds and Precious, which makes the race even more interesting.
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December 16th, 2009
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations this week, but looking over the list of films chosen, it is hard to declare any one film as the big winner. Up in the Air did pick up six Golden Globe nominations, including several of the most prestigious nominations, but it is far from the only major player.
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December 1st, 2009
November turned out to be a good month with more films meeting or exceeding expectations that missing.
We also saw records broken as 2009 marches closer to the all-time record, and the possibility of becoming the first year to hit $10 billion in total ticket sales growing.
It won't need that much to get there, and even if just one or two of the predicted $100 million hits this month get to that milestone, we will still finish the year by breaking records.
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July 17th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Humboldt County, Nine, The Perfect Game, and more!
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April 10th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for Bride Wars, I Love You Phillip Morris, New York, I Love You, and more!
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March 20th, 2008
This week's round of new casting information contains updates for The Grand, The Proposal, The Legend of Secret Pass, and more!
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August 23rd, 2007
This week's round of new cast information contains updates for Day Zero, The Fighter, He's Just Not That Into You and more!
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