February 13th, 2008
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 Animated Feature Film and Best Feature Length Documentary.
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February 10th, 2008
The final guilds awards were handed recently and it seems like a stuck record with No Country for Old Men picking up award after award. However, it wasn't the only winner.
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January 22nd, 2008
The Oscar nominations were announced today and there is no shortage of contenders.
In fact, with no real juggernaut to deal with, the competition is more up in the air that most years.
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January 15th, 2008
The final three guilds handed out their nominations over the past week and while most deal with television, there are a handful of theatrical nominations for each of the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America.
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November 19th, 2007
Ratatouille led a large group of new releases on this week's sales chart selling a massive 3.86 million units for first week sales of $57.82 million.
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November 19th, 2007
There were just four new releases to chart on this week's rental charts, but three of them placed in the top five. This includes the new number one renter, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which pulled in $9.26 million in rentals.
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November 7th, 2007
The winners of our
To Your Health! contest were determined and they are...
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November 6th, 2007
Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas shopping season has (un)officially started and there is a flood of DVDs coming out this week, so much so that we again had to split the list into two parts. (And looking at next week's list, we might have to do it again.) Despite this long list, it was an easy choice for DVD Pick of the Week: Cars - Blu-Ray Release. Although when the other two Blu-Ray Pixar screeners show up, I might have to revise that choice.
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October 26th, 2007
It's the first box office prediction contest for November and there's a bit of a toss up for the number one film. While American Gangster has a shot at first place, Bee Movie is this week's target film.
To win one must simply predict the box office opening for Bee Movie.
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 the Sicko on DVD, (which doesn't hit stores till November 6th).
Meanwhile, whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going under, will win a copy of The Other Conquest on DVD.
In addition, both above winners and one additional one chosen arbitrarily will also win a poster from Music Within signed by five members of the main cast and the director.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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September 16th, 2007
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry soared into sixth place with $4.72 million on 1521 screens in 21 markets for a total of $14.61 million internationally. The film finally hit big in a non-English speaking market earning first place with $1.27 million on 364 screens in Russia, but was soft in its debuts in South Korea and Italy. In Italy it managed $683,000 on 198 screens, but that was a tiny fraction of the first place film, while in South Korea it managed just ninth place with $275,000 on 123 screens over the weekend and $312,000 in total.
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September 2nd, 2007
Knocked Up went from barely making the top 30 to nearly hitting the top five after adding $6.89 million on 1628 screens in 19 markets. The film now has a total of $25.54 million internationally while its worldwide total hit $173.34 million. To put this into perspective, The 40-Year Old Virgin earned $177.34 million and Knocked Up has yet to open in France, Spain, Italy, and many other significant markets. This week it did open in two major markets, the U.K. and Germany. In the former it had to settle for second place with $3.08 million on 423 screens while in the later it topped the charts with $2.11 million on 597 screens. In both markets this represents a small drop-off from The 40-Year Old Virgin, but the movie has already covered its total cost, so there's little reason to complain.
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July 31st, 2007
Transformation: The Life & Legacy of Werner Erhard surprised on top of the per theater chart with an impressive $25,460 earned in its lone theater. The overall box office leader, The Simpsons Movie, was in second place with $18,877 while This is England was close behind with $18,430. The political documentary, No End in Sight opened very strongly with more than $30,000 in 2 theaters for an average of $15,767.
Finally, The Devil Came on Horseback also topped $10,000 with $11,143 over the weekend and $18,336 since Wednesday.
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July 17th, 2007
The overall box office leader, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was also the leader on the per theater chart with an impressive $17,995 in over 4,000 theaters.
My Best Friend was reasonably close behind with an average of $15,082 in three theaters.
Meanwhile, Talk to Me exploded on the scene with more than $400,000 in 33 theaters for an average of $12,182.
This should be more than enough to earn some mainstream success.
Speaking of mainstream success, Rescue Dawn just missed the $10,000 club this week despite growing from 6 theaters to 38 and maintained an average of $9,555.
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July 10th, 2007
Rescue Dawn was the top draw on the per theater chart this weekend, earning an average of $18,388 in 6 theaters over the weekend and $27,979 since Wednesday.
The overall box office champ, The Transformers, placed a very close second with $17,577.
The re-release of Le Doulos grew by 10.51% to $10,346 in its lone theater and made it into the $10,000 club.
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July 10th, 2007
Records fell this past week(end) as The Transformers topped almost all expectations and broke a couple of records.
However, while the overall box office hit $174 million, which was 12% higher than last weekend, it was 20% lower than the same weekend last year.
There are some mitigating circumstances to deal with.
For instance, the midweek releases did pull some business from the weekend.
And secondly, last year at this time was the then record-breaking opening of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
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July 3rd, 2007
There were only two films to crack $10,000 on the per theater chart this week, both of which placed in the top ten overall. The box office champion, Ratatouille, finished in first place with an average of $11,936 while Sicko wasn't too far behind with $10,208.
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July 2nd, 2007
There was some good news over the weekend; the mini-slump ended as the overall box office pulled in $156 million, 1% over the same weekend last year. That's not a big increase, in fact, it is below ticket price inflation, but that's still something to celebrate and focusing on the good news is good for business.
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June 28th, 2007
The mini-slump of 2007 threatens to become the dominant story if things don't change soon. This week there are a two wide releases hoping to prop up the box office numbers, as well as two other films opening or expanding semi-wide. None look like they will set records during their opening weekends, but Ratatouille should outperform Superman Returns, and that's good news.
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June 26th, 2007
Only one film was able to top $10,000 on the per theater chart, but it did so with ease.
Sicko earned $68,969 in its lone theater, and also sold out all 43 advanced screenings.
This is a very good sign for Friday's wide release, although I'm still not confident it will open in the top five.
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June 24th, 2007
One of the most anticipate films of the summer became the best site of the week. The Simpsons Movie - Official Site is finally here and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.
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June 22nd, 2007
This week's collection of limited releases includes movies about killer sheep, health care that can kill, and guys who get paid to kill.
Despite this wide, wide range of subjects, there is one thing that almost all these films have in common -- they are all earning excellent reviews.
This week, earning just 75% positive is considered average.
Hopefully the competition doesn't hurt the films too much as they deserve to reach wider audiences.
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June 9th, 2007
There are a lot of movies on this week's list, but many have just the synopsis, image gallery, and the trailer, and many don't even have that. There were very few that stood out, but at least Speed Racer - Official Site got off to a great start. Perhaps it will win the award before it hits theaters.
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June 1st, 2007
With the irrational exuberance of May over, June promises to be a solid month with a number of big hits opening. In fact, every week there's at least one film being released that has a legitimate shot at $100 million at the box office and two films that should hit $200 million. If both Ratatouille and Evan Almighty make it there, we will have six $200 million films so far this year, just two back of 2005's record. On the other hand, there are also a number of films on this month's list that may or may not open wide, and for most of these becoming a midlevel hit will be a chore.
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May 26th, 2007
Another slow week. If this keeps up I'm going to have to rethink my methodology. Not only were there not as many sites as I would like, there were none that really stood out as award-worthy. The best was Stardust - Official Site, but here I will wait for more of the content to be added before I make a final decision.
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May 13th, 2007
This week's round of new movie release information contains release dates for 1408, Illegal Tender, Mr. Woodcock and more.
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