April 13th, 2015
The Blu-ray sales chart nearly bounced back entirely up 51% in terms of units and 75% in terms of revenue when compared to last week. Having a trio of $100 million hits, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Into the Woods, and Unbroken, enter the home market helps. The Blu-ray sales almost caught up to last year, with 11% fewer units sold, but 5.2% more revenue generated. Blu-rays were just a little stronger this week than DVD were and the overall Blu-ray rose a tiny bit to 45%.
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April 13th, 2015
The DVD sales chart was top heavy with new releases. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies earned first place with 682,000 units / $10.21 million, which is about on par with expectations. The Trilogy box set landed in 11th place with 33,000 units / $1.19 million.
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April 13th, 2015
There were five or six new releases to reach the top twenty on the Blu-ray sales chart. Leading the way was The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies with 832,000 units / $23.28 million, giving it an opening week Blu-ray share of 55%. This is a strong result, but not an unexpected one, as the film hits the right marks for strong sales on Blu-ray. It is a visually impressive film, it is a fantasy adventure film, and it is based on a popular franchise. The Battle of the Five Armies was also part of a franchise box set, which is the tenth best selling release of the week with 37,000 units / $1.87 million for a 53% opening week Blu-ray share. Technically these are two separate releases, but obviously they are connected enough to mention together.
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March 24th, 2015
There are three $100 million theatrical hits arriving on the home market this week, which is amazing. However, that's really all that's coming out this week. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the biggest of these three hits, but it wasn't the best. The best is Into the Woods and given the lack of competition, the DVD or Blu-ray is the Pick of the Week.
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January 26th, 2015
The Screen Actors Guild winners were announced Sunday and there were some surprises, mostly in the negative. Birdman picked up the biggest prize, but there were six different winners in the six categories.
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January 17th, 2015
The Oscar nominations were announced early in the morning, when all sensible people were asleep. There were some surprises, as well as some results that would have been surprises had it not been for the previous Awards Season nominations. Seventeen films earned two or more nods, led by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, both of which picked up nine nominations, while The Imitation Game was right behind with eight.
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January 13th, 2015
Taken 3 earned first place at the box office, as expected, but it did so earning close to $40 million, which is much more than expected. Unfortunately, the rest of the box office wasn't nearly as strong as the overall number fell 19% from last week to $126 million. Compared to last year, the box office this year was 10% lower than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2015 is behind 2014's pace by 1.8%. However, while 2014 was the worst year at the box office in nearly two decades, last January was the second-best January ever, so it is still way too early to panic.
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January 8th, 2015
It is a strange weekend at the box office with the number of wide releases being outnumbered by the number of wide expansions. Taken 3 is the only wide release and it is widely expected to top the chart by a significant margin. Selma is the best film on this week's list and should do well during its first wide weekend. On the other hand, it appears Inherent Vice is not opening truly wide and that it likely won't reach the top ten. This weekend last year was led by Lone Survivor, which earned $37.85 million during its first week of wide release, while the only new wide release was The Legend of Hercules with $8.87 million. There was also another not-so wide expansion, August: Osage County, which earned seventh place with $7.16 million. Overall, it looks like 2015's batch of new releases are not quite as strong as last year's were, but 2015 did win last weekend, so perhaps the holdovers can help 2015 come out on top of the year-over-year comparison.
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January 5th, 2015
2015 box office started off on a strong note with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies leading the way with $21.73 million. More impressive, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death earned fourth place with $15.03 million, which is significantly more than what most people were predicting. The overall box office was $155 million, which is 2% lower than last weekend. More importantly, it is 10% higher than the same weekend last year. Obviously it is far, far too early to judge 2015, but after what happened last year, I'll take any win and I'll be happy about it.
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January 2nd, 2015
The new year starts with just one new release, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death. It's a horror film, which is a genre that is becoming common for early year releases. This is probably because these films are relatively cheap to produce, so they don't need a strong box office to break even. For example, this weekend last year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, a horror film that cost $5 million to make, was the only wide release. I don't think Angel of Death will top The Marked Ones, but last weekend was strong in the year-over-year comparison, so perhaps the holdovers can help 2015 start on a winning note.
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December 30th, 2014
We are still dealing with studio estimates for the weekend numbers, but we can at least tell you what film won, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and roughly how much it earned, $41.42 million. The new releases were much closer than expected with Into the Woods and Unbroken both earning just over $30 million over the weekend. Because we don't have enough final numbers, we really can't compare the overall box office to last weekend or last year. So far, the final weekend of 2014 pulled in $200 million and that number should grow a little bit as box office numbers filter in. This is 52% more than last weekend and 2.3% more than the same weekend last year. I'm a little more bullish about January's box office chances after this result.
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December 23rd, 2014
We have a short prediction column today detailing the three Christmas day wide releases, as well as the two bigger limited releases. Sadly, none of these five films are really living up to potential and Christmas Day could be rather weak at the box office. Then again, why should Christmas be any different than the past several months. 2014 got off to such a great start. Last Christmas was busier, but not particularly strong either, so at least 2014 won't lose too badly.
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December 18th, 2014
Christmas is next week and as always, there are a number of films trying to take advantage of the holiday. This year, that number was supposed to be three, but The Interview has been pulled from the movie schedule indefinitely. That leaves Into the Woods and Unbroken and of the two, Into the Woods will very likely be the bigger film. As such, it is the clear choice for for the target film for this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Into the Woods.
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 Brittany Murphy Story 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 The Brittany Murphy Story 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 10th, 2014
The Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced Wednesday morning. Are there surprises worth mentioning? Is the Oscar picture beginning to take shape? Like with the Independent Spirit Awards, Birdman led the way this time earning four nominations from six categories, while Boyhood, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything had three nods each.
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December 1st, 2014
November is over and there are not a lot of positive things to say about what happened during the month. There were a couple of films that matched expectations, but there were no breakout hits and a few that missed expectations by wide margins. Granted, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will top $300 million with relative ease, but that's still nearly $100 million lower than some people were predicting. The month ends with 2014 about $300 million behind 2013's pace and there's really no chance to catch up in December. That doesn't mean there are no films that will be worth watching in December. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies should at least earn $200 million, while $300 million is not out of the question. Additionally, there are several films that at least have a shot at $100 million at the box office, but not all will get there. At least this December and last December are on par with each other. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug topped $250 million while there were three others that topped $100 million. I think we will get the same result this month. Last year there were a lot more wide releases, but many of them bombed. I think this year the lack of competition will help more films reach their potential.
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