September 10th, 2015
There were more new releases to chart this week than there were last week. However, none of the new releases from August 11th were unable to unseat the holdovers on the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for August 16th chart. This left Insurgent in first place with 303,000 units / $4.85 million for the week, giving it totals of 1.17 million units / $18.95 million after two weeks of release.
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September 3rd, 2015
Only two and a half new releases from August 2nd reached the combined DVD and Blu-ray chart for August 9th chart. Insurgent led the way with 904,000 units and $14.71 million during its first week of release for a Blu-ray share of 54%. This is substantially lower than Divergent's opening week, which is a troubling sign for the franchise. Speaking of the franchise, there was also a Double-Feature, which placed third with 130,000 units / $2.98 million for an opening week Blu-ray share of 48%.
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August 11th, 2015
Fortunately, summer is coming to an end, so the quality of the home market releases will start to climb very soon. Unfortunately, this week the biggest first-run release is Unfriended. It is worth picking up, if you are a fan of the genre, but it is not exactly a blockbuster title. As for the best releases of the week, I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story is close to the top of the list. However, in the end I went with Felicia Day: You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), which is a bit of an unorthodox choice, as it is not a DVD or Blu-ray. However, it is the best new release of the week.
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April 27th, 2015
As expected, Furious 7 completed the sweep winning every single weekend in April. Thankfully, every film in the top five matched or exceeded predictions, including The Age of Adaline, which had a solid third place opening. However, the overall box office still fell 18% from last weekend to just $97 million. This was also 16% lower than the same weekend last year. 2015 is still ahead of 2014 by a margin of 2.3% at $3.13 billion to $3.06 billion.
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April 23rd, 2015
The Age of Adaline is the only true wide release this week, and that could give it a boost at the box office. However, I seriously doubt that will give it a large enough boost to top Furious 7, which is looking to sweep the month of April. There is one other new release, Little Boy, that has a shot at the top ten. Finally, Ex Machina is expanding “nationwide.” I don't have a theater count for the film, but many think it will be truly wide, which would give it a shot at the top five. The Other Woman opened in first place this weekend last year, earning nearly $25 million. There’s no chance any film will match that figure this year. The top two films combined might not match that figure this year, so April will end on a losing note in the year-over-year comparison. That’s disappointing, but we will make up for the loss next week.
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April 22nd, 2015
Furious 7 again dominated the weekend international box office chart earning $166.9 million on 17,834 screens in 67 markets for totals of $857.86 million internationally and $1.152 billion worldwide. This is the first film from Universal to reach $1 billion during its initial run (Jurassic Park got there during its 3D re-release). After opening in China last Sunday, the film made $186.60 million for the week giving it an eight-day total of $250.02 million there. It got to that milestone faster than any film and it is just $70 million behind Age of Extinction in that market. This is simply a stunning result. On the other hand, the film only managed third place in Japan with $6.2 million.
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April 21st, 2015
The winners of our Unfriendly Wager contest were determined and the entrants with the closest predictions for Unfriended opening weekend were...
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April 21st, 2015
The top three films all missed expectations this past weekend, which suggests people are starting to become excited about The Avengers: Age of Ultron over anything in theaters at the moment. Furious 7 still won the race on the weekend chart and will top $300 million shortly. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2's and Unfriended's openings were fine, but nothing more. Overall, the box office fell 8.9% from last weekend down to $120 million. Compared to last year, the box office was 10% lower. Year-to-date, 2015 is still ahead of 2014 with the current margin being 2.3% at just under $3.00 billion to $2.93 billion.
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April 19th, 2015
Furious 7 continues its cruise into the record books this weekend with a third straight weekend at number one domestically, an international weekend estimated at $167.9 million (including $93.3 million in China to take it to $250 million there), and a worldwide total estimated at $1.153 billion as of the end of Sunday. It’s now the biggest film in Universal’s history, and their second after Jurassic Park to cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The film’s 51% decline in its third weekend in the domestic market suggests it’s running out of steam and will probably end with around $330 million here. It still has one weekend to cash in though, before Avengers: Age of Ultron will start on its own march to $1 billion on May 1.
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April 16th, 2015
Furious 7 could be knocked out of top spot on the box office chart this weekend, as there are three wide releases coming out this week. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 appears to be the biggest and many think it will earn first place. However, its reviews are currently zero percent positive. Unfriended's reviews are still in the overall positive area, but I'm not sure how long that will last, as they've fallen quite a bit from earlier in the week. The only film with overwhelming positive reviews is Monkey Kingdom, which is opening in barely more than 2,000 theaters. This weekend last year, there were four wide releases and overall there were three films that earned $20 million or more. I think this weekend we could match that and that could give 2015 the victory in the year-over-year comparison. It could be close, on the other hand.
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April 10th, 2015
There are four releases next week that we thought were going to open wide, but that turns out not to be the case. Monkey Kingdom was always expected to open semi-wide, but now we have reports that Child 44 will only open in 550 theaters, more or less. This leaves a two-way race between Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Unfriended. Paul Blart could earn more in the long-run, but horror films tend to start faster. Therefore, Unfriended is the choice for the target film in this week's box office prediction contest. In order to win, one must simply predict the opening weekend box office number for Unfriended.
Whoever comes the closest to predicting the film's opening 3-day weekend box office (Friday to Sunday), without going over, will win a Frankenprize consisting of previously reviewed DVDs or Blu-rays.
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 Frankenprize consisting of previously reviewed DVDs or Blu-rays.
Finally, we will be choosing an entrant from the group of people who haven't won, or haven't won recently, and they will also win a Frankenprize consisting of a previously reviewed DVDs or Blu-rays. I'm going to do this with all contests from now on, to help spread out the winnings. Plus I still have hundreds of DVDs and Blu-rays that I simply don't have the storage for.
Entries must be received by 10 a.m., Pacific Time on Friday to be eligible, so don't delay!
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April 1st, 2015
March ended on a good note and helped 2015 maintain its lead over 2014 thanks to a trio of $100 million movies: Cinderella, Insurgent, and Home. April isn't as strong as far as depth goes, as only Furious 7 is expected to come close to $100 million at the box office. On the positive side, it could earn $100 million during its opening weekend, becoming the fastest starting film of the year, so far. On the negative side, it is expected to earn more than double the rest of the films' combined box office totals. Even worse, last April, there were two $100 million hits, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as well as two others that came close. There's no way April 2015 is going to live up to April 2014. I just hope the collapse isn't so bad that 2015 loses its lead over 2014 completely.
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