The Box Office Junkie

Goodbye, TBOJ: An obituary to my blog

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:40:00 +0000

You know that part of Air Bud when Josh tries to make his dog Buddy run away? "GO!" he screams. "Get out of here! Don't you understand?!" All the poor dog can do is stare back at his owner with his tail between his legs and dejection in his eyes. "You're giving up on me?" That's sort of the look that I imagine my blog (my veritable pet) is giving me right now.

I'm setting TBOJ free. I'm letting go of what has been my passion-project for the last four years. It's no secret that I've had my ups and downs with the whole blogging lifestyle. I've quit my blog not once, not twice, but three times, only to start writing again a few months later. Blogging—at least news-based blogging—is tough stuff!

One thing that has never waned, though, is my interest in the box office. I live and breathe that stuff, and I can truly say that analyzing the box office is my passion through and through. Why? Only God knows that—but I love it, and I intend to always write and think about it.

The reality is that it was difficult to work so hard for so long on a website that makes almost no money. Whoever said that blogs are already replacing traditional media didn't know what he was talking about. A regular person just can't build a successful entertainment website out of his bedroom, working for dozens of hours a week and earning nothing.

This blog was an incredible place to muse about the film industry. I made predictions, wrote weekend reports, shot videos, wrote reviews—it was a total joy having TBOJ as my hobby. It allowed me to think critically and hone my skills as a writer, skills which I now get to bring to Entertainment Weekly, my lifelong favorite magazine, where I am newly hired. It's pretty incredible.

You see, TBOJ was always a means to an end. I never intended to make a full-time living operating this little site. Its purpose was always to serve as an example of my writing—a resumé of sorts. Thankfully, I've moved past that need. I have a job now, a dream job, that allows me to make a living writing about movies. What could be better?

Thank you to everyone that ever read this website. Your readership, emails, comments (both encouragements and criticisms), and attention have meant so much to me over the years. You all have been the most wonderful readers and supporters. Many of you have stuck with me through all my years of fickle blogging, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

I hope you will all join me on my next adventure and read my stuff in Entertainment Weekly and on EW.com. It's an exciting new chapter of my life, and having reached this point helps me to close the TBOJ chapter with a big smile on my face. On to bigger and better things! If you want to stay up-to-date with what I'm doing, please follow me on Twitter.

All the best,
Grady

Check out my new site!

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:48:00 +0000

Look, I know TBOJ has been sorely inactive for a while now. Sorry about that. I had to graduate college, apply for jobs, find an apartment, and prepare for my big move to New York City, where I'm headed tomorrow morning. There's been a lot of great box office news lately, and I'm sad I haven't written about it. But let's not dwell in the past.

Let's talk about the future! I want to tell you all about my latest venture: Blu-ray-Sales.com! I've always been confused why there was no weekly Blu-ray sales database online, so I decided to take things into my own hands and build one!

The site has six months of Blu-ray sales data, and individual pages for popular Blu-ray titles like Inception, Tangled, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

It would mean so much to me if you would head over there and give the site a whirl, and then email/facebook/tweet at your friends to share it with the world. I'm really excited about this venture—I feel like I have a competitive advantage within the Blu-ray niche, and it could be big. Check it out!

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'TRON: Legacy' no match for 'Tangled on DVD, stronger on Blu-Ray; 'Little Fockers' and 'Narnia' debut

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:12:00 +0000

The-Numbers has once again posted its weekly DVD sales chart, and I've put together my weekly Blu-Ray sales estimates for the week ending April 10, 2011. This week, Tangled stayed on top of the DVD chart, while TRON: Legacy took the Blu-Ray side of things. Little Fockers, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Friday Night Lights: The Fifth Season also debuted. Both charts can be viewed after the jump.

DVD Sales for the Week Ending April 10, 2011

Rank	Prev. Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	(1)	Tangled	806,636	-76.7%	4,270,425	$13,244,963	$65,167,160	2
2	(-)	Tron: Legacy	784,453	-.-%	784,453	$12,543,403	$12,543,403	1
3	(-)	Little Fockers	696,369	-.-%	696,369	$11,831,309	$11,831,309	1
4	(-)	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	477,528	-.-%	477,528	$8,465,951	$8,465,951	1
5	(2)	Black Swan	184,316	-70.9%	816,804	$2,762,897	$12,243,892	2
6	(3)	Megamind	160,763	-8.3%	2,850,050	$1,606,022	$39,169,921	7
7	(-)	Tron	108,735	-.-%	-	$1,847,408	-	830
8	(6)	The Tourist	105,992	-20.5%	829,170	$1,558,082	$13,775,390	3
9	(8)	The Fighter	101,233	2.5%	1,316,786	$1,445,607	$19,840,133	4
10	(-)	Red	92,924	-.-%	2,416,549	$928,311	$31,553,488	11
11	(4)	Yogi Bear	91,876	-45.9%	925,890	$1,508,604	$14,010,474	3
12	(-)	Friday Night Lights: The Fifth Season	91,634	-.-%	91,634	$2,106,666	$2,106,666	1
13	(7)	How Do You Know	85,803	-35.5%	478,115	$1,261,304	$8,081,118	3
14	(-)	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	82,116	-.-%	2,436,529	$827,705	$37,957,568	36
15	(13)	How to Train Your Dragon	75,985	9.1%	6,155,086	$935,261	$116,901,099	26
16	(-)	Over the Hedge	72,759	-.-%	8,074,581	$578,776	$128,252,204	234
17	(19)	Due Date	69,209	31.5%	1,835,770	$726,002	$26,214,554	7
18	(-)	Mrs. Doubtfire	66,628	-.-%	-	$898,812	-	787
19	(12)	Skyline	66,225	-9.4%	368,025	$1,186,752	$6,526,833	3
20	(-)	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	63,563	-.-%	7,998,487	$1,279,523	$145,595,344	18
21	(11)	Barbie: A Fairy Secret	63,199	-17.1%	973,874	$789,356	$12,245,223	4
22	(10)	Burlesque	58,807	-29.0%	1,088,758	$822,710	$18,289,565	6
23	(5)	Mad Men: Season Four	50,824	-63.7%	190,761	$1,422,564	$5,339,400	2
24	(17)	Hereafter	49,265	-12.6%	494,971	$492,157	$6,727,584	4
25	(20)	Despicable Me	38,343	-24.2%	7,440,340	$727,029	$130,051,858	17
26	(18)	Faster	37,423	-32.5%	811,247	$579,682	$12,314,631	6
27	(9)	Fair Game	37,298	-57.3%	124,585	$559,097	$1,867,529	2
28	(-)	Inception	36,863	-.-%	4,698,514	$488,619	$79,623,202	18
29	(14)	Unstoppable	34,991	-49.2%	1,646,067	$504,570	$26,094,378	8
30	(23)	The Walking Dead: Season One	25,529	-29.7%	538,212	$495,773	$9,806,716	5

Over on Blu-Ray, TRON: Legacy dominated, shifting a strong 940,000 copies, substantially more than it sold on DVD—that makes sense for a special-effects heavy film like this. Special releases of the original TRON and the TRON: 2 Movie Collection also sold well. Fanboy buying power may be overrated at the box office, but they consistently flex their muscle on the home market. Tangled pushed another 297,040 copies, and its total now stands just shy of 2 million. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader came in third with a so-so 261,790 debut.

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending April 10, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	TRON: Legacy	940,000
2	Tangled	297,040
3	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	261,790
4	TRON: The Original Classic	166,756
5	Little Fockers	163,654
6	TRON: 2 Movie Collection	124,832
7	The Fighter	53,580
8	Black Swan	53,204
9	Taxi Driver	42,394
10	Megamind	36,942
11	Inception	34,686
12	Due Date	32,148
13	The Tourist	28,764
14	Bambi: Diamond Edition	28,576
15	Yogi Bear	20,022
16	The Ten Commandments	18,800
17	Hereafter	18,424
18	Red	15,134
19	Kung Fu Panda	14,852
20	A.I. – Artificial Intelligence	13,442

100 Word Review: 'Hanna'

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 07:10:00 +0000

Joe Wright, welcome to my personal A-list. You've got an eye for beautiful sets and exciting locations, and you execute some of the most complicated tracking shots I've ever seen on film. Wright’s latest effort, Hanna, is a gorgeously shot, ambitiously complex thriller about a government experiment gone wrong, and it’s rife with daddy issues as well. Fight scenes are flashy and well-choreographed, but the films drags a bit at the center. Still, Hanna is carried handily by it’s stunning production design and the fine duo of Cate Blanchett and Saoirse Ronan, who emit grit and poise in equal measure. B+

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'Tangled' begins fairy-tale run with 5.1M combined copies sold! 'Black Swan' not as dreamy

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:41:00 +0000

The-Numbers has just posted its weekly DVD Sales Chart, and after only one week of release, Disney's Tangled has already become the highest-selling DVD of the year. The Rapunzel film towered over the rest of the competition, selling a combined DVD/Blu-Ray total of 5.1 million units. That's a huge number for the animated princess film, which earned a strong $199.4M in theaters, and it it serves as a good reminder that when it comes to merchandising, Disney is unbeatable. Tangled, sold 3.46 million DVDs and earned $51.9 million in sales.

Black Swan glided into second place with a rather underwhelming debut of 632,000 DVDs and $9.5M. Most $100M box office earners start substantially higher than this, but Black Swan isn't the kind of film that people want to watch over and over again—it's just too creepy! Megamind continued its strong home market run, pushing 175,000 copies and lifting its total to 2.7M units and $37.6M in revenue. Yogi Bear was fourth with 170,000 copies, and Mad Men: Season Four was close behind in fifth, moving a solid 140,000 DVDs for $3.9M sales. Mad Men only nets about 1.5M viewers per episode, which means that about 10% of its regular viewership purchased it on DVD this week. Add in the 47,000 Blu-Ray copies it sold, and that number is even higher. Yowza!

Full DVD Sales Chart and Blu-Ray Sales Estimates after the jump:

DVD Sales for Week Ending April 3, 2011

Rank	Prev. Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	(-)	Tangled	3,463,789	-.-%	3,463,789	$51,922,197	$51,922,197	1
2	(-)	Black Swan	632,488	-.-%	632,488	$9,480,995	$9,480,995	1
3	(7)	Megamind	175,268	-15.9%	2,689,287	$1,875,368	$37,563,899	6
4	(1)	Yogi Bear	169,726	-74.4%	834,014	$2,544,193	$12,501,870	2
5	(-)	Mad Men: Season Four	139,937	-.-%	139,937	$3,916,837	$3,916,837	1
6	(2)	The Tourist	133,356	-77.4%	723,178	$2,532,430	$12,217,308	2
7	(3)	How Do You Know	132,974	-48.7%	392,312	$2,525,176	$6,819,814	2
8	(4)	The Fighter	98,718	-61.7%	1,215,553	$1,578,501	$18,394,526	3
9	(-)	Fair Game	87,287	-.-%	87,287	$1,308,432	$1,308,432	1
10	(12)	Burlesque	82,785	1.1%	1,029,951	$1,187,965	$17,466,855	5
11	(6)	Barbie: A Fairy Secret	76,203	-65.4%	910,675	$1,033,313	$11,455,868	3
12	(5)	Skyline	73,086	-68.0%	301,800	$1,387,903	$5,340,081	2
13	(-)	How to Train Your Dragon	69,622	-.-%	6,054,066	$1,073,627	$115,584,770	25
14	(17)	Unstoppable	68,929	2.2%	1,611,076	$1,023,596	$25,589,808	7
15	(22)	Secretariat	65,119	37.3%	1,973,751	$962,459	$31,382,750	10
16	(9)	Jackass 3D	63,734	-27.6%	876,763	$1,215,579	$15,758,144	4
17	(11)	Hereafter	56,358	-35.9%	445,706	$788,448	$6,235,427	3
18	(19)	Faster	55,421	-0.6%	773,824	$795,291	$11,734,948	5
19	(10)	Due Date	52,650	-40.1%	1,766,561	$766,584	$25,488,551	6
20	(15)	Despicable Me	46,165	-36.9%	7,362,592	$939,947	$128,590,603	16
21	(8)	The Switch	44,680	-50.6%	416,186	$695,221	$6,264,096	3
22	(-)	Evangelion: 2.22 You Can [Not] Advance	41,912	-.-%	41,912	$418,701	$418,701	1
23	(20)	The Walking Dead: Season One	36,305	-32.7%	512,683	$694,515	$9,310,943	4
24	(21)	Morning Glory	32,504	-31.6%	365,576	$552,243	$6,211,136	4
25	(-)	The Ten Commandments	32,213	-.-%	-	$434,553	-	956
26	(23)	Love & Other Drugs	31,991	-32.1%	692,863	$557,283	$11,525,033	5
27	(25)	127 Hours	21,766	-39.0%	500,475	$348,038	$7,613,091	5
28	(26)	Life As We Know It	20,982	-40.6%	1,140,792	$314,520	$16,306,051	8
29	(24)	The Next Three Days	19,233	-52.7%	426,274	$277,340	$5,250,822	4
30	(27)	Weeds: Season Six	19,159	-24.4%	378,726	$492,386	$9,227,516	6

Over on Blu-Ray, Tangled continued to crush the competition, moving a magnificent 1.7M copies. That makes Tangled the fastest-selling Blu-Ray title since Inception, and the strong sales reveal the ever-increasing potential for family films in the Blu-Ray format. Black Swan landed in second with about 333,000 copies. The ballet drama was stuck in the middle of a Disney sandwich, as Bambi: Diamond Edition was third for the week, moving another 62,000 copies. Full Blu-Ray estimates below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending April 3, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Tangled	1,680,000
2	Black Swan	333,144
3	Bambi: Diamond Edition	61,992
4	Mad Men: Season 4	47,208
5	The Ten Commandments	43,848
6	The Tourist	43,008
7	Megamind	42,168
8	Yogi Bear	39,816
9	The Fighter	35,784
10	Evangelion: 2.22 — You Can (Not) Advance	34,944
11	Jackass 3D	29,064
12	Planet Earth: The Complete Series	25,704
13	Secretariat	23,688
14	Burlesque	23,520
15	Fair Game	23,352
16	Unstoppable	23,016
17	Faster	21,672
18	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	19,992
19	Due Date	18,144
20	Skyline	17,472

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: CAUGHT UP! 'The Fighter', 'Jackass 3D', 'Bambi', 'The Tourist' lead recent charts

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:37:00 +0000

Time to get caught up with Blu-Ray sales again! After the jump, you'll find three weeks worth of Blu-Ray statistics, including the strong debuts of The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season and The Fighter, and the just-alright debuts of Jackass 3D and The Tourist.

Oh, and since I love you Burlesque fans who keep checking in here from AfterLD.... the Christina Aguilera film has now sold an estimated 251,394 Blu-Ray copies in four weeks. Full charts below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Mar 13, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Bambi: Diamond Edition	320,000
2	Jackass 3D	265,728
3	The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season	190,624
4	The Next Three Days	112,864
5	Megamind	85,280
6	Due Date	67,808
7	Burlesque	64,416
8	Faster	55,808
9	Inception	43,808
10	Red	40,640
11	127 Hours	35,712
12	Morning Glory	28,800
13	Unstoppable	28,672
14	Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind	28,128
15	The Expendables	26,944
16	Despicable Me	23,904
17	Love and Other Drugs	22,496
18	Excalibur	22,272
19	NFL Super Bowl XLV Champions: Green Bay Packers	19,520
20	The Social Network	18,880

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Mar 20, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	The Fighter	405,000
2	Bambi: Diamond Edition	114,939
3	Hereafter	102,060
4	Jackass 3D	60,791
5	Megamind	57,551
6	The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season	54,918
7	The Switch	46,494
8	Due Date	40,986
9	The Next Three Days	35,397
10	Inception	29,646
11	Burlesque	29,444
12	Faster	22,761
13	The Sound of Music: 45th Anniversary Edition	21,263
14	127 Hours	21,020
15	Despicable Me	19,643
16	The Expendables	19,562
17	Unstoppable	17,901
18	WWE: The True Story of Wrestlemania	15,431
19	Red	13,770
20	Avatar	13,487

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Mar 27, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	The Tourist	230,000
2	Yogi Bear	196,742
3	Skyline	104,742
4	The Fighter	104,029
5	Bambi: Diamond Edition	77,878
6	How Do You Know	46,805
7	Megamind	43,723
8	Hereafter	36,386
9	Due Date	34,109
10	Despicable Me	30,797
11	Jackass 3D	29,923
12	Inception	25,944
13	The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season	23,667
14	Burlesque	19,159
15	The Next Three Days	17,825
16	The Expendables	17,342
17	Faster	16,537
18	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	15,617
19	The Road	15,157
20	The Venture Bros. – The Complete Season 4	14,168

MTC Tracking: 'Arthur' and 'Your Highness' hope to keep damsels off the throne

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:21:00 +0000

Tracking reports have come out for this weekend's new releases: Arthur, Your Highness, Soul Surfer, and Hanna. Per usual, these days, the numbers aren't looking all that impressive, and Hop should lead the chart once again. Check out these early weekend box office predictions:

Arthur – $15 million
Russell Brand proved he has some box office drawing power with last year's Get Him to the Greek ($61M), but this will be the true test of his appeal. Helen Mirren should bring in some older folks eager to see how this remake turned out, but the convoluted advertisements may have younger audiences scratching their heads.

Your Highness – $14 million
This is giving me some major Year One/Epic Movie/Meet the Spartans vibes from this one. The fact that Natalie Portman and James Franco got on board probably means that Your Highness doesn't stoop that low(ness), but even in brief commercials, Your Highness feels one-note. Still, if Hop can earn an A- from audiences, then this one certainly has a chance, too.

Soul Surfer – $12 million
Inspirational fare is hit or miss at the box office, and so are sports movies (especially female-driven sports movies). Luckily, Soul Surfer seems to be riding a wave of good publicity following big plugs on American Idol and the Kids' Choice Awards. The faith-based film also has the church going audience to quietly support it. It could really surprise. Then again, Soul Surfer actually debuting to $12M would be pretty surprising in its own right.

Hanna – $8 million
I'm very sad to see Hanna way down here. I think this movie looks terrific! The trailer is sleek, the story intriguing, and the early reviews are strong. I'd love to see it break out, but with little promotion and the lack of a real box office draw (sorry Saoirse Ronan—you are incredible, but not an A-lister yet), it's hard to see Hanna doing that.

[via HSX]
MTC Tracking stands for "Major Theater Chain" tracking. These numbers are taken from box office tracking reports that are sent out to theater owners and posted anonymously on HSX.

2011's top-selling Blu-Ray releases so far

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:13:00 +0000

After viewing the weekly Blu-Ray Sales Chart here at TBOJ, a lot of people ask me if I have total Blu-Ray sales figures available for various releases, and my answer is always the same: Unfortunately, no. I don't have time to keep track of total sales.

I had a little extra time today, though, and because I love you all so much, I decided to do some major number crunching for the top-selling Blu-Ray releases of recent history—namely, Inception, Despicable Me, The Town, The A-Team, The Social Network, Salt, Red, The Other Guys, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Secretariat, and Machete—and calculate the total Blu-Ray sales for each film. It's pretty interesting stuff, so if you want to see the total sales and week-by-week breakdown for those movies, go ahead and click inside.

Keep in mind: These are ESTIMATES. I put together TBOJ's Blu-Ray sales estimates each and every week, and while they are bound to be off by a few thousand copies, they are as accurate as you're going to find on all the internet. So don't whine.

Inception – 5,299,369 total Blu-Ray units (4,513,979 DVDs)
Week 1: 2,670,000 copies
Week 2: 775,000
Week 3: 495,000
Week 4: 475,000
Week 5: 257,858
Week 6: 182,802
Week 7: 79,100
Week 8: 43,584
Week 9: 35,882
Week 10: 41,180
Week 11: 134,496
Week 12: 54,834
Week 13: 54,633

Despicable Me – 2,840,275 total Blu-Ray units (7,084,935 DVDs)
Week 1: 1,531,307 copies
Week 2: 424,611
Week 3: 268,470
Week 4: 214,605
Week 5: 139,832
Week 6: 75,275
Week 7: 38,208
Week 8: 34,076
Week 9: 37,120
Week 10: 32,224
Week 11: 24,662
Week 12: 19,885

The Town – 1,444,901 total Blu-Ray units (2,002,499 DVDs)
Week 1: 275,000 copies
Week 2: 304,128
Week 3: 302,670
Week 4: 162,213
Week 5: 163,416
Week 6: 50,750
Week 7: 25,728
Week 8: 18,214
Week 9: 18,580
Week 10: 71,232
Week 11: 35,340
Week 12: 17,630

The A-Team – 1,369,608 total Blu-Ray units (1,654,582 DVDs as of Feb 20)
Week 1: 450,000 copies
Week 2: 136,076
Week 3: 448,068
Week 4: 134,900
Week 5: 159,192
Week 6: 41,372
(Falls out of Top 20 after this point)

The Social Network – 1,336,111 total Blu-Ray units (1,540,758 DVDs)
Week 1: 880,000 copies
Week 2: 211,975
Week 3: 69,760
Week 4: 45,542
Week 5: 30,920
Week 6: 40,800
Week 7: 33,744
Week 8: 23,370

Salt – 1,109,329 total Blu-Ray units (1,846,923 DVDs)
Week 1: 370,000 copies
Week 2: 250,468
Week 3: 165,538
Week 4: 95,920
Week 5: 91,525
Week 6: 25,408
Week 7: 17,402
Week 8: 15,000 (approx.)
Week 9: 47,136
Week 10: 30,932
(Falls out of Top 20 after this point)

The Other Guys – 1,073,271 total Blu-Ray units (1,872,629 DVDs as of Feb 20)
Week 1: 384,504 copies
Week 2: 130,977
Week 3: 239,400
Week 4: 81,368
Week 5: 193,072
Week 6: 43,950
(Falls out of Top 20 after this point)

Resident Evil: Afterlife – 999,252 total Blu-Ray units (1,001,272 DVDs as of Feb 13)
Week 1: 468,968 copies
Week 2: 264,623
Week 3: 99,880
Week 4: 67,175
Week 5: 19,712
Week 6: 15,652
Week 7: 10,000 (approx.)
Week 8: 27,136
Week 9: 26,106
(Falls out of Top 20 after this point)

Red – 966,243 total Blu-Ray units (2,080,447 DVDs)
Week 1: 640,000 copies
Week 2: 140,000
Week 3: 80,730
Week 4: 48,320
Week 5: 36,590
Week 6: 20,603

Machete – 664,429 total Blu-Ray units (784,158 DVDs as of Feb 6)
Week 1: 475,000 copies
Week 2: 148,104
Week 3: 41,325
(Falls out of Top 20 after this point)

Secretariat – 481,581 total Blu-Ray units (1,729,648 DVDs)
Week 1: 258,624 copies
Week 2: 73,892
Week 3: 47,140
Week 4: 54,144
Week 5: 31,996
Week 6: 15,785

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'Bambi' hunts down Blu-Ray competition, sells 1M copies in first week; 'Megamind' tops DVD chart again

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:15:00 +0000

The-Numbers has posted its weekly DVD Sales Chart, and I've posted my weekly Blu-Ray Sales Estimates. (Still haven't missed a week all year—it's the one thing I've actually been consistent about!) The real story this week is Disney's Blu-Ray release of Bambi: Diamond Edition, which sold over 1 million copies in its first week and handily beat everything on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Oh, deer!

Megamind stayed on top of the DVD chart after its victory last week with strong sales of 732,826 units (1.7M total) and $10.3M in revenue, while a slew of newcomers filled the rankings beneath it. Burlesque debuted in second place, moving a solid 498,615 copies for first week sales of $8.5M. Faster started off rather slowly in third place with 394,114 units and $6M. In fourth, Love and Other Drugs, the Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway dramedy that never took off, sold 377,039 copies for $6.4M. Due Date dropped a precipitous 62% into fifth place with sales of 342,010 copies, pushing its total to 1.24M. 127 Hours was stuck back in sixth, selling an unremarkable (but hey, that's how its box office run was too) 251,213 units for $3.8M.

Check out the DVD Sales Chart and the Blu-Ray Sales Chart below:

DVD Sales for the Week Ending Mar 6, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	Megamind	732,826	-21.0%	1,660,721	$10,252,236	$23,233,487	2
2	Burlesque	498,615	-.-%	498,615	$8,471,469	$8,471,469	1
3	Faster	394,114	-.-%	394,114	$5,962,945	$5,962,945	1
4	Love and Other Drugs	377,039	-.-%	377,039	$6,405,893	$6,405,893	1
5	Due Date	342,010	-62.1%	1,244,666	$5,126,730	$17,754,887	2
6	127 Hours	251,213	-.-%	251,213	$3,765,683	$3,765,683	1
7	Unstoppable	153,087	-57.4%	1,287,556	$2,371,318	$20,435,989	3
8	Toy Story 3	80,171	-35.0%	10,676,194	$841,868	$181,478,720	18
9	Life As We Know It	77,533	-40.7%	964,846	$1,162,220	$13,668,620	4
10	Despicable Me	75,261	-24.3%	7,084,935	$1,427,174	$123,115,013	12
11	Weeds: Season Six	73,063	-57.3%	243,981	$1,752,781	$5,853,104	2
12	Inception	69,838	-18.9%	4,513,979	$1,128,463	$76,447,775	13
13	The Social Network	64,342	-33.8%	1,540,758	$900,145	$20,518,246	8
14	Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2	61,631	-40.9%	1,738,679	$923,849	$26,063,591	5
15	The Proposal	58,480	-.-%	5,474,421	$715,854	$88,485,104	73
16	Secretariat	57,600	-49.2%	1,729,648	$793,728	$27,471,813	6
17	Scooby Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster	57,454	-.-%	57,454	$1,033,597	$1,033,597	1
18	Red	54,449	-36.8%	2,080,447	$839,604	$27,653,794	6
19	The Hangover	53,423	-.-%	10,399,756	$580,478	$175,690,233	64
20	Paranormal Activity 2	47,697	-42.6%	746,061	$817,050	$12,102,649	4
21	For Colored Girls	46,597	-35.7%	905,156	$788,421	$14,791,649	4
22	All-Star Superman	37,741	-69.0%	159,666	$678,961	$2,644,392	2
23	You Again	37,612	-40.4%	492,783	$676,640	$8,513,474	4
24	The Town	36,735	-37.6%	2,002,499	$458,820	$28,707,025	12
25	Game of Death	32,684	-50.6%	98,843	$522,617	$1,613,579	3
26	Let Me In	32,554	-39.4%	426,547	$402,042	$5,673,698	5
27	Takers	31,596	-44.8%	966,777	$559,249	$15,827,491	7
28	Saw: The Final Chapter	30,293	-44.1%	626,107	$516,799	$8,963,180	6
29	Salt	27,160	-63.9%	1,846,923	$402,128	$27,851,245	11
30	Conviction	26,205	-56.4%	327,990	$419,018	$4,831,952	5

Megamind couldn't conquer Bambi on the Blu-Ray side of things. The Disney classic sold an estimated 1,025,000 copies for a dominant first-place performance. Megamind was way back in second with about 236,000 units. Burlesque and Faster both debuted to about 135,000 copies, while Due Date and 127 Hours both finished with just under 100,000. Love and Other Drugs, meanwhile, revealed evidence of its older, female, Blu-Ray-unfriendly demographic with weak first-week sales of just 70,000.

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Mar 6, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Bambi	1,025,000
2	Megamind	236,468
3	Burlesque	138,375
4	Faster	135,198
5	Due Date	98,093
6	127 Hours	95,325
7	Love and Other Drugs	67,138
8	Inception	54,633
9	Unstoppable	35,773
10	The Social Network	23,370
11	Red	20,603
12	Despicable Me	19,885
13	Toy Story 3	19,168
14	The Town	17,630
15	All-Star Superman	16,400
16	Secretariat	15,785
17	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	15,580
18	How to Train Your Dragon	14,965
19	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	14,863
20	Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy	14,350

MTC Tracking: 'Paul', 'Lincoln Lawyer', 'Limitless', provide only limited appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Tracking reports have come out for this weekend's new releases: Paul, Simon Pegg's alien encounter spoof, Limitless, a wonder-drug-themed thriller, and The Lincoln Lawyer, a generic looking legal drama. Per usual (AGAIN this week), the numbers are looking ugly. Check out these early weekend box office predictions:

Paul – $15 million
Were Battle: Los Angeles and Mars Needs Moms really not enough to satisfy the alien lovers? Paul, a comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as comic book geeks who befriend an alien during a cross country road trip, is likely to be a bit too geeky for its own good, and I'd guess that $15M is on the high end of expectations. Plus British comedy is always a tough sell for American audiences.

Limitless – $15 million
Limitless, meanwhile, could exceed expectations. The film has done a good job targeting its desired male demographic (but then again, in this post-Inception world, what films aren't targeting young male audiences these days?) by casting Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro and showcasing flashy action in the ads, but Limitless doesn't feel like enough of an event to really breakout.

The Lincoln Lawyer – $13 million
This legitimately looks like an episode of Law and Order: SVU... starring Matthew McConaughey. I (and most others) will skip this session.

[via HSX]
MTC Tracking stands for "Major Theater Chain" tracking. These numbers are taken from box office tracking reports that are sent out to theater owners and posted anonymously on HSX.

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'Megamind' fends off 'Due Date' for a double chart victory

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Megamind, Dreamworks' animated hit from last November that grossed $148.4M in theaters, has had a great week—actually half-week (it debuted on Friday)—it nabbed the number one spot on both the DVD and Blu-Ray sales charts. Due Date provided some stiff competition, but ended up in the runner-up position on both charts. The-Numbers has released its weekly DVD sales chart, and I've posted my Blu-Ray sales estimates below. (Sorry for the lack of analysis—gotta catch an early train to NYC tomorrow, and I have stuff to do!)

DVD Sales for Week Ending Feb 27, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	Megamind	948,983	-.-%	948,983	$13,276,272	$13,276,272	1
2	Due Date	923,171	-.-%	923,171	$12,915,162	$12,915,162	1
3	Unstoppable	367,636	-52.6%	1,142,639	$5,801,296	$18,193,594	2
4	Weeds: Season Six	174,803	-.-%	174,803	$4,193,524	$4,193,524	1
5	Life As We Know It	133,807	-40.1%	890,287	$1,966,963	$12,550,118	3
6	Toy Story 3	126,120	-78.3%	10,598,826	$1,209,012	$180,663,723	17
7	All-Star Superman	124,696	-.-%	124,696	$2,010,100	$2,010,100	1
8	Secretariat	116,061	-30.3%	1,674,627	$1,391,571	$26,709,007	5
9	Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2	106,666	-59.1%	1,679,419	$1,598,923	$25,175,283	4
10	Despicable Me	101,636	27.2%	7,011,932	$1,901,213	$121,730,077	11
11	The Social Network	99,359	36.2%	1,478,624	$1,191,314	$19,644,576	7
12	Red	88,161	-39.7%	2,027,958	$1,145,211	$26,839,651	5
13	Inception	88,066	-75.5%	4,446,098	$1,158,024	$75,345,045	12
14	Paranormal Activity 2	84,935	-48.5%	700,251	$1,479,568	$11,318,471	3
15	Salt	76,963	-49.0%	1,821,474	$883,420	$27,468,757	10
16	For Colored Girls	74,116	-62.1%	860,206	$1,291,101	$14,031,919	3
17	Easy A	73,268	-23.8%	1,174,294	$658,679	$17,817,367	10
18	Get Low	69,845	-.-%	69,845	$1,186,667	$1,186,667	1
19	Game of Death	67,663	-.-%	67,663	$1,115,763	$1,115,763	2
20	Beauty and the Beast	66,049	-.-%	-	$963,457	-	438
21	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole	64,931	-61.6%	896,017	$919,280	$14,065,849	11
22	You Again	64,531	-48.1%	456,605	$1,202,213	$7,863,550	3
23	How to Train Your Dragon	61,969	-80.0%	5,932,905	$923,536	$113,670,570	20
24	Conviction	61,494	-.-%	303,151	$983,289	$4,434,776	4
25	The Town	60,166	-76.7%	1,967,101	$545,104	$28,260,318	11
26	Shrek Forever After	59,425	-83.0%	3,408,237	$671,283	$57,092,404	12
27	Stone	58,647	-.-%	230,089	$908,442	$3,852,131	6
28	Takers	58,583	-15.1%	936,483	$907,451	$15,288,410	6
29	Saw: The Final Chapter	55,410	-66.7%	597,045	$842,232	$8,465,093	5
30	Let Me In	54,946	10.6%	395,214	$493,965	$5,282,633	4

NOTE: Due Date's numbers are a bit confusing here. According to AVS Forum, Due Date sold 33% of its DVD total on Blu-Ray. That would mean it sold about 308,000 copies. According to The-Numbers, it moved 330,000. According to Home Media Magazine, it sold 77% as many Blu-Rays as Megamind, which would equal 292,600 units, as calculated by my own spreadsheet. It's normal for these numbers to be a bit different each week, but this sort of discrepancy is quite unusual. I'm just going to say it sold 300,000 copies and call it a day.

What's more interesting to me is the fact that Megamind outsold Due Date on Blu-Ray. Usually male-targeting comedies have a higher Blu-Ray share than family films, but as the format continues to grow, so does the home market viability of various genres.

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Feb 27, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Megamind	380,000
2	Due Date	300,000
3	All-Star Superman	86,526
4	Unstoppable	76,646
5	Inception	54,834
6	Toy Story 3	42,294
7	Weeds: Season Six	41,762
8	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	37,506
9	The Town	35,340
10	The Social Network	33,744
11	Secretariat	31,996
12	Salt	30,932
13	Red	30,590
14	The Expendables	28,842
15	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	26,410
16	Resident Evil: Afterlife	26,106
17	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	25,536
18	Despicable Me	24,662
19	Let Me In	24,168
20	How to Train Your Dragon	23,978

MTC Tracking: 'Battle: Los Angeles', 'Red Riding Hood', and 'Mars Needs Moms'

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:50:00 +0000

Tracking reports have come out for this weekend's new releases: Battle: Los Angeles, an alien invasion actioner, Red Riding Hood, a Twilight-esque fairy tale adaptation, and Mars Needs Moms, Disney's latest animated offering. Per usual (these days), the numbers aren't looking too hot. Check out these early weekend box office predictions:

Battle: Los Angeles – $28 million
This sci-fi thriller has built buzz effectively since its much-talked-about preview at Comic-Con last year. A $28M weekend would be a nice start for Battle: Los Angeles, though not quite out of this world—the film cost a big $100M to produce.

Red Riding Hood – $18 million
Seems a bit low to me. I figured Warner Brothers would really amp up the promotion and motivate the Twihards, but excitement actually seems to have decreased over the last few months. Still, I think Red Riding Hood could end up surprising people at the box office and launch a major franchise. Amanda Seyfried is one of the only young actresses who can open a movie. I'm thinking this should break $20M.

Mars Needs Moms – $10 million
This CG animated movie looks like it was meant to come out during the Chicken Little era of Disney animation. It lacks the artful quality of a Pixar film, the romanticized nostalgia of a fairy tale film, and the cuteness of talking animals. Its box office should be equally meh.

[via HSX]
MTC Tracking stands for "Major Theater Chain" tracking. These numbers are taken from box office tracking reports that are sent out to theater owners and posted anonymously on HSX.

100 Word Review: 'The Adjustment Bureau'

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 07:03:00 +0000

I think The Adjustment Bureau is pretty fun movie. At least I think I think that—I could have been frozen by a team of fedora-donning angels/detectives/doormen and programmed to type that. I guess I'll never know. Or wait, I will... If writer/director George Nolfi weren't so eager to answer all his intriguingly set-up questions about fate and free will, then The Adjustment Bureau could be a great movie. Unfortunately, the psychological sci-fi romance unravels in the final act, as it attempts to shoehorn ages of philosophical debate about predestination into a janky theological solution. Damon and Blunt perform well. B

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'Unstoppable' leaves the station slowly, 'Toy Story 3' crosses 10M

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Unstoppable wasn't exactly a runaway train in its first weekend on the home market, but it still sold enough copies to win both the DVD and Blu-Ray sales charts. On DVD, Unstoppable moved 796,000 copies for a first-week take of $12.7 million. In second and third, Best Picture nominees Toy Story 3 and Inception shot up 468% and 394%, respectively. Toy Story 3 sold 597,000 units for an additional $5.6M, crossing the 10M mark in the process—a rare feat these days. Inception's 368,000 copies sold lifted its total to 4.4M units.

Check out the full DVD Sales Chart HERE.

Unstoppable topped the Blu-Ray sales chart as well, but its 320,000 week was rather disappointing for an action film like this. Check out the TBOJ's exclusive Blu-Ray Sales Estimates below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Feb 13, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Unstoppable	320,000
2	Inception	134,496
3	Iron Man 2	88,672
4	The Town	71,232
5	Secretariat	54,144
6	Toy Story 3	52,288
7	Red	48,320
8	Salt	47,136
9	The Social Network	40,800
10	The Expendables	35,424
11	Despicable Me	32,224
12	Life As We Know It	31,808
13	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	31,296
14	Resident Evil: Afterlife	27,136
15	Paranormal Activity 2	26,016
16	Ong Bak 3	24,512
17	How to Train Your Dragon	24,256
18	Saw: The Final Chapter	22,784
19	Easy A	21,536
20	Law Abiding Citizen	21,184

'Due Date' Dash — WINNERS!

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 02:36:00 +0000

Congratulations to the grand prize winner of the Due Date Dash... Deborah! You've won the Due Date prize pack!

Five runners up will also receive a free rental of the movie, courtesy of Warner Brothers, so congratulations are also in order for nystarr02, AnneMarie, Kim, Christy, and CC!

But don't fret too much didn't win. You can check out Due Date's official site HERE and download the movie from iTunes HERE. Thanks to all who played the game—it was a ton of fun!

Winners have been contacted with instructions on how to claim your prizes.

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: Getting All Caught Up

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:10:00 +0000

Obviously, I've been gone for a few weeks. Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to neglect you all—I just got distracted with other stuff, namely my girlfriend, career plans (NYC here I come!), and a whole lot of Mumford and Sons. But now its time to get back on the blogging horse, and I thought I'd start by getting all caught up on the DVD/Blu-Ray sales charts. Actually, I'm skipping the DVD sales part. You can find those over on The-Numbers:

I will post the Blu-Ray sales charts I missed, though. No time for analysis right now, but suffice it to say that Red has been selling pretty darn well. Check out three weeks of Blu-Ray stats below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Jan 30, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Red	640,000
2	Secretariat	258,624
3	Saw: The Final Chapter	100,416
4	The Social Network	69,760
5	Open Season 3	44,352
6	Inception	43,584
7	The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest	43,200
8	Takers	40,448
9	Despicable Me	38,208
10	The Town	25,728
11	Salt	25,408
12	How To Train Your Dragon	22,656
13	Resident Evil: Afterlife	19,712
14	Toy Story 3	18,368
15	Law Abiding Citizen	17,984
16	Michael Jackson's This Is It	17,728
17	Avatar	16,448
18	Shrek Forever After	16,128
19	Buried	15,168
20	Dead Space: Aftermath	14,080

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Feb 06, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Red	140,000
2	Alice in Wonderland: 60th Anniversary Edition	127,190
3	Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2	105,644
4	Secretariat	73,892
5	Let Me In	71,582
6	The Social Network	45,542
7	The Expendables	42,616
8	Inception	35,882
9	Despicable Me	34,076
10	Kick-Ass	24,304
11	Saw: The Final Chapter	23,114
12	The Dark Knight	19,558
13	Takers	19,306
14	Almost Famous	19,054
15	The Town	18,214
16	Salt	17,402
17	Resident Evil: Afterlife	15,652
18	Toy Story 3	15,372
19	Avatar	15,162
20	Apocalypse Now	14,966

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Feb 13, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Paranormal Activity 2	100,000
2	Red	80,730
3	Life As We Know It	67,600
4	For Colored Girls	58,450
5	Secretariat	47,140
6	The Expendables	46,820
7	Inception	41,180
8	Despicable Me	37,120
9	You Again	37,100
10	Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2	32,190
11	Ong Bak 3	31,000
12	The Social Network	30,920
13	Alice in Wonderland: 60th Anniversary Edition	27,080
14	Kick-Ass	26,260
15	The Dark Knight	19,990
16	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	19,160
17	My Soul to Take	18,750
18	The Town	18,580
19	Let Me In	18,570
20	Avatar	18,150

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Feb 20, 2010

I don't have all the numbers I need to make estimates yet. This chart should come soon!

'Due Date' Dash — GIVEAWAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Junkies, I'm back, and in a big way—I've got a giveaway for you! To promote the digital release of Due Date, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis, I've joined with Warner Bros. for the Due Date Dash campaign. Can you figure out who my travel companion is?

Six winners will be chosen from this site: One grand prize winner will win a digital copy, along with a Due Date prize pack filled with paraphernalia from the film, and five other winners will receive a free rental of the movie. All you have to do is figure out who my travel buddy is! Check out all the rules after the jump.

If you didn't see Due Date in theaters (and a lot of people did—the film earned a strong $100.5M domestically), you can start your journey by checking out an exclusive clip direct from the set below:

RULES: Now, you're probably wondering: How do I win my that prize pack? Let me tell you. There are 17 sites across the internet participating in this contest. One of these sites is my "travel companion." (Get it? It's just like the movie!) It is your job to figure out who my travel companion is based on a clue that I will provide. You see, each of these sites has a video embedded on it, like the video that I have embedded above, and each of these videos showcases a certain location. Given the clue about this location, as well as the site's name, you must identify which site I am partnered with!

CLUE: "You don't have to be one of the Greek goddesses of poetry to say that my travel companion sure is Grand in the state filled with sand."

Based on that clue, can you guess who my travel companion might be and where he is located? Here are the 16 possible candidates. Check out these sites to see their videos and make a match:

Top Cultured – Atlanta

Film Jabber – Alabama

Two Movie Guys – Louisiana

Movie Viral – Texas

Talking Films – Mexico

Best for Film – Arizona

Go See Talk – Los Angeles

Kai Space – Atlanta

Movie Buzzers – Alabama

Couch Potato Club – Lousiana

The Movie Mark – Texas

Movie Muse – Arizona

The Film Reel – Los Angeles

Nfamous – Atlanta

Nevermind Pop Film – Alabama

Critic Approved – Louisiana

HOW TO ENTER: It's simple! Once you think you've figured out my companion blog, just email the name of that site to grady@theboxofficejunkie.com. Six winners will be chosen and notified on March 2nd, and Warner Brothers will get them their prizes!

Now go play! If you have any questions, just leave me a comment, and I'll be sure to get it answered very quickly!

I'm not dead, just a little overwhelmed

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:07:00 +0000

I'll spare you the sob story—I'm very busy right now with school and relationships. That's why I haven't been around. At the very least, I'm trying to stay on top of the DVD/Blu-Ray sales chart, but I'll be back in my full capacity some time soon. Thanks for being patient!

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'Takers' takes over top spot, 'The Social Network' stays strong

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 06:06:00 +0000

Crime thriller Takers, which earned a surprisingly solid $57.7M in theaters, led both the DVD Sales Chart and the Blu-Ray Sales chart this week, with combined-format sales of about 964,000 units. Last week's victor, The Social Network, also remained strong, shifting another 719,000 copies for strong two-week sales of 2.6M. I don't have time for analysis, but check out this week's DVD Sales Chart (from The-Numbers), as well as TBOJ's exclusive Blu-Ray Sales Chart below:

DVD Sales for the Week Ending January 23, 2011

Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	Takers	713,983	-.-%	713,983	$11,416,588	$11,416,588	1
2	The Social Network	469,444	-54.7%	1,506,419	$6,098,078	$19,568,383	2
3	Despicable Me	253,464	-15.8%	6,742,428	$5,087,301	$117,103,938	6
4	Death Race 2	218,479	-.-%	218,479	$4,039,677	$4,039,677	1
5	Salt	167,429	11.5%	1,639,822	$2,355,877	$26,363,941	5
6	Alpha and Omega	165,930	-48.6%	488,948	$2,925,346	$8,529,708	2
7	Stone	145,010	-.-%	145,010	$2,463,720	$2,463,720	1
8	Justified: The Complete First Season	131,016	-.-%	131,016	$2,619,010	$2,619,010	1
9	Inception	125,090	-28.6%	4,008,625	$2,053,753	$68,644,403	7
10	Easy A	121,306	14.9%	959,821	$1,661,892	$16,130,611	5
11	Resident Evil: Afterlife	113,666	-8.2%	1,099,759	$1,574,274	$18,593,048	4
12	Toy Story 3	109,668	-24.2%	9,796,537	$1,742,164	$172,420,533	12
13	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	107,312	-35.6%	7,877,177	$2,006,734	$143,214,852	7
14	The Other Guys	106,455	-30.2%	1,723,626	$1,413,722	$31,631,669	6
15	Machete	102,457	-60.0%	1,021,678	$1,638,287	$16,336,631	3
16	Dinner for Schmucks	97,958	-51.0%	857,039	$1,775,979	$14,672,765	3
17	The Town	94,032	-30.4%	1,682,206	$1,416,122	$25,660,425	6
18	The A-Team	77,467	-17.0%	1,564,238	$1,194,541	$24,364,188	6
19	Piranha	72,541	-63.0%	268,529	$1,263,664	$4,593,500	2
20	The Expendables	65,758	-41.9%	2,583,626	$1,012,312	$42,101,393	9
21	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	65,329	-37.7%	850,879	$1,044,611	$13,605,555	5
22	Shrek Forever After	62,727	-37.8%	3,054,987	$1,190,929	$53,775,571	7
23	Eat Pray Love	59,832	-31.4%	1,868,964	$815,510	$30,677,696	9
24	The Last Exorcism	57,119	-46.7%	390,751	$1,007,008	$6,621,202	3
25	Beauty and the Beast	55,878	-20.8%	-	$1,004,396	-	433
26	Knight and Day	55,398	-27.0%	1,524,589	$838,172	$20,806,222	8
27	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole	50,407	-51.7%	699,116	$1,060,195	$11,555,393	6
28	Grown Ups	46,357	-.-%	2,458,116	$647,700	$41,422,734	11
29	24: Season Eight	45,938	-16.6%	548,399	$1,837,061	$21,032,272	6
30	Nanny McPhee Returns	44,230	-15.4%	464,059	$751,468	$8,448,006	6

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Jan 23, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	Takers	250,000
2	The Social Network	211,975
3	Salt	91,525
4	Inception	79,100
5	Despicable Me	75,275
6	Resident Evil: Afterlife	67,175
7	Buried	65,275
8	The Town	50,750
9	Justified: The Complete First Season	48,950
10	Death Race 2	46,075
11	The Other Guys	43,950
12	The A-Team	41,375
13	Machete	41,325
14	Stone	35,600
15	The Expendables	35,175
16	Piranha 3D	35,050
17	Toy Story 3	34,175
18	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	33,850
19	Easy A	32,650
20	Avatar	29,700

Weekend Preview: 'The Rite' and 'The Mechanic' can't fix this box office rut, but could 'The King's Speech'?

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:18:00 +0000

Guess what, everyone? It probably won't come as much of a surprise at this point, but the box office ain't gonna be all that impressive this weekend—it certainly won't top last year's final weekend in January when Avatar topped the chart in its seventh weekend. This frame, two new flicks are hitting theaters—The Rite and The Mechanic (Does 2011 have the worst titles ever, or what?!)—and each might achieve some modest box office success, but nothing spectacular. Can February get here already? The biggest help at the box office will come from Oscar darling The King's Speech, which should provide a nice bump on the chart. Check out box office predictions for those films and the whole top ten after the jump.

The Rite will easily top the box office this weekend. The exorcism picture starring Anthony Hopkins has got a solid trailer, solid promotion, and solid tracking working in its favor—plus, horror is a rather reliable genre, and people's fascination with demonic possession remains strong. I'll give The Rite $20M in its opening weekend, and sure, with poor reviews and a young target audience, it will drop off quickly from there, but these films are cheap to produce, and Warner Brothers doesn't need astronomical numbers. Very typical January release.

The week's other newcomer is Jason Statham's latest actionfest, The Mechanic, and alas, it will perform just like all the rest of them. With kinetic action and over the top dialogue to boot, The Mechanic won't appeal to many outside the hardcore action niche, and fledgling studio CBS Films probably isn't looking at its first smash. Blowing up in 2,703 theater, the film may earn a standard-for-Statham $11.5M this weekend and finish around $30M overall.

Last weekend's number one picture, No Strings Attached, may fall by about 35% to $12.5M in its second frame, giving the romantic comedy about $39M overall. Meanwhile, The King's Speech, on the heels of 12 regal Oscar nominations, is adding 873 theaters to its run, and it may finish with a similar $12.5M—which would be a truly phenomenal figure. It could be a close battle between Mechanic, Speech, and Strings for the second place spot, but if there's one film that may overperform this weekend, it's The King's Speech. Heck, if The Rite flops, we could be looking at a surprise number one!

The Oscar nominations should also provide some nice box office boosts for films like True Grit, Black Swan, 127 Hours (which is adding 847 theaters onto its run and may crack the top ten). The Green Hornet won't enjoy the same benefits, but it may fall by about 40% to $11M.

What do you think will blow up at the box office this weekend?

International Box Office: 'The Green Hornet' takes first place, crosses $100M worldwide; 'Hereafter' surprisingly solid

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:38:00 +0000

The Green Hornet successfully kicked Tangled out of the top spot at the international box office this week, with the superhero film grossing $18.5M for a $37.5M international total and $102.9M worldwide—not exactly bee-utiful results for the expensive production. The film still has a long way to go on the road to profitability, but if it can make it to $200M worldwide, which seems attainable, it should be poised for a profitable home market run.

Hereafter, the supernatural Clint Eastwood drama starring Matt Damon, spooked up a surprising second place finish on the international scene. Though the $50M movie only earned $32.8M stateside, it is now kicking its international run into high gear and reaping some nice results. It earned $5.6M in France, $3.8M in Spain, and it debuts in Germany and the U.K. this week. The film has now earned $29M overseas and $61.7M worldwide.

In third place was Black Swan, which began its foreign run with a strong $11.4M. With all its drama and dancing and artistic cinematography, the film has a rather European sensibility about it, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it has played very well in Europe, grossing $4.4M from the U.K. and $2.7M from Germany. I'm guessing that Black Swan will be very popular in France.

In other news, The Tourist continues to save face internationally as it nears the $150M mark, and The King's Speech has started to really pick up steam, crossing $100M worldwide. Check out the full chart below:

Weekly International Box Office (in millions)

	Film	Weekly Gross	Int'l Total	Worldwide
1	The Green Hornet	$18.5	$37.5	$102.9
2	Hereafter	$13.1	$29	$61.7
3	Black Swan	$11.4	$11.4	$95.8
4	The Tourist	$11.1	$139	$205.1
5	The King's Speech	$9.8	$49.8	$108.8
6	Tangled	$9.5	$231.8	$418.5
7	Gulliver's Travels	$7.7	$112.4	$152.5
8	Little Fockers	$7.5	$146.4	$288.1
9	Qualunquemente	$7.2	$7.2	$7.2
10	TRON: Legacy	$6.9	$181	$344.7

[Read more at BoxOfficeMojo]

DVD/Blu-Ray Sales: 'The Social Network' makes a ton of new friends, 'Alpha and Omega', 'Piranha 3D' don't have much bite

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:42:00 +0000

The Social Network is having quite the week! Not only did the well-reviewed film nab a whopping eight Oscar nominations, it also sold pretty darn well on the home market, moving about 1.96M copies between DVD and Blu-Ray in its first week—a terrific result for a straight-up drama. Also debuting on the chart were kiddie flick Alpha and Omega and gory B-movie Piranha 3D, but neither managed to break out. After the jump, check out a lot more sales info, The-Numbers' full DVD sales chart, and TBOJ's exclusive Blu-Ray sales chart. Lots of impressive/interesting Blu-Ray results this week. If you aren't a believer that the format is growing/taking over, you are simply incorrect.

On DVD, The Social Network moved about 1.1 million copies for an easy first place finish and $14.1M in revenue. The Facebook film earned $95.4M in theaters and generated endless discussion, so that figure might seem low, but we must remember that this is just a normal drama—no crazy special effects sequences or explosions. No talking animals and zingy humor. For most consumers, The Social Network is not a visual feast like Avatar, and its plot and dialogue aren't all that accessible. So the 1.1M figure is actually quite good, especially when you consider the 880,000 Blu-Ray copies it sold.

Alpha and Omega was way back in second with 337,139 copies and $5.8M. The animated film only managed $25.1M in theaters, and its home market run looks like it will be equally unremarkable. Despicable Me, on the other hand, is performing on another level completely. The runaway hit passed 6.5M copies-sold over the frame, and it has joined the ranks of How to Train Your Dragon (5.5M) and Toy Story 3 (9.7M) as major animated smashes. Shrek Forever After, meanwhile, has sold just under 3 million copies. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Rounding out the top five, Machete and Dinner for Schmucks plummeted by 59.7% and 62.7%, respectively. Piranha 3D finished in sixth with first week sales of 204,556 copies and $3.5M. Check out the full chart below.

DVD Sales for the Week Ending January 16, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week	% Change	Total Units	Sales this Week	Total Sales	Weeks in Release
1	The Social Network	1,082,307	-.-%	1,082,307	$14,059,168	$14,059,168	1
2	Alpha and Omega	337,139	-.-%	337,139	$5,849,362	$5,849,362	1
3	Despicable Me	314,302	-32.3%	6,502,128	$6,372,724	$112,283,548	5
4	Machete	267,438	-59.7%	930,422	$4,276,334	$14,877,448	2
5	Dinner for Schmucks	208,452	-62.7%	767,812	$3,541,599	$13,045,126	2
6	Piranha	204,556	-.-%	204,556	$3,475,406	$3,475,406	1
7	Inception	182,802	-24.6%	3,891,192	$2,528,188	$66,696,549	6
8	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	174,035	-11.8%	7,777,154	$3,478,960	$141,353,825	6
9	The Other Guys	159,207	-9.3%	1,623,839	$2,614,179	$30,327,435	5
10	Salt	156,718	-41.9%	1,478,957	$2,801,742	$24,125,413	4
11	Toy Story 3	151,090	-24.0%	9,693,197	$2,421,278	$170,779,778	11
12	The Town	140,916	-32.3%	1,594,076	$1,910,821	$24,324,335	5
13	Resident Evil: Afterlife	129,227	-56.3%	991,505	$2,389,407	$17,118,842	3
14	The Expendables	118,080	19.7%	2,522,814	$1,548,702	$41,153,952	8
15	The Last Exorcism	111,911	-50.6%	338,320	$1,877,867	$5,692,858	2
16	Easy A	110,179	-33.0%	843,130	$1,982,120	$14,551,743	4
17	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	109,421	-11.2%	790,133	$1,749,642	$12,634,227	4
18	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole	108,904	12.5%	653,271	$2,196,910	$10,587,227	5
19	Shrek Forever After	105,200	-27.3%	2,996,666	$1,731,697	$52,657,170	6
20	The A-Team	97,408	-28.1%	1,490,851	$1,668,599	$23,239,538	5
21	Eat Pray Love	91,003	-33.1%	1,812,944	$1,578,902	$29,928,324	8
22	Fringe: The Complete Second Season	90,158	-.-%	516,529	$1,995,197	$17,633,257	18
23	Family Guy: It's a Trap!	87,775	-37.7%	850,644	$1,152,486	$11,183,371	4
24	Knight and Day	79,152	-50.3%	1,472,507	$1,254,559	$20,020,609	7
25	Beauty and the Beast	73,597	-3.0%	-	$1,078,064	-	432
26	The American	68,943	-51.6%	416,754	$1,161,690	$6,375,376	3
27	24: Season Eight	57,520	-18.3%	504,870	$2,300,225	$19,291,547	5
28	Step Up 3	56,388	-40.0%	446,283	$1,011,105	$9,354,341	4
29	Nanny McPhee Returns	54,593	-.-%	422,116	$1,001,782	$7,738,505	5
30	How to Train Your Dragon	49,769	-20.2%	5,508,031	$747,929	$107,995,802	14

On the Blu-Ray front, The Social Network's results were perhaps even more impressive than its DVD sales, as the film sold 880,000 copies, which represents a massive 45% of its total sales. The film naturally appeals to the techie crowd, so those numbers make sense, and they continue to illustrate the growth of the format. Inception moved another 245,000 Blu-Rays outdoing its DVD performance by about 63,000 units and pushing its Blu-Ray total to about 4.75M. Wow.

As usual, a bunch of male-appealing/action/sci-fi movies made up the top rungs of the chart, natching some impressive figures. Piranha 3D attacked about 184,000 homes and almost matched its DVD performance. The Other Guys, The Expendables, The Town, and The A-Team all sold more Blu-Rays than DVDs. Check out the Blu-Ray sales estimates below:

Blu-Ray Sales Estimates for Week Ending Jan 16, 2010

Rank	Title	Units this Week
1	The Social Network	880,000
2	Inception	245,344
3	The Other Guys	193,072
4	Piranha 3D	184,536
5	The Expendables	165,968
6	The Town	163,416
7	The A-Team	159,192
8	Machete	148,104
9	Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition	143,704
10	Despicable Me	139,832
11	Toy Story 3	133,672
12	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	114,664
13	Alpha and Omega	108,768
14	Resident Evil: Afterlife	99,880
15	Salt	95,920
16	Dances with Wolves: 20th Anniversary Extended Cut	85,096
17	The Sorcerer's Apprentice	84,216
18	Avatar	59,224
19	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	52,624
20	Dinner for Schmucks	51,568

Are studios trying to get men to see romantic comedies this Winter?

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Remember when the trailer for Tangled came out, and everyone was wondering if Disney was trying to target boys in the marketing? Well, I'm wondering the same thing about this winter's romantic comedy offerings. Are studios trying to get men into the theater? I think so.

Rom-coms seem to be a little bit edgier lately. Typically, these light affairs are filled with fluffy dialouge, gooey sentimentalism, and kissing to boot, but in recent months, that hasn't really been the case. Movies like Love and Other Drugs and No Strings Attached tell sexed up, drugged-up stories that don't necessarily cater to the typically female romantic comedy audience. Upcoming release Just Go With It seems geared more toward men as well. Though it lists Jennifer Aniston as one of the two stars of the film, the trailer would lead you to believe that the only two stars are Brooklyn Decker's breasts. Well, and Adam Sandler. It's definitely aiming for male appeal. (That's not to say that women don't care about sex or drugs or raunchy humor, but those themes are definitely used to target male audiences more frequently.)

I'm not trying to make any sort of statement about gender and Hollywood—just pointing out a trend I've been noticing lately. Do you think studios are making an effort to get men to watch romantic comedies? Do you think it's working?

MTC Tracking: 'The Rite' and 'The Mechanic'

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:21:00 +0000

Tracking reports have come out for this weekend's new releases, The Rite, an exorcism-themed thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, and The Mechanic, Jason Statham's latest actionfest. These typical-for-January releases appear to be headed for some typical-for-January results. That is to say, alright numbers. Check out these early weekend box office predictions:

The Rite – $18 million
This seems about right. The Rite's stylish, creepy trailer has built buzz effectively, and as proved by The Last Exorcism ($41M), The Haunting in Connecticut ($55.4M), and The Unborn ($42.7M), demonic plots have shown surprising resilience in recent years.

The Mechanic – $12 million
One day, Jason Statham. One day you will have a leading role that tons of people will want to go see. Of course, I say that every time you come out with a new movie, and you continue to post Crank-like results, but still...

[via HSX]
MTC Tracking stands for "Major Theater Chain" tracking. These numbers are taken from box office tracking reports that are sent out to theater owners and posted anonymously on HSX.

'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' sails past $100M: Any hope for a sequel?

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Smith) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:58:00 +0000

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader passed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office on Saturday, the film's 44th day of release. This third edition of the Narnia franchise cost $150M to produce, and it has weathered stormy seas in its maiden voyage under Fox's distribution. Voyage earned a paltry $24M in its first weekend in November, majorly undercutting the openings of both The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe ($65.6M) and Prince Caspian ($55M). Still, the family-friendly holiday season provided some much needed wind in the Dawn Treader's sails, and though its total still stands far below its predecessors, reaching the century mark after such a poor debut is an impressive feat, and a three-digit number sounds a whole lot better for Fox.

Worldwide, the film has grossed $358.2M, and it should finish right around the $400M mark. Prince Caspian, which cost Disney $225M to make, earned $419M worldwide, a figure that prompted the studio to drop the franchise. Surprisingly, it looks like Dawn Treader will end up the more profitable venture, thanks to its lower production costs, and if Fox could find a way to trim the budget a little bit more, a fourth Narnia film actually seems like a possibility to me.

What do you think? Are you surprised The Voyage of the Dawn Treader earned $100M? Happy? Sad? Hopeful for a sequel? Share your thoughts in the comments!