August 3rd, 2011
Rango remained the best selling Blu-ray this week with 317,000 units / $6.34 million for the week and 670,000 units / $13.39 million after two.
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July 28th, 2011
Despite only going on sale on Friday, Rango led all new releases and took top spot on the Blu-ray sales chart. It wasn't even really close, as it sold 353,000 units and generated $7.05 million. Its opening week Blu-ray ratio of 37% is strong, especially for a kids movie.
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July 26th, 2011
Despite only coming out on Friday, Rango was the best new release and led the weekly DVD sales chart. From Friday through Sunday, the film sold 611,000 units while generating $9.77 million in sales.
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July 11th, 2011
After one of the worst weeks on the home market I've seen, there's an uptick of first run releases this week. This includes the first release of 2011 to reach $100 million at the box office, Rango. However, that film doesn't hit the home market till Friday, so this Tuesday is even weaker. There are a few other midlevel releases coming out this week to bolster the overall strength of the market, but while it is better than most third quarter offerings, I'm still itching for the fall to start. As for the best release of the week, Rango's Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack is the clear winner there and it is our Pick of the Week.
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April 11th, 2011
Ugh. It's time to break out the thesaurus to look up different ways of saying, "disappointing". This past weekend three of the four new releases missed expectations, while the holdovers were not able to compensate. This led to a 7% drop-off from last weekend to $116 million, which was 9% lower than the same weekend last year. 2011 continues its depressing pace and is now behind 2010 by 21% at $2.49 billion to $3.13 billion. Hopefully things will turn around next weekend. We need at least one win going into summer, or we could be in desperate trouble.
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April 4th, 2011
It was mostly a good news start to the month as the top film, Hop, beat expectations with ease and nearly became the fastest opening film of the year. Meanwhile, most of the rest of the top five at least came close to matching expectations. This helped the box office grow 3% from last weekend to $125 million. Unfortunately, this was nearly 30% lower than the same weekend last year. This means 2011 continues to lose ground on 2010 and it is now off last year's pace by just over 20% at $2.34 billion to $2.93 billion. Things need to turn around very soon.
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April 3rd, 2011
Universal have a shot at posting the biggest opening of 2011, thanks to a stronger than expected opening for Hop, which is currently estimated to open with $38.118 million. If that number holds up, it would just beat the $38.079 million opening enjoyed by Rango at the beginning of March. Encouraging as that performance is, it also highlights the overall weakness of the market in 2011, as four movies had opened over $40 million by this time last year, and Clash of the Titans debuted with $61 million the first weekend of April, making for another tough year-to-year comparison. The weekend as a whole will likely be down around 27% from last year, continuing the industry's losing streak into the second quarter.
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April 1st, 2011
Another month has gone by and 2011 has slipped further behind 2010's pace. March was a bit of an improvement over the first two months, but only in the most generous of terms. It still lost ground to 2010, but not at the same disastrous pace as January and February did. There is some good news, as last April was rather weak and there's a chance 2011 could actually gain ground. After all, only Clash of the Titans earned $100 million last year (although Date Night came awfully close). This year, there are three or four films that could hit the century mark. That would be welcome news indeed. On a side note, April is usually a bit of a dumping ground as studios fear going head-to-head with summer blockbusters opening in May. However, I get the feeling that this year they are hoping to extend summer by having it open a couple of weeks early. Maybe they'll succeed.
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March 31st, 2011
It's a new month and we are hoping for reasons to celebrate. So far 2011 has not brought a lot of big hits with it. Only once in three months did 2011 top 2010 in the year-over-year comparison, and even then it was due to a misalignment in holidays. Sadly, that won't turn around this weekend, as it is very likely that all three new releases combined won't make as much as Clash of the Titans opened with last year. On the other hand, perhaps Hop and the others will be bigger than expected hits and we can build on that success.
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