CARS 2 RACES FAR AHEAD OF COMPETITION

Demonstrating yet again that when it comes to home video sales, it’s difficult to beat movies targeting kids, Disney’s Cars 2 sold nearly as many units as every other movie on the retail shelves put together last week. Surprisingly, 17 percent of the Cars discs sold were in the Blu-ray 3D format, although only a […]

BRITAIN RENEWS TAX CREDITS; HOLLYWOOD CHEERS

Citing the “massive success” of films produced in the U.K. during the past year, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced today that the country’s tax incentives to the film industry will be extended through 2015. Those incentives helped attract producers of such films as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Captain America, Pirates […]

CAPTAIN AMERICA WHIPS JACK SPARROW

Paramount Home Entertainment’s Captain America: The First Avenger sent Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to the plank last week. The Marvel superhero debuted in first place on the DVD and Blu-ray Disc charts, according to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert. According to Home Media magazine, Blu-ray Disc sales for Captain America accounted for […]

THE SMURFS REMAIN GREEN OVERSEAS

This weekend overseas, The Smurfs chalked up another first-place victory as it grossed $14.9 million in 73 countries to bring its foreign total to $321 million. It has remained in the top spot since it opened on July 27. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a close second with $12.5 million in 60 […]

APES SWINGS TO THE TOP AGAIN

Most of the top movies earned more at the box office on Sunday than their respective studios had estimated. <I>Rise of the Planet of the Apes </I>fell 49 percent in its second weekend to $27.8 million, crossing the $100 million mark after just ten days and bringing its domestic gross to $105.2 million. In second […]

TRIUMPH OF THE APES

That tight, five-way race at the box office that had been predicted between holdover Rise of the Planet of the Apes and four new entries failed to materialize, except — arguably — between the top two films. Apes rose to the top again with a solid $27.5 million, down about 50 percent from last week’s […]

APES RISES — AND SO DOES CHERNIN

Peter Chernin, who was believed to be the likely successor to Rupert Murdoch until Murdoch made it clear that he wanted one of his sons to take over when he stepped down, must have been experiencing a profusion of schadenfreude Monday as final box office figures showed that the first film from Chernin Entertainment, Rise […]

CHINA FALLS UNDER POTTER’S SPELL

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 made an impressive debut in China where it earned $25.5 million in about 4,200 theaters over the weekend. The Chinese haul kept the Potter finale ahead overseas, where it is now playing in 61 countries, for the fourth weekend in a row. Its worldwide total now stands […]

MOVIEGOERS ON OTHER SIDE OF TRACKS

Forget all those expensive tracking studies and the forecasts of those know-it-all box-office gurus. Moviegoers simply didn’t behave the way they were supposed to over the weekend. Cowboys & Aliens, which was expected to be an easy winner with around $45 million, wound up instead with $36.4 million. On the other hand, The Smurfs, which […]

COWBOYS, ALIENS AND CAPTAIN AMERICA SMURFED ON FRIDAY

Who wudda smurfed it? The Smurfs was the top movie at the box office on Friday, smurfing in an estimated $13.3 million and smurfing out Cowboys and Aliens, which had been favored to win but ended up in second place with around $12.99 million. Captain America, which many predicted would wind up in second place, […]

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