MOVIES GIVE WAY TO TV SHOWS ON DVD SALES CHART

Three season compilations of television shows nudged movies out of the DVD sales chart for last week. Indeed, the top seller for the week was ABC’s Lost: The Complete Sixth Season. The fourth season of Showtime’s Dexter also made the list at No. 4, followed by the seventh season of CBS’s NCIS. Sony’s The Back-up […]

DATE NIGHT TOPS HOME VIDEO CHARTS

The Steve Carell-Tina Fey-Mark Wahlberg comedy Date Night grabbed the No. 1 spot on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert DVD and Blu-ray sales charts and Home Media magazine’s rental chart for last week. Another comedy, Death at a Funeral, came in at No. 2. But appearing to reflect consumers’ lack of interest in paying premium […]

“NIGHTMARE” HAS A DREAM OPENING

Nightmare on Elm Street took off like a house on fire on Friday, earning $15.8 million, but dropped 33 percent on Saturday, a bail-out that left analysts hestitant about the final estimate of $32.2 million that Warner Bros./New Line predicted for the weekend on Sunday. (Weekend estimates are based on actual ticket sales for Friday […]

INGLOURIOUS OPENING FOR “KICK-ASS”

The hyperviolent superheroes in Lionsgate’s action comedy Kick-Ass had their behinds whacked by the friendly dragons and Scottish-accented Vikings in Paramount/DreamWorks’s How to Train Your Dragon over the weekend. Or at least, so it seemed on Sunday morning as the studios issued their weekend estimates. Paramount said that Dragon soared to the top again in […]

“DATE NIGHT” MISSES ITS DATE WITH VICTORY

Not only didn’t Date Night win the weekend box-office race as 20th Century Fox had estimated on Sunday, it didn’t even come close. The actual winner was Warner Bros.’ Clash of the Titans, which finished with $26.7 million, well above the final take for Date Night, which came in at $25.2 million, just edging out […]

STUDIOS WRANGLE OVER WHICH MOVIE FINISHED IN FIRST PLACE

In what appeared to be one of the tightest box-office finishes in memory, Date Night claimed to be the weekend winner Sunday with an estimated $27.1 million. But, according to the unofficial studio figures, the second week of Clash of the Titans was right behind with $26.88 million, while the third week of How to […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: “DATE NIGHT”

Date Night, a modest comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, is challenging three 3D blockbusters at the box office this weekend, and several industry observers are predicting a David-vs-Goliath result. Certainly the critics, on the whole, are giving it far better treatment than they did the Goliaths. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times loves […]