'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Zhivago,' 'Notebook' Hit Blu-ray
Recent releases Tooth Fairy, Leap Year and Nine all reach DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday, while other prominent movies like Saving Private Ryan, Doctor Zhivago and The Notebook make their Blu-ray debuts.
Tooth Fairy (DVD and Blu-ray) opened to $14 million in January, which was down from star The Rock's previous children's movies Race to Witch Mountain ($24.4 million) and The Game Plan ($22.6 million). While Tooth Fairy also fell short of matching those movie's totals, it held pretty well over its entire run, notching $59.4 million through Thursday, April 29, and it continues to play in limited release.
Leap Year and Nine didn't fare as well. Leap Year (DVD and Blu-ray), which was the first of distributor Universal Pictures' numerous first quarter underperformers, opened to $9.2 million in January and ultimately closed with $25.9 million in 56 days. Though star Amy Adams has been in a number of recent hits like Julie & Julia, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Enchanted, she has yet to open a movie on her own.
Nine (DVD and Blu-ray) mustered just $19.7 million through its entire run, representing a fraction of director Rob Marshall's last movie musical, Chicago ($170.7 million). Box Office Mojo readers deemed Nine's box office run to be the second-most disappointing of 2009, behind comic book adaptation Watchmen. Nine's poor performance can likely be attributed to source material that was not nearly as popular as that of Chicago and a been-there-done-that feeling in advertisements among other factors.
A number of very popular older movies reach Blu-ray for the first time Tuesday, including Steven Spielberg's World War II movie Saving Private Ryan (Blu-ray), which made $216.5 million (around $350 million adjusted for ticket price inflation) in the summer of 1998. Though it won five Oscars, it lost the Best Picture prize to Shakespeare in Love. Eleven years later, though, Saving Private Ryan has resonated far more with audiences than Shakespeare in Love.
David Lean's epic romance Doctor Zhivago (Blu-ray) was a box office monster in its era. Released in Dec. 1965, it's estimated to have grossed $111.7 million, or the equivalent of around $950 million adjusted, which ranks eighth on the all time list. Zhivago was Lean's third big-budget epic in a row, following The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 and Lawrence of Arabia in 1962.
The Notebook (Blu-ray), which opened to $13.5 million in June 2004 on its way to an $81 million total, is also scheduled for its first Blu-ray release this week. While it wasn't the first Nicholas Sparks adaptation (Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember preceded it), it remains the highest-grossing of them all. It went on to be even more popular on DVD, becoming an audience favorite.
Two relatively unsuccessful action pictures also hit Blu-ray for the first time this week. Despite featuring the return of "Snake" Plissken, Escape from LA (Blu-ray), the long-gestating sequel to 1981 cult hit Escape from New York, made a paltry $25.5 million in 1996. K-19: The Widowmaker (Blu-ray) fared worse in 2002, making only $35.2 million against a production budget in excess of $100 million. This didn't irreversibly tarnish K-19 director Kathryn Bigelow's career, as she went on to win the Best Director Oscar a few months ago for her work on The Hurt Locker.
Click here for the complete list of May 4 DVD and Blu-ray releases.
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Tooth Fairy (DVD and Blu-ray) opened to $14 million in January, which was down from star The Rock's previous children's movies Race to Witch Mountain ($24.4 million) and The Game Plan ($22.6 million). While Tooth Fairy also fell short of matching those movie's totals, it held pretty well over its entire run, notching $59.4 million through Thursday, April 29, and it continues to play in limited release.
Leap Year and Nine didn't fare as well. Leap Year (DVD and Blu-ray), which was the first of distributor Universal Pictures' numerous first quarter underperformers, opened to $9.2 million in January and ultimately closed with $25.9 million in 56 days. Though star Amy Adams has been in a number of recent hits like Julie & Julia, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Enchanted, she has yet to open a movie on her own.
Nine (DVD and Blu-ray) mustered just $19.7 million through its entire run, representing a fraction of director Rob Marshall's last movie musical, Chicago ($170.7 million). Box Office Mojo readers deemed Nine's box office run to be the second-most disappointing of 2009, behind comic book adaptation Watchmen. Nine's poor performance can likely be attributed to source material that was not nearly as popular as that of Chicago and a been-there-done-that feeling in advertisements among other factors.
A number of very popular older movies reach Blu-ray for the first time Tuesday, including Steven Spielberg's World War II movie Saving Private Ryan (Blu-ray), which made $216.5 million (around $350 million adjusted for ticket price inflation) in the summer of 1998. Though it won five Oscars, it lost the Best Picture prize to Shakespeare in Love. Eleven years later, though, Saving Private Ryan has resonated far more with audiences than Shakespeare in Love.
David Lean's epic romance Doctor Zhivago (Blu-ray) was a box office monster in its era. Released in Dec. 1965, it's estimated to have grossed $111.7 million, or the equivalent of around $950 million adjusted, which ranks eighth on the all time list. Zhivago was Lean's third big-budget epic in a row, following The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957 and Lawrence of Arabia in 1962.
The Notebook (Blu-ray), which opened to $13.5 million in June 2004 on its way to an $81 million total, is also scheduled for its first Blu-ray release this week. While it wasn't the first Nicholas Sparks adaptation (Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember preceded it), it remains the highest-grossing of them all. It went on to be even more popular on DVD, becoming an audience favorite.
Two relatively unsuccessful action pictures also hit Blu-ray for the first time this week. Despite featuring the return of "Snake" Plissken, Escape from LA (Blu-ray), the long-gestating sequel to 1981 cult hit Escape from New York, made a paltry $25.5 million in 1996. K-19: The Widowmaker (Blu-ray) fared worse in 2002, making only $35.2 million against a production budget in excess of $100 million. This didn't irreversibly tarnish K-19 director Kathryn Bigelow's career, as she went on to win the Best Director Oscar a few months ago for her work on The Hurt Locker.
Click here for the complete list of May 4 DVD and Blu-ray releases.
Related Stories
• 'It's Complicated' Debuts, 'Out of Africa,' 'Tombstone' Go Blu• 'Avatar' Strikes DVD
