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After Halloween basically cut last weekend by a third, this weekend bounced back, and did it with a vengeance. Not only did the number one film beat expectations, the overall box office did as well pulling in $142 million. This was a stunning 62% more than last weekend, which is impressive, even after taking into account Halloween falling on a Friday last weekend and the beginning of November this weekend. Even more importantly, this weekend was 26% higher than the same weekend last year. Year-to-date, 2008 has earned $7.96 billion, which is higher than 2007's pace, but by less than 1% as last year at this time the running tally was $7.94 billion.

I have just one word to describe this week's DVD Release Report, and that word is, 'Ggrrghfuul.' 'Ggrrghfuul' is the sound one makes after reviewing 19 DVDs in one week, and I wasn't even able to put a dent in my pile of late DVDs. (On a related note, I have never been late reviewing a movie, as long as it arrives before the weekend before the movie is released. Given how busy some weeks have been, that's quite a feat.) As for the actual releases, there are a number of top-notch offerings coming out on Tuesday, and one that came out on Sunday. These include Firefly - The Complete Series - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon, Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army - Buy from Amazon: 3-Disc DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray Collector's Edition, and Sunset Boulevard - Centennial Collection - Buy from Amazon. All three are worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week, and I'm not going to bother to narrow it down further. Additionally, there are two late releases featured on this weeks list, Futurama - Bender's Game - Buy from Am

I have just one word to describe this week's DVD Release Report, and that word is, 'Ggrrghfuul.' 'Ggrrghfuul' is the sound one makes after reviewing 19 DVDs in one week, and I wasn't even able to put a dent in my pile of late DVDs. (On a related note, I have never been late reviewing a movie, as long as it arrives before the weekend before the movie is released. Given how busy some weeks have been, that's quite a feat.) As for the actual releases, there are a number of top-notch offerings coming out on Tuesday, and one that came out on Sunday. These include Firefly - The Complete Series - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon, Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army - Buy from Amazon: 3-Disc DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray Collector's Edition, and Sunset Boulevard - Centennial Collection - Buy from Amazon. All three are worthy of the DVD Pick of the Week, and I'm not going to bother to narrow it down further. Additionally, there are two late releases featured on this weeks list, Futurama - Bender's Game - Buy from Am

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opens big, while Role Models is a pleasant surprise. Find out what the staff thinks about the box office news of the week.

Role Models suggests a new breed of comedy is upon us - one that's lewd, crude and sexual, but also intelligent, heartfelt and direct.

This week: Tony Sopranos lives on, Firefly goes high-def and the Star Wars universe keeps expanding.

New releases were not as strong this week as they were last week, and this hurt overall sales. However, Tinker Bell still did very well, especially for a direct-to-DVD release, selling 1.94 million units generating $30.73 million in sales during its first week of release. Had the movie opened in theaters, I would suspect it would have been a much bigger hit than Space Chimps and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, probably bigger than those two films combined, and perhaps even earned $100 million or more, depending on its release date.

New releases were spread thin on the rental chart this week, but one of them, Journey to the Center of the Earth, did earn first place earning nearly 25% more than the second place The Incredible Hulk.

This week the leader on the per theater chart was also the leader of the overall box office chart as Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opened with a very impressive average of $15,559 in more than 4000 theaters. Second place went to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas opened with $250,000 in 17 theaters for an average of $14,887, which suggest at least some potential to expand. The Alphabet Killer was a surprise entry in the $10,000 club, as it earned $11,000 in its lone theater in Rochester, new york. Likewise, JCVD shocked earning just over $20,000 in 2 theaters for an average of $10,060.