OPENINGS: GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (Columbia/Sony) played as a family movie, with a Saturday afternoon bump, and that enabled it to match projections at $45.2M, slightly higher than the $44M start for 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. However, Frozen Empire cost $25M more than Afterlife, so a 3% increase at the box office may not cover the […]
OPENINGS: ARTHUR THE KING (Lionsgate) was clearly hoping to emulate the sleeper success of 2022’s Dog, which ran a $14.9M opening into $61.8M in the US. However, the Mark Wahlberg vehicle came up very short with a $7.5M start. Production/marketing costs are reportedly $60M, which will make for a tough road to profit. Arthur […]
OPENINGS: KUNG FU PANDA 4 (DreamWorks Animation/Universal), the first new all-ages animated release since the holiday season, arrived at the high end of projections with $58.3M, impressively above the $41.3M start for 2016’s Panda 3. (And at a reported production budget 40% lower than its predecessor.) It faces no direct competition for months, and […]
OPENINGS: DUNE: PART TWO (Legendary/Warners) landed at the high end of projections with $81.5M. Comparisons with the 2021 Dune have little meaning, since that film was part of the studio’s controversial year of premiering simultaneously in theaters and via streaming, but compared to recent blockbusters, Dune 2 was below Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania […]
OPENINGS: In what Hollywood hopes will be the last weekend of drought for a while, the TV episodes packaged as DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA – TO THE HASHIRA TRAINING (Crunchyroll/Sony) led the newcomers with $11.6M, a bit better than the $10.1M for last year’s Demon Slayer episodes. In addition, the film earned $13.7M […]
OPENINGS: The calendar did Hollywood a favor by placing Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, affording films a 6-day window with Presidents Day on Monday. The chief beneficiary was BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE (Paramount), which surpassed expectations with $51.1M through Monday ($27.7M over the traditional 3-day weekend). With little new competition in the wings next week, […]