After a string of disappointments at the box office, this weekend’s franchise centerpiece looks like it will deliver.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the opening day for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) at $17.3M (including $3M from Thursday night and $2.5M from earlier paid previews), better than the $12.1M […]

> Both The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have preliminary (and somewhat divergent) estimates for Friday and the weekend boxoffice, and it looks like this will be the second consecutive weekend with a down-to-the-wire finish.  Whoever comes out ahead when final numbers are announced, though, it’s already clear that this will be another unexpectedly robust session […]

> The Hollywood Reporter has some rough early numbers for Friday’s boxoffice, and the news looks good for CAPTAIN AMERICA:  THE FIRST AVENGER.  Including Thursday midnight grosses of $4M, it seems to be around $25M for the day.  This would be right in the neighborhood of its Marvel-mate Thor, which had a $25.5M opening day […]

> Welcome to the weekend of THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  BREAKING DAWN PART I, where every ticket sold will be the subject of excited speculation about just how big an opening the sure-to-be-blockbuster will have. We begin overseas, where BD1 opened yesterday in 5 territories, before a much larger international push tomorrow. The total for the […]

>DeadlineHollywood is reporting Green Lantern earned $3.35 million at midnight plays (at 1,810 theaters).  This result is similar to recent midnight previews for Thor and X-Men: First Class.  (See Mitch Salem’s Green Lantern review HERE.)  This might indicate Green Lantern could open in the high-$50 million range, although we will stick with the published $55 […]

> Deadline has preliminary numbers for the Friday boxoffice, and if they hold, it looks to be a thoroughly terrible weekend for Hollywood.  NEW YEAR’S EVE appears to be under $6M for Friday, meaning a weekend of $15-17M, far below Mitch Metcalf’s $25M projection.  Even with a longer playing period than Valentine’s Day had last […]

> The Marvel superhero audience likes to get its sleep.  Despite the fact that THE AVENGERS is expected to do record-challenging business this weekend, last night’s midnight screenings totaled $18.7M–a tremendous amount of money, to be sure, the 8th largest midnight opening of all time, but 8th place isn’t where Avengers mostly expects to be.  […]

  The early Friday numbers this week are likely to be even less reliable than usual, since weather conditions on the East Coast make estimates very dicey.  That being said, the preliminary numbers at Deadline make it clear that come blizzard or high water, IDENTITY THIEF (Universal) will be the big winner of the weekend.  […]