> For anyone who thought the angst over JOHN CARTER‘s boxoffice returns was overstated:  Disney has issued a public statement advising that it expects the film to result in a $200M loss, which will singlehandedly pull the Disney film studio as a whole to a loss of $80-120M for this calendar quarter.  That’s less horrific […]

  From the start, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (DreamWorks/Reliance/Universal) was perceived as a lower-intensity version of the Gone Girl phenomenon, and that’s holding with the opening of its film version.  Where Gone Girl had a $13.2M Friday start on its way to a $37.5M weekend, preliminary numbers at Deadline give Train $9.3M on Friday, […]

  Despite a trio of new arrivals, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT (Skydance/Alibaba/Paramount) will ride strong reviews and word of mouth to an easy second consecutive weekend crown.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have Friday at $9.8M, down 57% from last week, and better than the 60% drop for the 2nd Friday of Rogue Nation.  With that […]

  CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) is as big as expected, and maybe even a little bigger.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have it at up to $38M on Friday (that includes $10.2M from Thursday night), putting it close to 20% higher than the $31.9M opening day for Thor: The Dark World, which wound up […]

  THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE (Rovio/Sony) is keeping the momentum going at the early summer box office, with a preliminary Friday, per Deadline, at $11M.  That’s almost exactly the same opening day as Sony’s Hotel Transylvania, which had a $42.5M weekend and ended up at $148.3M in the US and another $210.1M overseas.  It’s too […]

  Although some films have opened well against the Super Bowl, both counterprogramming (the Hannah Montana concert movie and Dear John) and playing toward the action genre (Taken and Chronicle), as a rule the studios stay away, and that was the case this year.  The only wide opening was the low-budget horror flick WINCHESTER (CBS/Lionsgate), […]

  Labor Day Weekend is the only holiday that doesn’t make people gravitate to the movies, and this year will be no exception.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the 5-week old GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), newly anointed as America’s #1 film of 2014 at approximately $262M (although it will never catch up with […]

  The holiday movie season is getting off to a very slow start this weekend–and since this is the same time last year when the 2d Hobbit opened to $73.6M, the early December date can’t be blamed for it.  (This year’s Hobbit has opted to open next Wednesday.)  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give Ridley Scott’s […]