> THE HUNGER GAMES has an excuse. Last night at midnight, The Hunger Games began its long-awaited run in theatres by grossing $19.7M.  Which is, by any estimation, a lot of money–the most ever earned by a non-sequel, and the 7th highest midnight ever.  But… it’s less than half the $43.5M of the midnight record […]

  With $345M already in the bank from its giant overseas openings (that includes an all-time opening day record in China), IRON MAN 3 (Disney) turned its metallic gaze to the US last night, and had a huge $15.6M in evening/midnight screenings.  That was a bit below than the $18.7M Thursday night for The Avengers […]

  BLACK PANTHER (Marvel/Disney) is now in competition only with the loftiest movie hits.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, its 2nd Friday was $28.4M (down 63% from last week), behind just The Avengers‘ $29.2M in the Marvel universe (down 64% from its own opening day), as well as The Force Awakens ($49.3M, down 58%) […]

  THE AVENGERS, having trampled over the opening weekend record, will easily take its second weekend in a row.  According to Deadline, it’s heading for a $29M Friday, the highest 2d Friday ever, and it should easily eclipse the Weekend 2 record currently held by Avatar with $75.6M.  Disney is estimating a $100M weekend, which […]

  Unless the world comes to an abrupt end in the next few hours, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is going to start earning more money than The Joker set on fire in the last Batman film.  But how much?  Can Rises set records this weekend?  Our resident expert says probably not, because Christopher Nolan’s film […]

> What was expected to be a slow weekend at the boxoffice is proving to be exactly that.  The Hollywood Reporter has preliminary numbers for Friday, and they show FOOTLOOSE in the lead with $5.5M, heading for probably $17M or so for the weekend.  THE THING is way behind, with $3.5M for Friday that may […]

  This weekend’s boxoffice is looking stronger than last week’s–but that’s not saying very much.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (Screen Gems/Sony) owned Friday with $8.8M.  That’s lower than the opening days for the last several Resident Evil installments ($10.7M/$9.6M/$9.2M for the last 3), and should mean a $22M opening weekend […]

  The lack of any new wide openings and the arrival of the year’s Golden Globe nominations are making for a strong holdover weekend, although for some titles more than others.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET (Disney) continued to decline rather swiftly, down 38% from last Friday to $3.5M, where Moana […]