> The new 3D action-fest IMMORTALS got off to a reasonably good start with $1.4M in Thursday midnight screenings.  This isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s slightly higher than the $1.3M RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES made in its midnight runs, and far better than the $550K pulled in last week by A VERY […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES ended its first week of release with a $189.9M total that was the 7th highest in history.  That result was exceeded only by the blockbuster summer sequels The Dark Knight, Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean:  Dead Man’s Chest, Spider-Man […]

  The weekend looks bright for a couple of the new openings.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, WRECK-IT RALPH (Disney) had a $13.5M opening day, on its way to a $50M weekend.  If those numbers hold, the weekend will top the (non-Pixar) Walt Disney Animation record $48.8M opening for Tangled 2 years ago, which […]

  Note:  Updated With Official Wednesday Studio Estimates It’s going to be a sensational holiday for DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal).  he sequel had the third-best opening day for any animated movie ever with $34.3M on Wednesday.  (It’s behind only Toy Story 3‘s $41.2M and Shrek the Third‘s $38.4M.)  With the 4-5x multiple of a 5-day […]

  Just about everything in theatres this weekend is due to take a 60-70% dive on Super Bowl Sunday, which probably means that even if THAT AWKWARD MOMENT (Focus/Universal) maintains the slim current lead for Friday that it has in preliminary numbers at Deadline, it’s unlikely to stay ahead for the weekend.  At the moment, […]

  This weekend, Denzel Washington is proving himself yet again one of the last truly reliable movie stars.  Just a week after Liam Neeson flopped with A Walk Among the Tombstones, preliminary numbers at Deadline have THE EQUALIZER (Columbia/Sony) at $12.5-13M on Friday (including $1.5M from Thursday night)–roughly the same amount ($12.7M) Tombstones made in […]

  MINIONS (Illumination/Universal) was expected to enfold the weekend box office in its little yellow fingers, and so it is.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it a $45M opening day, which appears to be the largest opening in the history of movie animation (the asterisk is because we now consider “Friday” to include Thursday night, […]

  The failure of ALLEGIANT (Summit/Lionsgate) puts its studio in an unusually awkward position.  Even though Lionsgate may be able to put the 3rd Divergent movie on its books as a profit (most of the international rights were pre-sold, providing revenues that can off-set the oncoming US losses), the economics are going to get much […]