HOME (DreamWorks Animation/20th) should soothe the embattled studio and its investors a bit.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Home earned $15M on Friday, almost double the $8M start for DWA’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and almost in a league with the $18.8M first day for How To Train Your Dragon 2.  That should […]

  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 […]

  OCEAN’S EIGHT (Village Roadshow/Warners) wasn’t expected to be a blockbuster, and its reported production budget of $70M was in keeping with that, although the A-level Warners marketing campaign will raise the price.  It’s performing at the high end of expectations with a $15.9M Friday (including $4M from Thursday night) according to preliminary numbers at […]

Question #1 on this weekend’s boxoffice:  if The Dark Knight Rises is a blockbuster but everything else Warners releases this summer is a bomb, is the studio having a good summer?  Based on preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline, ROCK OF AGES joins Dark Shadows (and Chernobyl Diaries, too) as a Warner Bros summer flop.  Rock […]

  STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal) had a smashing start, with preliminary numbers at Deadline giving it $22.8M on Friday (that includes $5M from Thursday night).  With a production budget under $30M and a moderate marketing campaign, Compton will be well on the road to profit by the end of the weekend, providing a finishing touch […]

> THE HELP continues to have a strong head start on the weekend boxoffice.  The Hollywood Reporter says the film grossed $4.3M on Thursday, down only around 20% from its opening day on Wednesday, which gives it almost $10M for the 2-day period.  This suggests the picture isn’t particularly front-loaded, and may foretell a solid […]

>Love was in the air Tuesday night, as The Vow grossed $11.6 million on Valentine’s Day, shattering the mid-week Valentine’s Day record of $7.5 million for Hitch in 2005, as reported at the Hollywood Reporter.  The Vow was up from a more typical $3.3 million Monday. Business was also brisk for the more male-oriented action […]

  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 […]