> Deadline has updated early Friday numbers, and it’s looking like another too-close-to-call weekend:  all the movies in the Top 5–MONEYBALL, THE LION KING, DOLPHIN TALE, COURAGEOUS and 50/50–have Friday grosses between $3.2-3.8M.  Courageous is probably the most front-loaded, due to its focused church-based audience (although it’s per-theatre number will be very impressive), and while […]

> Channing Tatum has his second big hit in just over a month.  According to Deadline’s preliminary numbers, 21 JUMP STREET (Sony) had a very solid $13M Friday, which should mean a weekend around $32-35M.  That puts the moderately-budgeted R-rated comedy well on the way to profit, and the positive reviews suggest word-of-mouth should be […]

  The revamped franchise launch of THE BOURNE LEGACY (Universal) is off to a solid start, according to preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline.  Legacy is claiming a $15M Friday, which while 40% below the opening day for Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, is about as expected, considering the absence of Matt Damon this time around.  However, […]

  The Hollywood Reporter has the Thursday boxoffice for STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS (Paramount) at $13.5M, which given the strong reviews and general hype would be a tad disappointing.  Comparisons with the 2009 Star Trek are tricky, because that opened on Thursday night/Friday rather than Wednesday night/Thursday (Star Trek had a $30.9M opening for its […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the record pace continuing for both THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) and FROZEN (Disney). Catching Fire had no trouble with the all-time record for the day after Thanksgiving, doubling its holiday number to $31M on Friday.  This wasn’t just far better than the previous post-Thanksgiving Friday ($22.6M for […]

  Early numbers at Deadline and elsewhere make DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) the runaway winner at the Friday box office with $26-27M.  That could give it a weekend as high as $70M, at the high end of expectations and breezing past Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its $54.6M […]

  FURIOUS 7 (Universal) will handily take its third consecutive weekend title after what preliminary numbers at Deadline say was an $8M Friday.  That’s down about 58% from last Friday (which was 54% down from the Friday before), and puts the blockbuster in line for a $25M weekend, which would give it $290M in the […]

  This was never going to be much of a box office weekend, and the east coast snowstorms certainly won’t help.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, all 3 of the newcomers are closely packed with $3.5-4M Fridays and probable $9.5-11M weekends, so word of mouth could put any of them ahead. The early leader, […]