The  preliminary numbers at Deadline confirm the expected:  PAN (RatPac-Dune/Warners) is a box office catastrophe in the making.  Its $5.2M opening day (which includes $650K from Thursday night) is less than half the first day of Fantastic Four ($11.3M), and although as a family-oriented movie it may bounce back a bit on Saturday (and […]

  In its time of need, Hollywood looked to Pixar for salvation, and FINDING DORY (Pixar/Disney) is delivering.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, its opening day was $53M (including $9.2M from Thursday evening), more than any animated film has ever made in a single day, ahead of the $47.1M that Shrek The Third earned […]

This is a well-designed weekend for Hollywood, with a trio of sensibly-budgeted franchise titles all drawing audiences from their mostly separate target demos.  The Friday winner, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, was FIFTY SHADES DARKER (Universal), with $20M ($5.7M of it from Thursday night).  That’s about 2/3 of the $30.3M opening day for Fifty […]

  BLADE RUNNER 2049 (Alcon/Sony/Warners) was a high-risk bet, with roughly $300M in production and worldwide marketing wagered on an extremely serious 164-minute sequel to a 35-year old film that only became legendary after it was itself a sizable flop in theatres.  Reportedly, the bulk of that investment rested with Alcon, while Sony (international) and […]

  After a significantly lower start, JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (Legendary/Perfect World/Universal) is having a sharper drop in its 2nd weekend than its predecessor.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Friday was down 70% from last week to $17.4M, compared to a 63% drop for the first Jurassic World on its 2nd Friday.  The number […]

  SHAZAM (DC/New Line/Warners) is going to win a bleak weekend at the box office, and even it doesn’t have much to boast about.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have it dropping 68% from last Friday to $6.6M, worse than the Friday-to-Friday drops for Wonder Woman (-59%) and Justice League (-57%).  A $23M weekend would put […]

> The Hollywood Reporter has fresher boxoffice numbers.  MONEYBALL’s start isn’t quite as high as it had looked, but a Friday close to $7M is still excellent, and should lead to a $20M or so weekend, especially since exit polls indicate audiences are in line with critics on this one.  THE LION KING, entering what’s […]

> Well, that didn’t last long. After an Oscars+1 day where Best Picture winner THE ARTIST had the smallest Monday decline of any movie in the Top 10,  by Tuesday the glow was gone.  On a day when almost every Top 10 film was significantly up, ccording to Box Office Mojo, Artist had an increase […]