ALADDIN (Disney) marked a rebound from the opening day of Dumbo, with preliminary numbers at Deadline projecting $30.8M on Friday (including $7M from Thursday afternoon/evening), compared to $15.3M for Dumbo.  The Memorial Day holiday will provide an extra boost, so the 3-day weekend should be around $86M, with $106M by Monday.  Aladdin wasn’t cheap, […]

> 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 […]

> 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 […]

  Expectations that this would be a dreadful weekend at the boxoffice are already being proved true.  The “big” opening of the week, THE WORDS (CBS) couldn’t even beat last week’s horror cheapie THE POSSESSION (Lionsgate) on its own opening day.  Words, according to early numbers at Deadline, will only make $1.7M on Friday, for a terrible $5M […]

  FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Universal) is off to a quick start with $6.5M from Thursday night shows, considerably above the $3.8M that Fast Five made (only in midnight shows) in its Thursday start 2 years ago.  That bodes very well for 6, considering that Fast Five had a huge $86.2M opening over a non-holiday 3-day weekend.  […]

  Early numbers at Deadline have ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) and THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Warners/MGM) just about neck-and-neck at the Friday box office, both in the $8.5-9M neighborhood.  However, as a new arrival, Anchorman is likely to do softer business on Saturday, which should give Hobbit the weekend win. For […]

  The remarkably nutty LUCY (Universal)–more Transcendence than La Femme Nikita–connected with audiences in a big way on Friday, with $16-17M (including $2.75M from Thursday night) according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere.  That makes it one of the biggest non-franchise action movies of the summer.  Although word of mouth is uncertain once ticket […]

  TOMORROWLAND (Disney) appears to be heading for the low end of expectations, earning around $10M on Friday (including less than $1M from Thursday night shows) according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  Although exit polls are far from infallible, family movies usually score well, and its B grade is a sign that word-of-mouth may be […]