Tom Cruise’s OBLIVION (Universal) faced no significant competition for its opening this weekend, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a fairly strong $13.8M Friday (including $1.1M from Thursday night screenings), which should put it on track for a $35M+ weekend, a bit higher than Mitch Metcalf’s weekend prediction.  Nonetheless, with a […]

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have the remake of EVIL DEAD (TriStar/Sony/FilmDistrict) on track for a solid weekend win, with $11.5M on Thursday night/Friday and a probable front-loaded weekend in the mid $20Ms.  That would put it midway between the January horror launches of Texas Chainsaw Massacre ($21.7M) and Mama ($28.4M), and it’ll probably end […]

  Thursday openings are hard to gauge, because there aren’t very many of them, and most of them are designed to extend long holiday weekends.  Here’s what we do know about the $10.5M opening day for GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM).  That number includes $2.2M for Wednesday night and Thursday midnight screenings, and without those, it’s […]

  No studio dared to challenge OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) in any meaningful way on its second weekend, and Sam Raimi’s extravaganza will romp to another weekend win–but that’s not to say it’s doing so with particularly impressive numbers.  Based on preliminary estimates at Deadline, Oz will have an $11M Friday, which would […]

  Is OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) more like Alice in Wonderland or like The Lorax?  We won’t know for another 24 hours or so, and that’s going to be the difference between Oz living up to its potential or not.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Oz had a $23.5M Friday (including Thursday […]

  Reading fragmentary Thursday night tea leaves to predict weekend boxoffice is a dicey business, particularly because in our post-Aurora era, those numbers now include showings as early as 9PM in addition to the once-traditional 12:01AM screenings.  So the $2M earned by OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) last night can be parsed in several […]

  Oscar weekend boxoffice is one of those chicken-and-egg situations where it’s not clear whether the major studios stay away because no one goes to the movies that weekend, or if no one goes to the movies because there’s nothing new to see.  However self-fulfilling the prophecy may be, things are quiet at the multiplex […]

  As expected, the end of Valentine’s Day meant some slippage for SAFE HAVEN (Relativity), and allowed A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (20th) to take a narrow Friday lead, which it will probably hold for the rest of the holiday weekend.  But according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the race is surprisingly close. Die […]