THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) is headed for a strong post-4th of July weekend, according to preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline.  Spidey reportedly made $21M on Friday, which if that number holds would be a 33% increase over Thursday, signficantly better than the 18% Friday bump that Transformers had in its 4th of July week […]

  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 […]

  Be sure to read Mitch Metcalf’s Weekend Box Office Predictions. Momentum was lacking for THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (Screen Gems/Sony), as the studio kept the movie from critics until the last possible instant and didn’t even have night-before screenings for audiences–one of the only films of the summer to wait till 12:01AM […]

  Friday night numbers for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (Sony) should be considered more preliminary than usual, because the $34-35M figures for the day at Deadline and elsewhere are based on the idea that while Amazing 2 had been tracking for around $30M for most of Friday, it suddenly upticked with Friday night’s shows–but on […]

  OPENINGS:  Even though it technically opened last year, 2015 has its first blockbuster hit with AMERICAN SNIPER (Warners/Village Roadshow).  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Clint Eastwood’s newly-minted Best Picture nominee exceeded all expectations with $29.1M on Friday (including $5.3M from Thursday night screenings).  That one-day figure alone puts it ahead of all but […]

  The last time Halloween fell on a Saturday, in 2009, Hollywood mostly stayed away.  (The concert movie This Is It opened the previous Wednesday.)  This year, two studios tried to counterprogram the holiday with problematic star vehicles, and based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the results weren’t pretty. BURNT (Weinstein) has been conspicuous for […]

  This weekend was expected to belong to LOGAN (TSG/20th), and the R-rated, critically acclaimed superhero drama is delivering in a big way.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $32M (including $8.5M from Thursday night), about 2/3 of Deadpool‘s first day, which was itself boosted by a 4-day holiday weekend.  Among R-rated action […]

  Rebooting an aged horror franchise can be tough.  Recent attempts to bring back Alien, Scream and Friday the 13th have faltered, and now Saw, rechristened as JIGSAW (Lionsgate), isn’t off to much of a start.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $7.5M, much lower than the $10.7M for Saw 3D, the last […]