CRAZY RICH ASIANS (SK Global/Warners) has become a genuine phenomenon, down per preliminary numbers at Deadline just 17% from last Friday to $5.8M.  Sunday will be stronger than usual due to the 4-day weekend, so that should mean $23M by Sunday and $28M with Monday, putting Crazy on a track that now seems capable […]

  Most films will rise this weekend compared to last week, simply because New Year’s Eve is a bigger moviegoing occasion than Christmas Eve.  Generally, box office should rise 20% or so on Saturday, drop around 30% on Sunday, then jump 30-40% on New Year’s Day.  The first two weekends of 2018 should feature relatively […]

  With a marketplace starved of adult comedy after the failure of Bad Santa 2, and the holiday deluge of product not quite here, this weekend is proving to be good timing for the arrival of OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY (DreamWorks/Paramount).  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Office had a $6.7M Friday (including $950K from Thursday night), and depending […]

  As holidays go, the 4th of July isn’t a bright one for moviegoing, and when it falls on a Friday, the result is a weekend no better than usual (the days before and after compensate for the holiday itself).  That held true this year as well, especially because the other studios showed more deference […]

> RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES pulled in around $1.25M in its Thursday midnight screenings.  This is better than the $800K that Cowboys & Aliens managed last week, but dwarfed by the $4M Captain America earned and Thor‘s $3.3M.  (Let’s not even talk about Harry Potter.)  This supports Mitch Metcalf’s prediction that Apes […]

  ANT-MAN (Marvel/Disney) appears to be opening at the lower end of the Marvel universe.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the latest superhero epic had a $23.4M Friday (which includes $6.4 from Thursday night).  That puts it modestly below the $25.5M opening day for the original Thor and $25.7M for the first Captain America, as well […]

  In midnight shows last night, MAN OF STEEL (Warners) grossed $9M, a fine but hardly exceptional result for a mega-movie opening.  (Nowhere near the $18.7M for The Avengers, let alone the $30.7M for The Dark Knight Rises or the $22-43M earned by various Harry Potters and Twilights.)  However… earlier on Thursday, Man took in […]

> Friday numbers have been posted by the Hollywood Reporter, and it looks like another lousy Labor Day weekend for the new openings.  All the good news, as has been the case in recent weeks, is confined to THE HELP, which looks to be down only 20% or so from last Friday, and should do […]