This weekend’s numbers will need some examination, with plenty of spin available in all directions.  Preliminary estimates at Deadline have BOO!  A MADEA HALLOWEEN (Lionsgate) a hair ahead of JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK (Skydance/Huahua/Shanghai Film Group/Paramount) on Friday, $9.2M vs. $9.1M.  There are several reasons why this is a bigger win than it […]

  ELYSIUM (Sony) got off to a very moderate start with $1.7M from 10PM Thursday night shows.  That’s better than the Thursday nights for 2 Guns ($1.2M) and White House Down ($1.35M), but nowhere near the $3.6M for Pacific Rim, suggesting that Elysium may skew older than the usual sci-fi epic–or that there’s limited audience […]

  It was a surprisingly lopsided win on Friday for NO GOOD DEED (Screen Gems/Sony), although things may tighten up a bit over the course of the weekend.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, No Good Deed earned $8.5M on Friday, which should get it to at least $21M for the weekend, and possibly more.  […]

  The holiday movie season is getting off to a very slow start this weekend–and since this is the same time last year when the 2d Hobbit opened to $73.6M, the early December date can’t be blamed for it.  (This year’s Hobbit has opted to open next Wednesday.)  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give Ridley Scott’s […]

  It’s clear, based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, that DIVERGENT (Summit/Lionsgate) isn’t going to reach prerelease hopes of an opening in line with the $69M of the original Twilight, much less that movie’s sequels or The Hunger Games.  The question is how low it will go.  Divergent had around $22M on Friday (which includes […]

  There were no pleasant surprises for anyone at the Friday box office, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  That even included STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (Legendary/Universal), which will easily win the weekend, but which–considering the very mild competition–fell more heavily than expected from last Friday, down 65% to $8.5M.  That drop will moderate over the […]

  THE REVENANT (Regency/20th) is showing impressive strength in its first day of wide release, after 2 strong weeks at NY/LA arthouses.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give it $14M+ on Friday, putting it surprisingly into 1st place and confirming that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the few “movie stars” these days who actually sells tickets.  […]

  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 […]