For the fourth consecutive weekend, an animated movie will lead the box office, as Finding Dory‘s mantle is taken by THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (Illumination/Universal).  With a $38M Friday (including $5.3M from Thursday night) reported in preliminary numbers at Deadline, Pets is on track for a $95M weekend, which would make it the […]

> No miracle turnarounds for this weekend’s dismal boxoffice.  BREAKING DAWN PART 1, despite a major decline from last weekend, will be in first place with $16-17M, followed by a disappointing 2d weekend for THE MUPPETS at $11M, with HUGO and ARTHUR CHRISTMAS hovering at around $7.5M (although Hugo is in far fewer theatres than […]

> Deadline has early Saturday and weekend estimates, but they don’t clarify much.  As of right now, the claim is that COWBOYS AND ALIENS is at $26.2M for Friday/Saturday, with THE SMURFS at $25.9M.  If those numbers hold, logic would say that Smurfs should have the upper hand with its family Sunday matinee audience, but […]

  Veterans Day isn’t considered one of the major Hollywood holidays, but this year it provided some 3-day weekends that boosted Friday numbers (although that may catch up with some totals over the weekend and when next week is compared to it). The other note for the weekend is that all three of the major […]

  After two weeks of sloth, Hollywood started rolling out its pre-holiday product.  The weekend’s easy winner will be SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Animation/Columbia/Sony), which had a $12.6M Friday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, including $3.5M from Thursday night.  That should give it a $35M+ weekend.  Projections after that are tough, because there […]

  SHAZAM (DC/New Line/Warners) is going to win a bleak weekend at the box office, and even it doesn’t have much to boast about.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have it dropping 68% from last Friday to $6.6M, worse than the Friday-to-Friday drops for Wonder Woman (-59%) and Justice League (-57%).  A $23M weekend would put […]

  We’re now officially in the Christmas-to-New-Year’s holiday box office period, and the general form is going to follow 2015 fairly closely, with a Star Wars installment clearly in the lead (albeit much less lucratively than last year’s), a family vehicle in 2d place, and an assortment of also-rans behind them. Comparisons between ROGUE ONE […]

  Note:  Because of the holiday weekend and consequent strong Sunday, weekend-to-weekend drops will look softer than usual. OPENINGS:  It was a weak battle of newcomers, with A WALK IN THE WOODS (Broad Green) ahead at $8.4M ($10.5M with Wed-Thurs earnings) vs. THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED (Europa/RED) at $7.1M.  Walk compares well to the $8.5M opening […]