THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (Summit/Lionsgate) is off to a mild late-August start, but it will be enough to win the quiet weekend.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $8.1M (including $1.7M from Thursday night), which should mean a $20M weekend.  While that might not even land it in the top 50 August openings, […]

> 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 […]

  Last night’s preliminary numbers for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Warners) turned out to be unduly optimistic, so the currently promising estimates for Saturday should be taken, for now, with a modicum of salt.  According to Deadline, Rises had an excellent 42% increase from Friday to Saturday, up to $25.6M, and making likely a 2d […]

  Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Wednesday was a great day for both THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) and the new FROZEN (Disney), setting the stage for a sensational holiday box office weekend for the pair. Catching Fire zoomed 30% from Tuesday to $20.7M, blowing past the record for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving ($14.4M for […]

  With little else of interest around, audiences are flocking to a movie they know they’ll enjoy:  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (Marvel/Disney), already the top movie of the year in the US, had a superb $6.1M Saturday according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, up 60% from Friday and down only 19% from last Saturday.  That […]

  Even bigger than Gaston after five dozen eggs, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Disney) is coming in at the highest level of projections, and may be poised for the largest pre-May weekend in history.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have opening day at $65.3M (including $16.3M from Thursday night), and while that’s below the $81.6M first day […]

  The gamble of CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Color Force/SK Global/Warners) is paying off with solid returns.  The film opened on Wednesday and earned $8.8M in its first two days, and preliminary numbers at Deadline have its Friday at $7M.  That should give it a $21M 3-day weekend and around $30M since opening day.  A $70M […]

  The MCU continues to be America’s uber-franchise, as SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (Columbia/Sony) became the first summer mega-movie in several weeks to fully live up to expectations.  Few films have opened on the Tuesday before a Thursday July 4th, so comparisons aren’t exact, but Far From Home earned $91.5M on its Tuesday-Thursday (The Amazing […]