> It’s anyone’s guess who’s going to walk away with this weekend’s title, and probably the winner won’t be clear until actual grosses are reported on Monday.  Deadline has updated numbers, and reports that REAL STEEL is in position to squeeze ahead of FOOTLOOSE for the weekend, due to an unimpressive 10% Saturday bump for […]

  No big surprises in Saturday’s boxoffice numbers compared to Friday’s, according to preliminary figures at Deadline:  the holdovers rose about 50% (aside from the family movies, which doubled), and the dismal new arrivals stayed about even. That left THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  BREAKING DAWN PART 2 (Summit/Lionsgate) and SKYFALL (Sony/MGM) pretty much neck-and-neck at the […]

  Two of the weekend’s openings drew upon their core audiences for strong Saturday results.  Weekend matinees are prime time for family movies, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE LEGO MOVIE (Warners) had a huge $31.4M second day in theaters, almost doubling its Friday result and making a $70M weekend likely.  That will make […]

  Saturday matinees, and the families who attend them, were the difference for BIG HERO 6 (Disney) this weekend.  Disney’s roly-poly new action star came back from being around $1.2M behind INTERSTELLAR (Par/Warners) on Friday to top the weekend by about $5M, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline.  On Saturday, Big Hero 6 jumped by […]

  With a franchise like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2 (Marvel/Disney), profitability isn’t at issue.  Guardians 2 carries around $350M in worldwide production/marketing costs, and it will be in hailing distance of financial success by Sunday.  The question is how the given installment ranks in terms of similar mega-competition and expectations.  Preliminary numbers at […]

  A piece of beloved genre IP that gets rave reviews is hard to beat, and the newest iteration of HALLOWEEN (Blumhouse/Miramax/Universal) is headed toward a huge opening.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline put Friday at $33M ($7.7M from Thursday night), and even allowing for the typical front-loading of sequels and horror movies, that should mean […]

> According to Deadline, ACT OF VALOR (Relativity) is reporting a mild 5% Saturday bump.  That’s modest, but still less frontloaded than The Expendables’ 10% drop on its 2d day, and if the number holds, could mean a $24M+ weekend.  GOOD DEEDS (Lionsgate/Summit) is looking better with around a 30% Saturday increase, comparing favorably with […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, Saturday was a step down from Good Friday’s boxoffice–and Easter Sunday is likely to be sharply worse.  GI JOE: RETALIATION (Paramount/MGM) fell from $15.5M to $15.2M on Saturday.  That’s a small drop, but normally a picture with strong word of mouth rises from Friday to Saturday.  (It is […]