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 […]

  The Disney machine is hitting an atypical pothole with DUMBO (Disney), which according to preliminary numbers at Deadline had a $14.8M Friday ($2.6M of that from Thursday night).  That’s very much on the low end of the studio’s live-action remakes of its own animated classics, behind the opening days for Beauty & The Beast […]

  After AVENGERS: ENDGAME (Marvel/Disney) torched the record books last weekend, the remaining question was whether it would have the stamina to challenge the biggest records of them all, The Force Awakens in the US ($936.7M) and Avatar worldwide ($2.79B).  It’s not clear after Friday whether this weekend will answer that in a definitive way.  […]

  As usual, Thanksgiving Day itself was down for many films.  However, that didn’t keep the holiday’s pair of blockbusters from rewriting the record books. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) set a new Thanksgiving Day record with $14.9M, tearing past the $13.1M set by Toy Story 2.  With the meat of the holiday weekend […]

  A general note:  the last time December 22 fell on a Friday was in 2006, and a look at that year indicates what box office patterns may be between now and January 1.  We can expect most films to have a relatively mild Saturday uptick (up to 30%) then plunge by 50% or so […]

> According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, THE PIRATES!  BAND OF MISFITS (Sony) will pull ahead of THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT (Universal) for the weekend thanks to Saturday and Sunday matinee business, although Engagement is still ahead as of Saturday and the race will be close.  (Both, however, will be behind Think Like A Man and […]

  ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (Paramount) took in another $5.1M on Thursday, down a fairly standard 37% from its Wednesday opening (This Is the End dropped 43% on its first Thursday, while We’re the Millers fell 31%).  With $13.2M in the bank, he studio is predicting $30M over the Fri-Sun weekend, although $25-27M may […]

  FURY (QED/Columbia/Sony) continued to win but underwhelm on Saturday.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Brad Pitt’s somber action vehicle was up 3-4% at most from Friday, and possibly not up at all with around $9M for the day.  That’s not a great result for a film that should be appealing to older audiences […]